They Were Found Wanting by Miklós Bánffy

Author:Miklós Bánffy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Books Limited
Published: 2009-04-21T04:00:00+00:00

The path that Balint had chosen was not really suited to anyone on horseback. The little mountain ponies themselves could pass anywhere but the branches of the surrounding trees were so low that Balint found himself repeatedly lying flat in the saddle while even the horses had to duck their heads. Soon Balint decided to dismount and continue on foot.

As his pace was faster than that of the gornyik’s ponies he soon found that he had left them far behind and was walking alone in the great forest.

There were several tracks on the mountainside, all leading to the meadow on the Prislop, and soon Balint found that he had to choose between two of them, one above, one below the other. He chose the higher. Soon he emerged from the dense thicket of young pine saplings into a more open part of the timber forest where, among the more recently planted trees there were some older ones whose growth had become stunted in the rocky soil and whose branches were covered in moss. Here the sloping ground was dotted with burr-covered burdock while the young summer bramble shoots, now bright green but soon to be laden with blackberries, grew as thickly as if they had been planted by hand.

So unexpected was the dramatic contrast between the brilliant green of the brambles on the ground with the soft lilac-coloured shade of the tree trunks above that Balint stopped in wonder at the beauty of it. In the branches above hung silver-grey tassels of moss seemingly woven into veils of net. Everywhere there were only these three colours, silver, grey, and vivid green: and the more that Balint gazed around him the more improbable and ethereal did the forest seem until it was only those strands near at hand, which moved gently in the soft breeze, that seemed real while everything further off, the pale lilac shading into violet, was like clouds of vapour in slight perpetual movement as if swaying to the rhythm of some unheard music. And everywhere around, at ground level, was this green carpet, also stirred by almost imperceptible movement, from the valley below to the edges of the lilac-shaded forest above, so that Balint had the impression of a magical seascape. This was enhanced, here and there, by rigid blocks of projecting rock, grey-black slate which shone in the sunshine as if covered by invisible spray. Indeed the rocks really were wet, wet with the humidity of the mountain forest, so wet indeed that tiny droplets were constantly falling from the sharp edges of the rocks onto the damp sponge-like earth beneath. Even the thick soil of the path was damp and resilient underfoot.

Balint moved slowly on. He felt strangely trance-like, as if some hitherto unrevealed secret would suddenly be unfolded before him, as if a golden stranger would step out from the lilac strands of moss to welcome him to Paradise. And, as always when suddenly aware of unexpected beauty, he thought of Adrienne as if

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