The Argosy — page 158: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

= ——————— ans ee Se ae ow oe @ 144 From Salzburg to Gastein, ness, a mere twinkling of the eye, that seemed to border on the super- natural. The mountains were richly wooded with sombre, unbending pines, and occasionally far up the height, a small white fortress peeped out mysteriously amidst the dark foliage, perched on some jutting rock, to all appearance inaccessible. After a long drive of this description, in which grandeur was literally heaped upon grandeur, we reached the village of Werfen, and halted an hour for the sake of the beasts, that in this instance were indeed of burden. The valley had expanded, and the mountains now looked a gigantic, overpowering mass, displaying themselves in wildest form and greatest height ; surrounding us on every side. In comparison the houses looked a small, white cluster of sheds, that might easily be crushed and hidden for ever by a mere rolling fragment of rock. It was yet early and the whole village was at church where service was being held. Night and morning, summer and winter, as many as are able assemble for a short prayer. The organ was playing as we entered the churchyard, but its swell soon died away on the air and the priest took up his part. In a few minutes the people flocked out and dispersed, each his own way to his own work. High up on the left hand, on the*summit of a rock separating the mountains, seeming by comparison a dwarf between giants, stood the castle, where, years ago, the protestants were persecuted. At its foot the river rushes past, where the poor bodies were thrown after torture and death. Pitched from the rock down the steep, perpendicular precipice. The rock is wooded with pine trees, through which the wind on a calm night goes sighing with a weird, sobbing sound, as if the unhappy spirits were still hovering amongst them, unable to rest in peace until'their martyrdom had been avenged. Some of the mountains, too, are wooded, and abound in wild straw- berries: others aré barren, tiggét‘and rock-like, their tops covered with a white dazzling snow that ‘takes them look larger than they really are, and in winter must give them a cold, inhospitable aspect, But at this time of the year, when everyone was almost prostrate with the heat, it was refreshing to turn one’s eyes upwards. Yet after all, like the fox and the grapes, you ceased to envy the mountain tops, seeking consolation in the thought that probably the cold up there was not less trying to the nerves than the heat below. Altogether, I liked the place, and the people of the inn, and determined to stay here the night on the return journey, in preference to Golling. But, as has been already remarked, the wish was frustrated. For all that we shall meet with it again. Man and beast rested and refreshed, the cavalcade once more set off on its travels, The sun was now well up in the sky, and rugs and coats had to be put out of sight. The amount ofdust.was an un- fathomable mystery. It seemed as if the sandy desert had transf red OKS (C(O) in —_)