often, and I know he is about it now. So we shall have no
trouble making our way up the dry bed of the stream to the farther end
of the Gap. The miller there has promised to give a signal if the road
through the Torda woods is clear, and unless it is blocked by the
insurgents we can push on at once to the saw-mill on the Aranyos, where
a four-horse team is waiting for us with twelve mounted young men from
Bagyon as escort. But don't wrinkle your brow, we sha'n't come to
bloodshed yet awhile. A dozen Bagyon horsemen make nothing of dashing
through the whole Wallachian army, and not a hair of their heads will be
touched. We shall be shot at, but from such a distance that we shall
never know it. We will tell the young lady it is the custom in our
country to receive bridal parties with a volley of musketry. When we
reach the Borev Bridge we are as good as at home, and we shall be there
before any one can overtake us, I'll warrant."

"But what if the Torda woods are held by the enemy?" queried Manasseh.

"Then we will take up our quarters for the present in Balyika Cave.
Everything is provided there for our comfort, and we shall not suffer.
We'll wait until the danger passes. Near the Balyika Gate we shall find
a signal: a cord will be stretched from one rock to another, and a red
rag hung on it if danger threatens, but a green twig if all is well."

"And when you first proposed in Kolozsvar that we should go home by way
of Torda Gap, did you know the perils we should have to face?"

"Certainly," replied Aaron. "You can read my heart, brother, like an
open book, and I need not try to conceal anything from you. Do you
suppose we should ever have taken up arms unless we had been forced to
do so, even as you will exchange the olive-branch for the sword as soon
as you find what is dearest to you in danger? You cannot do otherwise;
the iron hand of destiny constrains you. You have brought your
sweetheart with you from Rome; your honour as a man obliges you to make
her your lawful wife. Our law, our canon, compels you to make your way
home with her, for nowhere else can your wedding be duly solemnised.
Suppose the enemy block your way: you are given a good horse, a trusty
sword and a brace of pistols, and then, with thirteen loyal comrades,
including myself, you clear a path, through blood if need be, to the
altar whither it is your duty to lead your betrothed."

While the two men thus discoursed on war and bloodshed, Blanka w