The elders of
Magletch, a hamlet an hour off, came with an offer of their services,
in case they were wanted.
The sun set; and a bright crackling fire of withered branches of pine,
mingling its light with the rays of the moon in the clear chill of a
September evening, threw a wild and unworldly pallor over the sterile
scene of our bivouac, and the uncouth figures of the elders. They
offered me a supper; but contenting myself with a roasted head of
Indian corn, and rolling my cloak and pea jacket about me, I fell
asleep: but felt so cold that, at two o'clock, I roused the
encampment, sounded to horse, and, in a few minutes, was again
mounting the steep paths that lead to Studenitza.
Day gradually dawned, and the scene became wilder and wilder; not a
chalet was to be seen, for the ruined castle of Magletch on its lone
crag, betokened nothing of humanity. Tall cedars replaced the oak and
the beech, the scanty herbage was covered with hoar-frost. The clear
brooks murmured chillingly down the unshaded gullies, and a grand line
of sterile peaks to the South, showed me that I was approaching the
backbone of the Balkan.
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