86 THE MOUNTAINS 



found while reading Tschudi's Life of 

 Elizabeth of Austria. Here is a free but 

 essential translation of the significant pas- 

 sage. In a rare moment of self -revelation 

 Elizabeth says: "In Godollo I have a tree 

 that is my best friend. As I reach Go- 

 dollo, and just before I come away, I go 

 to see this old tree. For some minutes we 

 look at each other in silence. The old tree 

 seems to know all there is inside my soul. 

 And I dare to trust him with everything 

 which has taken place in my life while 

 we have been separated." 



To understand this extremely pathetic 

 passage, we need to remember that this 

 most beautiful and most gifted and most 

 sensitive woman was abnormally placed, 

 in a salacious and artificial court, where 

 she was in perpetual revolt. Also that, 

 like the poet Heine, she was possessed by 

 the demon of originality, and was, there- 

 fore, ready and eager to interpret the 

 whole universe in a fashion all her own. 

 Also that she was under the crushing 



