Cyril glanced up, and saw distinctly a dark moving mass, showing clearly against the snow, coming over the crest of the pass. It could only be a crowd of men, and it was in the highest degree unlikely that such a body should be crossing the mountains with any object in view but that of pursuit, but the terror-stricken faces of the two women warned him to be cheerful.
“We shall be obliged to turn aside and interview old Giorgei, I see,” he said; “but there is no need to be frightened. These people may not be after us, and even if they are, it is quite possible we have not been seen. And if they are looking for us, and have seen us, we have a good start, and plenty of time to get hidden before they can come up.”
“But what if the old man will not hide us?” asked the Queen.
“Then we must demand his help in the name of St Gabriel, madame. Did you know that this waterfall was called St Gabriel’s Leap? The charcoal-burner told me the legend. It seems that St Gabriel had one of his numerous hermitages here—for an ascetic he must have enjoyed a wonderful amount of change of air and scene—and one day the Roumis came to hunt him out, intending to kill him. He saw them approaching, and immediately hastened to the edge of the falls and dashed into the water. They expected to see his body washed up in the pool below; but while they were watching for it, they were electrified to behold the saint himself standing on the opposite side of the falls, with his clothes perfectly dry—at least, so the story says. He stayed long enough to bestow his curse on them in dumb show, and then disappeared among the rocks. There was no doubt that it was the man himself, and not an apparition, for he lived some years after, and at last fell into Roumi hands and was tortured to death, no miracle intervening on that occasion. Still, I only wish we had him here now, to let us into his secret.”
“But how do you think he got across?” asked the Queen.
“I should imagine that he had made a careful study beforehand of the rocks in the waterfall, with an eye to emergencies—perhaps had even practised crossing by jumping from one to another. There may be clouds of spray which would hide him until he had got over; but he must have needed a cool head, at any rate.”
“But what about his dry clothes?”
“Oh, that I fear we must put down as a pious addition of later ages, unless he kept a spare suit in some convenient cave on the other side. But listen; don’t you hear the sound of the falls?”
“Trains!” cried the little King, with great delight.
“I wish it was!” said Cyril. “Now, madame, I think we had better leave the road. Unfortunately it lies so straight before us that when the enemy reach this point they will be able to see at once that we are not upon it; but they will be obliged to spend some little time in hunting about to find out where we turned off. There seems to be some sort of a path through this wood, and it leads straight in the direction of the waterfall, by the sound.”