 Chapter 1 of Anne of Geierstein, or The Maiden of the Mist. The mist boil up around the glaciers, clouds rise curling fast beneath me, white and sulfurous, like foam from the roused ocean. I am giddy, Manfred. The course of four centuries has well nigh elapsed since the series of events which are related in the following chapters took place on the continent, the records which contained the outlines of the history and might be referred to as proof of its veracity were long preserved in the superb library of the monastery of St. Gaul, but perished with many of the literary treasures of that establishment when the convent was plundered by the French Revolutionary armies. The events are fixed by historical date to the middle of the 15th century, that important period when chivalry still shone with a setting ray soon about to be totally obscured in some countries by the establishment of free institutions in others by that of arbitrary power which alike rendered useless the interference of those self-endowed redressers of wrongs whose only warrant of authority was the sword. A mythogeneral light which had recently shown upon Europe, France, Burgundy, and Italy, but more especially Austria, had been made acquainted with the character of a people of whose very existence they had before been scarcely conscious. It is true that the inhabitants of those countries which lie in the vicinity of the Alps, that immense barrier, were not ignorant that notwithstanding their rugged and desolate appearance the secluded valleys which winded among those gigantic mountains nourished a race of hunters and shepherds men who living in a state of primeval simplicity compelled from the soil a subsistence gained by severe labor followed the chase over the most savage precipices and through the darkest pine forests or drove their cattle to spots which afforded them a scanty pasture ridge even in the vicinage of eternal snows but the existence of such a people or rather of a number of small communities who followed nearly the same poor and hearty course of life had seemed to the rich and powerful princes in the neighborhood a matter of as little consequence as it is to the stately herds which repose in a fertile meadow that a few half-starved goats find their scanty food among the rocks which overlook their rich domain but wonder and attention began to be attracted towards these mountaineers about the middle of the 14th century when reports were spread abroad of severe contests in which the German chivalry endeavoring to suppress insurrections among their alpine vassals had sustained repeated and bloody defeats although having on their side numbers and discipline and the advantage of the most perfect military equipment then known and confided in great was the wonder that cavalry which made the only efficient part of the feudal armies of these ages should be routed by men on foot that warriors sheathed in complete steel should be overpowered by naked peasants who wore no defensive armor and were irregularly provided with pikes helberts and clubs for the purpose of attack above all it seemed a species of miracle that knights and nobles of the highest birth should be defeated by mountaineers and shepherds but the repeated victories of the swiss at lopin sempak and on other less distinguished occasions plainly intimated that a new principle of civil organization as well as of military movements had arisen amid the stormy regions of helvedia still although the decisive victories which obtained liberty for the swiss canton's as well as the spirit of resolution and wisdom with which the members of the little confederation had maintained themselves against the utmost exertions of austria had spread their fame abroad through all the neighboring countries and although they themselves were conscious of the character and actual power which repeated victories had acquired for themselves and their country yet down to the middle of the fifteenth century and at a later date the swiss retained in a great measure the wisdom moderation and simplicity of their ancient manners so much so that those who were entrusted with the command of the troops of the republic in battle were want to resume the shepherd staff when they laid down the truncheon and like the roman dictators to retire to complete equality with their fellow citizens from the eminence of military command to which their talents and the call of their country had raised them it is then in the forest canton's of switzerland in the autumn of 1474 while these districts were in the rude and simple state we have described that our tail opens to travelers one considerably past the prime of life the other probably two or three and twenty years old had passed the night at the little town of lucerne the capital of the swiss state of the same name and beautifully situated on the lake of the four cantons their dress and character seemed those of merchants of a higher class and while they themselves journeyed on foot the character of the country rendering that by far the most easy mode of pursuing their route a young peasant lad from the italian side of the alps followed them with a sumpter mule laden apparently with men's wares and baggage which he sometimes mounted but more frequently led by the bridle the travelers were uncommonly fine-looking men and seemed connected by some very near relationship probably that of father and son for at the little inn where they lodged on the preceding evening the great deference and respect paid by the younger to the elder had not escaped the observation of the natives who like other sequestered beings were curious in proportion to the limited means of information which they possessed they observed also that the merchants under pretense of haste declined opening their bails or proposing traffic to the inhabitants of lucerne alleging an excuse that they had no commodities fitted for the market the females of the town were the more it is pleased with the reserve of the mercantile travelers because they were given to understand that it was occasioned by the wares in which they dealt being too costly to find customers among the helvedian mountains for it had transpired by means of their attendant that the strangers had visited venice and had there made many purchases of rich commodities which were brought from india and egypt to that celebrated emporium as to the common mart of the western world and then dispersed into all quarters of europe now the swiss maidens had of late made the discovery that gods and gems were fair to look upon and though without the hope of being able to possess themselves of such ornaments they felt a natural desire to review and handle the rich stores of the merchants and some displeasure at being prevented from doing so it was also observed that though the strangers were sufficiently courteous in their demeanor they did not events that studious anxiety to please displayed by the traveling peddlers or merchants of lombardi or savoy by whom the inhabitants of the mountains were occasionally visited and who had been more frequent in their rounds of late years since the spoils of victory had invested the swiss with some wealth and had taught many of them new wants those peripatetic traders were civil and assiduous as their calling required but the new visitors seemed men who were indifferent to traffic or at least to such slender gains as could be gathered in switzerland curiosity was further excited by the circumstance that they spoke to each other in a language which was certainly neither german italian nor french but from which an old man serving in the cabaret who had once been as far as paris supposed they might be english a people of whom it was only known in these mountains that they were a fierce insular race at war with the french for many years and a large body of whom had long since invaded the forest cantons and sustained such a defeat in the valley of reswheel as was well remembered by the gray haired men of lucerne who received the tale from their fathers the lad who attended the strangers was soon ascertained to be a youth from the grissons country who acted as their guide so far as his knowledge of the mountains permitted he said they designed to go to bail but seemed desirous to travel by circuitous and unfrequented routes the circumstances just mentioned increased the general desire to know more of the travelers and of their merchandise not a bail however was unpacked and the merchants leaving lucerne next morning resumed their toil some journey preferring a circuitous route and bad roads through the peaceful cantons of switzerland to encountering the exactions and rapine of the robber chivalry of germany who like so many sovereigns made war each at his own pleasure and levied tolls and taxes on everyone who passed their domains of a mile's breadth with all the insolence of petty tyranny for several hours after leaving lucerne the journey of our travelers was successfully prosecuted the road though precipitous and difficult was rendered interesting by those splendid phenomena which no country exhibits in a more astonishing manner than the mountains of switzerland where the rocky pass the verdant valley the broad lake and the rushing torrent the attributes of other hills as well as these are interspersed with the magnificent and yet fearful horrors of the glaciers a feature peculiar to themselves it was not an age in which the beauties or grandeur of a landscape made much impression either on the minds of those who traveled through the country or who resided in it to the latter the objects however dignified were familiar and associated with daily habits and with daily toil and the former saw perhaps more terror than beauty in the wild region through which they passed and were rather solicitous to get safe to their knight's quarters than to comment on the grandeur of the scenes which lay between them and their place of rest yet our merchants as they proceeded on their journey could not help being strongly impressed by the character of the scenery around them their road lay along the side of the lake at times level and close on its very margin at times rising to a great height on the side of the mountain and winding along the verge of precipices which sank down to the water as sharp and sheer as the wall of a castle descending upon the ditch which defends it at other times it traversed spots of a milder character delightful green slopes and lowly retired valleys affording both pasture edge and arable ground sometimes watered by small streams which winded by the hamlet of wooden huts with their fantastic little church and steeple meandered round the orchard and the mount of vines and murmuring gently as they flowed found a quiet passage into the lake that stream arthur said the elder traveler as with one consent they stopped to gaze on such a scene as i have described resembles the life of a good and a happy man and the brook which hurries itself headlong down yon distant hill marking its course by a streak of white foam answered arthur what does that resemble that of a brave and unfortunate one replied his father the torrent for me said arthur a headlong course which no human force can oppose and then let it be as brief as it is glorious it is a young man's thought replied his father but i am well aware that it is so rooted in thy heart that nothing but the rude hand of adversity can pluck it up as yet the root clings fast to my heart strings said the young man and me thinks adversity's hand have had a fair grasp of it you speak my son of what you little understand said his father know that till the middle of life be passed men scarce distinguish true prosperity from adversity or rather they court as the favors of fortune what they should more justly regard as the marks of her displeasure look at yonder mountain which wears on its shaggy brow a diadem of clouds now raised and now depressed while the sun glances upon but is unable to dispel it a child might believe it to be a crown of glory a man knows it to be the signal of tempest arthur followed the direction of his father's eye to the dark and shadowy eminence of mount pilatus is the mist on yonder wild mountain so ominous then asked the young man demand of antonio said his father he will tell you the legend the young merchant addressed himself to the swiss lad who acted as their attendant desiring to know the name of the gloomy height which in that quarter seems the leviathan of the huge congregation of mountains assembled about lucerne the lad crossed himself devoutly as he recounted the popular legend that the wicked Pontius pilot proconsul of judia had here found the termination of his impious life having after spent years in the recesses of that mountain which bears his name at length in remorse and despair rather than in penitence plunged into the dismal lake which occupies the summit whether water refused to do the executioner's duty upon such a wretch or whether his body being drowned his vexed spirit continued to haunt the place where he committed suicide antonio did not pretend to explain but a form was often he said seemed to emerge from the gloomy waters and go through the action of one washing his hands and when he did so dark clouds of mist gathered first round the bosom of the infernal lake such it had been styled of old and then wrapping the whole upper part of the mountain in darkness presaged a tempest or hurricane which was sure to follow in a short space he added that the evil spirit was peculiarly exasperated at the audacity of such strangers as ascended the mountain to gaze at his place of punishment and that in consequence the magistrates of lucerne had prohibited anyone from approaching mount pilatus under severe penalties antonio once more crossed himself as he finished his legend in which act of devotion he was imitated by his hearers two good catholics to entertain any doubt of the truth of the story how the accursed heathen scowls upon us said the younger of the merchants while the cloud darkened and seemed to settle on the brow of mount pilatus vade retro be thou defied center a rising wind rather heard than felt seemed to groan forth in the tone of a dying lion the acceptance of the suffering spirit to the rash challenge of the young Englishman the mountain was seen to send down its rugged sides thick wreaths of heaving mist which rolling through the rugged chasms that seemed the grizzly hill resembled torrents of rushing lava pouring down from a volcano the ridgy precipices which form the sides of these huge ravines showed their splintery and rugged edges over the vapor as if dividing from each other the descending streams of mist which rolled around them as a strong contrast to this gloomy and threatening scene the more distant mountain range of riggy shown brilliant with all the hues of an autumnal sun while the travelers watched this striking and varied contrast which resembled an approaching combat between the powers of light and darkness their guide in his mixed jargon of Italian and German exhorted them to make haste on their journey the village to which he proposed to conduct them he said was yet distant the road bad and difficult to find and if the evil one looking to mount pilatus and crossing himself should send his darkness upon the valley the path would be both doubtful and dangerous the travelers thus admonished gathered the capes of their cloaks close round their throats pulled their bonnets resolveedly over their brows drew the buckle of the broad belts which fastened their mantles and each with a mountain staff in his hand well shod with an iron spike they pursued their journey with unabated strength and undaunted spirit with every step the scenes around them appeared to change each mountain as if its firm and immutable form were flexible and varying altered in appearance like that of a shadowy apparition as the position of the strangers relative to them changed with their motions and as the mist which continued slowly though constantly to descend influenced the rugged aspect of the hills and valleys which it shrouded with its vapory mantle the nature of their progress to never direct but winding by a narrow path along the sinuosities of the valley and making many a circuit round precipices and other obstacles which it was impossible to surmount added to the wild variety of a journey in which at last the travelers totally lost any vague idea which they had previously entertained concerning the direction in which the road led them i would said the elder we had that mystical needle which mariners talk of that points ever to the north and enables them to keep their way on the waters when there is neither cape nor headland sun moon nor stars nor any mark in heaven or earth to tell them how to steer it would scarce avail us among these mountains answered the youth for though that wonderful needle may keep its point to the northern pole star when it is on a flat surface like the sea it is not to be thought it would do so when these huge mountains arise like walls betwixt the steel and the object of its sympathy i fear me replied the father we shall find our guide who has been growing hourly more stupid since he left his own valley as useless as you suppose the compass would be among the hills of this wild country can't tell my boy said he addressing antonio in bad italian if we be in the road we purposed if it please st antonio said the guide who was obviously too much confused to answer the question directly and that water half covered with mist which glimmers through the fog at the foot of this huge black precipice is it still a part of the lake of lucerne or have we lighted upon another since we ascended that last hill antonio could only answer that they ought to be on the lake of lucerne still and that he hoped that what they saw below them was only a winding branch of the same sheet of water but he could say nothing with certainty dog of an italian exclaimed the younger traveler thou deserved to have thy bones broken for undertaking a charge which thou art as incapable to perform as thou art to guide us to heaven peace arthur said his father if you frighten the lad he runs off and we lose the small advantage we might have by his knowledge if you use your baton he rewards you with the stab of a knife for such is the humor of a revengeful lombard either way you are marred instead of helped hark thee hither my boy he continued in his indifferent italian be not afraid of that hot youngster whom i will not permit to injure thee but tell me if thou canst the names of the villages by which we are to make our journey today the gentle mode in which the elder traveler spoke reassured the lad who had been somewhat alarmed at the harsh tone and menacing expressions of his younger companion and he poured forth in his patois a flood of names in which the german guttural sounds were strangely intermixed with the soft accents of the italian but which carried to the hearer no intelligible information concerning the object of his question so that at length he was forced to conclude even lead on in our lady's name or in saint antonio's if you like it better we shall but lose time i see in trying to understand each other they moved on as before with this difference that the guide leading the mule now went first and was followed by the other two whose motions he had formerly directed by calling to them from behind the clouds mean time became thicker and thicker and the mist which had at first been a thin vapor now began to descend in the form of a small thick rain which gathered like dew upon the capotes of the travelers distant wrestling and groaning sounds were heard among the remote mountains similar to those by which the evil spirit of mount pilatus had seemed to announce the storm the boy again pressed his companions to advance but at the same time through impediments in the way of their doing so by the slowness and indecision which he showed in leading them on having proceeded in this manner for three or four miles which uncertainty rendered doubly tedious the travelers were at length engaged in a narrow path running along the verge of a precipice beneath was water but of what description they could not ascertain the wind indeed which began to be felt in sudden guss sometimes swept aside the mist so completely as to show the waves glimmering below but whether they were those of this same lake on which their morning journey had commenced whether it was another and separate sheet of water of a similar character or whether it was a river or large brook the view afforded was too indistinct to determine thus far was certain that they were not on the shores of the lake of lucerne where it displays its usual expanse of waters for the same hurricane guss which showed them water in the bottom of the glen gave them a transient view of the opposite side at what exact distance they could not well discern but near enough to show tall abrupt rocks and shaggy pine trees here united in groups and there singly anchored among the cliffs which overhung the water this was a more distinct landscape than the farther side of the lake would have offered had they been on the right road hitherto the path though steep and rugged was plainly enough indicated and showed traces of having been used both by riders and foot passengers but suddenly as antonio with the loaded mule had reached a projecting eminence around the peak of which the path made a sharp turn he stopped short with his usual exclamation addressed to his patron saint it appeared to arthur that the mule shared the terrors of the guide for it started back put forwards its forefeet separated from each other and seemed by the attitude which it assumed to intimate a determination to resist every proposal to advance at the same time expressing horror and fear at the prospect which lay before it arthur pressed forward not only from curiosity but that he might if possible bear the brunt of any danger before his father came up to share it in less time than we have taken to tell the story the young man stood beside antonio and the mule upon a platform of rock on which the road seemed absolutely to terminate and from the farther side of which a precipice sank sheer down to what depth the mist did not permit him to discern but certainly uninterrupted for more than 300 feet the blank expression which overcast the visage of the younger traveler and traces of which might be discerned in the physiognomy of the beast of burden announced alarm and mortification at this unexpected and as it seemed insurmountable obstacle nor did the looks of the father who presently after came up to the same spot convey either hope or comfort he stood with the others gazing on the misty gulf beneath them and looking all around but in vain for some continuation of the path which certainly had never been originally designed to terminate in this summary manner as they stood uncertain what to do next the sun in vain attempting to discover some mode of passing onward and the father about to propose that they should return by the road which had brought them hither a loud howl of the wind more wild than they had yet heard swept down the valley all being aware of the danger of being hurled from the precarious station which they occupied snatched at bushes and rocks by which to secure themselves and even the poor mule seemed to steady itself in order to withstand the approaching hurricane the gust came with such unexpected fury that it appeared to the travelers to shake the very rock on which they stood and would have swept them from its surface like so many dry leaves had it not been for the momentary precautions which they had taken for their safety but as the wind rushed down the glen it completely removed for the space of three or four minutes the veil of mist which former gusts had only served to agitate or discompose and showed them the nature and cause of the interruption which they had met with so unexpectedly the rapid but correct eye of arthur was then able to ascertain that the path after leaving the platform of rock on which they stood had originally passed upwards in the same direction along the edge of a steep bank of earth which had then formed the upper covering of a stratum of precipitous rocks but it had chanced in some of the convulsions of nature which take place in those wild regions where she works upon a scale so formidable that the earth had made a slip or almost a precipitous descent from the rock and then hurled downwards with the path which was traced along the top and with bushes trees or whatever grew upon it into the channel of the stream for such they could now discern the water beneath them to be and not a lake or an arm of a lake as they had hitherto supposed the immediate cause of this phenomenon might probably have been an earthquake not unfrequent in that country the bank of earth now a confused mass of ruins inverted in its fall showed some trees growing in a horizontal position and others which having pitched on their heads in their descent were at once inverted and shattered to pieces and lay a sport to the streams of the river which they had hitherfore covered with gloomy shadow the gaunt precipice which remained behind like the skeleton of some huge monster divested of its flesh formed the wall of a fearful abyss resembling the face of a newly wrought quarry more dismal of aspect from the rawness of its recent formation and from its being as yet uncovered with any of the vegetation with which nature speedily mantles over the bare surface even of her sternest crags and precipices besides remarking these appearances which tended to show that this interruption of the road had been of recent occurrence Arthur was able to observe on the farther side of the river higher up the valley and rising out of the pine forest interspersed with rocks a square building of considerable height like the ruins of a gothic tower he pointed out this remarkable object to Antonio and demanded if he knew it justly conjecturing that from the peculiarity of the site it was a landmark not easily to be forgotten by any who had seen it before accordingly it was gladly and promptly recognized by the lad who called out cheerfully that the place was geierstein that is as he explained it the rock of the vultures he knew it he said by the old tower as well as by a huge pinnacle of rock which arose near it almost in the form of a steeple to the top of which the lammergeier one of the largest birds of prey known to exist had in former days transported the child of an ancient lord of the castle he proceeded to recount the vow which was made by the night of geierstein to our lady of ensedlin and while he spoke the castle rocks woods and precipices again faded in mist but as he concluded his wonderful narrative with the miracle which restored the infant again to its father's arms he cried out suddenly look to yourselves the storm the storm it came accordingly and sweeping the mist before it again bestowed on the travelers a view of the horrors around them i quote antonio triumphantly as the gust abated old pontius loves little to hear of our lady of ensedlin but she will keep her own with him ave maria that tower said the young traveler seems uninhabited i can describe no smoke and the battlement appears ruinous it has not been inhabited for many a day answered the guide but i would i were at it for all that honest arnold bederman the londamon chief magistrate of the canton of underwalden dwells near and i warrant you distressed strangers will not want the best that cupboard and cellar can find them wherever he holds rule i have heard of him said the elder traveler whom antonio had been taught to call senior philipson a good and hospitable man and one who enjoys deserved weight with his countrymen you have spoken him right senior answered the guide and i would we could reach his house where you should be sure of hospitable treatment and a good direction for your next day's journey but how we are to get to the vulture's castle unless we had wings like the vulture is a question hard to answer arthur replied by a daring proposal which the reader will find in the next chapter end of chapter one chapter two of an of geierstein by sir walter scott this libravox recording is in the public domain recording by dion johns salt lake city utah away with me the clouds grow thicker there now lean on me place your foot here here take this staff and cling a moment to that shrub now give me your hand the chalet will be gained within an hour manfred after surveying the desolate scene as accurately as the stormy state of the atmosphere would permit the younger of the travelers observed in any other country i should say the tempest begins to abate but what to expect in this land of desolation it were rash to decide if the apostate spirit of pilot be actually on the blast these lingering and more distant howls seem to intimate that he is returning to his place of punishment the pathway has sunk with the ground on which it was traced i can see part of it lying down in the abyss marking as with a streak of clay yonder mass of earth and stone but i think it possible with your permission my father that i could still scramble forward along the edge of the precipice till i come in sight of the habitation which the lad tells us of if there be actually such a one there must be an access to it somewhere and if i cannot find the path out i can at least make a signal to those who dwell near the vultures nest yonder and obtain some friendly guidance i cannot consent to your incurring such a risk said his father let the lad go forward if he can and will he is mountain bread and i will reward him richly but antonio declined the proposal absolutely and decidedly i am mountain bread he said but i am no shammy hunter and i have no wings to transport me from cliff to cliff like a raven gold is not worth life and god forbid said senior phillips and that i should tempt thee to weigh them against each other go on then my son i follow thee under your favor dearest sir no replied the young man it is enough to endanger the life of one and mine far the most worthless should buy all the rules of wisdom as well as nature be put first in hazard no arthur replied his father in a determined voice no my son i have survived much but i will not survive the i fear not for the issue father if you permit me to go alone but i cannot dare not undertake a task so perilous if you persist in attempting to share it with no better aid than mine while i endeavored to make a new advance i should be ever looking back to see how you might attain the station which i was about to leave and be thank you dearest father that if i fall i fall an unregarded thing of as little moment as the stone or tree which has toppled headlong down before me but you should your foot slip or your hand fail be thank you what and how much must needs fall with you thou art right my child said the father i still have that which binds me to life even though i were to lose in thee all that is dear to me our lady and our lady's night bless thee and prosper thee my child thy foot is young thy hand is strong thou hast not climbed plin lemon in vain be bold but be wary remember there is a man who failing thee has but one act of duty to bind him to the earth and that discharged will soon follow thee the young man accordingly prepared for his journey and stripping himself of his cumbrous cloak showed his well proportioned limbs in a jerken of gray cloth which sat close to his person the father's resolution gave way when his son turned round to bid him farewell he recalled his permission and in a peremptory tone forbade him to proceed but without listening to the prohibition arthur had commenced his perilous adventure descending from the platform on which he stood by the boughs of an old ash tree which thrust itself out of the cleft of a rock the youth was enabled to gain though at great risk a narrow ledge the very brink of the precipice by creeping along which he hoped to pass on till he made himself heard or seen from the habitation of whose existence the guide had informed him his situation as he pursued this bold purpose appeared so precarious that even the hired attendant hardly dared to draw breath as he gazed on him the ledge which supported him seemed to grow so narrow as he passed along it as to become altogether invisible while sometimes with his face to the precipice sometimes looking forward sometimes glancing his eyes upward but never venturing to cast a look below lest his brain should grow giddy at a sight so appalling he wound his way onward to his father and the attendant who beheld his progress it was less that of a man advancing in the ordinary manner and resting by art connected with the firm earth than that of an insect crawling along the face of a perpendicular wall of whose progressive movement we are indeed sensible but cannot perceive the means of its support and bitterly most bitterly did the miserable parent now lament that he had not persisted in his purpose to encounter the baffling and even perilous measure of retracing his steps to the habitation of the preceding night he should then at least have partaken the fate of the son of his love meanwhile the young man spirits were strongly braced for the performance of his perilous task he laid a powerful restraint on his imagination which in general was sufficiently active and refused to listen even for an instant to any of the horrible insinuations by which fancy augments actual danger he endeavored manfully to reduce all around him to the scale of right reason as the best support of true courage this ledge of rock he urged to himself is but narrow yet it has breadth enough to support me these cliffs and crevices in the surface are small and distant but the one affords as secure a resting place to my feet the other as available a grasp to my hands as if i stood on a platform of a cubit broad and rested my arm on a balustrade of marble my safety therefore depends on myself if i move with decision step firmly and hold fast what signifies how near i am to the mouth of an abyss thus estimating the extent of his danger by the measure of sound sense and reality and supported by some degree of practice in such exercise the brave youth went forward on his awful journey step by step winning his way with a caution and fortitude and presence of mind which alone could have saved him from instant destruction at length he gained a point where a projecting rock formed the angle of the precipice so far as it had been visible to him from the platform this therefore was the critical point of his undertaking but it was also the most perilous part of it the rock projected more than six feet forward over the torrent which he heard raging at the depth of a hundred yards beneath with a noise like subterranean thunder he examined the spot with the utmost care and was led by the existence of shrubs grass and even stunted trees to believe that this rock marked the farthest extent of the slip or slide of earth and that could he but turn around the angle of which it was the termination he might hope to attain the continuation of the path which had been so strangely interrupted by this convulsion of nature but the crag jutted out so much as to afford no possibility of passing either under or around it and as it rose several feet above the position which arthur had attained it was no easy matter to climb over it this was however the course which he chose as the only mode of surmounting what he hoped might prove the last obstacle to his voyage of discovery a projecting tree afforded him the means of raising and swinging himself up to the top of the crag but he had scarcely planted himself on it had scarcely a moment to congratulate himself on seeing amid a wild chaos of cliffs and wood the gloomy ruins of geierstein with smoke arising and indicating something like a human habitation beside them went to his extreme terror he felt the huge cliff on which he stood tremble stoop slowly forward and gradually sink from its position projecting as it was and shaken as its equilibrium had been by the recent earthquake it lay now so insecurely poised that its balance was entirely destroyed even by the addition of the young man's weight aroused by the imminence of the danger arthur by an instinctive attempt at self-preservation drew cautiously back from the falling crag into the tree by which he had ascended and turned his head back as if spellbound to watch the descent of the fatal rock from which he had just retreated it tottered for two or three seconds as if uncertain which way to fall and had it taken a side long direction must have dashed the adventurer from his place of refuge or borne both the tree and him head long down into the river after a moment of horrible uncertainty the power of gravitation determined a direct and forward descent down went the huge fragment which must have weighed at least 20 tons rending and splintering in its precipitate course the trees and bushes which it encountered and settling at length in the channel of the torrent with a den equal to the discharge of a hundred pieces of artillery the sound was re echoed from bank to bank from precipice to precipice with emulative thunders nor was the tumult silent till it rose into the region of eternal snows which equally insensible to terrestrial sounds and unfavorable to animal life heard the roar in their majestic solitude but suffered it to die away without a responsive voice what in the meanwhile were the thoughts of the distracted father who saw the ponderous rock descend but could not mark whether his only son had borne it company in its dreadful fall his first impulse was to rush forward along the face of the precipice which he had seen arthur so lately traverse and when the lad antonio withheld him by throwing his arms around him he turned on the guide with the fury of a bear which had been robbed of her cubs unhand me base peasant he exclaimed or thou dyest on the spot alas said the poor boy dropping on his knees before him i too have a father the appeal went to the heart of the traveler who instantly let the lad go and holding up his hands and lifting his eyes towards heaven said in accents of the deepest agony mingled with devout resignation fiat volantes he was my last and loveliest and best beloved and most worthy of my love and yonder he added yonder over the glen soar the birds of prey who are to feast on his young blood but i will see him once more exclaimed the miserable parent as the huge carrion vulture floated past him on the thick air i will see my arthur once more air the wolf and the eagle mingle him i will see all of him that earth still holds detain me not but abide here and watch me as i advance if i fall as is most likely i charge you to take the sealed papers which you will find in the valise and carry them to the person to whom they are addressed with the least possible delay there is money enough in the purse to bury me with my poor boy and to cause masses to be said for our souls and yet leave you a rich recompense for your journey the honest swiss lad obtuse in his understanding but kind and faithful in his disposition blubbered as his employer spoke and afraid to offer further remonstrance or opposition saw his temporary master prepare himself to traverse the same fatal precipice over the verge of which his ill-fated son had seemed to pass to the fate which with all the wildness of a parent's anguish his father was hastening to share suddenly there was heard from beyond the fatal angle from which the mass of stone had been displaced by arthur's rash ascent the loud horse cry of one of those huge horns made out of the spoils of the urus or wild bull of switzerland which in ancient times announced the terrors of the charge of these mountaineers and indeed serve them in war instead of all musical instruments hold sir hold exclaimed the grison yonder is a signal from geierstein someone will presently come to our assistance and show us the safer way to seek for your son and look you at yawn green bush that is glimmering through the mist saint antonio preserve me as i see a white cloth displayed there it is just beyond the point where the rock fell the father endeavored to fix his eyes on the spot but they filled so fast with tears that they could not discern the object which the guide pointed out it is all in vain he said dashing the tears from his eyes i shall never see more of him than his lifeless remains you will you will see him in life said the grison saint antonio wills it so see the white cloth waves again some remnant of his garments said the despairing father some wretched memorial of his fate no my eyes see it not i have beheld the fall of my house would that the vultures of these crags had rather torn them from their sockets yet look again said the swiss the cloth hangs not loose upon a bow i can see that it is raised on the end of a staff and is distinctly waved to and fro your son makes a signal that he is safe and if it be so said the traveler clasping his hands together bless it be the eyes that see it and the tongue that tells it if we find my son and find him alive this day shall be a lucky one for thee too nay answered the lad i only ask that you will abide still and act by counsel and i will hold myself quit for my services only it is not creditable to an honest lad to have people lose themselves by their own willfulness for the blame after all is sure to fall upon the guide as if he could prevent old pontius from shaking the mist from his brow or banks of earth from slipping down into the valley at a time or young harebrained gallants from walking upon precipices as narrow as the edge of a knife or madman whose gray hairs might make them wiser from drawing daggers like bravos in lombardy thus the guide ran on and in that vein he might have long continued for signeur phillipson heard him not each throb of his pulse each thought of his heart was directed towards the object which the lad referred to as a signal of his son's safety he became at length satisfied that the signal was actually waived by a human hand and as eager in the glow of reviving hope as he had of late been under the influence of desperate grief he again prepared for the attempt of advancing towards his son and assisting him if possible in regaining a place of safety but the entreaties and reiterated assurances of his guide induced him to pause are you fit he said to go on the crag can you repeat your credo and ave without missing or misplacing a word for without that our old men say your neck had you a score of them would be in danger is your eye clear and your feet firm i trout the one streams like a fountain and the other shakes like the aspen which overhangs it rest here till those arrive who are far more able to give your son help than either you or i are i judge by the fashion of his blowing that yonder is the horn of the good man of geierstein arnold bederman he had seen your son's danger and is even now providing for his safety and ours there are cases in which the aid of one stranger well acquainted with the country is worth that of three brothers who know not the crags but if yonder horn really sounded a signal said the traveler how chanced it that my son replied not and if he did so as is most likely he did rejoin the gresson how should we have heard him the bugle of yuri itself sounded amid these horrible dens of water and tempest like the reed of a shepherd boy and how think you we should hear the halloa of a man yet me thinks said senior phillips and i do hear something amid this roar of elements which is like a human voice but it is not arthurs i what well no answered the gresson that is a woman's voice the maidens will converse with each other in that manner from cliff to cliff through storm and tempest were there a mile between now heaven be praised for this providential relief said senior phillips i trust we shall yet see this dreadful day safely ended i will halloa in answer he attempted to do so but inexperienced in the art of making himself heard in such a country he pitched his voice in the same key with that of the roar of wave and wind so that even at twenty yards from the place where he was speaking it must have been totally indistinguishable from that of the elemental war around them the lads smiled at his patrons in effectual attempts and then raised his voice himself in a high wild and prolonged scream which while produced with apparently much less effort than that of the englishman was nevertheless a distinct sound separated from others by the key to which it was pitched and was probably audible to a very considerable distance it was presently answered by distant cries of the same nature which gradually approached the platform bringing renovated hope to the anxious traveler if the distress of the father rendered his condition an object of deep compassion that of the son at the same moment was sufficiently perilous we have already stated that arthur phillipson had commenced his precarious journey along the precipice with all the coolness resolution and unshaken determination of mind which was most essential to a task where all must depend upon firmness of nerve but the formidable accident which checked his onward progress was of a character so dreadful as made him feel all the bitterness of a death instant horrible and as it seemed inevitable the solid rock had trembled and rent beneath his footsteps and although by an effort rather mechanical than voluntary he had withdrawn himself from the instant ruin attending its descent he felt as if the better part of him his firmness of mind and strength of body had been rent away with the descending rock as it fell thundering with clouds of dust and smoke into the torrents and whirlpools of the vexed gulf beneath in fact the seamen swept from the deck of a wrecked vessel drenched in the waves and battered against the rocks on the shore does not differ more from the same mariner when at the commencement of the gale he stood upon the deck of his favorite ship proud of her strength and his own dexterity than arthur when commencing his journey from the same arthur while clinging to the decayed trunk of an old tree from which suspended between heaven and earth he saw the fall of the crag which he had so nearly accompanied the effects of his terror indeed were physical as well as moral for a thousand colors played before his eyes he was attacked by a sick dizziness and deprived at once of the obedience of those limbs which had hitherto served him so admirably his arms and hands as if no longer at his own command now clung to the branches of the tree with a cramp like tenacity over which he seemed to possess no power and now trembled in a state of such complete nervous relaxation as led him to fear that they were becoming unable to support him longer in his position an incident in itself trifling added to the distress occasioned by this alienation of his powers all living things in the neighborhood had as might be supposed been startled by the tremendous fall to which his progress had given occasion flights of owls bats and other birds of darkness compelled to be take themselves to the air had lost no time in returning into their bowers of ivy or the harbor afforded them by the rifts and holes of the neighboring rocks one of this ill omen flight chanced to be a lammergeier or alpine vulture a bird larger and more voracious than the eagle himself and which arthur had not been accustomed to see or at least to look upon closely with the instinct of most birds of prey it is the custom of this creature when gorged with food to assume some station of inaccessible security and there remain stationary and motionless for days together till the work of digestion has been accomplished and activity returns with the pressure of appetite disturbed from such a state of repose one of these terrific birds had risen from the ravine to which the species gives its name and having circled unwillingly round with a ghastly scream and a flagging wing it had sunk down upon the pinnacle of a crag not four yards from the tree in which arthur held his precarious station although still in some degree stupefied by torpor it seemed encouraged by the motionless state of the young man to suppose him dead or dying and sat there and gazed at him without displaying any of that apprehension which the fiercest animals usually entertain from the vicinity of man as arthur endeavoring to shake off the incapacitating effects of his panic fear raised his eyes to look gradually and cautiously around he encountered those of the voracious and obscene bird whose head and neck denuded of feathers her eyes surrounded by an iris of an orange tony color and a position more horizontal than erect distinguished her as much from the noble carriage and graceful proportions of the eagle as those of the lion plays him in the ranks of creation above the gaunt ravenous grizzly yet dastard wolf as if arrested by a charm the eyes of young philipson remained bent on this ill omen and ill favored bird without his having the power to remove them the apprehension of dangers ideal as well as real weighed upon his weakened mind disabled as it was by the circumstances of his situation the near approach of a creature not more loathsome to the human race than a verse to come within their reach seemed as ominous as it was unusual why did it gaze on him with such glaring earnestness projecting its disgusting form as if presently to a light upon his person the fell bird was she the demon of the place to which her name referred and did she come to exult that an intruder on her haunts seemed involved amid their perils with little hope or chance of deliverance or was it a native vulture of the rocks whose suggest that he foresaw that the rash traveler was soon destined to become its victim could the creature whose senses are said to be so acute argue from circumstances the strangers approaching death and wait like a raven or hooded crow by a dying sheep for the earliest opportunity to commence her ravenous banquet was he doomed to feel its beak and talons before his heart's blood should cease to beat had he already lost the dignity of humanity the awe which the being formed in the image of his maker inspires into all inferior creatures apprehensions so painful served more than all that reason could suggest to renew in some degree the elasticity of the young man's mind by waving his handkerchief using however the greatest precaution in his movements he succeeded in scaring the vulture from his vicinity it rose from its resting place screaming harshly and dolefully and sailed on its expanded pinions to seek a place of more undisturbed repose while the adventurous traveler felt a sensible pleasure at being relieved of its disgusting presence with more collected ideas the young man who could obtain from his position a partial view of the platform he had left endeavored to testify his safety to his father by displaying as high as he could the banner by which he had chased off the vulture like them too he heard but at a less distance the burst of the great swiss horn which seemed to announce some near succor he replied by shouting and waving his flag to direct assistance to the spot where it was so much required and recalling his faculties which had almost deserted him he labored mentally to recover hope and with hope the means and motive for exertion a faithful catholic he eagerly recommended himself in prayer to our lady of and said and making vows of propitiation besought her intercession that he might be delivered from his dreadful condition or gracious lady he concluded his orison if it is my doom to lose my life like a hunted fox amidst this savage wilderness of tottering crags restore at least my natural sense of patience and courage and let not one who has lived like a man though a sinful one meet death like a timid hare having devoutly recommended himself to that protectress of whom the legends of the catholic church form a picture so amiable arthur though every nerve still shook with his late agitation and his heart throbbed with a violence that threatened to suffocate him turned his thoughts and observation to the means of affecting his escape but as he looked around him he became more and more sensible how much he was innervated by the bodily injuries and the mental agony which he had sustained during his late peril he could not by any effort of which he was capable fix his giddy and bewildered eyes on the scene around him they seemed to reel till the landscape danced along with them and a motley chaos of thickets and tall cliffs which interposed between him and the ruinous castle of geierstein mixed and whirled round in such confusion that nothing saved the consciousness that such an idea was the suggestion of partial insanity prevented him from throwing himself from the tree as if to join the wild dance to which his disturbed brain had given motion heaven be my protection said the unfortunate young man closing his eyes in hopes by abstracting himself from the terrors of his situation to compose his too active imagination my senses are abandoning me he became still more convinced that this was the case when a female voice in a high pitched but eminently musical accent was heard at no great distance as if calling to him he opened his eyes once more raised his head and looked towards the place once the sounds seemed to come though far from being certain that they existed saving in his own disordered imagination the vision which appeared had almost confirmed him in the opinion that his mind was unsettled and his senses in no state to serve him accurately upon the very summit of a pyramidical rock that rose out of the depth of the valley was seen a female figure so obscured by mist that only the outline could be traced the form reflected against the sky appeared rather the undefined lineaments of a spirit than of a mortal maiden for her person seemed as light and scarcely more opaque than the thin cloud that surrounded her pedestal arthur's first belief was that the virgin had heard his vows and had descended in person to his rescue and he was about to recite his ave maria when the voice again called to him with the singular shrill modulation of the mountain hallou by which the natives of the alps can hold conference with each other from one mountain ridge to another across ravines of great depth and wit while he debated how to address this unexpected apparition it disappeared from the point which it at first occupied and presently after became again visible perched on the cliff out of which projected the tree in which arthur had taken refuge her personal appearance as well as her dress made it then apparent that she was a maiden of these mountains familiar with their dangerous paths he saw that a beautiful young woman stood before him who regarded him with a mixture of pity and wonder stranger she at length said who are you and whence come you i am a stranger maiden as you justly term me answered the young man raising himself as well as he could i left lucerne this morning with my father and a guide i parted from them not three furlongs from hence may it please you gentle maiden to warn them of my safety for i know my father will be in despair upon my account willingly said the maiden but i think my uncle or someone of my kinsmen must have already found them and will prove faithful guides can i not aid you are you wounded are you hurt we were alarmed by the fall of iraq i and yonder it lies a mass of no ordinary size as the swiss maiden spoke thus she's approached so close to the verge of the precipice and looked with such indifference into the gulf that the sympathy which connects the actor and spectator upon such occasions brought back the sickness and vertigo from which arthur had just recovered and he sank back into his former more recumbent posture with something like a faint groan you are then ill said the maiden who observed him turn pale where and what is the harm you have received none gentle maiden saving some bruises of little import but my head turns and my heart grows sick when i see you so near the verge of the cliff is that all replied the swiss maiden no stranger that i do not stand on my uncle's hearth with more security than i have stood upon precipices compared to which this is a child's you too stranger if as i judge from the traces you have come along the edge of the precipice which the earth slide half laid bare ought to be far beyond such weakness since surely you must be well entitled to call yourself a cragsman i might have called myself so half an hour since answered arthur but i think i shall hardly venture to assume the name in future be not downcast said his kind advisor for a passing qualm which will at times cloud the spirit and dazzle the eyesight of the bravest and most experienced raise yourself upon the trunk of the tree and advance closer to the rock out of which it grows observe the place well it is easy for you when you have attained the lower part of the projecting stem to gain by one bold step the solid rock upon which i stand after which there is no danger or difficulty worthy of mention to a young man whose limbs are whole and whose courage is active my limbs are indeed sound replied the youth but i am ashamed to think how much my courage is broken yet i will not disgrace the interest you have taken in an unhappy wanderer by listening longer to the dastardly suggestions of a feeling which till today has been a stranger to my bosom the maiden looked on him anxiously and with much interest as raising himself cautiously and moving along the trunk of the tree which lay nearly horizontal from the rock and seemed to bend as he changed his posture the youth at length stood upright within what on level ground had been but an extended stride to the cliff on which the swiss maiden stood but instead of being a step to be taken on the level and firm earth it was one which must cross a dark abyss at the bottom of which a torrent surged and boiled with incredible fury arthur's knees knocked against each other his feet became of lead and seemed no longer at his command and he experienced in a stronger degree than ever that unnerving influence which those who have been overwhelmed by it in a situation of like peril never can forget and which others happily strangers to its power may have difficulty even in comprehending the young woman discerned his emotion and foresaw its probable consequences as the only mode in her power to restore his confidence she sprang lightly from the rock to the stem of the tree on which she alighted with the ease and security of a bird and in the same instant back to the cliff and extending her hand to the stranger my arm she said is but a slight balustrade yet do but step forward with resolution and you will find it as secure as the battlement of burn but shame now overcame terror so much that arthur declining assistance which he could not have accepted without feeling lowered in his own eyes took heart of grace and successfully achieved the formidable step which placed him upon the same cliff with his kind assistant to seize her hand and raise it to his lips in affectionate token of gratitude and respect was naturally the youth's first action nor was it possible for the maiden to have prevented him from doing so without assuming a degree of prudery foreign to her character and occasioning a ceremonious debate upon a matter of no great consequence where the scene of action was a rock scarce five feet long by three in width and which looked down upon a torrent roaring some three hundred feet below end of chapter two