Starting anew, we continued our descent through thick chestnut woods, and beside mountains, apparently steeper and nearer; until at length, just above the village of Vivario, we left the Corte road and struck off to the right towards the forest of Sorba.
This forest is situated upon the summit of such a high hill that, when Antonio pointed it out to us, it seemed quite impossible that we should have time, or the horses strength, to reach it that day.
It proved, however, to be only a very toilsome mount of about three hours. This ascent to the Col is certainly the most steep and precipitous of any forest we had yet seen in the island; but the road is fairly good, and the views, near and far, are exquisite.
As we entered the outskirts of the forest, young firs bent over the large boulders around us; then the numerous thin-stemmed pines crowded more closely together, growing at each turn larger, handsomer, and bigger of girth, until, near the summit, the trees that lined the path on either side were the finest we had ever seen for height and circumference. Many of these trees were of vast reputed ages; which, however, could not be computed until, after being felled, their rings were counted. Some of them, however, sent to the Paris Exhibition of 1867, were proved to be four hundred years old.
The path mounted so rapidly that we could see over the heads of nearly all these forest giants, except those immediately on the road level; and through every break loomed the magnificent head of D'Oro, now some distance, but looking grander and larger than ever, hanging like something unearthly between sky and plain, with a wide belt of clouds round his base, but with his head clear and cloudless.
The road which we had passed over seemed to lie under our very feet, and, as we mounted, the boulders grew more and more gigantic and imposing. At one place we had a very narrow shave to get past. A great block of rock had become detached from the mountain-side above, and fallen across our path at a remarkably steep point. We all got out while the horses wormed themselves round the corner, and Antonio half lifted the empty carriage after them, leaving only the wheels on one side on mother earth, and supporting the other side himself.
"If this had been night, and we had been descending," asked No. 3, "what would have become of us then?"
Antonio shook his head with a silent smile. He was too wise to commit himself to any opinion on such a point.
"But no one would come down such a place at night, I suppose?" she remarked.
"Yes," said Antonio; "the very first time I ever drove out into the country, when I was a boy of fifteen, was down this very road. A party had to go to Ghisoni and back in haste, and we returned down here by night; and there was no moon."