Here he got some refreshments and started
on his last run. A few miles below he saw a very high mountain,
surmounted by a cross, up which ran a zig-zag road. At each bend of this
road was erected a grotto containing some scene from the Passion of Our
Lord. This Way of the Cross is a celebrated place of devotion to the
pious people of Buda Pesth. As he passed the mountain he saluted a party
of ladies and gentlemen standing on the shore. One of the gentlemen
hailed him in German with the request to slack up a little and they
would come off in a boat. Paul complied with their request and stood
upright in the water and drifted quietly along. The boat was soon beside
him: it contained two ladies, evidently mother and daughter, and two
gentlemen. The daughter, about eighteen years of age, was, in Paul's
estimation, the most lovely girl he had ever seen. He gazed with a
look of admiration on her wondrous beauty and paid but little
attention to the shower of questions that were put to him in
Hungarian-German by the male members of the party. In his best German,
he asked her what he already knew, that was, "how far it was to Buda
Pesth?"
She smiled and answered in French, "about thirty-five miles. I presume
you can speak French better than German?"
This was just what Paul wanted.
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