Eothen

Eothen

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Title: Eothen
Author: A. W. Kinglake
Release Date: June, 1995 [EBook #282] [This file was first posted on
August 3, 1995]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, EOTHEN
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Transcribed from the 1898 George Newnes edition by David Price,
email [email protected]

EOTHEN--A. W. KINGSLAKE

CHAPTER I
--OVER THE BORDER

At Semlin I still was encompassed by the scenes and the sounds of
familiar life; the din of a busy world still vexed and cheered me; the
unveiled faces of women still shone in the light of day. Yet, whenever I
chose to look southward, I saw the Ottoman's fortress-- austere, and
darkly impending high over the vale of the Danube-- historic Belgrade.
I had come, as it were, to the end of this wheel-going Europe, and now
my eyes would see the splendour and havoc of the East.
The two frontier towns are less than a cannon-shot distant, and yet their
people hold no communion. The Hungarian on the north, and the Turk
and Servian on the southern side of the Save are as much asunder as
though there were fifty broad provinces that lay in the path between
them. Of the men that bustled around me in the streets of Semlin there
was not, perhaps, one who had ever gone down to look upon the
stranger race dwelling under the walls of that opposite castle. It is the
plague, and the dread of the plague, that divide the one people from the
other. All coming and going stands forbidden by the terrors of the
yellow flag. If you dare to break the laws of the quarantine, you will be
tried with military haste; the court will scream out your sentence to you
from a tribunal some fifty yards off; the priest, instead of gently
whispering to you the sweet hopes of religion, will console you at
duelling distance; and after that you will find yourself carefully shot,
and carelessly buried in the ground of the lazaretto.

When all was in order for our departure we walked down to the
precincts of the quarantine establishment, and here awaited us a
"compromised" {1} officer of the Austrian Government, who lives in a
state of perpetual excommunication. The boats, with their
"compromised" rowers, were also in readiness.
After coming in contact with any creature or thing belonging to the
Ottoman Empire it would be impossible for us to return to the Austrian
territory without undergoing an imprisonment of fourteen days in the
odious lazaretto. We felt, therefore, that before we committed ourselves
it was important to take care that none of the arrangements necessary
for the journey had been forgotten; and in our anxiety to avoid such a
misfortune, we managed the work of departure from Semlin with nearly
as much solemnity as if we had been departing this life. Some obliging
persons, from whom we had received civilities during our short stay in
the place, came down to say their farewell at the river's side; and now,
as we stood with them at the distance of three or four yards from the
"compromised" officer, they asked if we were perfectly certain that we
had wound up all our affairs in Christendom, and whether we had no
parting requests to make. We repeated the caution to our servants, and
took anxious thought lest by any possibility we might be cut off from
some cherished object of affection:- were they quite sure that nothing
had been forgotten--that there was no fragrant dressing-case with its
gold-compelling letters of credit from which we might be parting for
ever?--No; all our treasures lay safely stowed in the boat, and we were
ready to follow them to the ends of the earth. Now, therefore, we shook
hands with our Semlin friends, who immediately retreated for three or
four paces, so as