The King of the Mountains

when I embarked for Athens, my only pleasure was to learn; my only grief, ignorance. I loved science ardently, and no one, as yet, had disputed her claim in my heart. I must

uld have been a good spectator at a combat of gladiators. Photini's love for Harris would have aroused pity in any heart but a naturalist's. The poor creature "loved at random," to quote a beautiful saying of Henry IV; and it was evident that she loved hopelessly. She was too timid to display her affection, and John was too indifferent to divine it. Even if he had noticed anything, what hope was there that he

e daughter of a poor Greek Colonel; that she was seriously in love, not with me, but with another; that I could by paying her a little attention become her confidant, but that I should never become her husband. Moreover, my health was good and my herbarium magnificent. My researches, hitherto restricted to the sub

reeable to all strangers, did not appear to give much pleasure to the Greeks, and especially to our host and hostess. Christodule, for a lieutenant of troops, showed lack of enthusiasm, and Colonel Jean's daughter wept when the story of the brigand's defeat was read. Harris, who had brought in the paper, could n

Théotoki, occupied by the French Legation; I passed through the gardens belonging to Prince Michael Soutzo, and the School of Plato, which a President of the Areopagus had put up in a lottery some years before, and I entered the olive groves. The morning thrushes and their cousins-germain, the black-birds, flew from tree to tree, and sang joyously above my head. At the end of the wood, I traversed the immense green fields where Attic horses, short and squat, like those in the frieze at the Parthenon, consoled themselves for the dry fodder and the heating food of winter. Flocks of turtle-doves flew away at my approach, and the tufted la

able to change them. In this country, where man does not oppose the works of nature, torrents are royal roads; brooks, are department routes; rivulets, are parish-roads. Tempests are the road-constructors, and rain is the surveyor of wide and narrow paths. I entered the ravine and walked between two river banks, which hid the plain from me. But the path had so many turns, that I should not have known in which direction I was walking,

the ground and heard two or three horses coming up the ravine. I buckled my box on my back, and made ready to follow them, in case they were going towards Parnassus. Five minutes afterward,

and travel-stained garments with a troubled eye. Before even being able to distinguish the faces of the two riders, behind their blue veils, I had looked myself over, and I was sufficiently satisfied. I wore these garments which I have on, and which are even now

did not appear to trouble them much. I held out my hand to Dim

the road to

are goi

o with y

y n

e these

rd is resting

of people

imons, of the firm of Barley and Co.; Milord i

ett

te; I like Photin

g as far as t

rganize and arrange their trips. I began with this one because I

dared to trot before. The other animal, filled with emulation, began to take the same gait, and if we had talked a few minut

be well served. I do not pay you to chat with your

German,

at is h

arching f

apotheca

e! he is a

he know

dame, ve

h!

ed not speak to me; he walked ahead like a prisoner of war. All that he could do was to cast two or three looks in my direction, which seemed to say: "But these English are impertinent!" Miss Simons did not turn her head, and I was unable to decide in what her ugliness differe

hope of hearing her voice. Did I not tell you that I was extremely curi

ry-

am

m hu

e y

a

, I am

e y

a

ing almost to suffocation. In all my life, I had never heard anything so young, so fresh, so silvery as that voice. The sound of a golden shower falling on my father's roof would have, truly, sounded less sweet to me. I thought t

y, of anise-seed cordial; some brown bread; eggs; and a regiment of venerable hens transformed by death into pullets, by virtue of metempsychosis. Unfortunately, the inn was deserted and the door closed. At this news, Mrs. Sim

ed, "you can breakfast, in half-a

flections upon Mrs. Simons' ugliness, and I murmured under my breath

f there was no other way. "I am English," she said, "and I was not made to roll down precipices." Dimitri began to praise the path; he assured her that there were others a hundred times worse in the kingdom. "At least," said the good lady, "take hold of the bridle. But who will lea

of a personage well-known in the romances of the Middle Ages, whom the poets of the XIVth cent

are sure-footed; I know them, as I have ridden them. You may have two gu

took the bridle of Mary-Ann's horse, and as her blue veil blew back, I saw the

st on sure foundations, and that it is in formal contradiction to all the revealed facts of anatomy. I ought to state, however, that Miss Simons' first glance caused a very acute agitation in the region of my heart I experienced a sensation entirely unusual, and which bore n

variety of holly-hock, nearly black, which resembles the marvelous shade of her eyes. If you have ever visited a forge at midnight, you have, doubtless, remarked the strange color which gleams from a red-hot steel plate, as it changes to a reddish brown; that too, was like her eyes. As for the charm in them, any comparison is useless. Charm is a gift with which few individuals are endowed. Mary-Ann's

use I possess an analytical mind and have formed habits of observation. One thing struck me especially, it was the fineness and transparency of her skin; it was more delicate than the velvety covering which envelops beautiful fruits. The color of her cheeks seemed made of that impalpable dust which adorns the wings of the butterflies. If I had not been a Doctor of Natural Sciences, I would have feared that the contact of her veil would brush off some of the luster of her beauty. I do not know whether you like pale women, or not, and I do not wish to hurt your feelings, if by chance, you have a taste for that kind of deathly looking women who have been the rage, during ce

housand years ago, the most beautiful woman of the Archipelago. I do not believe that, in 1856, she would have been considered the prettiest woman in Paris. Take her to a dressmaker's in the Place Vendome, or to a milliner's in the Rue de la Paix, and in these places she would be less of a success than some other women whose features were not so classical, and whose nose was not so straight. One could admire a woman geometrically beautiful, in the days when she was only an object of art destined to please the eyes, without appealing to the mind; a bird of Paradise at whose plumage one looks, without thinking of asking it to sing. A beautiful Athenian was as well-proportioned, as white, and as cold, as the column of a temple. M. Mérinay has shown to me, in a book, that the Ionic column is only a woman, disguised. The portico of the Temple of Er

un shone softly on my head. Above the path, and below, the resinous trees disseminated their aromatic odors through the air. The pines, the thugas, and the turpentine trees gave forth a harsh and acrid incense as Mary-Ann passed. She inhaled, with evident happiness, nature's odorous largess. Her dear little nose breathed in the fragrance; her eyes, those beautiful eyes, roved from object to object with sparkling joy. Seeing her so pretty, so lively, so happy, you would have said that a dryad had escaped from its wood. I can

o one at the magistrate's. The authorities of the village had moved away with the residents. Each house consisted of four walls and a roof, with two openings, one of which served as door, the other as window. Poor Dimitri forced in two or thr

travel over precipices! I order you to bring food, and you expose me to starvation! We were to breakfast at the inn! The inn is abandoned: I had the goodness to follow you, fasting, to this frightful villa

inhabitants of the village were nearly all charcoal-burners, and that their business very often took them into the mountains. In any case, the time was no

?" demanded

e Castia. They raise bees there. The good old man who carries on the farm

one away like

he time for the swarming is near, and

nough since morning. I vow to you that I

as are all guides. "We can hitch our horses to the f

hter looped up their habits and we started up a precipitous path, fit only for the goats of Castia. The green lizards which were warming themselves in the sun, discreetly retired at our approach, but each drew a pi

ne saw, in the shelter of a hill covered with thyme, a hundred straw bee-hives, placed in a line like the tents in a camp. The king of this empire, the good old man, was a small, young man of twenty-five, round and merry. A

eared utterly amazed. "Here is an original," Mrs. Simons exclaimed; "what astoni

e monk's hand, and said to him with a cu

ng the necks of two chicke

: why do you

reakf

see that the i

l, that I found

e village wa

I should not have cl

en in accord

With

briga

brigands on

y before

e are

rywh

to lose. The brigands are in the mountains. Let us run for our ho

ied Mrs. Simons. "With

ld cost you dear! Let us ha

As if there were brigands! I do not believe in brigands! All the papers state that th

ned on my arm and asked me if I thou

o. Of being

welcome to take all that I carry, if

vulgar call canine appetite, and our learned men know as boulime. When hu

just ascended. The little monk followed her, gesticulating. I was strongly

t! I

voice cried in Greek: "Seat yourselves on the ground!" This operation was exceedingly easy for me, as my knees weakened under me. But I consoled myself wi

uch each other over our heads. It was not that I was afraid; but I had never before realized the extr

bonnets might once have been red; but lye itself could never have found the original shade of their coats. All the rocks of the kingdom had contributed to the color of their percale skirts, and their vests bore a specimen of the different soils upon which they had reposed. Their hands, their faces, an

is great height, and examined us so closely, that I almost felt the touch of his gray mustache. You would have thought him a tiger who smelled his prey before devouring it. When his curiosity was satisfied, he

?" demanded

brot

rt the

brot

u must not return to t

e two. I have two horses below; they are hired

o Zimmerman that we h

ists on being

only too happy in see

not take the horses. What would y

o is this tall, thi

n honest German whose spo

Greek; well. Em

nty francs, my tobacco, my

is t

ndker

at

pe my

wipe their noses with handkerchiefs. Take off the box wh

. Simons' eyes. I had the impudence to offer them to her before my property changed hands. She snatched them greedily and began to devour the bread and meat. To my great astonishmen

" said the brigand to me, "p

ion, which softens men's feelings, would dispose them to restore to me something of my belongings, and I begged the Chief to give me my tin box. He rudely told me

h full. "Reflect well upon what you are doing," she said in a menacing tone. "I am an Englishwoman, and English subjects are sacred in every country in the world. What you take from me will serve y

?" asked the leade

ed: "She says

l the English are rich.

igns. As her watch was not in sight, and as they did not search us, s

hich she wore slung on her shoulder. The bandit opened it with all the importance of a custom-house officer. He took out an English dre

uty, "you can let us go; we

ore their spoils, called the monk, counted the money in his presence and gave to him a sum of forty-five francs. Mrs. Simons nudg

ken from him. It is customary everywhere. On the borders of the Rhine, when a

the m

time immemorial. Do not reproach him, but rather be grateful to him in h

at he was free. "Wait for me," I said to him, "we will return together." He sa

ns again until you have paid a ransom. I am going to inf

at he must complain at the Foreign Office, and he must surely write to Lord Palmerston! That we must be rescued from her

have a few hundred drachmas to ransom a poor devil of a naturalist, they will furnish them without doubt. The lords of

. Hermann, they do

, th

ief, Hadg