A Princess Prays (7 page)

Father Jozsef led the way followed by Attila and as it was so early there was no one to see them riding through the quiet streets near the Palace.

Very shortly they were out into wide country where there were no people and no horses. There was only wild grassland which slipped away into an indefinite horizon.

They were riding in an area Attila knew resembled the Steppes of Hungary.

The horses needed no encouragement to gallop and as Attila rode every day, she found no difficulty in riding in a plain long garment rather than her riding habit.

She forgot about herself as they galloped over the high grass teeming with wild flowers on which the butterflies were beginning to flutter.

As the sun came up, its rays touched the tops of the mountain on one side of them and shimmered on the river that ran for many miles through the grassland ahead.

It was only when they had galloped for what seemed to Attila a long time that she spoke to Father Jozsef.

“We have got away, Father,” she said with a note of triumph in her voice.

Father Jozsef smiled at her.

“Yes,” he replied, “we have got away. By the time they send a search party for us we will be in a different world where no one will find us.”

“I am sure Papa will tell them I am quite safe and with friends, which is, of course, true.”

Father Jozsef looked around him.

“I had almost forgotten how very beautiful this part of the country is and our carriage is not far behind us.”

The carriage was moving along a rough track at the side of the river as they rode on.

As the sun rose everything around them seemed to be shining and turned to gold.

Everywhere Attila looked there was a profusion of butterflies, which rose in front of the horses like an elusive cloud. The birds they disturbed soared up into the sky and she felt that each one carried a special prayer for her father.

They stopped at noon for luncheon and by that time Attila, who had eaten no breakfast, was feeling hungry.

The horses were watered and Lamos brought two picnic baskets out from the back of the carriage.

The food was simple, but because she was hungry Attila found it delicious.

She enjoyed talking to Father Jozsef while they ate and drank and to her considerable surprise he had brought a light wine with him and the men had cooled it in the river.

“I never believed you would drink wine, Father!” exclaimed Attila.

“I very seldom do, but as I thought I might need something to sustain me on a long journey, I considered it a wise precaution against you having to ride alone!”

Attila gave a little cry.

“You must not overtire yourself, Father. You can quite easily drive in the carriage and I can ride beside you.”

“I am happy as things are at the moment, my child, but if I feel it is too much for me I shall be sensible enough to say so. As you know I have promised your father to protect you and that means I cannot leave you alone.”

“No, of course not,” agreed Attila, “and it is very wonderful of you to come with me.”

“You would certainly not be allowed to go alone,” commented Father Jozsef sternly.

Attila knew this was very true and what was more if her stepmother had known what was about to happen, she would have prevented her from leaving the Palace.

‘I have just escaped,' she mused gleefully. ‘I have escaped not only to save my Papa, but to save myself from Prince Otto.'

Even to think about him made her shudder so she changed the subject and talked to Father Jozsef about the countryside.

*

That evening they took their second meal of the day in a far more secluded place.

They stopped by a large wood and for the first time Attila looked inside their carriage. It was wide and well padded, but what Attila had not expected was that Father Jozsef had divided it very skilfully down the middle.

There was enough room for two people to sleep on the floor at the same time. The seats had been taken out and the floor was covered with two thick and comfortable mattresses.

There was one on each side of a long wooden board which divided the carriage completely into two tiny rooms.

Attila looked at the side where she was to sleep and she was touched to find a small mirror fixed to the wall as well as a little shelf for her brushes.

“How clever of you!” she cried to Father Jozsef.

He proudly showed her his side, which was almost the same as hers.

There was a place for his razor and toothbrush in front of the mirror and hooks for their clothes.

Attila thought it was the cleverest transformation of a driving carriage she could ever have imagined.

“Where will the two men sleep?” she asked.

“They will sleep underneath the carriage and they have brought sleeping bags with them.”

Father Jozsef sighed before he added,

“It is something I would have done myself if I was young, but I thought it wiser to be beside you. Also at my age I am rather bad at crawling under anything!”

Attila laughed.

“Of course you must not and I do think our moving Palace is delightful.”

They rode until the sun was beginning to slip down the sky and then it was time for their supper.

This time Lamos insisted on building a fire.

They had hot soup to start with which Attila found delicious.

She and Father Jozsef were seated some distance from the fire and the men who waited on them, and when they had finished the wine, which Father Jozsef had insisted she drank, Attila commented,

“I have been thinking, Father, how lucky I am that you have taken me away from the Palace so that I will not have to meet Prince Otto.”

“I hope you never meet him, my child.”

“That is what I hope too, but I am sure Stepmama will find another suitor. She will force me to marry simply because she wants to be rid of me.”

“You have not forgotten that one of our reasons for going to the Shrine at St. Janos is to pray that you will find love?”

“I have
not
forgotten, Father.”

There was a short silence and then she enquired,

“Have you ever been in love, Father?”

He looked at her quizzically and Attila thought he was debating whether he would tell her the truth.

He might make an excuse to talk about something else, but he answered her,

“The reason I entered the Church and became as I am today was because I loved someone with all my heart, but I lost her.”

“How did that happen? Surely she did not have to marry someone else.”

Father Jozsef shook his head.

“No, no. I loved her and she loved me, but we were both very young. I had no money and there was no chance of us marrying until I could provide her with a proper home.”

“Your father was not well-off?”

“He had a little money and later made a great deal more, but I was just one of a family of six. Actually, as my brothers were older, my father had enabled them to acquire homes which cost him a considerable amount of money.”

“So you were going to marry the girl you loved so much when you could afford it, Father.”

“That was more or less the situation except that her father wanted her to marry someone much more important and certainly richer than I was.”

“But she loved you,” questioned Attila.

“She loved me,” Father Jozsef repeated, “and our love was the
real
love, which you, my dear Princess, are seeking.”

“Then what happened?”

There was silence as if the Father could not bear to speak about it. Eventually he replied,

“She contracted a fever for which there was no cure in those days.”

“Are you saying,” she whispered, “that she died?”

“She died in my arms, telling me with her very last breath that she loved me.”

The way he spoke made tears come to Attila's eyes.

“I am sorry, so very sorry, Father.”

“Now you understand,” he continued with a tremor in his voice, “why I then entered the Church and dedicated my life to helping others not only spiritually, but, when I was able, physically.”

“I wondered how you knew so much about illness. So many, many people must be grateful to you.”

“Every time I heal someone, I think it could have happened to the one I loved so much. If only I had known not only about medicine, but the power of prayer.”

“You have done so much good for the world, but it is very very sad that you lost the girl you loved. What was her name?”

“She had the same name as the beloved Mother of Christ, but I called her – Marie.”

“Wherever Marie is now she must be very proud of how saintly you are and the many people you have healed.”

Father Jozsef rose to his feet and walked away.

Attila knew he wanted to be alone to think of Marie who he had loved.

There could never be another woman in his life.

He was a Priest and entirely on his own and there was no one to share his work or his thoughts with him.

‘It is so very sad,' thought Attila. ‘But if it had not happened many others would have suffered. Without Father Jozsef to heal them they would have died or perhaps never known love.'

At the same time her heart bled for Father Jozsef.

She wanted desperately for him to be happy.

When she went to bed, he still had not returned from his walk and Attila worried in case he was doing too much.

When she heard him return and enter the carriage, she was relieved.

She was tired and fell asleep immediately.

*

She only awakened when she heard Father Jozsef moving about and the horses being put between the shafts.

When they set off again, it was another lovely day.

Now Attila felt more relaxed.

Yesterday, although she told herself it was totally unnecessary, she had kept glancing over her shoulder just in case there were soldiers following them.

She knew that her stepmother would be so angry when she found them gone that she was quite capable, without discussing it with her father, of sending the Palace guards in search of her.

They were now leaving the grassland behind them, but the air was still filled with birds and butterflies.

At noon on the third day of their journey Attila saw a tall mountain ahead where the Shrine of St. Janos was situated.

As they drew nearer there were one or two pilgrims just like themselves. They were either walking slowly, as if they had travelled a long distance or riding a horse or donkey.

Most of the pilgrims seemed to be young and she thought that perhaps like herself they were going to the Shrine to ask for love.

Reaching the mountain, they could only go a little way up on horseback before the rough track came to an end.

There was a place at the side of the mountain where the carriage and horses could stand.

It was then, looking at the steep path ahead of them, that Attila approached Father Jozsef,

“You are really certain, Father, that it will not be too much for you?”

He smiled at her.

“I will be alright if I take it slowly, my child. After all we have come a long way to pray at the Shrine and I do not wish my prayers to be in vain.”

Attila shook her head.

“I am certain they never can be, Father, wherever you make them.”

“That is true, but I am anxious for you to see the Shrine, which I think is very beautiful. You will find it has a wonderful feeling all of its own which there is no need for me to describe to you.”

Attila was becoming excited now that they had reached their journey's end.

She tidied herself in the mirror in the carriage and put on a fresh gown. It was very different to the smart attractive dresses she wore at home, but she felt it was appropriate

She was only a humble pilgrim at the feet of a Saint who had proved himself a thousand times.

She insisted on Father Jozsef having a glass of his wine before they began to climb the steep path ahead.

When she had drunk it for the second time last night, she suspected it was not an ordinary wine like those which were served at her father's table.

“What have you added to it, Father?” she asked.

“That is clever of you, my child,” he answered her. “How do you know I have added anything?”

“I can taste it and I can feel that it has an uplifting feeling when I drink it which sweeps away tiredness.”

“That is just what you are meant to feel. Actually it contains many herbs that are stimulating when added to the grapes when it is brewed.”

“So you have it specially made for you, Father?”

“I have given my recipe to a friend who I believe has made a fortune from it, but I drink very little myself, although he sends me a case every time I require one.”

“Then I am so delighted we have tasted it on this journey and if you feel stimulated by it, Father, so do I. To tell you the truth I was feeling very tired last night.”

“I thought you were and that is why I insisted on you having a glass at supper time.”

Attila reached out to touch his hand.

“You are so kind to me, Father, and I am sure Papa is envying me coming here with you. Perhaps when he is better he will want to go on a pilgrimage himself?”

They put down their glasses and leaving the horses and the carriage in the charge of the two men, they started to walk very slowly up the path.

They could not see very much before they reached the top and when they did so Attila thought it was certainly worth the effort.

The Shrine had been altered several times over the years to make it more and more impressive.

It was in a small clearing standing on the stones of the mountain and had been built very much higher than it had been originally.

Now it was covered with a roof of gold and silver and there were candles in holders made of gold inset with jewels burning on each side.

These had been a present from an Indian Maharajah who had claimed that the Saint had given him five million blessings, and he had received an answer to his prayers that no temple in his own country had been able to do.