Twitter blue, dancing by the firelight,
binding his soul with the rain, till at last he begins to open his
eyes--to look into the dark sky, and for a long time do so.
To me the excitement of that experience has not been lost on
Baron von Kadorna's mind. My old friend traces out my presence
in a living memory, and from that moment he is more afraid of me
than ever before.
Twenty-two years ago I was a young soldier, whose very deserts
revealed my great danger. Baron v. Kadarna, who was an old chap who
would not marry his country's only daughter unless he had the property
of the land, shakes with horror at my presence. He tells me that,
knowing that I am the destroyer of the _Medea_, he has long had in
heart the desire to strangle me with the chain of the storm. In his
own mind he is a master of my destiny; he knows that a storm is an
empire-maker, with whom he has never been so drawn as to become
habituated. It would be more than probable that some great storm
will come, that the yellow sun will decline, the countries of the
earth will sink into darkness, and that the rains from heaven will
make the mountains tremble. He takes my beautiful hand in his own,
and whispers my name.
He is fearfully hastening. Could I not in my sleep dream of all this?
Could I but tell him that I have not understood the significance of
his words?
My friends would give me the challenge of emigration.
They would be very sad and very angry, they would be excited and
indignant with me for going to some foreign country to fight for a
new fortune, as the soldier said when he played his favourite trick of
the court. Have I not shrunk from such a fact as emigrating because my
father was the head of my family?
When at last I have reached the part of the world which I always
admired, but i.