第98章

It overspread the valleys, and the mountains were clothed with it from the black rocks that crowned their summits to the impetuous streams that circled round their base.Scenery like this, it might seem, could have no very cheering effect on the mind of a sick man (for to-day my disease had again assailed me) in the midst of a horde of savages; but if the reader has ever wandered, with a true hunter's spirit, among the forests of Maine, or the more picturesque solitudes of the Adirondack Mountains, he will understand how the somber woods and mountains around me might have awakened any other feelings than those of gloom.In truth they recalled gladdening recollections of similar scenes in a distant and far different land.After we had been advancing for several hours through passages always narrow, often obstructed and difficult, I saw at a little distance on our right a narrow opening between two high wooded precipices.All within seemed darkness and mystery.In the mood in which I found myself something strongly impelled me to enter.Passing over the intervening space I guided my horse through the rocky portal, and as I did so instinctively drew the covering from my rifle, half expecting that some unknown evil lay in ambush within those dreary recesses.The place was shut in among tall cliffs, and so deeply shadowed by a host of old pine trees that, though the sun shone bright on the side of the mountain, nothing but a dim twilight could penetrate within.As far as I could see it had no tenants except a few hawks and owls, who, dismayed at my intrusion, flapped hoarsely away among the shaggy branches.I moved forward, determined to explore the mystery to the bottom, and soon became involved among the pines.The genius of the place exercised a strange influence upon my mind.Its faculties were stimulated into extraordinary activity, and as I passed along many half-forgotten incidents, and the images of persons and things far distant, rose rapidly before me with surprising distinctness.In that perilous wilderness, eight hundred miles removed beyond the faintest vestige of civilization, the scenes of another hemisphere, the seat of ancient refinement, passed before me more like a succession of vivid paintings than any mere dreams of the fancy.I saw the church of St.Peter's illumined on the evening of Easter Day, the whole majestic pile, from the cross to the foundation stone, penciled in fire and shedding a radiance, like the serene light of the moon, on the sea of upturned faces below.I saw the peak of Mount Etna towering above its inky mantle of clouds and lightly curling its wreaths of milk-white smoke against the soft sky flushed with the Sicilian sunset.I saw also the gloomy vaulted passages and the narrow cells of the Passionist convent where I once had sojourned for a few days with the fanatical monks, its pale, stern inmates in their robes of black, and the grated window from whence I could look out, a forbidden indulgence, upon the melancholy Coliseum and the crumbling ruins of the Etennal City.The mighty glaciers of the Splugen too rose before me, gleaming in the sun like polished silver, and those terrible solitudes, the birthplace of the Rhine, where bursting from the bowels of its native mountains, it lashes and foams down the rocky abyss into the little valley of Andeer.These recollections, and many more, crowded upon me, until remembering that it was hardly wise to remain long in such a place, Imounted again and retraced my steps.Issuing from between the rocks I saw a few rods before me the men, women, and children, dogs and horses, still filing slowly across the little glen.A bare round hill rose directly above them.I rode to the top, and from this point I could look down on the savage procession as it passed just beneath my feet, and far on the left I could see its thin and broken line, visible only at intervals, stretching away for miles among the mountains.On the farthest ridge horsemen were still descending like mere specks in the distance.

I remained on the hill until all had passed, and then, descending, followed after them.A little farther on I found a very small meadow, set deeply among steep mountains; and here the whole village had encamped.The little spot was crowded with the confused and disorderly host.Some of the lodges were already completely prepared, or the squaws perhaps were busy in drawing the heavy coverings of skin over the bare poles.Others were as yet mere skeletons, while others still--poles, covering, and all--lay scattered in complete disorder on the ground among buffalo robes, bales of meat, domestic utensils, harness, and weapons.Squaws were screaming to one another, horses rearing and plunging dogs yelping, eager to be disburdened of their loads, while the fluttering of feathers and the gleam of barbaric ornaments added liveliness to the scene.The small children ran about amid the crowd, while many of the boys were scrambling among the overhanging rocks, and standing, with their little bows in their hands, looking down upon a restless throng.In contrast with the general confusion, a circle of old men and warriors sat in the midst, smoking in profound indifference and tranquillity.The disorder at length subsided.The horses were driven away to feed along the adjacent valley, and the camp assumed an air of listless repose.It was scarcely past noon; a vast white canopy of smoke from a burning forest to the eastward overhung the place, and partially obscured the sun; yet the heat was almost insupportable.The lodges stood crowded together without order in the narrow space.Each was a perfect hothouse, within which the lazy proprietor lay sleeping.The camp was silent as death.Nothing stirred except now and then an old woman passing from lodge to lodge.