CHAPTER III.
Under a natural arch of primeval granite, in the most secluded recess of a wild and savage mountain, was situated the deeply indented cave of the sorceress, Hiorba. The cavern was filled with sieves and cauldrons, mummies and bundles of herbs, hieroglyphics and mirrors, crystal globes and crocodiles, in mystical confusion. Two torches, held by skeleton hands, lighted the whole. In a circle of strange characters and human bones, lay the aged and despairing Hiorba, her face to the ground, frantically tearing the last remains of her silver hair with her withered hands. Two large black cats were caressingly and soothingly purring about her. Suddenly she appeared to be shaken as by an electric shock. She arose with flashing eyes, stretched out her magic wand towards the largest of the mirrors, and murmured some words of unknown meaning. Strange confused images appeared upon the clear crystal. As she anxiously watched the figures her interest seemed to increase every moment, and every moment her joy became more plainly visible, until at length she gave a cry of ecstatic delight as Aliande and Daura, her charming foster-daughters, rushed breathlessly into the cave.
'Here we are, good mother,' cried Daura, embracing her with ardor.
'Escaped from death, from shame, and from the terrible Rasalkol!' cried Aliande, pressing the old woman's hand to her lips with filial love. 'Saved by the noblest, bravest and handsomest youths....'
'Silence, children!' said the sorceress, interrupting them. 'My true mirror has already told me all, and more perhaps than you will be willing to confess.'
Blushing and confused, the maidens cast their sparkling eyes upon the ground.
'Quickly, ah too quickly, has love for your deliverers found its way to your young hearts. Faithfully until now have I guarded you against this dangerous passion; but the moment in which the traitor Rasalkol succeeded in abducting you from this protecting cavern, my power over you ceased. The reprobate's hellish plan of destroying both you and me has indeed failed; but you may yet one day wish that you had bled under his dagger;--for the sorrows of unrequited love cut more keenly into weak woman's heart than a thousand daggers.'
'You do not know our knights,' interposed Aliande in a scarcely audible murmur.
'I know them to be men. As the wolf resembles the hyena, and both of these the jackal, so also do the whole profligate sex resemble each other,--differing only in their outward appearance and capacity for seizing their prey. The inexperienced eyes of the harmless doe are easily fascinated by the beautiful stripes of the blood-thirsty tiger!'
Tears trickled down the maidens' cheeks, at this reproof.
'I love you my children,' continued Hiorba in a tenderer tone. 'You are the grand-children of my good niece, whom I buried on my hundredth birth day. Willingly would I have rendered you happy, which you can only be in an unmarried state; but you are in love, and all my warnings are spoken to the winds. For once, however, yield to a mother's anxiety: Let me prove the men of your choice.'
'Has not their battle with Rasalkol and his Moors already proved them sufficiently?' asked Aliande.
'Their knightly courage,--but not their hearts.'
'If all men were proved in advance,' answered Daura, with a faint smile, 'who would come unscathed from the furnace?'
'Your questions contain a significant denial of my request,' answered Hiorba. 'Since you have seen these strangers I have no longer any influence over your hearts. Consider well my last warning.'
She again raised her wand to the mirror and the field of battle again presented itself. Aliande saw the fluttering veil, and the furious contention of the knights.
'For God's sake, Hiorba,' shrieked the maidens; 'help, protect save!'
'See you those rough and savage men?' said Hiorba; 'They do not know which has the best right to the flimsy web, and yet each knight is ready to murder his brother-in-arms for its possession. You have here a specimen of what men call honor; and believe me, as their feet now recklessly trample upon the delicate wood-flower in their deadly struggle, so will the tyranny of their strength, their pride, and their sensuality, trample upon all your tenderest feelings and finally break your hearts.'
'Why waste so many words,' complained the maidens; 'save, good mother, separate the frantic knights.'
Shaking her head in token of disapprobation, Hiorba reluctantly took her wand and opened a cage which hung from the arch above; a bird of paradise came chirping thence, and perched confidingly upon her shoulder.
'Go, bring me the veil, Immo!' said Hiorba; 'and lead hither the contending knights, also.'
With her wand she softly touched the bird between its wings, and, sweetly warbling, it shot off like an arrow from the bow.