SEARCH FOR THE LOST BRIDE.
Dorina was loved by all the retainers and peasants on her father’s vast
estates, and bitter were the lamentations uttered by all who heard of
the catastrophe. That she should have died in some dark recess of those
vast caves was fearful to think of, and yet the supposition (which my
mother felt convinced originated with Cunigunda) that Dorina had fled
with the English youth on the very day before she was to wed the Count,
seemed still more revolting.
Two of the gentlemen who, among the guests, were the most energetic in
prosecuting the search, found that about twenty yards beyond, and on the
left of the flowery seat which terminated the emerald avenue, the floor
descended suddenly to a much lower level, and there was a narrow
entrance to a much smaller cavern. This lower cave had three small
outlets, and they determined to pursue the centre one, which appeared to
descend more precipitately than the other two.
As the Adelberg caves were on a lower level than those of Hohenstein,
they thought that the lower they kept the more likely they were to reach
them. As they proceeded they searched on the ground, in hopes of
finding footmarks that might serve as a guide. In one place they fancied
they saw the prints of a small foot. Again, further on, there was
another, but no larger one; therefore, if this was Dorina’s, they
considered she must have been alone at that time.
Soon afterwards these passages became narrower, and so low that they
could scarcely stand upright; but as they proceeded further it opened
out into a cave so large and high that, though they held up their
torches for some time, no boundaries were visible. Keeping close to one
side, they went on, and, to their dismay, discovered a great number of
outlets; and here the droppings from the roof formed numerous pools, so
that no footsteps could be discovered. They then began reluctantly to
acknowledge that a further search was impossible, and; fearing to lose
themselves irrecoverably, they selected one of the outlets that led in a
southerly direction.
Soon afterwards, however, they met Count Rossi, and a large party of
gentlemen and servants, and informed him of the small footprint they had
seen in the narrow passage. The Count, of course, wished to go and
search in that direction, and the two Englishmen accompanied him. But
they found it impossible to remember which of the numerous outlets from
the large cave which contained pools of water was the one by which they
had entered it. In vain they searched in all directions--no footprints,
nor even any passage so low as the one where they had seen it, could be
found.
The Count was at last persuaded to give up this hopeless search, and
walked slowly back to the Castle without speaking a word. His eyes had a
glazed and vacant look; his cheeks were very pale; he walked as one in a
dream, and the party accompanied him in dead silence. It was very late
when they arrived at the Castle, and towards morning the Graf von
Hohenstein also returned home, exhausted by fatigue and sorrow, and much
injured by a fall in the Adelsberg cave, which broke his arm, and
bruised him severely.
Day after day passed on, no intelligence of the missing pair had
arrived, and there was every reason to fear that they had perished in
the cave, or that the gardener’s report of having seen the Gräfinn walk
to the stable, was true. The latter hypothesis was utterly rejected by
the unhappy father and bridegroom, who, as time passed on, became more
and more convinced that they should never again behold in this world
their beloved Dorina.
It sometimes crossed my mother’s mind that if the unhappy bride and her
partner had been lost in the windings of the cave, and did not die, they
might have fallen into the hands of smugglers or banditti, who were said
to infest some of its secret outlets, and carry on, in defiance of the
Government, their illicit trade. If so, they might keep them prisoners
for some time, lest their haunt should be made known. She hinted this
possibility to several people; and the Graf himself stationed men to
watch night and day on the roads and lanes leading to the Adelsberg
caves on the other side. For weeks they watched, but no traces of
banditti or smugglers were to be seen, nor were even the remains of any
of their secret dens discovered amid these wild and gloomy ravines,
which appeared untrodden by the foot of man.