CHAPTER XIV.
WALLACHIAN HOSPITALITY.
Manasseh had not much choice of routes in making his way, with his companion, to Transylvania.

After leaving Italy, he bent his course first to Dees, as the road thither seemed to offer no obstacles to peaceful travellers.

Troops were, indeed, encountered here and there on the way; but they suffered Manasseh and Blanka to pass unmolested.
Manasseh had fortunately provided a generous hamper of supplies, so that his companion was not once made aware that they were passing through a district lately overrun by a defeated army, which had so exhausted the resources of all the wayside inns that hardly a bite or a sup was to be had for love or money.
The weather was unusually fine, as the sunny autumn had that year extended into the winter.

The Transylvanian was perfectly familiar with the region, and entertained his fellow-traveller with legends and stories of the places through which they passed.

In the splendid chestnut forests that crowned the heights of Nagy-Banya he told her the adventures of the bandit chief, Dionysius Tolvaj, who kept the whole countryside in terror, until at last the men of Nagy-Banya hunted him down and slew him.