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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18705-8.txt b/18705-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa018cb --- /dev/null +++ b/18705-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11908 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poor Plutocrats, by Maurus Jókai + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Poor Plutocrats + +Author: Maurus Jókai + +Translator: R. Nisbet Bain + +Release Date: June 27, 2006 [EBook #18705] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POOR PLUTOCRATS *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +WORKS OF MAURUS JÓKAI + +HUNGARIAN EDITION + +THE POOR PLUTOCRATS + +_Translated from the Hungarian_ + +_By_ + +R. NISBET BAIN + +NEW YORK +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + +COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO. + + + + +PREFACE + + +"Szegény Gazdagok" is, perhaps, the most widely known of all Maurus +Jókai's masterpieces. It was first published at Budapest, in 1860, in +four volumes, and has been repeatedly translated into German, while good +Swedish, Danish, Dutch and Polish versions sufficiently testify to its +popularity on the Continent. Essentially a tale of incident and +adventure, it is one of the best novels of that inexhaustible type with +which I am acquainted. It possesses in an eminent degree the quality of +vividness which R. L. Stevenson prized so highly, and the ingenuity of +its plot, the dramatic force of its episodes, and the startling +unexpectedness of its _dénouement_ are all in the Hungarian master's +most characteristic style. I know of no more stirring incident in +contemporary fiction than the terrible wrestling match between strong +Juon the goatherd and the supple bandit Fatia Negra in the presence of +two trembling, defenceless women, who can do nothing but look on, though +their fate depends upon the issue of the struggle,--and we must go back +to the pages of that unsurpassed master of the weird and thrilling +Sheridan Le Fanu to find anything approaching the terror of poor +Henrietta's awful midnight vigil in the deserted _csárda_ upon the +lonely heath when, at the very advent of her mysterious peril, she +discovers, to her horror, that her sole companion and guardian, the +brave old squire, cannot be aroused from his drugged slumbers. + +There is naturally not so much scope for the display of Jókai's peculiar +and delightful humour, in a novel of incident like the present tale as +there is in that fine novel of manners: "A Hungarian Nabob." Yet even in +"Szegény Gazdagok," many of the minor characters (e.g., the parasite +Margari, the old miser Demetrius, the Hungarian Miggs, Clementina, the +frivolous Countess Kengyelesy), are not without a mild Dickensian +flavour, while in that rugged but good-natured and chivalrous Nimrod, +Mr. Gerzson, the Hungarian novelist has drawn to the life one of the +finest types we possess of the better sort of sporting Magyar squires. + +Finally, this fascinating story possesses in an eminent degree the charm +of freshness and novelty, a charm becoming rarer every year in these +globe-trotting days, when the ubiquitous tourist boasts that he has +been everywhere and seen everything. Yet it may well be doubted whether +even he has penetrated to the heart of the wild, romantic, sylvan +regions of the Wallachian and Transylvanian Alps, which is the theatre +of the exploits of that prince of robber chieftains, the mighty and +mysterious Fatia Negra, and the home of those picturesque Roumanian +peasants whom Jókai loves to depict and depicts so well. + +R. NISBET BAIN. + + + + +Contents + + +CHAPTER + + I. BOREDOM + II. A NEW MODE OF DUELLING + III. AN AMIABLE MAN + IV. CHILDISH NONSENSE + V. SHE IS NOT FOR YOU + VI. BRINGING HOME THE BRIDE + VII. THE CAVERN OF LUCSIA + VIII. STRONG JUON + IX. THE GEINA MAID-MARKET + X. THE BLACK JEWELRY + XI. TWO TALES, OF WHICH ONLY ONE IS TRUE + XII. THE SOIRÉES AT ARAD + XIII. TIT FOR TAT + XIV. THE MIKALAI CSÁRDA + XV. WHO IT WAS THAT RECOGNIZED FATIA NEGRA + XVI. LEANDER BABEROSSY + XVII. MR. MARGARI +XVIII. THE UNDISCOVERABLE LADY + XIX. THE SHAKING HAND + XX. THE FIGHT FOR THE GOLD + XXI. THE HUNTED BEAST + XXII. THE SIGHT OF TERROR +XXIII. THE ACCOMMODATION + XXIV. CONCLUSION + + + + +POOR PLUTOCRATS + +CHAPTER I + +BOREDOM + + +"Was it you who yawned so, Clementina?" + +Nobody answered. + +The questioner was an old gentleman in his eightieth year or so, dressed +in a splendid flowered silk Kaftan, with a woollen night-cap on his +head, warm cotton stockings on his feet, and diamond, turquoise, and +ruby rings on his fingers. He was reclining on an atlas ottoman, his +face was as wooden as a mummy's, a mere patch-work of wrinkles, he had a +dry, thin, pointed nose, shaggy, autumnal-yellow eyebrows, and his large +prominent black eyes protected by irritably sensitive eyelids, lent +little charm to his peculiar cast of countenance. + +"Well! Will nobody answer? Who yawned so loudly behind my back just +now?" he asked again, with an angry snort. "Will nobody answer?" + +Nobody answered, and yet there was a sufficient number of people in the +room to have found an answer between them. In front of the hearth was +sitting a young woman about thirty or thirty-five, with just such a +strongly-pronounced pointed nose, with just such high raised eyebrows as +the old gentleman's, only her face was still red (though the favour of +Nature had not much to do with that perhaps) and her eyebrows were still +black; but her thin lips were just as hermetically sealed as the old +man's, when she was not speaking. This young woman was playing at +Patience. + +In one of the windows sat a young girl of sixteen, a delicate creature +of rapid growth, whose every limb and feature seemed preternaturally +thin and fragile. She was occupied with some sort of sewing. At another +little sewing-table, immediately opposite to her, was a red-cheeked +damsel with a frightful mop of light hair and a figure which had all the +possibilities of stoutness before it. She was a sort of governess, and +was supposed to be English, though they had only her word for it. She +was reading a book. + +On the silk ottoman behind lay the already-mentioned Clementina, who +ought to have confessed to the sin of yawning. She was a spinster +already far advanced in the afternoon of life, and had cinder-coloured +ringlets around her temples and a little bit of beard on her chin. She +was no blood relation of the family but, as an ancient companion to a +former mistress of the house, had long eaten the bread of charity under +that roof. She was now engaged upon some eye-tormenting, fine fancy +work which could not have afforded the poor creature very much +amusement. + +The old gentleman on the sofa used to divert himself the whole day by +assembling as many human beings around him as possible and driving them +to desperation by his unendurable nagging and chiding; they, on the +other hand, had by this time discovered that the best defence against +this domestic visitation was never to answer so much as a word. + +"Of course! Of course!" continued the old gentleman with stinging +sarcasm. "I know what a bore it is to be near me and about me. I see +through it all. Yes, I _know_ that I am an unendurable old fellow on +whom not a single word should be wasted. I know well enough that you are +not sitting here beside me because you like to be here. Who compels you +to? I certainly shall not prevent anybody's petticoat from going away by +laying hold of it. The gate is not closed. Nothing easier than to be +off. Yet nobody likes the idea, eh? Ah-ha! It is possible that when the +eye of old Lapussa no longer sees, the heart of old Lapussa may no +longer remember. Besides, nobody can tell exactly when the old man may +die. Indeed they are waiting for his death every hour--he is beyond +eighty already. A most awful bore certainly. Ah ha! The old fool is +unable to get up any more, he is not even able to strike anybody. If he +cries out, nobody is afraid of him; but, at any rate, he has strength +enough to pull the bell-rope, send for his steward, tell him to go to +the office of the _alispán_[1] there ferret out and bring back his last +will and testament--and then he can dictate another will to his lawyer +quite cosily at his ease." + +[Footnote 1: Vice-lieutenant of the county.] + +And in order to emphasize his words more terribly, he there and then +gave a tug at the bell-rope. + +Yet for all that nobody turned towards him; the lady kept dealing out +the cards, the young girl continued working beads into her sampler, the +governess went on reading, and the old spinster was still intent upon +some delicate operation with her needle--just as if nobody had spoken a +word. + +In answer to the bell an ancient serving-man appeared in the doorway, +and the old gentleman, after waiting a little to see from the +countenances of those present (he could observe them in the mirror +opposite) whether his allusion to his will had produced any effect, and +finding no notice taken of it whatever, said in a sharp, petulant voice: +"Louis!" + +The servant approached the sofa and then stood still again. + +"My dinner!" + +This was the end of the awe-inspiring threat. + +The old gentleman observed, or rather, suspected, some slight amusement +in the company present. + +"Miss Kleary!" he observed irritably, "don't you observe that Henrietta +is looking out of the window again? I am bound, Miss, to direct your +attention to the fact that I consider such a thing decidedly unbecoming +in a young lady." + +"Dear Grandpapa.....!" began the accused. + +"Silence! I did not speak to Henrietta, I spoke to Miss Kleary. Miss +Henrietta is still a child who understands nothing. I neither address +her nor attempt to explain anything to her. But I keep Miss Kleary in +this house, I pay Miss Kleary a princely salary, in order that I may +have some one at hand to whom I can explain my educational ideas. Now my +educational ideas are good; nay, Miss, I think I may even say that they +are very good. I will therefore beg you to do me the favour to stick to +them. I know what ought and what ought not to be allowed young girls; I +know that....." + +The young girl's face blushed beneath the reproachful look of the old +tyrant, whilst the governess rose defiantly from her place, and in order +that she might wreak her anger upon some one, industriously proceeded to +pick holes in Henrietta's sewing and effectually spoil her whole day's +work. + +Thus, it will be perceived, only one person had the right to speak; the +only right the other people had was not to listen to him. + +But there was someone else in the background who had better rights than +anybody, and this someone now began to hammer with his fists on the +door, that very door at which the oldest and most trusty domestics +hardly dared to tap--began, I say, to hammer with his fists and kick +with his heels till everyone was downright scared. + +This was the little grandson, the old gentleman's spoiled darling little +Maksi. + +"Why don't you let in little Maksi?" cried the old gentleman, when he +heard him. "Open the door for little Maksi; don't you know that he is +not tall enough to reach the door-handle? Why don't you let him come to +me when he wants to come?" + +At that moment the footman opened the door and the little family prince +bounded in. It was a pale little mouldy sort of flower, with red eyes +and a cornerless mouth like a carp, but with the authentic family nose +and the appurtenances thereof, which took up so much room as to +seriously imperil the prospects of the rest of the head growing in +proportion. The little favourite was wearing a complete Uhlan costume, +even the four-cornered chako was stuck on the side of his head; he was +flourishing a zinc sword and grumbling bitterly. + +"What's the matter with little Maksi? Has anybody been annoying him?" + +Grandpapa succeeded at last in making out that on running out Maksi had +tripped over his sword, that his tutor had wanted to take it away, that +Maksi had thereupon drawn his weapon and made the aggressor's hand smart +with it, and that finally he had fled for refuge to grandpapa's room as +the only place where he was free from the persecutions of his +instructors. + +Grandpapa, in a terrible to do, began to question him: "Come here! Where +did you hit yourself? On the head, eh! Let us see! Why, it is swollen +up--quite red in fact! Put some opodeldoc on it! Clementina, do you +hear?--some opodeldoc for Maksi!" So the family medicament had to be +fetched at once; but Maksi, snatching it from the worthy spinster's +hand, threw it violently to the ground, so that the whole carpet was +bespattered with it. + +Nobody was allowed to scold him for this, however, as grandpapa was +instantly ready with an excuse: "Maksi must not be vexed," said he. +"Does not Maksi wear a sword by his side already? Maksi will be a great +soldier one of these days!" + +"Yes," replied the lad defiantly, "I'll be a general!" + +"Yes, Maksi shall be a general; nothing less than a general, of course. +But come, my boy, take your finger out of your mouth." + +The English governess here thought she saw an opportunity of insinuating +a professional remark. + +"He who would be a general, must, first of all, learn a great deal." + +"I don't want to learn. I mean to know everything without learning it. I +say, grandpapa, if you've lots of money, you will know everything at +once without learning it, won't you?" + +The old man looked around him triumphantly. + +"Now that I call genius, wit!" cried he. + +And with that he tenderly pressed the little urchin's head to his breast +and murmured: "Ah! he is my very grandson, my own flesh and blood." + +He was well aware how aggravated all the others would be at these words. + +Meanwhile the footman was laying a table. This table was of palisander +wood and supported by the semblance of a swan. It could be placed close +beside the ottoman and was filled with twelve different kinds of dishes. +All these meats were cold, for the doctor forbade his patient hot food. +The old gentleman tasted each one of the dishes with the aid of his +finger-tips, and not one of them pleased him. This was too salt, that +was too sweet, a third was burnt, a fourth was tainted. He threatened to +discharge the cook, and bitterly complained that as he did not die +quickly enough for them, they were conspiring to starve him. They might +have replied that he had ordered all these things himself yesterday; but +nobody took the trouble to contradict him any longer, so gradually the +storm died away of its own accord and the old man, turning towards +Maksi, tenderly invited him to partake of the disparaged dishes. + +"Come and eat with me, Maksi, my darling." + +"That I will," cried the little horror, grabbing at everything +simultaneously with both hands. + +"Oh, fie, fie!" said grandpapa gently. "Take Maksi out for a ride and +let the lacquey go with him instead of his tutor!" The old gentleman +then pushed the little round table aside and signalled to the footman +that he was to put all the dishes carefully away, as he should want to +see them again on the morrow. The footman conscientiously obeyed this +command--which was given regularly every day--and locked up all the +dishes well aware that he would get a sound jacketting if he failed to +produce a single one of them when required to do so. + +The old man knew well enough that there was not a servant in the house +who, for any reward on earth, would think of touching any food that had +ever lain on his table; indeed, they held it in such horror that they +used regularly to distribute it among the poor. In order therefore that +the very beggars might have nothing to thank him for, he had the food +kept till it was almost rotten before he let them have it. As for his +own family, he had not dined at the same table with them for ten years. + +It was certainly not a sociable family. For example, the old gentleman's +widowed daughter, red-cheeked Madame Langai, did not exchange a single +word with her father for weeks at a time. At first he had expected her +to remain in the same room with him till nine o'clock every evening, +dealing out cards for him or boring herself to death in some other way +for his amusement. She endured it for a whole month without a word; but +at last, one evening, at seven o'clock, she appeared before him in +evening dress and said that she was going to the theatre. + +Old Lapussa glared at her with all his eyes. + +"To the theatre?" cried he. + +"Yes, I have ordered a box." + +"Really? Well, I hope you will enjoy yourself!" + +The lady quitted him with a shrug. She knew that from that moment she +would inherit a million less than her elder brother; but nevertheless +she went to the theatre regularly every day, and never stirred from her +box so long as there was any one on the stage who had a word to say. + +The Lapussa family was of too recent an origin for the great world to +take much notice of it, and the fame of its fabulous wealth went hand in +hand with the rumour of a sordid avarice which was not a recommendable +quality in the eyes of the true gentry. The Lapussas were, in fact, not +of gentle blood at all, but simply rich. Madame Langai's elder brother, +John, was notoriously the greatest bore in the town, whom nobody, from +the members of his own family down to his coffee-house acquaintances, +could endure for a moment. Only his father made much of him. For all his +great wealth, he was very stingy and greedy; he even lent money at usury +to his best friends. Our amusing little friend Maksi was this man's son. +The slender, fanciful damsel, Henrietta, who appeared in that family +like an errant angel specially sent there to be tormented for the sins +of her whole race, was the orphan daughter of another son of old +Lapussa, who had lost father and mother at the same time in the most +tragical manner; they had both been drowned by the capsizing of a small +boat on the Danube. Henrietta herself had only been saved with the +utmost difficulty. She was only twelve years old at the time, and the +catastrophe had had such an effect upon her nerves that ever afterwards +she collapsed at the least sign of anger, and often fell a weeping for +no appreciable cause. Since the death of her parents, who had loved her +dearly, Henrietta had been obliged to live at her grandfather's house, +where nobody loved anybody. + +But no, I am mistaken. She had a brother, Koloman by name, who was a +somewhat simple but thoroughly good-natured youth. He used to appear +very rarely among his relations because they always fell foul of him. +The poor fellow's sole fault was that he was in the habit of regularly +selling his new clothes. Still, I am doubtful, after all, whether this +can fairly be imputed to him as a fault at all, for although it was +always being dinned into his ears that his family was immensely rich, he +was never blessed with a penny to spend in amusing himself with his +comrades, and therefore had to do the best he could to raise the wind. +Another failing of Koloman's was that he would not learn Latin, and in +consequence thereof he had to suffer many things. Old Lapussa and his +son John indeed had no notion whatever of the Latin tongue. The former +in his youthful days had never gone to school at all, because he was +occupied in building up a business. The latter had not gone to school in +_his_ youth because by that time his people were already rich and he +considered it beneath him. The consequence was that neither father nor +son had a proper idea on the simplest subjects, except what they picked +up on their travels. Still that was no reason why Koloman should not +learn, but as the tutor had his hands full already with little Maksi, +Koloman was obliged to go to the national school in order to become a +wiser man than his forbears. + +Poor Henrietta often slaved away for hours at a time with her younger +brother sitting at the table by her side, helping him to struggle +through the genders, declensions, conjugations, or whatever else the +infernal things were called; and the end of it all was that, at last, +she learnt to know Latin better than Koloman, and secretly translated +all his exercises from Cornelius Nepos and the Bucolics of Virgil for +him. + +But we must not linger any longer over these Latin lessons, for a much +more important event claims our attention--Mr. John is coming home, and +we must hasten forward to admire him. + +Mr. John Lapussa was a perfect prototype of the whole family. His +extraordinarily lanky pinched figure seemed even lankier than it was by +nature because he always carried his head so high: he peered down from +that elevation upon humanity at large as if there was something the +matter with his eyes which prevented him from properly raising the lids. +In him the dimensions of the family nose were made still more remarkable +by an inordinately tiny chin and thin compressed lips. His moustache was +shaved down to the very corners of his mouth, only a little mouse-tail +sort of arrangement being left on each side, which was twisted upwards +and dyed black with infinite skill. His costume was elegant and +ultra-refined, and only differed from the fashion in being extra stiff +and tight-fitting. Moreover, all the buttons of his shirt and his +waistcoat were precious stones, and he had a plenitude of rings on his +fingers which he delighted to show off by ostentatiously adjusting his +cravat in the course of conversation, or softly stroking the surface of +his superfine coat. + +Mr. John entered the room without looking at a soul, and paced up and +down it with his hands behind his back. Then he suddenly caught sight of +his father, kissed his hand and resumed his dignified saunter. It was +evident that he was bursting for some one to speak and ask him what was +the matter. + +Clementina was the first to speak. + +"Your honour!" said she. + +"What is it?" he asked, lifting his head still higher. + +"I have finished the embroidery for your shirt front which your honour +was pleased to command." + +His honour with a haughty curl of the lip condescended to glance down +upon the proffered embroidery. I am afraid Clementina was a poor +physiognomist, she might have noticed from his face how utterly +indifferent he was to her and her embroidery, which he regarded with +puckered eyes and screwed-up mouth. + +"No good. Those flowers are too big; it is the sort of thing the +Wallachian peasants stitch on to their shirts." And with that he took up +Clementina's scissors from the work-table and deliberately snipped into +little bits the whole of the difficult piece of work which the worthy +woman had been slaving away at for a week and more, finally pitching it +away contemptuously while she sat there and stared at him dumfoundered. + +"John, John!" said the old man in mild remonstrance. + +"To show me such rubbish when I am mad! When I am wroth! When I am +beside myself with fury!" + +"Why are you angry, and with whom?" + +John went on as if he did not mean to tell the cause of his anger. He +flung himself into an armchair, crossed his legs, plunged his hands into +the depths of his pockets and then, starting up, began to pace the room +again. + +"I am furious." + +"Then what's the matter?" enquired the old man anxiously. + +John again flung himself into an armchair and cocked one leg over the +arm of the chair: "It is all that good-for-nothing Hátszegi!" he cried. +"The fellow is a villain, a scoundrel, a robber!" + +"What has he done?" + +"What has he done?" cried John, leaping to his feet again, "I'll tell +you. Yesterday he sent word to me by his broker that he would like to +buy those houses of ours in the Szechenyi Square which I have offered +for sale. Wishing to save broker's expenses I went to see him myself at +twelve o'clock. Surely that is the most convenient time for paying +business calls. At least I have always supposed so. I entered his +ante-chamber and there stood a flunkey. He told me I must wait! Told +_me_ forsooth--_me_, John Lapussa--that I must cool my heels in an +ante-chamber, at an inn, to please that wretched Hátszegi. Very well. I +waited. I sent him a message that I _would_ wait. Meanwhile I found I +could not sit down anywhere, for the rascal had piled dirty boots and +brushes on all the chairs. Presently the rascal of a servant came back +and told me that his master could not see me then, would I come back +again in the afternoon--I, John Lapussa, forsooth! Absolutely would not +speak to me, but told me to come again another time! Thou dog, thou +wretched rascal! But wait, I say, that's all!" + +At this the old man also grew excited. + +"Why did you not box his ears?" cried he. + +"I'll do it, and do it well. I'll not stand it. What! send a Lapussa +packing! It cannot be overlooked. I shall immediately go and find two +seconds and challenge him to a duel." + +"Nay, John, don't do that! Don't even box his ears in the street, but +give a street-porter ten shillings to cudgel him well as he comes out of +the theatre; that will be best!" + +"No, I will kill him. I will shed his blood. He who insults me in a +gentlemanly manner must be shown that I can revenge myself like a +gentleman. I will wipe off the score with pistols--with pistols I say." + +The old man and the female members of the family were duly impressed by +this bragging, or rather all except Madame Langai, who was getting ready +for the theatre and took no notice of the general conversation. + +Mr. John was much put out by her indifference. "Matilda," he asked, +"what do _you_ say? Ought I not to fight, after such an insult?" + +Madame Langai answered the unavoidable question with a cold smile: "I +would only say that if anyone angers you another time you had better +expend your wrath upon him before dinner, for if you nurse your wrath +till after dinner you spoil the whole thing." + +Mr. John listened to her in silence and then resumed his promenade with +his hands behind his back snorting furiously. Suddenly he snatched up +his cap and rushed out. + +"John, John, what are you going to do?" the old man called after him in +a supplicating voice. + +"You'll very soon see, I'll warrant you," and he banged the door behind +him. + +The old man turned reproachfully towards Madame Langai. "Why did you +irritate him when he was mad enough already?" he cried. "What will you +gain by his death? He has a son who will inherit everything, you know. +Yes, everything will belong to little Maksi." + +Madame Langai calmly went on tying her bonnet strings. + +"I know what fiery blood he has," mumbled the old man. "When he is angry +he will listen to nobody, and is capable of facing a whole army. We must +prevent this duel somehow. And you are actually preparing to go to the +theatre when things have come to such a pass? You are actually going to +see a comedy!" + +"The actor Ladislaus plays just the same parts on the stage as John does +off the stage," replied Madame Langai bitterly. "And I am as little +afraid of John's rhodomontade as I am of the result of stage duels. +Don't be afraid! He'll come to no harm." + +A lacquey now entered to announce that the coach was ready, and Madame +Langai, adjusting her mantilla, went to the playhouse where the actors +were, at least, amusing. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A NEW MODE OF DUELLING + + +Old Lapussa always liked to have under his eye, night and day, some one +or other whom he could plague and worry. Till eight o'clock every +evening he was fully occupied in tormenting the whole family. Then +Madame Langai went to the theatre and Henrietta and the governess had to +sit down at the piano in the large drawing-room till it was time to put +the child to bed. But when Clementina and the domestics had had supper +and there was no longer anybody else with him, the turn of the night +nurse began. + +The duties of a night nurse are never very enviable or diverting at the +best of times, yet penal servitude for life was a fate almost preferable +to being the nocturnal guardian of old Demetrius Lapussa. The unhappy +wretch who was burdened with this heavy charge had to sit at Mr. +Lapussa's bed from nine o'clock at night till early the following +morning and read aloud to him all sorts of things the whole time. Old +Demetrius was a very bad sleeper. The whole night long he scarcely slept +more than an hour at a time. His eyes would only close when the droaning +voice of some one reading aloud made his head dizzy, and then he would +doze off for a short time. But at the slightest pause he would +instantly awake and angrily ask the reader why he left off, and urge him +on again. + +The reader in question was a student more than fifty years old, who, +time out of mind, had been making a living by fair-copying all sorts of +difficult manuscripts. He was an honest, simple creature who, in his +time, had tried hard to push his way into every conceivable business and +profession without ever succeeding till, at last, when he was well over +fifty, he was fortunate enough to fall in with an editor who happened to +know that Demetrius Lapussa wanted a reader, and recommended the poor +devil for the post. He knew Hungarian, Latin, and Slovack well enough to +mix them all up together; German he could read, though he did not +understand it, but this was not necessary, for he was not expected to +read for his own edification. + +This worthy man, then, grew prematurely old in reading, year out year +in, aloud to Mr. Demetrius, one after another, all the German +translations of French novels procurable at Robert Lempel's circulating +library without understanding a single word of them. Mr. Demetrius had, +naturally, no library of his own, for reading to him, in his condition, +was pretty much the same as medicine, and who would ever think of +keeping a dispensary on his own premises? I may add that the reader +received free board and lodging and ten florins a month pocket-money for +his services. + +On that particular night when Mr. John flung out of the house in such a +violent rage, Mr. Demetrius was particularly sleepless. I know not +whether Monte Cristo, the first volume of which honest Margari happened +to be reading just then, was the cause of this, or whether it was due to +the old man's nervousness about the terrible things John was likely to +do, but the fact remains that poor Margari on this occasion got no +respite from his labours. At other times Margari did manage to get a +little relief. Whenever he observed that Mr. Demetrius was beginning to +draw longer breaths than usual he would let his head sink down on his +book and fall asleep immediately till the awakened tyrant roused him out +of his slumbers and made him go on again. But now he was not suffered to +have a moment's peace. + +Monte Cristo had already been sitting in his dungeon for some time when +Madame Langai's carriage returned from the theatre. Then Mr. Demetrius +rang up the porters to inquire whether Mr. John had also returned home. +No, was the answer. At eleven o'clock Mr. John had still not returned. +Meanwhile Monte Cristo's neighbour had traced the figure on the floor of +the dungeon. Mr. Demetrius here demanded a fuller explanation of the +circumstances. "How was that, Margari?" he enquired. + +"I humbly beg your honour's pardon, but I don't understand." + +"Very well, proceed!" + +Every time a door below was opened or shut, Mr. Demetrius rang up the +porter to enquire whether Mr. John had come in, to the intense +aggravation of the porter, who appeared in the door of the saloon with a +surlier expression and his hair more and more ruffled on each occasion, +inwardly cursing the fool of a student who had not even wit enough to +send an old man asleep, and envying the other servants who at least were +able to sleep at night without interruption. + +And still Margari went on reading. + +By this time Monte Cristo had had himself sewn up in a sack and flung +into the sea as a corpse. + +"Would you have dared to have that done to you, Margari?" interrupted +Mr. Demetrius. + +"If I had a lot of money I might, begging your honour's pardon, but a +poor devil like me is only too glad to live at any price," replied +Margari, whose answer naturally had no relation whatever to the text, +not a word of which he understood. + +"You are a simple fellow, Margari; but go on, go on!" + +Margari gaped violently, he would have liked to have stretched himself +too, but he bethought him in time that his coat had already burst +beneath his armpits, and he had no wish to make the rent still larger, +so he let it alone and proceeded with his bitter labour. + +By the time Monte Cristo had swum back to dry land, Margari's eyelids +were almost glued to his eyes and still the old gentleman showed no +sign of drowsiness. Mr. John's threat had kept Mr. Demetrius awake all +night, and consequently had kept poor Margari awake too. Once or twice +an unusually interesting episode excited the old man's attention, and +for the time he forgot all about John's duel--for example, when Monte +Cristo discovered the enormous treasure on the island--and he would then +rouse up Margari and make him go and find a map and point out the exact +position of Monte Cristo's island. Margari searched every corner of the +sea for it, and at last looked for it on the dry land also without +finding it. Tiring at length with the fruitless search he proposed, as +the best way out of the difficulty, that he should write on the +afternoon of the following day to Monsieur Alexander Dumas himself to +explain to his honour where the island used to be and whether it still +existed. + +"What a blockhead you are," said the old man, "but go on, go on!" + +Margari gave a great sigh and looked at the clock on the wall, but, +alas! it was still a long way from six o'clock. At last, however, while +he was still reading, the clock _did_ strike six. Margari instantly +stood up in the middle of a sentence, marked the passage with his +thumb-nail so as to know at what word to begin again on the following +evening, turned down the leaf and closed the book. + +"Well! is that the end of it?" enquired Mr. Demetrius in angry +amazement. + +"I humbly beg your honour's pardon," said Margari with meek intrepidity, +"there's nothing about reading _after six_ in our agreement"--and off he +went. Mr. Demetrius thereupon flew into a violent rage, cursed and +swore, vowed that he would dismiss his reader on the spot, and as the +morning grew lighter fell into a deep, death-like, narcotic sleep from +which he would not have awakened if the house had come tumbling about +his ears. When he did awake, about ten o'clock, his first care was to +make enquiries about Mr. John. Then he sent the porter to the police +station to inform the authorities that his son and Mr. Hátszegi, who +were both staying at the Queen of England inn, were going to fight a +duel, which should be prevented at all hazards. A police constable, at +this announcement, flung himself into a hackney-coach and set off at +full speed to make enquiries. Half an hour later a heyduke was sent back +to the porter to tell him that either the whole affair must be a hoax, +as nothing was known of a duel, or else that the two combatants must +already be dead and buried, as not a word could be heard of either of +them. Luckily, towards the afternoon, Mr. John himself arrived in a +somewhat dazed condition, like one who has been up drinking all night. +The members of the family were all sitting together as usual in Mr. +Demetrius's room, listening in silence to his heckling, when the tidings +of Mr. John's arrival reached him. Demetrius immediately summoned him. +He sent back word at first that he was lying down to try to sleep, which +was an absurd excuse for even the richest man to give in the forenoon; +on being summoned a second time he threatened to box the porter's ears; +only the third time, when Clementina was sent with the message that if +he did not come at once, his sick father would come and fetch him, did +he respond to the call and appear before them in a pet. + +"Well, thou bloodthirsty man, what has happened? What was the end of +it?" + +"What has happened?" repeated John with monstrously dilated eyes. "What +marvel do you expect me to relate?" + +"Clementina, Miss Kleary, Henrietta, retire," cried the old man; +"retire, go into the next room. These are not the sort of things that +children should hear." + +When they had all withdrawn except Madame Langai, Demetrius again +questioned his son: "Now then, what about this affair, this _rencontre_ +with Hátszegi; did you challenge him, did you meet him?" + +"Eh? Oh--yes! Naturally. Of course I sought him out, I have only just +come from him. We have been making a night of it together at the Queen +of England. I can honestly say that he is a splendid fellow, a gallant, +charming gentleman. He has really noble qualities. I am going to bring +him here this afternoon. You shall all see him. Even you will like him, +Matilda. But now, adieu, I must really have a little sleep, we were +drinking champagne together all night. Oh, he is a magnificent, a truly +magnificent character." + +Mr. Demetrius said not a word in reply, but he compressed his thin lips +and wagged his head a good deal. Nobody made any observation. Mr. John +was allowed to go to bed according to his desire. A little time after he +had withdrawn, however, the old man said to Madame Langai: "What are you +doing Matilda?" + +"I am trying to guess a rebus which has just appeared in 'The Iris.'" + +"Don't you think that what John has just said is rather odd?" + +"I have not troubled my head about it one way or the other." + +"I can see through it though. John wants to pay off Hátszegi in his own +coin. He has invited him here this afternoon in order to keep him +waiting in the ante-chamber, and then send him word that he can't see +him till to-morrow. Oh! Jack is a sly lad, a very sly lad, but I can see +through him. I can see through him." + + * * * * * + +Mr. John passed the whole afternoon in his father's room; he did not +even go to his club. No doubt he was awaiting his opportunity for +revenge. He amused himself by sitting down beside his niece, stroking +her hand, admiring the whiteness of her skin, and, drawing the +governess into the conversation, enquired how Henrietta was getting on +with her studies, whether she had still much to learn in English and +French, and whether she was not, by this time, quite a virtuoso at the +piano. He insinuated at the same time that it would be just as well, +perhaps, if she made haste to learn all that was necessary as soon as +possible, because she was no longer a child, and when once a woman is +married she has not very much time for study. + +"By the way, Henrietta," he added suddenly, "have you chosen a lover +yet?" + +Henrietta was too much afraid of him even to blush at this question, she +only glanced at him with timid, suspicious eyes and said nothing. + +"Don't be afraid, sisterkin," continued Mr. John encouragingly. "I'll +bring you such a nice bridegroom that even your grandpapa, when he sees +him, will snatch up his crutches in order to go and meet him half-way." +Here the old man growled something which John smothered with a laugh. +"Yes, and if he won't give you up we'll carry you off by force." + +Henrietta shuddered once or twice at her uncle's blandishments, like one +who has to swallow a loathsome medicine and has caught a whiff of it +beforehand. + +The porter interrupted this cheerful family chat by announcing that his +lordship Baron Hátszegi wished to pay his respects to Mr. Lapussa. + +Mr. Demetrius immediately raised himself on his elbows to read from Mr. +John's features what he was going to do. Would he tell the lacqueys to +turn Hátszegi out of the house? or would he send him word to wait in the +ante-chamber, as he himself had waited at Hátszegi's, and then put him +off till the morrow? Oh! John would be sure to do something of the sort, +for a very proud fellow was John. + +But, so far from doing any of these things, Mr. John rushed to the door +to meet the arriving guest and greeted him aloud from afar in the most +obliging, not to say obsequious, terms, bidding him come in without +ceremony and not make a stranger of himself. And with that he passed his +arm through the arm of his distinguished guest and, radiant with joy, +drew him into the midst of the domestic sanctum sanctorum and presenting +him in a voice that trembled with emotion: "His lordship, Baron Leonard +Hátszegi, my very dear friend!" + +And then he was guilty of the impropriety of introducing his guest first +of all to his father and his niece, simply because they happened to be +the nearest, only afterward he bethought him of turning towards Matilda +to introduce her, whereupon Matilda's face assumed a stony expression +like that of the marble maiden in Zampa, to the great confusion of John, +who felt bound to enquire in a half-whisper: "Why, what's the matter?" + +"You dolt," she whispered back, "have you not learnt yet that the lady +of the house should be introduced to her guests not last, but first?" + +John's first impulse was to be shocked, his second was to be furious, +but finally he thought it best to turn with a smile to Baron Hátszegi, +who courteously helped him out of his embarrassment by observing: "It is +my privilege to be able to greet your ladyship as an old acquaintance +already. Many a time have I had the opportunity of secretly admiring you +in your box at the theatre." + +"Pray be seated, sir...!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AN AMIABLE MAN + + +Baron Hátszegi was certainly a very amiable man. He had a handsome face +full of manly pride, sparkling eyes, and a powerful yet elegant figure. +He moved and spoke with graceful ease, bore himself nobly, picked his +words--in short, was a perfect gentleman. Mr. Demetrius was quite taken +with him, although Hátszegi hardly exchanged a word with him, naturally +devoting himself principally to the widowed lady who played the part of +hostess. What the conversation was really about nobody distinctly +recollected--the usual commonplaces no doubt, balls, soirees, +horse-racing. Henrietta took no part in the talk; Mr. John, on the other +hand, had a word to say on every subject, and, although nobody paid any +attention to him, he enjoyed himself vastly. + +When Hátszegi had departed, John, with a beaming face, asked Madame +Langai what she thought of the young man. + +Instead of replying, Madame Langai asked what had induced him to bring +him there. + +"Well, but he's a splendid fellow, isn't he?" + +"You said yesterday that he was a vagabond." + +"I said so, I know, but it is not true." + +"You said, too, that he was a robber." + +"What! I said that? Impossible. I didn't say that." + +Old Demetrius here intervened as a peacemaker. + +"You said it, John, you did indeed; but you were angry, and at such +times a man says more than he means." + +"So far from being a robber or a vagabond," replied John, "he is one of +the principal landowners in the Hátszegi district. How _could_ I have +said such things! He has a castle that is like a fortress. He is like a +prince, a veritable prince in his own domains. He is just like a petty +sovereign. I must have been downright mad to call him a vagabond. . . ." + +"Yet, yesterday, you would have called him out," continued Madame Langai +teasingly. + +"Yes, I was angry with him then, but there are circumstances which may +reconcile a couple of would-be duellists, are there not?" + +"Oh, certainly, if a man is a man of business before all things, or has +perhaps a valuable house or two on his hands." + +"This has nothing to do with business or selling houses. If you must +know," he continued, lowering his voice, "it is about something entirely +different, but of the very greatest importance." + +"Indeed?" returned Madame Langai, "a new Alexander the Great, I suppose, +who has gone forth to conquer, and who has come to look not for a house, +but for a house and home perhaps?" + +She thought to herself that it was some adventurer whom her brother +John would palm off upon her as a husband so as to get her away from the +old man. + +"Something of the sort," replied John. "Yes, you have guessed half--but +the wrong half." + +"I am glad to hear it." + +"Ah!" put in the old man sarcastically, "Matilda will never marry again, +I'm sure; she loves her old dad too much and feels far too happy at home +to do that." + +"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed John scornfully, "I did not mean Matilda, I was +not thinking of her. Ho, ho, ho! Madame Langai imagines that _she_ is +the only person in the house whose hand can be wooed and won." + +Dame Langai, with a shrug, looked incredulously round the room to see if +there was anybody else who could possibly become the object of the +baron's sighs. All at once her eyes accidentally encountered those of +Henrietta, and immediately she knew even more than her brother John did. +For she now clearly understood three things: the first was that +Henrietta had taken in John's meaning more quickly than she had done, +the second was that John had brought the suitor to the house on +Henrietta's account, and the third was that Henrietta loathed the man. + +She at once bade Miss Kleary give Henrietta an extra lesson on the piano +in the adjoining room, and when they had taken her at her word and +disappeared, she said to John in her usual quiet, mincing tone: + +"You surely do not mean to give Henrietta to that man?" + +"Why not, pray?" + +"Because she is still a mere child, a mere schoolgirl; five years hence +it will be quite time enough to provide her with a husband." + +"But the girl is sixteen if she is a day." + +"Yes, and delicate, sickly, and nervous." + +"She will soon be well enough when she is married." + +"And who, may I ask, _is_ this suitor of yours. Is it not your duty, +Demetrius Lapussa, as the girl's grandfather, to make the fullest +enquiries about any man who may sue for your grand-daughter's hand? Is +it not your duty, I say, to find out who and what he is and everything +relating to him? For brother John may be very much mistaken in fancying +his dear friend to be a wealthy and amiable nobleman. Whether he be +amiable or not does not concern you personally, I know; but you ought +certainly to know how he stands, for he may have castles and mansions +and yet be up to the very ears in debt. In such a case if he is a +nobleman so much the worse for you: for he will then have all the +greater claim upon you. It may cost you dearly to admit a ruined baron +into the bosom of your family." + +John grew yellow with rage: "How dare you talk like that of anyone you +do not know?" he cried. + +"Then, do you know him any better?" + +But here the old man intervened: + +"You're a fool, John," said he. "Matilda is right. I will send for my +lawyer, Mr. Sipos. He understands all about such things and will advise +us in the matter. We _must_ find out how the baron stands." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CHILDISH NONSENSE + + +Meanwhile Hátszegi continued to call every day, dividing his attention +equally between the widow and Henrietta; and at the end of a fortnight +everyone was charmed with his personal qualities. It could not be denied +that he was a delightful companion, always merry, lively, frank, and +entertaining. He even made the old gentleman laugh aloud more than once; +in fact Demetrius Lapussa grew quite impatient if Hátszegi was five +minutes late. Mr. John was more delighted with him than ever. They took +walks together, invariably drove in the same carriage to the park, and +John was to be seen every night in the baron's box at the theatre, +talking at the top of his voice so that everybody might become aware of +the fact. Nay, he succeeded, through the courtesy of his new friend, in +making the acquaintance of one or two magnates who subsequently lifted +their hats to John in the street and thus gratified the dearest desire +of his heart. + +The enquiries made about Hátszegi also proved extremely satisfactory. He +was certainly sound and solid financially, had never had a bill +dishonoured, had no dealings with usurers, always paid cash and was +never even in temporary embarrassment, as is so often the case with most +landed proprietors when the crops fail. In fact, he seemed to have +unlimited funds constantly at his disposal and to be scarcely less +wealthy than old Lapussa himself. + +So far then, everything was as it should be, and everyone was enchanted +with him personally. + +But what of Henrietta, the intended bride? + +Oh! she was not even consulted in the matter; it is not usual, and +besides she had neither mind nor will enough to have a voice in so +important a matter as the disposal of her hand. Nay, she was not even +told that she was going to be married. She only got an inkling of it +from various phenomena that struck her from time to time, such as the +polite attentions of the baron, the whispering of the domestics, the +altered attitude towards her of the various members of the family--who +now addressed her in the tone you employ when speaking to a baroness +that is to be. And then there was Clementina's chatter! Clementina was +now for ever talking of all the sewing and stitching that had to be done +for the young lady, and of the frightful quantities of linen and lace +and silk that were being made up into dresses and other garments. Six +seamstresses were hard at work, she said, and she was helping them and +yet they had to make night into day in order to get the necessary things +ready in time. + +So gradually they accustomed her to the idea of it, till at last one +day Madame Langai took her aside and lectured her solemnly as to the +duties of women in general and of women of rank in particular, pointing +out at the same time how much such women owed to their own families for +looking after and providing for them and expressing the hope that +Henrietta would be duly grateful to the end of her days to _her_ +family--from all which she was able to gather that any opposition on her +part would not be tolerated for a moment. + +The day was already fixed for the exchange of the bridal rings, but the +night before that day, Henrietta suddenly fell ill, and, what is more, +dangerously ill, so that they had to run off for the family physician +incontinently. The doctor was much struck by the symptoms of the illness +and the first thing he did was to make the patient swallow a lot of milk +and oil. Then he drove the servants headlong to the chemist's, and +descending into the kitchen closely examined every copper vessel there +by candle light, scolded the cook and the scullery maids till they were +in tears, and terrified Clementina by telling her she was the cause of +it all to the speechless confusion of the innocent creature. Not content +with this, he made his way at once to Mr. Demetrius's room and there +cross-examined everyone with the acerbity of an Old Bailey judge. What +had the young lady been in the habit of eating and drinking? They must +fetch what had been left over from her meals, he must see and examine +everything. What had she eaten yesterday evening? Preserves? Then what +sort of sugar was used, and where was the spoon? He insisted on seeing +everything. + +"But doctor," whined old Lapussa, "you surely don't mean to say that the +child has been poisoned?" + +"I do indeed, and with copper oxide too." + +"How is that possible?" + +"Why, simply because some of her food, preserve, for instance, has been +allowed to stand too long in a copper or silver vessel and copperas has +been developed." + +The old man did not know enough of chemistry to understand how copperas +could be developed from silver, but he was seriously alarmed. + +"I hope there's no danger?" said he. + +"It is a good job you sent for me when you did," replied the doctor, +"for otherwise she would have been dead before morning. Copperas is a +very dangerous poison, and if it gets into one's food in large +quantities there is practically no antidote. A vigorous constitution, +indeed, has a good chance of throwing it off; but, taking into +consideration the state of the young lady's nerves and her general +debility, I should say that her case was downright dangerous; anyhow she +will be ailing for some time." + +"Oh, doctor, doctor! and we all love Hetty so much, she is the very +light of our eyes! I cannot tell you how anxious I am, on her account I +should be so glad, doctor, if you could stay with her night and day and +never leave the house. I would richly recompense you." + +"I will do all I can, though I can't do that, and unless any unforeseen +accident arise, I think I can answer for the result. But one thing I +must insist upon, all these copper and silver vessels of yours must go +to the devil. I'll come to-morrow and examine thoroughly the whole lot +of them by daylight. The health of the family must not be endangered by +such recklessness. And let me tell your honour something else. Are you +aware that your honour's business-man, Mr. Sipos, who is only a lawyer +and, therefore, can ill afford to do so in comparison with your honour, +are you aware, I say, that he has on this very occasion sent all his +copper vessels to the lumber-room?" + +"On this occasion! what do you mean?" enquired the old man eagerly. + +"I mean that I have just come from him and a similar case has happened +in his house. His assistant--a fine young fellow, you know him, +perhaps?--has also been poisoned by copperas. I have only this instant +quitted him." + +"What an odd coincidence." + +"Very odd, indeed. Two exactly similar cases of poisoning at the same +time and all because copper vessels were used and not properly cleaned." + +"And how is the young man progressing? Is he out of danger?" + +"Fortunately; although at the outset his was an even worse case than the +young lady's. But then he is so much stronger. Well, good-bye! I will +look in again to-morrow." + +"But I should be so much easier, doctor, if you never left my +grandchild's side." + +"I would willingly do even that if I had not other patients in the town +to attend to." + +"Could you not entrust them to someone else?" + +"Impossible. My reputation would be at stake. Besides I do not often +have the chance of studying two such interesting parallel cases of +poisoning at the same time." + +"Very well, doctor. All I ask of you is to cure our little one." + +"I hope to save the pair of them. And now I'll go up and have a look at +her, and then I must return to Mr. Sipos's house. But I shall be here +again in an hour or so." + +And with that the old man had to be content. + +During the whole course of Henrietta's illness he sent to enquire after +his grandchild every hour. Clementina and an old maid-servant took it in +turns to watch by her bedside. It was strictly forbidden to leave +Henrietta alone for an instant, and Mr. Demetrius gave special orders +that her brother Koloman was not to be allowed to approach within six +paces of her bed because he was sure to bring cold air into the room, or +convey to her surreptitiously something which she ought not to have and +behave like a blockhead generally. So he was obliged to keep his +distance. + +At last when weeks and weeks had flown by, God and blessed nature +helped the doctor to triumph over the effects of the poison. Henrietta +slowly began to mend. She was still very weak, but the doctor assured +them that she was quite out of danger and that the little capricious +fancies of convalescence might now be safely humoured. + +Madame Langai, in the doctor's presence, asked the sick girl whether +there was anything in particular she would like, any food she fancied, +any pastime she preferred. + +The pale, delicate-looking child languidly cast down her eyes as if she +would say: "I should like to lie in the grave--deep, deep, down." But +what she really did say was: "I should like to read something. I feel so +dull." + +"That I cannot allow," said the doctor, "it would make your head ache, +but I have no objection to someone reading to you some nice, amusing +novel, Dickens's "Pickwick Papers," for instance, or a story of +Marryat's, something light and amusing, I mean, which will not excite +you too much." + +"I should like that," said Henrietta and the choice fell on the +"Pickwick Papers." But as the English governess complained that she +could never read aloud for ten minutes at a time without growing hoarse +and Clementina's eyes were too weak for any such office, it was +suggested that Margari should be asked to submit to this extra +sacrifice, and Clementina succeeded in persuading him to do so by +promising him a liberal reward. So she brought him back with her and +seated him behind a curtain so that he could not see the invalid (that +would have been scarcely proper), and put the book into his hand. + +But scarcely had Margari struggled through a few lines when Henrietta +again became fidgety and said she longed for something to eat. The +good-natured Clementina jumped with joy at this sign of returning +appetite, and asked her what she would like and how she would like it. +Henrietta thereupon directed her to have prepared a soup of such a +complicated character (only the morbid imagination of an invalid could +have conceived such a monstrosity), that Clementina felt obliged to +descend to the kitchen herself to superintend its concoction herself, +for it was certain that any servant would have forgotten half the +ingredients before she could get down stairs. + +Scarcely had Clementina shut the door behind her when Henrietta +interrupted Margari's elocution. + +"For Heaven's sake, come nearer to me," she said, "I want to speak to +you." + +The worthy man was so frightened by this unexpected summons that he had +half a mind to rush out and call for assistance. He fancied that the +young lady had become delirious--it was such an odd thing to ask him to +draw nearer. But the sick girl, pressing together her trembling hands, +looked at him so piteously that he could hesitate no longer but +approached her bedside. + +Henrietta did not scruple to seize the hand of the embarrassed +gentleman. + +"For God's sake, help me, my good Margari," she whispered. "I am plagued +by an anxiety which prevents me from closing my eyes. Even here when I +sleep it follows me into my dreams. You can free me from it. In you +alone have I confidence. You suffer in this house as much as I do. You +have no cause to torment or persecute me. Will you do what I ask you, my +dear, good Margari?" + +It occurred to Margari that the young lady was wandering in her mind, so +to humour her, he promised to do whatever she asked him without +hesitation. + +"I will be very good to you, I will never forget all my life long the +kindness you are about to do me." + +"Your humble servant, Miss! but you have always been good to me. As far +as I can remember, while the others took a delight in vexing me, you +were the only one who always took my part. I don't forget that either. +Command me! I will go through fire and water for you." + +"Look, then!" said the girl, drawing from her bosom a little key +attached to a black cord, "this is the key of my toilet casket. Open it +and you will find a bundle of documents tied together with a blue +ribbon, take them. All through my illness I trembled at the thought that +they might ransack my things and find them, and when I came to myself I +was worrying myself with the idea that I might perhaps have spoken about +these papers in my delirium. Oh! it would have been frightful if my +relations had seized them. Take them, quickly, before Clementina +returns. I must conceal everything, even from her." + +Margari accomplished the task with tolerable dexterity. He only broke +the looking-glass while he was opening the casket, and that was little +enough for him. There the documents were right enough, nicely tied +together. + +And then Henrietta seized his hand and pressed it so warmly and looked +at him with her lovely, piteous, imploring eyes--a very lunatic might +have been healed by such a look. + +"I know you for an honourable man," continued she, "promise me not to +look at these papers, but give them to my brother Koloman, he will know +what to do with them. You will do this for my sake, dear Margari, will +you not? It is just as though one of the dead were to come back to you +from the world beyond the grave and implore you, with desperate +supplications, to free its soul from a thought which rested upon it like +a curse and would not let it rest in the grave." + +Margari shuddered at these words. A corpse that returns from the world +beyond the grave! This young gentlewoman certainly had a terrifying +imagination. Nevertheless he swore by his hope of salvation that he +would not bestow a glance upon the papers, but would give them to young +Koloman. + +"Hide them, pray!" + +And indeed it was high time that he should bestow them in the well-like +pocket of his long coat, for Clementina's steps were already audible in +the adjoining chamber. When she appeared, however, he was sitting behind +the curtain again, reading away as if nothing had happened. + +When the clock struck four, at which time Koloman usually returned from +school, Henrietta said to Margari that she had had enough of +romance-reading for that day, but thanked him for his kindness and asked +him to come again on the morrow if he would be so good. Margari +protested that he should consider it the highest honour, the greatest +joy. He would willingly read even English to her, if she liked, and +without any special honorarium either, and then off he went to seek +young Koloman. + +Now it so happened that young Koloman did not come home at the usual +time that day, and Margari after looking for him in vain became very +curious as to the contents of the packet entrusted to him. What sort of +mysterious letters could they be which Miss Henrietta was afraid of +falling into the hands of her family. Hum! how nice it would be to find +out! + +The packet was tied up--naturally! But it was possible to undo and then +retie the knots in just the same way as before, so that nobody would be +any the wiser. To an honourable man, indeed, the mere knowledge that +another's secret was concealed therein which he was bidden to guard +would have been as invincible an impediment as unbreakable bolts and +bars; but the worthy fellow reassured himself with the reflection that, +after all, he was not going to tell anybody the contents of these +documents, and he so very much longed to know what it could be that Miss +Henrietta was so anxious to hide away, and old Lapussa would so much +like to find out. As if he would ever betray the secret of such a nice, +kindly creature to such an old dragon! Why, he would rather have his +tongue torn out than betray it!--but know it he must and would! + +So he locked himself up in his little room on the third storey, and very +cautiously opened the bundle which was enwrapped in I know not how many +folds of paper and greedily devoured the contents of the various +documents. + +But how great was his fury when, instead of the expected secrets, he +found nothing but dull Latin exercises, wearisome rhetorical +commonplaces on such subjects as the charms of spring and summer, the +excellence of agriculture, the advantages of knowledge, the danger of +the passions, and similar interesting themes. He was just about to tie +the bundle up again, when it occurred to him to read one of these +tiresome dissertations to the end, just to see what sort of style the +young scholar affected. And now a great surprise awaited him, for he +found that after the first five or six lines the theme suddenly broke +off and there followed something altogether different, which though also +written in the Latin tongue had nothing whatever to do, either with the +beauties of spring or the excellencies of agriculture, but was, +nevertheless, of the most interesting and engrossing character. + +Now, indeed, he read every one of the exercises from beginning to end, +and, when he had done so, he clearly perceived that if old Demetrius +Lapussa had very particular reasons for ferreting out these things, Miss +Henrietta had still greater reason for concealing them. + +After having neatly tied up the packet again, he bethought him what he +had better do next. Miss Henrietta had confided the secret to his +safe-keeping, but Mr. Demetrius had commanded him to keep an eye upon +Koloman and his Latin exercises--which of them had the best right to +command in that house? But was it right to divulge a secret? Ah! that +was another question. It is true that, as a general rule, it is wrong to +betray secrets; yet, it is nevertheless true, that to betray a secret +that ought to be known is at least justifiable. Moreover, was it not a +Christian duty to let the grandfather know as soon as possible what +extraordinary things his granddaughter was turning over in her noddle? +And finally--there was money in it!--good solid cash! If old Lapussa did +not choose to pay a price for it, and a liberal price too, he should be +told nothing at all and Margari would show the old miser that he had a +man of character to deal with. For after all poor Margari had to live, +and this was worth as much as a thousand florins to him or its +equivalent anyhow. Surely Miss Henrietta could not be so unreasonable as +to expect poor Margari to chuck such a piece of good fortune out of the +window, especially as she had given him nothing herself. + +At that moment someone knocked at the door and enquired whether Mr. +Margari was there. + +Margari was so frightened that he bawled out: "No, I am not!"--so of +course he was obliged to open the door, but he concealed the packet of +letters in his pocket first. + +It was the lacquey who came to ask whether Mr. Margari was aware that it +was past seven o'clock; he must come and read to the old gentleman. + +Margari could not endure to hear the domestics speaking to him +familiarly. + +"Seven o'clock! What do you mean?" said he. "Am I bound to know when it +is seven o'clock? Am I a clockmaker or a bell-ringer? If your master +wants me to know what a clock it is, let him send me, not a lacquey, but +a gold repeater watch!" + +And salving his wounded dignity with these and similar effusions, +Margari trotted alongside the lacquey to the room of Mr. Demetrius, to +whom he immediately notified the change in the situation by sinking +down into a soft and cosey arm-chair instead of sitting down on the edge +of the hard leather-chair, expressly provided for him. + +Demetrius measured him from head to foot with his terrible eagle eyes +and observed in an even more stridently moral voice than usual: "Well, +Margari, when are we going to have our novel reading?" + +"We will have our reading presently, but it won't be a novel to-day." + +"What do you mean, sir?" + +"I humbly beg to remind your honour that you were pleased to commission +me to lay hands upon certain Latin exercises of your grandson Koloman. I +humbly beg to inform you that they are now in my possession." + +"Oh!" said old Lapussa, with a forced assumption of _sang froid_, "you +may give them to me to-morrow, I will look them through." + +"Crying your honour's pardon, they are in Latin." + +"Well, I can get someone to look them through for me." + +"I beg humbly to represent that it would not be well to put them into +anybody's hands, for strange things are contained therein." + +"What!" cried the old man angrily, "you don't mean to say _you_ have +looked into them?" + +"Yes, I have read them all through." + +"I did not tell you to do that." + +"No, but you were graciously pleased _not_ to forbid me to do so. Now, +I know everything. I know the cause of the young lady's illness. I know +why she does not wish to become the wife of Count Hátszegi. Nay, I even +know what will happen in case she does. I know all that I say--and here +it is in my pocket." + +"And what presumption on your part to read other people's letters!" + +"I beg your honour's pardon, but it is not presumption; I only wanted to +know the value of the wares I have obtained for your honour. I wanted to +know whether they were worth one florin, two florins, a hundred florins, +a thousand florins, lest you should do me the favour to say to me: +'look, ye, Margari, my son, here are some coppers, go and drink my +health!'--and so get the better of me." + +"You are becoming impertinent! Do you want me to ring for the footman?" + +"Pray do not give yourself the trouble! If you are determined to take +the documents away from me by force I will fling them into the fire that +is burning there on the hearth before the footman can come in and there +will be an end to them." + +"Then it is money you want, eh? How much?" + +This question made Margari still more bumptious. + +"How much do I want? A good deal, a very good deal, I can tell you. In +fact I cannot tell at present how much." + +But then he suddenly reassumed his obsequious cringing mien and added: +"I tell you what, your honour, procure me some petty office at Count +Hátszegi's. I don't care what it is, so long as I get a life-long +sinecure--suppose we say his bailiff, or his librarian, or his +secretary? A single word from your honour would do it." + +An idea suddenly occurred to Mr. Demetrius. + +"Very good, Margari, very good. So it shall be. I give you my word upon +it--you shall be Hátszegi's secretary." + +"But it must be life-long. I humbly beg of you, it must be till the term +not of his but of my natural life." + +"Yes, yes, till the term of your natural life." + +"But if he won't have it?" + +"I'll pay you myself. You shall receive your regular salary from me +without including whatever you may get over and above from him. Will you +be satisfied with a yearly salary of three hundred florins with your +board and keep?" + +At these words Margari's breath failed him. It was not without +difficulty that he put the rapacious question: "Will your honour do me +the favour to give me this promise in writing?" + +"Certainly! Bring writing materials and I will dictate it to you on the +spot." + +And so an agreement was duly drawn up whereby Mr. Margari, in +consideration of a yearly salary of 300 florins to be punctually sent to +him at the beginning of every quarter, undertook in his capacity of +secretary to Baron Hátszegi, to keep his Honour Demetrius Lapussa +informed of all that he saw and heard at the residence of that +gentleman, Henrietta's future husband, and this obligation of +maintaining Margari was to be transferred on the death of Mr. Demetrius +to his son John. And no doubt Mr. Demetrius knew very well what he was +about. + +This document signed and sealed, Mr. Margari, with the greatest +alacrity, produced the Latin exercises in question, first of all, +however, respectfully kissing the hand of his patron. + +It took till midnight to read and translate all these documents one by +one. Mr. Demetrius was very well satisfied with the result, that is to +say so far as concerned the fidelity of the translation,--with the tenor +of the original text he had not the slightest reason to be pleased. + +When, shortly after midnight, these revelations were concluded, Mr. +Demetrius commanded Margari to go up into his room and have a complete +translation of all this Latin rigmarole written down in honest Hungarian +by the morning and to encourage him in his task he gave him two guldens +and an order on the butler for as much punch as he could drink. By the +morning all the punch was drunk, but the translation also was finished, +to the tune of bacchanalian songs which Margari kept up with great +spirit all night long. + + * * * * * + +Next day, punctually at the appointed hour, the lawyer, Mr. Sipos, +appeared at the house of the Lapussas, with the necessary documents +neatly tied up with tape, under his arm as usual; he was not like our +modern lawyers who carry their masterpieces in portfolios as if they are +ashamed of them. The only persons in the reception room besides the old +man, were Madame Langai and Mr. John. Henrietta, still an invalid, had +been allowed to take a stroll to the woods near the town in order to +visit her favourite flowers once more and possibly take leave of them +for ever. She had received no invitation-card for this lecture. Why, +indeed, should a bride know anything of her bridegroom's biography +before marriage! The lawyer took his place at the table, untied his pile +of documents and began to read. + +It appeared from these documents that the founder of the Hátszegi +family, the great grandfather of the present baron, was one Mustafa, who +had been a Defterdar[2] at Stamboul, and had used his unrivalled +opportunities for making money so well that he found it expedient to fly +from Jassy to Transylvania, where he made haste to get baptized and +naturalized. His son, now an Hungarian nobleman, cut a fine figure at +court and gallantly distinguished himself in the Turkish wars against +his former compatriots, his exploits winning for him the estate of +Hidvár and the title of baron. His son again was a miser of the first +water who could be enticed neither to court nor into the houses of his +neighbours. He was continually scraping money together and was not over +particular in the choice of his scraper. By adroit chicanery he acquired +possession of the gold mines of Verespatak, which he exploited with +immense advantage, and by means of money lending and mortgages got into +his hands the vast estate of Hátszegi in the counties of Hunyad and +Feher, so that when he died it took thirty heavy wagons to convey his +ready money in gold and silver alone from the Vadormi caverns, where he +had concealed it to the castle of Hidvár, which his only son, Leonard, +chose as his residence after his father's death. All these details were +certified by unimpeachable documents in schedules B. C. and D. + +[Footnote 2: The chief of the financial department in the Turkish +vilagets.] + +Moreover, the blood of many nationalities circulated in the veins of +Baron Leonard. The Defterdar himself was a Turk of Roumelian origin, +whose only son was the child of his Hindu concubine. He again married +the daughter of a Polish countess at the court of Vienna. The wife of +Baron Leonard's father was a wallachized Hungarian lady, whom he married +for her wealth. It was not wonderful, therefore, if the noble baron +possessed the qualities of five distinct races. Thus he had something of +the voluptuousness of the Turk, the ostentation of the Hindu, the +flightiness of the Pole, the foolhardiness of the Hungarian, and the +obstinacy of the Wallach. + +"For, I speak of his faults first," the lawyer proceeded, "because I +consider that they outweigh his good qualities. That the baron is a +rich man is evident from the accounts and inventories classed under +schedule E; that the baron is a handsome man is evident from the +photograph under schedule H; that the baron is physically sound is clear +from the certificates annexed to schedules I and K, one of which is +supplied by his physician and the other by his hunting comrades. Those +who require nothing from a man save health, wealth, strength, and +beauty, will of course consider him fit and proper to make a woman +happy. Yet having regard to the following facts (1) that the aforesaid +baron is not merely unstable in love affairs but capricious to the verge +of eccentricity, and a winebibber and gourmand to boot; (2) that he is +as vain as an Indian prince who takes unto him a wife for the mere pomp +and show of the thing; (3) that he is violent and brutal, sparing nobody +in his sudden fits of passion and, as the documents testify, has +frequently inflicted mortal injuries on those who have come in his way +while he was in an ill-humour; (4) that he has an odd liking for rowdy +adventures, which do not reflect much credit upon him; and (5) that, +according to the whispers of those nearest to him there is a strange +mystery pervading his whole life, inasmuch as mysterious disappearances, +which nobody can make head or tail of, occupy an incalculable number of +his days and weeks which remain unaccounted for, and make a pretty +considerable hiatus in every year of his life--taking all these things +into consideration, I am constrained to give it as my opinion that I do +not consider such a man a fit and proper husband for such a tender, +sympathetic young lady as the Miss Henrietta in question, and let the +world if it likes consider such a match as the greatest piece of good +fortune imaginable, I, for my part, would nevertheless call it a +calamity to be avoided at any price. And now would you do me the honour +to examine the original documents I have brought with me as exhibits in +corroboration of my statements--though I would mention," he quickly +added, perceiving that Madame Langai had greedily clutched hold of them, +"that among those documents there are sundry by no means suited for a +lady's perusal." + +"When I come across any such I will pass them over," said she. Of course +these were the very passages she proceeded to search for straight away. + +Meanwhile Mr. Demetrius also had drawn a packet of papers from +underneath the cushions of his sofa and handed them to Mr. Sipos. + +"Then you do not advise me to give Henrietta to Baron Hátszegi to wife? +Good! And now, perhaps, while we run through the exhibits and schedules, +perhaps you'll be so good as to cast your eye over these papers. I don't +think they will bore you." + +These documents, by the way, were the Latin documents discovered by Mr. +Margari--_in natura_. + +Mr. John was marching pettishly up and down the room, and Madame Langai +was reading her documents with the greatest attention so that nobody +observed the surprise, the confusion reflected in the countenance of the +lawyer as he looked through the fatal Latin manuscripts. He kept shaking +his head and twisting his moustache right and left, fidgeted in his +armchair, and the beads of perspiration which stood out on his forehead +gave him enough to do to wipe them away with his pocket-handkerchief; at +last he had read the papers, and then he laid the whole bundle on the +table and stared silently before him like one whose reason for the +moment had no counsel to give him. + +Just about the same time Madame Langai had completed the perusal of +_her_ documents, and now she too seemed to be in an extreme state of +agitation. During the course of her reading, she had been unable to +restrain herself from exclaiming at intervals: "the monster! the +scoundrel!" + +Mr. Demetrius had been amusing himself all this time by carefully +observing the various mutations of expression in the faces of the +readers, which certainly afforded considerable entertainment to an +onlooker with any sense of humour. + +When every document had produced its expression, he remarked in a soft +gentle voice: "Well, my daughter, what do _you_ think of the affair?" + +Madame Langai clapped to her eyeglass and, with the air of one who had +made up his mind once for all, replied instantly: "I would not allow a +decent chambermaid to become Baron Hátszegi's wife, let alone a +Henrietta Lapussa." + +"And what is your opinion, Mr. Lawyer?" enquired the old man turning to +Mr. Sipos. + +"I?" replied the honest man, visibly perturbed, with a voice full of +emotion: "I would advise that the young lady should be married to the +baron as quickly as possible." + +Madame Langai regarded him with wide-open eyes. + +"What! After all that is in these papers?" + +"No, after all that is in those other documents." + +"What are they?" cried Madame Langai pouncing upon them incontinently +and extremely vexed, the next moment, to find them all written in Latin. +She perceived that they were Koloman's exercises, and that was all. She +did not understand their connection with the case in point. + +"I'll take those documents back please," said old Demetrius, stretching +out a skinny hand towards them. "They will be of use to us though I have +a translation of them besides. Then, you think, Mr. Lawyer, it will be +as well to marry Henrietta to the baron, eh? Very well! Let me add that +on the day when Henrietta goes to the altar with Baron Leonard, I will +make you a present of all this scribble. Till then I shall require them. +Do you understand?" + +Mr. Sipos was completely beaten; you might have knocked him down with a +feather. He had never been so badly worsted in his professional +capacity. Madame Langai would have besieged him with questions, but he +avoided her, put on his hat and departed. + +Madame Langai thereupon turned to her father: "What is the cause of this +wondrous change?" she cried. "What secrets do those miraculous papers +contain?" + +Mr. Demetrius tucked the documents in question well beneath him and +replied: "They contain secrets the discovery whereof will be a great +misfortune and yet a great benefit to the parties concerned." + +"Have they any connection with Henrietta's wedding?" + +"They have a direct bearing thereupon, and, indeed, necessitate it!" + +"Poor girl!" sighed Madame Langai. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Sipos passed by his own dwelling three times before he knew that he +had reached home, so confused was he by what he had just learnt. When he +_did_ get inside the house he walked for a long time up and down his +consulting room as if he were trying to find a beginning for a business +he would very much have liked to be at the end of. At last he gave the +bellrope a very violent pull and told the clerk who answered the bell to +send him his assistant, Mr. Szilard, at once. + +Szilard appeared on the very heels of the messenger. His was one of +those faces which women never forget. There was ardent passion in every +feature and the large flaming black eyes, which spoke of courage and +high enthusiasm, harmonized so well with the wan hue of the pallid face. + +"Well, my dear fellow, do you feel quite well again now?" asked Mr. +Sipos in a tone of friendly familiarity; "did the doctor call to see you +to-day?" + +"I have no need of him, there's nothing the matter with me." + +"Nay, nay! Not so reckless! You have been working again, I see. You know +the doctor has forbidden it." + +"I only work to distract my thoughts." + +"You should seek amusement rather. Why don't you mix in society like +other young men? Why don't you frequent the coffee-houses and go to a +dance occasionally? Why, you slave away like a street-porter! Young +blood needs relaxation." + +"Oh, I am all right. My dear uncle, you are very kind, but you worry +about me more than I deserve." + +"That is my duty, my dear nephew. Don't you know that your poor father +confided you to my care on his death-bed, bade me be a father to you. +Don't you remember?" + +"I do," replied the young man, and catching hold of his guardian's hand +he pressed it, murmuring in a scarcely audible voice: "You have indeed +been a second father to me!" + +But Mr. Sipos tore his hand passionately from the young man's grasp and +said in a somewhat rougher tone: "But suppose your dead father were to +say: 'That is not true! You have _not_ watched over my son as a father +should! You have lightly left him to himself. He was in danger and you +were unaware of it. He hovered on the edge of the abyss and you were +blind and saw nothing. And if God and my dead hand had not defended him, +he would have become a suicide and you knew it not--wherefore?'"-- + +The young man trembled at these words, he grew even paler than before +and gazed with a look of stupefaction at his chief. Then the old man +approached him, and took him by the hand as if he would say: "I am going +to scold you, but fear nothing. I am on your side." + +"My dear Szilard," said he, "don't you recollect that when you were a +little child and did anything you should not have done, and your father +questioned you about it, did he not always say to you: 'when you have +done wrong and are ashamed to confess it, keep silence! press your teeth +together! but don't lie, don't deny it, never think of taking refuge +behind any false excuse, for your name is Szilard,[3] and cowardice does +not become the bearer of such a name!' You understood him. You acted as +he would have had you act. And now I also would remind you once more +that you were christened Szilard and I ask you therefore to listen +calmly to what I am about to say to you. Don't interrupt, don't attempt +to deceive me. If you don't want to answer my questions, simply shake +your head! And now sit down, my son! You are still barely convalescent. +Your head is weak and what I have to say to you might very well make it +reel again." + +[Footnote 3: Strong, firm.] + +Then the old lawyer tenderly pressed the youth into a chair and sighing +deeply, thus continued: "You fell in love with the daughter of a great +family and she with you. You got acquainted at a dance and the intimacy +did not stop there. Every conceivable obstacle intervened between you, +but love is artful and inventive and you found a way. The rich girl had +a neglected brother whom his relations sent to the grammar school and +the rascal frequently took refuge with me, the family attorney, when he +was ill-treated at home, and here you came across him. You cared for him +and explained to him the difficulties in his lessons which he was unable +to do for himself. The boy grew very fond of you. He spoke to you of +your beloved, and he spoke to her of you, and he was always praising +each of you to the other. The grandfather, the uncle, the aunt, the +governess, the domestics who never took their eyes off the girl for an +instant, had no idea that she was already involved in a love affair. But +amazing is the ingenuity of love and lovers! You knew that none of the +older members of the family understood the classical language of the +orators, and the girl loved so dearly that she did not consider it too +great a labour to learn a dead tongue which could be of no further use +to her in order to be able to say to her beloved: _Ego te in aeternum +amabo!_ One must admit that that was a great and noble sacrifice. Every +day you corresponded with each other. Before school time the girl +dictated his lessons to her young brother, beginning with the usual +scholastic flowers of rhetoric but ending in the passionate voice of +love, and after school was over, you, in your turn dictated a similar +lesson for the lad to carry back with him. Naturally, _this_ lesson book +he _never_ took to school with him; you kept the other here, the genuine +one which he had to show to his masters. And this ingenious smuggling +was carried on beneath the very eyes of the family without their +perceiving it. Yet at last it _was_ discovered. This very day, only an +hour ago, the old head of the family placed these papers in my hands +that I might read them, informing me at the same time that he had +already read a translation of them. Terrible were the things I +discovered in these papers. The appearance of a rich and noble suitor +who, according to the notions of the world, was just made for the girl, +frustrated all your plans of waiting patiently for better times. The +family forced this union upon the girl. You, in your despair, racked +your brain as to what you should do. At first you resolved upon an +elopement, but the redoubled vigilance with which every step of the +young girl was watched made this impossible. Then a black and terrible +thought occurred to you both. You resolved to kill yourselves--it was +your one remaining means of deliverance. Yes, you resolved to kill +yourselves at once, on the self-same day, in the self-same manner. For +many days you deliberated together as to the best way of accomplishing +your design. Great caution was necessary. You had to pick your words +lest the little brother who wrote them down from dictation should have +guessed your intentions. The girl asked you, at last, to send her a book +on natural science. You sent it to her. She, with the help of it tried +to find out what sorts of poisons could be most easily procured. For two +whole days you deliberated together as to the best way of obtaining +matches, the phosphorus of which is the most efficacious of poisons. But +in vain. In great houses only the domestics have charge of the matches, +it was impossible to get any. At last the girl hit on an expedient. She +discovered that if you put a copper coin in a glass dish and pour strong +vinegar over it, verdegris will be formed and verdegris is poison. Your +minds were at once made up. The girl prepared poison for herself and +taught you to do the same. . . . Merciful Heaven! what notions children +do get into their heads to be sure." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SHE IS NOT FOR YOU + + +Up to this moment the youth had listened to the lecture in silence, but +now he arose and said in a calm clear voice: "'Tis all true; it is so!" + +"I should say it was all very bad, very bad indeed!" said the lawyer +vehemently, as if completing a broken sentence. "What! Children to +meditate suicide because things in this world don't go exactly according +to their liking! Have you never regarded the affair from its practical +side? Did you imagine that the girl's relations would support you? And +would you yourself endure to be their pensioner, their butt, the scorn +of the very domestics, for a poor son-in-law is the standing jest of the +very flunkeys--you ought to know that!" + +Szilard's face burned like fire at these words, but the old man hastened +to soothe him. + +"No, you could never reconcile yourself to that, I am sure. But you +thought, perhaps, that the girl might descend to your level and share +your poverty. There are in the world many a poor lad and lass who endow +one another with nothing but their ardent love and yet make happy +couples enough. So, no doubt, you argued, and herein lies the fallacy +that has deceived you. If you had been enamoured of a poor girl, I +should have said: it is rather early to think of marriage, but if it be +God's will, take her! Work and fight your way through the world where +there is room enough for every one. The lass, too, is used to +deprivation, and you are also. She will be content with little. She can +sew, she will do your cooking for you, and, if need be, your washing +likewise! She can make one penny go as far as two. When there is a lot +to do she will sing to make the work lighter, and when your supper is +slender, her good humour and her loving embraces will make it more. But +my dear boy! how are you going to make a poor housewife out of a girl +who has been rich? How can she ever feel at home in a wretched, +out-of-the-way shanty, where she will not even have you always by her +side, for you will have to be looking after your daily bread? She will +say nothing, she will make no complaint, but you will perceive that she +misses something. She will not ask you for a new dress, but you will see +that the one she wears is shabby and it would break your heart to +reflect that you have fettered the girl you love to your step-motherly +destiny, and your manly pride would one day blush for the recklessness +which led you to drag her down with you." + +"My dear guardian," said Szilard, "to prove to you that I did think of +all these things let me tell you that I have put by from my salary and +commissions enough to enable us to live comfortably for at least a +twelvemonth. For a whole year I have lived on two pence a day in order +to save, and during all that time I am sure you have not heard from me +one word of complaint." + +Mr. Sipos was horrified. It was an even worse case than he had imagined. +What! to live for a whole year on two pence a day in order to scrape +together a small capital for one's beloved! It would be very difficult +to cure a madness which took such a practical turn as this! + +"But my dear boy!" he resumed, "what is the good of it all? What can you +do now that your secrets are discovered? It would have served you right +if the girl's parents had proceeded against you on a charge of murder, +for you were an accomplice in this poisoning business; but I am pretty +sure they will only threaten to do so in case she refuses the baron. And +what, pray, can you do in case they thus compel her to become his wife?" + +"Whoever the baron may be," rejoined Szilard, "I suppose he is at least +a gentleman; and if a woman looks him straight in the face on the +wedding day and says to him: 'I cannot love you because I love another +and always will love another,'--I cannot think he will be so devoid of +feeling as to make her his wife notwithstanding." + +"And if she does not say this, but voluntarily gives him her hand in +order to save you from the persecutions of her family, what then?" + +"Hearken, my dear guardian! She may be compelled to write to me that +she loves me no more and I must forget her, but I shall not believe it +till she pronounces or writes down a word the meaning of which only we +two understand and nobody else in the world can discover. So long as +this one word does not get into the possession of a third person, I +shall know that she has not broken with me and no power in this world +shall tear her from my heart. She may be silent, because she is not free +to speak; she may speak because she is commanded to speak; yet, for all +that, this religiously guarded word tells me what she really feels--and +what no other human intelligence can understand. If you like, my dear +guardian, you may betray this confession of mine to Henrietta's +relatives and they will torment the girl till they get her to pronounce +the mysterious word which once pronounced will burst the bonds that +unite us. She will be driven to say something. But oh! women who love +are very crafty. The word they will report to me will not be the right +one. It is possible, too, that they may take her far away from me. Let +them guard her well I say, let those who watch over her never close an +eye. And if they give her a husband, they had best pray for his life for +they know not what a fated thing it is to give away in marriage a girl +who bears about in her heart the secret of a third person." + +"My dear young friend, I see that we shall not come to an understanding +with each other. You are bent upon plunging into ruin a poor +defenceless girl in the name of what you call love, and will not +renounce, though you have not the slightest hope of winning her--that I +do not understand. I, on the other hand, am the legal adviser of the +young lady's family, and, in that capacity, I considered it my duty to +protest very energetically against the match in question. But when they +placed those precious papers in my hands, I said at once that they must +marry her to this man in any case. Otherwise they would have fancied I +was advocating your crazy hopes, that I was an interested party and +simply opposed the family candidate in order to smuggle in a kinsman of +my own in his stead. That idea I was determined to knock out of their +heads, happen what would. But that of course you do not understand. And +now you had better return to your room. Destiny will one day explain to +all of us what we do not understand now." + + * * * * * + +At about the same hour the second act of this drama was proceeding in +the torture-chamber of the Lapussa family. + +Henrietta had returned home from her little tour laden with flowers, +when old Demetrius sent word to her that he would like to see her in his +room. He had taken the precaution of sending Madame Langai away shortly +before and Mr. John was absent at the Corn Exchange. + +"My little maid, Hetty, come nearer to me," said the old gentleman, +turning sideways on his couch and ferreting out from beneath his +pillows a concave snuff-box, "pray do not be angry with me for putting +you to inconvenience. Bear with me for the little time I have still to +live. But if you find living under the same roof with me unendurable, +all the greater reason for you to seize the opportunity of releasing +yourself as quickly as possible." + +Henrietta was too much used to these choleric outbursts to think of +replying to them. + +"Pray, put your hand beneath my pillow. You will find a packet of papers +there. Take them out and look at them." + +Henrietta did with stolid indifference what the old man bade her and +drew forth from this peculiar repository--which served as a sort of lair +for snuff-boxes, pill-boxes and odd bits of pastry--a large bundle of +manuscripts which she recognized at the first glance. The apprehended +papers, which during her illness had prevented her from sleeping, which +had made it impossible for her to get well, were now in the possession +of him from whom she had been most anxious to conceal them. The criminal +stood face to face with the witness whose damning evidence was to +condemn her. There was no escape, no defence. + +"My little maid," said the old man, exultantly stuffing his eagle nose +full of that infernal heating material which goes by the name of snuff, +"don't be angry with me for directing your attention to this scribble. I +don't want to make any use of it. I know quite enough of it already, +but be so good as to listen to me!" + +Henrietta absolutely could not look away from her grandfather's +blood-shot eyes; it seemed to her as if those eyes must gradually bore +through to her very heart. + +"You won't marry an eminent and wealthy man who bestows an honour upon +your family by asking for your hand, and yet you would run away with a +worthless fellow who does not even know why he was put into the world, +and when your family steps in to prevent it, you would violently put +yourself to death in order to die with him, to our eternal shame and +dishonour. That was not nice of you. But sit down. I see you are all of +a tremble. I would fetch you a chair myself if it was not for this +infernal gout of mine." + +Henrietta accepted the invitation and sat down, otherwise she must have +collapsed. + +"Now look ye, my dear little girl! if you had to deal with an +unmerciful, austere old fellow, a veritable old tiger, in fact, as I +have no doubt you fancy I am, he would make no bones about it but pack +you straight off to a nunnery and so cut you off from the world for +ever." + +Henrietta sighed. Such a threat as that sounded to her like a +consolation. + +"In the second place, an old tyrant, such as I am imagining, would have +sent that rip of a brother of yours, who is not ashamed to lend a hand +in the seduction of his own sister, would have sent him, I say, to a +reformatory. I may tell you there are several such institutions, +celebrated for their rigour, whither it is usual to send precocious and +incorrigible young scapegraces. And richly he would have deserved it, +too." + +"Poor Koloman!" thought the little sister. They were tenderly devoted to +each other. + +"In the third place, our old tiger would have prosecuted at law that +reckless youth who had a share in this fine suicide project of yours. +For death, my dear, is no plaything and jests with poison are strictly +forbidden. He would certainly be condemned to hard labour for five or +six years, which would be a very wholesome lesson for him." + +"Grandfather!" screamed the tortured child. This last allusion dissolved +her voice in tears. She fell down on her knees before him and shed +innocent tears enough on his hand to wash out all the old specks and +stains on it. + +"I am glad to see those tears, my dear little girl, they show that you +have confidence in me. I am not a tiger who eats little children, what I +have said _might_ happen but I don't say it necessarily _must_. I don't +want to be cruel and vindictive. I don't want to recollect anything of +the insults showered upon me in that scribble of yours, all I ask of you +is that you will not stand in your own way. Get up and don't cry any +more or you will be ill again. Go up into your own room and ponder +deeply what you ought to do! In two hours' time I shall send for you +again, and in the meantime make up your mind about it. You have the +choice between accepting as your husband an honourable gentleman of +becoming rank and at the same time renouncing and forgetting a fellow +who will never be able to raise himself to your level, or of taking the +veil and bidding good-bye to this world. In the latter case, however, +your brother will be sent to a reformatory and an action will be +commenced against your accomplice. It is for you to choose. You have two +whole hours to turn the matter over in your mind. In the meantime I +shall send for my lawyer and, according to your decision, I shall get +him to draw up a marriage contract or a summons to the criminal court. +It all depends upon you. And now put back those documents beneath my +head. Remember that you will only receive them back from me as a bridal +gift. Go now to your own room and reflect. For two hours nobody shall +disturb you." + +The girl mechanically complied with his commands. She put back the +ominous documents in their receptacle and withdrew to her room. There +she stood in front of a vase of flowers and regarded their green leaves +for an hour without moving. In the vase was a fine specimen of one of +those wondrous tropical plants whose leaves never fall off, one of those +plants which the seasons leave unchanged and which, therefore, is such a +beautiful emblem of constancy. This beautiful plant has a peculiar +property. If one of its compact shining leaves be planted in the earth +it takes root and grows into a shrub whose fragrant wax-like flowers +diffuse an enchanting perfume. Three years before at a jurists' ball, +when Henrietta and Szilard met for the first time, he had given her a +bouquet, among the flowers of which was one of these green-gold leaves, +and when she got home she had planted it in a jar and it had taken root, +spread its shoots abroad and grown larger and larger every year. And +Henrietta had called it Szilard and watched over its growth and cared +for it as if it had been a living human creature. For a long time she +stood before this flowering plant as if she would have spoken to it and +taken counsel of it. At last she turned away and with her hands behind +her head, she walked slowly up and down the room, and as often as she +paused before the vase, she behaved like one whose heart is breaking. +But time was hastening on, an hour is so short when one would have it +stay. Alas! nowhere was there any help, any refuge. She was abandoned. +She had nothing in the world but this one flowering plant which she +called Szilard. And the moments swiftly galloping after one another +called for a decision. There must be an end to it. Once more she +approached her darling plant and kissed all the leaves of its beautiful +flowers one by one. And now there came a knock at the door. Mr. +Demetrius's messenger had come and a cold shudder ran through the girl's +tender frame. "I am coming!" she cried. The next moment not a tear was +to be seen on her face, nay, not a trace of sorrow, or fear, but only +snow-white tranquillity. + +All the members of the family were assembled together again in +grandpapa's room. Mr. Sipos was also present, he had been told all about +the business. + +"Well my dear little grandchild," said Mr. Demetrius, motioning +Henrietta to take her place at the table with the others, "have you made +up your mind?" + +"I have." + +"Veil or myrtle wreath?" + +"I will be married." + +"To the baron?" + +"Yes," replied the girl in a strangely calm and courageous tone, "but I +also have my conditions to impose." + +"Let us hear them." + +"In the first place I must be sure that my brother Koloman will not be +persecuted. I suppose you will not let him come with me?" + +"No, that one thing cannot be allowed." + +"But I cannot let him remain here. Send him to some other town. You are +always talking of your rank and riches, give him an education to +correspond." + +The child in those two hours had grown older by ten years, she now spoke +to the other members of the family with the air of a matron. + +"Agreed!" cried Mr. Demetrius. "Besides it will be much better if we do +not see him." + +"My second request is that I may take the furniture I have been used to +and my flowers along with me to the place where I have to go." + +"Granted, a harmless feminine caprice. Be it so!" + +"In the third place I should like the papers grandfather knows of to be +given back to him whom it most concerns." + +"Certainly," said Mr. Demetrius, "I promised, did I not, that it should +form part of your marriage portion. Mr. Sipos, would you be so good as +to place these documents in the hands--of the proper person?" + +Mr. Sipos bowed and promised to carry out the mournful commission. + +"And now, my girl, the marriage-contract is before you, the baron has +already signed it and awaits your decision in the adjoining room. Show +us what a nice hand you can write." + +And Henrietta did show it. She signed her name there in such pretty +little delicately rounded letters that it looked as if some fairy had +breathed a spell upon the page. + +"And just one thing more, my dear young lady," put in Mr. Sipos +politely, "while the pen is still in your hand, would you be so good as +to write down on the cover of the returned documents a particular word, +that particular word, I mean, which is known only to yourself and one +other person in the world, as a proof that your renunciation is genuine +and irrevocable." + +The girl fixed her mysterious black eyes for a long time on those of +the lawyer. It was in her power to deceive him if she would and he knew +it well. At last she gently stooped over the bundle of papers and +pressing down the pen with unusual firmness she wrote that barbarously +sounding name of a beautiful bright star: "Mesarthim" and then quietly +laid down the pen. There was not the slightest sign of agitation in her +face. Could it be the right word? + +"And now the bridegroom can come in and the necessary pre-nuptial legal +formalities can be carried out." + + * * * * * + +When Mr. Sipos got home he went straight up to the room of his young +protegé. + +"My dear fellow," said he, "I have brought you some medicine. As you +know, medicine is generally nasty and bitter, but perhaps none the worse +on that account. As I said beforehand, the young lady reconsidered her +position, chose the better way and consented to the marriage with the +baron. The betrothal is an accomplished fact and they signed the +marriage contract before my eyes." + +"Doubtless," returned Szilard coldly. + +"My friend, the girl did not make such a sour face over it as you are +doing. She was strong-minded and decided. I was amazed at the composure +with which she addressed her family, she was like the capitulating +commandant of a fortress dictating the terms of surrender. Not a tear +did she shed in their presence and yet I believe she suffered." + +"Oh, she has lots of courage." + +"I wish you had as much. Here is your absurd scribble, its surrender was +one of the conditions imposed. I am glad these mischievous exercises are +safely in our hands again. Don't bother your head about them any more! +The girl is going away, you will remain here, in a year's time you will +have forgotten each other." + +Szilard smiled frostily. + +"And that word which binds us together or tears us asunder?" said he. + +"Yes, I thought of that, too. She looked me straight in the eyes for a +long time when I asked for it and I told her I wanted the real, the +genuine word. She has written it on the back of these papers, look!" + +Szilard stretched forth a tremulous hand towards the papers, seized +them, turned them round, and cast one look at the word written there and +then fell at full length on the floor, striking his head against the +corner of the table so that the blood flowed. + +Mr. Sipos, cursing the whole stupid business and wishing the papers at +the bottom of the sea, raised the young man tenderly and bathed his head +with cold water. He did not call for assistance (why should the whole +world be taken into his confidence?), but when the youth came to again, +he soothed and consoled him with loving words. And Szilard, unable to +contain himself any longer, hid his head in the good old man's bosom, +pressed his lips to his hand and wept long and bitterly. + + * * * * * + +A fortnight later the marriage of Baron Hátszegi and Henrietta Lapussa +was solemnized with great pomp and befitting splendour. The bride bore +herself bravely throughout the ceremony, and they tell me that her lace +and her diamonds were fully described in all the fashionable papers. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BRINGING HOME THE BRIDE + + +In those days there were no railways in Hungary. It took a whole week to +travel post from Pest to the depths of Transylvania, with relays of +horses provided beforehand at every station. On the very day after the +wedding the young bride set out on her journey. She had only stipulated +that they should set off very early before anyone was up and stirring. +They travelled in two carriages. In the first sat the bride and +Clementina, who had begged and prayed so urgently to be allowed to +accompany the young lady that to get rid of her they had at last +consented. The poor thing fancied she would better her position thereby: +it was not from pure love of Henrietta that she had been so importunate. +In the second carriage sat the baron and Margari. Margari was just the +sort of man the baron wanted. He was a scholar who could be converted +into a domestic buffoon whenever one was required. Now-a-days it is +difficult to catch such specimens, all our servants have become so +stuck-up. Henrietta did not dare to ask how far they were going, or +where they were to pass the night, she felt so strange amidst her new +surroundings. Her husband was very obliging and polite towards her,--in +fact he gave her no trouble at all. + +Towards the evening they stopped at a village to water the horses and +there Hátszegi got out of his carriage and, approaching his wife's, +spoke to her through the window: "We shall rest in an hour," said he. +"We shall put up for the night at the castle of an old friend of mine, +Gerzson Satrakovich. He has been duly apprised of our coming and expects +us." + +But the promised hour turned out to be nearly two hours. The roads were +very bad here and it was as much as the carriage wheels could do to +force their way through the marshy sand. The monotonous _Bucskak_[4] +which extended desolately, like a billowy sandy ocean, to the very +horizon, were overgrown with dwarf firs that looked more like shrubs +than trees. Not a village, not a hut was anywhere to be seen. From the +roadside sedges, flocks of noisy wild-geese, from time to time, flew +across the sky which the setting sun coloured yellow. At last a great +clattering and rattling gave those sitting in the carriage to understand +that they were passing into a courtyard and the carriage door was +opened. Henrietta got out. The young wife looked around with the same +sort of curiosity which a robber condemned to a long term of +imprisonment and conveyed to a distant jail might feel on first +surveying his new environment. + +[Footnote 4: Sand hills.] + +In the midst of a spacious courtyard, surrounded by stone walls, stood +an old-fashioned mansion with a verandah in front of it, resting on +quadrangular columns which one ascended by a staircase whose brick +parapet served as a lounge both for the gentlemen guests and their +heydukes whenever they wanted to take their ease,--though, of course, +the gentlemen occupied one end of it and the heydukes the other. A +couple of favourite dogs were also accommodated with a place there. But +when the carriages stopped in front of the verandah, every one instantly +quitted this favourite sun-lit resting place and rushed down to meet +them--host, guests, heydukes, and dogs. + +The first to reach the carriage door was a peculiar looking man, a more +repulsively mutilated creature it was impossible to imagine. He might +have been fifty, but it was difficult to read his age from his face. His +features were scarred with ancient scars and a piece of his mouth was +missing--and perhaps a tooth or two as well, if one could have seen +through his thick grizzled moustache. An eye was missing on the same +side, and half his face was tattooed with little black points as if from +an exploded musket. His nose was bent sideways and quite flattened at +the top, doubtless owing to a heavy fall. He had only three whole +fingers on the right hand, the other two were fearfully mutilated. As +for the left arm it was horribly distorted from its natural position, +the elbow being twisted right round and the joint immovable. Add to +this that one of his legs was shorter than the other. Yet, in spite of +everything, this fraction of a man was so agile that he anticipated all +the others and was the first to courteously kiss the hand of the +descending lady, who shrank back horror-stricken at the contact of those +crippled fingers. + +"My wife--my friend Gerzson," said Hátszegi hastening to introduce them +to each other. The master of the house professed himself delighted at +his good fortune; pressed his friend's hand with his third remaining +finger and presented his arm, the stiff one, to the lady who touched it +as gingerly as if she was afraid of hurting it. + +The master of the house laughed aloud at her misgivings. + +"Lean on it hard your ladyship!" cried he, "it won't break, it is as +strong as iron. Down Fecske, down sir!" (this to a dog who had expressed +his joy at the sight of Henrietta by jumping on her shoulder.) "I +rejoice that I have the felicity to welcome your ladyship. I have +arranged a great fox hunt in your ladyship's honour for to-morrow. We +are all fox hunters here. I hope your ladyship will take part in it?" + +"I don't know how to ride," replied the child-wife simply. + +"Oh! that's nothing, we will teach you. I have got a good nag who is as +gentle as a lamb. We won't let your ladyship go till we have taught +you." + +When they reached the saloon a number of jackbooted, brass-buttoned, +gentlemen of various ages were presented in turn to Henrietta who forgot +all their names the moment after they were introduced and was quite +delighted when she was conducted to her room and left alone with +Clementina. + +She had scarce time to change her travelling dress when supper was +announced. The meal was laid on a large round table in the midst of a +vast hall; there were more wine bottles than dishes; the handles of the +knives and forks were made from the horns of elks and the antlers of +stags,--the principal meats were cold venison, highly spiced and +peppered stews and pickled _galuska_.[5] + +[Footnote 5: A sort of large dumpling.] + +"I am afraid this is only a hunter's repast, my lady!" opined Mr. +Gerzson conducting Henrietta to the table, at which she and Clementina +were the only ladies present. "Unfortunately this house has no mistress +and an old bachelor like me must serve others as he himself is served." + +"Then why don't you marry?" bantered Hátszegi. + +"I wanted to once, but it all come to nothing. The bride was already +chosen and the day for the bridal banquet was fixed. My lady bride was a +fine handsome lassie. On the eve of my wedding day, in order that the +business might not escape my memory, I told my heyduke to place by my +bed in the morning my nice bright dress boots instead of my old hunting +jacks. Very well! Early next morning while I was still on my back in +bed, I heard a great barking and yelping in the garden below. 'What's +the row?' I shouted. They told me the dogs had started a lynx out of the +bushes. 'What! a lynx!' I cried, for a lynx, let me tell you, is a rare +beast in these parts. I was out of bed in a twinkling, plunged into the +nice dress boots, snatched my gun from the wall and was off into the +thicket. I soon found the trail and after that lynx I went. The dogs led +me further and further into the depths of the forest and the further I +went the more fiery grew the pursuit. Once or twice I had a sort of +feeling that I had forgotten something at home, and I felt myself all +over, but no, powder horn, pipe case, tobacco pouch, flint, +steel--everything was there. So on I went further and further. Again I +felt bothered, but by this time the lynx quite carried me away with him +and kept appearing and disappearing again in the most distracting +fashion. Only towards evening did I hold its pelt in my hand and home +with it I went straightway. And now, again, an oppressive feeling +overcame me, just as if there was something wrong going on somewhere in +the world which it was in my power to prevent. Only in the evening when +I was pulling off my dress boots did it flash across me that I ought to +have been present at my wedding that very day. And so matters remained +as they were, for my bride was so angry with me for my forgetfulness +that she went away and married a lawyer fellow. No doubt she got the +right man, but since then I have had no desire for matrimony." + +The company laughed heartily at this jest, and then attacked the +patriarchal banquet with tremendous appetite, nor did they wait to be +asked twice to fill their glasses. Henrietta, naturally, did not touch +anything. Even at ordinary times she ate very little, but now there was +nothing at all she fancied. Mr. Gerzson was in despair. + +"My dear lady," said he, "you eat so little that if I were a day +labourer I could easily support you on my wages." + +The company laughed aloud at this. The idea of a day labourer with such +hands and feet as that! + +Then Gerzson proceeded to relate to them the exploits or misadventures +in which his various limbs had more or less come to grief. "And now," +concluded he, "I will tell your ladyship how I came by this scar on my +forehead. A few years ago I was visiting our friend Leonard, your +husband, my dear lady, at his castle at Hidvár, and whilst there we +spent two weeks among the glaciers." + +"Night and day?" enquired the astonished Henrietta. + +"Well, at night we built ourselves huts out of the branches of fir +trees. If, however, no rain fell we encamped in the open round our +watch-fire snugly wrapped up in our _bundas_[6]. Splendid fun I can +tell you! For two days, when our stores gave out, we lived on nothing +but bilberries and broiled bear's flesh." + +[Footnote 6: Sheepskins.] + +"You were badly off then." + +"No, on the contrary, the paws of a bear are great delicacies, only we +had no salt to salt them with." + +"Why did you not return home?" + +"We could not, for four days together we had been on the track of a +blood-bear. Do you know what a blood-bear is? A bear is a very mild, +harmless sort of a beast in general, and is quite content with honey, +berries, and roots; but let him once taste blood and he rages about like +a lion, and more than that, he has a decided preference for human blood +before all other kinds of blood. We had been pursuing one of these old +malefactors four days running, as I have said; four times we got within +range of him and four times he broke away. He carried a few bullets away +with him beneath his hide, indeed, but a lot he cared about that! He +gave one or two of our badly-aiming huntsmen a clout on the head which +sent them flying, stripped the skin from the head of one of the beaters +and then took refuge in the wilderness. Friend Leonard and the other +gentlemen now wanted to abandon the chase, for they were frightfully +hungry and the heavy rain and rock scrambling had pretty well torn our +clothes from our bodies, yet I urged them to make another attempt on +the morrow. I assured them that if they beat up the wood once more we +should capture the bear. The whole lot of them were against me. Friend +Leonard insisted that we should not catch him, as a bear never remains +in the place where he has been wounded, but runs on and on night and +day; by this time he would have got right across the border into +Wallachia. 'Very well!' I said, 'What do you bet that he is not quite +near and we shall come upon him to-morrow?' Leonard replied he would bet +me two to one we shouldn't. 'All right!' said I. 'I'll pay you a hundred +ducats if we don't find Bruin to-morrow.' 'And I'll pay you a thousand +if we do,' said he. So the bet was clinched. Next morning in a thick +mist we sent out the beaters while we ourselves stood on our guard. +Leonard and I took up our post near a ravine waiting impatiently for the +mist to disperse. Towards mid-day it began to clear. No end of stags and +foxes ambled slowly past us, but we did not even aim at them; the bear +was our watchword. The beaters had pretty nearly finished their work. We +were standing only fifty paces or so apart, so we began to chat +together. 'I begin to be sorry for your hundred ducats,' said Leonard. +'I am still sorrier for the lost bear's skin,' said I. 'It is in +Wallachia by this time!' he replied. Behind my back, some ten yards off, +was the opening of a narrow hole; there were hundreds such in the rocks +all about. 'Come, now!' I cried, 'suppose my bear has stowed himself +away in this hollow!'--and there and then, like a mischievous little +boy, I poked the barrel of my gun into the hollow and fired off a couple +of shots in quick succession. A frightful roar came from the depths of +the cavern. The wild beast during all this noise, clamour and beating +about the bush was actually behind my back holding his tongue,--and a +splendid big beast he was, two heads taller than I and with tusks like a +wild boar. In a moment he was upon me, and I had already discharged my +two barrels. It is all over with me now, I thought! Why, it will be +nothing at all to a magnificent beast like this to tear such a wretched +creature as myself limb from limb! Erect on his hind legs he came +straight at me, smashing my hunting-knife at a single blow, and, +enfolding me in his terrible arms, he tried to mangle my features with +his teeth. At the last moment I called to Leonard: 'Shoot between us, +old chap! you will hit one of us anyhow!' I preferred being killed by a +bullet to being torn to bits. The next instant a report sounded, and I +was only just aware that the pair of us, still tightly embraced, were +rolling backwards into the bottom of the ravine. There, however, the +thick undergrowth held us up, and I perceived that my bear was quite +done for. The bullet had gone clean through his ear. Yes, a masterly +shot on Leonard's part it was, I must confess--at fifty paces at the +very moment when the bear's head and mine were near enough for kissing. +And I do think it was so nice of Leonard to risk a shot for me, when if +he had simply allowed me to be torn to pieces he would have saved his +thousand ducats, for he lost his bet, you see. Not only did he liberate +me, but he paid a thousand ducats for doing so." + +"He acted like a true gentleman!" they all cried. It was the general +opinion. + +"Your ladyship will see this splendid bear skin at Hidvár, it is a real +treasure for a hunter, I can tell you. And in fact if I had had the +choice I would much rather have had the bear skin than the thousand +ducats, and the exchange would have been much better for me too in the +long run, for I should have the skin to this day, whereas the thousand +ducats were forcibly taken from me at Dévá by that villain, Fatia +Negra."[7] + +[Footnote 7: Black face.] + +"Who is that?" enquired Henrietta curiously. + +"A famous robber-chieftain in these mountains whom they can never lay +hands upon." + +Henrietta cast anxious glances around her. + +But here Hátszegi coolly interrupted him by striking his plate with his +fork: "I won't have my wife frightened to death by your highwayman +yarns," cried he, and changed the conversation. Shortly afterwards +Henrietta went to her chamber, leaving her husband with Mr. Gerzson and +his guests. + +Such was Henrietta's first night after her marriage. She at least was so +far fortunate as not to be obliged to see her husband. Towards morning +she dozed off, and when she awoke again she found that the whole +company had long ago set off fox-hunting, nor did they return till late +in the evening, tired out, wet through, and dripping with sweat. +Henrietta meanwhile had discovered the remains of a dilapidated library +in an old disused huntsman's hut, had ferretted out of it a few Latin +books, and had amused herself with them,--at least so far as she was +able, for many of the leaves had been torn out and used as tinder. + +It is notorious that tired sportsmen are about the dullest dogs on +earth; so Henrietta felt that she would not lose much when her husband +told her she had better go to rest early, as they must be up betimes +next morning. And, indeed, next morning they were off so early that, +except their old host, not one of the hunting party was there to bid +them God speed! But he again conducted his lady-guest to her carriage on +his crippled arm and arranged her cushions comfortably for her with his +three-fingered hand. + +It was a very fine day for a journey, and the windows of the two +carriages were let down so that Henrietta was able to view the landscape +stretching out before her. She had never been here before, it was all +new to her. She discovered from Clementina's lamentations that they had +still a three days' journey before they reached home, and that they +would spend the coming night at the castle of Count Kengyelesy. The +coachmen had told Margari so, and he passed the news on to Clementina. +It also appeared that Count Kengyelesy was a very curious sort of man, +who contradicted Baron Hátszegi in everything, yet for all that they +were never angry with and always glad to see each other. The count was +also said to have a young wife who did not love him. So ran the gossip +of the servants. It was all one to Henrietta what they said about Count +Kengyelesy and his consort. + +Between five and six in the afternoon they reached the count's castle, +which lay outside the village in the midst of rich tobacco and rapeseed +fields, and enclosed on three sides by a splendid English garden; the +place was arranged with taste and evidently well-cared for. + +That the count expected the arrival of the Hátszegis was evident from +the fact that dinner was awaiting them. Kengyelesy was a little puny bit +of a man with very light bright hair, white eyelashes, and a pointed +chin made still more pointed by a long goatish beard. It always pleased +him very much when his friends confidentially assured him that he had a +perfect satyr-like countenance. + +His wife was a young, chubby, lively lady with smiling blue eyes +unacquainted with sorrow, whom her husband on the occasion of a _bal +paré_ at Vienna had seen, fallen in love with, and carried off, although +the girl's father, a retired Field-marshal, was quite ready to surrender +her--they preferred, however, the romance of an elopement. + +The countess received her lady-guest with the most effusive heartiness, +called her by her Christian name on the spot, and invited her to do that +same with her. She told Henrietta she was to feel quite at home, dragged +her all over the castle, and showed her in rapid succession her rare +flowers, her Parisian furniture, her Japanese curiosities; played +something for her on the piano, made her parrot talk to her and +incontinently popped on her finger a large and beautiful opal ring, +which she told her she was to keep as an eternal souvenir. + +Then the countess seized the hand of the child-wife and led her into her +bed-chamber. On the wall hung a fine large battle-piece, a splendid oil +painting by a Viennese master. + +"A magnificent picture, is it not?" enquired the countess with a broad +smile. + +"Yes," replied Henrietta absently. + +"How do you like the central figure? I mean the hero on horseback with +the standard in his hand?" + +"He is handsome, but it seems to me that, situated as he is, he smiles +too much." + +The countess laughed loudly at this remark. + +"That," said she, "is the portrait of a young hussar officer who for a +long time paid his court to me. I could not, of course, keep his +portrait in my room, for there everyone would know all about it, so I +had a battle-piece painted in all round, and nobody suspects anything. +Oh! my friend, if women were not so inventive, they would often be very +unhappy. But that, mind! is a secret; not a soul must know about it." + +Henrietta grew pensive. She also had her secret, but she would tell it +to nobody, not even on her death-bed. She also had a portrait written in +ineffaceable characters in her heart, yet between him and her stand two +infinite obstacles, the one a betrayed star whose name is Mesarthim, the +other that unbetrayable thing, whose name is--woman's honour! + +"_Madame est servie!_" cried the epauletted lacquey, and the countess +drawing her arm through Henrietta's, led her into the dining-room, where +the gentlemen already awaited them. + +After dinner the humorous young countess entertained Henrietta for a +long time with her amusing chatter. She told her, at the very outset, +things that young wives, as a rule, only confide to their most intimate +friends. She told her, for instance, how very jealous her little +Squirrel was (she called her husband by this pet name) and how he would +never take her to Vienna or Pest, because he suspected that she might +find someone there to interest her. Anything like correspondence on her +part was of course impossible; a wise woman will always have sense +enough never to part with a line of writing. Everything else, she +witnesses, treacherous servants, for instance--can always be disowned; +but there is no defence against a letter which has fallen into the wrong +hands. Oh no! she knew a trick worth two of that. Whenever the Squirrel +went to Vienna, she gave him a list of articles required by her from a +modiste in the town, on this list are set down hats, head-dresses, +muffs, and other similar articles. Squirrel always reads this list over +ten times at least, but finds nothing in it to excite his suspicions. +But it regularly escapes his attention what day is indicated by the date +at the head of the list, for he can never tell for the life of him on +what day of the month such or such a day will fall. Now at the head of +this list stands, instead of the date on which the goods are to be sent, +the date up to which the Squirrel intends to divert himself at Vienna. +This list the Squirrel in person conveys to the modiste, who +communicates with the person whom it most concerns, and the Kengyelesy +_puszta_[8] will not seem the end of the world to whomsoever has a +magnet in his heart to draw him thither. + +[Footnote 8: Heath. But also, as in this place, used to designate the +uncut terated land forming part of a nobleman's estate.] + +Henrietta was amazed and confounded by this new science, the very +alphabet of which was unknown to her. Even when she lay in bed she +ruminated for a long time how it was possible that certain things which +break the hearts of some people are nevertheless regarded by other +people as mere frolics all their lives. + +The next morning everyone arose late. The gentlemen had been up till the +small hours and were hard to wake. They all met together in the +breakfast-room. Hátszegi and his host were preparing for the journey. +The count asked the young wife what she had dreamt about, "for," added +he, "whatever one dreams about the first night in a strange place is +sure to come true." + +Henrietta did not like to speak of her dreams; her waking thoughts were +too often interwoven with them. + +"And you, you great silly," said the countess to her husband in a +bantering tone, "did you dream anything of me?" + +"Yes, darling, I dreamt that we shall spend the coming winter in Vienna. +Don't put so much sugar in my tea!" + +"What! not for such a nice dream as that. Will it really come to pass?" + +"Most certainly, pussy. We will go there together after the bathing +season is over." + +The countess possessed sufficient self-control to conceal her delight. + +"By the bye," said Kengyelesy, turning to Henrietta, "how does your +ladyship like the Kengyelesy _puszta_?" + +"Very well." + +"And the castle?" + +"That is nice too." + +"Don't you think it a good joke that yesterday your ladyship and your +honoured husband were my guests, whilst to-day we are your ladyship's +guests and that, too, without our having to move out of the house?" + +"How?" enquired the astonished Henrietta. + +"Why, we made an agreement this very morning whereby friend Leonard is +going to take over the whole property and everything belonging to +it--not you, my dear, of course," this to his wife, "I mean the nags and +the cows--and henceforth this house belongs to you." + +"Don't forget to invite the countess to Hidvár for the vintage +festival," whispered Hátszegi to his wife. + +Henrietta accordingly made the effort, and when they rose from the +breakfast she timidly expressed the wish that the Kengyelesys would do +them the honour to return their visit at Hidvár. + +"Oh, we will be sure to come!" the fair countess hastened to reply, +"Squirrel will bring me to you in the autumn and we will remain a whole +month." + +Kengyelesy also courteously accepted the invitation and then taking +Henrietta's little hand between his own palms so that he could just +manage to kiss the tips of her fingers, he said to her in a strange and +piteous sort of voice: "But then you must promise to love our friend +Leonard here a little better than you have done hitherto." + +A shudder ran through Henrietta's body at these words. The very air of +the room was all at once difficult to breathe, and she only felt better +when she sat in the carriage again. But even there she was haunted by +some unendurable, undefinable, torturing feeling which struck her still +more unpleasantly when Clementina remarked: "Yes, there is nothing but +good land on this _puszta_." + +Why, what could it matter to the honest creature whether the land was +good or not, it was surely all one to her? + +"Two thousand acres in one lot, nothing but first-class land." + +"How do you know that?" asked Henrietta. + +"Margari told me he drew up the agreement and witnessed it, and yet no +money was paid down." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Did not your ladyship then understand the allusion the count made just +now when he asked you to love your husband a little more than hitherto?" + +"What has such nonsense to do with me?" + +"He meant by that that he who is unlucky in love is lucky at play; for +last night my lord baron played cards with my lord count and won from +him the whole Kengyelesy estate straight off." + +Henrietta felt like one who is in the embrace of the boa-constrictor and +unable to defend himself. She had not expected this. + +But Clementina was only too delighted to have something to chatter +about. "And do you know, your ladyship," she continued, "the baron and +the count have been rivals for a long time, and each has always been +trying his hardest to ruin the other--in a friendly way, of course. The +chambermaid told Margari, and Margari told me. 'I will not be content, +comrade,' my lord baron used to say to my lord count, 'till one of us is +reduced to his last jacket, and as soon as one of us is absolutely +beggared, the other will hold himself bound to maintain him, in a way +befitting a gentleman till the day of his death.' Strange men these, +madame, eh!" + +Perceiving, however, from Henrietta's looks that there was something +depressing to her young mistress in her narration, she tried to soften +the effect of her words by intimating that the count had another +property besides, although not such a nice castle, and also that it was +open to him to buy back the former estate in thirty years' time if he +could find the money. + +"That will do, Clementina, my head aches badly!" said Henrietta. She +wished to rid herself of this uncalled-for gabble, in order that she +might devote herself to her own thoughts. + +And what thoughts! She had had no idea that such things could be. How +was it possible that two men who called themselves friends, could ruin +one another thus in cold blood? How was it possible that a man could +enter the house of an affectionate host as a welcome guest in the +evening, and by next morning leave him not an inch of land on which to +put his foot, or a roof to cover his head! "And one has to get +accustomed to such things!" thought she. + +All the day long their journey lay through that brain-wearying plain +whose endless flatness oppressed soul and body with its monotony and +soon drove her back to her own thoughts. Towards evening there were +signs of rain. Clouds were rising and then, at least, there would be +something new to point at in the eternal monotony of the sky. +Unfortunately clouds have the bad habit of bringing tempests along with +them, and tempests are evil travelling companions on the steppes of the +_Alföld_.[9] The towers of the town they were trying to reach were still +only dimly visible on the horizon. In ordinary weather it would not have +mattered if they had arrived late, for they had reckoned upon the +moonlight; but there could be no moon to-night, instead of her a storm +full of angry lightnings was approaching. Already from afar they could +hear it rumbling as it drove dust-clouds before it, could hear that +peculiar, continuous, roar as of some giant hand playing uninterruptedly +on the keys of some terrible organ. Whoever has been caught on the +_Alföld_ in a storm knows the meaning of that wind; it means that the +tempest is bringing hail with it. + +[Footnote 9: The great Hungarian plain.] + +One thing was now certain: they must turn aside somewhere. All that +Henrietta observed, however, was that her carriage stood still for a +moment, and then Hátszegi's carriage went on in front, the baron himself +seizing the horses' reins and shouting to the coachman behind him: +"After me as hard as you can tear!" With that they left the road and +plunged right across country through ditches and swamps and low, marshy +ground till the water came up to the very axles of the wheels and +Clementina shrieked that they were perishing. But there was no need to +be afraid. Hátszegi was a skilful coachman, who could ever find his way +even where there was no way at all. About a four hours' journey off, a +pump now became visible, and beyond it a little hut loomed white and +high, there they must seek a refuge from the tempest as it passed over +them. And indeed they had only just reached the small courtyard when the +first lumps of ice as big as nuts, began bombarding the windows of the +carriages. + +"Quick, quick, into the house!" cried Hátszegi. The baron himself helped +his wife and Clementina to descend and hurried them in beneath the +verandah, which was made of crooked branches and hung over the kitchen +door like a shade over the forehead of a weak-sighted man. + +On their approach the woman of the house emerged from the kitchen with +her head tied up in a red handkerchief. She was no longer young, but +ruddy, robust, bright-eyed, and bustling, and as full of sparkle as if +she had just sprung out of the fire. + +On perceiving her guests she clapped her hands together. + +"Lord deliver us, if it isn't his lordship! And only just married now, +eh!--after all these years! But which is the bride, your lordship? +Surely not this one (pointing to Clementina) for she is an old +dear!--and yet the other is but a child!" + +The baron hastened to interrupt this uncalled-for outburst. + +"Come, come, my good woman! No chatter now, please, for the hail will be +upon us in a moment; but take these ladies into a room and see that it +is clean and comfortable. Henrietta! pray get out of the rain." + +The _csárdá_[10] woman kissed Henrietta's hand with great familiarity +and kept on saying in a quavering voice: "Oh, thou tender little +creature! to think of giving them to husbands so early!" cried she. But +Clementina, who was always nervous in strange places, called the baron's +attention to the fact that loud masculine voices were proceeding from +somewhere within the _csárdá_. + +[Footnote 10: Inn.] + +"Have you anyone here now?" enquired the baron of the _csárdá_ woman. + +"Yes, three or four lads and _Ripa_. The old fellow has just been +released from the prison at Arad. I don't know whether he served his +full time. Pray walk in!" + +"They are not robbers, are they?" asked Clementina hesitating. + +"No, dear heart alive, there are no robbers in these parts, but only +poor vagabonds. You will not find robbers nearer than the Bakony forest. +These poor fellows hurt nobody, least of all ladies. I don't count old +Ripa at all, but only the other three. It would be another thing if +Blackey were here, for he is a fine gentleman and likes to amuse +himself with the ladies. But don't think, dear soul, that his features +are black, oh, dear, no! I call him 'Blackey' because he always wears a +mask of black velvet lest he should be recognized, only his eyes and +mouth are ever visible." + +And with such comforting assurances she escorted Henrietta and +Clementina up the narrow staircase. + +They had to pass through the long tap-room before they came to the inner +parlour. At the guest table were sitting three hardy looking young +fellows and an old pock-marked man, a foxey-eyed rascal who drank out of +the others' glasses from time to time and kept the conversation going. + +"Come! shut up, Ripa!" said the landlady to the old man. "This is no +Jew-Madame, but the spouse of my lord, Baron Hátszegi. Show your manners +if you have any and thank her for the honour." + +The old rascal rose from his bench with cunning humility and twisting up +both ends of his gray moustache, politely kissed Henrietta's hand, and +would have paid the same compliment to Clementina if the landlady had +not prevented him by shouting: "Leave her alone, she is only a sort of +servant!" + +With that she led the ladies into the inner room, where were two lofty +bedsteads reaching to the beams above, covered with bright bedding and +prettily painted over with tulips and roses. In the window screens were +wide-spreading rosemary and musk plants. In front of one of the great +chests stood a spinning wheel. From this the landlady, winter and +summer, spun off that fine thread from which were woven those bright and +gay handkerchiefs which could be seen bobbing about in the doorway of +the inn from afar. One would never have expected to find such ease and +comfort in a _csárdá_ of the _puszta_. + +The landlady very politely divested Henrietta of her travelling clothes, +made a soft resting place for her with cushions in an arm-chair, put a +stool beneath her feet, and in less time than it took to draw a breath, +totted up ten different kinds of dishes that she might choose from them +the one she liked best. Perhaps she would like some leaf-cake? It was +just cooking and would be served up immediately, and she began spreading +the table with a nice horse-cloth. Clementina whispered Henrietta to +beware of poison, whereupon Henrietta told the landlady that she _would_ +have a bit of that nice dish, and when it came she really enjoyed it, +though she did not know what it was, at which the landlady was +infinitely pleased. + +Meanwhile Hátszegi came in after seeing that the carriages were put into +a dry place. He took no notice of the poor vagabonds, but hastily +demanded a change of clothes, as his own were soaking, and was amazed to +see Henrietta handling her knife and fork so well; it was the first time +on the whole journey that she had eaten with appetite. Henrietta said +that this peasant roast suited her taste. + +"And now, Dame Kardos, will you put the ladies up for the night?" said +Hátszegi to the woman of the _csárdá_. + +"Certainly," returned the worthy woman, "I have feather mattresses +enough and bedsteads enough for as many guests of quality as your +lordship likes. This bed will be my lord baron's and this my lady's, and +this the lady attendant's!" + +"Not so quick, not so quick! I shall not lie here." + +"Not lie here?" cried this child of the _puszta_. "Why, pray?" + +"Oh! I'll find some place or other in the tap-room outside." + +"It's a way great folks have, I suppose," murmured Dame Kardos, +shrugging her shoulders, "but I never saw or heard the likes of it +before." + +"But, my lord," lisped Clementina, greatly agitated, "won't those wild +vagabonds outside disturb you?" + +"Me?" exclaimed Hátszegi, "how the devil can they disturb _me_?" + +"They are such wicked men, surely?" + +"I don't care what sort of men they are." And with that he went out with +the utmost _sang froid_; nay, as Clementina herself noticed, he drew +forth his pocket pistols and left them behind him on the table. + +"His lordship has no need to fear such men," the landlady reassured the +ladies, "for he can talk to them in their own lingo." + +Henrietta did not understand. Did robbers then speak a dialect peculiar +to themselves? She became quite curious to hear how Hátszegi would speak +to the robbers in their own language. + +But the landlady knew exactly what to do. She filled a _kulacs_[11] for +the baron and placed it on the table before him. Hátszegi took a good +pull at it, dried the mouth of the _kulacs_ and passed it on to the old +pockmarked vagabond who, after raising his cap, took a little drop +himself and then passed it on to the others. + +[Footnote 11: A wooden field-flask.] + +"Well, old fellow, is the wine good?" + +"Wine is always good." + +"Have you had enough?" + +"One can never have enough." + +"Then God grant you plenty!--By the way, does the wind still blow +through the crevices of the prison door at Arad?" + +"It blows for him who lists to it. Let him who likes it not close his +ears to it." + +"Have many children been born to the governor of the jail lately?"[12] + +[Footnote 12: Whenever a new convict arrives at the jail, the governor +is said to have another son born to him.--_Jókai_.] + +"Yes, lots have been born there--and christened too."[13] + +[Footnote 13: _i.e._, with stripes.--_Jókai_.] + +"Has the daughter of the cord[14] been married lately?" + +[Footnote 14: A flowery expression for the gallows.--_Jókai_.] + +"Only Marczi Csendes has been elevated lately. He was a fool. He took +the crime of two comrades on his shoulders in order to let them go free. +They were caught in the act, but he swore he did the deed. They were +young bloods, you see, and he had nobody to care for him. And yet it was +they who presented the empty pistol at the Jew's head. The Jew himself +pointed them out, but Marczi steadfastly maintained that it was he who +frightened the fellow." + +"So they made him cold against the winter time?" + +"Yes, but he didn't very much care. The hour before his execution he +took an affectionate leave of his comrades, and to me he bequeathed his +warm old sheepskin. When the priest asked him whether he had anything +upon his conscience, he merely said the only thing that grieved him was +the thought that he would never again be able in this life to eat his +fill of well peppered _gulyás_[15] such as old Ripa knew how to cook. +They humoured him, and I was sent into the kitchen to prepare it. My old +friend ate with a good appetite and wanted me to take a bit too; but my +throat felt as cramped as if they had already taken my measure round it +with the gallows rope. He gave each of the two heydukes who accompanied +him in the felon's car, one on his right, the other on his left, a +silver coin apiece. The heydukes told us afterwards that when he got +outside he rose up in the car and addressed the people. He was a tall, +handsome fellow with red cheeks, long black hair and a fine sonorous +voice like any chaplain's. His last words were: 'Well, I now look upon +this fair world for the last time.'" + +[Footnote 15: Hungarian pilau.] + +"Did he leave behind him any new songs," enquired Hátszegi. "He was +always a famous singer." + +"Yes, one he made in jail, and a splendid song it was too, I can tell +you. Bandi! pipe it to his lordship on your _tilinka_ as I have taught +you." At these words one of the youths drew forth from his sleeve one of +those flutes made of elder-wood, which in Hungarian goes by the name of +a _tilinka_, and which with its poor six holes is able to give forth as +many variations as the throat of a lark; then, without any virtuoso airs +he simply piped the plaintive melody. + +The baron was immensely pleased. "Margari," cried he, "go to the +carriage, look for my fiddle and bring it hither!" + +At this command poor Margari had a veritable ague fit of terror. All +this time he had remained ducking down in the carriage firmly persuaded +that the robbers in this lonely place would cut down every mother's son +of them at nightfall. In such a case he was prepared to swear that he +had never belonged to the party at all, but would pretend he was only a +poor tramp, and so escape that way. And now the baron had ruined his +little plan by ordering him to come forth! The robbers would now +absolutely believe that he also was a swell. Oh, it is a frightful +situation when a poor devil has managed to get a 100 gulden into his +purse for the first time in his life and is obliged the very next +evening to put up at an inn full of robbers! What the devil did the +baron want with the fiddle at all? And then what sort of a thing _was_ a +fiddle? When a man is terrified he easily mistakes one thing for another +and Margari's first experiment was to carry in to the baron a long +leaden box containing the territorial chart of the Kengyelesy +estate--was that what his lordship wanted? + +"Have you lost your wits, Margari? How could you possibly get a fiddle +into that? Or has the fellow never cast eyes on a fiddle? Bandi, you go +and look in the carriage for the fiddle!" + +But this was not at all to Margari's liking. What, send that vagabond to +the carriage to ferret about there! His lordship must have clean taken +leave of his senses. Why, in the carriage was Margari's own brand-new +mantle, for which he had paid nine and twenty gulden. The vagabond would +be sure to lay his hands upon it. No, he would rather go to look for the +fiddle himself. So he found the violin case at last somehow, and handing +it to the baron through the _csárdá_ window (for he durst not trust +himself inside), he retired again beneath the coach-house, although the +rain was now splashing down upon it. + +Baron Leonard took from its morocco case his splendid Straduarius, that +relic of the greatest master of fiddle-making, for which he had paid a +small fortune, and following the lead of the young vagabond's _tilinka_ +played the bitter-sweet melancholy air on the sonorous instrument, and +at the third trial he enriched it with so many variations as to astonish +everyone. Then Ripa became enthusiastic and chimed in with his hoarse +old voice. + +When the baron once had the violin in his hands, he was not content with +playing a single song, one melody enticed another forth, and so, one +after another, his fiddle-bow ran through all those rhapsodies of the +last century, those compositions of the "Gipsy-Beethoven," Bihari, and +other great popular masters, with the most classical variations. Princes +listen not to such a concert as now resounded through that wretched, +desolate _csárdá_. Even Henrietta arose from her couch the better to +enjoy these melancholy airs. If ever in her life, it was at this moment +that she beheld her husband in an aureole of dazzling light which +irresistibly attracted, overpowered, subdued. + +One thing, however, struck her as strange, incredible--how could a +fashionable man brought up in the atmosphere of elegant saloons, find +any pleasure in playing _bravoura_ pieces in the tap room of a miserable +_csárdá_ to an audience of half-tipsy vagabonds? Was this an habitual +diversion of these wealthy magnates, or was it only Hátszegi's bizarre +humour? + +However, when "the lads" began to chime in a little too vigourously, +Hátszegi restored the violin to its case, took out his pocket-book, +opened it before them all and nonchalantly displayed as he did so the +bundles of thousand-gulden notes which it contained. Nay, he searched +among them for stray ten-gulden notes and gave one to each of the four +vagabonds "for the fine song they had taught him"--that was the way he +put it--at the same time requesting them to quit the tap-room, as the +ladies in the adjoining chamber wanted to sleep and must not be kept +awake by any further noise. The vagabonds must seek a couch elsewhere. + +The vagabonds, without the slightest objection, arose, drank up the +dregs of the wine, pocketed the bank-notes without so much as a "thank +you!" and settled down for the night on the roof of the coach-house--to +the great terror of Margari, who was concealed in one of the coaches and +did not have a wink of sleep all night, his teeth chattered so. + +But Hátszegi, when the drinkers had withdrawn, spread out his hunting +pelisse on the long table, laid down thereon and quietly fell asleep. He +did not even shut the door, nor did he have his pistols by him. + +In the adjoining chamber, meanwhile, the _csárdá_-woman had brought out +her spindle, set all its many wheels a-working and began to tell her +ladyship a lot of those wondrous tales that have neither beginning nor +end, _puszta_ adventures, the atrocities of vagabonds and their +fellows, the sad love stories of poor deserted maidens and such like. +And all the while the wheels of the spindle whirr-whirr-whirred +monotonously, and Henrietta felt like a little child whose nurse sits +beside her bed and lulls her to sleep with fairy tales. For weeks she +had not enjoyed so quiet and dreamless a slumber as she had that night +beneath the roof of the _csárdá_ in the midst of the lonely _puszta_. + +Next morning Clementina, after first making quite sure that nobody had +had his or her throat cut during the night, was moved by curiosity to +ask what sort of connection his lordship had with this _csárdá_ since he +seemed to know everybody in it. And then she learnt that not only this +_csárdá_ but the whole of the surrounding _puszta_ also was the property +of his lordship, for which the people who lived upon it paid very little +rent, inasmuch as his lordship did not look upon it as a source of +income but chiefly valued it on account of its numerous reedy lakes +where he was wont every year to hunt water-fowl and beavers on a grand +scale. Moreover, from this spot to his own house, a good two days' +journey by foot, everything belonged to his lordship's estate. Nay, his +lordship, if he liked, could traverse the whole kingdom from Deva to +Pest, and be on his own property the whole time, it was only like moving +from one of his houses to another. + +The next day the Hungarian plain came to an end and the Transylvanian +Alps drew nearer and nearer. In the evening they descended into a little +mining town whose forges and furnaces were all illuminated in honour of +the arriving guests. Henrietta then learnt that this mining town also +belonged to her husband. + +On the third day, quite early in the morning, they crossed the +Transylvanian frontier. The whole of that splendid region seemed to +smile, but the faces of its inhabitants are sad and mysterious. +Henrietta had a peculiar sense of anxiety during her stay among these +angry looking people who spoke a language she had never heard before. At +intervals of a mile all along the road a roughly carved cross shot up, +covered with clumsily carved letters, which did not in the least +resemble those we are accustomed to. Clementina once asked the coachman +what these crosses might mean and repented doing so immediately +afterwards, for he informed her that they marked the places where +unlucky travellers had come by an untimely death; the inscriptions were +the records of the tragic romances through the scene of which they were +passing. + +The valleys grew narrower and narrower, the road wound upward among +precipices, and the loquacious coachman attached horrible stories to +every rock and ruin. Each valley seemed to have its own particular +ghost. + +Here and there by the roadside stood silent houses not one of which had +an inviting appearance, it would never have occurred to a human soul to +knock at any of them, even at midnight, to ask for a night's lodging. +They were all of them sooty dilapidated shanties, which might easily +have been taken for stables, consisting of a single room in which the +whole family lived, livestock and all. The church often lay far away +from the settlement as if it belonged to two villages equally. + +Then the road rose again between bare and barren cliffs, where only here +and there a solitary bush seemed to cling to the rocky wall. There was +no trace of a garden, but here and there was a fenced in space in which +the Roumanians are wont to unload their hay, with a long pole sticking +up in the midst of the hay ricks to prevent the wind from carrying it +away, or else the hay was piled up on the branch of a living tree like a +bird's nest. + +Down-pouring mountain streams traversed the path at intervals, over +which never a bridge is built, all cars and coaches must cross by the +fords. From the depths of the wooded mountain slopes was reflected the +blood-red glare of iron works and foundries, and the droaning monotonous +din of the machinery scares away the stillness till it loses itself in +the loud murmuring of the mountain torrents. + +At every fresh mile, Henrietta felt how lonely she was in this strange +world, whose giant mountains shut her out from the very prospect of the +familiar places from which she had come and from every possibility of +returning; and whose inhabitants would not even be able to answer her if +she were to ask them: "Which is the way back to my native place?" + +They travelled onwards till late at night by the light of the moon. +Hidvár was now close at hand. As the prospect opened out on both sides, +at the turn of a narrow defile, suddenly, like a picture in a black +frame, between two mountain slopes, thickly covered with dark +beech-trees, the castle of Hidvár came full in view, standing lonely and +isolated on the summit of a hill. The mountain torrent shot swiftly down +beneath a shaky bridge. The round moon stood straight over the tower of +the castle, as if it had been impaled on the point of it, and painted +everything with its silvery light, the tower, the bastions, the brook +and the valley--only one thing it brightened not, the heart of the young +wife. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE CAVERN OF LUCSIA + + +Not so very long ago there was in Transylvania a wide-spreading society +of coiners which, it is now notorious, had carried on its nefarious +business undetected for more than half a century. The science was an +inheritance descending from father to son, people married and were born +into it. Careful parents trained their children to follow it, and a very +lucrative profession it proved to be. That it should have remained +undiscovered for so long a time, that it should have been plied +successfully for more than fifty years under the very noses of the +authorities--all this was capable of a very simple explanation, _these +men coined gold pieces_. + +Yes, genuine ducats, of full weight, out of real three-and-twenty carat +gold, without any admixture of baser metal, so that they absolutely +could not be distinguished from the royal ducats of the authorized +minting towns, Körmöcz and Gyulafehervár. If they fell into the hands of +a goldsmith, and he melted them, he found that they did not contain half +a grain more silver than the genuine ones. Indeed the public lost +nothing by their fabrication, though the state treasury suffered +considerably. + +The whole region, in fact, from Zalathna to Verespatak abounded in that +precious metal which some fool or other has called "a mere chimera," and +the gold mining was farmed out to private individuals, the yearly output +from the shafts being twelve hundredweights. These private diggers are +bound to deliver the gold they obtain to the minting towns at Abradbanya +or Gyulafehervár and there receive coined money in exchange. +Nevertheless, during some fifty years, only about six hundredweights +were delivered annually at these places; the rest disappeared, though at +first nobody could suspect it. The State pays to the diggers 441 guldens +for every pound of gold dust, which quantity when coined is worth 720 +guldens. But it occurred to the mountaineers that they also might +profitably engage in coining and circulate the money so coined. So they +provided themselves with all the necessary implements and machinery +(there were skilled workmen among them) and issued false ducats to their +very great advantage. Their existence was not even suspected except by +the parties interested in the concern, and they had every motive in the +world for preserving the secret. + + * * * * * + +Travelling from Abradbanya up towards Bucsum, one might have seen two +riders toiling up the mountain along the stream overshadowed by dark +alders; one of them was a grey-haired, gigantic Roumanian, the other a +proud-looking young woman. The old man wore a lambskin mantle, on his +head he carried a tall pointed cap, also of lambs' wool, drawn down over +his eyebrows, his body was carelessly girdled with a golden girdle. His +rich grey locks were plaited into two thick pig-tails which reached down +to his broad shoulders, and his snow-white moustache hung down from his +mouth like two seamew's wings. A coarse sack lay in front of him across +his saddle, both ends of which appeared to be full of something heavy; +across the sack lay his fowling-piece. + +The fair cavalier was sitting on a small, wild, shaggy horse, which +constantly evinced a praiseworthy endeavour to overtake the rider in +front of him; his mistress with difficulty held him in. She was one of +those famous Roumanian beauties. Her features, the cut of her lips, her +full chin could have stood as a model beside any antique statue. And +then those sparkling eyes, that vividly red complexion, those coal-black +eyebrows--they made an ideal beauty of her. And the picturesque +Roumanian costume enhanced her charms. Her black hair, twisted into a +double plait, was bound round with a flaming-red scarf, and on her head +she wore a round hat, trimmed with pearls and garnished in front with a +row of gold pieces which reached down to her marble-white forehead. +Moreover, her fine cambric shirt embellished with bright flowers and +gold ornaments fitted so closely as to betray the outlines of her +harmonious figure. Wound ten times round her neck she wore a necklace +of gold coins extending down to her bosom. As she rode along (and she +sat astride her saddle like a man), every now and then one could catch +glimpses beneath her variegated girdle of her red morocco boots and of a +Turkish dagger, with a massive silver handle, gleaming forth from their +shafts. On each side of her holsters peeped forth a double-barrelled +pistol with an ivory handle. + +When the old man stopped to water his horse at the spring gushing forth +from the black slate rock, he said to the girl: "Anicza, when did you +speak last with Fatia Negra?" + +"Just a month ago. It was at the time of the full moon, like it is now. +He then said that he was going away on a long journey." + +"And yet he has already been at home these two days. I saw his sign over +against my window." + +"Impossible. It cannot be," cried the girl passionately. + +"What cannot be? Do you think I am dreaming or lying?" + +"If he were at home, he would have come to see me ere this." + +The old man shrugged his shoulders. + +"And yet he did not come. But the day before yesterday, about midnight, +I found the three owl-feathers there in the window." + +"The wind carried them thither." + +"The wind did not carry them thither for they were stuck fast in putty. +And only we three know what that means. Fatia Negra would speak with us +and we are going to meet him in the Lucsia cavern." + +"It cannot, cannot be--three days at home and never to come to me--to +_me_!" + +"Who knows?" said the old man coolly, tightening his saddle girth, "a +whole month is a long while, long enough for the moon herself to change +four times. There are many pretty wenches on the other side of the +mountain." + +"O no! such a one as I am he will not find there," said the girl +proudly, glancing into the tremulous water-mirror which threw back a +distorted likeness of her defiant face--"and besides he knows very well +that I should murder him were such a woman to mock me." + +"Ah, ah!" mocked the old man, "so Fatia Negra is afraid of you, +eh?"--and with that he swung himself back into his saddle with +youth-like agility. "Black Face fears nobody, I tell you. He is not even +afraid of the commandant of Gyulafehervár, nor of the lord-lieutenant of +Krasna, and they have no end of soldiers and heydukes. Nay, he fears not +the devil himself." + +And with that he urged on his horse which ambled forward meditatively, +whilst the girl's little nag whinnied in the rear. + +"He may not fear the great gentlemen, he may not fear the devil, but I +tell you that he would be afraid of the girl he made to love him, if he +proved false to her." + +"So you really think he loves you violently?" said the old man casting a +backward glance at her. + +"He swore he did." + +"To whom? the priest?" + +"Go along with you! No, to me!" + +At this the old man chuckled--"little fool!" said he. + +"And if he breaks his oath now, the devil shall have him. I'll murder +him." + +"Very well, I suppose you know him. Yet you have never seen his face. If +he were to tear the black velvet mask from his face you would never +recognize him." + +"But that he cannot do as to that mask he owes all his power." + +"Well, you are a comical wench--to be enamoured of a man whose face you +have never seen!" + +"I recognize him by his voice, by the beating of his heart." + +"Well, if I were a girl and had a lover, I would insist on seeing his +face. He should not come to me in a mask anyhow." + +"He cannot put off his mask, I tell you. His oath forbids him to. The +moment he removes his mask from his face his power is gone, and neither +the devil nor the good angels will obey him any longer." + +"That is true," returned the old man solemnly. "When he likes he can +make himself invisible. I know it. He has always escaped pursuit even +when the whole country was out after him, and when they thought they had +him fast he always disappeared in the earth or in the air. Yet, for all +that, if I were his love, see his face I would." + +"He told me I should die of fright if I beheld it." + +"Then I _would_ die of fright--but I would see it." + +"His eyes are very fine,--they glow like coals." + +"Like coals? Perhaps he is the Dracu[16] himself. Have you ever tried to +make him kiss the amulet on which is the image of St. George and the +Dragon?" + +[Footnote 16: Dracu-dragon, _i.e._, devil.] + +"Yes he has kissed it and was none the worse." + +"Have you tried to get him to lay his three fingers on a copper +crucifix?" + +"He laid his fingers thereon and yet they were not burnt." + +"Can he say the prayer of condemnation without trembling?" + +"He has said it hundreds of times." + +"Nevertheless, I maintain he is no mortal man." + +"If he should love another woman, I swear that he will very soon find +out that he _is_ mortal." + +Talking thus the riders had descended into the depths of the valley, and +when the mountain stream again crossed their path they quitted the usual +footpath and followed the bed of the stream. And a very good road it is +for such as do not wish to leave foot-marks behind them. The rapid +current swiftly fills the traces of the horses' hoofs with leaves and +pebbles. + +The ravine grew ever deeper and narrower, and the stream at intervals +formed small cataracts which the horses, who had been trained thereto, +had to cross. Finally, at a sudden declivity, the water took an +unexpected leap of four yards, and when the riders reined up at this +very spot, it was plain that here a mill had been built into the +hillside, whose wheel it was which drove the swiftly plunging water +along. + +If a stranger saw this mill he would certainly say: "What foolish man +the miller must be who has built his mill here," (----) and that for +three reasons. Firstly, because it was so concealed beneath the thick +alders that even if one sees it one cannot get at it. Secondly, because +it is built exactly under the water-fall which drives the wheel as +rapidly as a spindle, so that the millstone must needs be red hot +beneath it. Thirdly, because the way to this mill is so peculiar, +passing right through the mountain torrent and then winding down to the +door by way of a foot-path hewn in the naked rock, and inaccessible to +horses. Well, such a miller will surely get but little grain to grind! + +When the two riders reached this spot they sprang from their horses, led +them into a little dry islet formed by the alders and tied them by +their halters to the branches. Then the old man lifted the sack from +the saddle. + +"Give me a lift up, Anicza!" said he. + +One would hardly have supposed that an old fellow of such a colossal +build would have required any help at all in order to get this sack +across his shoulders, nor would one have supposed from the size of the +sack that it would have been so heavy to lift or that it would have +weighed so heavily on the old man's shoulders that he had to plant his +hand firmly on his hip in order to carry the load. + +Then the girl drew both pistols forth from her holsters, stuck them into +her girdle, threw the long fowling-piece across her shoulder and +springing fearlessly across the stream from boulder to boulder followed +behind the stooping old man along the narrow foot-path which led to the +mill. In the doorway of the mill stood a youth clad in the usual coarse +cloth "_guba_" and half concealed by the door post. In one hand he held +a double-barrelled musket, an implement not absolutely necessary for a +miller. The old man addressed him while still a good way off: + +"_Che timpu?_"[17] + +[Footnote 17: What sort of weather?] + +"_Luna plina._"[18] + +[Footnote 18: Full moon.] + +A strange sort of greeting, more like an exchange of pass-words. + +Then both the new arrivals entered the mill in the midst of which a +dilapidated grinding machine was revolving, the central wheel was minus +a couple of teeth. + +"Plenty of grinding going on, Paul?" asked the old man. + +"Quite enough." + +"Help me down with this sack." + +"It is heavy certainly," said the other, panting beneath the strain, +"how much does it hold?" + +"A hundredweight and eighty pounds." + +"No mere Turkish maize, eh?" + +"Stop the wheel!" + +The young man at once obeyed by driving an iron beam clean through the +wheel which brought the machinery to a standstill. Then he raised the +central revolving disc which was in connection with the millstone, hung +in the hook of the millstone an iron chain which was wound round the +beam and this done, laid the sack and its contents on the bolting-hutch. +Then the old man himself, sat down on the hutch and extended his hand to +the girl. "Jump on Anicza." And the girl jumped on without help for she +was as agile as a chamois. + +"Paul," said the old man to the young journeyman, "was not Fatia Negra +here before us?" + +"He has not been through here either to-day or yesterday. It has been my +turn to watch these last two days." + +"I am right you see; he is not here," said the girl. + +"He _is_ here, I tell you." + +"Come Onucz," said the youth, "can Black Face make himself invisible +then? He could not pass here without my knowing it!" + +"What do you know about it?" answered the old man, adjusting himself on +the bolting-hutch. "Let the mill go!" + +As now the revolving disc or platform began to move, the machinery stood +still, yet the millstone together with the bolting-hutch began slowly to +sink downwards together with those sitting upon it, and after some +moments, disappeared entirely into a dark gulf, the chain unwinding and +rattling after it. Suddenly from the depths below resounded the old +man's voice: "Halt!" Then Paul stopped the mill, hung the chain in an +iron ring and the machinery once more set in motion, raised the +millstone up, Paul fastened the revolving disc to it and it began to +rattle round again so furiously that sparks flew out of it. Now whoever +had any meal to grind might come, he was quite ready for them. + +It was a huge subterraneous cavern into which Onucz and Anicza had +descended. At the bottom of this hollow flowed a branch of the mountain +stream which turned the mill and indeed was diverted thither by means of +wooden pipes. Here, however, it flowed in its regular bed, glistening +here and there in the light of two oil lamps which burnt on both sides +of a small iron bridge that traversed the stream. + +In the background of this hollow stood a peculiar, roofless, stone +building, whose two round little windows, like the eternally watchful +eyes of some underground worm, shone with a red glare which dazzled the +eyes, while the slate-covered chimney belched forth a thick smoke filled +with sparks into the subterranean midnight. + +From the interior of the building resounded heavy thuds and the din of +grinding as of machinery in perpetual motion which made the very +foundations of the rocks quiver. On the bridge stood another armed man +with whom the new arrivals exchanged watchwords and the same thing was +done at the door of the stone building where the old man made the girl +stop. + +"Now Anicza," said he, "while I go in, you sit down on that stone bench +and wait for me." + +"Why cannot I go into the house as well?" enquired the girl, +impatiently. + +"No more of that. Once a year we come here and every time you ask again +if you can come in, and every time I tell you that cannot be. And now I +tell you once more: _it cannot be_--and there's an end on't." + +"But why may others go in and I not?" + +"Why--why! because you are a girl, of course. Leave me in peace. Women +have no business in there, they are always so inquisitive, want to know +everything and then blab it all out--it is their nature so." + +"I'm not like that." + +"And then whoever enters here has to swear a frightful oath that he +will divulge nothing that he sees. I myself shudder all over when I have +to repeat it; it is not fit for the mouth of a woman." + +"As if _I_ were afraid of any oath!" cried the girl defiantly. "I would +say any thing that a man might say." + +"Don't be a fool, Anicza. A girl cannot come in here, because everyone +has to strip himself stark naked before he goes out, before the +watchman, and then dress himself again. So you see it won't do." + +This difficulty appeared insuperable even to the iron will of Anicza. It +was a test even she could not submit to. She stamped her foot with rage +and uttered again and again the word Dracu, which in Roumanian means +nothing less than his highness the devil himself. + +Old Onucz and the watchman thereupon laughed heartily, and the same +instant the iron door of the building opened and the girl exclaimed +joyfully: "Fatia Negra!" + +Onucz and the watchman immediately tore their caps from their heads. It +was, indeed, Fatia Negra. + +How could he get hither invisibly through all the ambushes set for him? +Who could tell? Who had the courage to ask him? Not even Anicza. All she +thought of at that moment was to rush forward, fall upon the neck of her +mysterious lover and cover his eyes and mouth, which the mask left +exposed, with kisses. + +"Let Anicza come in!" said the black-masked man, "I'll answer for her, +and she shall, like myself, be exempted from undressing." + +"It is well, Domnule,"[19] said the watchman, "but let her at least take +the oath which everyone here must swear." + +[Footnote 19: Master.] + +"I am ready," cried the girl boldly. + +"No, Anicza," replied Black Mask, "you shall swear to me a stronger oath +even than that, you shall swear--by our eternal love." + +The proud maiden, trembling with joy, fell at the feet of Fatia Negra at +these words, and pressing one of her hands to her heart, raised the +other aloft, and, raising her lovely eyes--which reflected the infernal +glare of the windows--aloft, towards the smoking canopy above her head, +she swore by her eternal love to her beloved that she would never, not +even on the rack itself, betray a word, a syllable of what she was about +to learn. + +But old Onucz scratched his poll. + +"Domnule, it is not wise of you to let women swear on such useless +things. It is just as if one of us were to hold a penny in his hand and +swear by that. It binds nobody." + +"It is enough for me," replied the Mask, "and my head is no cheaper than +yours. Let him who trusts me not keep away from here." + +And holding the girl in his arms, he carried her with him into the +building while old Onucz had to dress himself from head to foot in other +clothes and leave those he had brought with him outside. He would have +on his return to put on his own again and leave these others behind. +Thus smuggling was impossible. + +The first room was for the smelting. + +Here there was nothing to be seen of the blazing fire which illuminated +the dark hollow through the windows, in one corner of the room was a +simple cylinder shaped iron furnace which radiated a burning heat, on +the top of which stood a round graphite crucible covered in at the top +and provided with a lateral pipe. + +"Here the gold is remelted after it has come out of the purifying oven," +said Fatia Negra to the girl who pressed close up to him. "Heretofore it +required a whole apparatus of boilers and loads and loads of wood to +bring it to smelting heat, but since I got that cylinder-stove, ten +hundredweights of metal can be melted in ten minutes." + +"But where does the fire come from?" enquired the girl. + +"From the earth, my beloved." + +The girl shrank back with horror, and yet Fatia Negra did not mean hell +but that furnace whose powerful bellows drove the melting heat into the +double cylinder. + +He looked at his watch, the moment had come. At a single whistle a +couple of workmen appeared, each of them stripped to the waist on +account of the great heat; they held in their hands large iron moulds +and stood facing each other opposite the crucible. Then by means of an +iron tap Fatia Negra turned the pipe of the crucible and immediately a +pale glare began to spread through the room--the liquid gold ran in a +thin jet out of the crucible and that was the cause of the light. +Actually genuine pure gold made liquid in the fire like wine in a glass +and emitting on every side of it a glowing white radiance! Each of the +two workmen held his mould beneath it and the girl surveyed the scene +with bated breath. + +When the operation was finished Black Face turned to the girl again and +embraced her saying: "So you see, darling, that is how gold is melted." +The girl smiled back at him; what a pity the Black Mask could not smile +in return. And now old Onucz came up with his sack for the purifying +furnace. + +"How much have you in your sack?" asked Fatia Negra. + +"A hundredweight and eighty pounds." + +"Now we'll see into how much pure gold it will work out." + +"The dross mixed with it is only a few pounds in weight." + +"Of what quality is it?" + +"Well, they purify it very incompletely you know. It is only +two-and-twenty carat gold." + +"It doesn't matter: we will coin Prussian ducats out of it." + +"But where's the mould?" + +"I brought it with me, to-day; we'll adjust that also to the machine. +We shall gain a hundred florins in every thousand." + +Old Onucz kissed Fatia Negra's hand. "Domnule," said he, "you are a man +indeed. Domnule, since you became our chief our gains have doubled and +the ducats are so good that one cannot distinguish them from the +Imperial ones." + +Meanwhile the girl felt her head going round to hear them talk of +nothing but money, gold, gain! + +"Come Onucz, let us look at the new machinery," said the Mask. + +"When did you bring the new machinery here?" + +"A long time ago; we have coined a great deal of money since it first +came. The work is all the quicker and we need fewer men to work it." + +They went into the next room through a low door, all three of them +having to bow their heads as they entered, and there they saw a gigantic +machine at work between whose revolving cylinders depended the long gold +ingots which were gradually reduced to the proper thinness for making +gold coins. + +"Don't you see, Onucz? Hitherto we wasted too much time and labour in +cutting the gold plates thin enough and the edges were always too thick +to our great loss. Now the machine rolls them all out uniformly. It only +cost 10,000 ducats." + +"Very cheap indeed!" cried the old man, who was wearing a ragged +sheepskin and yet considered ten thousand ducats a moderate price for a +rolling mill. + +The Mask took up one of the little glistening plates. + +"Do you know, my friend, the name of this?" said he. + +"No." + +"Its name is Zain. In order that you may not forget it I will wind it +round your arm." And as if it were merely hard paper he lightly bent the +gold plate round the girl's wrist and then pressed the ends of this +improvised bracelet together with his steel-like fingers. "Don't forget +that this is called Zain and that you got it from me." + +The girl looked doubtfully at him as if she would have said: "Is it +lawful for you to give away everything here as if it were your own." + +But the old man could not look on at this in silence. "Alas! alas! +Domnule, give not away uncoined gold. Rather squander coined gold in +heaps. The other is of itself a witness against us and thereby we shall +furnish a clue to our enemies." + +"It is in a good place," replied Fatia Negra; "it is on Anicza's arm and +there it will keep silence." + +Anicza replied to this apology with ten kisses. And she calculated +rightly. This necklace weighed exactly ten double ducats--but the kisses +also were double ones. + +Then Fatia Negra led them to another machine which cut round gold +pieces out of the rolled out "Zain." He showed the girl how every +clipper, how every screw beneath the impulsion of the piston did its +proper share of the work, and how the whole process was set going by +steam power from without and could therefore be directed and controlled +by one man with another man to relieve him at intervals. + +"Dumnezu!"[20] sighed old Onucz, "when I think that fifty years ago we +did all this with only our hammers and chisels! We sweated two whole +days over a piece of work which this marvel can do in an hour. And how +many hands we employed too!" + +[Footnote 20: My master.] + +Then they went to another machine. This was a small table whose steel +wheels notched the ducats before they passed beneath the stamping +machine. Perpetually moving elastic springs pushed the gold pieces +forward one after the other, turned them round and jerked them away. You +saw no other motive power but a large wheel revolving under a broad +strap; the strap disappeared through the floor, it was underneath there +that the man who set it in motion lived. + +Old Onucz sighed aloud. "What things they do invent now-a-days," said +he. + +But Anicza, full of superstitious fear, clung silently to the arm of +Fatia Negra whom all these speechless marvels served and obeyed. +Finally, descending six stone steps they entered the actual minting +room. + +A gigantic screw press stood in the midst of the low vaulted chamber. +Through the head of the screw was driven a long moving bar, with leaden +bullets at both ends and two strong fellows were pushing this bar +backwards and forwards; the weight of the machine, as it turned, forced +the screw sharply down and in a second it pressed the two round gold +pieces laid in the steel matrix into the stamping dies, on one of which +was the image of the Mother of God and on the other the cuirassed +likeness of the reigning monarch. Immediately after the two matrices +recoiled again of their own accord and the two powerful men repeated the +pressure. Then a little steel ring shifted suddenly, flinging aside the +coined ducat, and a fresh gold piece took its place. The coined ducats +already lay in a heap in front of the machine and the workmen, now and +then, kicked them away with their feet. + +There was something impressive in the spectacle. Here were two poor men, +working hard perhaps for their daily bread with little hillocks of +seductive gold piled up all around them, gold of which everyone is +enamoured in the earth above them, gold for which so many men gladly +give up everything, even to their hope in Heaven! + +Now and again a third man comes in and pitches the gold into a linen +sack with a wooden shovel. + +"Let us stamp a few ducats ourselves by way of souvenirs," said Fatia +Negra. Anicza assenting, the workmen stepped aside, and Fatia Negra and +the girl placed themselves on either side of the leaden bullets on the +turning bar. + +The Mask bade his sweetheart be careful to avoid the recoil of the +machine for should the handle hit her the blow might prove fatal, +whereupon the girl, burning to show off her great strength, did not wait +for the end of the bar to recover its normal position, but seizing the +iron rod when it was only half way round, tore it back again, with the +result that the steel clapper did not cast the gold piece between the +matrices in the usual way and it thus received a double impression, +being stamped with a two-fold figure of the Mother of God on one side +and a two-fold figure of the royal profile on the other. + +Old Onucz rushed towards Anicza and angrily tore her away: + +"You little fool, be off!" cried he, "you will spoil the machine, it is +not for the likes of you." + +But Fatia Negra now picked up the ducat which had fallen to the ground +and showed it with a smile to Anicza: "Look," said he, "there is now a +double picture on it." + +The girl turned it curiously between her fingers. + +"And what will happen to it now?" + +"It will go into the smelting furnace again." + +"Ah, don't destroy it, give it to me!" + +At this the old man fairly lost his temper. + +"Are you out of your mind to ask for such a thing? What! a ducat with a +flaw in it, which, if seen in your hands would saddle us with the +vengeance of the whole government! Domnule, be not so mad as to let her +have that ducat! If she has no sense, you at least be sensible. You +might ruin the whole lot of us with it." + +"Well, Anicza will not wear it on her head, I suppose, or even on her +neckerchief, but will fasten it to a little bit of thread and wear it +next her heart, there nobody will find it but myself." + +Onucz would very much have liked to say: "Neither have you any right to +look there, Domnule, for you have not yet spoken to the priest about +it"--but this was the one thing he durst not say. + +But Anicza gratefully kissed Fatia Negra's hand like a child who has +received a gift, not indeed for the ducat, but for the boundless +confidence he had shown in giving it to her, which was the surest token +of his love. Then she drew forth a little Turkish dagger, bored a hole +with it through the ducat and fastened it to a little piece of thin +black cord by the side of her little crucifix which she wore upon her +bosom--and hid both of them away again. + +"Well Domnule," remarked Onucz sulkily, "since we have placed our heads +in the girl's hands we must beware of ever offending her." + +But now the assayer came up, bringing with him a nice elaborate +calculation on a black slate, showing exactly how much pure gold Onucz +had handed in to the coining department, how much it would be worth when +coined and deducting three per cent for expenses, how much he was to +receive in cash by way of exchange. + +"And now go and let the cashier pay you what is due to you, Onucz," said +Fatia Negra. + +And so while he remained behind for the purpose of settling his account +Anicza and Fatia Negra retired to a little adjoining chamber. There +would be plenty of time for two lovers to talk over their love affairs +while so many gold coins were being counted out. + +"Where have you been? it's a whole month since I saw you?" asked Anicza +sitting on the adventurer's knee. "Do you know how long a month is to +me? First quarter, new moon, full moon, last quarter, all this have I +watched through and never saw you once, where have you been?" + +"I have been abroad for those new machines. That is a business one +cannot entrust to another." + +"Are there pretty girls abroad?--Might you not fall in love with them?" + +"Hush! Those are not the questions that men should be asked." + +"Why not?" + +"Because men are not in the habit of answering them." + +"But suppose a girl wants to know?" + +"Then it will go badly with her. Besides, what do you want me to tell +you? Would you like to know that I'm such a block, a clod, that no +other eye but yours takes any pleasure in looking at me? Or would you +like to hear that I am a sort of hermit who has wandered in disguise +through seven kingdoms and casts down his eyes whenever he encounters a +petticoat? Or that I cross myself and turn away whenever a woman looks +at me? Or shall I tell you: in such and such a place I nipped the white +cheeks of a pretty blonde, and in such and such a place the coquettrie +of a pair of blue eyes made me forget myself, and in such another place +I bedded my intoxicated head in the arms of a brunette?--and that after +wandering through seven kingdoms I have found no lovelier girl than my +own enchanting Anicza?" + +The girl could neither reply nor scold, for her mouth was closed fast +with kisses. + +"You know I am very jealous," she said at last, when she was able to +tear herself free. "I do not love as others love. I can only think of +you and your love. I am neither hungry nor thirsty but only--in love. I +am never weary, I scarcely know that I am working, for love makes me +sing and sing all day. I dream only of you. I care not what is going on +in the whole world so long as I only know what is happening to you. I +know that you love me and that you are mine so long as you are here. But +how often you are far away! How often I do not see you for weeks, for +months at a time! Then I get nearly mad. I am determined to find out +where you are and what you are doing, with whom you are speaking and +then I say, I feel quite mad." + +"Indeed! Then let me tell you, my dear girl, that it would do you no +good to know where I am, for I am much more exposed to the fire of +pointed rifles than to the fire of pretty eyes." + +"Are you then a robber chieftain, a mountain smuggler?" + +"I am a lot of things." + +"Then take me with you into your band"--she spoke with heaving bosom. + +But Fatia Negra stamped his foot. + +"It cannot be, Anicza," said he; "think no more of it! I will never take +you with me." + +"Why not?" asked the girl and her eyes flashed like a wild cat's. + +"Because then I should become jealous of you and that would be bad for +us both. Remain in your father's house; there you are safe." + +The girl drew from her bosom the defaced ducat she had just received +together with the crucifix. + +"Hearken, Fatia Negra! my father says that this badly coined piece of +gold places your life in my hand. And know, besides, Fatia Negra, that I +have sworn on this Crucified One here that if ever you betray me I will +kill you in my fury without thinking twice about the how or where. It is +not well that two such dangerous objects should repose on my heart. +Look! I give them both to you." + +"Wherefore, Anicza?" + +"Take the things, I say, and keep them, for my guardian angel knows, I +have told him, that with me they are not in a safe place. You do not +know me yet." + +The girl burst out crying, and Fatia Negra could no longer soothe her +with kisses, and then old Onucz poked his gray shaggy head through the +doorway and said: "I have been paid already, Domnule, have you?" + +Fatia Negra stroked the girl's hair and face and whispered her not to +take on so. + +The stitches of the old Roumanian's patience now, at last, gave way +altogether. "Domnule," said he, "would you not, if I earnestly besought +you to do so, begin to think of the day on which you intend to become my +daughter's husband?" + +For a moment Fatia Negra seemed thunderstruck; then he recovered himself +and replied in a calm but menacing voice: "If ever it occurs to you to +put the question to me again, your head will reach home an hour earlier +than yourself." + +The old man made no reply, but he seized the girl by the hand and led +her away with him, returning to the mill with her by the same way that +he had come. They found their horses by the alder trees and remounted. +It was a fine clear night, and Onucz told his daughter to ride in front. +They had now divided the coined gold into two portions. When they had +once more reached the ridge of the mountain the old man pronounced +Anicza's name in a low tone. The girl looked, backwards and perceived +that the old man's long-barrelled rifle was pointed directly at the back +of her head. In her terror she covered her face with her hands. "What +would you do?" cried she. + +"Fear nothing, I only want that piece of gold which Fatia Negra gave +you. I'll not stake _my_ head on _your_ whimsies!" + +The girl had anticipated something much worse than this, so she quietly +answered: "You can spare yourself the trouble, I have already returned +it to Fatia Negra. I would not carry it about with me any longer." + +"You have acted wisely," said the old man, lowering his musket. "Now you +can ride on." + +The early dawn was breaking as they reached home. When Anicza entered +her room she found hanging up beneath the ikon that gleamed and shone +over her bed both the damaged ducat and the little cross which she had +given to Fatia Negra two hours before. He must indeed be in league with +the devil--else how could he have got there, invisibly, so long before +them? + +Anicza said not a word about it to anybody, but she hid both the amulets +safely away in her bosom again--and now she was right proud of her Fatia +Negra! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +STRONG JUON + + +Henrietta's married life was not a happy one. Her husband was polite, +complaisant, and conventionally correct in his behaviour towards her, +and that was all. And then she saw so little of him. He was frequently +absent from Hidvár for weeks at a time, and when he returned he +regularly brought in his train a merry company of comrades, in whose +pastimes Henrietta could take no sort of pleasure. + +During those long days when she had Hidvár all to herself and was left +entirely to the company of her sad thoughts, she would sometimes walk +about till late in the evening in the shady alleys of the home park, +listening to the songs of the girls working in the fields. At the end of +the park was a church, and in front of it a small clearing fenced around +with stakes and looking like a cabbage garden. It surely belonged to +some poor man or other. It did--and the poor man was the parish-priest. + +Henrietta often saw him, a tall, grey-bearded man in a long black +cassock, hastening to his little garden; there the reverend gentleman +would divest himself of his long habit, produce a rake, and work till +late in the evening. Henrietta fancied at first that was merely a +dietetic diversion, but afterwards, when she found him there the next +day and the day after that, and at every hour of the day; when she saw +him wiping the sweat from his brow in the burning afternoons and leaning +wearily at intervals on his rake to rest a while from his labour, then +she was persuaded that this work was not a pastime, but a bitter toil +for daily bread. + +Often times she would very much have liked to ask him how this was, but +she was a stranger in these parts and did not understand his language; +at last, however, the priest, perceiving the lady one day, peered at her +through the palings and wished her good-day in the purest Hungarian, +thereby giving her to understand that the language of the gentry was +well known to him. + +Henrietta begged the old man to leave his labour and come to her. + +"It cannot be, your ladyship; his lordship has forbidden me to appear in +his courts." + +"Why?" + +"I am always a nuisance." + +"How so?" + +"Because I am always on some begging errand. At one time the wind +carries off the roof of the church; at another, something is broken in +the belfry. It is a year ago now since the school was burnt down, and +since then the walls have become overgrown with thistles; the +schoolmaster too has gone away, and there is nobody to teach the +children, so that they grow up louts and robbers, to the great hurt and +harm of the gentry." + +"But why is not all this put to rights?" + +"Because the poor folks are lazy and drunken, and his lordship is +stingy." + +Henrietta was astonished at the old man's words. + +"Yes, stingy, that's the word," continued the priest. "I do not pick my +words, for I am a priest and used to hunger. And he who is used to +hunger is free from the yoke of servility. I told his lordship that to +his face, and that was why he forbade me the castle." + +Henrietta could not continue the conversation, so upset was she at the +idea of Hátszegi's stinginess. What! the man who raked in hundreds of +thousands at a time with the greatest ease, and no doubt scattered them +as recklessly, could shut his door in the face of a poor priest who +begged for the house of God and the education of the people! She hastily +wished the priest good-night and returned to the castle. + +The same evening she sought her husband, who had just come home wearied +from the chase, "I have a favour to ask of you," said she. Hátszegi +looked astonished: it was the first favour the wife had ever asked her +husband. + +"Command me!" said he. "Whatever you like to ask is as good as granted +already." + +"I should like to learn the language of the people in the midst of whom +we dwell. I am like a deaf-mute among them at present." + +"That will not be difficult. The Wallachian tongue is easily acquired, +especially by anyone with a knowledge of French or Latin." + +Henrietta blushed scarlet. Was there a covert allusion behind these +words? Did Hátszegi know that she understood Latin? + +"I should like to have a master who can put me in the way of it. The +parish priest here would be a suitable person." + +For an instant Hátszegi's eyebrows contracted. + +"You shall have your way," he said at last. "It is true that he is the +one man in the world who insults me to my face with impunity whenever he +meets me, and even presumes to chalk upon the walls of my own castle +denunciations against me from the book of the Prophet Nehemiah, so that +I was obliged to forbid him ever to appear before me under pain of being +thrown headlong out of the window; yet to show you what an obedient +servant I am of yours, madame, I will not baulk you of your desire, or +desire you to choose another master, but will send and invite him to +come up here at once. Everyone shall see that in my house, my wife is +the master." And with that Leonard kissed his wife's hand and withdrew. + +Early next day the pastor arrived. Margari informed him of her +ladyship's desire to learn the Roumanian language, and the words almost +stuck in his throat when he added that his Reverence would receive a +hundred florins every month for it. Fancy! a hundred florins a month for +teaching a lingo only spoken by bumpkins. + +Todor Rubán--that was the priest's name--was at once conducted to her +ladyship. He was an elderly man, of an open, cheerful countenance; his +fine, long white hair fell in thick locks on his simple black cassock, +which showed considerable signs of wear. + +Henrietta was not in time to prevent the old pastor from kissing her +hand. + +"This is no slavish obsequiousness towards a great lady," said he, "but +the respect of a poor pastor for an angel whom Heaven by a peculiar act +of grace has sent down to us. This is no empty compliment, your +ladyship. I am not very lavish of such things myself, but I feel bound +to address you thus because I am well aware that it is not merely to +learn our poor language that you pay me so well for so little trouble. +No, I recognize herein the good will which would do what it can to raise +and help a poor neglected population: for I certainly shall not exchange +my simple maize-bread for better, but will employ your ladyship's gift +in the service of God and of our poorer brethren." + +From that day Henrietta believed that a call from on high had summoned +her to Hidvár to be the guardian angel, the visible providence of a +poor, forsaken people, and her most pleasant occupation was now to go +from village to village,--often in the company of the priest, and at +other times accompanied by a single groom or quite alone. Thus she +visited one after the other all the surrounding parishes like any +archdeacon, enquiring after and helping their necessities, distributing +money for school-buildings and service books, collecting all manner of +stray orphans and bringing them home with her to be fed and instructed; +nay she erected a regular foundling hospital at Hidvár for the benefit +of the sprouting urchins of the district, and had the liveliest debates +with the priest as to the best method of managing it. Her benevolent +enthusiasm cost Hátszegi a pretty penny. + +"She is a child; let her play!" he would only say when Margari and +Clementina represented to him that Henrietta had pawned her jewels at +Fehervár in order to teach some more little Roumanian rag-a-muffins how +to go about with gloves on like their betters. Nay the baron secretly +instructed the tradesmen with whom Henrietta had pawned her jewels to +advance her four times as much as they were worth, _he_ would make it +good again, he said--and then he would buy his wife fresh jewels. An +admirable husband, truly! + +One day, Henrietta had ridden out to the neighbouring Ravacsel in order +to visit a poor Wallachian peasant woman, to whom she had sent some +medicine a few days before. The woman, naturally, never drank the +medicine, but instead of that got a village quack to rub her stomach +with some wonder-working salve so vigorously that the poor patient died +in consequence; in fact she was already at the last gasp when Henrietta +arrived. Henrietta was beside herself with grief and anger. She felt +like a doctor whose prescriptions have been interfered with by a +competitor. She could not indeed help the woman, who expired soon after +her arrival, but she had at least the satisfaction of making +arrangements for a decent funeral. In the meantime it had grown so late +that when she turned back toward Hidvár the moon was already pretty high +in the heavens. + +She was alone on horseback, for it was only a two hours' journey between +the two places, and she had therefore not thought it worth while to +bring an escort with her. Besides, whom had she to fear? Since she had +lived in these parts, all the bad men had disappeared, and whoever she +might meet in the roads or lanes would be ready to kiss her hand. + +So she turned homewards again alone. The road wound in and out among the +valleys and was therefore much longer than if it had gone in a straight +direction across the mountains. She had, however, often heard from the +peasants that there was a shorter way to Hidvár from Ravacsel on which +mules and ponies could go, and she thought it better to look for this +road lest night should surprise her among the mountains. But a road that +is good enough for mules and ponies may not suit a thoroughbred English +steed which does not care about putting its hoofs into the tracks of +other beasts; and besides, a hundred paces on level ground is much +shorter than twenty-five up hill. Henrietta vividly experienced the +truth of this when she reached the summit of the hill, for her horse was +sweating from every pore and trembling from the violent exertion. Such +horses should not be used in hilly country: a shaggy, sturdy little pony +would have treated the whole thing as a joke and not said a word about +it. + +But the real difficulties of the road only began during the descent, +which was equally dangerous for horse and rider. The track, a mere +channel washed out of the soft sandstone by the mountain torrents, +descended abruptly, the stones giving way beneath the horse's hoofs and +plunging after it. Frequently they had to cross very awkward places, and +Henrietta could see from the way in which her horse pricked up his ears, +snorted and shook his head, that he was as frightened as his mistress. + +At last they came to a very bad spot indeed, where on one side of the +road there was a sheer abyss, while the rocky mountain side rose +perpendicularly on the other. The narrow path here ran so close to the +rock that the rider had to bend her head aside so as not to knock it, +and the horse could only go forward one foot at a time. + +For an instant the horse stood still, as if weighing his chances on that +narrow path; but, as there was no turning back now, he was obliged at +last to go on. + +Henrietta looked shudderingly down into the chasm below her, over which +she seemed to hang suspended; and she thought to herself, with something +very like a sob: what if we should stumble now! + +The thought was scarcely in her mind when one of the horse's hind legs +tripped, and the same instant horse and rider were precipitated into the +abyss. + +Henrietta never lost her head during the fall. She noticed everything +that happened during the brief plunge, how the horse struggling +desperately clattered down the mountain-side, how the saddle girth burst +beneath the strain, how for a mere second some bush or shrub arrested +the descent, and how the next instant the weight of the horse tore it +down along with him. Finally, falling still lower and turning right +round on its back the horse got wedged in between two rocks from which +position he was fortunately unable to disengage himself, for had he +fallen any further he would have been dashed to pieces. + +Henrietta was quite conscious the whole time. Holding on with both hands +to the roots of a bush with her left leg still in the stirrup (for +saddle and stirrup also remained hanging in the bush) it occurred to her +in this painful situation that she still had time to commend her soul to +God and then face death more calmly. As to help, there was no hope of +it, for the place was far away from all human dwellings; night would +soon fall and the bush would presently yield beneath her +feet--destruction was certain. + +But while the lady neglected to call for assistance, the wedged-in horse +did so all the more loudly. Supine and unable to free himself from his +uncomfortable position, he repeatedly uttered that terrified scream +which one never hears from this noble and reticent beast except in dire +extremity. Whoever has heard such a cry will readily admit that it is +far more terrible than any merely human appeal for assistance. + +After a few moments it seemed to Henrietta as if a halloo were +resounding from the depths below; looking down she perceived by the +light of the moon a black shape leaping from rock to rock like a +chamois, and gradually approaching the dangerous point where she hung. + +Any efforts on this man's part seemed to her impossible. There was not a +single visible gap or crevice in the face of the steep rock by means of +which he could scramble up to her; and how could he help her, how could +he liberate her, if he did manage to get at her? + +Nevertheless the man drew nearer and nearer. She could by this time make +out his goatskin cloak, his high broad cap, the clean shaved face +peculiar to the mountain goatherds. His dexterity was as astonishing as +the physical strength, with which he often raised himself on the tips of +his toes in order to reach a cleft in the rocks, scarcely visible high +above his head; often he could scarce hold on by the tips of his +fingers, yet the next moment he would swing himself up with half a hand +and, setting his foot in the cleft, look about for a fresh foothold. + +About a yard below Henrietta was a projecting piece of rock just large +enough for a man's foot to stand upon. The next moment Henrietta saw the +herdsman mount to this place. He himself was a good fathom in height and +his head reached up as far as Henrietta's hips. He looked up at her with +a friendly smile, as if he had merely come there to help her down from +her horse. Then he said to her in Roumanian: "_Noroc bun Domna!_" which +means "Good luck to you, my lady!" So even in this perilous situation it +occurred to him to say something pleasant. + +"The horse took a false step, my lady," said he, "but all's well that +ends well. Prithee, mount upon my shoulder, this bush will not hold fast +much longer, it is only a juniper, its roots are weak." Henrietta's +heart failed her. This man surely does not imagine that he will be able +to carry her down on his shoulders. + +"Come, my lady, don't be afraid, I can easily carry you down. Why I +often roam about like this after my kids when they fall into the +precipice; and you are no heavier than a young kid, I'm sure." + +And then, with the hand that remained free, he plucked at the remainder +of the damaged bush. Henrietta perceived with astonishment that the +roots which had not snapped asunder beneath his weight were loosened +from the rock by the mere tug of the man's hand. But what was he going +to do with them? + +The herdsman bade the lady fear nothing; no further accident could +happen, he said; then, sticking the torn out stump between his legs like +a hobby-horse and pressing it against the rock with one hand, he himself +turned his back to the mountain-side and suddenly, stretching his legs +wide apart, let himself glide down the shelving rock. + +Henrietta shrieked aloud, she thought she was lost, but the next moment +the herdsman stood on solid ground and looked up at her with a smile: +"We're all right, you see," he cried. "Oh, I have travelled like this +many a time; it is rare fun,--sledging I call it." + +Sledging indeed!--to plunge down a steep mountain side five fathoms deep +with the aid of a juniper bush! + +From where they now stood it was an easy matter to convey the lady to +the bottom of the precipice, which was overgrown with bright grass, on +which he deposited her. + +"There you are, my lady," said he. "Don't be frightened; I will soon be +back again." + +And with that he scrambled up again towards the wedged-in horse. +Henrietta gazed after him in amazement--whatever was he going to do +there? + +The fellow, on reaching the wriggling horse, first of all caught firm +hold of its front legs and then tied all four legs tightly together with +the stirrup-straps. Thereupon, he seized the beast by his fettered legs, +pulled them over his shoulders, and with a violent jerk freed the animal +from its uncomfortable position and carried it down into the valley +likewise. There he untied its legs, helped it on to its hoofs again, +and, turning with a smile to Henrietta, said: "A fine horse that; it +would have been a shame to have let it come to grief!" + +"And you were able to carry it on your shoulders?" gasped Henrietta. + +"That isn't very much. It scarce weighs more than four hundredweight. +The bear not long ago weighed five, and I had to beat it to death before +I could take it home. Surely your ladyship knows that I am the strong +Juon--Juon Tare?" And the goatherd said this with as much self-evident +pride, as if everyone in the wide world had heard that strong Juon dwelt +among these forests. Henrietta's look of surprise apprised him, however, +that she, at least, had never heard of him. + +"You do not know then, Domna, who I am? Yet I know who you are. I have +often met the _Dumnye Barbatu_[21] and he knows me well. He is the only +man in the world who is as strong as I am. We have often wrestled +together on this grass-plot for a wager. Neither of us has ever been +able to throw the other. His lordship can throw an axe deeper into a +tree than I can, but I can put a greater weight. His lordship can kill +an ox with a blow from his fist, but I can throttle a bear to death. But +we cannot overcome each other, though we have often stood up +together--only in joke, only in sport, of course, your ladyship. It +would not be well if we encountered each other in our wrath--that would +be terrible." + +[Footnote 21: My lord, your husband.] + +All the time he spoke Juon was skilfully mending the torn saddle-girths +and the bridle; then he re-saddled the horse, which was still trembling +in every limb, wiped the bloody foam from its mouth, washed its sores +and encouraged the lady to remount. In a quarter of an hour, he said, +they would meet the road again, and in half an hour they would be at +Hidvár. + +Then the goatherd, who was well acquainted with all the meanderings of +the valley, took the horse's rein and conducted the lady to the mountain +pass, where the beaten track began again. There he kissed her hand and +parted from her. + +"I must now go back," said he, "for they are waiting for me." + +"Who?" + +"My goats and my wife." + +"Then you have a wife? Do you love her?" + +"Love her?" cried the herdsman proudly,--and then he added in a lower +voice: "She is as beautiful as your ladyship!--_Buna nopte, Domna_!"[22] + +[Footnote 22: Good night, my lady.] + +And without waiting for an answer, he plunged back into the forest, +disappearing by leaps and bounds. + +When Henrietta got home she said not a word to anyone about what had +taken place, though the condition of the horse and his harness sufficed +to show that an accident had happened. But she could scarce wait for the +morrow to come, bringing along with it Todor Rubán, from whom she meant +to find out everything relating to Juon Tare.[23] + +[Footnote 23: From the Roumanian _Taria_, strength, solidity.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE GEINA MAID-MARKET + + +"Would your ladyship believe,"--so Todor[24] Rubán began his story of +Juon the strong,--"sitting here as you do by the fireside, accustomed +from your birth to every elegant luxury, with a particular servant +always ready to fly obediently to accomplish each separate command, and +with different glasses and porcelain for each several course at +meals--would your ladyship believe, I ask, that there are people in this +world who know not what it is to have a roof above their heads when they +go to sleep, who would not recognize a bed or a dinner service if they +saw them, nay, who often are in want of bread--and yet, for all that, +are happy? + +[Footnote 24: Theodore.] + +"And yet such people live quite close to us. We need not think of the +savage inhabitants of Oceania,--we can see enough of them and to spare +in this very place. Your ladyship can hear from your balcony the +melancholy songs of their pastoral flutes, especially of an evening, +when the milch-goats are returning from the deep valleys. + +"The herdsman here never sleeps beneath a roof either summer or winter; +every spring he counts the goats of his master's herds and the half of +every increase belongs to him; nobody enquires how he lives there among +his herds in the lofty mountain-passes, how he defends himself against +hurricanes and snow-storms, yes, and against the wild beasts of the +forest, the bears and wolves--nobody troubles his head about all that. + +"Such a goatherd is that same Juon whom your ladyship has learnt to +know. Perhaps we shall hear something more about him some other time, +for his life has been very romantic; now, however, I will only tell you +of a single episode therein: + +"There once lived near here in the district of Vlaskutza, a rich +_pakular_[25] who had scraped together a lot of gold out of a mining +venture at Verespatak, and therefore went by the name of wealthy Misule. + +[Footnote 25: Roguish speculator.] + +"He had an only daughter, Mariora by name,--and has your ladyship any +idea of what Roumanian beauties are? A sculptor could not devise a +nobler model. So beautiful was she that her fame had spread through the +Hungarian plain as far as Arad, and whenever great folks from foreign +lands came to see Gyenstar and Brivadia they would make a long circuit +and come to Vlaskucza in order to rest at the house of old Misule, where +the finest prospect of all was a look into the eyes of Mariora. + +"This wonderously beautiful maiden loved the poor goatherd Juon, who +possessed nothing in the world but his sheepskin pelisse and his +alpenstock; him she loved and him alone. Wealthy old Misule would +naturally have nothing to say to such a match; he had in his eye an +influential friend of his, a gentleman and village elder in the county +of Féhervár, one Gligor Tobicza,--to him he meant to give his daughter. +Reports were spread that Juon was a wizard. It was Misule's wife who +fastened this suspicion upon him, because he had succeeded in bewitching +her daughter. She said among other things, that he understood the +language of the brute beasts, that he had often been seen speaking with +wolves and bears, and that when he spread out his shaggy sheepskin, he +sat down at one end of it and a bear at the other. There was this much +of truth in the tale, that once when he was tending his flocks Juon +heard a painful groaning in the hollow of a rock, and, venturing in, +perceived lying in one corner a she-bear who, mortally injured in some +distant hunt, had contrived to drag its lacerated body hither to die. +Beside the old she-bear lay a little suckling cub. The mother dying +before his very eyes, Juon had compassion on the desolate cub, took it +under his protection, and carried it to a milch-goat, who suckled it. +The little wild beast thrived upon the milk of the tame animal and, +softened by human fellowship, grew up much attached to its master. +Bears, I may tell your ladyship, are not bloodthirsty by nature. +Henceforth the bear went forth with the herdsman and the herds, helped +to drive the goats together of an evening, and enlivened the long +dreary days by turning somersaults--an art at which bears excel. At +night it slept by Juon's side and made itself cosey by burying its snout +in his bosom. When meal-time came, the bear sat down beside Juon, for he +knew that every second slice of cheese would be his. He also fetched +fire-wood to put under the pot in which the maize-pottage was boiling. +Then, too, he explored the woods in search of wild honey and brought +back his booty to share it with Juon. When it was very hot he carried +his pelisse after him, a pelt more or less made very little difference +to him. Juon had nobody to speak to but the bear, and if a man speaks +quite seriously to the beasts they get to understand him at last. +Moreover, in moments of ill temper the bear had learnt to recognize that +Juon's fists were no less vigorous than his own paws, so that he had no +temptation to be ungrateful. + +"This, then, was the man beloved by Mariora. + +"In our part of the country, my lady, there is an original popular +custom, the maiden-market. + +"In the highlands of Bihar stands the rocky bluff of Geina, which grows +green, like every other Transylvanian height, as soon as it is cleansed +from snow. There I first met Juon, many years ago. He stood there on the +mountain summit the live-long day, blowing on his alpenstock, while the +bear was plucking strawberries in the valley below and guarding the +goats, not from running away, but from other wild beasts. The prospect +from this spot is really sublime. In one direction you can see the +mountain-chain of Vulcani, in the other the environs of Klausenberg and +the Gyalian Alps. But westwards stretches the great Hungarian plain, +whose misty expanse loses itself against the horizon. + +"On a certain day of the year things are very lively at Geina. In the +evening of the first Sunday after St. John Baptist's day the +ginger-bread-bakers come thither from Rezbanya and Topanfalu with their +horses dragging loads of honey-cakes, and barrels full of meal and +brandy, and pitch their tents in the forest-clearing. On that Sunday the +highlands are full of merry folks, and the maiden-market is held there. + +"From near and far repair thither the mothers and their marriageable +daughters, all tricked out with their dowries ready in the shape of +strings of gold and silver coins round their necks, with bright +variegated garments at their horses' sides, and stuffed pillows and +painted pitchers on the saddles in front of them. All these things they +unpack and arrange in rows in front of the tents, just as at an ordinary +fair; and then the purchasers come along, jaunty, connubially-inclined +young fellows, who inspect the dowries, engage the wenches in +conversation, and chaffer and haggle and go away again if they cannot +come to terms. Many of the girls are kept back, others are given up to +the first bidder, and when once a couple is mated they are escorted to +the tune of lively flutes and bagpipes to the first Kalugye,[26] or +pastor, who sanctifies the union according to the religion of the +spouses. + +[Footnote 26: Or rather, _Calugaru_, monk, not pastor.] + +"Your ladyship laughs at this custom, yet it is capable of a very +natural explanation. The inhabitants of these Alpine regions live +necessarily far away from one another--how else could they tend their +herds?--even the nearest neighbours being a good stiff half hour's walk +apart. So the young girls stay at home, and the young fellows only see +them once a year--at the maiden-market of Geina. + +"Now, of course such a famous beauty as Mariora had no need to go all +the way to the Geina fair in search of a husband, especially as one had +already been chosen for her who brought with him all the pride of +riches. But her father Misule would not on any account have neglected +the opportunity of exhibiting his daughter, during the pilgrimage to +Geina, as the most lovely girl of the district; and his wife could not +have lived unless she had hung out Mariora's gold-embroidered shift in +front of the tent and haughtily sent at least ten suitors about their +business. + +"Gligor Tobicza, coming all the way from Rezpatak, appeared at the fair +at the same time, with twelve high-backed horses and six Gipsy +musicians, ribbons and coloured kerchiefs fluttering from every horse +and every cap. The comrades drank together and then had a little rumpus +also. Tobicza broke the heads of a few of the more uproarious spirits, +and then peace was restored again, and the general good humour was +higher than ever--only the bride remained sad. + +"Suddenly it occurred to Tobicza that it would be nice to get a kiss +from Mariora. But the girl repulsed him: 'I am not your wife yet,' she +cried. + +"'Yet if Juon were to ask for you, I suppose you would not say no?' + +"The girl honestly confessed that she would not. + +"At this Tobicza was mad with rage. 'Let him come hither then, if he +loves you,' cried he, 'let him tear you away from me if he be the better +man. I will strike him dead with this--see!' And drawing a long +goat-skin bag out of his girdle, the bottom of which was choke full of +ducats, and whirling it round his head like a morning-star[27] he turned +forestwards and roared: 'Come hither, tattered Juon, thou ragged dog! +'Tis now maiden-market day if you want to buy Mariora! Come forth thou +cowardly hound and let me beat you to death! I'll fell you to the earth +with my ducats. I'll break your head with my gold money.' And the whole +crowd laughed at and loudly applauded these witticisms. + +[Footnote 27: A spiked club.] + +"But just as he was raging most furiously, a great roaring suddenly +arose from the direction of the forest,--whereupon the crowd rushed away +from their tents to their horses, overturning barrels and trunks as they +went, the women screaming and the men cursing, and all with one voice +exclaiming: 'the bear is coming!' 'Juon is coming with his bear!' + +"That was enough for every one. Only the most determined sportsmen care +about tackling a bear in the open, for even when mortally wounded the +beast is quite capable of taking his revenge. In an instant every soul +rushed headlong from the summit of Geina into the roads below, leaving +behind bride, dowry and drinking booth; so that when the bear and Juon +leaped out of the juniper bushes there was nobody left on Geina. Nobody, +that is, but Mariora, who did not fly with the fugitives, but hid +herself in the tent. + +"Tobicza had headed the race, but as his legs were heavy with the mead +he had drunk, he threw away his big bag of gold to lighten his limbs and +prevent Juon from overtaking him. But Juon, snatching it up, whirled it +round like a sling and threw it with all his might after his rival, +exclaiming: 'There's your money, big voice! take it and buy a wife with +it. You are nothing at all without it. But I am still Juon, though I +have only an axe in my hands.' + +"Then he went up to Mariora, kissed and embraced her, and asked her if +she would be his bride and go away and live with him in the forest. And +when she said: 'Yes,' he kissed her again and took her with him into the +free forest without once looking back at the dowry lying abandoned there +with all its gold and glitter. In his eyes only Mariora was of gold, +nothing else. + +"The bear meanwhile made some little havoc in a mild sort of way, among +the honey-cakes, but he did no other damage. + +"And I can assure your ladyship that this wife who has nothing in the +world but her husband, but that husband all her own--is even now very +happy." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE BLACK JEWELRY + + +It was during this time that Henrietta cherished the bizarre illusion +that it was her vocation to cultivate the acquaintance of the honest but +homely peasantry living around, in whose lowly circles a widowed +protestant pastor's wife and a worn-out old miner were the principal +personages. Her husband laughed good-humouredly at her vagaries, as he +called them: "She is only a child," he cried, "let her play and cut out +dolls' clothes for those who want them! When she has grown up, she will +very soon look out for other diversions." "My dear child," he would +sometimes say to her, "do exactly as you like. I only beg of you one +thing: whenever you are tired of these innocent, well-meaning illusions +and return to rough, prosaic, brutal reality; whenever you feel yourself +deceived or wounded by those whom you may have implicitly trusted, pray +recollect that you have a natural protector, a real friend--your +husband!" + +Thus it was that Hátszegi spoke to his child-wife on the rare occasions +when they met together. + +It was only rarely, for they saw nothing of each other for the greater +part of the day. During the so-called honey-moon the husband and wife +had scarcely spent half an hour a day in each other's company. + +On one occasion the pastor went to Déva, and when he returned he had a +lot to tell her ladyship of a fine young fellow, Szilard by name, who +held the office of magistrate at Lippá. His other name he had forgotten, +but Henrietta easily guessed it. Mr. Szilard had been very polite to +him, the parson added, and had joyfully listened to all he had to tell +him about Hidvár and its mistress; but when the priest had pressed him +to pay a visit to that part of the country to see and admire its rare +natural beauties, the young man had replied: "Anywhere in the world but +there." What possible objection could he have against the district? + +This piece of news gave Henrietta plenty to think about for days and +nights together. So Szilard had not remained at Pest; he had followed +her to the utmost confines of the realm; they were now quite close to +each other and yet he would not see her. He seeks her out and avoids her +at the same time. What a romantic dreamer! + +And yet there was nothing romantic in it after all. Szilard had come to +Arad county on a visit to Mr. Sipos's relations; he had been elected a +magistrate there, and he did not approach Hidvár because he had no +desire to run after a former sweetheart who was now another man's wife. +As for Henrietta she had long ago earned from her husband's friends the +name of the "little nun," the "little eremite" because nothing could +entice her from her seclusion. If only they had known her thoughts! + +One day, however, she surprised her husband by expressing a wish to go +to the Charity Ball at a neighbouring mining town; it was for raising +funds to build up again a burnt-down village. + +Hátszegi, always courteous, bowed and consented. + +Henrietta had made up her mind to go as simply dressed as possible. She +wanted to be modest and humble, as it befitted a woman who, rich +herself, envied everyone who was poor. While she was still in the midst +of her preparations, she received through the post (Margari went to the +nearest post-office once a week) a little sealed packet which, to judge +from the postmark, must have been posted at Lippá. Before breaking it +open, she locked herself in her room, like one about to commit a capital +offence, and three times examined the seals which guarded it before she +ventured to open it. The seal bore the impress not of a crest or an +initial letter as usual, but of a single star. There could be no doubt +whatever now as to who the sender was. + +Then, very cautiously, she broke the seals and opened with a beating +heart the lid of the box. Inside was a little morocco casket. + +With a tremulous hand she opened it, and found inside it a pair of +earrings and a brooch. Both earrings and brooch were of oxydized silver, +dark blue in colour passing insensibly into black. The pendants of the +earrings were in the shape of little fishes hanging upon little hooks +and with mobile little scales, which at the slightest movement made them +seem alive. Each of them had a pair of very tiny but very brilliant +diamond eyes. The brooch on the other hand represented a butterfly, also +with two sparkling diamond eyes; one of them was blue, a rare colour for +a diamond. + +Henrietta was indeed pleasantly surprised. + +There was not a line of writing along with them, but was there any +necessity for it? How simple, how nice it all was! How well he must know +her taste who had selected it! Her husband could never have hit upon +such an idea. + +What should she say to her husband if he should notice them? But why +should she show them to anybody? She would not even put them on till the +last moment, just before she started on her journey. All day long she +was as happy as a child who is going to its first party; even in her +husband's presence she could not control her delight. + +But Hátszegi never enquired why she was so joyous. On the day before the +entertainment he went with his wife to the town in question, where he +owned, not the castle, it is true, but a comfortable mansion of +considerable extent, whose first floor was rented by a mining engineer +and his family. These worthy people felt highly honoured at receiving +the baron and his lady beneath their roof. They gave their distinguished +guests their best rooms which looked out upon the street, and retired +themselves to the back of the house. The mining engineer had a pretty +young wife, with whom Henrietta immediately made friends. Ladies love +the close companionship of their own sex best whenever something +entirely different is occupying their thoughts. + +On the morning of the great day the big-wigs of the little town hastened +to pay their respects to the great lady who had arrived in their midst, +and whose reputation for benevolence had spread far and wide. Amongst +them was an aged woman whose hands and head were continually shaking, +and who almost collapsed with terror every time anybody accosted her +unexpectedly. She was the widow of a Unitarian pastor, well to do, +people said, and a large mining proprietor. Her nervous affection was +due to a painful episode in her life. One night Fatia Negra and his band +had broken into her house and played havoc there, and ever since she had +been tremulous and easily terror-stricken. The old woman was delighted +to see Henrietta, whom she called the guardian angel of the county, and +she would not be content till she had seized Henrietta's little hands in +her own trembling ones and raised them painfully to her lips. + +At last the joyous evening arrived. Henrietta put on a very simple +ball-dress, compared with which the dress of the mining engineer's wife +was really luxurious. The black ornaments well became her attire, but +the engineer's wife was astounded at the simplicity of the great lady's +costume. She had now only one anxious moment to go through, the moment +when her husband first saw the new ornaments. But this moment sped away +without any catastrophe, although with much of heart throbbing. Hátszegi +observed the jewels in the ears and round the neck of his bride and paid +her the compliment of saying that they contrasted admirably with the +snowy whiteness of her alabaster neck. + +So no ill came of it after all. + +When the time came, the baron's carriage drove up to the door and the +ladies entered it. The baron himself was to come afterwards with the +mining engineer when the empty carriage returned. In the meantime the +baroness was entrusted to the care of the mining engineer's wife, who +was one of the notabilities of the little town. + +The ball was to take place in the large room of the chief inn of the +place, and the baroness, on entering it, was surrounded by a crowd of +admirers. The young wife felt that she was being made much of. She felt +in the midst of all this homage and devotion as if she had been lifted +up to Heaven, and her heart was full of gratitude. If he be here (and he +_must_ be here somewhere, hiding in the crowd, no doubt, in order not to +excite attention) then he will be able to see from his hiding-place how +pale the face of his old love is from sorrow--and yet how radiant +because of the honour now shown to her. + +But Szilard did not see her face at that moment. He was far away, never +dreaming that anybody still thought of him. A surprise of quite another +sort awaited Henrietta. + +After she had twice walked round the room--there was a pause just then +between two dances--she perceived sitting on a corner seat the old lady +already alluded to, whose head and hands were always shaking so, and +hastened up to her as to an old acquaintance. + +The old pastor's wife, perceiving Henrietta, rose at first from her seat +in order to meet her half way, but the next moment she fell back +horror-stricken, at the same time stretching out both hands in front of +her with widely-outspread fingers as if to ward her off. Henrietta, +unable to explain this odd gesture, remained rooted to the spot with +astonishment. + +The old lady, still continuing to stretch out her trembling hands, now +advanced towards her with tottering footsteps indeed, yet with flaming +eyes. Everyone regarded the two women with amazement. There was a dead +silence, and in the midst of this astonishment, in the midst of this +silence, the old woman shrieked with a voice full of horror that turned +everybody's blood cold: "Madame!--those jewels--on your neck--that black +butterfly--'tis the very same--which on that fearful night--that +accursed Fatia Negra--tore from my neck--those black earrings which he +tore from my ears--one eye of the butterfly is a blue diamond!" + +Henrietta felt as if the floor were slipping away from beneath her feet. +She was wearing stolen jewels on her neck, and their former owner had +recognized them! + +She heard a hissing and a murmuring all around her. She gazed about her, +possibly for a protector, and she perceived that she was standing alone +in the midst of the room and that everyone recoiled from her, even her +companion, and all eyes were fixed upon her. She had a feeling of being +branded with red-hot irons as she stood there, dishonoured and +unprotected in the midst of so many strangers, and over against her a +terrible accuser who had the horrible right to ask her: "Madame, where +did you get those stolen jewels?"--and she had nought to say to such a +question. + +At that moment a manly voice, which she at once recognized, rang out +close beside her. + +"Madame, give me your arm!--I bought those jewels for you at Paris. I +will be responsible for them." + +It was her husband. And with that, he strode up to his wife, seized her +hand and, casting a glance at the surrounding throng, cried in a +threatening voice to those closest to him: "Whoever dares to cast a +disrespectful glance upon my wife, will have to reckon with me. Make +room there!" + +Henrietta saw how the crowd made way, how everyone stepped aside at +this word of command; she saw even the shaking widow sit down somewhere; +but then everything began to grow black before her eyes and she sank +swooning into the arms of the man whom, hitherto, she had hated so much, +and who in this most awful moment had been her sole deliverer! When she +came to again, she found herself in the carriage. Her husband had not +stayed a single instant longer in that town, but was conveying her, +though it was now night time, straight to Hidvár. + +It is not very advisable to travel in pitch-black darkness along +mountain roads. Henrietta could gather from the slow jolting of the +coach that they were proceeding very cautiously. She opened the window +and peeped out. She then saw her husband walking along by the side of +the coach with a lantern in his hand picking his way. The coachman was +sitting on the box and the heyduke was close to the carriage in order to +steady it over the more difficult places. + +A voice within her reproached her for hating this man so long--how could +she have done it? He had always been delicacy itself towards her, he had +never demanded anything of her, and no doubt the reason why he had held +back from his young wife for a time was because he would not importune +her with his presence--her who had now learnt to recognize him as her +sole protector! + +After a vast amount of jolting and tumbling about, they got at last on +to a regular road again. Here the baron halted the coach and looked +inside it. When he saw that Henrietta was awake, he asked her if she +wanted anything, and whether she would allow him to sit down beside her. + +Henrietta had resolved to tell her husband everything at the very first +question, everything, even to her most secret enthusiasms; nay, even +that which God alone could read in her heart. But Hátszegi gave her no +opportunity of doing so. + +"My dear Henrietta," said he, "don't imagine for a moment that I shall +trouble my head as to how you came into possession of that mysterious +jewelry, or why you should have chosen them out of all your bijous to +wear on this particular evening. I have charged myself with all the +responsibility in the matter. I could not think of anything more +appropriate to say at the moment. Only one thing I beg of you: tell me +no lies. Act as if you had received the jewelry from me. I will so +arrange the matter that nothing more will be heard about it. Such things +may happen to anybody. The only awkwardness about the business is that +the things were recognized in such a public place, and that the former +possessor of the ornaments is so extremely nervous. Don't be afraid! +Give me your hand! Why do you tremble so? I'll guarantee that there +shall be no unpleasant consequences for you. In case, however, you did +not receive this jewelry from your dear grandfather, I ought, I think, +to write to the good old man and put his mind at ease by letting him +know that I gave it you, as goodness only knows what Rumour may whisper +in his ear." + +Could any man have asked his wife for a confession more tenderly? + +"Shall I write to him?" + +"Yes, write," said Henrietta, and with that she fell upon her husband's +bosom and began to sob bitterly--and a husband's breast is no bad place +for a wife's flowing tears. + +Henrietta was forced to confess to herself that her husband, at least so +far as she was concerned, was a man of noble and tender sentiments. From +henceforth she began to regard him through a glass of quite another +colour; she began to believe that the faults she had noticed in him were +only the usual bad habits of his sex, and began to discover all sorts of +hidden good qualities in him. She began to love her husband. + +When early next morning the carriage stood in the courtyard of Hidvár. +Henrietta awoke in her husband's arms: there she had been sleeping for a +long time. When she looked round and encountered Hátszegi's bright manly +glances it almost seemed to her as if the dreadful scene of the night +before was a mere dream, from which it was a joy to awake. When her +husband kissed her hand before departing for his own room, Henrietta +pressed _his_ hand in return and gave him a grateful smile. + +But what then was the key to this horrible mystery? Who could have hit +upon the idea of sending this jewelry? There was not a gleam of light to +go by. An enigma closed the way to every elucidation, and this enigma +was--Fatia Negra. How did the jewelry get out of his hands into +Henrietta's? What was the motive for such a transfer? And who was the +man himself? This thought gave Henrietta no rest. + +Why could they not seize this famous robber? First of all, she kept on +asking her husband about it, and he replied that the whole story about +Fatia Negra was only a Wallachian fable. It was true that robberies were +committed by men who regularly wore black masks, but it was never one +and the same man who was guilty of these misdeeds. Nevertheless the name +had won a sort of nimbus of notoriety among the common people, many had +made use of it as well as of the mask attaching to it, and though it was +an undeniable fact that Fatia Negra had been caught and hanged more than +once, yet he still continued to live and go about. The popular mythology +had immortalized him. + +The parson, however, had quite a different opinion of the matter; he +seemed to be more particularly informed. Although he opined Fatia Negra +wandered through every corner of the kingdom, his abiding nest was in +this district; he had a sweetheart here to whom he appeared +periodically. + +"Why don't they seize him then?" asked Henrietta. + +"Because a part of the common folks holds with him, and the other part +thinks he is in league with the devil." + +"I would set a high price on his head and give it to whomsoever caught +him." + +"Oh, my lady, the various counties have done that scores of times, and +now and then a young fellow braver than the rest has tried to catch him; +but they have all of them ended by losing their own heads instead of +getting his." + +"Never mind, I will not be satisfied till that man is in my power. Ah, +the robber-chieftain little imagines what an enemy he has raised up +against him in me, when he put this terrible riddle into my heart. And +it is a riddle I mean to solve, too." + +The priest shook his head as if he would have said: "Strong men have +given up the task, what can a weak woman do?" + +Henrietta told her husband not a word of all this, and the chatter about +the black jewelry gradually died a natural death. Hátszegi sent back her +property to the widow and told her where she could find the vendor--in +Paris. We can readily imagine that she did not go all the way to Paris +to make enquiries, being quite content with getting back her stolen +property. + +This incident made such an impression on Henrietta that she avoided all +those circles in which she had been so ruthlessly exposed to insult. A +blush of shame and anger suffused her face whenever she thought of it. +She also abandoned all her work of benevolence among the people. She +began to think that her husband was right after all when he said, as he +did continually: "Let the gentry stick to the gentry, and the poor to +the poor!" In fact she was now inclined to think him right in +everything; the easiest thing a wife can do, she said to herself, is to +trust her husband implicitly. Henceforth Henrietta adopted another mode +of life; her motto now was: "Whatever my husband chooses, for at home he +is my lord!" + +So the halls of Hidvár overflowed with guests again, and balls, +_soirées_, and picnics followed each other in quick succession. The +young wife learnt to know the gentry and magnates of Transylvania face +to face, and it was no wonder if she quickly accommodated herself to her +new surroundings and began to be reconciled to her fate. She felt like +one who, after seeing a landscape by moonlight and thinking it highly +crude, sees it again by the light of day and finds it quite different. + +And now the autumn came, the season when men prepare and congregate +together for dangerous hunting expeditions. Bears and boars are now the +only topics. For a week beforehand the women cannot get a word out of +the gentlemen, they herd together in the armoury and talk of nothing but +guns and dogs, firing each other by recounting their past exploits, +making bets, and playing at cards. The ladies at such times are shelved +altogether. + +During the actual hunting season the men are not to be seen for whole +weeks at a time, but off they go to the woods and stalk or lurk for +their prey in the midst of water and ice, and the ladies think it +nothing extraordinary if their husbands or lovers, as the case may be, +come back, or are carried back, drenched with rain, invisible for mud, +with their garments torn to shreds and their limbs mangled; for after +all it is the only manly diversion--the only diversion really fit for a +gentleman. + +When the bear-hunting began, that heroic cripple, Squire Gerzson, also +appeared with Count Kengyelesy and numerous other familiar faces from +distant counties, who had all met together on the day after Henrietta's +wedding, and who regularly made Hidvár their autumn trysting-place. + +Count Kengyelesy did not bring his wife with him: the little rogue on +her husband's departure declared that she was ill and remained +behind--_verbum sap_! + +Henrietta was very much occupied by the duties of hospitality. She took +a pride in anticipating the wants of all her guests, and at the evening +_soirées_ she played the part of hostess with becoming _aplomb_. + +One day the gentlemen with their beaters, rangers, dogs, and carts, had +all gone off to the forest as usual, and Henrietta was left alone in the +castle with Clementina, Margari, and the domestics. As for Margari, he +would not have gone to the woods for all the bears in the world. + +Clementina, solemnly cackling gossip as usual, imparted to Henrietta +that the night before, when the gentlemen played at cards, the luck had +run dead against Hátszegi: Count Kengyelesy had won back from him the +whole of the Kengyelesy estate. "Thank God!" sighed Henrietta at this +glad intelligence. This was one of the things that had weighed down her +heart like a nightmare, one of the partition-walls, so to speak, which +had hitherto separated her from her husband. This, at any rate, had now +disappeared. + +Clementina went on to say that my lord baron had not cared a straw for +this loss; nay, he had laughed and said that it only showed how lucky he +was in love. Henrietta applied the saying to herself and began to be +quite proud of it. + +The count, however, pursued Clementina, had said that he durst not +rejoice in his winnings or that accursed Fatia Negra might rob him of +them again on the highroad as he had done once before. + +A cold shudder ran through Henrietta's limbs at that accursed name. That +Fatia Negra! She had already begun to forget him. And thus old memories +began to revive, and at last her excited imagination began to fancy that +there was some sort of connecting link between Szilard and Fatia Negra, +between the dearest and the most terrible of beings! What if her +rejected lover had avenged himself by publicly shaming her! It was with +such anxieties as these that the young wife went to sleep in her lonely +chamber. + +Early next day she received a visit from the priest. + +All the time the army of guests was going in and out of the castle +gates, he never came near the place, but now he hastened to exchange a +few words with the lady of the house. And Henrietta was very glad that +he had come. + +"I bring you news of Fatia Negra and of other things also," said the +priest, as soon as he was alone with the lady. + +Henrietta was instantly all attention. + +"Yesterday the famous butterwoman who dwells at Dupe Piatra came to open +her soul to me in a very difficult matter. This woman, as the whole +country-side knows, is a famous quack and a preparer of such specifics +as it is unlawful for one man to give to another. Formerly she was +visited by multitudes of people suffering from every sort of +ill--especially girls. More than once she has paid dearly for her +quackery, for the county authorities apprehended her for poisoning, and +clapped her into jail for some years. Since then she has grown more +cautious and does not care about seeing everyone in her lonely little +forest hut, especially since I impressed upon her severely what a heavy +load she was burdening her conscience with by turning the secret healing +forces which Nature had implanted in the herbs of the field, to the +destruction of ignorant humanity. Yesterday, then, this woman came to +me (and it is a very rare thing to see her among men) and informed me +that last night Fatia Negra had visited her." + +Henrietta shuddered all over. So he was as near as that! + +"The medicine-woman said that the mask requested her to prepare poison +for him that would be sure to kill. She said she would not as she had no +wish to fall again into the hands of the county authorities. He promised +her money, he showed her a lot of ducats. She told him it wouldn't do. +Then he drew forth a pistol, pressed the barrel to her temples, and +threatened instantly to blow her brains out if she did not comply with +his request. 'Very well,' said she, 'fire away: I would rather be shot +than hanged.' Perceiving he could do nothing with her by threats, he +fell to entreating, and said it was not a man he wanted to poison but a +wild beast. 'What sort of a beast do you want to kill?' she asked him. +'That is no business of yours,' said he. 'But it is my business,' she +replied, 'for the poison that a wolf or a savage dog will eat, a bear +will not even sniff at, and what makes one beast ill, on that will +another beast thrive.' 'Then you must know that it is a bear.'--'Swear +that you do not want the venom for a human being.' Fatia Negra swore +with all sorts of subterranean oaths that it was really for a bear that +he wanted the poison. The medicine-woman thereupon prepared for him a +mortal concoction capable of killing the most vigorous beast in the +world; then she kneaded honey-cakes, a delicacy to which bears are very +partial as everyone knows, and mixed it well into them. Fatia Negra gave +her ten ducats for the poison, but the old woman's conscience would not +allow her to rest, and the next day she brought the ducats to me for the +church's needs, as she put it,--and would I help her to relieve her soul +of the heavy burden which oppressed it. And what now if Fatia Negra, +contrary to his oath, were to make use of this poison against his +fellow-men?" + +"That would be horrible," said Henrietta apprehensively. + +"I don't think he will," said the priest; "the poison is really meant +for a beast." + +"I suppose he wants to kill some animal who is a domestic guardian, in +order that he may rob a rich man's house." + +"No. He wants to kill a faithful animal in order that he may steal a +poor man's only treasure--his wife." + +"How so?" + +"Listen, my lady, and I will tell you. After this had happened, Juon +Tare's wife, Mariora, came to me at an unusual hour. Generally she only +comes on a Sunday for prayers. What she said to me was not so much a +confession made to a priest as a confidence reposed in a friend; I am +therefore not committing sacrilege by retailing it to another person. +That young woman is exposed to temptation." + +"What! in the midst of the forest?" + +"Yes, in the midst of the forest, where, for weeks at a stretch, the +herdsman hears no other human voice than his own thrown back to him by +the echoes. The seducer in this case is Fatia Negra." + +"Then he must dwell hard by." + +"None knows his abiding dwelling, but his temporary resting places among +the high Alps are these herdsmen's lonely huts. For this reason he lives +in good fellowship with the mountain goatherds, does them no harm, +brings presents for them and their wives, pays handsomely for every bit +of bread, and thus makes it pretty sure that they will never betray him. +The place where Juon Tare's wife dwells is called the ice valley. They +call it so because it is here that the first ice of the winter appears; +as early as mid-September the stream is fringed with it. There, by the +side of the stream, stands a little wooden hut, one of whose walls +reposes on the ascending rock behind it. Here dwells the fair Mariora +all alone. And yet I am wrong to say alone, for three of them dwell +together there--herself, a little one-year-old child, and a tame bear. +Her husband she sometimes does not see for a week at a time, especially +in the autumn and winter when the freshly fallen snow has obliterated +the pastures. At such times the goatherd encamps on the summit of the +mountains and nourishes his kids by felling with his axe a growing +beech-tree, on which the little creatures fall and gnaw off the juicy +buds. Whenever a snowstorm overtakes him, the herdsman drives the goats +into a glen, and lest the snow should bury them all by the morning while +they sleep, he drives them continually up and down, thus making them +trample down the falling flakes. Meanwhile Mariora sits at home and +spins the wool from which she makes her own and her husband's clothes, +or she pounds maize into meal in a stone mortar for household needs, +playing at intervals with her child." + +"And an evil hand would destroy their simple joys!" + +"Hitherto the goatherd and his wife feared nothing. It is good to be in +those solitudes. God dwells very near to them there. Then, too, Juon +Tare is a strong man; no evil beast can harm him. Nor has he any fear of +robbers. What can they deprive him of? Mariora is in a good place out of +the reach of snow-storms. If a savage beast or a vagabond were to try to +harm her, there is Ursu, the bear, with the terrible jaws,--he would +tear them to pieces. So your ladyship will perceive that Juon Tare's +castle is provided with a very strong guardian against thieves and wild +beasts--but who can guard it against the wily and the insinuating? Fatia +Negra is a guest of longstanding at the hut in the ice valley, and never +goes thither empty handed. He brought the woman pearls and coral which +she innocently hung about her person. How was she to know whether such +trinkets were worth thousands or whether they could be bought in a +pedler's booth for a few pence? She fancies it is but the thank-offering +of a grateful guest. But now her eyes have been opened to the fact that +these gifts _are_ costly, very costly,--for the Black Mask demanded a +price for them which all the treasures in the world could not outweigh, +a price, the bare mention of which caused her to shut the door in his +face. And when he, unable to obtain his desire by fair words, attempted +to gain his object by force, a single cry for help from the woman caused +Fatia Negra to feel Ursu's paws on his shoulders and so he knows that +this lonely woman is right well defended. Only at Mariora's command did +the bear release Black Mask who, attacked from behind, was unable to +defend himself. Burning with rage, he quitted the hut and said, +meaningly to the woman: 'You shall be mine nevertheless!' Mariora came +to me next day, full of despair, telling me the whole story, and asking +me whether she ought to tell her husband. I advised her to keep the +secret in her own bosom and to close her door against Fatia Negra. Oh, I +know the fellow! It is good to guard against him but it is not advisable +to scratch him. He is no ordinary man. And now putting together all this +with the confession of the Dupe Piatra milk-woman, I have a strong +suspicion that Fatia Negra wants to poison the herdsman's bear." + +"I will not allow it," interrupted the baroness emphatically. + +"We shall scarcely be able to prevent it, my lady, for how can we warn +the dwellers in the mountain hut of their danger? It is of no use +sending a letter for they cannot read. We cannot entrust the secret to +anyone, for no living soul in these parts would dare to convey any +message to the disadvantage of the mysterious Fatia Negra. I myself dare +not do it. I too am afraid of him. I am sure that if he found it out, +and he is sure to do so, my days would be numbered." + +"Yet I know someone who will take this message to the hut of Juon Tare." + +"Not your ladyship, I hope?" + +"No. Even if I knew my way among these mountains I would not venture to +expose myself to the perils of such a journey after my last experience; +since then I have grown timid and nervous. But I know of one who will +hasten to take it, who will not be afraid, and who will show no mercy to +him before whom everyone else trembles." + +The priest did not guess to whom Henrietta alluded, yet he himself had +once told her ladyship that Black Mask had a sweetheart to whom he had +been married, not before a priest indeed, but in the sight of Heaven, +and that this woman was very jealous and very brave. "But I beg of your +ladyship," the priest had said on that occasion, "to leave my name out +of the transaction if you repeat this secret, for otherwise, people will +hear one fine morning that the worthy pastor of Hidvár has been found in +his room with a split skull." + +Scarcely had the priest quitted the castle than Henrietta had the horses +put to the carriage, took Clementina with her in order to avoid all +suspicion, and drove to Tökefalu. There, in front of the house of rich +old Onucz she stopped and descended. The Wallachian Nabob was much +pleased to have the honour of entertaining so distinguished a guest, and +immediately spread his table and loaded it with preserves, honey, and +fresh cheese. Clementina, who had a good appetite, remained with their +host and made ready to talk scandal of her mistress and insinuate that +the baroness wanted to get some money without her husband's knowledge, +whilst Henrietta locked herself up with Anicza in the latter's bedroom +and talked with her concerning things which had no relationship whatever +with money. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TWO TALES, OF WHICH ONLY ONE IS TRUE + + +After a couple of days the whole hunting party returned from the +mountains. This was much sooner than they had determined, and the cause +was a very serious accident which had befallen Baron Hátszegi. They +brought him home in an ambulance car to Henrietta's great consternation. +The baroness, sitting by the bedside, heard from the doctor that her +husband's wounds were serious, but that his life was not in danger, and +that he might even be allowed to smoke a cigar if he liked. Then Mr. +Gerzson related how it had happened: "Only imagine, your ladyship! This +irrepressible friend of ours, not content with pursuing game all day +through the thickets, learns, late in the evening, that a gigantic old +bear was trotting towards the ice valley, and, without saying a word to +anybody, must needs leave the company and set off alone, late at night, +on the track, with only a double-barrelled musket and not so much as a +dog to keep him company. The bear enticed Leonard further and further. +At last down he squats before him in the bright moonlight and begins +licking his paws; then suddenly quits the path and disappears. Leonard +thought at first that the bear had returned within the deadly circle +drawn for him by our beaters, till, all at once, on reaching a steep +slope covered with reeds, he again heard a growling and perceived the +savage beast trying to scale the slope. The place was too steep for a +man to climb, but a bear with the help of his long strong claws can +scale it like a fly climbing up a wall. Leonard soon saw that he would +be unable to get a close shot at the bear, so he resolved to fire down +from where he was at random. But the experienced old brute, guessing +this good idea, instantly executed one of those surprising feats which +only fall within the observation of veteran hunters. While Leonard was +taking aim, the bear rolled rapidly down the steep incline by means of a +series of clever somersaults and rushed upon Leonard with a sort of +swift shamble. And a cursed bad manoeuvre it is, I can tell you. The +acrobatic beast, whether a man hits it or not inevitably bears down the +hunter by his sheer weight, and as a man's bones are more brittle than a +beast's, and he has no tough pelt to cover him withal, he will be +infallibly crushed to pulp,--while the bear takes the whole thing as a +mere joke and ambles on further. But the whole affair did not last half +as long as I take to tell it. Leonard had just time enough to fling +himself on the ground before the first rush came. Then he felt a heavy +body fall prone upon him and then they began to roll over and over in +company among all sorts of stones and bushes, till a benevolent rock +interrupted their rapid descent. Fortunately the bear was underneath and +lay stunned at full length upon the ground. Our friend Leonard naturally +did not wait for his travelling companions to pick him up. He had lost +his musket and it was a good job that his hunting-knife had snapped off +close at the hilt instead of running into his body; then, too, his knees +and elbows were badly crushed, yet he had sufficient strength and +presence of mind to drag himself back to our hunting box, and his story +was a very pleasant surprise for us, I can tell you. At first, indeed, +we were much alarmed, and fancied that every bone in his body was out of +joint, but now we can look on it merely as soldiers' luck. To-morrow +he'll be up no doubt, and the day after to-morrow we shall all be +dancing." + +Henrietta had never removed her eyes from her husband's face during this +narration, and it was plain from his looks that he was not proud of his +adventure and did not want it talked about. "Why do you frighten my wife +to death?" he said. "It is a mere trifle. Let me remain for a whole +night in cold wet wraps, and to-morrow I shall be all right. And now, +enough of the stupid business. And will you please, Henrietta, look +after my guests while I lie here in swaddling bands? All I want is a +couple of days of rest and then I shall be on my legs again." + +Towards midnight Henrietta disappeared from among her guests and went to +enquire after Leonard; but she found his chamber door locked, and +received no answer to her gentle enquiries, from which she gathered that +Leonard was still dozing. She did not want to disturb him, and as her +husband's guests, judging by the noise they made, had evidently begun to +amuse themselves in real earnest after her departure, she did not return +to them, but hastened to her own chamber. + +How amazed was she to find Anicza there closeted with Clementina! + +The Roumanian girl had been awaiting Henrietta for some time, and +Clementina thought it quite natural to conduct her into her mistress's +sleeping-room, imagining that there was some monetary transaction +between them, of which the baron and the domestics need know nothing. In +order that she might not be bored by waiting, Clementina entertained her +for a whole hour with a hair-raising account of the hunting accident, +with which the whole castle was full. Anicza let the other talk on +without so much as a hint that she had a still more hair-raising and +terrific tale to tell of the night just past than ever Miss Clementina +had. + +As soon as Henrietta perceived Anicza, she politely requested Clementina +to be so good as to leave them to themselves, a request which Clementina +very naturally regarded as incomprehensible; and, of course, the instant +she had crossed the threshold, she diligently took up her position +before the keyhole. She was, however, furious to discover that +Henrietta proceeded, more prudently than speakers on the stage who +regularly allow themselves to be overheard by eaves-droppers, for she +drew together the heavy damask curtains of the alcove and retired behind +them with Anicza, so that neither prying eyes nor listening ears could +find anything there to satisfy their inquisitiveness. + +"It almost succeeded!" said the Roumanian girl impatiently, beginning +her story at the end instead of at the beginning. + +"Only almost?" repeated the dissatisfied Henrietta. + +"So far the game is neither over nor lost." + +"Did Fatia Negra appear at the hut in the ice valley?" + +"Pardon, my lady, but please never mention that name before me, for on +hearing it everything I look upon grows red, and every limb of my body +begins to tremble. You see, my hands are trembling now. Let us speak of +him in future as the Unknown; so far as I am concerned he shall +henceforth be the Unknown for ever more." + +"Then you met him there?" + +"Suffer me, my lady, to rally my scattered wits a bit. Oh! what a +horrible night this has been! When I look back upon it, I feel giddy. +But anger and despair sustain me. Oh! what have I not sacrificed for +that man, for that devil, and oh! how I have been betrayed! But why +should I worry your ladyship with my misery! Listen to what happened. +When your ladyship left me the other night, I immediately saddled my +horse and set off for the ice valley. The way thither is very bad, +dangerous in fact, but fortunately the moon was high and bright and made +it easier for me to find the path. The Pole star was already sinking +when I reached the bottom of the valley, and I could see from afar that +there was a light still burning in the goatherd's little hut. The night +owls soon drove it out of my eyes, for in that valley dwells so many +owls, and they are so bold that the tips of their wings brush against +people's faces as they sweep past. I had known Mariora for a long time, +while she still lived at home with her father, but since she became Juon +Tare's wife we have only seen each other occasionally and at long +intervals, and then too only when I visited her, for she, the +poorly-married woman, never came to visit us--the rich people. On +reaching the hut, I tied up my horse and tapped at the little window, +through which one cannot peep as, instead of glass, the window-frames +are filled with opaque mica which Juon Tare himself discovered amongst +the hills. Mariora recognized my voice and hastened to unbar the door. +She was much surprised and much delighted to see me at that hour. She +embraced, kissed me, and burst into tears. At first I thought it was +from pure joy,--then I thought she pitied me. 'Is there anything wrong?' +I asked. Then she pulled herself together, dried her tears and said: 'I +have an invalid on my hands.'--'Your child?'--'No, Ursu.'--It was just +as if a viper had stung me.--'Ursu sick?' I cried.--'Yes, I don't know +what ails him. Since yesterday he has been lying down shaking and +trembling, while the day before he was skipping about and turning +somersaults. Fatia Negra (Domne Zeu,[28] forgive my lips for uttering +that name) was playing with him for a long time.' 'Did he come hither?' +'Yes, he said he was on his way to you.' 'He lied. Then it was he who +poisoned the bear.' + +[Footnote 28: The Lord God.] + +"Mariora trembled at these words, and grew paler than ever. + +"I seized her by the hand and drew her with me into the hut. I whispered +in her ear that I knew all. 'The accursed wretch has been faithless to +me because of your pretty eyes. He swore to me by sunlight and he swore +to you by moonlight, but you would not listen to him. You love your +husband and Black Mask relies on his strength now that fair words have +failed. The coward has poisoned your faithful guardian like the wretched +thief, the miserable house-breaker, that he is.'--Mariora's hut was +lighted by the flame that flickered on the hearth. A bedstead of +linden-wood covered with goat-skins, a table of slate and a few +three-legged chairs were all the furniture. There was also a nicely +carved and painted little cradle in which lay the little child, +sleeping, with his plump little hands drawn up behind his head, like an +angel. In the extreme corner of the room the faithful beast lay all of a +heap on a lair of soft moss,--at the last gasp. He groaned and shivered +continually like one in a fever, and raised his failing eyes with such +an eloquent appeal to his mistress, as if he would have spoken to her. +Sometimes he pricked his ears as if he were listening and snuffed +joyously. Perchance he expected his master, perhaps he wanted to lick +his hands for the last time. Poor beast, how I pitied him! 'He will +die,' I whispered to Mariora. I durst not say it aloud for I imagined +the beast understood everything which men say to one another. 'And then +will come the tempter, who knows that you are alone and defenceless.' I +told her everything which your ladyship told me, and the woman trembled +like an aspen-leaf. + +"'Where is Juon Tare encamping now?' I asked Mariora. + +"'Only a mile from here in the Vale Capra.' + +"Hem! It is impossible to get there on horseback, but I can reach him by +going on foot. Meanwhile you lock yourself in, put out the fire, and +whatever noise you hear, do not open the door till we come back. + +"'Nay,' said Mariora, 'you must not go away. If Juon ought to come home, +there is a sign between us. I have here an Alpine horn; he has taught me +how to blow upon it, and has told me that if ever I should be in great +danger I must blow it, and however distant he may be, he will hear it +and hasten home.' + +"'But it is night now; perhaps he is asleep.' + +"'Juon never sleeps at night, he must be awake and protect his herds.' + +"'And what then will become of his goats if he leaves them?' + +"'Are not I and my child dearer to him than all his property?' + +"Then I told Mariora that no time must be lost, and that she should blow +the horn at once. It is a long tube made out of the bark of trees, with +the end tilted upwards, and anyone who knows how to blow it can make its +voice heard for miles. Mariora was too feeble with it. Perhaps at +another time she would have been more up to it, but now she was upset, +there was something which weighed down her bosom and hampered her +breathing: the horn gave forth but a feeble and uncertain sound. We +listened for the echoes and they scarce resounded from the sides of the +adjacent hills. Juon would never hear that. 'Give it to me,' I said. 'I +shall throw more force into it.' A moment after I had blown the horn, +the woody heights repeated the sound just as if there was another +horn-blower there. Presently, from afar, right away among the hills, +another horn replied, just as if there was another echo there. That was +Juon's answer. He had heard the summons; we could now rest content. In +half an hour he would have bounded across the mountains and through the +glens and would be here. In the meantime we would barricade ourselves +inside the hut. Mariora anxiously asked me what we should do if her +husband were the last to arrive, for the robber had firearms. Acting on +my advice, we closed the door with a heavy beam and put out the fire. +The child began to cry, but Mariora took it in her arms and soothed it +to sleep. A heavy groan sounded from a corner of the room: it was the +faithful beast breathing forth his last breath. We exchanged not another +word in order not to betray the fact that Mariora was not alone. Half an +hour had nearly elapsed when we heard footsteps in the distance +approaching. We listened. Who was coming? Which of us would recognize +those footsteps first? I did. It was he! he for whose sake I had brought +down a curse upon my head. + +"For about as long a time as it would take one to repeat a Paternoster, +he remained standing there before the door. Then he rapped lightly with +his fingers and I heard the voice I knew so well: 'Mariora, are you +asleep?' + +"'I am awake. What do you want?' she replied. + +"'Let me in, Mariora; open the door!' + +"I whispered to her what she should say. + +"'I cannot, my husband is not at home. I am alone.' + +"'For that very reason open, so that we two may have it all to +ourselves?' + +"'There will be three of us, don't forget Ursu.' + +"'It is all up with Ursu,' laughed the robber outside. + +"'You have killed him, you villain!' cried Mariora though I never +whispered this to her. + +"'Not I, but the honey-cake.' + +"'Why did you do so?' + +"'Because he was in my way.' + +"'Who will defend me now?' + +"'I will defend you. I will take you away with me. I will take you to a +beautiful city full of palaces. I will buy you a house and an estate and +you shall be a great lady.' + +"'It cannot be. I already have my lawful husband and you too have your +lawful wife.' + +"'Your lawful husband shall die when I choose, and you will then be a +widow. As for Anicza, she only married a mask. I will tear it off and +she will no longer know who I was.' + +"Oh, my lady, can you not fancy how my heart broke at these words! Yet I +did not weep. + +"'You will deceive me as you deceived her,' replied Mariora. + +"Then the robber began to swear that I had deceived him first. He lied +concerning me, oh! the accursed wretch! Yet the game had to go on. +Mariora was no longer the mistress of her own thoughts. She is a +helpless creature. If I had not whispered in her ear what she was to +say, she would have had no answer ready for him. + +"'I fear you,' she said at my prompting, 'for you are a robber; it is +not love but money that you want. Why did it not occur to you to court +me before? You have only come now because you have found out that my +father has been here and offered me a hundred ducats that we may buy a +little estate with it. You have only come here to rob me of that.' + +"The tempter grew furious at so much gainsaying. + +"'Stupid wench!' he cried, 'what are your hundred ducats to me? I will +give you ten times as much. Here! take them!' And with that he pitched +through the little window--opening above the door a heavy purse which +fell rattling at our feet. It was full of ducats. I kicked it aside with +loathing. + +"'It is easy to talk,' replied Mariora. 'Now, you give and give, but if +I were to let you in, you would take them back again to-morrow with my +own.' + +"'I swear I will not.' + +"'No, I will not believe the oaths of a robber. You have firearms and I +am therefore defenceless against you. Go and hang up your musket, your +pistols, and your hunting-knife on that beech-tree, which is a hundred +paces distant from the house; when you come back without your firearms I +will believe that you do not want to kill me and will listen to what you +have to say?' + +"The robber fell into the snare and did as he was bid. Then he +returned. 'Here I am without weapons,' said he. 'Let me in!' + +"We had to gain as much time as possible, so I whispered Mariora to say +that she must first stir up the fire into a blaze for she could not let +him in in the dark. + +"These words inflamed the passion of the tempter still more. + +"'You will have time for that afterwards,' said he. 'I can see your +beautiful eyes even in the dark, for then they shine all the more +brightly.' + +"'Then I suppose I have eyes like a cat?' I made Mariora say. + +"'Silly fool!' growled the tempter to himself in Hungarian, which +Mariora did not understand. 'No,' he then added in Roumanian, 'you have +eyes like stars.' + +"'But confess now, do you really love me? Or do you only come hither +with evil designs? Don't you want, now, to cut off the hands of my +little child? for robbers covet the hacked off hands of babies,--they +make them invisible.' + +"At this the man's temper fairly gave way. He perceived that he was +being trifled with and exclaimed roughly: 'Woman, open the door, or I'll +bring it down about your ears!' And he gave the door such a blow with +his clenched fist that it cracked from end to end. 'I tell you for the +last time,' cried he, 'let me in peaceably. If you will come with me, I +will take you, and your child also, to a pleasant place. I will make a +gentleman of him and a lady of you. But if you gainsay me another +moment, I'll batter in the door, dash the brains of your brat out +against the wall and carry you off by force wherever I please.' + +"Thereupon Mariora paid no more attention to me but began wringing her +hands and I snatched up the child, who had been awakened by the noise +and begun to cry. I drew my pistol from my bosom and planted myself +beside the door. If there's nobody else, I thought, I must bear the +brunt of it. + +"The robber planted his shoulder against the door and pressed it inwards +with tremendous force. The boards cracked and as the middle of the door +was barricaded by a stout beam, there was soon a regular gap between the +two folds of the door and the door inclined more and more inwards. +Through the opening thus made, I held the pistol, pointed straight at +his temples and only an inch away from him. He is a very strong man, I +thought, but another effort of strength and he will be lying dead at my +feet." + +The girl was quite overcome by the narration of this scene. She paused +for a moment to recover herself, during which Henrietta, as pale as a +statue, gazed at her in silence. + +Presently she resumed: + +"At that critical moment, a cry like the howl of a wild beast resounded +in front of the hut. The door fell back into its proper place and +rushing to the little window, I saw that _two_ men now stood in front +of the hut. + +"Juon Tare had arrived at last! + +"It was neither speech nor language that he addressed to his antagonist +in the first instant of their encounter, it was the savage roar of a +wild beast rushing upon its prey. + +"Juon Tare is a very strong man. Fortunately, he is also a peaceful, +retiring creature, for if he were as passionate as he is strong and +frequented the wine shops, every carouse would end with the death of a +man. All the more horrible was it therefore to behold him at that moment +like a ravening beast of prey. + +"The detected seducer at once made a rush for his arms, but Juon Tare +overtook him with an enormous bound and seized one of his hands. If +Fatia Negra had been one of God's ordinary creatures, he must have been +writhing the next moment with crushed limbs on the ground beneath Juon's +knee; but at the very instant in which Juon caught hold of one hand, the +robber faced about and seizing the herdsman round the body began to +wrestle with him. + +"The moon flooded the valley with its light; the whole course of the +struggle was plainly visible. + +"As soon as Juon Tare perceived that his antagonist was foolhardy enough +to try a fall with him, he complacently allowed his body to be encircled +and calmly murmured: 'Ho, ho! then you would wrestle with me, eh, Fatia +Negra! Very well, be it so!' + +"Then he also quietly encircled the trunk of his opponent with those +terrible arms of his, which had shown themselves capable on one occasion +of throttling a bear, and prepared to crush his adversary. + +"And thus began an awful struggle, the mere remembrance of which is a +horror. + +"There is nothing more terrible than when two men struggle for life or +death with their bare hands. + +"Juon Tare's tremendous strength was unable to crush Fatia Negra. The +herdsman might perhaps have been a little exhausted by his swift run, +but the robber was skilful and opposed a steel-like elasticity to the +herdsman's massive weight. + +"Now the one, now the other was forced down upon his knee, only to bound +instantly back again. The grass was rooted up by their stamping feet. +Tightly embraced, with straining shoulders, with their fists tearing at +each other's bodies, their faces were pressed so closely together that +the two heads seemed but one. + +"Now and then they would pause for an instant to take breath and at such +times would gasp out short, fierce words. + +"'Who are you?' growled Juon. 'Who are you that you can resist the arm +of Juon Tare? Who are you that Juon Tare cannot put to silence?' + +"'What is it you want, you fool?' the robber gasped back. 'Has that two +hundred ducats, the price set on my head, tempted you? Is that why you +want to catch me? Let me go, and I will give you five hundred.' + +"'I will not let you go. I want neither your money, nor yet the money of +the magistrates. Your destruction is all that I want. You should not +escape from these hands if you were thrice a devil.' + +"'We will see.' + +"And again the tussle began. Each of the two men put forth all his +strength against his adversary. Fatia Negra's garments split into rags, +the blood spouted from his shoulders where Juon had worried him with his +sharp teeth like a wild beast. Not another word did they now speak, only +their panting sobs were to be heard like the snorting of two wild boars +as they dragged and dashed each other up and down on the sward. + +"I was obliged to restrain Mariora violently from rushing to her +husband's assistance. She would only have distracted his attention. And +besides I would not have it so. Let the men fight it out, I thought. +They are a well matched pair." + +"Then you still love Fatia Negra?" enquired Henrietta sadly. + +The girl blushed.--"I love him, yes,--and therefore he must die." + +She went on: + +"'At that moment he was like a magician battling with a giant. The other +was half a head taller than he, and the muscles of his arms stood out +like the rugged bark of an oak's trunk. Black Mask was much the slimmer. +But every muscle in his frame seemed made of steel. His gigantic +adversary might pitch and toss him wherever he pleased, he always fell +on his feet; nor was the other ever able, squeeze as he might, to +disjoint his arms or free his own head from Fatia Negra's embrace, +though again and again he ducked down to do it; and then they would +struggle more fiercely than ever, on their knees, with their limbs +interlaced like one single, inseparable quivering mass of flesh. + +"'If I could only see your hidden face!' roared Juon, throwing himself +with all his might on Black Mask. 'You devil, you, I'll tear your +mummery off for you!'--and he gnashed at his opponent's face with his +teeth, trying to snap his mask off. + +"This attempt seemed to redouble Fatia Negra's fury. He too now began +roaring like a wounded bear, struggling with a huntsman. It was no +longer a struggle between men, but a ravening of two beasts. The +combatants had now rolled far away from the hut. Their savage yells +resounded through the still pastures. We, watching them from the hut, +could see that they were drawing near the edge of a steep abyss with a +sheer descent of many fathoms, at the bottom of which are the sources of +the little mountain streams. + +"'Take care, Juon!' cried Mariora despairingly. But her voice was +unheard. Both of them were deaf and blind. The next moment Juon gave his +adversary a fierce shake and instantly the pair of them plunged head +over heels into the gulf below. + +"We both rushed after them, and on reaching the edge of the abyss +perceived one shape lying motionless among the rocks of the stream, and +another limping painfully towards the further shore. This second figure +was Fatia Negra." + +"Surely Juon was not dead?" cried Henrietta, horrified. + +"No; only crippled by the fall. He fell undermost, the other on top. Yet +the other must have suffered severely. We could see from his heavy +movements that he had more than one limb damaged. Only with the utmost +exertion did he manage to scale the opposite cliff. + +"While he was clambering up the mountain-side, Mariora sobbing and +screaming, rushed down to her insensible husband, and taking his head +into her bosom dragged his limp body out of the cold water of the brook, +whilst I took down from the beech-tree Fatia Negra's double-barrelled +musket and raised it to my cheek. Before me on the white rock, in the +full light of the moon, a good mark for a marksman was that panting +black object struggling upwards. I pointed the barrel straight at him. I +took a long and careful aim. I am certain I should have hit him. And +then I bethought me how much I had loved him once upon a time, and the +weapon sank down. I flung it from me." + +The girl ceased to speak and covered her face with both her hands. It +was a long time before she took them away again. + +At last she sprang up quickly, and turning her pale face towards +Henrietta, said in a hard, dry voice: "It will be the last time, your +ladyship. I am weak because I am a woman, folks would say. But they +shall know that that is not true. Don't be afraid, my lady; what I have +promised, that will I do. You have been very good to me in telling me +that I was being deceived, and I will requite you for it. And now, God +bless you, my lady. Farewell!" + +"But surely you are not thinking of going home so late at night?" + +"What care I about the night? No spectre can meet me anywhere that is +worse than the horrible thing that dwells at the bottom of my heart. God +bless your ladyship. You shall hear from me soon. Farewell!" + +Then the girl gently kissed Henrietta's hand and left the room, throwing +into her gait and bearing an energy and a self-confidence which she was +far from feeling. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SOIREES AT ARAD + + +Despite his misgivings, Count Kengyelesy succeeded in reaching his home +at Arad without being robbed by Fatia Negra. + +During the evenings of his visit at Hidvár he had won back everything +which he had lost on the occasion of his friend Hátszegi's visit at +Kengyelesy, and in the joy of his heart he gave his countess _carte +blanche_ in the matter of entertaining her friends and opened his halls +freely to the elegant world of Arad. + +For the society of Arad is distinctly elegant. Excepting Pest, there is +no other place in Hungary where the aristocratic element is so strongly +represented. Nay, it has this advantage over Pest that its society does +not scatter as the seasons change. Such pleasure-resorts as Csákó, +Ménes, Magyarát and Világos and the castles of the magnates residing on +the circumjacent _puszta_ are all of a heap, so to speak, around Arad; +so that there is no occasion for acquaintances to separate in spring or +autumn; wherefore to all those who would devote themselves +uninterruptedly to social joys, Arad is a veritable Eldorado. + +There was no need to offer the Countess Kengyelesy such an opportunity +twice,--the very next day the round of visiting began. All the +notabilities of the higher circles got themselves introduced to her +ladyship by mutual friends, and the lesser fry, whom nobody knew, were +introduced to her by the count himself. Amongst those who came from afar +was a young man from Pest who had an official post in the county, a rare +distinction in those days, who was much praised for his culture and who +had spoken once or twice very sensibly at Quarter Sessions,--a certain +Szilard Vamhidy. But what interested the ladies in the young man far +more than his official orations was the rumour connecting his name with +a romantic attachment he was said to have had with the daughter of a +wealthy merchant of Pest. The young man, being disappointed in his love, +had resolved to kill himself, and had persuaded the girl to do likewise +at the same time. Only with difficulty had they been snatched from the +threshold of death. Subsequently, on account of this very thing, the +girl had been compelled to become the wife of the wealthy Hátszegi. + +The countess quickly made up her mind that such a young man as this was +an indispensable acquaintance. What! Henrietta's ideal, with whom she +had been in love and who would have gladly embraced death with her! Here +indeed was a rare species, especially in these modern days, which +deserved to be exhibited; and she gave her husband no rest till he had +promised to introduce the young man to her. To this end it was necessary +that he should first of all make the young man's acquaintance himself, +but this was an easy matter. The deputy Lord-lieutenant of the county +knew them both and at his house they learnt to know each other. And +Count Kengyelesy was one of those men whom it is impossible to avoid +when once you have made his acquaintance. It was not very long, +therefore, before he took his new friend, absolutely under his +protection and hauled him off to his wife. + +The usual stiffness of a first introduction was speedily broken down by +the quaint conceits of the count. + +The countess had donned a flowing antique _moiré_ dress and wore her +hair in long English curls to match. + +"Come now, friend Szilard!" cried the count, "what do you say? this +dress and that _coiffure_ hardly suit the countess's style of face--eh?" + +Many a worthy young man would have been plunged into confusion by such a +silly question, but our Szilard's eternally composed countenance was not +ruffled for an instant. + +"Everything becomes the countess," he replied; "but I know of something +which is still more charming and would make any fair woman still more +beautiful." + +"Really! You make me quite curious," said the countess. + +"Why, Szilard, you a connoisseur!--you surprise me!" cried the count. + +"I mean those blue stuff gowns with white spots, which lend quite a +peculiar charm to our women, especially if you set it off with an +old-fashioned _csipkeköto_."[29] + +[Footnote 29: A Hungarian headdress made of black lace. The dress +suggested was also of native Hungarian manufacture worn at one time by +the greatest ladies.] + +At the very next _soirée_ the Countess Kengyelesy was attired in one of +these blue stuff gowns with white spots, of home manufacture, and with a +black lace head-dress--exactly as Szilard had described it to her. + +"My dear friend, be so good as to look there!" said the count +appropriating Szilard while he was still only half through the doorway. +"There she is costumed from head to foot exactly as you advised. Ah! I +pity you. You are already in the toils." + +Szilard hastened at once to greet the countess, who treated the handsome +young fellow with marked distinction all through the evening. Indeed she +made no secret of it. + +Three days later Szilard was bound, by custom to pay a complimentary +visit upon the Countess. He purposely chose an hour when he knew she +would not be at home, and left his card, but the same evening he +encountered her at the theatre. It was in the entrance hall, where she +was waiting for her carriage, and till it drove up Szilard could not +very well leave her. + +"Ah, ah! my honoured friend," cried the countess archly, "this won't do. +You wait till I am not at home, and then you go and leave your card +upon me as a token of respect. But I don't mean to let you off so +easily. I have got a lot to say to you which I am determined you shall +listen to. You must therefore promise to come to my house at twelve +o'clock to-morrow, or else I shall astonish the world by inviting you to +come along with me this instant in my carriage." + +A man, in another mood, could scarcely have resisted the temptation of +replying that he would be delighted if the countess put her threat into +execution then and there, even at the risk of astonishing the world. +Szilard merely looked grave and said that he would be happy to pay his +respects to the countess at twelve on the morrow. + +He went accordingly. His pulses beat no more quickly than usual as he +entered the countess's private apartment, although she gave the footman +to understand in a low voice that she would be at home to nobody else, +and invited the young man to sit down close beside her, face to face. + +The countess was a beautiful woman, and she possessed the art of +dressing beautifully likewise. The countess had beautiful eyes and she +could smile beautifully with them, too. The countess had an extremely +pretty mouth, and when she spoke it was prettier still, for she had a +witty way with her. The danger of the situation was very appreciable. + +"My dear, good Szilard," began the countess, with that light, natural +_naďveté_ which so easily disarms the strongest of us, "do not take it +ill of me if I speak to you confidentially. The world will very soon be +saying that you are in love with me and I with you. I shall not believe +the former and you will not believe the latter. Let the world say what +it likes. I have a real blessing of a husband, whom it would be a shame +to offend, and you have quite other ideas. I know what they are. Don't +be angry, don't frown! I am not exacting. I don't want to fetch you away +from other people. I will not ask where you have buried your treasures. +I will merely say to you that I know you have treasures and that they +are buried. Is it not so? You need not be afraid of me." + +Szilard was a little taken aback by this unexpected turn. Could it be +sheer curiosity, he thought? + +"I have nothing to be afraid of, countess," remarked Szilard, smiling, +"I have no buried secrets. I was a young man once, that is all. I have +had my foolish illusions, like other people, and like other people I +have cured myself of them." + +"Nay, nay, sir, now you are not quite sticking to the truth; you are +_not_ cured of them. But before I go any further let me tell you that +all this is not mere feminine curiosity on my part. I want you to trust +me and I will trust you equally. Believe me when I say that if I love to +make fun of empty-headed noodles, I can always respect a good heart +because it is a rarity. The lady I want to speak to you about is my +dear friend and she is very, very unhappy." + +Szilard was bound to believe that this was true, for tear-drops sparkled +in the countess's eyes. + +"Is it my fault?" he asked bitterly. + +"It is neither your fault nor hers. I know that as a fact. The cause of +it all is money, the thirst for money. There is not a more miserable +creature in the wide world than the daughter of a rich man. But that is +the least of her misfortunes. They married her to a man who did not love +her, who only took her because her grandfather was a millionaire. Her +grandfather frightened her into the match by threatening her with his +curse and now, when she has become the wife of this man who does not +even feel friendship for her, I hear that this same old grandfather has +made another will depriving her of everything." + +Szilard's lips trembled at these words. + +"You can imagine what will be the result. This young woman loves not and +is not loved. They gave her away to an Oriental nabob who, imagining his +wife to be wealthy, scatters his money like a prince. And now this man +has suddenly been startled by the report that his wife has absolutely +nothing!--do you know the meaning of the expression: bread of charity?" + +"I have heard the expression, but the bread itself I have never tasted." + +"Then you can have no idea what that sort of bread is like which a man +gives to the wife whom he finds to be poor, when he fancied her to be +rich--oh! that sort of bread is very, very bitter!" + +Ah! thought Szilard, the bread that _I_ offered her was only dry--not +bitter. + +"I can tell you on very good authority," resumed the countess, "that the +baron's conduct towards his wife has completely changed since he +discovered that she has been disinherited. He had lost heavily at cards +when the news first reached him, and he took no pains to conceal his +ill-humour from his wife in consequence. The poor of the district had +got to regard Henrietta as their ministering angel because of her +labours of love among them, but now she can play the part of lady +bountiful no longer. She has to shut her door in the faces of her poor +petitioners, for her husband will not allow any unnecessary expense. +Nay, more, they say that Hátszegi now keeps his wife's private jewels +under lock and key to prevent her from pawning them and relieving the +needs of the poor with the proceeds, as she was wont to do, and only +brings them out on state occasions when he compels her to pile them all +on her person. Isn't that a humiliation for a woman?" + +"If only you had become mine," Szilard mentally apostrophized poor +Henrietta, "you would now have had a cosey little chimney-corner, and a +nice little room all to yourself; and though I could not have bought you +jewels, the best of every morsel of food we shared together would always +have been yours." + +"And," pursued the countess, "most degrading experience of all, +Hátszegi no longer attempts to conceal from his wife his outrageous +_liaisons_ with pretty peasant women. The thing has long been a byeword, +though his wife knew nothing of it--but she knows it now. Nor is this +all, my dear Vámhidy. Poor Henrietta's heart is suffering from another +sorrow which she feels all the more keenly because it smarts +unceasingly. Her young brother, Koloman, has suddenly disappeared from +Pest and left no trace behind him. They say all sorts of things about +him, which I do not care about telling you, but most of them are bad +enough. On the news reaching Henrietta, she asked her husband to make +enquiries as to the cause of Koloman's disappearance. Hátszegi wrote to +his agent and received an answer which he will not show to Henrietta on +any consideration; nay, more, he commanded his wife never to mention +Koloman's name before him again. The poor woman is naturally in despair. +She cannot conceive why the cause of her brother's disappearance should +be hidden from her. And now I am coming to the end and aim of all this +rigmarole. Henrietta believes, and I am likewise convinced of it, that +if her brother be alive, there is only one person in the world whom he +will try and seek out and that is yourself." + +"Poor lad! he loved me much," sighed Szilard. + +"And now you understand what I am driving at, don't you? If anybody can +find out the whereabouts of Henrietta's brother and the real reason why +he fled from his relations at Pest and took refuge neither with his +aunt, Madame Langai, who, I hear, has taken his part all through, nor +yet with his sister, it is most certainly you. This is no lawyer's +business, for a lawyer would set about it too gingerly. Here sympathy +and chivalry are before all other things necessary, and if the husband +declines this noble task, we have nobody to turn to except--the man who +has been sacrificed." + +Szilard bit his lips to prevent the tears from coming. Who could ever +have thought that so frivolous a woman would have had so much feeling +for her friend? Then he rose, bowed and curtly informed the countess +that he would undertake the commission. + +The countess pressed his hand affectionately: "And keep me informed of +everything," said she, "for I am the common post between you two." + +Szilard thanked the countess and withdrew. He pondered the matter +carefully till the evening, and by that time he had a plan all ready in +his head. + +For a whole week after this, nothing was to be seen of Vámhidy. Count +Kengyelesy sought him everywhere and could find him nowhere. Every day +he asked his countess what she had done with the young man. + +Ten days after the first _soirée_ the date for another had been fixed. +Szilard did not appear even at this. Kengyelesy hunted for him from +pillar to post, but could not discover what had become of him. Nobody +had heard anything of him. + +"He has poisoned himself," said Kengyelesy at last to a group of his +sporting friends. "It is quite plain to me. When a fellow has got that +sort of thing into his head once, he will try it again and again. I wash +my hands of the business, it is all the fault of the countess. Why does +she play her tricks with such people? No doubt he has swallowed poison +and then crawled away into some nook or corner of a forest. In a month +or two, I suppose, we shall come upon him unexpectedly." + +"Whom shall we come upon unexpectedly?" cried a voice behind his back. +He looked around and there was the long lost Szilard. + +"Oh, there you are, eh? What have you been doing with yourself all this +time? Come along with me--and Heaven help you!--I will take you to my +wife. Poor young chap! I thought you had already had enough of it and +made away with yourself in consequence." + +Then he drew his arm through Szilard's and tripped off to the countess. +"Here he is!" he cried. "We have found him, do not abandon yourself to +despair on his account. Be so good as to sit down beside him!--here's a +chair! I'll take care nobody disturbs you!" + +The countess pressed Szilard's hand and made a sign to him to remain. + +"I have just arrived from Pest," said Szilard. + +"Really! Well?" + +"I have found out everything, or rather, I should say, a good deal." + +"Do pray tell me at once. All the people are dancing, they will take no +notice of us." + +"Ever since old Lapussa's death," began Szilard, "for he died soon after +he had altered his will, all the members of his family have been at +bitter variance. Madame Langai, the old man's widowed daughter, disputes +the validity of the last will--whereby Mr. John Lapussa becomes heir to +the exclusion of everybody else, and has instituted legal proceedings to +upset it. Madame Langai seeks to prove that old Lapussa was _non compos +mentis_ when he disinherited the other members of his family, and she +also maintains, that the old fellow had no reason whatever for hating +his grandchildren and reducing them to beggary as he has done. On the +other hand, Mr. John maintains that his dear father had excellent +reasons for detesting his grandchildren because the Baroness Hátszegi +has never written a letter to her grandfather since her marriage and +both she and her husband have expressed themselves, at home, in the most +disrespectful terms imaginable concerning the old gentleman, even giving +it to be understood that they would be very glad if they had not to wait +too long for the curtain to fall on the fifth act of his life's drama. +He calls as his witness one Margari, who was formerly old Lapussa's +reader before the girl was married, and since then has been compelled +to act as secretary to Hátszegi, or rather as a spy upon him. This +fellow, who is now the mere tool of Mr. John, is quite prepared to +retail all sorts of horrors about the Hátszegis. As to the other +grandchild, the boy Koloman I mean, his uncle has saddled him with a +terrible charge. He has produced a bill for 40,000 florins which he +accuses the lad of forging in the name of his sister, the Baroness +Hátszegi." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the countess in an incredulous voice. + +"The thing is ridiculously incredible, I know, yet there the bill is; I +have seen it, for it has been sequestered by the Court. It is obviously +in the youth's handwriting as also is the very bad imitation of his +sister's signature. In connection therewith is the fact of the youth's +sudden disappearance (and every attempt to trace his whereabouts has +failed), for, on the very day when the subject of the bill was first +broached, he vanished from his college, and apparently he had been +preparing for flight some time before." + +"But what could have induced a mere child to do such a thing, he is +scarcely thirteen years old?" + +"He was always somewhat flighty by nature, though that, of course, is +not sufficient to explain how he came to forge his sister's name on a +draft for 40,000 florins." + +"But why will not the baron tell his wife all about it?" + +"Does not your ladyship see?--It is quite plain to me. Hátszegi +understands his wife thoroughly. He feels certain that as soon as the +baroness hears of what her brother is accused, she would not hesitate a +moment to acknowledge the forged signature as really her own." + +"True, true. And then I suppose her brother could be saved." + +"Completely." + +"And then, I suppose, she would have to pay the money?" + +"Either pay it or be sued for it." + +"Poor woman! I know she has no money. A most awkward position, most +awkward. But it does not matter; if her jewels are under lock and key, +nobody guards mine." + +At these words which came straight from the best of hearts, Szilard +could not restrain himself from impressing a burning kiss on the +countess's hand so affected was he by this outburst of generosity. + +"Ah, ha!" cackled the count behind his back, "so we have got as far as +that already, eh! Capital, capital, upon my word! Nay, nay, my young +friend, don't be afraid of me. Do not put yourself out in the least on +my account! God bless you, my boy!" + +"To-morrow, we'll plan it all out, I'll be waiting for you at one +o'clock," whispered the countess to Szilard, "now I must go, the +cotillion is beginning." + +"Don't you dance then?" enquired the count of Szilard. "Nonsense! +they'll say you are mourning somebody. Thank God, old Lapussa was not +_your_ father-in-law, but Hátszegi's. It is for him to pull a long face, +but you go and dance!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +TIT FOR TAT + + +It may seem strange to us that the rumour of Fatia Negra's nocturnal +adventure was not spread abroad in these parts, but as a matter of fact +nobody did speak of it. It seemed as if everybody who knew anything +about it, died out of the world before he could pass the news on to his +neighbour. + +The dwellers in the hut in the Ice Valley had vanished without leaving a +trace behind them. The herd, untended by a shepherd, was scattered to +the winds by wolves. Nobody could say what had become of Juon Tare and +Mariora. The person who shewed least of all tell that she knew anything +about this midnight adventure was Anicza herself. She had sobbed out the +whole story before Henrietta, but after that she kept her own counsel +and kept a good countenance also when folks looked at her. But there was +venom at the bottom of her heart, and she nourished it there. + +In a fortnight's time Fatia Negra visited her again. There was now +nothing the matter with him, all traces of the life and death struggle +had disappeared. Anicza was more affectionate towards him than ever. She +did not even ask him where he had been all this time, nor did she notice +the scar on his neck which had not been there before. + +Fatia Negra came to her at night, as he always did. The famous +adventurer was very cautious. Anicza knew for certain that whenever he +came to visit her in a populous place like this, before him and behind +him went faithful henchmen who stood on guard at the corners of the +streets and gave a signal at the approach of any danger. Only amongst +the snowy mountains was he wont to go alone. He was also very wary in +other ways. Thus, he never drank wine: there was really no getting at +him. And if once he had his weapons handy, then he could always cut his +way through his enemies, even if he were completely surrounded. + +"Fatia Negra," said the girl, throwing her arms round his neck, "last +night I had an evil dream. I dreamt that the smallpox had ruined my +face. Would you love me if I were pockmarked?" + +"Yes, I would still love you," replied the adventurer. + +"Well, as it happens I am not. Kiss me! Then I dreamt another dream. I +dreamt that all our property was destroyed. I was a ragged wandering +beggar with my head tied up. Would you love me if I were a ragged +beggar?" + +"Little fool, of course I should love you." + +"Then embrace me nicely. After that I dreamt that some one had shut me +up in prison for some great offence; they had condemned me to many +years' imprisonment, condemned me to spend all my youth behind +iron-barred windows and they would only let me free again when I had +become a wrinkled old hag. Would you love me if I was in prison? Would +you come and stand outside my iron bars and speak to me now and then?" + +"Stop this foolish chatter! Who is able to answer such questions?" and +in order that she should obey the more readily he closed her mouth with +kisses. + +But as soon as the kisses were over, she began to prattle again: + +"But after that I went on dreaming again, and I dreamt what made me very +angry with myself. I dreamt that I married someone else and forgot you. +Would you still love me if I were to deceive you and wed another?" + +"Yes, I would love you even then, Anicza,--and my love for you would +make me shoot you through the heart." + +How the girl laughed when he said this! + +"Wait a bit," said she, "and you will see that it will all come to pass. +I shall grow sick and ugly. I shall become a poor beggar. They will send +me to prison and make a slave of me. I shall deceive you and wed +another. Then we shall see whether you will love me; then we shall see +whether you will kill me." + +Anicza thought all this so amusing that she laughed aloud. The noise +brought old Onucz into the room. His daughter turned towards him +smilingly. "Isn't it true, father, that three suitors are courting me?" +she asked. "I was asking Fatia Negra which of the three I should take." + +Old Onucz scratched his nose pretty hard at this question. He would have +liked to have said: "whichever you like, as long as it is the right +one!" but he was afraid of offending Fatia Negra. + +"Well, Domnule," said he at last, "truth is truth, after all. I'm +getting an old man now, and what's the good of my scraping together and +piling up all these ducats if nothing comes of it all? I have indeed an +only daughter, a pretty girl and a good girl, too, but what's the use of +that? You are not her husband. If I only knew of some corner of the +world quite out of your reach, I would gather together all my +belongings, seek it out and settle down there; but it would be of no +avail, you would always find me out and befool my girl again, so I have +to stay where I am." + +"Don't grumble, old chap, there is a time for all things. This black +mask shall not always cover my face; when I come to see you, my name +shall not always be Fatia Negra. The day will come when a carriage and +four shall drive into your courtyard, a sabre-tashed heyduke will then +leap from the box and open the silver-plated coach and a cavalier in +cloth of gold will step out who comes to you as a suitor. If you see +this ring on his finger you will know that it is I, and there will no +longer be a Fatia Negra in the wide world. We will go together to +Bucharest, a true Roumanian city, where folks will respect us and then +our happy days will begin." + +"If only that could be soon! But you have been telling me this for a +long, long time." + +"That is because we cannot put an end to our work yet. There are very +many people who still expect much from us. If I do not satisfy them they +will remain a perpetual danger to us. That is why I am compelled to wear +this mask a little longer. When once I have taken it off, he who used to +wear it is dead and has nothing more in common with me." + +"Then you really mean to break away from everything one day?" + +"Yes, it is high time. My little finger whispers that someone wants to +betray me. But say that to nobody. We must not frighten our own people. +The Government is getting suspicious at the disappearance of so much +gold. It is sniffing about, but at present it is on a wrong track. The +Jews of Hungary are suspected and they happen to know nothing at all +about it. But it is quite enough that suspicion _has_ been aroused. So +far they fancy that only about fifty to sixty pounds of gold a year are +unlawfully made away with. They don't know yet that it amounts to five +or six hundredweight, which is coined into ready money underneath the +ground. This business must be put a stop to. This year the mines yielded +a rich profit. Next Saturday there will be a last delivery of gold in +the Lucsia cavern. As soon as the coins are struck, we shall divide the +profits, wish one another 'buna nopte!'[30] and depart our respective +ways. We shall destroy the machinery, blow up the smelting furnaces with +gunpowder, break down the aqueducts and close up the mouth of the +cavern. After that everyone can do as he likes with his gold. I shall +wash my hands of it." + +[Footnote 30: Good night.] + +"Well said!" cried old Onucz, "that is as I would have it also. The +whole lot of us who are partners in the concern will meet once more in +the Lucsia cavern. There we will listen to what you say and swear to +each other that we will not say a word of what has gone on down below +there. Then everyone will do as you bid, for you are the most prudent of +us all." + +"Then I shall only have to wait another week?" enquired Anicza, winding +the locks of Fatia Negra round her fingers. + +"For what?" asked the adventurer. + +"Nay, but surely you know?" + +"Aha! of course!" said he smiling. "You mean you will only have to wait +another week for me to cease to be your husband under a mask and become +your real, true husband, eh? That is the end of all your thoughts, eh?" + +"Yes, yes!" said the girl, but she thought within herself: "I shall only +have to wait a week to give up your masked head into the hands of the +hangman!" + +So Fatia Negra unsuspiciously rocked the girl up and down on his knee +and reflected complacently: "Girls are made in order that they may +believe the lies which men choose to tell them." + +But Anicza was a Wallachian girl and Wallachian girls are jealous, +revengeful and artful. + + * * * * * + +That Saturday had arrived. + +Seven hundred torches lit up the Lucsia Grotto. In between, from out of +the corners of the cavern Bengal lights burst forth from time to time +flooding for a few moments the whole of that gloomy palace with green, +blue, white and rose-coloured flames to which the red flame of the +pitch-torches with their black smoke formed a spectral contrast. + +The great company of coiners had arranged for the last evening before +their separation a sumptuous feast in this subterranean hall. The floor +was strewn with white sand and all round about tents were erected in +which roast and baked meats were piled up into veritable hillocks on +broad beech-wood dishes. In order to show the wealth at their command an +ox was roasting whole on a flaming fire, revolving as it roasted, while +two men, one on each side, basted it well with bacon fat held on iron +forks. Close behind it was a gigantic vat of wine, everybody was free to +drink out of it as much as he chose. Right in front of the smithy, too, +was another gigantic vat holding about fifty firkins, filled to the brim +with the finest eau de vié. A couple of young fellows lolled in front of +the vat; they were already too lazy to dip their glasses into the fluid, +they sucked it in from the brim of the vat itself. + +The glare of the smelting oven no longer shone from the windows of the +stone building in the midst of the cavern, the smoke intermingled with +sparks no longer welled out of the flue, the subterranean hubbub no +longer accompanied the stroke of the hammers, the machinery was silent, +its work was done. + +Two hundred and fifty thousand coined ducats await distribution; of +these, fifty thousand belong to Fatia Negra and twenty thousand to old +Onucz. + +The smithy to-day is adorned with green twigs and bright ribbons, and on +its massive chimneys all the requisites for a pyrotechnical display have +been heaped up; it is from these that the rockets will ascend, it is +here the blue and red Catherine wheels will revolve. The vaulted ceiling +of the cavern is so high that the rockets in their highest flight will +not graze it. An orchestral-like balustrade has been provided for the +musicians. The shareholders themselves will do their best to enliven the +festivities with fiddles, flutes and bagpipes. The guests are already +appearing, singly and in groups, down through the machinery of the mill. +The men are all accompanied by their womenkind in gala costumes. + +Before the appearance of Fatia Negra, mirth and uproar have full swing. +Everyone gives free course to his jollity till the chief comes whose +black mask is sufficient to quiet everyone's good humour. + +And to-day brings with it its own peculiar festivity. After the great +distribution of money, Fatia Negra will take the daughter of Onucz by +the hand and plight his troth to her in front of a crucifix placed on a +high pedestal. The oath of betrothal will be an invention of Fatia Negra +himself, filled with well assorted curses and promises. And he will +swear to regard Anicza as his lawful bride from this day forth until +such time as he can, without any mask or disguise, conduct her before a +priest and solemnize his wedding in another place and before other +people. For a long time this ceremony has been the pet idea of old Onucz +and now Fatia Negra has agreed to it. + +Gradually all the partners have assembled in the cavern. Amongst the +last to arrive are old Onucz and his daughter with the bridesmaids. +Anicza is dressed as usual with her girdle and embroidered bodice and a +round hat on her head. The only difference is that now she sparkles all +over with gold and jewels and her pig-tail is interwoven with real +pearls. Amongst all the picked beauties who have gathered together here, +she is still the most beautiful. + +Only the bridegroom still keeps the good folks waiting. He is a long +time coming, as becomes a great man. Nay, it is quite possible he may +be there already without anyone seeing him. Perchance he is walking +along there behind the bride in an invisible mantle and only when he +throws it off, then only and not till then will the people see him. + +Anicza screams aloud--perhaps with joy! Everyone is thunderstruck; they +imagine their leader must be in league with the devil himself, for he +comes up from out of the earth! + +And with what splendour does he ascend! The purple robe that he wears is +scarce discernible for gold lace; a long embroidered mantle, like the +mantle of a prince, floats down from his shoulders and on his head he +wears a golden helmet from which the mask depends. + +The top of this helmet is set all round about with diamonds, and one of +his comrades makes the remark that the spike of this helmet is somewhat +muddy. He wore no weapon by his side, not even a dagger. Naturally,--one +generally lays aside one's arms when one is about to swear solemnly +before an altar. Onucz approached him obsequiously and kissed the hand +of his mysterious leader with profound respect, whilst Anicza approached +him with roguish archness, adroitly feigning a superstitious fear of her +magician of a sweetheart. + +"I am not afraid of you, Fatia Negra! though you come and go unseen. I +fear you come not in God's name." + +"That is true. We are nearer methinks to the Kingdom of the Devil." + +"Hush! say not so!" + +"Why not? If these men had imagined that I came down from Heaven, they +would have betrayed me long ago. They would have carried me bound to +Fehervár; but because they fancy I came from below and am acquainted +with the devil, they fear me and are faithful. It is the same with you: +you love me because you fear me." + +"Ho, ho, ho! We shall see. I fear nobody, not even you. It was a joke +when I said just now: I am afraid. You did not see that." + +"Come now, I'll put you to the test at once. You see that crucifix on +the altar? On that we will swear fidelity to each other and everyone +here present will also swear to preserve eternal secrecy. As, however, +we coiners cannot call God to witness, for by our trade we have rejected +him, our oaths cannot ascend to Heaven but must descend elsewhere. In +order then that our oath may be effectual, go if you have the courage, +turn the crucifix and return it to its place--only upside down." + +For an instant the girl grew pale and trembled, then she advanced boldly +up to the altar, seized the crucifix and lifting it up, turned it round +and thrust it upside down into a hole that happened to be on the altar, +so that its pedestal stood up in the air. + +All who were present looked on with wonder and horror. + +As the girl raised the cross and put it down again reverse ways, a +mechanical involuntary jolting motion of her arms was discernible, +though her face betrayed nothing. An electrical machine hidden beneath +the altar was the cause of this shock. + +"Well?" enquired Fatia Negra as she returned to her place. + +"The crucifix struck me when I seized it, and struck me again when I put +it down," whispered the girl; and as she said these words she was very +pale. + +"And yet you did what I told you," said Fatia Negra, placing his hand on +Anicza's shoulder. "You are a brave girl, and worthy of me." + +"Comrades!" the leader of the adventurers now cried with a thundrous +voice, "come and listen to me!" + +Everyone thereupon abandoned his booth, his table or his diversion and +stood in a circle round Black Mask. + +"Ye know," he began, "the name of that place which is under the earth! +Its name is the grave. Ye are all of you at this moment in the grave +with me and if I wish it, dead men. Whoever would see once more the +bright sunlight of the upper world where dawn is now breaking, he must +swear that he will never at any time, drunk or sober, tell to any man +what has happened, what he has seen or heard in this underground tomb, +but will regard it all as a dream which he has forgotten on awakening. +Swear this with me in this hour! I myself will first of all repeat the +oath and ye must say whether ye are content therewith or not." + +Thereupon he approached the altar whose basement formed the glass +isolating "island" which all of us who have ever seen an electrical +machine know so well. The electric machine itself, a battery of Leyden +jars was hidden under the altar and connected by a piece of clockwork +with that opening covered with metal in which the crucifix had been +planted. + +Black Mask stood silently for a moment on the basement of the altar +after removing his helmet from his head, and those who stood nearest +were horrified to observe that single hairs of his long flowing mane of +hair rose slowly and remained stiffly suspended in the air. There was a +deep silence, the silence that prevails under the earth--among the Dead. + +And now Fatia Negra began to recite the words of the oath in a solemn +ghostly voice: "I, the bearer of the Black Mask, Fatia Negra, as they +call me, swear in the subterranean midnight by the living fire which +falling like rain reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes; by the flood +which killed all the dwellers upon earth; by the gaping gulf which +swallowed up the traitorous bands of Dathan and Abiram; by the spirit +which announced the death of King Saul; by the Angel Lucifer who by +reason of his rebellion was cast down from Heaven; by the angel Malach +Hamovesh who carries in his hands the sword of violent death; by the +twelve plagues of Egypt with which Moses visited the land of the +Pharaohs; by all these things and by the star under which I was born do +I swear secresy--and may I perish in fire and water, may I be buried +alive in the bowels of the earth, may I become a pillar of salt, may the +wild beast of the forest tear me to pieces, may my own weapon turn +against me in the evil hour, may I be terrified by midnight spectres and +hag-ridden, may my body be smitten with leprosy, my eyes with blindness, +my tongue with dumbness, my bones by rottenness, if ever I speak one +syllable to anybody, be it priest, or child, or father, or condemning +judge, or threatening headsman, of anything I have seen, heard or learnt +in this place, or write it down with my hand or put anybody on the track +of it! May every drop of my blood become curse-laden; may my remotest +posterity anathematize me; may I awake in my grave and go about again as +a spectre, if ever I act in anyway contrary to what I now swear! May all +those who are under the earth and above the earth be the witnesses of +this my oath!" + +This drastic formula satisfied everybody. In those parts the people much +prefer such unmeaning self-objurgation to our legal oaths as taken in +the presence of the judges and they are considered a hundred times more +binding. Meanwhile numerous single hairs had seemed to detach themselves +from Black Mask's long locks and now stood upright all around his head +like some spectral crown. Those who stood around regarded him with deep +horror. Many believed that a supernatural marvellous power was in his +words; only the girl did not believe in him at all. + +In order to increase still further this terrified respect the adventurer +beckoned towards him the old men of the assembly. + +"Come hither, that ye may see for yourselves how well acquainted with +the words of the oath are those in that other place where knowledge +needs must be; stretch out your hands towards me, touch me with the tips +of your fingers and ye will discover there is something else present +here besides yourselves." + +Old Onucz tremblingly stretched out his hand in the direction of Fatia +Negra and the next moment collapsed with fear when he perceived sparks +crackle forth from his leader's garments which burnt his finger tips. +More than one elder was afraid at first to put out his hand till +curiosity made him venture everything. Several wanted to convince +themselves personally of this miracle, which they could not credit from +the hearsay of others and the juggler himself encouraged those standing +near him to touch him wherever they chose and fire would spring from his +body. Sparks sometimes leaped forth from his neck and sometimes from +the tips of his ears and everyone was persuaded that the curse had +already made its way into every drop of his blood. + +Anicza alone did not draw near him. + +"Are you afraid of me, then?" enquired the imposter. + +"No." + +"Come and kiss me then!" + +Anicza approached and allowed herself to be kissed. + +Immediately afterwards a shudder ran through her. + +"Well? What did you feel?" + +"Your mouth burnt my mouth," replied the girl, and Fatia Negra happening +to look aside just then, she furtively crossed herself. + +Fatia Negra was completely satisfied with the success of this comedy. +Their awe of the mysterious and the unintelligible had made his comrades +his slaves; he need have no more scruples concerning them. + +"Give me your right hand, Anicza," said he, "and give your other hand to +your next neighbour, and let everyone take the hand of the person next +to him." + +Thus he made them form a long chain, the extreme end of which was +brought up by old Onucz in whose hand he placed a slender conducting rod +which hung down from the altar. Then he recited the fantastic oath +before them all once more, whilst they repeated every syllable of it +after him. The comedy was concluded by a violent electric shock which +instantly sent a spasm of pain through the muscles and sinews of every +member of the living chain. The poor untaught creatures all imagined +that the devil himself was flying through their limbs and with tears and +groans they begged Black Mask not to put them to any further test. + +"And now, Fatia Negra," said old Onucz respectfully, "the moment has +come in which you also must keep your word. Will you really take my +daughter to wife?" + +"I will not see the light of day again until I have done so." + +"Will you swear to be her husband in the way you promised to swear?" + +"You shall hear me." + +"Then have I something else to say to you. Over there, as you see, +stands the great weighing machine, in one of the scales I will place +Anicza and in the other as many piles of ducats as will make her kick +the beam. I will give my girl as many gold ducats as she weighs." + +Thereupon the two bridesmen produced a large wooden platter, placed the +bride on it, raised it high in the air and carried it to the huge +weighing machine. Onucz bade them place both bride and platter in the +scale that it might weigh the heavier. Then they piled up into the other +scale as many of the sacks of ducats sealed with the seal of Onucz as +were necessary to establish an absolute equipoise between the two +scales, and then while both the girl and the gold, balancing each other +were floating in the air, old Onucz, his face beaming with triumph, +poked Fatia Negra in the side with his elbows and said: "And now all +that is yours." + +The adventurer rushed to the weighing-machine, not indeed to the scale +on which the gold was, but to where the girl stood and lifted her down +on his arm as if she were a child. The other scale, losing its balance, +rushed earthwards and the sacks filled with gold ducats toppled off it +left and right. + +At this the company was delighted. Fatia Negra's manly tenderness was +appreciated by everyone and old Onucz, radiant with joy, turned towards +his cronies: "You see it is not my money but my daughter that he is +after!" + +And yet if Fatia Negra had only been able to foresee what was about to +happen the next instant, if only he had been able to guess what would +happen during the first few moments of the first approaching quarter of +an hour, could he but have heard one step, one bump which might have +told him what was going on just then above his head, instead of +extending his hands towards the girl, he would have done much more +wisely if he had grasped in each hand one of the sacks lying on the +other scale and made off with it somewhere through that dark corridor +which nobody knew of but he himself, under the special protection of the +devil. Just now, however, the devil was evidently not looking after him +as carefully as usual, for he returned to the altar with the girl in his +arms and deposited his load on the altar steps. The girl knelt down. + +"Strew over her corn moistened with honey!" whispered old Onucz to the +bridesmaids;--he considered this old custom as of the highest +importance. Possibly it was a symbol of fruitfulness. + +Anicza wanted Fatia Negra to bend down to her. She had something to +whisper in his ear. He leant over her as she desired, drew her pretty +face close up to his, and the girl timidly whispered: + +"Are you going to take me away under the earth?" + +"Are you afraid I shall do so?" + +"With you I will go wherever you choose and will fear nothing." + +"I take you at your word." + +"I don't care. Whither lies the way, to the right or to the left?" + +"To the left. Everything which brings luck must be done lefthandedly." + +"Is the door underneath the coining-shop?" asked the girl carelessly. + +"Yes, if you must know." + +"I am ready. Say the oath that I may hear it!" + +Fatia Negra repeated his hocus-pocus, kneeling down beside Anicza on the +steps of the altar, and raising his eyes towards the black vault of the +cavern as he recited the words of a new oath, which kept all the +listeners spellbound, so full it was of grisly images and hellish +fancies. So deep indeed was the general attention that nobody observed +in the meantime that, in the dark background formed by the distant walls +of the cavern, a multitude of strange faces were popping up. First two +men descended through the machinery of the mill and then two others +until, gradually, a hundred of them had assembled. They were all armed +and dressed in uniform, but their arms were concealed beneath their +mantles, that they might not glimmer through the darkness. And then they +quietly formed into ranks like supernumeraries on the stage of a theatre +whilst the chief comedian is ending his monologue in front of the +footlights. Only Anicza had observed them. During the whole course of +the oath, she had not once looked at Fatia Negra's cursing lips, but at +the groups forming in the darkness above his head. + +The oath over, Fatia Negra seized the reversed crucifix and an electric +shock again jolted the hand of the girl which he held fast in his own +right hand. "Now, you swear it also!" cried he. + +The only reply the girl gave was to passionately tear her hand out of +the adventurer's. Rising from her knees, and with her handsome face full +of rage, scorn and hatred, she turned upon him, who knelt at her feet, +gnashing her pearly teeth as she spoke: "Wretched play-actor! masked +imposter! You have deceived everybody, but nobody so much as me. Do you +remember that night in the ice valley and how shamefully you betrayed me +there? Know then that I was present in that hut, that it was I who blew +the horn and brought back the jealous husband from the forest. I saw the +tussle that followed and I swore, there and then, that I would be your +ruin. Just now you swore that if ever you betrayed me, thus might you +yourself be betrayed by whomsoever you trusted most. You said: 'Let +water pursue; let fire seize me, let the axe of the headsman descend +upon me and the dogs drink up my blood!' Be it so, then--here is fire in +front of you and water behind you and the headsman's sword above your +head! The dogs that are to lick your blood are already barking for it. I +have betrayed you. Look behind you!" + +The armed band of soldiers, moving forward in line, like a piece of +machinery, suddenly disclosed a row of bayonets glittering in the light +of the torches. "We are lost!" howled the mob, whilst the voice of the +officer in command (it had a strong foreign accent), rose above the din: +"Down with your arms! no resistance!" + +Onucz rushed roaring towards his sacks of ducats, the women scattered +screaming among the tents. For an instant Fatia Negra stood petrified +before Anicza, like a devil caught in a trap, and gazed vacantly at the +girl's flaming face. + +Anicza now turned quickly towards the armed soldiers and cried with a +piercing voice: "Hasten Juon Tare! Seize the smelting-oven entrance, +else this devil will still escape us!" + +That was why she wanted to know from Fatia Negra which way they would go +underground. + +At these words, however, the adventurer recovered himself. He saw a +pitiless enemy and a troop of armed men hastening to the door of the +smelting-furnace and that way of refuge was consequently closed. The +same instant an infernal idea occurred to him. + +Hastily snatching up a burning torch from the altar with a couple of +vigorous bounds he approached the smelting-furnace. Twenty bayonets and +a long axe in the hands of Juon Tare were raised against him--and he was +unarmed. + +But it was not to the door he wished to get. With a spring sideways he +reached the huge vat filled with brandy, threw the burning torch down in +front of it and placing his muscular shoulders against the vat, with a +desperate exertion of strength scattered its contents on to the floor of +the cavern from end to end. + +In an instant the whole cavern was in flames! + +The floor was of stone so that it could not absorb the spirit as it +leaked out and it flashed up as it caught the flame of the torch close +at hand. It spread rapidly like a lake of fire that has burst its dams. + +The blue spirit-flame filled the whole of the empty cavern with a pale, +ghastly glare, the air, the empty space itself seemed to burst into +flame. Hundreds of torches, burnt down to their very roots, flickered +luridly in the midst of this blue fire of hell, and the heaped-up fire +works,--the Bengali pyramids and the rockets and crackers--flamed, +fizzled and banged about in the midst of the terrible heat. And in the +thick of this infernal blaze black figures, like the souls of the +Accursed, were running frantically about, howling, shrieking and +toppling over one another and seeking a refuge on the higher rocks +whither the flames, spreading through the air, leaped after them. Juon +Tare lost his eyesight in the flames. The others tried to find a refuge +in the aqueduct running through the cavern, but the pursuing alcohol +rushed after them like a living cataract of fire. Everyone seemed bound +to perish at this hellish marriage feast. + +Only two people did not lose their presence of mind; only two knew what +ought to be done, and one of these was Fatia Negra. When the armed +soldiers scattered from before the door of the smelting-furnace, he had +boldly waded through the burning spirit; he knew very well that it could +not set fire to clothing immediately and he took care to hold his hands +in front of his eyes to save himself from being blinded. He tore the +door open and hastily vanished through it. + +The other was Anicza, who, when she saw that in the hundred-fold +confusion everyone had lost his head and was running desperately to +certain death, quickly snatched up an axe, rushed to the gigantic beer +vats and staved in their bottoms. The neutral fluid streamed down upon +the floor like a water fall and, gradually gaining ground, forced the +flaming _palinka_[31] back further and further, till at last the +infernal blue light was gradually extinguished. + +[Footnote 31: Hungarian brandy.] + +By that time, however, the beautiful bride was a sight of horror, her +face was burnt out of all recognition. + +Every member of the party had received injuries from the fire. Some of +them, already blinded, writhed in agony on the ground and dipped their +faces in the cool puddles formed by the flowing beer. Old Onucz had not +a hair of his head left, but for all that he was still sitting on a heap +of ducats, which were rolling in every direction out of the half charred +sacks. His scorched hands he dug down deep among his ducats, and +thought, perhaps, that they would assuage his pangs. + +Both of Juon Tare's eyes had been burnt out by an explosion of +gunpowder, and two of the soldiers had also received serious injuries. + +Only after the general terror had subsided a little, did it occur to +someone that now that the fire had been brought under, Fatia Negra might +be pursued. This someone was the bride. + +It was she who seized a new torch, it was she who cried to the soldiers: +"After me!" and was the first to tear open the door of the +smelting-furnace. Within was darkness. By torchlight they explored every +corner of that underground world--but Fatia Negra was nowhere to be +found. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE MIKALAI CSÁRDA + + +From Hidvár to Gyula Fehervár is a good day's journey, even with the +best horses and in the best weather; in the rainy season the mountain +streams make the journey still longer. Fortunately, exactly half-way +lies the Mikalai _csárdá_, in which dwells a good honest Wallachian +gentleman who also follows the profession of innkeeper. In these mining +regions there are no Jews, all the inns and _csárdás_ are in the hands +of the Armenians and Wallachs: the people are content with them and the +Hungarian gentry like them. + +Young Makkabesku had built up his den in a most picturesque situation +beside a stream gushing down from among the mountains and forming a +waterfall close to the very house. This stream possessed the peculiar +property of turning to stone every leaf and twig which fell into it, +even the branches of the trees hanging over it were turned into pretty +white petrifactions so far as the water was able to reach them. + +Domnul Makkabesku did not carry on the business of inn-keeper for the +sake of gain (he would not have been able to make a living out of it if +he had tried), but from sheer goodheartedness and good-fellowship. His +charges therefore were extremely moderate. A traveller on foot who asked +for a night's lodging, had to pay twopence, a traveller on horseback a +shilling; if he required wine and brandy for supper as well, still he +was only charged a shilling. Who would go to the trouble of totting up +extra figures for trifles of that sort? A carriage and four was not +taxed at all, those who came in it paid what they chose. If anybody did +not ask what he had to pay but simply shook hands and went on his way, +mine host simply wished him a happy journey and never said a word about +his account. + +For Makkabesku was a proud man in his way and thought a great deal of +his gentility. He expected to be addressed as "Domnule!"[32] and was +delighted when his guests took notice of his coat of arms hanging up in +the guest chamber,--to-wit, a black bear with three darts in its +heel--and enquired as to its meaning; when he would explain that that +black bear with the three darts which was also painted on a sheet of +lead and swung backwards and forwards in front of the house between two +iron rods was not a sign-board, but his family crest. + +[Footnote 32: Sir.] + +Late one afternoon Baron Leonard Hátszegi might have been seen on foot +crossing the bridge which led to the Mikalai _csárdá_, and entering its +courtyard. He came on foot with a small box under his arm and his +double-barrelled gun across his shoulder. Makkabesku greeted him from +the verandah while he was still a long way off. + +"God be with your lordship! Is anything amiss that your lordship comes +on foot?" + +"Yes, at that cursed _tyira lupului_[33] the axle of my coach gave way. +I have always said that that bad bit of road ought to be seen to, this +is at least the sixth time that this accident has befallen me." + +[Footnote 33: Wolf-corner.] + +"God is the cause thereof, your lordship. Whenever the stream overflows +it damages the road." + +"That is no consolation for me. My fellows are struggling with the coach +yonder and cannot set it upright again, so badly damaged it is. It is a +good job I was driving my own horses, for otherwise my neck might have +been broken. As it is one of my heydukes has sprained his hand. Send +help to them at once, or they are likely to remain there all night. +Where's your little girl?" + +"Ah, my lord! your lordship will always be having your little +joke.--Flora, come hither!" + +A pretty little maid came out of the inn at these words, and smiled upon +the nobleman with a face toasted red by the kitchen fire. + +"Take his lordship's gun and little box and carry them into the +guest-room!" + +"Well, my little girl! how are you? not married yet, eh?" said the +baron, pinching her round red cheeks whilst the wench took his box. + +"Heh, but 'tis heavy!" she gasped, as if she were quite frightened at +the weight of the box. "Won't the gun go off?" + +"Don't turn your fiery eyes upon it, or else it might--eh, grandpapa, +what do you say?" + +"Come, Flora, go in, go in! His lordship is always in such capital +spirits. Even when his carriage comes to grief he will have his joke all +the same." + +The point of the joke was that Makkabesku was a man not much beyond +forty though there were flecks of grey on the back of his head here and +there. The girl, on the other hand, was scarcely sixteen when the +Roumanian gentleman took her to wife. Leonard therefore always made a +point of aggravating the innkeeper by pretending to believe that his +wife was his daughter and by regularly asking him, as if he were her +grandfather, when he intended to get his granddaughter married. + +"You need not send help to my carriage, after all," said Hátszegi, after +due reflection; "for, by and by I'll see to that myself. I am going back +that way. But I should like you to place that little box in some safe +place for the time being. It contains 4,000 ducats and that is no +trifle." + +"Huh! my lord!" cried the innkeeper clapping the back of his head with +both hands, as if he feared it was already about to fall off backwards. +"Your lordship dares to carry so much gold about with you and stroll so +carelessly about in these parts!" + +"Carelessly!--what do you mean? I cannot wheel them in front of me on a +barrow can I? I want to pay them into my account at Fehervár the day +after to-morrow; I have payments to make. That is why I carry them about +with me." + +"I only meant to say that it is dangerous to go about alone with so much +money." + +"I am not in the habit of going about with an escort." + +"The more's the pity, Domnule. These parts are panic-stricken, since +Anicza betrayed the coiners in the Lucsia Cavern, we have been saddled +with a whole heap of calamities. A lot of poor fools and a heap of +treasure were captured, but the head of the band, Fatia Negra, was +suffered to escape. And now, furious at his loss of treasure, he +blackmails the whole region. Nobody is safe here now,--only the day +before yesterday he stopped and robbed the royal mails on the King's +highroad." + +"Ho, ho! If he takes to those games, he'll soon get his teeth broken. He +won't venture to touch me though, I'll be bound." + +"I don't know about that Domnule. He wears a mask and therefore has no +need to blush or blanch at anything." + +"Does he ever look in here, or has he ever lodged with you?" + +"No, my lord, I can safely say that he has never been here, to my great +astonishment I must confess. For a great many gentlemen call here and +many paths lead hitherward." + +"Don't you keep arms in your house?" + +"Why should I? I have not enough money to make it worth Fatia Negra's +while to rob me. Besides, it is a great mistake to resist him. Juon Tare +actually had him in his hands, yet what was the result? He goes about +now a blind beggar. Anicza betrayed him and brought down the soldiers +upon him, yet what did _she_ get by it? _He_ vanished under the earth, +but she reduced her old father to poverty and is now sitting with all +her acquaintances in the dungeons of Gyula Fehervár!" + +"Fear nothing! At any rate no ill can befall you while I go to my +coachman and come back again. Lock this casket in your wall-cupboard in +the meantime, and keep the key yourself." + +"Nay, let your lordship keep it rather. I don't want it to be said that +I knew anything about it." + +So Makkabesku locked up the casket in the huge wall-closet which greatly +resembled a large standing clock case and in which were his diploma of +nobility and all his domestic treasures. The key of the locked closet he +returned to his guest. Then by way of extra precaution, he locked the +room as well and forced that key also upon the Baron. + +"Domnule," he added, when he saw that Hátszegi was determined to return +to his wrecked coach. "I can only say that I should be very glad if +your lordship would not go. The servants will be quite able to bring the +carriage along." + +"That they cannot: the whole lot of them are mere boors who have never +seen a carriage with an iron axle." + +"Let me go then, and your lordship remain here." + +"I suppose you want me, then, to show your daughter how to cook?" + +The innkeeper's eyebrows contracted at these words; his desire to go +visibly subsided. + +"But suppose I am afraid of being left alone in the house with so much +money?" + +"Come, come, wretched man!" cried Hátszegi at last losing all patience, +"you don't suppose that your blockhead of a bandit is lying in wait for +me, do you? Look you now! I'll leave you my gun. Take it in your hand +and plant yourself there before the door. Bring out a chair, if you +like, and sit down on it. Pull down the hammers of both barrels and hold +your thumb on them and your index finger on the trigger. The left barrel +is filled with ten buckshot and you can be quite sure that whoever +approaches you from the lower end of this passage will inevitably get +five in his body,--and five of them is enough for anybody. The second +barrel, the right one I mean, is loaded with a bullet which we generally +keep in reserve for a wild beast, at the last moment, at six paces; at +that distance any child could kill a giant. Don't be afraid, if he wore +a coat of mail, it would go through it, for that bullet has a steel +point and would perforate a leaden door. Come, you are not afraid now, +surely?" + +Makkabesku certainly felt a great stream of courage flow into his heart +at the knowledge that he held in his hand a weapon which could kill the +most terrible of men twice over. + +"But what about your lordship?" he enquired. + +"Oh, I've got two revolvers in my pocket." + +And with that, gaily whistling, Hátszegi strode down the long passage +and peeped into the kitchen, on his way out, to exchange a word or two +with the fair young cook. + +"Look ye, my daughter, have supper ready by my return, and take care not +to over-salt the soup!" and then with the nonchalance becoming his +station he sauntered across the bridge again into the highroad, followed +all the way by the eyes of Makkabesku.--"What a gallant fellow it is!" +reflected the Roumanian. + +The innkeeper did not count courage among his virtues. He was a +peace-loving soul who detested the very idea of a brawl. Even when he +sat down to drink, it was always inside a room with a locked door, for +on one occasion, when he had got drunk in public, the wine had instilled +within him such unwonted audacity that he had got his skull broken in +two places in consequence. After that he avoided all such occasions of +heroism. + +For such folks who have nothing to do with firearms as a rule, there is +a peculiar charm in suddenly holding a loaded weapon in their hands. +Valour and a sudden access of pugnacity combine to put them in a +condition of perpetual fever. A strange longing arises within them to +make use of their weapon. Once or twice Makkabesku raised his gun to his +cheek and made a target of a fly on the wall. At the end of the +vestibule facing him was an old Roman image, the head and bust of an +Emperor, which had been unearthed in the neighbourhood of the house when +the foundations had been laid, and had been adopted forthwith as a +family relic. If this old imperial figurehead had been an enemy, let us +say the famous robber of the district, our marksman felt that he could +easily have shattered his skull for him. + +The sun was now slowly descending from the sky, and the lower it sank, +the less golden and the more purple grew the light which it threw upon +the ancient monument opposite, till the shadow of an adjacent column +fell softly across it and hid it half from view. + +Suddenly it seemed to Makkabesku as if he saw the shadow of a human head +moving beside the shadow of the column. + +The breath died away on his lips--someone was lurking there! + +"Who is there?" he cried, in a voice half choked with terror. The same +instant there stood before him at the opposite end of the +corridor--Fatia Negra! + +Yes, there the figure was just as it had been described to him, +enfolded in a black atlas mantle, with a black mask across its face. + +"Stay where you are, don't come here!" cried the armed Makkabesku, in an +agony of terror, "or I'll shoot you through," and as the mask continued +to advance, he hurriedly fired off the left barrel of the gun. + +The smoke of the powder cleared away, Fatia Negra stood there unwounded, +he was coming nearer and nearer! + +Ah, those little shots could not hurt him, of course--but now he shall +have the bullet with the steel point. + +As the first shot was fired, Makkabesku's wife came running out of the +kitchen and came face to face with the robber. He immediately seized her +arm with his muscular hand and flung her back into the kitchen the door +of which he locked upon her. + +Mr. Makkabesku permitted all this to go on before his very eyes, but he +had raised the gun and held it firmly pressed against his cheek, he +wanted the robber to draw nearer still that he might make quite sure of +him. + +When there were only three yards between them he aimed right at the +middle of the intruder, pressed the trigger of the gun and the right +barrel also exploded. + +Yet the report was followed by no death cry--and Fatia Negra still stood +in front of him unscathed. + +Paralyzed with terror Makkabesku continued to hold the discharged gun +in front of him as if he expected it to go off again of its own accord; +but Fatia Negra, catching hold of the end of the gun with one hand, +wrenched it out of the innkeeper's grasp and brought down the butt of it +so violently on the top of his head that he collapsed in a senseless +condition. + +After that nobody knew what happened. + +When Hátszegi and his servants arrived with the patched-up carriage, +Makkabesku was still lying on the ground unconscious, his wife was +thundering at the locked door, the door of the guest chamber was smashed +and the cupboard in the wall had been broken into and pillaged. +Curiously enough, while not one of the innkeeper's relics was missing, +Hátszegi's box with the 4,000 ducats had disappeared. A little later it +was found in the bed of the stream--empty of course. + +Makkabesku was a very long time coming to, but he contrived at last, in +a very tremulous voice, to tell Hátszegi the somnambulistic case of the +double shots, nay he called Heaven to witness that Fatia Negra had +caught the bullets in his hands as if they were flies. + +"You're a fool," cried Hátszegi angrily. "I suppose you fired above his +head on both occasions." + +"But then you ought to see the marks of the bullets on the opposite +wall." + +And it was a fact that, look as they might, they found no trace of a +bullet on the walls or anywhere else. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WHO IT WAS THAT RECOGNIZED FATIA NEGRA + + +The events at the Mikalai _csárdá_ considerably upset Hátszegi. He +returned home very sulky and was unusually ungracious towards Henrietta. +There were several violent scenes between them, in the course of which +the baron twitted his wife with having betrayed him and hinted that it +was all in consequence of her own and her brother's bad conduct that she +had been disinherited by her grandfather. He revealed to her that he +knew everything. He was well aware, he said, that in her girlhood she +had had a rascally young attorney as a lover and had thereby incurred +her grandfather's anger. + +Henrietta, poor thing, had not the spirit to answer him back: "If you +knew this, why did you marry me? Why did you not leave me then to him +with whom I should have been happy if poor?" She could only reply with +tears. She trembled before him while she loathed him. + +And yet how dependent she was on him. + +She was well aware now of what her brother was accused, and never +doubted for a moment what she ought to do. She ought to atone for his +fault by an act of self-sacrifice. She must recognize the forgery as her +real signature. But what then? The recognition of the signature must +needs have consequences. What would be the result of her action? + +She could see she had no help to expect from her husband. At every step +she perceived that he eagerly sought occasion to quarrel with her and +seized every pretext for avoiding her. And now to add to her +embarrassment, there was this unlucky Mikalai accident. It seemed just +to have come in the nick of time so far as he was concerned, just as if +he had actually agreed with Fatia Negra that the latter should rob him +on the high road in the most artful manner so that she might not have +the slightest hope left of being relieved from her anxieties by the +assistance of her husband. The baron, now could always end every +_tęte-ŕ-tęte_ by remarking that that rogue Fatia Negra had relieved him +of all his money, and he knew not how to make good his loss. + +One day, while away from home hunting at Csáko, Baron Leonard learnt +that the Countess Kengyelesy's latest ideal was Szilard Vámhidy and when +chance soon afterwards brought him also to Arad, he could see for +himself that the countess really did load the young man with distinction +in society. + +The circumstance began to irritate him. + +This pale-faced youth with the big burning eyes had turned the head of +his own consort once upon a time, and now he was making other enviable +conquests. The idea occurred to Hátszegi to knock this "student chap" +out of his saddle a second time. Heretofore he had never regarded the +countess as a particularly pretty woman, but now he very readily +persuaded himself that he was over head and ears in love with her. + +He began to pay his court to her--and he was lucky. At least everybody +believed it--himself included. + +The countess always seemed pleased to see him, and the oftener he paid +his visits, the less frequent grew the visits of Szilard. Occasionally +they met at the countess's and then Szilard would hastily step aside, as +vanquished rivals are wont to do when their conquerors appear. At last +Leonard was a daily institution at the countess's, while Szilard only +appeared there occasionally. + +Yet one day, while Hátszegi was in the drawing room of the countess, +paying his court to her most assiduously, Vámhidy entered _sans gęne_; +whereupon the countess hastily springing up from her _causeuse_ asked +leave of the baron to withdraw for a moment and there and then conducted +Vámhidy into her private boudoir and remained closeted with him for a +good quarter of an hour, whilst Hátszegi, yellow with jealousy, was left +alone with the countess's French companion, who could answer nothing but +"oui" and "non" to all his remarks. + +When the countess emerged from her room, she seemed to be in a very good +humour. She accompanied Szilard all the way to the drawing-room door, +pressed his hand, and when they parted at the door exchanged a +significant look with him, at the same time touching her lips with her +index finger--a very confidential piece of pantomime as any connoisseur +will tell you. + +And all this Hátszegi saw reflected in the mirror, opposite to which he +sat. + +As soon as the countess sat down, her companion, as if at a given +signal, arose and left the room. + +Scarcely were they alone when the baron petulantly remarked: "It appears +as if your ladyship and our young friend rejoiced in very intimate +mutual relations." + +"Oh, very intimate. I assure you he is a most worthy, honourable man." + +"So I observe." + +"I am quite in earnest. I find him quite a treasure, and he is +extraordinarily attached to me." + +"Very nice of him, I'm sure." + +"Oh, you gentlemen, what mockers you are. There are men, I can tell you, +who for all that they are poor are more capable of self-sacrifice than +the haughtiest nabobs who make such a fuss over us till we are in +trouble and then snatch up their hats and fly from the house. You also +belong to that class, my lord!" + +"I don't understand you." + +"Suppose, for instance, I were to say to you: my dear friend, I have +fallen into quite an awkward predicament and to-day or to-morrow they +will distrain upon me for 40,000 florins." + +The baron burst out laughing. + +"Don't laugh, for so it really is. That need cause _you_ no anxiety, +however, I only ask you to tell nobody, especially my husband. He would +be capable of making an end of me if he knew it." + +"But seriously, countess, who could ever have lent you 40,000 florins?" + +"Nobody, and yet I am indebted to that amount. You must know that once +upon a time, many years ago, when we lived at Vienna, I was given to +card playing. We played for high stakes in those days. One evening not +only did I lose all my cash, but had to give I.O.U.'s for 1,000 florins +besides. Debts contracted at play cannot remain unpaid for more than a +couple of days. It was absolutely indispensable that I should procure +these thousand florins somehow. I would not ask my husband for them and +that was very foolish of me. I got the amount at last from a wretched +usurer at an enormous rate of interest. When the amount plus interest +became due again, I was still more afraid to tell my husband, and so +kept on giving fresh bills, with the result that the amount of my +indebtedness grew and grew as the years rolled on, till it resembled the +egg of the widow in the nursery tale--out of which came first two cocks, +then a bristling boar, then a camel, and finally a carriage and four, +for at last my original poor little debt of one thousand florins swelled +into forty thousand and the usurers became importunate and would allow +me no more credit. Once when I was in a very bad humour, I let out my +secret before Szilard, and the worthy young man undertook to relieve me +of my burden. I don't know whether he detected a technical flaw in my +bonds or whether he found out some other means of frightening my +creditor; anyway, he assured me I only need pay the original sum with +interest upon it at the legal rate. Moreover, he undertook to procure me +an honourable loan on easy conditions, which to me was a veritable +godsend. And so now you know, my dear friend, why Vámhidy is so welcome +a guest at my house that I leave even you all alone with my companion +when he comes. But you can see for yourself how dear and necessary he is +to me and how much I owe to him." + +Hátszegi remained in a brown study for several moments, and began biting +his lips. The countess sat down at the piano with the most amiable +nonchalance as if she gave not another thought to what she had been +speaking about. + +"If only I had not had the misfortune to be robbed!" cried Hátszegi at +last. + +"Do you know what, my dear friend," said the countess, at the same time +letting her fingers glide lightly over the ivory keys of the piano, "I +consider the whole of that affair as simply incredible. Two shots so +close to a man and no result!--why it borders a little upon the +fabulous!" + +"Then I suppose you think it was the innkeeper himself who robbed me?" + +The countess shrugged her round shoulders slightly and went on playing. + +"That is not possible," resumed the baron, answering his own query, "for +I myself saw the blow which Makkabesku received on the head from the +butt of the musket, and I can tell your ladyship that there are no four +thousand ducats in the world for the sake of which I could lend my head +to such a blow." + +The countess interrupted her _roulades_ for a moment: + +"You saw it, eh? And did anybody else see it?" + +Hátszegi was strangely surprised by this question. + +"What is in your mind, Countess?" he asked. + +"I am thinking, my dear friend, that you have some particular reason for +playing the injured man, and I have read the whole tale of the Maccabees +in some history or other of the Jews which you would now palm off upon +the world as something new." + +"Your jests are most unmerciful, Countess; but may I beg of you to give +that piano a little rest, especially as it wants tuning. I should like +to speak seriously to you for a moment or two." + +"About the Maccabees, eh?" enquired the countess, laughing. + +"No. About myself. I am quite serious when I say I have had losses. +Your ladyship need not know how. But for all that I know what a +gentleman ought to do after such a revelation as that with which the +countess has just honoured me and which I accept as a most flattering +mark of confidence." + +"Impossible." + +"What I say is never impossible; but what that student fellow has chosen +to palm off on your ladyship that _is_ impossible. He will not be able +to help your ladyship without a great scandal. Naturally a mere attorney +looks upon that as a matter of course. He does not understand that there +are cases in which a person would rather spring into a well than risk +her reputation in the eyes of the world by appealing to the courts for +redress. I make your ladyship another proposal: I will exchange a bond +of my own against the bond of the countess to an equal amount. I feel +confident that the usurers will lend readily on my paper and will jump +at the exchange." + +"Oh, many thanks, many thanks! But, first of all, I should like to know +what interest you mean to charge me; for I am not going to pay anything +usurious again." + +"Legal and Christian interest, I assure you. But I must impose one +condition: your ladyship's doors must henceforth be closed against this +lawyer fellow." + +"Are you serious, Baron?" + +"Perfectly so." + +"Are you not afraid I shall take you at your word?" + +"By doing so you will satisfy my desires. Look, Countess! I consider +myself as one of your most sincere admirers and it wounds me to hear all +this tittle-tattle circulating in our set which links your ladyship's +name with that of young Vámhidy." + +"But will it not injure the respect you entertain for me if your name +takes the place of Vámhidy's in the gossip you complain of?" + +"All that I desire is that a certain man shall be excluded from this +house, and if the countess desires it I will then keep away likewise." + +The countess hastened to press Hátszegi's hand as a sign that _she_ did +not desire _that_. + +"Very well, then, to prove to you that my relations with Vámhidy were +purely professional, I will break off all further intercourse with him." + +"Then we'll clinch your ladyship's determination at once. May I make use +of your writing table? Have you any other ink than this rose-coloured +ink, with which to be sure, your ladyship generally writes your letters, +but which is a little unusual in official documents?" + +"Everything you desire, sealing-wax included." + +"That is not necessary for bills. What a fortunate thing that I have a +blank form with me." + +The baron discovered in his pocket a blank form, without which no +gentleman ever goes about, and filled it up in the usual way. The +countess, with her elbows on the back of the armchair, looked over the +baron's shoulder while he signed the precious document, and thought to +herself: what an odd thing it is when a rich and influential man +refuses, with a heart of iron, to give his wife a little assistance +which would make her happy and save her brother from dishonour, and yet +lightly pitches the very sum required out of the window for the sake of +a pretty speech from another woman who is almost a stranger to him! + +After signing the document Leonard did not linger another instant, but +snatched up his hat and hastened off so as to avoid the suspicion that +he was expecting some little gratification on account. + +The pressure of the hand which the countess exchanged with him at +parting assured him that this conquering manoeuver on his part was a +complete success. + +Subsequently, however, as, stretched at full length on his sofa, he was +smoking his first pipe of tobacco, he grew suspicious, and speedily felt +convinced that the countess's tale of the usurers was a fable from +beginning to end and that Vámhidy was some broker or other who lent +money privately; and he began to be not quite so proud at having ousted +the fellow from her ladyship's drawing room. + +But a still greater surprise awaited him. + +He had a shrewd suspicion that the Countess Kengyelesy did not require +the bill he had signed to discharge any debt to usurers; but not even +in his dreams would it ever have occurred to him that Madame Kengyelesy, +at the very moment when he had gone out into the street, had sat down on +the very same chair from which the baron had arisen, taken into her hand +the very same pen in which the ink he had used was not yet dry, and +selecting a sheet of letter paper, written a few lines of her long +pointed pot-hooks to her friend, the Baroness Hátszegi: informing her in +a most friendly manner that she had succeeded in persuading Hátszegi to +exchange the bill that Koloman was suspected of forging for one of his +own in order to give his wife the opportunity of acknowledging the +signature as her own and putting a stop to all further legal +proceedings. All this was set forth with far greater elaboration than it +is here, but was nevertheless perfectly intelligible. The original bill +was appended to the letter and the letter was posted. Henrietta was +bound to receive it next day. + +Imagine then the surprise of Hátszegi, who for the last three days had +been pacing impatiently up and down his room, naturally expecting every +moment that the countess would surrender at discretion and send for him +out of sheer gratitude, when the door was suddenly opened with +considerable impetuosity and in came--Henrietta. Before he could +sufficiently recover from his amazement to ask her what she was looking +for there, his wife fell on his neck, and, sobbing with emotion, came +out with some long rigamarole about delicacy,--gratitude--a delightful +surprise--and only half suspected kindness of heart--and a lot more of +unintelligible nonsense, winding up by begging his pardon if ever she +had unwittingly offended him and promising him that _after this_ she +would ever be his faithful slave! + +_After this!_--after _what_? + +It was only when his wife told him that she was alluding to that bill +for 40,000 florins which he had been so kind as to send her through the +countess, that some inkling of the truth burst upon him. + +"Oh, that eh! It quite escaped my memory and is not worth mentioning," +he cried, hiding his astonishment beneath the affectation of a +magnanimity which scorned even to remember such trifles. + +Oh, if the countess had been able to see him at that moment, how she +would have laughed! + +Every drop of Leonard's blood seemed to turn to gall. How ridiculous he +had been made to appear by a woman's nobility, and the consciousness +thereof was still further embittered by the artless and innocent +gratitude of that other woman--his own wife. He could have torn the pair +of them to pieces. What a pretty fool he had made of himself. He had +purchased the love of his wife for 40,000 florins. He could not demand +back the bill from her, nor could he explain to her the compromising +origin of that document. And in addition to that, he must play the part +of dignified pater familias which his wife had assigned to him in this +domestic drama, instead of that of first lover which was so much more to +his liking. + +"All right, Henrietta," said he, assuming a calmness he was far from +feeling. "If you like to give me the bill, I'll see that it is posted to +your lawyer at Pest, Mr. Sipos." + +Henrietta thanked him sincerely, but said she would rather take it to +Pest herself in order that she might have a long confidential talk with +Mr. Sipos personally about her poor brother. + +"Then wait, Henrietta, till the Arad races are over. You know I am +greatly interested in them. If I am not there myself they are quite +capable of striking my horses out." + +"My dear Leonard, I don't want you to interrupt any of your business or +pleasure on my account. I can easily go by myself. But I don't want to +postpone the matter a single day. You know how anxious I am about my +poor brother." + +"Well, but you know that the roads are very dangerous just now. You know +what happened to myself a little while ago." + +"Oh, I have my plan all cut and dried. I am prepared for the very worst. +If robbers attack me I will give up to them, at the first challenge, all +the cash I have about me. What I am most afraid of is the bill, but I +will hide that so that nobody can find it." + +"My dear, these men are very artful." + +"Oh, they won't find it, I can tell you. The insides of my +upper-sleeves consist of steel rings which fasten close to the arms, and +I will roll up my bill, insert it within my sleeve and draw a steel ring +over it. They will never guess that, will they?" + +"A good idea, certainly." + +Yet, good idea as he thought it, Hátszegi nevertheless complained to his +friend Gerzson, whom he met at the club the same evening, how anxious he +was about his wife, who was going all the way to Pest next day, and how +glad he would be, since he was unable to accompany her himself, if +someone would persuade her not to go. + +Naturally Mr. Gerzson at once offered to dissuade the baroness, as +Hátszegi had anticipated, and was invited to tea by him the same day +with that express purpose, but, talk as he might, he could not prevail +with Henrietta. In reply to all his arguments, she pleaded for her poor +brother, whose fate, she added, with tears, depended upon her instant +action. + +Now, Mr. Gerzson was a gentleman--every inch of him. He was also +kind-hearted to a fault, and when he beheld the poor woman in despair, +he put an end to the difficulty by saying: "Very well, my lady, then I +will escort you to Pest myself." + +At this Hátszegi fairly lost all patience. "Why, what can you be +thinking of?" cried he. + +"Your pardon, Leonard, but I suppose you may regard me as old enough and +honourable enough to fill the place of a father to your wife on an +occasion like this! It appears to me that it will never enter anybody's +head to speak slightingly of a lady because she travelled alone with +me." + +Good, worthy old man, he was quite proud that no woman could look at his +face without a shudder. + +"And then I fancy that there's still quite enough of me left to defend a +woman against anybody, even though it were the devil himself. And I +should advise that worthy Fatia Negra not to show his mug to me, for my +stunted hand does not fire guns as our friend Makkabesku is in the habit +of doing, nor will my bullets be caught like flies, I warrant." + +"You will be done out of the horse-racing, all through me," remarked +Henrietta sadly. + +"Oh, it does not interest me much. I don't care much about it." + +This was not true, but it was all the nicer of the old man to say so. + +"Then you really mean to escort my wife to Pest?" said Hátszegi, at +last. + +"With the greatest of pleasure." + +"Very well. At any rate, I will see to all the travelling arrangements +that there may be no delay at any of the stages. Which way do you prefer +to go _via_ Csongrad or _via_ Szeged? + +"By way of Csongrad." + +"Well, 'tis the shorter of the two certainly, but at this season of the +year the road is as hard as steel. It will be as well to provide my +horses with fresh shoes." + +"It is now ten o'clock. By midnight your coachman will have managed to +do all that. The baroness would do well if she had a little sleep now. +Meanwhile I will go home for my luggage and my weapons; at two o'clock +in the morning I shall be here again, and at three we can start." + +"I will be awake and watching for you, and I thank you with all my +heart." + +Mr. Gerzson drank up his tea and hastened home. Leonard advised +Henrietta to go and sleep--and she really was very sleepy--while he went +to the stables to see to the horses. + +It was about midnight when he returned. He looked very tired, like one +who has had a great deal of bustling about. He was alone in the drawing +room, so he stirred up the fire, lit a cigar and waited in silence. + +At half past two Mr. Gerzson rang the gate-bell; he entered the +drawing-room very boisterously like one resolved to wake up the whole +house. A little coffer hung upon his stunted arm, in the other hand he +carried a double-barrelled gun, and from a pouch, fastened by straps to +his shoulder, peeped forth two four-barrelled pistols. + +"Why, plague take it!" laughed Hátszegi, "you are armed for a whole +guerilla warfare." + +"No more than Fatia Negra deserves," replied Mr. Gerzson with a sombre +grimace. "Is your wife up and dressed?" + +"I fancy she lay down ready dressed." + +"All the better. It'll be as well if we start early." + +"I hear the opening and closing of doors in her apartments, no doubt +your ringing disturbed her. She will be here in an instant, for she is +very impatient." + +"That is only natural." + +"And in the meantime, let us have something to strengthen the heart," +said Hátszegi producing a flask of _szilvapalinka_[34] and filling his +own and his guest's glass. "If you have a chance of shooting Fatia +Negra, you must give me one half of the thousand ducats set upon his +head, because I have abandoned this fine opportunity to you." + +[Footnote 34: Hungarian cherry brandy.] + +At this Mr. Gerzson coughed. + +"I have also provided you with a good wooden flask of _Hegyalja_,"[35] +said Leonard, taking from the sideboard a handsome flask bound in +foal-skin. + +[Footnote 35: A species of Tokay.] + +"Therein you acted wisely." + +"All this side of the Theiss you will get no drinkable water, and +Henrietta always gets ague at once if the water is bad. Although but a +child, she will never take any wine unless you force her to do so. I +earnestly beg of you to take great care of her. I don't like this +journey a bit. A letter would have done the business just as well; but I +make it a rule never to thwart her when she gets these ideas into her +head. All I say is: take care of her." + +"I'll watch over her as if she were my own child." + +In a quarter of an hour Henrietta appeared in full travelling costume. +The lacquey brought in breakfast. The gentlemen also sat down to it lest +the lady should breakfast alone. + +"We shall have splendid weather, Baroness," observed Mr. Gerzson, +dipping his cake into his black coffee. "The sky is full of stars, we +could not wish for better travelling weather." + +"The sky is nice enough, but the ground is a little stumbly," put in +Hátszegi. "Around Dombhegyhaza in particular the roads will spill you if +you don't look out." + +"I don't care a bit, for I mean to drive the horses myself." + +"Oh, that I will not allow," said Henrietta. "It is no joke to hold the +reins, for hours at a stretch, on bad roads." + +"I do it because I like it, your ladyship. You know I love my pipe, and +how can I smoke it in a covered carriage?" + +Shortly afterwards Mr. Gerzson asked leave to go out and inspect the +coach and the coachman, and after closely investigating everything and +wrangling a little with the coachman, purely from traditional habit, +just to show the fellow that he understood all about it, he ascended to +the drawing-room again and announced that the horses had been put to. + +Hátszegi helped his wife to adjust her mantle over her shoulders, and +impressed a cold kiss upon her forehead. Henrietta once more thanked him +warmly for being so good to her and allowed Mr. Gerzson to escort her +down the steps. The old gentleman, however, would not allow himself to +be persuaded to take his place in the carriage by her side. His hands +itched to hold the reins and he would, he said, be sure to go to sleep +and make himself a nuisance if he sat inside. So he had his way, and +indeed in all the Hungarian plain a more adroit and careful driver could +not have been found. + +Gradually the night began to die away and the sky began to grow lighter +behind the mountains of Bihar, which they had now left behind them. The +smaller stars vanished in groups before the brightening twilight; only +the larger constellations still sparkled through the dawn. Presently a +hue of burning pink lit up the sky and long straight strips of cloud +swam, like golden ribbons, before the rising sun whose increasing +radiance already lit up the broad cupolas of the dark mountains. Before +the travellers extended the endless plain of the _Alföld_,[36] like a +bridge rising from her bed to greet her beloved Lord, the Sun. + +[Footnote 36: The great Hungarian plain.] + +On Mr. Gerzson, however, the romantic spectacle of sunrise on the +_puszta_ produced no romantic impression whatsoever. He neither observed +the golden clouds in the sky, nor the dappled shadows flitting across +the dewy fields, nor the lilac-coloured nebulous horizon. He saw none +of these things, I say, but he saw something else which did not please +him at all. + +"I say, Joska, the right leader is limping." + +"Yes, it certainly is," replied the coachman. + +"Get down and see what's the matter." + +The coachman got down, lifted the horse's leg, brushed away the dust +from around the hoof and said with the air of a connoisseur: "This +horse's hoof has been pricked." + +"What the devil...!" rang out Mr. Gerzson, but there he stopped, for +it is not becoming to curse and swear when a lady is in the carriage +behind you, even if she does not hear. + +Meanwhile the coachman mounted up beside him and they drove on again. + +"Well we cannot drive that horse much further," grumbled Mr. Gerzson, +"the other three must pull the carriage. At Csongrad we must get another +to take its place and leave it behind there." + +A long discussion thereupon ensued between him and the coachman as to +the clumsiness of smiths in general, who when they pare away a horse's +hoofs in order to shoe it, so often cut into the living flesh, which is +very dangerous, and is technically known as "pricking." + +They had scarce proceeded for more than another half hour when Mr. +Gerzson again began to cast suspicious glances down from the box-seat. + +"I say, Joska," he cried at last, "it seems to me the left leader, the +whip horse, is also limping." + +Down leaped the coachman, examined the horse's foot and pronounced that +the hoof of the left leader had also been pricked. + +"Devil take...!" cried Mr. Gerzson, but once more he did not +enlighten the devil as to the particular individual he was desirous of +drawing his attention to. + +"Well, I suppose we must go on as best we can with two horses now, for +the first two are good for nothing." And in the spirit of a true driver +he stuck his whip beneath him, as being a thing for which there was now +no further use, and resumed his argument with the coachman about the +inefficiency of smiths in general. + +"As soon as we reach Oroshaza, we'll get two fresh horses; we ought to +be getting there now." + +Yet the steeple of Oroshaza was, as yet, scarcely visible and midday was +already approaching. There was no intermediate station where they could +change horses. + +Half an hour later Mr. Gerzson dashed his clay pipe against the wheel of +the coach and swore that he would be damned if ever such a silly-fool +thing had ever befallen him before, for now the thill horse also began +to limp. + +Naturally, that also was found to have been pricked. + +"May the devil take all those scamps of smiths who look after the poor +beasts so badly! A pretty fix we are in now. We may thank our stars if +we are able to crawl into Oroshaza before nightfall. A pretty amble we +shall have now, I'll be bound." + +And indeed ambling was about all they could do. As for the Oroshaza +steeple, so far from drawing any nearer, it seemed to be travelling away +from them, and with very much better horses than they had. It seemed to +get further off every moment. + +"Well, all we want now is for the saddle horse also to throw up the +sponge and we shall be complete." + +If that were Mr. Gerzson's one remaining wish, Fate very speedily +granted it to him, for they had not gone another quarter of an hour when +all four horses began to limp together, one with the right foot, another +with the left, the third with the fore and the fourth with the hind leg, +till it was positively frightful to look at them. + +Mr. Gerzson leaped from the box, and in his rage and fury dashed his +pipe-stem into a thousand pieces. + +"What can the smith have been about!" whined the coachman shaking his +head, "and yet his lordship had a look at them too!" + +"Devil take your smith, and his lordship also for the matter of that. +The whole lot of you deserves hanging." And it was a good thing for the +coachman that he happened to be standing on the other side of the +horses, as otherwise he would certainly have had a taste of Squire +Gerzson's riding whip. + +Henrietta, who had hitherto been sleeping quietly in the carriage, +aroused by the loud voices, put her head out of the window and timidly +inquired what was the matter. At the first sound of her voice, Squire +Gerzson grew as mild as a lamb. + +"Nothing much," said he. "I have only been trying to put together again +my broken pipe-stem, the carriage-wheel has gone over my pipe, that is +all." + +"But where are we now?" asked Henrietta, peeping curiously out of the +carriage. Then of course they had to tell her the truth. + +"We are three leagues from the station in front of us, and about four +from the one behind us, and there is no prospect of our getting on any +further. All four horses are lame, they have been damaged during the +shoeing." + +"What steeple is that in front of us?" + +"Oroshaza, I fancy, but with these four lame horses I don't believe we +shall get there before midnight." + +Henrietta perceived the confusion of the old gentleman, who for sheer +rage and worry could not keep his hat on his burning head, so she tried +to comfort him. + +"Never mind, dear papa Gerzson, not far from here must lie Leonard's +_csárdá_. You and I, papa Gerzson, might go on there with the horses +while the coachman makes the best of his way on foot to Oroshaza, where +he can get fresh horses and join us early in the morning at the +_csárdá_." + +Squire Gerzson jerked his head significantly. + +"I don't want to alarm you, my dear Baroness," said he, "but that +_csárdá_ lies in the beat of the "poor vagabonds"--you may have heard of +them." + +"Oh, I have spent a night there already. I know the innkeeper's wife. +She is a very good sort of woman, who told us tales all night long while +she worked her distaff at my bedside. I should very much like to see her +again. Besides, I know the "poor vagabonds" also. All of them kissed my +hand in turn when I was there. If, however, anybody should be rude to +me, have I not papa Gerzson?--when he is by I fear nobody." + +"Noble heart!--very well, be it so! If your ladyship fears nothing, I +think I may very well say the same." + +Whereupon Squire Gerzson gave the coachman two florins to speed him on +to Oroshaza, where he was to get fresh horses and come on the same night +to the _csárdá_, so that they might be able to set off again before dawn +on the morrow. He himself then quitted the highroad in the direction of +the well-known _csárdá_ which, with sound horses, he might have reached +in about an hour, but which with lame ones he only got up to towards +evening, having repeatedly to rest on the way. Squire Gerzson kept on +asking Henrietta whether she was hungry or thirsty and offered her his +flask again and again; but she always gently declined it, the old man +feeling in honour bound to follow her example. He comforted her, +however, with the assurance that the _csárdá_-woman was a dab hand at +turning out all sorts of good old savoury Hungarian dishes. + +At last, after a weary journey, when evening was already closing upon +them, Henrietta perceived the _csárdá_ gleaming white behind the acacia +trees. When they stumbled into the courtyard they found nobody, and +nobody came out of the door to meet them. + +"All the better, nobody will see these game-legged nags," growled Squire +Gerzson as he helped Henrietta out of the carriage. + +"It is odd that the woman of the inn does not come out to meet me," said +Henrietta. "She liked me so. How pleased she will be to see me." + +Nevertheless no one came. Squire Gerzson grew impatient. He could not +leave the coach and horses all by themselves. + +"Hie! somebody! Who's at home? Landlady, wenches, or whoever you are, +can't you creep out of your hole?" + +In reply to his hallooing, a hoarse voice resounded from the taproom: +"Who is it? Can't you come inside instead of standing and bawling +there?" + +"What, you scoundrel! Come out this instant, Sirrah, do you hear, or do +you want me to come and fetch you?" + +At this categorical command, the speaker inside made his appearance. +Henrietta recognized him at once, though Squire Gerzson saw him now for +the first time. It was old Ripa. + +"I am a guest here myself," said he. + +"Thou blockhead! by the soul of thy father I charge thee--where is the +hostess?" + +"She is outside in the cool air." + +"What is she doing there?" + +"She is guarding the moles"--which means in the flowery language of the +_puszta_: "she is dead." + +"Surely she is not dead?" + +"Yes--she did away with herself." + +"When?" + +"The day before yesterday." + +"What was the matter with her?" + +"She drank too much water." + +"Where?" + +"In the hurdle well." + +"Why?" + +"Because her feet did not reach the bottom." + +"She leaped in then?" + +"It looks something like it." + +"But why did she do so?" + +"She was much upset about her lover." + +"Did he leave her?" + +"The rope-girl[37] took him." + +[Footnote 37: _I.e._, the gallows.] + +Henrietta listened with a sort of stupefaction to the cynical answers +of the old scoundrel, and her heart grew heavy within her. To think that +that merry, rosy cheeked young woman should have killed herself out of +grief for her lover. + +"Then who is carrying on the house?" enquired Squire Gerzson. + +"Nobody. All the servants bolted after the funeral, in order that they +might not appear as witnesses." + +"Then why do you remain here all alone?" + +"Because if I went on my way, everyone would be sure to say that I had +murdered the hostess, I mean to remain here till they come for me." + +"Yes, you old swine, and drink up every drop of wine that remains in the +meantime." + +"Your pardon, sir, but it all turned to vinegar when the landlady killed +herself. That is always the case." + +"None of your nonsense, Sirrah, but listen to me. There's a shilling for +you, forget for the time that you are a guest here. Take out the horses, +put them into the stable, give them hay at once and water them in about +an hour's time. Don't steal them for they are lame and you would be +caught at once. We shall remain here till our coachman returns with four +fresh horses. Should any troublesome person look in, you may tell him +that the consort of Baron Hátszegi is here and that Gerzson of +Satrakovics is mounting guard before her door." + +Old Ripa kissed her ladyship's hand without so much as thanking Squire +Gerzson for his tip, but he quietly unyoked the horses and brought into +the house some of the things he found in the coach. + +And Henrietta stood once more in the landlady's room and gazed pensively +out of the window. Her meditations were presently disturbed by Squire +Gerzson. + +"My dear good lady," he began, "fate has certainly sworn to be our enemy +in every possible way to-day. I would not have believed it myself if I +had not actually experienced it. First of all, all our four horses fall +lame on the road. Then, at the very place where we decide to take up our +quarters, we find that the landlady has jumped down the well. Truly fate +pursues us with a vengeance. But we'll defy it, won't we my lady? Fate +is very much mistaken if it fancies it will get the better of us, eh? it +does not know with whom it has to deal, I'll be bound. For our hearts +are in the right place and we'll pretty soon show that we have not lost +our heads. Our greatest misfortune is that the fine supper we promised +ourselves has vanished to dust beneath our very noses. Never mind. We +have brought with us in our knapsack, after the custom of our ancestors, +some good ham, some hung beef and some white loaves, to say nothing of a +flask of prime wine; we don't mean to starve ourselves do we, my lady?" + +The good old gentleman then took out of his knapsack all these good +things and piled them up on the table, then he fetched the carriage lamp +to light up the room a bit and politely invited Henrietta to partake of +his simple banquet. + +The young lady smilingly took her place on the bench. + +"We really cannot drink the water here, your ladyship," said Gerzson, +handing her his flask; "to all appearance nobody will ever drink the +water out of the well of this shanty again. Such wells are generally +walled up." + +Merely to oblige the old man, Henrietta raised the flask to her lips and +pretended to drink out of it so as not to spoil her companion's good +humour, but really she drank not a drop. She never used to drink wine +and wiped off the drops that remained on her lips with her pocket +handkerchief. Nor did she eat anything except an apple which was just +sufficient to keep the pangs of hunger off. + +Mr. Gerzson, however, fell to like a man. He had generally a good +appetite, and the lack of a dinner, the worry and trouble of the +journey, and the labour of driving had made him hungrier than ever. He +cut such whacking slices off the loaf and off the good red ham beside +him that it was a joy to watch him; after he had raised the +cluck-clucker[38] to his lips, his conversation became so entertaining +that Henrietta listened to him with delight. + +[Footnote 38: _I.e._, the wine-flask.] + +"But now I am not going to drink any more," said Mr. Gerzson at last, +"for it is apt to make me sleepy and I don't want to sleep to-night. +About midnight the coachman will arrive with the fresh relay of horses. +Won't your ladyship rest a little in the adjoining room?" + +Henrietta shook her head. + +"Well, I suppose you are right. How indeed could you remain all alone in +the room of a suicide? Let us stay together then and tell each other +tales." + +"Yes, that will be nice, and I'll begin by telling papa Gerzson +something." + +"I could go on listening to you till morning, it will be like the angels +singing in my ears." + +So Henrietta began to tell him all about the dead hostess and about her +love, and also the story of the robber who was hanged for his companion. + +Mr. Gerzson, with his head supported by his hand, listened religiously +and struck himself violently on the mouth when he was seized by an +involuntary fit of gaping. + +"I cannot understand why I am so sleepy,--my eyes seem to be closing in +spite of me." + +"Why don't you have a pipe then? Come light up!" + +"What, light up? Your ladyship will really allow me? You are sure you +don't mind tobacco smoke? You are indeed a blessed creature. But are you +sure it won't make your head ache?" + +"On the contrary, I like tobacco smoke." + +Squire Gerzson half drew out his cigar case, but he immediately shoved +it back again. + +"No, I won't smoke a cigar. One ought not to abuse one's good fortune. I +shall get on well enough." + +Then Henrietta began to tell him of Fatia Negra's Transylvanian +exploits, of the Lucsia Cavern, of the capture of the coiners--and then +she observed that Mr. Gerzson's eyelids were sinking lower and lower and +he was nodding his head violently. + +"Now you really must light up, papa Gerzson," she cried, "or you'll +never be able to keep awake." + +On being thus accosted, Mr. Gerzson bobbed up his head with a frightened +air and rubbed his eyes, like one who has been suddenly aroused from +slumber and knows not what is going on under his very nose. + +"I am not asleep, 'pon my word I'm not. I was only nodding a little." + +"Light a cigar." + +"No I won't. I prefer to go out and have a turn in the open air and get +the cobwebs out of my head. I'll have a look round outside a bit." + +And with that he planted both his arms on the table, laid his head upon +them and fell fast asleep. + +Henrietta could not help smiling. Poor old gentleman, he had had a good +deal of exertion and no doubt that wine was uncommonly strong. Let him +rest a bit. He had had no sleep the night before. It would be quite +sufficient if one of them kept awake. + +Then she took up the lamp and went out into the hall observing to her +great satisfaction that the door thereof was provided with a good lock. +So she locked and fastened it. With timid curiosity she then explored +every corner with the lamp and came upon nothing suspicious. Finally she +returned to the guest room, locked the door of that also and placed the +carriage lamp on the table, turning its shade towards the sleeping old +man so that he might not be awakened by the glare of the lamp; and there +she remained all alone, watching in the _csárdá_ of the desolate +_puszta_, patiently waiting for the night to pass over her homeless +head. + +So patient was she that only once did she take her watch from her bosom +to see what the time was. + + * * * * * + +It was now past midnight. + +She began to calculate how long it would take the coachman to get to +Oroshaza and how much time he would require to reach this place. If he +had got horses at once he ought to be near now. + +A short time afterwards she heard the tread of horses' feet in the +courtyard. Those must be our horses, thought she, and hastening to the +window looking out upon the courtyard, she pulled the blind a little to +one side and looked out. + +The night was so light outside that she could see the four horses quite +plainly in the courtyard--but she observed that a man was sitting on +_each_ of them. + +"This is very curious," thought she, "_two_ men would have been quite +sufficient to bring along the relay." + +Three of the four men dismounted from their horses and a fifth came out +of the stable and had a short consultation with them; then the three +approached the _csárdá_ door and tried to open it. + +This struck Henrietta as suspicious and she thought it was now high time +to awake Mr. Gerzson. + +"Pardon, papa Gerzson, but four men have arrived here." + +Still Mr. Gerzson did not awake. + +Henrietta approached, bent over him and gently insisted: + +"My dear papa Gerzson, just wake up for a moment, somebody wants to come +in." + +Even then Mr. Gerzson did not awake. + +Henrietta listened. Outside, the hall door was beginning to groan and +rock. They were forcing it. + +Full of terror now, she seized Mr. Gerzson's arm. + +"Sir, sir! robbers are upon us. Awake, awake. This is no time for +slumber." + +But Mr. Gerzson still slumbered on--he might have been dead. In vain she +tore him away from the table, he fell back again all of a heap and went +on slumbering. + +The strangers were now in the hall, and a heavy hand was trying the +latch of the guest chamber. + +"My God, my God!" moaned Henrietta, wringing her hands and rushing up +and down the room, terrorstricken, not knowing where to look now for +refuge. + +A violent thud resounded against the door. Someone had placed his +shoulder against it. Henrietta clung to the table to save herself from +falling. + +At last the lock burst, the door flew open, and Fatia Negra with two +masked companions stood before the lady. The same instant Henrietta +recovered her presence of mind. At a pace's distance from danger she +ceased to tremble and calmly addressed them: "What do you want?" + +"Why are you not asleep now like your companion?" enquired Fatia Negra +in a low voice. + +One of his comrades approached the sleeper and held the barrel of his +pistol to his temples. In Fatia Negra's hand there was only a dagger. + +"Don't wake him," he whispered to Henrietta, "for if he should but raise +his head his brains will be blown out." + +"Do him no harm!" implored the lady. "I will give you everything you +want. Here is my pocketbook, here are my jewels, and you shall have my +watch too. See, I will draw off my rings, only don't touch me. But if +possible let me keep this round ring for it is my wedding ring." + +"All that is nothing," whispered Fatia Negra, "nor do we want these +things. Your ladyship has received a bill for 40,000 florins from your +husband; give up that and swear that you will not say anything about it +to anyone for three days so that we may have time to turn it into cash." + +At the mention of the bill Henrietta felt her head reel, the blood stood +still in her veins, she could scarce keep her feet. Her voice trembled +as she lied to the robber denying that she had any such thing. + +"We will search you, my lady, if you do not give it up voluntarily." + +Henrietta persisted in her falsehood: "I have nothing upon me. I posted +it in order that it might get to its destination more safely." + +"My lady, you are only wasting our time. Turn round, take that steel +netting out of your puffed sleeves and hand it over to us." + +At these words, all the blood flew to Henrietta's head. It was no longer +fear but the fury of despair that possessed her. It suddenly occurred to +her that here was the man whom nobody had ever recognized; the man who +had made so many people unhappy; who had robbed her husband and would +now stifle her last hope of saving her brother from disgrace. Who could +this terrible man, this accursed wretch, be? And so, as Black Mask drew +near to her, flashing his dagger before her eyes, she, the weakest, the +most timid of women, made a sudden snatch at the mask and tore it off. + +She saw his face and recognized him. . . . + +For an instant her eyes gazed upon him and then she collapsed on the +ground in a swoon. + + * * * * * + +It was pretty late next morning when Mr. Gerzson raised his muddled head +from the table. The sun was shining brightly through the blinds. + +He looked around him. He was quite alone. + +He looked for Henrietta, he called her by name. She was nowhere to be +seen. Their luggage had also disappeared. He went into the courtyard and +looked for the carriage. That also was nowhere to be seen. Only the four +horses were in the stable, and they were neighing for water; nobody had +watered them. + +After that Mr. Gerzson's head grew more muddled than ever. + +What had become of the lady? What had happened during the night? How was +it that he remembered nothing about it, he who generally used to sleep +so lightly that the humming of a midge was sufficient to awake him? + +Gradually he bethought him that the evening before he had drunk some +wine with an unusual flavour. Even now he was conscious of a peculiar +taste in his mouth. Yet no wine in the world had ever been able to do +him harm. He returned to the room to examine the contents of his flask. +But even the flask was now nowhere to be seen. There was not a single +forgotten object, not a single indication to give him a clue in this +obscure confusion. What could have happened here?--he had not the +faintest idea. + +He went and stood in front of the _csárdá_. He gazed out upon the +desolate _puszta_ stretching around him in every direction. From every +point of the compass wagon tracks, some old, some still fresh, +zig-zagged to and from the _csárdá_ and he could not make up his mind +which of them to take in order to reach the world beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +LEANDER BABEROSSY + + +Whenever one carts away a heap of stones which have been lying +undisturbed for years, or whenever one removes the shingle-roof of an +ancient tenement, or drains off the water from a marshy place, one +generally stumbles upon all sorts of hitherto undiscovered, curious +beetles, odd looking moths and spiral-shaped, creeping things in these +routed out lurking places, which nobody ever saw before or read of in +the natural history books; and at such times a man bethinks him how +wonderful it is of Mother Nature to provide even such holes and corners +as these with living inhabitants which never see the light of day at +all. + +Once, while on circuit, Vamhidy was obliged to lie one night at a +village within his jurisdiction whose inhabitants were a strong mixture +of Hungarian, Servian and Wallachian ingredients. Arriving late, it was +a long time before he could go to sleep, and he was awakened rather late +next morning by an unusual hubbub. His bedchamber was only separated +from the large drinking room by a door and through this door broke every +now and then very peculiar sounds the meaning of which, on a first +hearing, it was very difficult to explain. + +It sounded as if a couple of women and a couple of men were roundly +abusing one another, sometimes in a low tone and sometimes in a loud, +and the most peculiar thing about the whole business was that two of +them never spoke at once but each one of them allowed each of the others +to have his say out to the end. All at once the noise grew more alarming +and broken outbursts plainly suggested that someone in the adjoining +room wanted to murder somebody else. Vamhidy leaped from his bed and was +about to intervene when in came the landlord with his coffee. + +"What is that row going on next door?" enquired Szilard irritably. + +"Oh, I cry your honour's pardon," replied the innkeeper with a proud +smile, "it is only our actors. They are rehearsing a new piece which +they are going to act this evening. I hope your honour will condescend +to go and see it--it will be real fine." + +"What, actors in this village?" cried Szilard in amazement. "Why, where +do they come from?" + +"Nobody knows where they came from or whither they mean to go, your +honour." + +"How many of them are there then, and who is their manager?" + +"Well, it seems that there is only one man among them and he is half a +child; all the others are women and girls, even to the ticket taker and +the prompter." + +"And what sort of pieces do they act?" + +"Oh, all sorts, your honour. Those of the women who have the deepest +voices dress up as men, stick on beards and mustaches and act much +better than men would, because they don't get drunk." + +"And they are able to make a living here? Who goes to the theatre then?" + +"Well, the rustics about here come if there is anything to grin at. They +don't give money because they have none themselves; but they bring corn, +potatoes, sausages and hams and the actors live upon the proceeds as +best they can. When they have made any debts they cannot pay they simply +bolt on the first fine night and go somewhere else." + +"But don't they leave their decorations or their wardrobe in pledge +behind them?" + +At this the landlord laughed aloud as if it were a capital joke. + +"Decorations, wardrobes, indeed! Why their stage curtain consists of a +large piece of threadbare sackcloth pasted over with tricolored paper on +which they have painted the national coat of arms. Their wardrobe too is +of the very simplest description. When they play a piece in which kings +and queens appear, they borrow the gold bespangled dresses of the rich +Servian women of the district to serve them as royal mantles. All they +require besides is a little tinsel, some spangles and some +pasteboard--and there you are! The manager, as I have said, is still but +a child, but so ingenious is he that he can make moonshine out of a +yellow gourd and produce thunder and lightning,--but that is a +professional secret. It is true they have only six pieces in all, and +when they have played these through they begin them all over again. The +public, naturally, does not like to see the same piece twice, so the +manager gives the piece another title, changes the titles of all the +characters and represents the piece over again as a brand new one." + +"I should like to see to-day's representation," said Szilard, whose +curiosity had been excited by this peculiar description. + +"I'll fetch your honour a play bill immediately," said the innkeeper. + +Off went mine host returning in a few moments with a MS. play bill on +which was written in large red letters: "Hernáni or Castilian Honour," +followed by the names of the personages. Hernáni was naturally the +manager himself, Leander Babérossy,[39] Elvira was to be played by Miss +Palmira, the other gentlemen were simply indicated by N. N., X. X. or +* *. "They are all women you know," explained the innkeeper, "who don't +want to advertise their names. The charge for the front seats is 21/2d, +for the second-class places, a penny." + +[Footnote 39: _I.e._, Laurel bearer.] + +"The gentry can sit where they please, I presume?" + +"I suggested to the manager that he should write that on the play bill, +but he replied that that would be an impertinence. I also advised him to +take the play bill to your honour himself and was almost kicked out of +the room for my pains. Did I take him for a bill poster? he said." + +"This manager of yours seems to have a pretty good opinion of himself." + +"Oh, he is frightfully proud, your honour. He will play no other pieces +but sword pieces because, says he, they are classical. The poor fellow +is so very young you know. When he grows a little older and learns to +starve a bit he will soon lower his crest." + +"I like him none the less for holding up his head. I will come to the +play." + +"But you must be there at seven o'clock sharp. He always begins +punctually; whether there is any audience or not." + +"The lad has character, I see; pray give him this"--and he handed the +innkeeper half a sovereign. He quickly returned with the reply that the +manager could not for the moment give change. + +"But I meant him to keep the whole of it as an admittance fee." + +"Ah, yes." + +A short time afterwards, the innkeeper reappeared with a whole bundle of +admission tickets for Szilard, saying that the manager thanked him for +his sympathy, but as he was not in the habit of accepting presents from +anyone, he assumed that his honour meant to engage the whole house for +himself that evening and he, the manager, would therefore give a +representation for his honour's sole benefit. + +Szilard laughed heartily at this comical conscientiousness, and after +dressing, he went about his official business with as much dispatch as +possible in order to arrive at the play at seven o'clock sharp, for he +was now the whole public and the public ought always to be punctual. + +When he got to the room set apart for the performance he found that, +despite the provisional _abonnement suspendu_ arrangement, the place was +not quite empty, for the gratis public, the lenders of the theatrical +requisites and their families, the letters of lodgings to the actors and +other peaceful creditors, occupied a couple of benches, so that Szilard +had the opportunity of effacing himself and thus avoiding confusing the +_troupe_ by his solitary and imposing personality. + +No sooner had the innkeeper's cuckoo clock struck seven than the ring of +the prompter's bell resounded behind the curtain (it sounded +suspiciously like a glass struck smartly with the back of a knife) and +by means of a highly ingenious piece of machinery the drop-curtain, +stuck over with the tricolored cardboard representing the national flag, +was hoisted up to the ceiling-beam, and the open stage was revealed. + +The background was formed by a collapsible screen which was painted to +represent a room; in the foreground on one side was a paper window +painted black and white, and on the other side the cellar door, +metamorphosed into the portal of a Gothic palace. Through this entry the +whole of the _dramatis personae_ came and went, for it was the only one. + +The piece acted was, naturally, not "Hernáni or Castilian Honour," but +Schiller's "Robbers." Szilard recognized it at the very first three +words. He also noticed that the characters of Karl and Franz Moor were +acted by one and the same person (the manager himself, as he was +informed) with a simple change of voice and mask, and despite the +different disguises employed, it constantly seemed to Szilard as if he +had seen that caricature of a face somewhere else and the voice, +parodied as it now was, nevertheless seemed familiar to him. No less +familiar appeared the violent gestures of the young actor which +frequently endangered the side scenes. + +Now as early as Scene 2 the noble public began to be aware of the +unheard of fraud practiced upon it; a murmuring, an agitation, a +whispering and a wagging of heads, and finally an impatient thumping of +sticks began to mingle with the bustle of the drama, till at last a +worthy cobbler, who had lent the _troupe_ three wooden benches and +received in return a free pass every day, suddenly bawled out: "Halloh +there, Mr. Manager! we have seen this piece once before. There's +politics in it." + +Franz Moor, disturbed in his artistic interpretation by this sudden +onslaught, suddenly forgot himself, lost his cue and answering the +interpellator in his natural, everyday voice (he knew he had only a free +list public to deal with) exclaimed: "Whoever has seen this piece before +and does not wish to see it again, will have his money returned to him +on applying at the ticket office." + +These words were no sooner uttered than Vamhidy leaped from his seat, +rushed upon the stage, caught Franz Moor in his arms and kissed his +painted face crying with a voice trembling with joy: "Coloman!" + +Franz Moor hesitated for an instant, then tore off his Spanish beard, +dropped his red wig, wiped the painted wrinkles from his forehead and +Szilard saw before him a pale, melancholy, childish countenance. + +Leander Babérossy was young Coloman, Henrietta's brother. + +The representation naturally ceased at once. Szilard hustled the +rediscovered "prodigal son" off the boards and never let him stop for an +instant till he had got him safe and sound into his own private room. +There he embraced him again, held him at arms' length and had a good +look at him. The lad seemed to be twenty years old at the very least, +yet really he was but fifteen. Play acting, want and premature shaving +soon make a youth look old. Moreover, in his whole bearing, in all his +movements, there was something precocious, a resolute, bold expression +which made one forget that he was a mere child--a sort of cynicism not +pleasant to behold. + +Szilard soon had a good supper ready for him, which the youth fell to +work upon without ceremony. + +"My dear Leander," said Vamhidy when the meal was over, "no doubt it is +a very fine thing when one can say that he is his own master, nor is it +so difficult to attain to such a position after all. All that is wanted +is a strength of character always true to itself. But you, my friend, +have committed follies which might easily make of you something very +different." + +Coloman shrugged his shoulders. + +"I have committed many follies no doubt, but I do not call to mind any +which I should be afraid to confess." + +Szilard began to fancy that his suspicions were groundless. + +"People are talking of a certain _bill_ which you have given in your +sister's name?" + +At these words Coloman cast down his eyes upon his plate and his whole +face grew blood-red. In a scarcely audible voice he enquired: "And has +Henrietta refused to honour that bill?" + +Vamhidy sighed deeply. Then it was really true that this thoughtless +child had committed the crime! + +"My dear Coloman," said he, dropping the Leander now, "your sister is +the martyr of her own devotion. She was most certainly ready to +acknowledge the bill as her own; but you ought to have thought what +sacrifices she will have to make now that her grandfather has cut her +off with a shilling and her husband refuses to place such a considerable +amount at her disposal." + +"Good gracious!" cried the itinerant actor, thrusting his hands deep +down into his empty pockets, "what then do these big wigs call +considerable amounts. Very well, sir. I had no idea that the Baroness +Hátszegi was _so very poor_. I will try to recover the bill, and it +shall be the first thing I will pay off with my benefit money." + +Szilard could not help being struck by the terrible comicality of the +idea. + +"But, my dear young friend," said he, "if you had two benefits every +year and got a clear forty florins at every one of them, it would take +you at least a hundred years from to-day to discharge the amount." + +"What?" cried Coloman with wide open eyes, and in his amazement seizing +the candlestick instead of his fork. + +"Why, don't you know that the bill is for 40,000 florins?" + +"What?" thundered the young vagabond. And kicking aside his chair, he +snatched up a knife lying by the side of his plate and, bareheaded as he +was, rushed towards the door. Szilard had need of all his dexterity to +catch him before he reached it and prevent him from rushing into the +street like a madman. + +"Let me murder him, let me murder that villain," he cried. + +Szilard was a strong man so he easily disarmed the youth. + +Then Coloman began to weep and fling himself on the ground. Szilard +seized him by the arm and hoisted him on to a chair again. + +"Be a man!" he cried. "Of whom do you speak?--whom do you want to kill?" + +"That villain Margari." + +"Then it was he who persuaded you to take this step?" + +"I will tell you all about it, sir, and you shall judge me. When I left +my grandfather's house, that Satan sought me out, affected sympathy for +me and asked me what I meant to do. I told him I intended to go on the +stage and he said I did well not to remain there. I had only a florin +which I borrowed from one of the lacqueys, and I told this devil that I +should require 20 florins at the very least. He promised to get them for +me from a usurer but told me I should have to give a bill for forty. Do +you think I cared what I signed then? Not long afterwards he came back +again and said the usurer would give nothing on the strength of my +signature, because I was a minor, but that if my sister's name stood +upon the bill he would advance upon that because she was a married +woman. Margari persuaded me to sign the bill in her name. What was forty +florins to Henrietta? he said, a mere trifle. If I were to ask her, she +would give me twice as much. Surely she would not proclaim me, whom she +loved so much, a forger for the sake of a paltry 40 florins? But 40,000 +florins, 40,000!--that is a frightful, a horrible villainy. I only made +it forty." + +And with that he began to dash his head against the wall like a madman. + +"My dear Coloman, do pull yourself together," said Szilard, "what you +have just told me is of the very greatest importance. Be quiet and don't +tear out your hair! Are you aware that your infinitely good sister has +honoured the 40,000 florin bill also in order to save you?" + +The poor youth was thunderstruck at these words. + +"And now you can imagine the embarrassment of the baroness, who has been +disinherited and is nevertheless responsible for this very considerable +sum without being at all sure that her husband will pay it for her." + +"I will hang myself." + +"That would be the most gigantic piece of folly you could commit. You +must make good your fault. And now for a time we cease to be friends and +I am simply an examining magistrate, and you are an accused prisoner who +is about to make a voluntary confession before me. Pray sit right +opposite to me and answer all my questions clearly and accurately--in +fact tell me exactly what happened." + +And Vamhidy produced paper and writing requisites, lit a pair of candles +which he placed by his side and began the examination of the youth +sitting in front of him. + +By midnight the confession was duly written down. + +When, however, Vamhidy proposed that Coloman should now come back to +Pest and be reconciled to his relations, the youth hesitated: "We will +see," said he. + +"At any rate remain here with me then," continued Szilard. "Sleep in my +room and take till to-morrow to think it over. I won't lock the door but +you must give me your word of honour that you will not go out of that +door without my knowledge." + +"I give you my word upon it." + +Then Szilard made the youth lie down and only went to rest himself when +he was sure that Coloman was asleep. + +Nevertheless on awaking next morning and looking round the room he could +see no trace of Coloman, but there was a letter from him on the table as +follows: "Dear old friend, I thank you for your extreme kindness to me, +but I don't want to see my relations any more, not because I fear to +meet them, but because I have a holy horror of the very atmosphere they +breathe. My confession will suffice to rectify my fault. I am going on +the tramp again. The linen tent is my home. And then--there are +obligations in respect to the discharge whereof I am not my sister's +brother. I have taken nothing with me but four cigar ends from the +table, a liberty I hope you will pardon me. As I have given you my word +that I would not go out of the door without your knowledge, I have been +obliged to make my exit through the window. Adieu! Till death thy +faithful admirer. COLOMAN." + +A couple of hours later Vamhidy learnt from the innkeeper that the +manager, without any previous leave-taking, had decamped leaving behind +him his decorations and theatrical wardrobe as some compensation for his +trifling debts. All he had taken away with him was what he actually had +on his person--and Miss Palmira. + +And now Szilard understood the meaning of the passage "there are +obligations in respect to the discharge whereof I am not my sister's +brother." + +This vagabond comedian had an equally vagabond childish ideal, and when +he had to make his choice, he flung his arm around her and fled away +with her--into the wide, wide world. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MR. MARGARI + + +Mr. Margari had got on in the world. He was now a real gentleman who had +a four-roomed domicile, paid house-rent, and had even gone the length of +marrying. And can you guess the lady of his choice?--why it was no other +than Miss Clementina. That worthy virgin was of just the proper age for +him, moreover a cosy little bit of cash might safely be assumed to go +with her, which exercised a strong attraction upon Mr. Margari--and goes +to prove that iron is not the only metal susceptible of the influence of +the magnet. The worthy maiden had persuaded her respected swain to +abduct her from Hidvár, an enterprise which he had nobly performed while +the lady of the house was travelling with her husband to Arad. It is +true there was no necessity whatever for an elopement, for the baroness +was very far from being one of those dragons in feminine shape who love +to tear asunder hearts that are burning for each other. If Mr. Margari +had respectfully solicited the hand of her lady-companion, there is no +reason to suppose he would have sued in vain; but Clementina was far too +romantic for anything so humdrum as that. She insisted that he should +abduct her, at night too and through a window, although she had the key +of every door close at hand. + +So Margari had managed to set up as a gentleman and become his own +master. Clementina's money bought the furniture and they even sported a +musical clock. + +Mr. Margari had a smoking-room all to himself, in which he did nothing +all day but smoke his pipe. No more work for him now, no more copying of +MSS. There the happy husband, dressed in a flowered dressing-gown, +stretched himself out at full length on the sofa and blew clouds of +smoke all around him out of his long csibuk, stuffed full with the best +Turkish tobacco. + +Clementina was always scolding him for putting his legs upon the sofa. +It was a nasty habit she said, and not only unbecoming but expensive, +because it ruined the furniture. Clementina, in fact, was scolding him +all day; and this was very natural, for any woman who has been condemned +to obsequious servility for thirty whole years and has silently endured +the caprices of her betters all that time, when she sets up as a lady on +her own account will do her best to compensate herself for this +interminable suppression of her natural instincts. But Mr. Margari used +only to laugh when his wife began nagging at him. "_Alios jam vidi ego +ventos, aliasque procellas_," he would say. He was only too glad to have +a home of his own at all. + +"Don't worry, woman!" he would say with reference to the furniture, +"when that's worn out, I'll buy some more. John Lapussa, Esq., will give +me whatever I want." + +"He may be fool enough to do so now," replied Clementina, "but just you +wait till he has won his action against Madame Langai and has no further +need of you, he won't care two pence for you then. I know Mr. John +Lapussa." + +"So do I," retorted Margari. "He has paid me hitherto to say what he +tells me, he shall pay me hereafter for holding my tongue. John Lapussa, +Esq., will have to take care that Margari has plenty to eat and decent +clothes to put on, for, if Margari grows hungry, Margari will bite." + +Mr. Margari spoke with an air of such impertinent assurance and blew +about such clouds of smoke that Clementina began to respect him, and sat +down on the sofa by his side, no doubt to protect her property. "If you +hold his honour so completely in the palm of your hand," said she, "why +don't you provide better for yourself and me? It is all very well for +his honour to fork out now when you press him, but money goes and more +is wanted. One of these days something will happen to him and he will +die,--and you can't follow him to the moon." + +This was indeed a hard nut for Margari to crack. One cannot squeeze much +out of dead men. Such an impression did the remark make upon him that he +took his feet off the sofa and sat bolt upright. + +"Then what do you think I ought to do?" he asked his wife. + +"Well, it is of no use his doling you out mere driblets; for the great +services you have rendered him he ought to give you something more in +proportion to your merits--a little estate in the country, for instance. +There we could settle down comfortably." + +"True, and he has lots of such little properties which are of no use to +him at all. What do you say, for instance, to an estate of one hundred +acres or so; it would be a mere flea-bite to him. But flea-bite or no +flea-bite that's all one to me. I _wish_ him to give it me and give it +he must. I mean to pick and choose." + +"And suppose he says no?" + +"He'll never say that, or if he does, I shall say something to somebody +and then it will be he who will be sorry and not I. Oh, he'll take jolly +good care not to make Margari angry. His honour has much more need of +Margari's friendship than Margari has of his honour's." + +And we shall very soon see under what auspices Margari hoped to get the +little country estate from Mr. John Lapussa as a reward for his faithful +services. + +Meanwhile the action brought by Madame Langai against Mr. John Lapussa +was still in its initial stage. Both parties were inexhaustible in +producing documents and raising points of law, but it seemed highly +probable that Mr. John would win. Mr. John appeared almost daily before +the magistrate, whom he called his dear friend and whom he frequently +invited to dine, an invitation which, naturally, was never accepted. One +day Mr. Monori, for that was the worthy magistrate's name, asked Mr. +John whether he knew anything of a certain Margari who was soliciting +the post of a clerk in the district court and gave as his reference the +Lapussa family in whose service he had been for some years. Mr. John, +with his innate niggardliness, at once seized this opportunity for +disembarrassing himself of an importunate beggar by saddling the county +with him. He exalted "the worthy, excellent man" to the skies, and +especially praised his rectitude, his sobriety, his diligence! + +"But is he trustworthy?" inquired the magistrate. "You see there are +various little cash payments he will have to see to, is he clean +handed?" + +"As good as gold, I assure you. I could trust him with thousands. Why +some of my own bills are in his keeping--" and with that he proceeded to +say as many pretty things of Margari as if he were a horse dealer trying +to palm off a blind nag on some ignorant bumpkin at a fair. + +In his delight at having so successfully rid himself of such an incubus, +he made his _valet-de-chambre_ slip over to Margari to tell the worthy +man to wait upon him on the morrow at 11 o'clock precisely, as he had a +very pleasant piece of news to impart to him; for he meant to make +Margari believe that it was through his, Mr. John Lapussa's special +influence, that he had obtained the coveted appointment and so get him +to renounce all further claims upon his old patron. + +On the very same day Mr. John was surprised to receive a visit from the +magistrate, Mr. Monori, and this certainly was a wonder, for the +magistrate never made any but official visits. + +"To what do I owe this extraordinary pleasure?" asked Mr. John, +familiarly inviting the magistrate to sit down on a couch. + +"I have come in the matter of this Margari," said Monori, holding +himself very stiffly and fixing his eyes sharply on Mr. John. "Since our +conversation of this morning, the circumstance has come to my knowledge +that one of my colleagues in the county of Arad has succeeded in finding +the long-lost Coloman Lapussa." + +At these words Mr. John began to smooth out the ends of his mustache and +chew them attentively. + +"The young man confesses to having forged the bill, but asserts that it +was Margari who led him to do so, and that the bill signed by him was +originally for forty florins only, so that undoubtedly somebody else +must have turned it into 40,000." + +Mr. John coughed very much at these words,--no doubt the bit of mustache +which he had bit off stuck in his throat. + +"This is a very ticklish circumstance, I must confess," continued +Monori, "for although the young man's offence has thereby been +considerably lightened, yet the burden of the charge has now been +shifted to other shoulders hitherto quite free from suspicion. No doubt, +he being a minor, under strict control, did what he did as a mere +schoolboy frolic, but this Margari and an unknown somebody else will +find it not quite such a laughing matter." + +Mr. John's mustache was by this time not enough for him, he began +nibbling his nails as well. + +"But what are you driving at?" he said. "How does all this concern me?" + +"It concerns you, sir, in this way: you told me that Margari was your +confidential agent, and therefore he must have destroyed the bill at +your bidding." + +"I only said that to help him to get a small official post. I am +responsible for nobody. What have I to do with the characters of my +servants, my lacqueys." + +"But you assured me that your bills often passed through his hands." + +Mr. John fancied that the best way out of this unpleasant _cul-de-sac_ +was by adopting a little energetic bluffing. + +"What do you mean by cross-examining me in my own house?" he cried, with +affected _hauteur_, springing from the sofa. + +The magistrate rose at the same time. + +"Pardon me, but I am here not as a visitor, but in my official +capacity--as your judge." + +And with that he coolly unbuttoned his _attila_[40] and drew forth from +the inside pocket a large sealed letter. + +[Footnote 40: A fur pelisse, worn on state occasions.] + +"You must swear to every one of the interrogatories administered to you +by me." + +"I? I'll swear to nothing," cried Mr. John. "I am a Quaker and therefore +cannot take an oath." + +"This document, sir, is a royal mandate and whoever refuses to obey it +is liable to penalties." + +"What penalties?" + +"A fine of eighty florins." + +"Eighty florins? There you are then, take them!" cried Mr. John flinging +down the amount eagerly and thinking to himself that this mandate was +indeed a juridical masterpiece, not being binding on a rich man--for +what after all is eighty florins? + +"Very good," said Mr. Monori, giving him a receipt for the amount, "I'll +come again to-morrow." + +"What for?" + +"I shall again call upon you to answer my interrogatories upon oath." + +"And if I won't swear?" + +"Why then you'll have to pay the court fine _toties-quoties_. A _juratus +tabulae regiae notarius_ will call regularly every day and exact the +fine from you until such time as you make up your mind to take the +oaths. Good-day." + +After the magistrate had withdrawn Mr. John's fury reached its climax. +First of all he poured forth his wrath upon the poor inkstand, with the +ink from which Monori had written out the receipt. This he dashed to the +ground. The lacquey who rushed in at the commotion to inquire if his +honour had rung, he seized by the nape of the neck and flung out of the +room. Then he rushed after the man and pommelled him for daring to go +out before he had been told to go. Finally he dashed out and, for the +lowest silver coin he could make up his mind to part with, hired a +hackney coach to take him to his villa near the park, for thither he had +resolved to fly. + +On arriving there he recovered himself somewhat. + +So Coloman had been discovered and had confessed about his own doings +and Margari's. Well he must simply disavow Margari, that's all. But +suppose Margari were to make a clean breast of it? Well he could +repudiate the whole thing of course. But then that wretched royal +mandate? He must either swear or pay the court fine every day. It would +be best perhaps to fly, to leave the capital of the magistrate behind +him and set out on his travels. Perhaps then they would forget all about +it. But then there was the law-suit! And suppose it should be decided in +the meantime and decided against him! It was an absurd dilemma! To +remain here was dangerous and to go away was also dangerous. What a good +job it would be if that cursed forged-bill business could disappear from +the face of the earth. The bill ought to be withdrawn. But that was +impossible because it was already in the magistrate's hands, and +therefore could not be ignored. And then the oath required of him. +Either he must confess that he was personally interested in the matter +and then he would not be required to swear but would at the same time +make himself an object of suspicion, or else he must go on paying this +infernal toll money in order to be able to cross the non-juratory +bridge, so to speak. It was an absolutely desperating syllogism, and +after tossing about sleeplessly all night in the midst of this vicious +circle, Mr. John resolved in the morning to set off at once for the +vineyards of Promontor,[41] tell his servants that he meant to remain +there and enjoy himself, and immediately afterwards get into a +post-chaise and drive to his Sarfeneki property. Nobody should know his +real address but his lawyer, and there he would await developments, only +emerging in case of the most urgent necessity. + +[Footnote 41: A village a few miles out of Pest.] + +So he hastily swallowed his chocolate, wrapped himself in his mantle and +fancied that now he might safely fly; but he reckoned without his host, +for, on the very doorstep, he came face to face with Margari! + +"What do you want here, eh?" he inquired fiercely of the humble man he +feared so much. + +"You were so good as to make an appointment with me, your honour," said +Margari cringingly. + +"Yes, yes, I know, I know" (he was afraid to warn him of his danger, +with all the servants listening to them), "but I cannot spare the time +now, come some other day. I cannot give you anything here." + +"But your honour was good enough to say that you had some glad tidings +to communicate." + +"Another time, another time! I am very busy just now." + +Mr. John would have shaken off Margari altogether, but Margari was not +so easily got rid of. He had already ascertained from the coachman that +Mr. John was off to Promontor and did not mean to return again in a +hurry, so he resolved to take his measures accordingly. He rushed +forward to open the carriage door, helped Mr. John to get into the +coach, wished him a most pleasant journey, no end of enjoyment and other +meaningless things, all of which made much the same agreeable impression +upon Mr. John as if an ant had crept into his boot and he could not kill +it because he was in company. Only when the carriage door was shut to +and he saw Margari's face no more did he begin to breathe freely again. + +Margari however attributed this reception, or rather, non-reception, to +the capricious humours to which his honour was constantly liable without +rhyme or reason (it is a peculiarity of self-made plutocrats as +everybody knows); but he was not a bit offended,--he knew his place. His +honour doesn't want to see Margari just now, very well, he shall not see +him so he jumped up behind the carriage alongside the lacquey. But how +surprised his honour will be when he gets to Promontor to see Margari +open the carriage door for him? How he will bid him go to the devil and +immediately after burst out laughing and give him a present! And what +will the present be? Has it anything to do with the good news with which +he meant to surprise him? And all the while, Mr. John, inside the +carriage was hugging himself with the idea that he had rid himself of +Margari for a time and devoutly wishing that the cholera, or some other +equally rapid and effectual disease, might remove the old rascal off the +face of the earth altogether. + +When the carriage stopped at the picturesque vineyards of Promontor, Mr. +John almost had a stroke when, on looking through the glass window, the +first feature of the panorama that presented itself was the figure of +Margari, hastening to open the door with obsequious familiarity. + +"You here, Sirrah," he roared (he would have choked with rage on the +spot if he had not said Sirrah). "How on earth did _you_ get here?" + +Margari instantly imagined that his honour's flashing eyes, convulsive +mouth and distorted face were the outward signs of a jocose frame of +mind, for there was always a sort of travesty of humour in Mr. John's +features whenever he was angry. So, to his own confusion, it occurred to +him to make a joke for the first time in his life. + +"Crying your honour's pardon, I _flew_," said he. + +And in fact the very next instant he was sent flying so impetuously that +he did not stop till he plumped right into the trellis-work surrounding +a bed of vines. Never in all his life before had Mr. John dispensed such +a buffet. Margari fairly disappeared among the leaves of the friendly +vine arbours. + +It was now Mr. John's turn to be frightened at what he had done. He was +frightened because every box on the ears he gave used regularly to cost +him 200 florins, a very costly passion to indulge in. And besides he was +particularly anxious just then to keep Margari in a good humour. A man +may loathe a viper but he had better not tread on its tail if he cannot +tread on its head. Horrified at his own outburst of rage, the moment he +saw Margari disappear in the vine-arbours, he rushed after him, freed +him with his own hands, picked him up, set him on his legs again and +began to comfort him. + +"Come, come, my dear friend! compose yourself. I did not mean to hurt +you. You are not angry, are you. I hope you are not hurt? Where did you +hit yourself?" + +Margari, however, began whimpering like a schoolboy, the more the other +tried to quiet him, the more loudly he bellowed. + +"Come, come! don't make such a noise! Come under the verandah and wipe +the blood from your face!" + +"But I am not a dog!" roared Margari. "I won't go under the verandah, +I'll go into the street. I'll howl at the top of my voice. The whole +town shall see me bleed." + +"Margari, don't be a fool! I didn't mean to hurt you. I was too violent, +I admit it. Look here! I'll give you money. How much do you want? Will +200 florins be enough?" + +At the words "200 florins," Margari stopped roaring a bit, but he wanted +to see the colour of the money, for he thought to himself that if he +quieted down first he would get nothing at all. So he kept on whining +and limped first on one leg and then on the other and plastered his +whole face over with blood from the one little scratch he had got. + +Mr. John hastened to wipe Margari's face with his own +pocket handkerchief. + +"Come, come my dear Margari. I have told you I did not mean to do it. +Here are the two hundred florins I promised you. But now leave me alone. +Go abroad with the money and enjoy yourself and I will give you some +more later on." + +"I most humbly thank you," lisped the buffeted wretch with a +conciliatory voice and he kissed Mr. John's two hundred florined hand +repeatedly, while the other did all in his power to hustle him out of +the door; and so engrossed was he in the effort that he never observed +that some one had been observing the scene the whole time. He therefore +regularly collapsed when a voice which he instantly recognized, +addressed him: "Good morning, sir!" + +The Lernean Hydra was not more petrified at the sight of the head of +Medusa than was Mr. John by the sight of the person who had just +addressed him. It was the magistrate, Mr. Monori. + +At first he feared he had come after him for his diurnal eighty florins, +but something very much worse than that was in store for him. + +"Pardon me," said the magistrate drawing nearer, "but by order of the +High Court, I am here to arrest Margari, and ascertaining that you had +taken him away with you, I was obliged to follow to prevent him from +escaping altogether." + +Two stout _pandurs_[42] behind the magistrate gave additional emphasis +to his words. + +[Footnote 42: Hungarian police officers.] + +"Arrest me?" cried Margari, "why me? I am as honest as the day. I am +neither a murderer nor yet a robber. Mr. John Lapussa can answer for me. +I am his confidential agent!"--and he clung convulsively to the coat +tail of his principal. + +Mr. John plainly perceived that never in his life before had he been in +such an awkward situation. They could accuse him now of having +instigated Margari to make a bolt of it. Had not the magistrate seen +him give the wretched man money to run away with? His first care was to +disengage Margari's hands from his coat tail and next to hold him at +arm's length so that he should not clutch his collar. Then with pompous +impertinence he pretended not to know him. + +"What does the man want? Who is he? How did he come hither?" he +exclaimed. "I know nothing about him. I boxed his ears for molesting me, +and then I gave him 200 florins which is the usual legal fine for an +assault of that kind, to prevent him bringing an action against me. We +have nothing else in common. Take him away by all means. Put him in +irons. Give him whatever punishment he has deserved. Yes," he continued, +seizing the astounded Margari by the cravat, "you are a refined +scoundrel. You persuaded my dear nephew Coloman to take that false step +and then you yourself changed the forty florins into forty thousand. You +wanted to ruin the young man's future and bring a slur upon the family. +I know everything. His honour the magistrate told me all about it +yesterday, and that is why I hand you over to the law for punishment." +And with that he shook him so violently that he fell on his back again, +this time into a bed of tomatoes, whereby his white linen pantaloons +very speedily became stained with the national colours.[43] + +[Footnote 43: Red, white and green.] + +The dialogue that thereupon ensued no shorthand reporter could have +reproduced, for the pair of them began forthwith to rave and storm at +one another with all their might, stamping, swearing, shaking their +fists, and loading each other with abuse. When they had got as far as +calling each other robber and scoundrel, the magistrate thought it high +time to interfere, and at his command Margari was torn forcibly out of +the tomato bed, led to a hackney coach and thrust inside; yet even then +he put his head out of the window and shouted that he did not mean to +sit in prison alone but would very soon have Mr. John Lapussa there +also, as his companion. All the efforts of the two pandurs were +powerless to silence him. + +As for Mr. John, the magistrate simply said to him: "Sir, it is not good +for a man to make use of nasty tools, for by so doing he only dirties +his own hands." + +Then he got into a second hackney coach and drove away after the first +one. + +Even Mr. John could see that it was now quite impossible for him under +the circumstances to think of quitting Pest. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE UNDISCOVERABLE LADY + + +Squire Gerzson Satrakovics thought it best after that night at the +_csárdá_ to go back to Arad. This wondrous event, the clue to which he +could not hit upon anyhow, must needs interest Hátszegi most of all. It +would be a terrible thing to appear before him with the tidings that the +lady who was intrusted to his care, had been lost on the way; yet, +nevertheless, this was the first thing he must say, and after that they +would consult together as to what was to be done to find her and where +they were to look for her. + +Never had Mr. Gerzson approached a bear's den with such beating of heart +as he now approached Hátszegi's chambers. His breath almost failed him +as he seized the handle of the street door and wished it might prove +locked in order that it might take a longer time to open it. + +And locked indeed the door proved to be, he had to ring. Thus he had, at +any rate, a respite, for he must await the result of the ringing. And a +long time he had to wait too, so long indeed that it was necessary to +ring again. Even then there was no response. Then he rang a third time, +and after that he went on ring-ring-ringing for a good half hour. At +last the bellrope remained in his hand and he put it into his pocket +that it might testify to the fact that he had been there. Then, for the +first time, he noticed that the shutters were all up--the surest sign +that nobody was at home. + +Gerzson explained the matter to his own satisfaction by supposing that +the whole household was at the races. It was the last day of the races +and he reached the course just as the betting was at its height and +everybody's attention was concentrated on the event of the moment. At +such time the crowd has no eyes for men, everyone is occupied with the +horses. Mr. Gerzson therefore had plenty of time to scrutinize all who +were present, but look as he would he could not see Leonard anywhere. + +At last he could stand the suspense no longer, and during the interval +between two races, he descended from the grand-stand, in a corner of +which he had ensconced himself in order to get a better view of the +field, and mingled in the ring with his brother sportsmen awaiting +resignedly for the expression of amazed and horrified inquiry which he +expected to see in all faces the moment they perceived him. + +But how taken aback was he when the first man who cast eyes on him gave +vent to a loud: Ha! ha! ha! whereupon everybody else began laughing also +and pointing their fingers at him and exclaiming: "Why here's Gerzson! +Gerzson has come back again!" + +"Have you all gone mad?" cried Gerzson, confused by this inexplicable +hubbub. + +He really fancied that he had fallen among a lot of lunatics, till at +last Count Kengyelesy forced his way through the crowd towards him, put +both his hands on his hips and began to quiz him: "Well, you are a +pretty fellow!--you are a pretty squire of dames, I must say!" + +"But what's the matter? What has happened? Why do you laugh?" + +"Listen to him!" cried the count, turning to the bystanders. "He +actually has the impertinence to ask us why we laugh! Come, sir! where +did you leave the Baroness Hátszegi?" + +"I don't see what there is to laugh at at such a question?" replied +Gerzson, in whose mind all sorts of dark forebodings began to arise. + +"What have you done with the baroness? What have you done with our +friend Leonard's wife, I say?" persisted the count. + +"That is a perfect riddle to me," growled Gerzson in a low voice. + +"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the count, "it is a riddle to him what has become +of his travelling companion." + +"But can any of you tell me what has happened to her? Is she alive?" + +The count clapped his hands together and flung his round hat upon the +ground. + +"Now, that is what I call a _leetle_ too strong! He asks: is she alive? +Why, comrade, where have you been in hiding all this time?" + +"A truce to jesting," cried Gerzson fiercely. "Tell me all you know +about it, for it is no joking matter for me, I can assure you." + +On perceiving that Gerzson was seriously angry, Kengyelesy drew nearer +to him and enlightened him without any more beating about the bush: +"Well then, my dear friend, let me tell you that you have behaved very +badly. First of all you made all four of Hátszegi's horses lame; in the +second place you compelled his poor wife to spend a night in a _csárdá_ +of the _puszta_, and in the third place you got so drunk that you began +to quarrel with her and at last did not know whether you were boy or +girl. The poor little woman has grown almost grey with terror, and after +you had fallen to the ground in liquor she sent the coachman to town for +fresh horses and, leaving you under the table, tried to make her way +back to Arad." + +"That is not true," interrupted Gerzson, his whole face purple with +rage. + +"What is not true?" + +"Where is the baroness?" + +"Stop, stop, my friend! Don't run away! You'll never catch her up, for, +early this morning, she drove back to Hidvár in a postchaise with her +husband." + +"That can not be true. Did you see her?" + +"I saw her through my own field glass. But we all saw her--did we not, +gentlemen?" + +Many of those present admitted that they had indeed seen the baroness. + +"But my dear fellow," said the perturbed Gerzson, "this is no joke. On +the contrary, my adventure with the baroness is somewhat tragical, and +I'll trouble you to expend no more of your feeble witticisms on me." + +Kengyelesy shrugged his shoulders. "I did not know you would take it so +seriously, but so it is." + +"From whom did you hear all this, from the baroness?" + +"No--from Hátszegi." + +An idea suddenly flashed through Gerzson's brain. + +"Did you speak to the baroness herself?" + +"No. I only saw her through the carriage window when they drove away." + +"Was she veiled?" + +"No, my friend. It was her very self I assure you." + +"Thank you. And now, if you like, you can go on amusing yourself at my +expense. Adieu!" + +Only when he had got home and flung himself on the sofa in a state of +stupor, did he begin to reflect a little calmly on what he had heard. +There was so much about the affair that was startling and +incomprehensible, true and untrue, probable, incredible, shameful and +exasperating, that he could make neither head nor tail of it. + +That the baroness _had_ returned must be true, for they all maintained +that she had come back while he was lying drunk. It is true that he had +got drunk, but he had no recollection of having been quarrelsome and +misbehaving himself. Strain his memory as he might, all he could call to +mind was Henrietta, with her angelically gentle face, sitting before him +at the table and telling him the legends of the Transylvanian Alps--all +the rest was a blank. + +Up he jumped at last and began pacing up and down the room. At last, +after much reflection, his mind was made up, he had formed a plan. + +"I'll be off. I'll be off immediately. I'll go straight to her. I am +determined to learn from her own lips exactly what happened to me and +how I came to make such a fool of myself. I will speak to her myself." + +And immediately he ordered his coachman to put the horses to; but he +told not a living soul whither he was going, even to the coachman he +only mentioned the first stage. + +At a little booth at the end of the town he bought four and twenty +double rolls and a new wooden field flask. When they came to the River +Maros, he descended to the water's edge, rinsed out his flask at least +twice and then filled it with water, finally thrusting both the rolls +and the flask into his travelling knapsack. After that he drew on his +mantle, clambered up into the back part of the coach, stuck his pipe in +his mouth and his pistol in his fist and never closed an eye till +morning. + +And it must be admitted that Mr. Gerzson's mode of travelling on this +occasion was decidedly eccentric. On reaching a village he would tell +his coachman where to go next but he never told him more than one stage +in advance. Every morning he would consume one of his rolls and wash it +down with the lukewarm brackish water of the Maros--and bitter enough he +found the taste of it too. He never quitted the carriage for more than +two or three minutes at a time, and he presented his pistols point blank +at everyone who approached him with inquisitive questions. + +Only twice during the night did he allow the horses an hour or two of +rest--and then away over stock and stone again. + +The coachman, who was unaccustomed to such queer ways, presently shook +his head every time he received orders to go on further, but by dawn of +day he had had about enough of the job. + +"Your honour," said he, "are we going to stop at all? It would do the +horses no harm if they had a little rest." + +"What's that to you, you rascal, eh?" roared Mr. Gerzson, "I suppose +you're sleepy, you lazy good-for-nothing? Off the box then, you hound, +you! I'll drive the horses myself, you gallows-bird!" + +The old fellow, who had been in the service of the family for twenty +years and had never had so many insulting epithets thrown at his head +before explained that he did not speak for himself but for the horses. + +"If they perished on the spot, Sirrah, what business is it of yours? +When one pursues the enemy in time of war, does one think of food or +fodder?"--whence the coachman concluded that there was some one whom the +squire meant to cut to pieces. + +It was only when they came to the road leading to Hidvár that the +coachman began to suspect that they were about to go in that direction. +It was now the evening of the second day and both man and beast were +tired to death. It was indispensable that they should stay the night +here, for if they passed Hidvár they would have to go on the whole night +before they reached the next stage--or come to grief on the road, which +was much more probable. + +"You will stop in front of the castle!" commanded Mr. Gerzson when they +were crossing the castle bridge. + +The coachman looked back and shook his head. He did not like it at all. + +"Shan't we turn into the castle yard?" enquired he. + +"No!" bellowed Squire Gerzson, so venomously that the "why not?" he was +about to say, stuck in the poor coachman's throat like a fish-bone. + +"Now listen to me," said Gerzson, when they had fairly got across to +the other side: "Keep your eyes open and try and take in what I am going +to say to you. I don't know how long I may remain inside there--possibly +some time. At any rate you must not loiter about here with the horses +but go on to the priest and beg him, civilly, mind, to kindly +accommodate my nags in his stable and give them two bushels of maize. As +soon as I return I'll settle with him, but don't say anything about +payment, or else you will offend him. Kiss his hand, for he is a priest +and you are only a lazy vagabond. If you hear no news of me by to-morrow +morning, put the horses into the carriage again and return to Arad where +Count Kengyelesy will tell you what to do next." + +Then he turned upon his heel and set off towards the castle. + +It was already evening. In the upper story seven of the windows were lit +up and the moon shone into the eighth. That was Henrietta's bedroom. +Squire Gerzson knew it. He was quite at home in the castle. + +At the hall entrance he encountered Leonard's huntsman, an impertinent, +bony, jowly loafer whom he had never been able to endure. The fellow +barred the way. + +"Good evening your honour." + +"Why should _you_ wish _me_ good evening, you stupid jackass! Do you +suppose I have travelled five and twenty miles for the pleasure of +wishing _you_ good evening? Who's at home?" + +"Nobody." + +"Go along with you, you sodden-headed son of a dog. Nobody at home and +seven windows in the upper story all alight!" + +"It is true the rooms are lit up, but that is on account of her +ladyship--they are sitting up with her." + +"Then where's your master?" + +"He has trotted into Klausenburg for the learned doctor." + +"What is the matter with her ladyship?" + +"I don't know. They say she is mad." + +"You are mad yourself, you stupid beast. Who told you that?" + +"I saw it, I heard it myself, and others also have seen that she is +mad." + +"Cannot I speak to her?" + +"How can you? That's just the mischief of it, that she cannot be spoken +to." + +"You rascal, I tell you your master _is_ at home. I am sure of it." + +Long-legs shrugged his shoulders and began to whistle. + +"Look ye here, my son," said Gerzson, scarcely able to contain himself, +"the fist that you see in my pocket here is pulling the trigger of a +revolver and I have a jolly good mind to send a bullet in between your +onion chawing teeth, so I should advise you not to try any of your +tom-foolery on me. On this occasion I have not come to pay your master +a visit but for other reasons. Speak the truth, sirrah! Is your master +at home or is he not?" + +"I have just told you that there is not a soul at home except her +ladyship, and she is mad." + +At that same moment Gerzson thought he heard a fiddle in the upper +story. + +"What, music here!" he cried. + +The fellow laughed. + +"Yes, they are trying to cure the sick baroness by playing to her." + +"But I hear the sound of men's voices also as if there were guests +here." + +"Where? I hear nothing. It is only the dogs barking in the enclosure." + +"You did not hear it, sirrah?" + +"I heard nothing." + +"Very well, my son, I see you have orders to make a fool of me; but it +strikes me that both you and your master will have to get up pretty +early to do that. You need not be so anxious to guard the door, I shall +not try to force my way up to your master. I'll wager he will come and +see me first. Wait a bit." + +And with that Gerzson sat down on the step, tore a leaf out of his +pocketbook and, placing it on his knee, wrote with his pencil the +following words: "Sir, I declare you to be a miserable coward. If you +want to know why, you will find me at the parson's, there I will tell +you and after that we can arrange our little business between ourselves. + "GERZSON SATRAKOVICS." + +Mr. Gerzson had even taken the trouble to provide himself with +sealing-wax and matches so he could seal his letter without any +difficulty and the step served him as a table. + +But suppose even this letter did not make Hátszegi come forth? Struck by +this idea he tore open the note again and added this postscript: "If you +do not give me proper satisfaction, I will wait for you at the gate of +your own castle and shoot you down like a dog!!" + +Surely _that_ would be enough! + +Again he sealed the letter and was about to hand it to the huntsman when +it suddenly occurred to him that Hátszegi might chuck the note unopened +into the fire. Now, therefore, he wrote on the outside of it, just below +the address: "If you don't open this letter, I will have an exact copy +of it posted upon the notice-board of the club at Arad." + +"And now, you door-keeping Cerberus," said he, "take this and give it to +your master, wherever he may be." + +He wasted no more words upon the fellow, but went straight to the +dwelling of the old priest who was awaiting him in his porch. + +"I must beg your reverence for a night's lodging, I am afraid," said +Squire Gerzson, cordially pressing the old clergyman's hand. "There is +serious illness at the baron's house so I don't want to incommode them +with my company. All I want is a place whereon to lay my head. My wants +are few. You know me of old." + +"Gladly will I share with your honour the little I have. God hath +brought you hither. I am glad you did not stay at the castle. The +company there is not fit for your honour." + +"Then there is company there, eh? What sort of folks are they?" + +"Folks I should not care about meeting. Drahhowecz and Muntya, and +Harastory, and Brinkó, and Bandán, and Kerakoricz, and . . ." + +"That will do," interrupted Mr. Gerzson, aghast at so many odd, strange +names not one of which he had ever heard of before. "New comers, I +suppose?" + +"I was sure their names would be quite unfamiliar to your honour," +remarked the priest smiling, and he led his guest into his narrow +dwelling, looking cautiously round first of all to make sure that nobody +was listening. Once inside he carefully barred the door, seated his +guest at the carved wooden table, which was covered with a pretty +covering made from foal-skin, and filled a dish with fresh maize +pottage, adding thereto a ham bone and a jug of mead. Mr. Gerzson fell +to, like a man, on the very first invitation; and each armed with a +wooden spoon, attacked the maize pottage from different points till +their assiduously tunnelling spoons met together in the centre of the +large platter. + +"A capital dish, your reverence, really capital." + +"Very good for poor folks like we are, I admit. I know you don't have +fare like this in Hungary." + +"I suppose we don't know how to prepare it properly," said Gerzson. + +And then the priest explained how hot the water must be when maize meal +or sweet-broom meal has to be mixed with it, how the whole mess must be +stirred with a spoon, how a little finely grated cheese has to be added +to it, and how it had then all to be tied up in a cloth like a +plum-pudding and have milk poured over it. And Squire Gerzson listened +to him as attentively as if he had come all the way from Arad to Hidvár +on purpose to learn the art of cooking maize pottage. And after that +they pledged each other's health in long draughts from the mead jug. + +"And now," said the priest when they had well supped, "I know that your +honour spent all last night upon the road. You must be tired and instead +of boring yourself by listening to my uninteresting gossip, it would be +better, methinks, if we both went to bed." + +"I shouldn't mind lying down at all, but alas! I have an appointment +here with some one." + +"May I ask with whom?" + +"I have written the baron a letter and I await a reply." + +"He will not send one: he is too much taken up with his pleasures just +now." + +"My letter contains things which a man durst not ignore." + +"Was your letter an insulting one?" + +"I don't wish to advertise its contents." + +"Very good. But for all that you may as well lie down. The ways of the +baron are incalculable. Even when he is angry he knows what he is +about." + +"Then we'll wait for him till morning." + +"Meanwhile repose in peace. My humble dwelling is not very luxurious, +but let your honour imagine that it is a hunting hut in the forest." + +"But where then will your reverence sleep?" + +"I'll go out to the bee-house. I can sleep there excellently well, I +have a couch of linden leaves." + +"Nay, but I also love to sleep on linden leaves, covered with my +_bunda_.[44] I'll lie there to-night. I am accustomed to sleeping in the +open air at night, and you are an old man"--he forgot that he was one +himself--"I could never permit you to sacrifice your comfort for my +sake." + +[Footnote 44: A sheepskin mantle.] + +The clergyman paused for an instant like one who is suddenly struck by a +new and odd idea. + +"You said just now that you had insulted Hátszegi, did you not?" he +asked. + +"Well--yes!--if you _must_ know." + +"Grossly?" + +"Yes, and most deliberately." + +"Very good, I only asked the question out of curiosity. You shall have +the choice of your resting place, where would you like to sleep?" + +"I choose the bee-house." + +"Good. It is true that the night air is not very good for me. I will +sleep then in my usual resting place." + +"And I will sleep among the bees. Their humming close beside a man's +ears generally brings him dreams that a king would envy." + +"Then good night, sir." + +"Good night." + +They parted at the little porch. Gerzson wrapped his _bunda_ round his +shoulders and went towards the bee-house, but the priest returned to his +chamber, blew out the light, lay down fully dressed on his bed, took up +his rosary and fell a-praying like one who does not expect to see the +dawn of another day. + +He knew his man; he knew what was coming. + +Squire Gerzson, on the other hand, troubled himself not a jot about +possible consequences. With the nonchalance of a true sportsman, he lit +his pipe and, lest he should set anything on fire, he made up his mind +not to sleep a wink till he had smoked his pipe right out. + +In order that slumber might not come upon him unawares, he resolved to +fix his eyes on the castle windows--as the best preservative against +dropping off. He could see them quite plainly from the bee-house. + +The illuminated windows were darkened one by one. It seemed as if, +contrary to the words of the clergyman, the revellers within there did +not mean to await the rosy dawn glass in hand, but had lain down early. + +For, indeed, it was still early. The village cocks had only just crowed +for the first time. It could not be much beyond eleven. + +After the lamps had been extinguished, the castle stood there in the +semi-obscurity of night like a black, old-world ruin. It stood right in +front of the moon which was now climbing up behind its bastions and +where its light fell upon two opposite windows which met together in a +corner room it shone through them both and lighted up the whole +apartment. This room was the baroness's dormitory. + +While Mr. Gerzson was luxuriating in the contemplation of the moonlight, +he suddenly observed that the moonlight falling upon the windows was +obscured for an instant, as if somebody were passing up and down the +room. In a few moments this obscuration was repeated, and the same thing +happened a third time, and a fourth, and many times more, just as if +some one were passing up and down in that particular room in the middle +of the night restlessly, incessantly. + +Mr. Gerzson counted on his pulses the seconds which elapsed between each +obscuration--sixteen seconds, consequently the room in which this person +was to-and-froing it so late at night like a spectre, must be sixteen +paces from one end to the other. So long as the other windows had been +lit up, this person had not begun to walk but as soon as the whole +castle was slumbering its restless course began. + +Gerzson felt that if he looked much longer, he would become moonstruck +himself. + +Slowly divesting himself of his _bunda_, and after knocking the burning +ashes out of his pipe, he noiselessly quitted the bee-house, traversed +the garden and sprang over the fence at a single bound. Then he stole +along in the shadow of the poplar avenue leading up to the castle till +he stood beneath the moon-lit window, climbed, like a veritable lunatic +on to the projecting stones of the old bastion, and gazed from thence, +at closer quarters, at the regularly recurring shadow. + +But not even now was he content, but began to break off little portions +of the mouldering mortar and cautiously throw them at the window. When +one of these little fragments of mortar rattled against the glass the +whole window was quickly obscured by a shadow as if the night wanderer +had rushed to it in order to look out. Gerzson felt absolutely certain +that he must be observed for there he stood clinging fast on to the +moulding. A few moments afterwards the shadow disappeared suddenly from +the window and again the moonlight shone uninterruptedly through it. + +Gerzson determined to remain where he was, to see what would come of it. + +In a short time the shadow reappeared in front of the moonlight, the +window was silently and very slightly raised, and through the slit +fluttered a rolled up piece of paper. + +This missive fell from the moulding of the bastion down into the moat. +Mr. Gerzson scrambled down after it, grabbed at it in the dark and +sticking it into his pocket, returned to the dwelling of the priest. + +Not wishing to arouse the clergyman, he went to his carriage which stood +in the stable and lit the lamp in order to read the mysterious missive. + +The letter was written on a piece of paper torn out of an album. He +recognized Henrietta's handwriting, and the contents of the note were as +follows: "Good kind Gerzson! I implore you, in the name of all that is +sacred, to depart from hence this instant. Depart on foot by bye +paths--the priest will guide you. If you do not wish me to lose my +reason altogether, tarry here no longer. I am very unhappy, but still +more unhappy I should be if you were to remain here. Avoid us--and +forget me forever--your affectionate--respectful--friend who will ever +mention you in her prayers--and whom you have treated as a +daughter--HENRIETTA." + +Gerzson's first feeling on reading this letter was one of +relief--evidently Henrietta was not angry with him or she would not have +alluded to herself as his daughter! There must therefore have been some +other reason for her turning back other than the squabble between them +which Hátszegi had so industriously circulated. Well, he would settle +accounts with Hátszegi presently. + +What he found especially hard to understand, however, was the mysterious +warning contained in the letter. + +"Well, my dear parson," he said to himself, "I very much regret having +to arouse you from your slumbers, but there's nothing else to be done," +and, unscrewing the coach lamp, he took it with him and went towards the +house. + +The hall door was closed, he had to shake it. + +The parson was evidently still awake, his voice resounded from within +the house: "All good spirits praise the Lord!" + +"Amen! 'Tis I who am at the door. Let me in reverend father." + +The priest immediately opened the door and, full of amazement, asked Mr. +Gerzson what had happened. + +"Read that!" said Gerzson handing him the letter and lighting him with +the lamp. + +"This is the baroness's writing," said the priest, who immediately +recognized the script. + +"What do you say to its contents?" + +"I say that you must get away from this place immediately. I quite +comprehend the meaning of the baroness's directions." + +"What! fly from a man whom I have just called out?" + +"No, you must fly from the man you have _not_ called out." + +"I don't understand." + +"You will one day, but there is no time for parleying now. First of all, +put on my garments, while I dress up in peasants' clothes." + +"Why?" + +"Why! Because I must be your guide through the mountains. I cannot trust +another to do you that service. Do quickly what I tell you." + +The priest gave his orders to Mr. Gerzson with imperious brevity, but +that gentleman, even in his present situation, could not divest himself +of his homely humour, and as he was donning the parson's long cassock +and pressed the broad brimmed clerical hat down upon his head, he fell a +laughing at the odd figure he cut. + +"Deuce take it!" he cried, "I never imagined that I should ever be +turned into a parson." + +But the priest was angry at the untimely jest and turning savagely upon +Squire Gerzson, said: "Sir, this is no time for jesting, we are both of +us standing on the very threshold of death." + +Gerzson was no coward, nor did he trouble himself very much about death, +but the emphatic tone of the parson at least induced him, at last, to +take the matter seriously. + +"Then according to that you also are in danger on my account?" + +"Ask no questions! I knew what would happen when I gave you a night's +lodging." + +Then he took out of a drawer a packet of letters and bade Gerzson put +them in the pocket of his cassock as the coat he was wearing had no +pockets. + +"Why do you take these with you?" + +"Because I fear to leave them here, and also because I believe I shall +never return to this house any more. I have one request to make of you +and that is that you will read these letters and keep the contents to +yourself." Gerzson promised to do so. + +It was just as the descending moon seemed to be resting on the summits +of the mountains that the priest and his guest quitted the quiet little +house by way of the garden. The night which covered the retreat of the +fugitives was pitch dark. Nobody but one who had been accustomed to that +district for years and knew all its ins and outs could have found a path +through those wooded gorges. + +By the morning light the fugitives perceived the little posting station +on the high road. There the priest exchanged clothes with Gerzson and +resumed his clerical attire. + +"Nothing can detain us now," said the priest, "you can procure post +horses here and return home, but I go in an opposite direction." + +"Whither?" + +"The world is wide. Do not trouble yourself about me. In a month's time +we shall meet again." + +"Where?" + +"At this very place." + +The priest hastily quitted Gerzson and returned towards the forest, +while the latter went on to the little town, where he speedily got post +horses. + +When now he found himself sitting all safe and sound, in the carriage, +it suddenly struck him how remarkably odd it was that he and the parson +should have actually fled away from a non-existent danger. How they +would laugh at him from one end of the kingdom to the other! Suppose +Henrietta had been playing a practical joke upon him! But then, on the +other hand, Henrietta was not of that sort--so he consoled himself. + +But there was another thing which bothered him a good deal. The coachman +had been left behind with the four horses and would not know what to +make of the disappearance of his master and the priest. When, however, +the post chaise stopped in front of his house at Arad who should he see +coming to meet him through the gate but this very coachman whose +astonishment at the meeting was even greater than his master's. And +then, to the amazement of the postillion, master and servant fell upon +each other's necks and embraced each other again and again. + +"Come into the house," said Mr. Gerzson at last, "and tell me what +befell you. I don't want you to bellow it out here before all the +world." + +"I hardly know how to put it, sir, but I will tell it you as best I can. +After watering the horses, I lay down and went to sleep. A loud neighing +suddenly awoke me and, looking around, I saw a great light. The +parson's house was all in flames. Up I was in a jiffy and ran to the +door to call your honour but I found the door was locked from the +inside. I then ran to the windows and found that the shutters were +nailed down over them. What horrified me most of all, however, was that +nobody came from the castle to put the fire out. Then I began to roar +for help and while I was roaring and running up and down looking for an +axe with which to batter in the door--'burum! burum!' I heard two shots +and the bullets whistled to the right and left about my ears. At that +all my pluck went down to my heels; I rushed under the shelter of the +barn, cut the tether ropes of the horses, swung myself up on to the +saddle horse, driving the others before me, and trotted into Arad +without once stopping to water them." + +So he had reached home more quickly than Squire Gerzson himself. + +"Well, my son," said Gerzson, "all that you have told me is gospel truth +I have no doubt, but say not a word of it to anybody, or else . . ." +(and here he uttered the threat which the ordinary Hungarian common folk +fear most of all)--"or else the affair will come before the courts and +you will have to give testimony on oath." + +After that he was sure of the fellow's silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE SHAKING HAND + + +Whoever in an evil hour encountered Fatia Negra had a shaking hand for +the rest of his life. + +Ever since that meeting at the _csárdá_ Henrietta's hand also trembled +to such an extent that it was only with the utmost difficulty that she +could sign her own name. + +What happened to her after that meeting? Whom did she recognize in Fatia +Negra? How did she get home?--all these things remained eternal secrets. +The lady was never able to tell it to anybody. Perchance she herself +regarded it as a dream. + +The poor lady used now to pray all day. For hours at a time she would +kneel before the altar of the castle chapel returning thence to her +perpetual walking to and fro, to and fro, kneeling down to pray again +when she was tired out. And so she went on from morning to evening, nay, +till late into the night, sometimes till midnight, sometimes till the +dawn of the next day, up and down, up and down, between four walls, and +then on her knees again a-praying. + +She never appeared in the dining-room; her meals were sent to her room. +She scarcely touched them, it was difficult to understand how she kept +body and soul together. + +She only quitted her chamber to go to chapel. At such times she would +frequently meet domestics or strangers in the castle corridors, but she +looks at nobody and says not a word. She does not notice that they are +there, that they are amazed at her, that they greet her. No one has +heard her speak for a long time. + +And therefore they think her mad. At first only the domestics whispered +this among themselves, then the villagers--and in a month's time it was +notorious through Transylvania that the youthful Baroness Hátszegi was +out of her mind. + +Early one morning, as Henrietta was returning from chapel, there +suddenly appeared before her a ragged woman who must have been hidden in +some niche as the servants had not seen her or driven her out. + +"Stop one moment, my lady," whispered the woman and Henrietta seemed to +hear in that whisper the voice of an old acquaintance, though she did +not recognize the face. It was half masked in a cloth and the little she +could see of it was disfigured by wounds and scars like the face of one +who had been badly injured by fire. Henrietta was horrified at the sight +of her, she looked so dreadful. + +"Don't be frightened, my lady," said the woman falling down on her knees +before her and seizing Henrietta's dress to prevent her from escaping, +"I am Anicza." + +Henrietta fixed her eyes upon the woman full of stupid amazement, and +vainly sought in her face for some trace of the ideal loveliness which +only the other day, so it seemed, had made her so charming. She began to +fancy that the woman was under some evil spell and that if anyone could +but repeat the talismanic word, her former loveliness would be restored +to her. + +"You cannot recognize me your ladyship for my face was burnt to death in +the Lucsia Cavern. Oh, if it had only always been what it is now. I am +much better as I am now. God has punished me because I let my soul be +lost for the sake of my fair face. I am not vain now as I used to be. +Yes, God has smitten all of us on account of our sins, as your ladyship +already knows; but none has he smitten so hard as me. I denounced all my +kinsfolk and acquaintances to the tribunal to be avenged on one man who +had deceived me,--all of them were taken except him and he escaped. And +now I am a beggar, an accursed creature whom everyone drives from his +door, but what care I?--I never feel hungry. They took away all my +father's property--heaven only knows how much there was, more than +twenty thousand ducats, I think, and it would have been mine for I am +his only child. I was summoned before the court, they said they would +reward me for denouncing the society, they said they would give me a +thousand ducats. Ha, ha, ha! a thousand ducats for making myself the +wretched creature I am! But I did not come here to frighten your +ladyship, I came here to humbly beg a favour. Gracious lady, the +magistrates told me that a mixed commission will be appointed to try the +forgers and that his lordship, the baron, will be the president of this +commission; on him depends the life and death of everyone concerned." + +Henrietta felt obliged to lean against the wall. + +"My lady, I do not expect impossibilities, I cannot wish that the guilty +should remain unpunished--justice is justice! But the leader of the +whole gang was Fatia Negra, he planned everything, the others only +carried out his orders. And now there is a lot of false witnesses ready +to swear that my father was the ring-leader and throw all the blame upon +him, but it was Fatia Negra and nobody else as God knows." + +Every time the peasant woman mentioned Fatia Negra's name a spasmodic +twitch convulsed Henrietta's pale features. + +"Gracious lady," continued Anicza, "I implore you by the tender mercies +of God not to abandon me. Grant me my petition! Either let them kill me +or lock me up with the others. I implore you, my lady, to speak or write +to your husband (if these things must be in writing) on my behalf. Do +not let me perish. God will not be angry with you for protecting me." + +Henrietta was now even less able to speak than before. But though she +could not express herself in words, she placed one hand on the girl's +head and raised the other tremulous hand to heaven, as one who takes a +solemn oath before God. Then she tore herself away from Anicza, who had +stooped to kiss the hem of her garment, and hastened back to her own +room. On reaching the threshold of the house she looked back and saw +that the girl had sunk down in the dust and was gratefully kissing the +very traces of the footsteps of the departing lady. + +On reaching her room Henrietta paced up and down it for a long time, +wringing her hands as she went and moaning loudly: "My God! my God!" +Then she flung herself down on her couch, writhing like one in mortal +agony. + +But soon she strengthened her heart and sat down at the writing-table. +What had become of that beautiful handwriting of hers which had +resembled copper plate? Scarcely legible letters now issued from her +trembling hand, dumb witnesses of the terror of her heart, and yet write +she must for it was her petition to her husband. Ah! that she should be +forced to write to him. + +Her letter was as follows: + + "DREAD SIR: Tremulously and submissively I approach you. In the + name of an unhappy creature I appeal to your compassion. You will + be the judge of a lot of wretched men. Be merciful to them. By the + grace of heaven I implore you, condemn them not! In the name of + God, I implore you not to sign their death warrants. By the + terrors of eternity I implore you do not ruin these men, for they + are most innocent. N. N." + +She durst not subscribe her own name. + +And now she waited, she watched for the moment when Leonard quitted his +room and, slipping in, laid the petition on the couch where he would be +sure to find it. Nobody observed her. + +The same day she encountered him, she had in fact sought for such an +encounter. It was in the great armoury. Leonard, as soon as he perceived +his wife, began humming some mad operatic tune, an opera bouffé air and +bawled through the door to the dog-keeper to unleash the hounds. + +The pale lady nevertheless approached him, with tottering but determined +footsteps, and folding both her trembling hands as if in prayer, stood +mutely in front of the door through which Leonard would have to pass, +like some dumb spirit from another world. But Leonard merely shrugged +his shoulders and passed her by, whistling all the time. + +Again, on the following day, the timid petition lay on Leonard's table, +written in the same tremulous characters. Henrietta had written it +again, and again had crept into his chamber and in whatever part of the +house the magnate might now be found, he everywhere encountered this +pale tremulous figure who pressing her hands together and without +uttering a word gazed at him beseechingly, imploringly--only they two +knew why. + +On the third day Leonard again found the petition and again encountered +Henrietta. + +This time he spoke to her. + +"My dear Henrietta, have you read 'The Mysteries of Paris?'" + +Henrietta, as usual, only stared at the speaker with frightened eyes and +said nothing. + +"How did you like the description of Bicčtre? A horrible place, eh? I +have noticed that you have been behaving in rather a peculiar way +lately. In fact, the whole district has been talking about it and saying +that you are a little crazy. I have been asked all sorts of questions +about it too.--Hitherto I have always told everybody that it is not +true.--But if once I should say that it _is_ true, then, you will be +most certainly shut up in a mad house. Regulate your conduct +accordingly." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FIGHT FOR THE GOLD + + +Of late Mr. Gerzson Satrakovics had invented for himself a peculiar sort +of pastime. + +He had renounced bear hounds and grey hounds and all other kinds of +dogs, he did not care a jot when partridge shooting began, but he hung +up his gun on a nail and began regularly visiting one after another the +session courts of the counties of Arad, Biehar and Temes, in all of +which he was a justice of the peace, and moving resolutions. + +The object of these resolutions was to induce the three counties to +endeavour with their united strength, and in conjunction with the +Transylvanian counties of Hunyad, Fehér and Zarand, to extirpate the +robber bands that had so long been terrorizing the whole district. He +compiled lists of the atrocities perpetrated in the various localities +and connected them all with the name of one particular robber, the +notorious "Fatia Negra." He produced convincing proofs of the existence +of a combination extending from the depths of the dungeons to the +summits of the mountains which was held together by the magic influence +of this one man and he left no stone unturned to bring him to book. + +He, naturally, became quite a laughing stock for his pains, and his +acquaintances could not for the life of them understand what had come to +the man. + +"Why, old fellow!" said Count Kengyelesy to him one day, after he had +been indulging in an unusually fiery philippic at Quarter Sessions, +"why, old fellow, what sort of venom have you swallowed that makes you +perorate so savagely against this worthy Fatia Negra. If anybody has +cause to complain against him it is I, for he relieved me of 1,000 +ducats on the high road, and so cleverly did the rascal manage it, that +I cannot find it in my heart to bear him any ill-will. But what have you +got to do with him I should like to know? What is all this cock and bull +story you keep on spouting out concerning organized robber bands and +mysterious chieftains? Is it your ambition, my friend, to become public +prosecutor?" + +"Yes, it is, and public prosecutor I will be, too. I want six counties +to place their armed constabulary at my beck and call, and if they do, +I'll wager that I'll so purify all these Alpine regions that the robbers +will not have a single lurking hole left." + +"Rubbish! Don't make a fool of yourself. Besides, they say that Fatia +Negra has flown to America." + +"Newspaper lies. He is here, I know he is." + +"And suppose he is, what harm can he do? This band has been cut off to +the very last man. They have all been sentenced heavily, the older men +to twenty years penal servitude, the younger men to penal servitude for +life. I had it from Hátszegi himself who was the president of the mixed +commission that tried them, and signed the judgment himself. The whole +fraternity is now sitting in chains in the trenches of Gyula Fehérvár +and we have seen the last of it." + +"What guarantee have you of that?" + +"What guarantee?--why the security of the whole region ever since. Why, +everyone there can now sleep with open doors and if you yourself were to +lie dead drunk in the public thoroughfare you would not have your money +stolen from your pocket any more." + +Squire Gerzson protested vehemently against the assumption that he was +in the habit of sprawling tipsily on the king's high road. + +"I'll tell you," said he, "why everything is so secure just now. The +confiscated gold of Fatia Negra is still at Gyula Fehérvár, as a forfeit +to the crown, and, sooner or later, must be sent to Vienna. Fatia Negra +is _not_ dead, his robber band has _not_ been captured and does _not_ +sit in irons at Gyula Fehérvár, and the present tranquillity and +imagined security suit their plans nicely. The band now pretends to have +vanished, but just you wait till the gold is sent under convoy from +Gyula Fehérvár to Vienna--and you will see some fun." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I know it sir, because I know that this man, this brazen faced, +iron-fisted man is not such a chicken-hearted creature as to allow a +half-million or so to be snatched from him without stirring every nerve +and muscle to try and win it back again. For I know that hitherto he has +always triumphed over the power of the law and has always escaped from +the most dangerous ambushes." + +"Well, all I can say is that I do not understand what you have to do +with this worthy man." + + * * * * * + +The falsely coined gold pieces deposited at Gyula Fehérvár, had, after +the trial was over, to be sent to Hungary to be recoined. The precious +consignment filled two post-wagons and was of the estimated value of a +million and a half. Four and twenty Uhlans were told off to escort it. +This was a more than sufficient protection for the most costly treasure +at ordinary times. Moreover, in Hungary, cavalry has always inspired the +mob with terror. During the disturbances at the time of the cholera +outbreak, two squadrons of Hussars were easily able to quell the whole +riot. It was impossible to calculate how many robbers and peasants the +four and twenty Uhlans were capable of coping with. So, at least, the +county magistrates believed. + +The soldiers were commanded by a lieutenant, the post-wagons were under +the charge of an official accountant and a comptroller. All the +postillions were provided with pistols and it was strictly ordered that +the wagons were not to travel on the high-road after six o'clock. There +was no lack of precaution, anyhow! + +Now when the post wagons had reached the celebrated Bridge of Piski,[45] +lo, there and then, face to face, four and twenty horsemen came, riding +towards them from the opposite side of the bridge and the five and +twentieth was Fatia Negra. + +[Footnote 45: It was here that a small band of Hungarians under Czsez +and Kureny held a whole Austrian army at bay on Feb. 9, 1849.--_Tr._] + +All the four and twenty had black crape wound round their faces, their +clothes had the lining turned outwards and they were well provided with +swords, csákánys[46] and muskets. Fatia Negra himself rode a vigorous +black stallion and held in his hand a broad, naked sword. + +[Footnote 46: Hooked axes.] + +The horse of the Uhlan lieutenant took fright at the sight of the black +faces and began to rear, it was as much as his rider could do to prevent +him from springing over the parapet of the bridge. + +Fatia Negra and his band halted in the centre of the bridge and did not +budge from the spot. + +The lieutenant was a brave soldier, who never lost his presence of mind; +he tightened the reins of his plunging horse and turning towards +Black-Mask, exclaimed: "Who are you, what do you want, and why do you +block up the bridge?" + +A deep, thundrous manly voice replied to him from afar: "I am Fatia +Negra. The treasure which you have with you is mine,--it has been stolen +from me. I now want to have it back again. I have brought hither a man +to every man of yours, we are as strong as you. I meet you openly in the +light of day. Give me back my gold or you shall have a taste of my +iron." + +The lieutenant, who was one of the best swordsmen and one of the bravest +heroes in the regiment, did not think twice about accepting the +challenge, but put spurs to his steed and fell upon the adventurer who +awaited him in the middle of the bridge. + +He encountered a terrible antagonist. Fatia Negra warded every blow and +countered instantly; the young officer was thrown into confusion by the +superior dexterity of his opponent, and it was only a soldier's sense of +honour that induced him to continue an attack which was bound to end +fatally for himself: practised fencers always know at once whether they +can vanquish their antagonist or not. At the same time it was really +surprising that Fatia Negra did not immediately take advantage of his +strength and skill. He seemed to be sparing his enemy, nay, he even +retreated before him step by step. + +Meanwhile the _melée_ on the bridge had become general. The lancers +hastened to the assistance of their leader, the black masks slashed away +at them with their csákánys, and soon there were very few among the +combatants who had not received a lance thrust or a csákány blow. The +adventurers were forced by the lancers to the opposite end of the +bridge, when the miller, who lived in the mill beside the bridge, +thrust his head out of the window and shouted: "Take care, soldiers! the +beams of the bridge have been sawn through!" + +Was this the fact? Was it the plan of the adventurers to entice the +horses on to the bridge in order that it might break down beneath their +weight?--or was the miller also an accomplice and only shouted this +because the soldiers were gaining the upperhand? In either case the +warning cry had a magical effect upon the pursuers, for they immediately +turned back in alarm and strove to reach their own end of the bridge +again. + +And now they perceived what a two fold trap the cunning adventurers had +set for them, for whilst the lancers had been fighting with the mounted +robbers, a large band of footpads armed with firearms had surrounded the +post wagons in their rear, disarmed the postillions and were now engaged +in attempting to overturn the wagons into the ditch by the roadside. + +The lancers dashed towards the wagons and freed them in a moment from +the hands of the mob which, on their appearance, dispersed among the +brushwood by the roadside from whence they began firing. + +Not far from the bridge was a _csárdá_, and there the cavalry and the +post-wagons sought a refuge. And indeed they needed it. The number of +the footpads armed with guns was about a couple of hundred; they +enfiladed the whole road and, more than that, it was easy to perceive +that some of the tall roadside poplars had been sawn through beforehand +so that they might be made to fall down and thus make it impossible for +the post wagons across the road behind the backs of the soldiers, to +force their way through. + +The soldiers had, indeed, no reason to fear that the rabble, nine-tenths +of which had no professional knowledge of the art of war, would boldly +storm the _csárdá_, for in such a case the soldiers would know how to +defend themselves vigourously, well provided as they were with carbines; +but they were well aware of one thing, to wit, that if they allowed +themselves to be surprised after nightfall they were lost, for the +robbers could then set fire to the house over their heads and burn them +alive. + +For their lives they cared nothing; it is a soldier's business to die; +but how to save the enormous sum of money intrusted to them--that was +the problem. Four and twenty horsemen in a solid mass might, with a +desperate effort, cut their way through a mob, despite every obstacle, +but to take the heavy wagons along with them was impossible, for the +road in front was barred by the mob; the bridge and the road behind by +the felled poplars. + +Fortunately, the officer in command had read the history of Napoleon's +Russian campaign and he recollected how the guard on one occasion had +saved the military chest from the Cossacks when the wagon, from want of +horses, had to be left behind. He now applied his knowledge +practically. + +The ducats were taken out of the post-wagons and distributed among the +soldiers; knapsacks, cartridge-boxes, belts and shakos were filled with +the treasure; not a cent was left in the wagons, yet they nailed down +the chests inside them carefully that it might take all the longer to +break them open. Then they mounted the postilions and the civilians on +the spare horses, hastily threw open the gates and the whole band rushed +into the courtyard. + +A sharp volley poured in upon them from every side; some of them were +wounded, but none mortally, for their assailants either fired from afar +or aimed badly. And this was well, for every dead man among them would +have been worth 100,000 guldens. + +Fatia Negra and his horsemen stood close at hand with their loaded +muskets pointed in their hands, but they did not fire. + +"Let the lancers run if they like!" cried Fatia Negra. "Give all your +attention to the wagons!" + +The cavalry soon escaped from the mob of sharpshooters, leaped over the +barriers and began galloping rapidly back to Széb safe and sound. And +they had need to haste, for it was easy to foresee that as soon as the +cry of victory behind their backs had changed into a cry of fury, it +would be a sign that Fatia Negra's band was rushing after them. + +And, indeed, scarce a quarter of an hour had elapsed, when they could +perceive clouds of dust whirling up behind them which proved that the +audacious adventurers, after discovering the fraud, were actually in +pursuit. + +What unheard of audacity! In broad daylight, on the King's highway, +within the borders of a highly civilized, well-organized state, a troop +of adventurers dares to attack an equal number of trained soldiers. Gold +must have turned the heads of the men who had the audacity to do such a +thing! Yet they did it. + +The soldiers saw the cloud of dust behind their backs gradually draw +nearer, the neutral ground between gradually diminished, the fellows +were capitally mounted, there could be no doubt of that. + +The lieutenant ordered his men to halt and face the foolhardy bandits. +He arranged them two deep and spread them out so that they extended +right across the road. He himself stood in the centre a little in +advance of the rest; the civilians were in the rear. + +Presently single shapes were discernible through the approaching cloud +of dust. The robbers were galloping along in no regular order with +intervals of from ten to twenty yards between each one of them. + +More than a thousand yards in front of his comrades galloped Fatia +Negra. His splendid English thoroughbred, as if it would outstrip the +blast which whirled the dust aloft, flew along with him and seemed to +share the blind fury of his master who waved his flashing sword above +his horse's head and bellowed at his opponents from afar like a wild +beast. + +"We'll seize the fellow before his companions come up," said the +lieutenant to his men. "Cut him down from his horse and capture him +alive." + +"Hurrah!" roared the lonely horseman, now only a yard off. +"Hurrah!"--the next moment he was in the midst of them. + +And now began a contest which, had it been recorded in the chronicles of +the Crusades, would have been regarded as an act of heroism that only +awaited immortality from a poet great enough to sing it. Fatia Negra, +alone and surrounded, fought single-handed in the midst of the hostile +band. His light sword flashing in his hand like lightning, never stayed +to parry but attacked incessantly. Handless swords and headless shakos +flew around him in the air and whithersoever his horse turned its head, +an empty space gaped before him, every antagonist retreating before him. +So close was the _melée_ that the soldiers stood in each other's way and +could not use their firearms for fear of shooting their comrades. The +lieutenant was the only man who did not avoid him. Like a true soldier +who considers wounds an honour, he did not trouble himself to recollect +that his adversary was superior to him both in strength and skill, but +strove incessantly to urge his horse towards him. Twice he struck the +fellow but he did not seem to feel the blow. Once he dealt him a skilful +thrust in the side, but the sword bent nearly double without entering +his body. "Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Fatia Negra--he must have put on a coat +of mail beneath his jacket--and the same instant he countered so +savagely that if the lieutenant had not dodged his head, he must have +lost it. As it was the sword pierced through his shako and out poured +the gold pieces by thousands on to the highroad. + +At the sight of the shower of gold pieces, Fatia Negra roared like a +demon. What he had done hitherto was a mere joke--now the battle began +in grim earnest. + +"Down with your heads, down with your headpieces!" he thundered, and +with the fury of a lion he flung himself on his opponents, everyone of +whom wore on his head the dangerous magnet which irresistibly attracted +his flashing sword. + +He himself was invulnerable. Neither sword nor lance could penetrate his +shirt of mail. And meanwhile his companions were rapidly galloping up. +Now another shako flew into the air and the horse's hoofs trampled the +falling ducats in the mud. + +"Shoot down his horse!" cried the voice of the post-office functionary +from the rear, and the same instant three pistol shots resounded. At the +third, which struck him full in the chest, the animal reared high in the +air. Fatia Negra, perceiving the danger, and before the horse had time +to fall and crush him, leaped from the saddle on to the ground. + +And now he attacked the enemy on foot. He was blind now. He saw nothing +before him but blood and ducats--he was drunk with both. + +All at once he observed that he was alone, and, fighting the air--he no +longer felt the contact of swords, or skulls or human bodies. After the +officer had been wounded, the post-office functionary took the command +and concluded it advisable not to await the arrival of the whole robber +band. It was his duty to save the money. He ordered the soldiers to turn +back and make the best of their way to Szászvár, the money that had been +already spilt was given up for lost. It was of no use for mere men to +attempt to grapple with such a devil incarnate as Fatia Negra. + +"After them, after them!--Give me a horse!" roared Fatia Negra to his +comrades as they came galloping up, whereupon they all leaped from their +nags, not so much indeed for the sake of giving him a mount as for the +sake of grabbing the scattered heaps of ducats. + +"Let that alone; it won't run away" cried the adventurer. "The bulk of +it is galloping in front of us--follow me!" + +And at that, without waiting their decision, he seized one of the +horses, swung himself into the saddle and dashed after the lancers. +Nobody followed him. The robbers were wise enough to perceive that if +they left lying here these thousands of ducats, actually won, in order +to run after ten times as many which they had still to catch, (not to +mention the broken heads which they were sure to get into the bargain), +the loafing members of the confraternity who were following behind them +on foot, would pocket the booty nicely at their ease, so they stayed +where they were, with the comfortable persuasion that Fatia Negra would +be sure to turn back when he perceived he was alone. + +He, however, never gave them a thought, but putting spurs to his horse, +pursued the soldiers. In vain. He had no longer a blood horse beneath +him and was unable to overtake the bearers of the lost treasure. Nor did +they halt again to give him anything to do. Looking back from time to +time, they saw how a single horseman was galloping after them, with his +sword blade firmly gripped between his teeth, and a shuddering +recollection of the old nursery tales of nether-world monsters came over +them. + +The solitary horseman pursued them right up to the toll-house of +Szászvár, and even when he gave up the pursuit the toll-man saw him for +a long time trotting round about the outskirts of the town shaking his +fist and shouting imprecations. Once or twice he drew near enough to +fire his pistols through the doors and windows of the toll-house, and so +great was the spell of terror surrounding the person of the terrible +adventurer that nobody ventured outside the city wall to try and +capture him; nay, the burgesses even remained under arms in the streets +all night guarding the principal entrances for fear lest Fatia Negra and +his band might take it into their heads to formally besiege the place, +and, had it only depended upon his will to do so, he would assuredly +have made the attempt. + +But it never came to that. On returning to the place of combat Fatia +Negra found his horsemen still searching in the mud and darkness for the +lost ducats, and made an attempt to reorganize his band, which did, +indeed, do a little maurauding on its own account; but when the news +reached him, through one of his paid spies, that four hundred infantry +with a cannon had reached Szászvár from Szeb--the very word "a connon" +had such an effect upon the robbers that they scattered in every +direction as if a tempest had dispersed them. Next morning there was not +a trace of them anywhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE HUNTED BEAST + + +Such a piece of audacity could not be overlooked. + +That a robber horseman should in the middle of the nineteenth century +and within the confines of a civilized state take it into his head to +attack, in broad daylight, post wagons defended by a strong escort of +regular soldiers--was a thing unheard of. + +The news spread like lightning through the six confederated counties and +everyone seized his sword and musket. So old Gerzson Satrakovics whom +everybody had laughed at, was right after all. It was universally agreed +that a stop must be put to this sort of thing once for all. There was no +waiting now for the meetings of Quarter Sessions. The lord-lieutenants +of the counties proclaimed the _statarium_,[47] called out the +_banderia_[48] and gathered together the county _pandurs_[49] and the +militia, in order by their combined efforts, to extirpate the evil +without having recourse to the assistance of the military--a measure +always repugnant to the freedom-loving Magyars. + +[Footnote 47: A decree authorizing summary procedure.] + +[Footnote 48: Mounted gentry.] + +[Footnote 49: Police.] + +Squire Gerzson was elected the leader of this vast hunt, whose area +extended over hundreds of square miles, by all the six counties +concerned--it was generally felt that this was but due to him for the +neglect of his warnings--and Mr. Gerzson proved on this occasion that if +he was not a great strategist, at any rate he was a great beater up of +game. His plan was to occupy all the mountain roads and passes leading +out of the six counties with armed bands of militia, while at the same +time he himself advanced slowly along the highroads with his +gentlemen-volunteers joining hands together from place to place. Between +various groups of the volunteers were regular lines of _pandurs_ who had +to thoroughly scour all the forests they came to. The encircling network +of this gigantic army of beaters grew narrower and narrower day by day +and was to converge towards a fixed point which Squire Gerzson said he +would more definitely indicate later on. + +Moreover there was a flying column admitted to the full confidence of +its leader, whose duty it was to appear suddenly and unexpectedly in all +parts of the closely environed region, in order to head off anything +like a definite plan of defence on the part of the adventurers and track +them down more easily. The leadership of this special corps was +entrusted to young Szilard Vamhidy, upon whose ingenuity, determination +and ability Squire Gerzson professed to place the utmost reliance. + +As soon as he had received this important charge, Szilard took horse +and set off at the head of his four and twenty _pandurs_. First of all +he went in the direction of the Alps of Bihár and along a narrow +mountain path and through a melancholy, uncanny, region with not a +living plant by the wayside and not a morsel of moss on the naked rock. +No sound is to be heard there but the eternal sighing of the wind, and +in the dizzy depths below the traveller sees nothing but dense, dreary +forests crowding one upon another with the Alpine eagles circling and +screaming above them. + +It was just the place for a hunted band of robbers to turn upon their +pursuers for a last life and death struggle,--here where even the bodies +of the slain would never be found. For not once in two years does a +wanderer chance to come this way, and long before that time the wolves +and the vultures will have dispersed the bones of the fallen. + +Yet this time the robber bands did not fall in with their pursuers, a +sufficient proof that Szilard's plan was skilfully laid and +unanticipated. For had Fatia Negra had any idea of his design, it is +absolutely inconceivable that he would not have laid in wait for him on +this spectre-haunted path, where ten resolute men could have held a +whole army at bay. + +For hours Szilard's long troop of horsemen pursued their way along +without meeting a soul. Late in the afternoon they came upon the first +shepherd's hut. The herdsman himself was out in the forest with his +flocks; there was nobody at home but a lame dog which barked at them. + +In the evening they met a mounted countryman carrying maize to be ground +at the mill, him they took along with them as guide. + +After that they travelled all night long, passing through Skeritora and +Nyigsa, till they came to the cataract of Vidra, which they reached at +dawn of day. + +The houses of these Alpine villages are so far apart that next +neighbours cannot even see each other's dwellings, as there is at least +half a league between them. This circumstance and the night-season +favoured Szilard's plans. They could surround each house, one by one, +without the inhabitants of the other houses being aware of what had +happened in the first ones.--A fruitless labour for they found nothing +of a suspicious nature. + +Tired out, the band, early in the morning, reached the house beneath the +waterfall; here they felt the need of halting. Szilárd put some +questions to the guide and then dismissed him, commanding him to return +to Skeritora. + +When the guide had mounted, the _pandur_ sergeant observed to Szilard: +"I fancy, your honour, that that rascal does not mean to return to +Skeritora, but as soon as he is out of sight will turn back and give the +alarm beforehand in all the districts on our line of march." + +"I fancy so too." + +"But then every suspected person will get wind of the whole affair and +have time to bolt." + +"That is just what I want. The trouble is at present that they lie so +still." + +And with that he ordered half of his _pandurs_ to lie down and sleep and +the other half to remain awake and so relieve each other every three +hours. So the _pandurs_ rested till midday and then the sergeant began +to urge Szilard to set off again or else they would arrive too late. + +"It is too early yet," replied Szilard, and he spent a good half of the +afternoon there doing nothing. Only then did he take horse again, +complaining to everyone how much yesterday's ride had taken it out of +him, and asking everybody he met on the road, coming or going, where the +next village lay?--how to get to it?--and in what direction the highroad +lay? + +The old _pandurs_ naturally began murmuring among themselves. "Oh!" said +they, "if he keeps on blurting out his whole line of route like this, we +shall only have the empty nests of the robbers to thresh out for our +trouble." + +"And this chap thinks, forsooth, that he will capture Fatia Negra!" +growled the veteran sergeant. + +But no sooner did they get beyond the fenced fields than Szilard +suddenly turned his horse's head and leading the way to the other side +of the mountain-stream, cut his way through the forest, ordering his +comrades to hurry after him as speedily as possible. What he was aiming +at, nobody had the least idea. If he meant to lose his way in the forest +he was setting about the best way to do it. + +Suddenly he ordered his followers to dismount and lead their horses by +their bridles up to the top of the mountain. The old sergeant now +guessed what he was after, but did not approve of it. + +"There is no path for a horse up this mountain," said he. + +"Silence, sir! I know what I am about. Follow me!" + +And so, for a good half hour, cursing their leader bitterly beneath +their breaths, they painfully struggled after him up the dangerous path +and then, suddenly, a marvellous sight met their gaze. An immense cavern +gaped open before them through which, as through a tunnel, they could +reach the valley on the other side. This was the so-called "Roman Gate." +Many believe that the Romans dug this passage through the mountain, but +this marvellous piece of workmanship has been carried out on too vast a +scale for anybody else but Nature to be its architect; it is possible, +however, that the Romans may have used this passage for their campaigns. + +And now the _pandurs_ understood the plan of their young leader and were +ready to follow him blindly through fire and water. + +In another half hour they had passed through the "Roman Gate" and +reached the valley beyond, and by next morning Vamhidy had lit down +like a thunderbolt from the sky where nobody expected him. + +By the evening he had run down eight persons who were under very strong +suspicion. After dusk the same day he sent the following letter to +Gerzson by one of his men: "I feel certain I hold the thread of the +whole conspiracy in my hands. We are on their track." + +At nightfall he encamped in a lonely mill, which he chose because, in +case of necessity, it could easily be defended. He had reasons for +thinking that he might be attacked in the night. + +The mill was built over a rushing mountain-stream so that the stream +shot through and under the building, over the wheels. In front, three +sluices confined within the basin the collected flood of water which was +here very deep. A broad, thick board, laid across three stout piles, +formed the bridge which connected the foot-path sloping down from the +forest, with the foot-path on the opposite side. + +Towards evening his pickets came and told Vamhidy that a blind beggar +wanted to speak to him and in secret, so that nobody could hear. + +Szilard ordered the blind man to be led in. He seemed to be a muscular, +athletic fellow with broad shoulders and a huge body--what a pity he was +blind. + +"Domnule, are we quite alone?" inquired the blind man when he stood +before Vamhidy. + +"We are quite by ourselves; what is it you want, my good fellow?" + +"Thank you, sir, for calling me a good fellow, for I _was_ good for +something once upon a time, and will be so again. I am the famous Juon +Tare whose eyes were burnt out in the Lucsia Cavern when they wanted to +catch Fatia Negra, and the monster set the whole cavern on fire. I want +the head of Fatia Negra. I am after that head now and when I get it all +my woe will cease. Do you want that head Domnule?--I can tell you where +it is." + +"Well?" + +"Have you pluck enough not to be afraid of him, Domnule?" + +"I am afraid of nothing." + +"And yet many brave men fall back at the sight of that black face, which +never changes, which is just like steel and which they fancy neither +sword nor bullet can hurt; but my nails have torn his body and I have +seen his blood flow." + +"Say where he is!" + +"Close at hand." + +"In which direction?" + +"Ah! Domnule!" sighed Juon Tare, "how can I answer that, I who can see +neither heaven nor earth?" + +"Then how do you know that he is hard by?" + +"Ah, Domnule, I can recognize him by his voice, and if I do not hear him +speak, I can recognize the sound of his footsteps when I hear him draw +nigh. Nobody else has his trick of walking. Sometimes he goes as softly +as a spectre so that only the ears of a blind man can detect his +footfall and at other times he tramps as if the whole earth beneath him +were hollow and it resounds at every step. Oh, I have often heard him +approaching when he was still far, far away." + +"But do you know anything certain about him?" + +"I will tell you everything, Domnule, beginning at the beginning. You +see that I am blind, a blind beggar, for begging is my trade. So long as +my wife was alive, I had no need to turn beggar, for she worked for me +and kept me. But she died. After that I would gladly have died of +hunger, but she left me a little son, a child but two years old and I go +a begging for him. Above the brook here on the King's highway is a stone +bridge built by the county. Early in the morning my little son is wont +to lead me hither and then returns to the village, little mite as he is +the wife of the scrivener looks after him, and in the evening he comes +and fetches me home again. Whatever is given me by charitable wayfarers +I share with my poor hostess, who is poorer than any beggar. Yesterday +something happened. It was this. I was sitting outside there at the end +of the bridge and as I had not heard a human voice about me for a long +time and it was extremely hot, slumber weighed heavily upon me. I +struggled hard against it but it was too much for me. I was afraid that +if I fell across the road a cart might go over me. So I laid myself down +under the arch of the bridge. I knew the place well for I had often +sheltered there from the storm. Suddenly I was awakened by those +familiar footsteps. They passed across the bridge over my head. I will +take my oath that it was he. He stood still in the middle of the bridge. +Shortly afterwards I heard the sound of many more footsteps coming, some +from the left and some from the right. Men were coming in all directions +towards the bridge, and there in the middle of it they stood; I counted +them--there were four and twenty of them." + +Szilard now began to listen attentively. + +"Then he spoke. Oh, even if I had had the light of both my eyes, I could +not have seen him so plainly before me as I saw him in my blindness when +I heard him speak. It was indeed he, at the very first word I recognized +him; but when I tell you what he said, then you also will recognize him +Domnule. Those four and twenty men are a sworn confederacy. It was a +secret plot they were hatching at that place, where nobody could +surprise them, as it is girt about with woods on every side. He called +his companions here to tell them of the measures that were being taken +against them. He told them they had no need to fear all that the six +counties were doing but that the little band which was zig-zagging +through the whole district was greatly to be feared. It was the cause of +all the mischief and must be put out of the way. But his comrades made +no reply. They grumbled and muttered among themselves and at last they +said that this would be a difficult thing to do. They all said they +would not tackle the _pandurs_ because they were better shots than any +robber and were used to hunting and all its wiles. In vain were all the +assurances of Fatia Negra; they said they meant to hide away as best +they could. 'Then hide and be d----d to you,' said their leader, 'I will +tackle them single-handed. I'll seek them out and show you that they too +are but mortal men.' Those were his last words to them; they scattered +again, to the right and left, and I heard their departing footsteps over +my head. But believe me, sir, Fatia Negra will try to do what he said." + +"What! come and attack us?--alone, against so many?" + +"You do not believe what I say, sir, but so it will be." + +"Nay, my good fellow, but are you quite certain you did not dream it +all?" + +"Domnule, in the first moment of my amazement that is what I fancied +myself. How can a blind man know whether he is awake or dreaming. I +therefore drew forth my pocket-knife and with the point of it I cut a +cross in my left arm. Look, sir, there it is!" + +Juon tucked up the wide shirt sleeve from his herculean arm and Szilard +was astonished to see the half healed and cross-like scar--it had been +a deep gash. + +"So now, sir," pursued Juon, "you can see that I am not dreaming. Watch +well, for Fatia Negra will come. Not to-night for he awaits you on the +road by which you came. But to-morrow he will know that you have dodged +him by going through the 'Roman Gate' and to-morrow night you can safely +reckon upon him." + +Szilard charged Juon not to say a word to anybody about what he had told +him and promised him a reward if what he had said really came to pass. + +That night nothing happened, and till the afternoon of the next day he +lingered idly at the mill. Towards midday they heard in the forest a +loud barking of dogs; the miller said it was no doubt the lord of the +manor hunting bears. + +"He chooses a very inopportune time," growled Vamhidy, "he will scare +_my_ game away." + +The hunters were not long in issuing from the forest, they seemed to +have lost the track of the bear. + +Vamhidy sent word to the gentlemen that he would be much obliged to them +if they would postpone their amusement to some more convenient season as +business of a graver sort was going on here. Word was at once brought +back that the company was quite ready to do as he said. The dogs were +quickly leashed again, the beaters recalled by signals and the whole +hunt came straight towards the mill. A few moments later Vamhidy +recognized in the leader of the hunt--Leonard Hátszegi. + +It was an unwelcome surprise on both sides, but Hátszegi was the first +to recover himself, and he greeted him with as radiant a countenance as +if he had never had any cause of quarrel with him. + +"We both of us seem to be on a hunting expedition your honour!" said he. + +"Mine is an official pursuit." + +"And mine pure pastime. Had I known you would have taken this road, I +should certainly not have engaged in such a mal-apropos diversion. But +it is over now, we are all going back. My bear may run--how about +yours?" + +"No sign of him yet." + +"Well, I could regale you with no end of interesting anecdotes +concerning the hunted adventurer, for I have had more than one famous +_rencontre_ with him myself. If it were only worth your while to pay us +a visit at Hidvár I could promise you the heartiest reception--not only +on my own part but also on the part of my wife." + +"I am much obliged to your lordship," replied Vamhidy cooly, "but I am +bound by instructions from which I cannot depart. It is not pleasure +that brings me hither. Besides I have got a sure clue at last which I +must follow up and I know not whither it may lead me." + +"Bravo! So you are on his track at last, eh! Take care my friend it is +not a false clue. These rascals are very crafty." + +"It is a real clue that I have discovered. You must know that before the +confiscated gold captured in the Lucsia Cavern was sent to Vienna, every +coin of it was marked with a little cross, a very simple official +precaution, but it has proved very useful to us. Now I have come upon +these marked ducats among the people here. They themselves, I believe, +are innocent and can give the name of the persons from whom they +received them; and so, by tracing the various intermediaries, we shall +come at last, upon the original dispensers of these ducats. I can +imagine how Fatia Negra will laugh when he hears that the soldiers of +six counties are hunting for him in the depths of the forests and +tapping every rotten tree-stump in search of him while he is sitting +comfortably in some large theatre and eyeing the ballet-dancers through +his opera glass; but he will be very much surprised when, one fine day, +without any preliminary siege-operations we shall tap at his own door +and enquire: 'Is Fatia Negra at home?'" + +Hátszegi laughed heartily. + +"Not a bad idea, upon my honour! I myself am inclined to think that the +worthy highwayman will be sooner found in a coffee house than in a +forest. I only regret that I did not mark my own coins so that I might +recognize them again." + +And so laughing and whistling, he returned to his party which appeared +to consist of mere dependents and gave them his orders. + +"Unpack the horses and get lunch ready," said he, "we will not go any +further." + +Then he turned again to Vamhidy. + +"Since we are obliged to capitulate to superior force, would you be so +good as to pick out with me a nice, round, shadowy spot in the forest +where we may encamp and share with each other our provisions which have +thus become the spoils of war?" + +"Thank you, my lord," replied Vamhidy coldly, "but I have already had my +lunch." + +His lunch, by the way, had consisted of a maize cake baked in the ashes. + +"Then won't you allow your men to drink my health in a glass of wine, +since they are actually on my domains?" + +"My _pandurs_ are not allowed to drink; they have to remain sober. They +must not leave the mill without my leave and your lordship must not camp +out here although the mill is your property. For just now I am +'verbiro,'[50] here with the right to open and close every door as I may +think fit." + +[Footnote 50: A magistrate with the power of life and death in his +hands.] + +"Then I shall know how to respect your authority. All the same, I do not +withdraw my offer. My castle and every house and shanty on my estate is +at your disposal and if you should not find me at home at Hidvár, as I +have to be off early to-morrow morning to Szeb, my wife will be +delighted to see you." + +And with that he threw his gun across his shoulder and tripped away with +well bred nonchalance across the field, and, calling to his party to +follow him, disappeared in the depths of the forest from which he had +just emerged. + + * * * * * + +And now it was evening and the heavens were full of stars and Szilard +began to gaze at the stars and as he did so he forgot all about the +official burdens that weighed so heavily upon his shoulders, all about +Fatia Negra and the robbers. He fancied that his eyes encountered among +the stars the eyes of "another" whom slumber and happiness had deserted +just as they had deserted him. + +How close to each other chance had brought them once more! He had only +to accept her husband's invitation in order to meet her face to face. +What would they not have to say to one another? + +The night was quite still, the whole region was dumb save for the +gurgling of the water rushing through the sluices. The _pandurs_ were +snoring in the living room, for they were allowed to sleep till two +o'clock. Only Vamhidy kept watch with a single _pandur_ who was guarding +the prisoners in the cellar. + +"The Lord God bless thee!" a hushed voice suddenly resounded from among +the brown bushes and Szilard distinguished by the light of the rising +moon a tall dark shape approaching the mill path. It was blind Juon. + +"How did you know anyone was here?" enquired Szilard suspiciously. + +"I heard you sigh, sir, once or twice and I knew you were awake for I +warned you beforehand to watch--to-night he will be upon you." + +"Who?" + +"Who? Why Fatia Negra." + +"So you think he will be bold enough?" + +"I know that he is already on the way." + +"And where were you just now?" + +"I was working in the mill-ditch." + +"At night! What were you doing there?" + +"I have removed the supporting beam underneath the bridge leading across +the reservoir! It was a hard bit of work but I had the strength to do +it." + +"Why did you do that?" + +"Because he will come from the opposite side and immediately he steps on +the middle of the bridge the plank will give way beneath him and he will +fall into the water like a mouse in a trap." + +"What is the good of that, he will only swim out again." + +"Yes, but his pistols will then be full of water and he will be unable +to use them against you." + +Szilard began to perceive that he had a most determined ally with all +sorts of ideas in his head that had never occurred to himself. + +"But surely, my poor fellow, you do not imagine that anybody will be +mad enough to face so many armed men alone." + +"I don't know, sir, but I also do not know whether you yourself may not +be alone among so many armed men, for I hear snoring among the very +guard you told off to watch the cellar." + +Szilard was startled. He immediately hastened to the place indicated and +there, sure enough, he saw the sentry stretched at full length across +the cellar door. He angrily hastened to arouse him and seized the +sleeper by the arm; but all his efforts were powerless to awake the +fellow,--he might just as well have been dead. + +"Try to wake the others, sir," said Juon. + +The pandurs lay in long rows stretched out upon the straw in the meal +magazine. + +Szilard spoke to them, first gently, then loudly, and at last angrily, +calling them by name, one after the other; but not one of them awoke. He +tore the sleepers away from their places, but they were not aware of it; +as soon as he let them go they rolled back again into their former +positions. + +"What has happened?" cried the confounded Szilard. + +"There must be a traitor among them, sir, a hireling of Fatia Negra; he +has his hirelings everywhere, in forests, in palaces, in dungeons, in +barracks, everywhere. And this traitor has mingled thorn-apple juice in +the drink of his comrades and they will now sleep on for a night and a +day. The traitor himself is pretending to sleep along with his fellows +but he is only awaiting the arrival of Fatia Negra and then up he will +get and release the captives. It was an artful dodge, your honour!" + +Szilard felt a tremor running through all his limbs. + +"You see, sir, you are here alone, but Fatia Negra is never alone. But +so far no great harm has been done. We will make him to be alone also. +We cannot find out just now which of the four and twenty is a traitor. +But we will bind the whole four and twenty hand and foot, and then the +traitor also will be helpless." + +Szilard began to perceive that this blind man was right in everything. +His words must be listened to, for the danger was close at hand, there +was no time for hesitation. So he quickly routed up all the halters in +the mill and they set to work. + +The blind giant laid the pandurs one by one across his knee and placing +their hands behind their backs crosswise held them towards Szilard, who +bound them fast. Three and twenty of them felt nothing of all this and +the four and twentieth who did feel it thought it just as well to go on +feigning slumber, for had it been discovered that he was awake one grip +of those enormous fists would have made of him a sleeper indeed--for +ever more. + +"Is your sword sharp, sir?" enquired the blind man when this piece of +work was done. + +"Yes, and I have pistols likewise." + +"Test them, sir, for I suspect they have been tampered with." + +"What?" + +"If ever, sir, you have pursued some wild beast, a bear or a buffalo, +for instance, you know the rule surely: never rely upon any weapon which +has not been freshly loaded by your own hand. Let us take the loading +out of your pistols. It won't do to fire them off for we are lying in +wait for big game and at such times one must keep very quiet." + +Szilard hearkened to the warning and drew the loading out of both his +well charged pistols. It is usual when the powder is taken out to blow +down the barrel and as he did so now he remarked that something was +wrong. The ramrod encountered some soft substance which he drew forth. +Juon smelt it and pronounced it to be the wax of wild bees. + +"You see, sir, you will not be able to discharge this pistol, for the +touch holes are so plugged up that it will take you some hours to +thoroughly clean them." + +"At any rate I have still the firearms of my pandurs." + +"Let us examine them also, sir!" + +They did so forthwith and found that they too had been utterly ruined. +And all this must have been done while Szilard had been sitting outside +and his men had been sleeping! + +"Then your sword is sharp, sir, eh?" enquired the blind man, "for I +hear the footsteps of Fatia Negra." + +The sensitive ears of the blind man "scented" so to speak the well known +footfalls while they were still approaching on the distant forest paths. + +The young man felt an involuntary shudder run through his body as the +moment drew near when he would have to face the hunted foe. The magical +mysteriousness which enveloped his pursuer; the marvellous audacity +which ensured the success of all his projects; his gigantic bodily +strength--all these things were sufficient to make any man's heart beat +more quickly at the prospect of encountering Black-Mask in a life and +death struggle at a lonely place. + +But Szilard was resolved to see the business through. The strong will +peculiar to men of his nature broke down his fear. He had no business to +tremble, it was not permitted to him to fear. He who has a sword in his +hand is never alone--a sword is also a man. + +The blind man trembled in his stead. He feared for him. When Szilard +returned with his naked sword, the blind man passed his finger along its +edge from end to end to test its sharpness. + +"A good sword, a very good sword, Domnule. Fear him not, but when he +scrambles out of the water, rush upon him and strike at his neck. Do not +aim at his body for this accursed one wears a coat of mail so that no +weapon can pierce him. If he comes to close quarters, do not defend +yourself but slash away at him, you may perhaps be wounded, but if you +stand on the defensive, he will kill you. If he gets too much for you, +call out and I will rush in and strangle him with my naked hands. Oh, +what would I not give now for the sight of my two eyes." + +And the blind man began to weep bitterly. + +"That man killed my wife and blinded me and now when I hear him +approach, when I hear him coming towards me all alone I cannot see him. +I cannot rush in and close with him. Be valiant, Domnule, and God be +with you. May the soul of my Mariora direct the edge of your sword and +darken his eyes. Hearken!--is not that he approaching!" + +And it was actually he. The tall elegant figure was descending the +moonlight rocks with a light, elastic tread, dressed from head to foot +in a black atlas mantle. Szilard saw him drawing nearer and nearer, step +by step, to the mill behind a pillar of whose verandah he himself was +concealed expectant. + +At the very moment when he perceived this figure, his former terror gave +way before a strange, resolute fury which now filled his heart, a +feeling familiar only to those whose blood is set boiling whenever they +are suddenly confronted by a pressing danger. He feared the man no +longer, he burned to encounter him. + +Blind Juon stood beside him and pressed his hand. They both of them +began to listen intently, nature itself was as still as if the wind +also would listen. Nothing was audible but the dull measured tramp of +the approaching footsteps. + +The black shape now footed the bridge; with a confident gait he +approached the middle of it, another step and the bridge gave way +beneath him and with an involuntary cry the man in black plunged into +the water. + +"Now, sir, rush in!" whispered Juon to Szilard. But the latter could not +help thinking at that moment that it was an act of cowardice to attack a +man when he could not defend himself, even though that man was a robber, +so he allowed him to scramble out onto the other side. + +The black mantle had fallen from the shoulders of Fatia Negra into the +water and there he now stood before Szilard with his wet clothes +clinging closely to his body like a statue of Antinous, a shape of +athletic beauty. + +In his girdle were a couple of pistols, in all probability rendered +useless by the water and a long Arab yataghan almost as long as an +ordinary sword but without the usual cruciform hilt. + +Szilard barred the way. + +For an instant Fatia Negra was taken aback by his antagonist's +unexpected wariness and courage, but the next moment his drawn yataghan +flashed in his hand and the second flash was the clash of the contending +weapons. + +And now happened what happens hundreds and thousands of times in actual +life. At the very first onset Fatia Negra, the notorious, the +practised, the invincible swordsman was disarmed by a young civilian who +had never, perhaps, held a naked sword in his hand before and possessed +no advantage over his opponent save the courage of an honest man as +opposed to the effrontery of a malefactor--a marvel indeed! + +Both of them had lunged at the same time, neither of them had parried, +Szilard's sword cut through his adversary's wrist and at the same +instant Fatia Negra's yataghan fell from his hand. + +The wounded robber set up a howl like a wild beast and Juon, lurking +beneath the verandah of the mill responded with another howl of joy that +sounded like an echo. The blind man had recognized that Fatia Negra was +in danger and at once rushed out upon him. + +The disarmed adventurer lost his presence of mind along with his sword. +His right hand suddenly sank helpless to his side and his stout heart +was seized with a sort of paralysis. He perceived that this was the man +sent by fate to announce to him that his last hour was at hand. He +turned and fled toward the forest. + +Szilard rushed after him. + +"Take care," screamed blind Juon. But none heeded him. Fatia Negra flew +away before his enemy. At first he left him far behind, but gradually +the continuous loss of blood began to weaken him and it also occurred to +him that even if he succeeded in distancing his adversary, he would +still leave a trail of blood behind him. To complete his confusion the +moon made the whole region as light as day. He was forced to sit down on +a tree stump to tie up his wounded hand; at least he would stop the flow +of blood and make the trail more difficult to follow. + +While with the help of his left hand and his teeth he was binding up his +useless right hand, his pursuer overtook him. + +"Fatia Negra--surrender!" + +The only reply the adventurer gave was to try to fire his pistols and +finding them only flash in the pan he hurled them one after the other at +his enemy's head. Szilard then had practical experience of the rumor +that Fatia Negra could throw very well even with his left hand,--had he +not leaped aside at the nick of time the pistols would have dashed his +brains out. + +Then up Fatia Negra started to his feet again and fled away still +further. The pursuer and the pursued now sped along with pretty equal +energy, though the loss of blood continued to weaken the robber. Yet he +made one desperate effort to scale the steep side of the mountain. An +ordinary man could rarely breast such an ascent, yet he tried it. But he +soon found that even thus he could not shake off his enemy. He remained +indeed some hundreds of paces behind but he could not dodge out of his +sight in the now open glade. + +On the brow of the hill the adventurer stopped to pant and surveyed the +undulating thickly wooded hills stretching away on every side of him. +He drew a silver whistle from his bosom and gave with it three +penetrating signals which re-echoed from among the distant mountains. +But it was only an echo, only the note of the whistle that he heard, he +waited in vain for anything else. All his accomplices had evidently +hidden away. + +And again the pursuer overtook him. He waited till he was only two paces +off and then he seized a stone weighing half a hundred weight and hurled +it at him--the tree trunk behind which Szilard had taken refuge bent +beneath the blow. Then Fatia Negra fled down towards the valley. + +It was a desperate way for him to take, for down hill his adversary +could cover the ground as quickly as he could; the distance between them +was never more than ten paces, the wound the robber had received began +to enervate his whole body, and he was not long in finding out that the +hurling of missiles is a very profitless mode of warfare when you have +only one hand at your disposal. + +Panting hard he fled on further seeking refuge. And now he took to +zigzagging through the wood in the hope of dodging his pursuer if only +for an instant as a flying fox is wont to do when he is already nearing +his hole whose entrance he does not wish to betray to his pursuer. + +A little further on a stout quickset hedge barred their way. Fatia Negra +burst through it and Szilard followed in the gap that he had made. + +Suddenly a hunting lodge came in view--at least the antlers on the top +of the porch and above the windows suggested that that was what it was +intended for. + +One of the windows looking out upon the forest stood open. Fatia Negra +suddenly stopped short, waited till his adversary was close up to him +and then shaking his fist at him sprang through the open window. + +Vamhidy did not hesitate a moment about following the adventurer into +the house. He forced his way through the window and found himself in a +dark corridor at the extreme end of which the footsteps of the hunted +adventurer were still resounding. And after him he ran straightway. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE SIGHT OF TERROR + + +"My dear Henrietta," Leonard had said to his wife the day before, as he +shook the dust of the chase off his clothes, "very shortly some guests +will arrive at Hidvár and possibly they may be numerous. May I ask you +to make ready for their reception?" + +Henrietta signified by a motion of her head that she understood. + +"It is possible you may have to perform the duties of hostess without my +assistance, for I have to be off at once to Szeb and don't expect to be +back for a couple of days. It is possible that the gentlemen in question +may arrive during my absence which I should very much regret. +Nevertheless you may depend upon my hastening home as quickly as I can +to meet them here." + +All this did not seem to interest Henrietta very much. Leonard noticed +it. + +"Let the gentry, my dear, occupy the room overlooking the park, the +servants had better have the six rooms generally given to hunting +parties on the ground floor, with the four and twenty beds." + +At these directions the lady looked at her lord with an expression of +surprised inquiry. + +"I see," resumed her husband, "you are asking yourself what sort of +company that can be for whose master one room suffices while the +servants require six. I will tell you. It is the armed corps from Arad +which is charged with the capture of Fatia Negra and his associates. As +they will pass by this way I don't see how they can avoid calling at +Hidvár. In fact I have invited the magistrate who commands the corps to +make Hidvár the centre of his operations and if he is a sensible man he +will accept my invitation. The name of my guest I have not yet +mentioned," continued Leonard with easy levity, "it is Szilard Vamhidy, +a justice of the peace of the county of Arad--really a very nice young +man." + +Henrietta became as white as a statue. + +"You will greatly oblige me, my dear Henrietta, if you will do your best +to make our guest feel quite at home in our house. But you are a +sensible woman, so I have no need to press the point. Let me kiss your +hand--_au revoir_!" + +Henrietta watched him go out, watched him get into his carriage and bowl +off and then began to weep and hide her head among the cushions that +nobody might hear her. + +They are pursuing Fatia Negra! ... Szilard Vamhidy is pursuing Fatia +Negra! + +He will come hither, he will enter this very castle. Leonard himself has +invited him! + +He will certainly come to see his former love once more. The thought was +terrible! + +But it must not, it should not happen. + +Leonard himself had invited Vamhidy to his castle. This man relied too +much on the terror of a poor timid woman, he built too much on that +nimbus of terror which made him so horribly unassailable in her eyes. +What! first to invite the former lover of his wife to be his guest and +then show his indifference by choosing that very time to absent himself +from the house for some days! + +But on one thing she was resolved--Vamhidy should not find her at +Hidvár. She would fly. She would leave her husband's house. Where should +she go? Who would receive her? What would become of her? She did not +know, she gave the matter no thought, but one thing was certain: Szilard +and she might meet together in the grave but they should never encounter +each other beneath the shadow of the halls of Hidvár. + +There was nobody she could confide in. All the servants were her +husband's paid spies and her own jailors. The priest had disappeared +altogether from Hidvár. In her despair an old memory rose up before her. +She called to mind that during the earlier days of her stay at Hidvár +when she had explored the whole region under the delusion that she could +make the wretched happy, she had often passed a little house which had +always riveted her attention. It was a little hunting hut in the midst +of the forest built entirely of wood and planed smoothly outside like a +little polished cabinet. In front of it stood broad spreading fruit +trees, crowded with flowers in spring, crowded with fruit in autumn, +wild vines and moss grew all over its roofs. + +In the midst of the listening woods this little house had such an +inviting exterior that the very first time she saw it, Henrietta could +not resist the temptation of entering it. + +The door of the little house stood open before her, being only on the +latch. She had stepped in: there was nobody inside. In the first room +there was furniture of some hard wood; close to the wall stood a carved +side-board with painted earthenware on it, on a table was a pitcher of a +similar ware full of fresh pure water. The door of another room to the +right was also open and in that room also she found nobody. There stood +a bed with a bear skin for a coverlet, other bear skins spread on the +floor served instead of carpets and on the walls were bright lynx, and +wildcat skins. + +From this room there was a door leading into a third room and here also +she found nobody. The walls of this room were covered with +weapons--guns, pistols and curiously shaped swords and daggers, in rows +and crossed, hanging on nails and leaning against the walls. On the +oaken table stood stuffed beasts and birds, under the table was a +stuffed fox fastened to a chair; a pair of wild boars' heads with +powerful tusks were over the door, but there was no sign of any living +beast. + +Henrietta fancied that the master of this little house must be away but +not far off and she made up her mind to wait till he returned home. Yet +one hour after another passed away and Henrietta was at last obliged to +go on further lest she should have to pass the night there and, only +when she was already some distance away, was she struck by the peculiar +circumstance that all round the hut grass was growing thickly and that +no path led up to it. + +In a few weeks' time curiosity drew her again in the same direction. +Alone, without any escort, she stood before the forest dwelling, +fastened her horse to the fence and passed through the door. + +Everything was just as she had seen it on the first occasion. In the +first room on the table was the earthenware pitcher full of water; in +the second room was the bed covered with a bear skin and in the third +room were all the guns and other weapons just as she had seen them +before. + +Again she waited for a long time for some of the dwellers of this little +house to draw near, and again she waited in vain; even by eventide not a +human being had approached the hut. + +These hut dwellers must be curious folks she thought, they leave +everything unlocked, evil disposed people might steal everything. + +On the way back she met some charcoal burners and asked them about the +lonely little house in the midst of the forest. Three of the four +pretended not to understand: they did not remember ever seeing such a +house they said. The fourth, however, told the lady in reply that in +that house dwelt "Dracu."[51] + +[Footnote 51: The Devil.] + +This only made Henrietta more than ever curious. She asked the priest +about it and even he was inclined to be evasive. He evidently either +knew nothing about it or was casting about in his mind for some +plausible explanation. At last he said that rumour had it that a +huntsman's family had either been murdered or had committed suicide +there, and, ever since, nobody dwelling in the district could be +persuaded to cross its threshold, let alone steal anything out of it; +they would not even take shelter there during a storm, for they believed +that an evil spirit dwelt there. + +Henrietta, however, did not believe in these invisible evil spirits. The +evil spirits she was acquainted with all went about in dress clothes and +surtouts. The atmosphere of mystery and enchantment which made the +little house uninhabitable only stimulated her fancy. She determined to +discover whether it was really uninhabited or not. + +Accordingly, when she entered the house for the third time, she plucked +a wild rose and threw one of its buds into the pitcher of water on the +table, a second on the bear skin coverlet of the bed and a third, fourth +and fifth she stuck into the barrels of the muskets hanging up in the +armour room. + +When now, she visited the lonely house for the fourth time, she looked +for the rose buds and could not find one of them in the places where +she had put them. Consequently there must needs be someone who slept in +the bed, drank the fresh water from the pitcher and used the firearms. + +Her thirst for knowledge now induced her to enquire of her husband +concerning this little dwelling and he, then and there, elucidated the +mystery. + +It was quite true that a lonely inhabitant of this house had once been +murdered there, that the common people believed it to be haunted, and +that consequently not one of them would cross its threshold at any price +either by day or by night. An old landed proprietor from the mining town +of X., who owned a small strip of forest in those parts and was at the +same time an enthusiastic huntsman, had taken advantage of this popular +superstition to buy this little house, for a mere song. He used it as a +hunting box. He could not afford to keep a huntsman of his own to look +after it and knowing that if he locked it up, thieves would most +probably break into it and steal everything, he left the doors wide open +and everyone instantly avoided it as uncanny. The reason Henrietta never +met him was that this old gentleman was a government official, who had +to live most of his time in the town of Klausenburg, but whenever he was +not hunting here he was out in the forests all night till dawn when he +turned into the little house for a nap and was off again before the +afternoon; and so Henrietta who regularly visited the hut in the +afternoon, naturally never encountered him. + +Leonard even named the old gentleman's name and then Henrietta +remembered meeting him at the _soirées_ at Klausenburg. Leonard, +however, warned his wife never to mention the matter in the presence of +the old gentleman in question, if she should ever meet him, for he had +sundry relations with poachers and other people of that sort. The fact +was, his own strip of forest was not very large and therefore he very +frequently trespassed on Leonard's property in pursuit of game. The old +gentleman was, therefore, very desirous to keep his passion for the +chase a secret, especially as his relations with Leonard were none of +the best. + +After that Henrietta had visited the little forest house no more. This +prosaic explanation had robbed it in her eyes of all its mysterious +interest, nor did she think it becoming to enter a house whose owner was +not on very good terms with her husband. Only now did the recollection +of the little forest dwelling recur to her, and in the terror of her +soul she began to regard the little moss-covered hut whose doors stood, +open, night and day, as a possible asylum. It was the only place where +she could take refuge, the only place where she had no need to fear +spies, where nobody would look for her, where she might remain in hiding +and from whence she might either return home or wander further out into +the world according as fate was kind or unkind to her. + +At night there would be nobody in the little house, for the enthusiastic +old hunter would be stalking the forest. It was also possible that his +official duties might keep him away for days together. But even if she +were to meet him, why should she be afraid of the eccentric old man? +Would she not rather find in him a natural protector who would conduct +her out of the mountains to Klausenburg or Banfi-Hunyad, from whence she +would make her way to Pest and there seek a refuge in her aunt's house? + +She did not think twice about it, but accepted the idea as a heaven-sent +inspiration which it was her duty to follow. She put on a shawl as if +she were only going to take a walk in the moonlight and descended into +the park accompanied by the gardener's daughter whom she had bribed to +help her to escape. The girl succeeded in hoodwinking the men servants +by dressing herself up in a mantle of her mistress's, pretending she +would have supper out in the park as the night was so fine and warm, so +that by the time the fraud was discovered and the alarm given, Henrietta +had had a start of several hours and although the men, fearful of the +anger of their master when he should return and find his wife flown, +searched in every direction with lighted torches they were unable to +discover a trace of the missing lady. + +Terror lends strength to the most feeble. Ordinarily Henrietta was so +weak that it was as much as she could do to promenade through the park. +But to-day after a two hours' run over stones and through briars and +bushes, at midnight, she still did not feel weary. From the top of a +hill she looked back. She could still see the tower of the castle of +Hidvár in the valley, but it looked blue through the mist in the +distance and then she hastened down into the valley whose steep +overhanging sides hid her even from the moonlight. + +The night was noiseless, the forest dark. Now and again a humming night +beetle circled round and round her and obstinately pursued her as if he +also was a spy sent after her. The poor thing's heart throbbed +violently. What if she had lost her way? What if she fell into the hands +of the robbers whom they were now actually pursuing through the woods? +Yet still greater was her terror of Hidvár and a hundred times more +homelike was the dreadful forest with its giant trees speaking in their +sleep than the tapestried walls of the Castle of Hidvár. + +Suddenly a glade opened up before her which seemed to greet her as an +old acquaintance. + +Yes, indeed, there were the wild roses which she had so often plucked to +adorn her hat. The hunting-box could not be far off now. It conceals +itself to the right of the rose bushes beneath a lofty birch. + +A few moments later she found herself outside its door. + +As she laid her hand on the latch, a thought of terror transfixed her. +What if the door should be shut? + +But she had only to press the latch in order to put all her fears to +flight. The door this time also was not fastened. + +Standing on the threshold she enquired with a trembling voice: "Is +anybody in?" + +No answer. + +Then she closed the door behind her and opened the door of the second +room. There also nobody responded to her enquiry. The third room was +also open as usual, nay even one of its windows was opened towards the +orchard. Moreover, everything was in its proper place just as she had +always found it--the weapons, the bear skin coverlet and the water +pitcher. + +It occurred to Henrietta to close the door from the inside so that +nobody might come upon her unawares while she slept. But then the +thought also struck her that it was not right to lock the old gentleman +out of his own house especially as he might turn up in the early morning +tired out and half frozen. So she ultimately decided to stay up for him +in order to tell him, as soon as he arrived, that she meant to obtain a +separation from her husband, whose conduct she could no longer endure. +Till then she would try hard not to go to sleep. But she was tired to +death from her long run through the forest and was obliged at last to +throw herself on the bear skin coverlet to rest; and gradually sleep +overcame all her anguish, all her terror. + +She might have slept for about a half an hour, a restless, +phantom-haunted sleep at best, when she suddenly awoke. + +It seemed to her as if she had heard a distant cry. Perhaps she had only +imagined she had heard it in her slumbers, and perhaps what she had +dreamt was so awful and what she fancied she had heard was so terrible, +that it had awakened her. + +She began to listen attentively. After midnight every light sound seems +so loud. + +She fancied in the great stillness that she could hear rapidly +approaching footsteps. + +Again a cry! like the cry of a hunted beast, like the cry of a wounded +wolf! + +She was not dreaming now, she could hear it plainly. She saw where she +was. The moonlight was streaming through the window, she could see to +the end of all three rooms. + +Suddenly at the window overlooking the garden whence the moonbeams +streamed in, a black shape appeared which obscured the moonlight for an +instant. + +This shape leaped through the window and, panting hard, rushed through +the two rooms into the third where the arms stood. + +Henrietta saw it fly past her bed, she heard its panting sobs +and--recognized it. + +It was Fatia Negra! this was Fatia Negra's house! + +And this was not all. + +Close upon the traces of Fatia Negra rushed another phantom with a drawn +sword in its hand, but its face was towards her and she recognized in +it--Szilard Vamhidy. + +And yet she did not lose her consciousness at this double sight of +terror, though it would have been much better for her if she had. + +Fatia Negra plunged into the armoury and plucked down a pistol from the +wall. + +Szilard paused on the threshold. + +"Halt!" cried Fatia Negra with a voice like a scream--"this is my house +and your tomb." + +Szilard did not condescend to reply but drew a step nearer. + +"Sir, but one word more," said Fatia Negra in a fainter voice and so +hoarsely as to be scarcely audible, "you have wounded me, you have run +me down; but your life is now in my hands and I could kill you this +instant if I had a mind to. Let us bargain a bit: I won't kill you if +you will not pursue me any further. You return and say you could not +catch me. I swear to you that to-morrow I will send you twenty thousand +ducats." + +With contemptuous coldness Szilard replied: "Surrender, I will not +bargain." + +"You won't bargain, you crushed worm you! The mouth of my pistol is on a +level with your forehead. I have only to press my finger and your head +would be shattered--and yet you dare to have it out with me? Do you want +to save your head?" + +"I mean to have yours," said Szilard and he drew a step nearer to the +adventurer. + +"My head, eh? Ha, ha, ha! You would have it would you, and have it here! +Take it then!" + +At that moment a piercing shriek startled the two deadly antagonists and +in the adjoining room a white figure fell prone upon the floor. + +The next moment there was a loud report and Fatia Negra fell back +lifeless on the bear skin carpet. + +At the very moment when he had laughed aloud and cried: "Take it then!" +he had suddenly put the mouth of the pistol into his own mouth and fired +it off. The heavy charge blew his head to bits, Szilard felt a warm red +rain showering down upon him. + +So Fatia Negra, after all, did not give up his head, the pistol shot had +annihilated it. + +And nobody ever knew who Fatia Negra really was. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE ACCOMMODATION + + +It was now the seventh time that Mr. John Lapussa had informed Mr. Sipos +that he wanted to see him and for the seventh time word was sent back +that the lawyer could not come. Why could he not come? They could not +say. Finally a message was delivered to the effect that the lawyer could +not come either that day, or the next, or indeed on any other day in the +whole year. In a word Mr. Sipos declined to have anything more to do +with the Lapussa family or its affairs. Their transactions were not at +all to his taste. + +So, as Mr. Sipos would not appear at the summons of Mr. John Lapussa, +Mr. John Lapussa must needs call upon Mr. Sipos. + +He was wearing mourning in his hat and tried hard to lend his face a +funereal appearance also. + +"Have you heard the news?" he asked. + +Mr. Sipos had heard nothing. + +"Don't you see the mourning in my hat? Alas! my poor niece, unhappy +Henrietta!" + +"Well, what has happened?" + +"Hátszegi has been drowned in the Maros." + +"Impossible, he was a first-rate swimmer." + +"His horse ran away with him, he had lost all control over it. When he +saw that the horse was determined to plunge into the river from the +high bank, he tried to spring out of the saddle, but his spur +unfortunately caught in the stirrups and the horse dragged him down with +it into the water. There in the full stream, with his head downwards and +his legs in the air, he vainly attempted to extricate himself. The +frantic horse swam with him to the opposite shore, dragging the poor +wretch after it, and before the opposite bank was reached, his head was +so shattered that it was impossible to recognize his features. It is now +a week since they buried him in the family vault at Hidvár. Poor +Henrietta! So young to be left a widow! And to have lost so handsome, so +beloved a husband through so sad a death! Really lamentable!" + +"I wonder what the rascal is after now," thought Mr. Sipos. + +"My heart really is breaking for her! If only there were not these +unhappy money differences between us. I am not a tiger. My heart is not +made of stone. Perhaps you don't believe me! Let me tell you that I have +half resolved, despite the old gentleman's will, to transfer to my +niece, Henrietta, the Kerekedar property." + +"Because its expenses are greater than its revenue, I presume?" + +"None of your poor witticisms, sir. I am ready to make any sacrifices to +oblige my relatives. The world misjudges me. They call me greedy and +avaricious; if only they could look into my heart!" + +"What you have done hitherto, sir, does not testify to any great regard +for your relatives. For instance, look at the case of my client, young +Coloman--for you know that Vamhidy has instructed me to act for him. +What intrigues, what tricks were employed to fasten upon him the +suspicion of forgery! Nobody knows that better than you, sir. And let me +tell you that although my young client is nothing but a strolling +player, I shall spare no pains to thoroughly vindicate his good name and +you, with all your wealth and property, will be unable to affect the +issue one jot." + +Mr. John pondered for a moment. "Look here," said he at last, "let us +pitch the whole confounded suit into the fire. I have a compromise to +propose. I candidly confess I am in a bit of a hole. That bill business +is now before the courts and when it comes on for trial, it will cause a +horrible scandal and people have condemned me beforehand. I only wish I +had never mixed myself up in it." + +"Suppose I help you out of the difficulty!" + +"In that case you may dictate your own conditions and I will consent to +them beforehand." + +"There is only one way to save you. Henrietta must say that the bill is +not forged, but is really signed by her and she must then pay and cancel +it, then every foundation of a charge against you vanishes." + +"A sublime idea," cried Mr. John springing from his seat. "And now let +me hear your conditions." + +"My only condition is, complete satisfaction to be made to the children +of your second sister." + +"What! surrender a whole third of the property to them without any +deduction?" + +"We will accept nothing less." + +"What must I do first then?" + +"First you must pay the baroness forty thousand florins." + +"Forty thousand florins! Why?" + +"In order that she may meet the bill as soon as she has acknowledged her +signature." + +"Well, and what next?" + +"You must sign deeds whereby you undertake to surrender to the children +of your late sister the estates of Zôldhalom and Orökvar bequeathed to +them by your father." + +"Why, they are the best paying properties of all." + +"Then pay them the value of the estates in cash." + +"That would seriously inconvenience me." + +"Then make over your houses in Vienna and Pest." + +"I cannot find it in my heart to part with them." + +"Then propose some other expedient." + +"Very well, I will. Give me till to-morrow to think it over." + +And with that Mr. John put on his hat and took his leave. + +The following day the lawyer awaited him in vain; then he waited for +him a whole fortnight, but Mr. John never came near him. Then he went to +the courts to find out what was being done and there he learnt, to his +astonishment, that the declaration of the Baroness Hátszegi +acknowledging the genuineness of her signature to the bill had already +arrived. + +What had happened was this: As soon as Mr. John had got Sipos's opinion +gratis, he quickly traveled post to Hidvár and had a chat with his niece +over the business. The poor lady was so utterly crushed by her +misfortunes that she could scarce fix her mind steadily on anything and +was a mere tool in his hands. She accepted the properties offered to her +by her uncle--what did it matter to her now how much or how little they +brought in!--and gave an acknowledgment in writing that the signature to +the bill was her own. + +Mr. Sipos was therefore not very much surprised when one day he received +a commission from the baroness's agent to pay over the forty thousand +florins in question to a financial agent at Pest. So Mr. John made a +rattling good profit out of the transaction and Henrietta in return for +her generosity had to pay up in cash as Mr. Sipos had shrewdly +anticipated she would have to do all along. But it was all one to +Henrietta. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +CONCLUSION + + +Meanwhile the long drawn out process between Mr. John and his sister +Madame Lángai continued its course. There was no thought of a compromise +between the parties. Madame Lángai expended so much of her private means +in the action that nearly the whole of the property left her by her +husband went in costs. She could now neither keep her coach nor live in +a large house. She cooped herself up in a couple of small rooms, visited +nobody and wore dresses that had been out of fashion for at least four +years--and all to be able to carry on the action! + +It was ten years before the suit came to an end. + +Mr. John lost it and a fearful blow it was to him, for he had to pay out +a million to his sister without any further delay. It is true he had as +much again left for himself, but to be the possessor of only a single +million is nevertheless a fearful thought to anyone who has hitherto +been the possessor of two millions. + +The poor plutocrat! How deeply it disturbed him to be obliged to pay his +only sister her due portion! How the constant thought that he was now +only half as rich as he had been before gnawed his life away! Poor, poor +plutocrat! + +Szilard had a brilliant career--a career extending far beyond the +horizon of this simple story. He never married. Count Kengyelesy quizzed +him often enough and was continually asking him why he did not try his +luck again with his former ideal now that she had become a widow. All +such questions, however, he used to evade in a corresponding tone of +jocularity. But once when Kengyelesy inquired seriously why he never +approached Baroness Hátszegi and at the same time reproached him for his +want of feeling in so obstinately keeping out of the poor lady's way, +Szilard replied: "I am not one of those who can be thrown away to-day +and picked up again to-morrow." + +After that the count never mentioned Henrietta's name in Szilard's +presence again--and who knows whether there was not some impediment +between these two from which no sacrament could absolve them. Who knows +whether it might not after all have been as well for Vamhidy to avoid +any meeting whatever with--the widow of the late Baron Hátszegi? + +Yet it was she who was, in any case, the most wretched of them all. +Although only six and twenty she could already be called an old woman. +She was the victim of her shattered nerves night and day. The least +noise made her tremble. The opening of a door was sufficient to make her +start up. When she was only four and twenty she had already given up +plucking out her grey hairs, there were so many of them. She found no +relaxation in the society of her fellows and therefore avoided all +social gatherings. Most of her time she spent at home, sitting all by +herself in the remotest chamber of the house, half of whose wall was by +this time overgrown by the asclepia which Szilárd had given her ages +ago--or so it seemed to her. This was the only one of her acquaintances +which had not forsaken her, and luckily for her it was tenacious of +life, for if that too had perished, with whom could poor Henrietta have +held converse? + +So there was at least one creature in the world to whom this possessor +of millions could still confide her reminiscences and her sorrows. Poor +rich lady, all the poorer because of her great wealth! Poor plutocrat! + + +THE END + +[Transcriber's Note: Most obvious typographical errors have been +corrected. Foreign words may appear at some points in the text with +accents and at other points without, and proper names may be spelled +differently in different parts of the text. These inconsistencies have +been preserved from the original publication.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poor Plutocrats, by Maurus Jókai + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POOR PLUTOCRATS *** + +***** This file should be named 18705-8.txt or 18705-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/0/18705/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Poor Plutocrats + +Author: Maurus Jókai + +Translator: R. Nisbet Bain + +Release Date: June 27, 2006 [EBook #18705] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POOR PLUTOCRATS *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h2>WORKS OF MAURUS JÓKAI</h2> + +<h3 style="color: red">HUNGARIAN EDITION</h3> + +<h1>THE POOR PLUTOCRATS</h1> + +<h3><i>Translated from the Hungarian by</i></h3> + +<h2>R. NISBET BAIN</h2> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK</p> + +<p class="center">DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY</p> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>"Szegény Gazdagok" is, perhaps, the most widely known of all Maurus +Jókai's masterpieces. It was first published at Budapest, in 1860, in +four volumes, and has been repeatedly translated into German, while good +Swedish, Danish, Dutch and Polish versions sufficiently testify to its +popularity on the Continent. Essentially a tale of incident and +adventure, it is one of the best novels of that inexhaustible type with +which I am acquainted. It possesses in an eminent degree the quality of +vividness which R. L. Stevenson prized so highly, and the ingenuity of +its plot, the dramatic force of its episodes, and the startling +unexpectedness of its <i>dénouement</i> are all in the Hungarian master's +most characteristic style. I know of no more stirring incident in +contemporary fiction than the terrible wrestling match between strong +Juon the goatherd and the supple bandit Fatia Negra in the presence of +two trembling, defenceless women, who can do nothing but look on, though +their fate depends upon the issue of the struggle,—and we must go back +to the pages of that unsurpassed master of the weird and thrilling +Sheridan Le Fanu to find anything approaching the terror of poor +Henrietta's awful midnight vigil in the deserted <i>csárda</i> upon the +lonely heath when, at the very advent of her mysterious peril, she +discovers, to her horror, that her sole companion and guardian, the +brave old squire, cannot be aroused from his drugged slumbers.</p> + +<p>There is naturally not so much scope for the display of Jókai's peculiar +and delightful humour, in a novel of incident like the present tale as +there is in that fine novel of manners: "A Hungarian Nabob." Yet even in +"Szegény Gazdagok," many of the minor characters (e.g., the parasite +Margari, the old miser Demetrius, the Hungarian Miggs, Clementina, the +frivolous Countess Kengyelesy), are not without a mild Dickensian +flavour, while in that rugged but good-natured and chivalrous Nimrod, +Mr. Gerzson, the Hungarian novelist has drawn to the life one of the +finest types we possess of the better sort of sporting Magyar squires.</p> + +<p>Finally, this fascinating story possesses in an eminent degree the charm +of freshness and novelty, a charm becoming rarer every year in these +globe-trotting days, when the ubiquitous tourist boasts that he has +been everywhere and seen everything. Yet it may well be doubted whether +even he has penetrated to the heart of the wild, romantic, sylvan +regions of the Wallachian and Transylvanian Alps, which is the theatre +of the exploits of that prince of robber chieftains, the mighty and +mysterious Fatia Negra, and the home of those picturesque Roumanian +peasants whom Jókai loves to depict and depicts so well.</p> + +<p>R. NISBET BAIN.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>Contents</h3> + +<ol> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I">BOREDOM</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II">A NEW MODE OF DUELLING</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III">AN AMIABLE MAN</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHILDISH NONSENSE</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V">SHE IS NOT FOR YOU</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">BRINGING HOME THE BRIDE</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THE CAVERN OF LUCSIA</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">STRONG JUON</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">THE GEINA MAID-MARKET</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X">THE BLACK JEWELRY</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">TWO TALES, OF WHICH ONLY ONE IS TRUE</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">THE SOIRÉES AT ARAD</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">TIT FOR TAT</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">THE MIKALAI CSÁRDA</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">WHO IT WAS THAT RECOGNIZED FATIA NEGRA</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">LEANDER BABEROSSY</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">MR. MARGARI</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">THE UNDISCOVERABLE LADY</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">THE SHAKING HAND</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">THE FIGHT FOR THE GOLD</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">THE HUNTED BEAST</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">THE SIGHT OF TERROR</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">THE ACCOMMODATION</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CONCLUSION</a></li> +</ol> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1><a name="POOR_PLUTOCRATS" id="POOR_PLUTOCRATS"></a>POOR PLUTOCRATS</h1> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>BOREDOM</h3> + + +<p>"Was it you who yawned so, Clementina?"</p> + +<p>Nobody answered.</p> + +<p>The questioner was an old gentleman in his eightieth year or so, dressed +in a splendid flowered silk Kaftan, with a woollen night-cap on his +head, warm cotton stockings on his feet, and diamond, turquoise, and +ruby rings on his fingers. He was reclining on an atlas ottoman, his +face was as wooden as a mummy's, a mere patch-work of wrinkles, he had a +dry, thin, pointed nose, shaggy, autumnal-yellow eyebrows, and his large +prominent black eyes protected by irritably sensitive eyelids, lent +little charm to his peculiar cast of countenance.</p> + +<p>"Well! Will nobody answer? Who yawned so loudly behind my back just +now?" he asked again, with an angry snort. "Will nobody answer?"</p> + +<p>Nobody answered, and yet there was a sufficient number of people in the +room to have found an answer between them. In front of the hearth was +sitting a young woman about thirty or thirty-five, with just such a +strongly-pronounced pointed nose, with just such high raised eyebrows as +the old gentleman's, only her face was still red (though the favour of +Nature had not much to do with that perhaps) and her eyebrows were still +black; but her thin lips were just as hermetically sealed as the old +man's, when she was not speaking. This young woman was playing at +Patience.</p> + +<p>In one of the windows sat a young girl of sixteen, a delicate creature +of rapid growth, whose every limb and feature seemed preternaturally +thin and fragile. She was occupied with some sort of sewing. At another +little sewing-table, immediately opposite to her, was a red-cheeked +damsel with a frightful mop of light hair and a figure which had all the +possibilities of stoutness before it. She was a sort of governess, and +was supposed to be English, though they had only her word for it. She +was reading a book.</p> + +<p>On the silk ottoman behind lay the already-mentioned Clementina, who +ought to have confessed to the sin of yawning. She was a spinster +already far advanced in the afternoon of life, and had cinder-coloured +ringlets around her temples and a little bit of beard on her chin. She +was no blood relation of the family but, as an ancient companion to a +former mistress of the house, had long eaten the bread of charity under +that roof. She was now engaged upon some eye-tormenting, fine fancy +work which could not have afforded the poor creature very much +amusement.</p> + +<p>The old gentleman on the sofa used to divert himself the whole day by +assembling as many human beings around him as possible and driving them +to desperation by his unendurable nagging and chiding; they, on the +other hand, had by this time discovered that the best defence against +this domestic visitation was never to answer so much as a word.</p> + +<p>"Of course! Of course!" continued the old gentleman with stinging +sarcasm. "I know what a bore it is to be near me and about me. I see +through it all. Yes, I <i>know</i> that I am an unendurable old fellow on +whom not a single word should be wasted. I know well enough that you are +not sitting here beside me because you like to be here. Who compels you +to? I certainly shall not prevent anybody's petticoat from going away by +laying hold of it. The gate is not closed. Nothing easier than to be +off. Yet nobody likes the idea, eh? Ah-ha! It is possible that when the +eye of old Lapussa no longer sees, the heart of old Lapussa may no +longer remember. Besides, nobody can tell exactly when the old man may +die. Indeed they are waiting for his death every hour—he is beyond +eighty already. A most awful bore certainly. Ah ha! The old fool is +unable to get up any more, he is not even able to strike anybody. If he +cries out, nobody is afraid of him; but, at any rate, he has strength +enough to pull the bell-rope, send for his steward, tell him to go to +the office of the <i>alispán</i><a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> there ferret out and bring back his last +will and testament—and then he can dictate another will to his lawyer +quite cosily at his ease."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Vice-lieutenant of the county.</p></div> + +<p>And in order to emphasize his words more terribly, he there and then +gave a tug at the bell-rope.</p> + +<p>Yet for all that nobody turned towards him; the lady kept dealing out +the cards, the young girl continued working beads into her sampler, the +governess went on reading, and the old spinster was still intent upon +some delicate operation with her needle—just as if nobody had spoken a +word.</p> + +<p>In answer to the bell an ancient serving-man appeared in the doorway, +and the old gentleman, after waiting a little to see from the +countenances of those present (he could observe them in the mirror +opposite) whether his allusion to his will had produced any effect, and +finding no notice taken of it whatever, said in a sharp, petulant voice: +"Louis!"</p> + +<p>The servant approached the sofa and then stood still again.</p> + +<p>"My dinner!"</p> + +<p>This was the end of the awe-inspiring threat.</p> + +<p>The old gentleman observed, or rather, suspected, some slight amusement +in the company present.</p> + +<p>"Miss Kleary!" he observed irritably, "don't you observe that Henrietta +is looking out of the window again? I am bound, Miss, to direct your +attention to the fact that I consider such a thing decidedly unbecoming +in a young lady."</p> + +<p>"Dear Grandpapa.....!" began the accused.</p> + +<p>"Silence! I did not speak to Henrietta, I spoke to Miss Kleary. Miss +Henrietta is still a child who understands nothing. I neither address +her nor attempt to explain anything to her. But I keep Miss Kleary in +this house, I pay Miss Kleary a princely salary, in order that I may +have some one at hand to whom I can explain my educational ideas. Now my +educational ideas are good; nay, Miss, I think I may even say that they +are very good. I will therefore beg you to do me the favour to stick to +them. I know what ought and what ought not to be allowed young girls; I +know that....."</p> + +<p>The young girl's face blushed beneath the reproachful look of the old +tyrant, whilst the governess rose defiantly from her place, and in order +that she might wreak her anger upon some one, industriously proceeded to +pick holes in Henrietta's sewing and effectually spoil her whole day's +work.</p> + +<p>Thus, it will be perceived, only one person had the right to speak; the +only right the other people had was not to listen to him.</p> + +<p>But there was someone else in the background who had better rights than +anybody, and this someone now began to hammer with his fists on the +door, that very door at which the oldest and most trusty domestics +hardly dared to tap—began, I say, to hammer with his fists and kick +with his heels till everyone was downright scared.</p> + +<p>This was the little grandson, the old gentleman's spoiled darling little +Maksi.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you let in little Maksi?" cried the old gentleman, when he +heard him. "Open the door for little Maksi; don't you know that he is +not tall enough to reach the door-handle? Why don't you let him come to +me when he wants to come?"</p> + +<p>At that moment the footman opened the door and the little family prince +bounded in. It was a pale little mouldy sort of flower, with red eyes +and a cornerless mouth like a carp, but with the authentic family nose +and the appurtenances thereof, which took up so much room as to +seriously imperil the prospects of the rest of the head growing in +proportion. The little favourite was wearing a complete Uhlan costume, +even the four-cornered chako was stuck on the side of his head; he was +flourishing a zinc sword and grumbling bitterly.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with little Maksi? Has anybody been annoying him?"</p> + +<p>Grandpapa succeeded at last in making out that on running out Maksi had +tripped over his sword, that his tutor had wanted to take it away, that +Maksi had thereupon drawn his weapon and made the aggressor's hand smart +with it, and that finally he had fled for refuge to grandpapa's room as +the only place where he was free from the persecutions of his +instructors.</p> + +<p>Grandpapa, in a terrible to do, began to question him: "Come here! Where +did you hit yourself? On the head, eh! Let us see! Why, it is swollen +up—quite red in fact! Put some opodeldoc on it! Clementina, do you +hear?—some opodeldoc for Maksi!" So the family medicament had to be +fetched at once; but Maksi, snatching it from the worthy spinster's +hand, threw it violently to the ground, so that the whole carpet was +bespattered with it.</p> + +<p>Nobody was allowed to scold him for this, however, as grandpapa was +instantly ready with an excuse: "Maksi must not be vexed," said he. +"Does not Maksi wear a sword by his side already? Maksi will be a great +soldier one of these days!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the lad defiantly, "I'll be a general!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Maksi shall be a general; nothing less than a general, of course. +But come, my boy, take your finger out of your mouth."</p> + +<p>The English governess here thought she saw an opportunity of insinuating +a professional remark.</p> + +<p>"He who would be a general, must, first of all, learn a great deal."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to learn. I mean to know everything without learning it. I +say, grandpapa, if you've lots of money, you will know everything at +once without learning it, won't you?"</p> + +<p>The old man looked around him triumphantly.</p> + +<p>"Now that I call genius, wit!" cried he.</p> + +<p>And with that he tenderly pressed the little urchin's head to his breast +and murmured: "Ah! he is my very grandson, my own flesh and blood."</p> + +<p>He was well aware how aggravated all the others would be at these words.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the footman was laying a table. This table was of palisander +wood and supported by the semblance of a swan. It could be placed close +beside the ottoman and was filled with twelve different kinds of dishes. +All these meats were cold, for the doctor forbade his patient hot food. +The old gentleman tasted each one of the dishes with the aid of his +finger-tips, and not one of them pleased him. This was too salt, that +was too sweet, a third was burnt, a fourth was tainted. He threatened to +discharge the cook, and bitterly complained that as he did not die +quickly enough for them, they were conspiring to starve him. They might +have replied that he had ordered all these things himself yesterday; but +nobody took the trouble to contradict him any longer, so gradually the +storm died away of its own accord and the old man, turning towards +Maksi, tenderly invited him to partake of the disparaged dishes.</p> + +<p>"Come and eat with me, Maksi, my darling."</p> + +<p>"That I will," cried the little horror, grabbing at everything +simultaneously with both hands.</p> + +<p>"Oh, fie, fie!" said grandpapa gently. "Take Maksi out for a ride and +let the lacquey go with him instead of his tutor!" The old gentleman +then pushed the little round table aside and signalled to the footman +that he was to put all the dishes carefully away, as he should want to +see them again on the morrow. The footman conscientiously obeyed this +command—which was given regularly every day—and locked up all the +dishes well aware that he would get a sound jacketting if he failed to +produce a single one of them when required to do so.</p> + +<p>The old man knew well enough that there was not a servant in the house +who, for any reward on earth, would think of touching any food that had +ever lain on his table; indeed, they held it in such horror that they +used regularly to distribute it among the poor. In order therefore that +the very beggars might have nothing to thank him for, he had the food +kept till it was almost rotten before he let them have it. As for his +own family, he had not dined at the same table with them for ten years.</p> + +<p>It was certainly not a sociable family. For example, the old gentleman's +widowed daughter, red-cheeked Madame Langai, did not exchange a single +word with her father for weeks at a time. At first he had expected her +to remain in the same room with him till nine o'clock every evening, +dealing out cards for him or boring herself to death in some other way +for his amusement. She endured it for a whole month without a word; but +at last, one evening, at seven o'clock, she appeared before him in +evening dress and said that she was going to the theatre.</p> + +<p>Old Lapussa glared at her with all his eyes.</p> + +<p>"To the theatre?" cried he.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have ordered a box."</p> + +<p>"Really? Well, I hope you will enjoy yourself!"</p> + +<p>The lady quitted him with a shrug. She knew that from that moment she +would inherit a million less than her elder brother; but nevertheless +she went to the theatre regularly every day, and never stirred from her +box so long as there was any one on the stage who had a word to say.</p> + +<p>The Lapussa family was of too recent an origin for the great world to +take much notice of it, and the fame of its fabulous wealth went hand in +hand with the rumour of a sordid avarice which was not a recommendable +quality in the eyes of the true gentry. The Lapussas were, in fact, not +of gentle blood at all, but simply rich. Madame Langai's elder brother, +John, was notoriously the greatest bore in the town, whom nobody, from +the members of his own family down to his coffee-house acquaintances, +could endure for a moment. Only his father made much of him. For all his +great wealth, he was very stingy and greedy; he even lent money at usury +to his best friends. Our amusing little friend Maksi was this man's son. +The slender, fanciful damsel, Henrietta, who appeared in that family +like an errant angel specially sent there to be tormented for the sins +of her whole race, was the orphan daughter of another son of old +Lapussa, who had lost father and mother at the same time in the most +tragical manner; they had both been drowned by the capsizing of a small +boat on the Danube. Henrietta herself had only been saved with the +utmost difficulty. She was only twelve years old at the time, and the +catastrophe had had such an effect upon her nerves that ever afterwards +she collapsed at the least sign of anger, and often fell a weeping for +no appreciable cause. Since the death of her parents, who had loved her +dearly, Henrietta had been obliged to live at her grandfather's house, +where nobody loved anybody.</p> + +<p>But no, I am mistaken. She had a brother, Koloman by name, who was a +somewhat simple but thoroughly good-natured youth. He used to appear +very rarely among his relations because they always fell foul of him. +The poor fellow's sole fault was that he was in the habit of regularly +selling his new clothes. Still, I am doubtful, after all, whether this +can fairly be imputed to him as a fault at all, for although it was +always being dinned into his ears that his family was immensely rich, he +was never blessed with a penny to spend in amusing himself with his +comrades, and therefore had to do the best he could to raise the wind. +Another failing of Koloman's was that he would not learn Latin, and in +consequence thereof he had to suffer many things. Old Lapussa and his +son John indeed had no notion whatever of the Latin tongue. The former +in his youthful days had never gone to school at all, because he was +occupied in building up a business. The latter had not gone to school in +<i>his</i> youth because by that time his people were already rich and he +considered it beneath him. The consequence was that neither father nor +son had a proper idea on the simplest subjects, except what they picked +up on their travels. Still that was no reason why Koloman should not +learn, but as the tutor had his hands full already with little Maksi, +Koloman was obliged to go to the national school in order to become a +wiser man than his forbears.</p> + +<p>Poor Henrietta often slaved away for hours at a time with her younger +brother sitting at the table by her side, helping him to struggle +through the genders, declensions, conjugations, or whatever else the +infernal things were called; and the end of it all was that, at last, +she learnt to know Latin better than Koloman, and secretly translated +all his exercises from Cornelius Nepos and the Bucolics of Virgil for +him.</p> + +<p>But we must not linger any longer over these Latin lessons, for a much +more important event claims our attention—Mr. John is coming home, and +we must hasten forward to admire him.</p> + +<p>Mr. John Lapussa was a perfect prototype of the whole family. His +extraordinarily lanky pinched figure seemed even lankier than it was by +nature because he always carried his head so high: he peered down from +that elevation upon humanity at large as if there was something the +matter with his eyes which prevented him from properly raising the lids. +In him the dimensions of the family nose were made still more remarkable +by an inordinately tiny chin and thin compressed lips. His moustache was +shaved down to the very corners of his mouth, only a little mouse-tail +sort of arrangement being left on each side, which was twisted upwards +and dyed black with infinite skill. His costume was elegant and +ultra-refined, and only differed from the fashion in being extra stiff +and tight-fitting. Moreover, all the buttons of his shirt and his +waistcoat were precious stones, and he had a plenitude of rings on his +fingers which he delighted to show off by ostentatiously adjusting his +cravat in the course of conversation, or softly stroking the surface of +his superfine coat.</p> + +<p>Mr. John entered the room without looking at a soul, and paced up and +down it with his hands behind his back. Then he suddenly caught sight of +his father, kissed his hand and resumed his dignified saunter. It was +evident that he was bursting for some one to speak and ask him what was +the matter.</p> + +<p>Clementina was the first to speak.</p> + +<p>"Your honour!" said she.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked, lifting his head still higher.</p> + +<p>"I have finished the embroidery for your shirt front which your honour +was pleased to command."</p> + +<p>His honour with a haughty curl of the lip condescended to glance down +upon the proffered embroidery. I am afraid Clementina was a poor +physiognomist, she might have noticed from his face how utterly +indifferent he was to her and her embroidery, which he regarded with +puckered eyes and screwed-up mouth.</p> + +<p>"No good. Those flowers are too big; it is the sort of thing the +Wallachian peasants stitch on to their shirts." And with that he took up +Clementina's scissors from the work-table and deliberately snipped into +little bits the whole of the difficult piece of work which the worthy +woman had been slaving away at for a week and more, finally pitching it +away contemptuously while she sat there and stared at him dumfoundered.</p> + +<p>"John, John!" said the old man in mild remonstrance.</p> + +<p>"To show me such rubbish when I am mad! When I am wroth! When I am +beside myself with fury!"</p> + +<p>"Why are you angry, and with whom?"</p> + +<p>John went on as if he did not mean to tell the cause of his anger. He +flung himself into an armchair, crossed his legs, plunged his hands into +the depths of his pockets and then, starting up, began to pace the room +again.</p> + +<p>"I am furious."</p> + +<p>"Then what's the matter?" enquired the old man anxiously.</p> + +<p>John again flung himself into an armchair and cocked one leg over the +arm of the chair: "It is all that good-for-nothing Hátszegi!" he cried. +"The fellow is a villain, a scoundrel, a robber!"</p> + +<p>"What has he done?"</p> + +<p>"What has he done?" cried John, leaping to his feet again, "I'll tell +you. Yesterday he sent word to me by his broker that he would like to +buy those houses of ours in the Szechenyi Square which I have offered +for sale. Wishing to save broker's expenses I went to see him myself at +twelve o'clock. Surely that is the most convenient time for paying +business calls. At least I have always supposed so. I entered his +ante-chamber and there stood a flunkey. He told me I must wait! Told +<i>me</i> forsooth—<i>me</i>, John Lapussa—that I must cool my heels in an +ante-chamber, at an inn, to please that wretched Hátszegi. Very well. I +waited. I sent him a message that I <i>would</i> wait. Meanwhile I found I +could not sit down anywhere, for the rascal had piled dirty boots and +brushes on all the chairs. Presently the rascal of a servant came back +and told me that his master could not see me then, would I come back +again in the afternoon—I, John Lapussa, forsooth! Absolutely would not +speak to me, but told me to come again another time! Thou dog, thou +wretched rascal! But wait, I say, that's all!"</p> + +<p>At this the old man also grew excited.</p> + +<p>"Why did you not box his ears?" cried he.</p> + +<p>"I'll do it, and do it well. I'll not stand it. What! send a Lapussa +packing! It cannot be overlooked. I shall immediately go and find two +seconds and challenge him to a duel."</p> + +<p>"Nay, John, don't do that! Don't even box his ears in the street, but +give a street-porter ten shillings to cudgel him well as he comes out of +the theatre; that will be best!"</p> + +<p>"No, I will kill him. I will shed his blood. He who insults me in a +gentlemanly manner must be shown that I can revenge myself like a +gentleman. I will wipe off the score with pistols—with pistols I say."</p> + +<p>The old man and the female members of the family were duly impressed by +this bragging, or rather all except Madame Langai, who was getting ready +for the theatre and took no notice of the general conversation.</p> + +<p>Mr. John was much put out by her indifference. "Matilda," he asked, +"what do <i>you</i> say? Ought I not to fight, after such an insult?"</p> + +<p>Madame Langai answered the unavoidable question with a cold smile: "I +would only say that if anyone angers you another time you had better +expend your wrath upon him before dinner, for if you nurse your wrath +till after dinner you spoil the whole thing."</p> + +<p>Mr. John listened to her in silence and then resumed his promenade with +his hands behind his back snorting furiously. Suddenly he snatched up +his cap and rushed out.</p> + +<p>"John, John, what are you going to do?" the old man called after him in +a supplicating voice.</p> + +<p>"You'll very soon see, I'll warrant you," and he banged the door behind +him.</p> + +<p>The old man turned reproachfully towards Madame Langai. "Why did you +irritate him when he was mad enough already?" he cried. "What will you +gain by his death? He has a son who will inherit everything, you know. +Yes, everything will belong to little Maksi."</p> + +<p>Madame Langai calmly went on tying her bonnet strings.</p> + +<p>"I know what fiery blood he has," mumbled the old man. "When he is angry +he will listen to nobody, and is capable of facing a whole army. We must +prevent this duel somehow. And you are actually preparing to go to the +theatre when things have come to such a pass? You are actually going to +see a comedy!"</p> + +<p>"The actor Ladislaus plays just the same parts on the stage as John does +off the stage," replied Madame Langai bitterly. "And I am as little +afraid of John's rhodomontade as I am of the result of stage duels. +Don't be afraid! He'll come to no harm."</p> + +<p>A lacquey now entered to announce that the coach was ready, and Madame +Langai, adjusting her mantilla, went to the playhouse where the actors +were, at least, amusing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>A NEW MODE OF DUELLING</h3> + + +<p>Old Lapussa always liked to have under his eye, night and day, some one +or other whom he could plague and worry. Till eight o'clock every +evening he was fully occupied in tormenting the whole family. Then +Madame Langai went to the theatre and Henrietta and the governess had to +sit down at the piano in the large drawing-room till it was time to put +the child to bed. But when Clementina and the domestics had had supper +and there was no longer anybody else with him, the turn of the night +nurse began.</p> + +<p>The duties of a night nurse are never very enviable or diverting at the +best of times, yet penal servitude for life was a fate almost preferable +to being the nocturnal guardian of old Demetrius Lapussa. The unhappy +wretch who was burdened with this heavy charge had to sit at Mr. +Lapussa's bed from nine o'clock at night till early the following +morning and read aloud to him all sorts of things the whole time. Old +Demetrius was a very bad sleeper. The whole night long he scarcely slept +more than an hour at a time. His eyes would only close when the droaning +voice of some one reading aloud made his head dizzy, and then he would +doze off for a short time. But at the slightest pause he would +instantly awake and angrily ask the reader why he left off, and urge him +on again.</p> + +<p>The reader in question was a student more than fifty years old, who, +time out of mind, had been making a living by fair-copying all sorts of +difficult manuscripts. He was an honest, simple creature who, in his +time, had tried hard to push his way into every conceivable business and +profession without ever succeeding till, at last, when he was well over +fifty, he was fortunate enough to fall in with an editor who happened to +know that Demetrius Lapussa wanted a reader, and recommended the poor +devil for the post. He knew Hungarian, Latin, and Slovack well enough to +mix them all up together; German he could read, though he did not +understand it, but this was not necessary, for he was not expected to +read for his own edification.</p> + +<p>This worthy man, then, grew prematurely old in reading, year out year +in, aloud to Mr. Demetrius, one after another, all the German +translations of French novels procurable at Robert Lempel's circulating +library without understanding a single word of them. Mr. Demetrius had, +naturally, no library of his own, for reading to him, in his condition, +was pretty much the same as medicine, and who would ever think of +keeping a dispensary on his own premises? I may add that the reader +received free board and lodging and ten florins a month pocket-money for +his services.</p> + +<p>On that particular night when Mr. John flung out of the house in such a +violent rage, Mr. Demetrius was particularly sleepless. I know not +whether Monte Cristo, the first volume of which honest Margari happened +to be reading just then, was the cause of this, or whether it was due to +the old man's nervousness about the terrible things John was likely to +do, but the fact remains that poor Margari on this occasion got no +respite from his labours. At other times Margari did manage to get a +little relief. Whenever he observed that Mr. Demetrius was beginning to +draw longer breaths than usual he would let his head sink down on his +book and fall asleep immediately till the awakened tyrant roused him out +of his slumbers and made him go on again. But now he was not suffered to +have a moment's peace.</p> + +<p>Monte Cristo had already been sitting in his dungeon for some time when +Madame Langai's carriage returned from the theatre. Then Mr. Demetrius +rang up the porters to inquire whether Mr. John had also returned home. +No, was the answer. At eleven o'clock Mr. John had still not returned. +Meanwhile Monte Cristo's neighbour had traced the figure on the floor of +the dungeon. Mr. Demetrius here demanded a fuller explanation of the +circumstances. "How was that, Margari?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>"I humbly beg your honour's pardon, but I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"Very well, proceed!"</p> + +<p>Every time a door below was opened or shut, Mr. Demetrius rang up the +porter to enquire whether Mr. John had come in, to the intense +aggravation of the porter, who appeared in the door of the saloon with a +surlier expression and his hair more and more ruffled on each occasion, +inwardly cursing the fool of a student who had not even wit enough to +send an old man asleep, and envying the other servants who at least were +able to sleep at night without interruption.</p> + +<p>And still Margari went on reading.</p> + +<p>By this time Monte Cristo had had himself sewn up in a sack and flung +into the sea as a corpse.</p> + +<p>"Would you have dared to have that done to you, Margari?" interrupted +Mr. Demetrius.</p> + +<p>"If I had a lot of money I might, begging your honour's pardon, but a +poor devil like me is only too glad to live at any price," replied +Margari, whose answer naturally had no relation whatever to the text, +not a word of which he understood.</p> + +<p>"You are a simple fellow, Margari; but go on, go on!"</p> + +<p>Margari gaped violently, he would have liked to have stretched himself +too, but he bethought him in time that his coat had already burst +beneath his armpits, and he had no wish to make the rent still larger, +so he let it alone and proceeded with his bitter labour.</p> + +<p>By the time Monte Cristo had swum back to dry land, Margari's eyelids +were almost glued to his eyes and still the old gentleman showed no +sign of drowsiness. Mr. John's threat had kept Mr. Demetrius awake all +night, and consequently had kept poor Margari awake too. Once or twice +an unusually interesting episode excited the old man's attention, and +for the time he forgot all about John's duel—for example, when Monte +Cristo discovered the enormous treasure on the island—and he would then +rouse up Margari and make him go and find a map and point out the exact +position of Monte Cristo's island. Margari searched every corner of the +sea for it, and at last looked for it on the dry land also without +finding it. Tiring at length with the fruitless search he proposed, as +the best way out of the difficulty, that he should write on the +afternoon of the following day to Monsieur Alexander Dumas himself to +explain to his honour where the island used to be and whether it still +existed.</p> + +<p>"What a blockhead you are," said the old man, "but go on, go on!"</p> + +<p>Margari gave a great sigh and looked at the clock on the wall, but, +alas! it was still a long way from six o'clock. At last, however, while +he was still reading, the clock <i>did</i> strike six. Margari instantly +stood up in the middle of a sentence, marked the passage with his +thumb-nail so as to know at what word to begin again on the following +evening, turned down the leaf and closed the book.</p> + +<p>"Well! is that the end of it?" enquired Mr. Demetrius in angry +amazement.</p> + +<p>"I humbly beg your honour's pardon," said Margari with meek intrepidity, +"there's nothing about reading <i>after six</i> in our agreement"—and off he +went. Mr. Demetrius thereupon flew into a violent rage, cursed and +swore, vowed that he would dismiss his reader on the spot, and as the +morning grew lighter fell into a deep, death-like, narcotic sleep from +which he would not have awakened if the house had come tumbling about +his ears. When he did awake, about ten o'clock, his first care was to +make enquiries about Mr. John. Then he sent the porter to the police +station to inform the authorities that his son and Mr. Hátszegi, who +were both staying at the Queen of England inn, were going to fight a +duel, which should be prevented at all hazards. A police constable, at +this announcement, flung himself into a hackney-coach and set off at +full speed to make enquiries. Half an hour later a heyduke was sent back +to the porter to tell him that either the whole affair must be a hoax, +as nothing was known of a duel, or else that the two combatants must +already be dead and buried, as not a word could be heard of either of +them. Luckily, towards the afternoon, Mr. John himself arrived in a +somewhat dazed condition, like one who has been up drinking all night. +The members of the family were all sitting together as usual in Mr. +Demetrius's room, listening in silence to his heckling, when the tidings +of Mr. John's arrival reached him. Demetrius immediately summoned him. +He sent back word at first that he was lying down to try to sleep, which +was an absurd excuse for even the richest man to give in the forenoon; +on being summoned a second time he threatened to box the porter's ears; +only the third time, when Clementina was sent with the message that if +he did not come at once, his sick father would come and fetch him, did +he respond to the call and appear before them in a pet.</p> + +<p>"Well, thou bloodthirsty man, what has happened? What was the end of +it?"</p> + +<p>"What has happened?" repeated John with monstrously dilated eyes. "What +marvel do you expect me to relate?"</p> + +<p>"Clementina, Miss Kleary, Henrietta, retire," cried the old man; +"retire, go into the next room. These are not the sort of things that +children should hear."</p> + +<p>When they had all withdrawn except Madame Langai, Demetrius again +questioned his son: "Now then, what about this affair, this <i>rencontre</i> +with Hátszegi; did you challenge him, did you meet him?"</p> + +<p>"Eh? Oh—yes! Naturally. Of course I sought him out, I have only just +come from him. We have been making a night of it together at the Queen +of England. I can honestly say that he is a splendid fellow, a gallant, +charming gentleman. He has really noble qualities. I am going to bring +him here this afternoon. You shall all see him. Even you will like him, +Matilda. But now, adieu, I must really have a little sleep, we were +drinking champagne together all night. Oh, he is a magnificent, a truly +magnificent character."</p> + +<p>Mr. Demetrius said not a word in reply, but he compressed his thin lips +and wagged his head a good deal. Nobody made any observation. Mr. John +was allowed to go to bed according to his desire. A little time after he +had withdrawn, however, the old man said to Madame Langai: "What are you +doing Matilda?"</p> + +<p>"I am trying to guess a rebus which has just appeared in 'The Iris.'"</p> + +<p>"Don't you think that what John has just said is rather odd?"</p> + +<p>"I have not troubled my head about it one way or the other."</p> + +<p>"I can see through it though. John wants to pay off Hátszegi in his own +coin. He has invited him here this afternoon in order to keep him +waiting in the ante-chamber, and then send him word that he can't see +him till to-morrow. Oh! Jack is a sly lad, a very sly lad, but I can see +through him. I can see through him."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. John passed the whole afternoon in his father's room; he did not +even go to his club. No doubt he was awaiting his opportunity for +revenge. He amused himself by sitting down beside his niece, stroking +her hand, admiring the whiteness of her skin, and, drawing the +governess into the conversation, enquired how Henrietta was getting on +with her studies, whether she had still much to learn in English and +French, and whether she was not, by this time, quite a virtuoso at the +piano. He insinuated at the same time that it would be just as well, +perhaps, if she made haste to learn all that was necessary as soon as +possible, because she was no longer a child, and when once a woman is +married she has not very much time for study.</p> + +<p>"By the way, Henrietta," he added suddenly, "have you chosen a lover +yet?"</p> + +<p>Henrietta was too much afraid of him even to blush at this question, she +only glanced at him with timid, suspicious eyes and said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid, sisterkin," continued Mr. John encouragingly. "I'll +bring you such a nice bridegroom that even your grandpapa, when he sees +him, will snatch up his crutches in order to go and meet him half-way." +Here the old man growled something which John smothered with a laugh. +"Yes, and if he won't give you up we'll carry you off by force."</p> + +<p>Henrietta shuddered once or twice at her uncle's blandishments, like one +who has to swallow a loathsome medicine and has caught a whiff of it +beforehand.</p> + +<p>The porter interrupted this cheerful family chat by announcing that his +lordship Baron Hátszegi wished to pay his respects to Mr. Lapussa.</p> + +<p>Mr. Demetrius immediately raised himself on his elbows to read from Mr. +John's features what he was going to do. Would he tell the lacqueys to +turn Hátszegi out of the house? or would he send him word to wait in the +ante-chamber, as he himself had waited at Hátszegi's, and then put him +off till the morrow? Oh! John would be sure to do something of the sort, +for a very proud fellow was John.</p> + +<p>But, so far from doing any of these things, Mr. John rushed to the door +to meet the arriving guest and greeted him aloud from afar in the most +obliging, not to say obsequious, terms, bidding him come in without +ceremony and not make a stranger of himself. And with that he passed his +arm through the arm of his distinguished guest and, radiant with joy, +drew him into the midst of the domestic sanctum sanctorum and presenting +him in a voice that trembled with emotion: "His lordship, Baron Leonard +Hátszegi, my very dear friend!"</p> + +<p>And then he was guilty of the impropriety of introducing his guest first +of all to his father and his niece, simply because they happened to be +the nearest, only afterward he bethought him of turning towards Matilda +to introduce her, whereupon Matilda's face assumed a stony expression +like that of the marble maiden in Zampa, to the great confusion of John, +who felt bound to enquire in a half-whisper: "Why, what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"You dolt," she whispered back, "have you not learnt yet that the lady +of the house should be introduced to her guests not last, but first?"</p> + +<p>John's first impulse was to be shocked, his second was to be furious, +but finally he thought it best to turn with a smile to Baron Hátszegi, +who courteously helped him out of his embarrassment by observing: "It is +my privilege to be able to greet your ladyship as an old acquaintance +already. Many a time have I had the opportunity of secretly admiring you +in your box at the theatre."</p> + +<p>"Pray be seated, sir...!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>AN AMIABLE MAN</h3> + + +<p>Baron Hátszegi was certainly a very amiable man. He had a handsome face +full of manly pride, sparkling eyes, and a powerful yet elegant figure. +He moved and spoke with graceful ease, bore himself nobly, picked his +words—in short, was a perfect gentleman. Mr. Demetrius was quite taken +with him, although Hátszegi hardly exchanged a word with him, naturally +devoting himself principally to the widowed lady who played the part of +hostess. What the conversation was really about nobody distinctly +recollected—the usual commonplaces no doubt, balls, soirees, +horse-racing. Henrietta took no part in the talk; Mr. John, on the other +hand, had a word to say on every subject, and, although nobody paid any +attention to him, he enjoyed himself vastly.</p> + +<p>When Hátszegi had departed, John, with a beaming face, asked Madame +Langai what she thought of the young man.</p> + +<p>Instead of replying, Madame Langai asked what had induced him to bring +him there.</p> + +<p>"Well, but he's a splendid fellow, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"You said yesterday that he was a vagabond."</p> + +<p>"I said so, I know, but it is not true."</p> + +<p>"You said, too, that he was a robber."</p> + +<p>"What! I said that? Impossible. I didn't say that."</p> + +<p>Old Demetrius here intervened as a peacemaker.</p> + +<p>"You said it, John, you did indeed; but you were angry, and at such +times a man says more than he means."</p> + +<p>"So far from being a robber or a vagabond," replied John, "he is one of +the principal landowners in the Hátszegi district. How <i>could</i> I have +said such things! He has a castle that is like a fortress. He is like a +prince, a veritable prince in his own domains. He is just like a petty +sovereign. I must have been downright mad to call him a vagabond. . . ."</p> + +<p>"Yet, yesterday, you would have called him out," continued Madame Langai +teasingly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I was angry with him then, but there are circumstances which may +reconcile a couple of would-be duellists, are there not?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, certainly, if a man is a man of business before all things, or has +perhaps a valuable house or two on his hands."</p> + +<p>"This has nothing to do with business or selling houses. If you must +know," he continued, lowering his voice, "it is about something entirely +different, but of the very greatest importance."</p> + +<p>"Indeed?" returned Madame Langai, "a new Alexander the Great, I suppose, +who has gone forth to conquer, and who has come to look not for a house, +but for a house and home perhaps?"</p> + +<p>She thought to herself that it was some adventurer whom her brother +John would palm off upon her as a husband so as to get her away from the +old man.</p> + +<p>"Something of the sort," replied John. "Yes, you have guessed half—but +the wrong half."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear it."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" put in the old man sarcastically, "Matilda will never marry again, +I'm sure; she loves her old dad too much and feels far too happy at home +to do that."</p> + +<p>"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed John scornfully, "I did not mean Matilda, I was +not thinking of her. Ho, ho, ho! Madame Langai imagines that <i>she</i> is +the only person in the house whose hand can be wooed and won."</p> + +<p>Dame Langai, with a shrug, looked incredulously round the room to see if +there was anybody else who could possibly become the object of the +baron's sighs. All at once her eyes accidentally encountered those of +Henrietta, and immediately she knew even more than her brother John did. +For she now clearly understood three things: the first was that +Henrietta had taken in John's meaning more quickly than she had done, +the second was that John had brought the suitor to the house on +Henrietta's account, and the third was that Henrietta loathed the man.</p> + +<p>She at once bade Miss Kleary give Henrietta an extra lesson on the piano +in the adjoining room, and when they had taken her at her word and +disappeared, she said to John in her usual quiet, mincing tone:</p> + +<p>"You surely do not mean to give Henrietta to that man?"</p> + +<p>"Why not, pray?"</p> + +<p>"Because she is still a mere child, a mere schoolgirl; five years hence +it will be quite time enough to provide her with a husband."</p> + +<p>"But the girl is sixteen if she is a day."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and delicate, sickly, and nervous."</p> + +<p>"She will soon be well enough when she is married."</p> + +<p>"And who, may I ask, <i>is</i> this suitor of yours. Is it not your duty, +Demetrius Lapussa, as the girl's grandfather, to make the fullest +enquiries about any man who may sue for your grand-daughter's hand? Is +it not your duty, I say, to find out who and what he is and everything +relating to him? For brother John may be very much mistaken in fancying +his dear friend to be a wealthy and amiable nobleman. Whether he be +amiable or not does not concern you personally, I know; but you ought +certainly to know how he stands, for he may have castles and mansions +and yet be up to the very ears in debt. In such a case if he is a +nobleman so much the worse for you: for he will then have all the +greater claim upon you. It may cost you dearly to admit a ruined baron +into the bosom of your family."</p> + +<p>John grew yellow with rage: "How dare you talk like that of anyone you +do not know?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Then, do you know him any better?"</p> + +<p>But here the old man intervened:</p> + +<p>"You're a fool, John," said he. "Matilda is right. I will send for my +lawyer, Mr. Sipos. He understands all about such things and will advise +us in the matter. We <i>must</i> find out how the baron stands."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>CHILDISH NONSENSE</h3> + + +<p>Meanwhile Hátszegi continued to call every day, dividing his attention +equally between the widow and Henrietta; and at the end of a fortnight +everyone was charmed with his personal qualities. It could not be denied +that he was a delightful companion, always merry, lively, frank, and +entertaining. He even made the old gentleman laugh aloud more than once; +in fact Demetrius Lapussa grew quite impatient if Hátszegi was five +minutes late. Mr. John was more delighted with him than ever. They took +walks together, invariably drove in the same carriage to the park, and +John was to be seen every night in the baron's box at the theatre, +talking at the top of his voice so that everybody might become aware of +the fact. Nay, he succeeded, through the courtesy of his new friend, in +making the acquaintance of one or two magnates who subsequently lifted +their hats to John in the street and thus gratified the dearest desire +of his heart.</p> + +<p>The enquiries made about Hátszegi also proved extremely satisfactory. He +was certainly sound and solid financially, had never had a bill +dishonoured, had no dealings with usurers, always paid cash and was +never even in temporary embarrassment, as is so often the case with most +landed proprietors when the crops fail. In fact, he seemed to have +unlimited funds constantly at his disposal and to be scarcely less +wealthy than old Lapussa himself.</p> + +<p>So far then, everything was as it should be, and everyone was enchanted +with him personally.</p> + +<p>But what of Henrietta, the intended bride?</p> + +<p>Oh! she was not even consulted in the matter; it is not usual, and +besides she had neither mind nor will enough to have a voice in so +important a matter as the disposal of her hand. Nay, she was not even +told that she was going to be married. She only got an inkling of it +from various phenomena that struck her from time to time, such as the +polite attentions of the baron, the whispering of the domestics, the +altered attitude towards her of the various members of the family—who +now addressed her in the tone you employ when speaking to a baroness +that is to be. And then there was Clementina's chatter! Clementina was +now for ever talking of all the sewing and stitching that had to be done +for the young lady, and of the frightful quantities of linen and lace +and silk that were being made up into dresses and other garments. Six +seamstresses were hard at work, she said, and she was helping them and +yet they had to make night into day in order to get the necessary things +ready in time.</p> + +<p>So gradually they accustomed her to the idea of it, till at last one +day Madame Langai took her aside and lectured her solemnly as to the +duties of women in general and of women of rank in particular, pointing +out at the same time how much such women owed to their own families for +looking after and providing for them and expressing the hope that +Henrietta would be duly grateful to the end of her days to <i>her</i> +family—from all which she was able to gather that any opposition on her +part would not be tolerated for a moment.</p> + +<p>The day was already fixed for the exchange of the bridal rings, but the +night before that day, Henrietta suddenly fell ill, and, what is more, +dangerously ill, so that they had to run off for the family physician +incontinently. The doctor was much struck by the symptoms of the illness +and the first thing he did was to make the patient swallow a lot of milk +and oil. Then he drove the servants headlong to the chemist's, and +descending into the kitchen closely examined every copper vessel there +by candle light, scolded the cook and the scullery maids till they were +in tears, and terrified Clementina by telling her she was the cause of +it all to the speechless confusion of the innocent creature. Not content +with this, he made his way at once to Mr. Demetrius's room and there +cross-examined everyone with the acerbity of an Old Bailey judge. What +had the young lady been in the habit of eating and drinking? They must +fetch what had been left over from her meals, he must see and examine +everything. What had she eaten yesterday evening? Preserves? Then what +sort of sugar was used, and where was the spoon? He insisted on seeing +everything.</p> + +<p>"But doctor," whined old Lapussa, "you surely don't mean to say that the +child has been poisoned?"</p> + +<p>"I do indeed, and with copper oxide too."</p> + +<p>"How is that possible?"</p> + +<p>"Why, simply because some of her food, preserve, for instance, has been +allowed to stand too long in a copper or silver vessel and copperas has +been developed."</p> + +<p>The old man did not know enough of chemistry to understand how copperas +could be developed from silver, but he was seriously alarmed.</p> + +<p>"I hope there's no danger?" said he.</p> + +<p>"It is a good job you sent for me when you did," replied the doctor, +"for otherwise she would have been dead before morning. Copperas is a +very dangerous poison, and if it gets into one's food in large +quantities there is practically no antidote. A vigorous constitution, +indeed, has a good chance of throwing it off; but, taking into +consideration the state of the young lady's nerves and her general +debility, I should say that her case was downright dangerous; anyhow she +will be ailing for some time."</p> + +<p>"Oh, doctor, doctor! and we all love Hetty so much, she is the very +light of our eyes! I cannot tell you how anxious I am, on her account I +should be so glad, doctor, if you could stay with her night and day and +never leave the house. I would richly recompense you."</p> + +<p>"I will do all I can, though I can't do that, and unless any unforeseen +accident arise, I think I can answer for the result. But one thing I +must insist upon, all these copper and silver vessels of yours must go +to the devil. I'll come to-morrow and examine thoroughly the whole lot +of them by daylight. The health of the family must not be endangered by +such recklessness. And let me tell your honour something else. Are you +aware that your honour's business-man, Mr. Sipos, who is only a lawyer +and, therefore, can ill afford to do so in comparison with your honour, +are you aware, I say, that he has on this very occasion sent all his +copper vessels to the lumber-room?"</p> + +<p>"On this occasion! what do you mean?" enquired the old man eagerly.</p> + +<p>"I mean that I have just come from him and a similar case has happened +in his house. His assistant—a fine young fellow, you know him, +perhaps?—has also been poisoned by copperas. I have only this instant +quitted him."</p> + +<p>"What an odd coincidence."</p> + +<p>"Very odd, indeed. Two exactly similar cases of poisoning at the same +time and all because copper vessels were used and not properly cleaned."</p> + +<p>"And how is the young man progressing? Is he out of danger?"</p> + +<p>"Fortunately; although at the outset his was an even worse case than the +young lady's. But then he is so much stronger. Well, good-bye! I will +look in again to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"But I should be so much easier, doctor, if you never left my +grandchild's side."</p> + +<p>"I would willingly do even that if I had not other patients in the town +to attend to."</p> + +<p>"Could you not entrust them to someone else?"</p> + +<p>"Impossible. My reputation would be at stake. Besides I do not often +have the chance of studying two such interesting parallel cases of +poisoning at the same time."</p> + +<p>"Very well, doctor. All I ask of you is to cure our little one."</p> + +<p>"I hope to save the pair of them. And now I'll go up and have a look at +her, and then I must return to Mr. Sipos's house. But I shall be here +again in an hour or so."</p> + +<p>And with that the old man had to be content.</p> + +<p>During the whole course of Henrietta's illness he sent to enquire after +his grandchild every hour. Clementina and an old maid-servant took it in +turns to watch by her bedside. It was strictly forbidden to leave +Henrietta alone for an instant, and Mr. Demetrius gave special orders +that her brother Koloman was not to be allowed to approach within six +paces of her bed because he was sure to bring cold air into the room, or +convey to her surreptitiously something which she ought not to have and +behave like a blockhead generally. So he was obliged to keep his +distance.</p> + +<p>At last when weeks and weeks had flown by, God and blessed nature +helped the doctor to triumph over the effects of the poison. Henrietta +slowly began to mend. She was still very weak, but the doctor assured +them that she was quite out of danger and that the little capricious +fancies of convalescence might now be safely humoured.</p> + +<p>Madame Langai, in the doctor's presence, asked the sick girl whether +there was anything in particular she would like, any food she fancied, +any pastime she preferred.</p> + +<p>The pale, delicate-looking child languidly cast down her eyes as if she +would say: "I should like to lie in the grave—deep, deep, down." But +what she really did say was: "I should like to read something. I feel so +dull."</p> + +<p>"That I cannot allow," said the doctor, "it would make your head ache, +but I have no objection to someone reading to you some nice, amusing +novel, Dickens's "Pickwick Papers," for instance, or a story of +Marryat's, something light and amusing, I mean, which will not excite +you too much."</p> + +<p>"I should like that," said Henrietta and the choice fell on the +"Pickwick Papers." But as the English governess complained that she +could never read aloud for ten minutes at a time without growing hoarse +and Clementina's eyes were too weak for any such office, it was +suggested that Margari should be asked to submit to this extra +sacrifice, and Clementina succeeded in persuading him to do so by +promising him a liberal reward. So she brought him back with her and +seated him behind a curtain so that he could not see the invalid (that +would have been scarcely proper), and put the book into his hand.</p> + +<p>But scarcely had Margari struggled through a few lines when Henrietta +again became fidgety and said she longed for something to eat. The +good-natured Clementina jumped with joy at this sign of returning +appetite, and asked her what she would like and how she would like it. +Henrietta thereupon directed her to have prepared a soup of such a +complicated character (only the morbid imagination of an invalid could +have conceived such a monstrosity), that Clementina felt obliged to +descend to the kitchen herself to superintend its concoction herself, +for it was certain that any servant would have forgotten half the +ingredients before she could get down stairs.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had Clementina shut the door behind her when Henrietta +interrupted Margari's elocution.</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake, come nearer to me," she said, "I want to speak to +you."</p> + +<p>The worthy man was so frightened by this unexpected summons that he had +half a mind to rush out and call for assistance. He fancied that the +young lady had become delirious—it was such an odd thing to ask him to +draw nearer. But the sick girl, pressing together her trembling hands, +looked at him so piteously that he could hesitate no longer but +approached her bedside.</p> + +<p>Henrietta did not scruple to seize the hand of the embarrassed +gentleman.</p> + +<p>"For God's sake, help me, my good Margari," she whispered. "I am plagued +by an anxiety which prevents me from closing my eyes. Even here when I +sleep it follows me into my dreams. You can free me from it. In you +alone have I confidence. You suffer in this house as much as I do. You +have no cause to torment or persecute me. Will you do what I ask you, my +dear, good Margari?"</p> + +<p>It occurred to Margari that the young lady was wandering in her mind, so +to humour her, he promised to do whatever she asked him without +hesitation.</p> + +<p>"I will be very good to you, I will never forget all my life long the +kindness you are about to do me."</p> + +<p>"Your humble servant, Miss! but you have always been good to me. As far +as I can remember, while the others took a delight in vexing me, you +were the only one who always took my part. I don't forget that either. +Command me! I will go through fire and water for you."</p> + +<p>"Look, then!" said the girl, drawing from her bosom a little key +attached to a black cord, "this is the key of my toilet casket. Open it +and you will find a bundle of documents tied together with a blue +ribbon, take them. All through my illness I trembled at the thought that +they might ransack my things and find them, and when I came to myself I +was worrying myself with the idea that I might perhaps have spoken about +these papers in my delirium. Oh! it would have been frightful if my +relations had seized them. Take them, quickly, before Clementina +returns. I must conceal everything, even from her."</p> + +<p>Margari accomplished the task with tolerable dexterity. He only broke +the looking-glass while he was opening the casket, and that was little +enough for him. There the documents were right enough, nicely tied +together.</p> + +<p>And then Henrietta seized his hand and pressed it so warmly and looked +at him with her lovely, piteous, imploring eyes—a very lunatic might +have been healed by such a look.</p> + +<p>"I know you for an honourable man," continued she, "promise me not to +look at these papers, but give them to my brother Koloman, he will know +what to do with them. You will do this for my sake, dear Margari, will +you not? It is just as though one of the dead were to come back to you +from the world beyond the grave and implore you, with desperate +supplications, to free its soul from a thought which rested upon it like +a curse and would not let it rest in the grave."</p> + +<p>Margari shuddered at these words. A corpse that returns from the world +beyond the grave! This young gentlewoman certainly had a terrifying +imagination. Nevertheless he swore by his hope of salvation that he +would not bestow a glance upon the papers, but would give them to young +Koloman.</p> + +<p>"Hide them, pray!"</p> + +<p>And indeed it was high time that he should bestow them in the well-like +pocket of his long coat, for Clementina's steps were already audible in +the adjoining chamber. When she appeared, however, he was sitting behind +the curtain again, reading away as if nothing had happened.</p> + +<p>When the clock struck four, at which time Koloman usually returned from +school, Henrietta said to Margari that she had had enough of +romance-reading for that day, but thanked him for his kindness and asked +him to come again on the morrow if he would be so good. Margari +protested that he should consider it the highest honour, the greatest +joy. He would willingly read even English to her, if she liked, and +without any special honorarium either, and then off he went to seek +young Koloman.</p> + +<p>Now it so happened that young Koloman did not come home at the usual +time that day, and Margari after looking for him in vain became very +curious as to the contents of the packet entrusted to him. What sort of +mysterious letters could they be which Miss Henrietta was afraid of +falling into the hands of her family. Hum! how nice it would be to find +out!</p> + +<p>The packet was tied up—naturally! But it was possible to undo and then +retie the knots in just the same way as before, so that nobody would be +any the wiser. To an honourable man, indeed, the mere knowledge that +another's secret was concealed therein which he was bidden to guard +would have been as invincible an impediment as unbreakable bolts and +bars; but the worthy fellow reassured himself with the reflection that, +after all, he was not going to tell anybody the contents of these +documents, and he so very much longed to know what it could be that Miss +Henrietta was so anxious to hide away, and old Lapussa would so much +like to find out. As if he would ever betray the secret of such a nice, +kindly creature to such an old dragon! Why, he would rather have his +tongue torn out than betray it!—but know it he must and would!</p> + +<p>So he locked himself up in his little room on the third storey, and very +cautiously opened the bundle which was enwrapped in I know not how many +folds of paper and greedily devoured the contents of the various +documents.</p> + +<p>But how great was his fury when, instead of the expected secrets, he +found nothing but dull Latin exercises, wearisome rhetorical +commonplaces on such subjects as the charms of spring and summer, the +excellence of agriculture, the advantages of knowledge, the danger of +the passions, and similar interesting themes. He was just about to tie +the bundle up again, when it occurred to him to read one of these +tiresome dissertations to the end, just to see what sort of style the +young scholar affected. And now a great surprise awaited him, for he +found that after the first five or six lines the theme suddenly broke +off and there followed something altogether different, which though also +written in the Latin tongue had nothing whatever to do, either with the +beauties of spring or the excellencies of agriculture, but was, +nevertheless, of the most interesting and engrossing character.</p> + +<p>Now, indeed, he read every one of the exercises from beginning to end, +and, when he had done so, he clearly perceived that if old Demetrius +Lapussa had very particular reasons for ferreting out these things, Miss +Henrietta had still greater reason for concealing them.</p> + +<p>After having neatly tied up the packet again, he bethought him what he +had better do next. Miss Henrietta had confided the secret to his +safe-keeping, but Mr. Demetrius had commanded him to keep an eye upon +Koloman and his Latin exercises—which of them had the best right to +command in that house? But was it right to divulge a secret? Ah! that +was another question. It is true that, as a general rule, it is wrong to +betray secrets; yet, it is nevertheless true, that to betray a secret +that ought to be known is at least justifiable. Moreover, was it not a +Christian duty to let the grandfather know as soon as possible what +extraordinary things his granddaughter was turning over in her noddle? +And finally—there was money in it!—good solid cash! If old Lapussa did +not choose to pay a price for it, and a liberal price too, he should be +told nothing at all and Margari would show the old miser that he had a +man of character to deal with. For after all poor Margari had to live, +and this was worth as much as a thousand florins to him or its +equivalent anyhow. Surely Miss Henrietta could not be so unreasonable as +to expect poor Margari to chuck such a piece of good fortune out of the +window, especially as she had given him nothing herself.</p> + +<p>At that moment someone knocked at the door and enquired whether Mr. +Margari was there.</p> + +<p>Margari was so frightened that he bawled out: "No, I am not!"—so of +course he was obliged to open the door, but he concealed the packet of +letters in his pocket first.</p> + +<p>It was the lacquey who came to ask whether Mr. Margari was aware that it +was past seven o'clock; he must come and read to the old gentleman.</p> + +<p>Margari could not endure to hear the domestics speaking to him +familiarly.</p> + +<p>"Seven o'clock! What do you mean?" said he. "Am I bound to know when it +is seven o'clock? Am I a clockmaker or a bell-ringer? If your master +wants me to know what a clock it is, let him send me, not a lacquey, but +a gold repeater watch!"</p> + +<p>And salving his wounded dignity with these and similar effusions, +Margari trotted alongside the lacquey to the room of Mr. Demetrius, to +whom he immediately notified the change in the situation by sinking +down into a soft and cosey arm-chair instead of sitting down on the edge +of the hard leather-chair, expressly provided for him.</p> + +<p>Demetrius measured him from head to foot with his terrible eagle eyes +and observed in an even more stridently moral voice than usual: "Well, +Margari, when are we going to have our novel reading?"</p> + +<p>"We will have our reading presently, but it won't be a novel to-day."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, sir?"</p> + +<p>"I humbly beg to remind your honour that you were pleased to commission +me to lay hands upon certain Latin exercises of your grandson Koloman. I +humbly beg to inform you that they are now in my possession."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said old Lapussa, with a forced assumption of <i>sang froid</i>, "you +may give them to me to-morrow, I will look them through."</p> + +<p>"Crying your honour's pardon, they are in Latin."</p> + +<p>"Well, I can get someone to look them through for me."</p> + +<p>"I beg humbly to represent that it would not be well to put them into +anybody's hands, for strange things are contained therein."</p> + +<p>"What!" cried the old man angrily, "you don't mean to say <i>you</i> have +looked into them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have read them all through."</p> + +<p>"I did not tell you to do that."</p> + +<p>"No, but you were graciously pleased <i>not</i> to forbid me to do so. Now, +I know everything. I know the cause of the young lady's illness. I know +why she does not wish to become the wife of Count Hátszegi. Nay, I even +know what will happen in case she does. I know all that I say—and here +it is in my pocket."</p> + +<p>"And what presumption on your part to read other people's letters!"</p> + +<p>"I beg your honour's pardon, but it is not presumption; I only wanted to +know the value of the wares I have obtained for your honour. I wanted to +know whether they were worth one florin, two florins, a hundred florins, +a thousand florins, lest you should do me the favour to say to me: +'look, ye, Margari, my son, here are some coppers, go and drink my +health!'—and so get the better of me."</p> + +<p>"You are becoming impertinent! Do you want me to ring for the footman?"</p> + +<p>"Pray do not give yourself the trouble! If you are determined to take +the documents away from me by force I will fling them into the fire that +is burning there on the hearth before the footman can come in and there +will be an end to them."</p> + +<p>"Then it is money you want, eh? How much?"</p> + +<p>This question made Margari still more bumptious.</p> + +<p>"How much do I want? A good deal, a very good deal, I can tell you. In +fact I cannot tell at present how much."</p> + +<p>But then he suddenly reassumed his obsequious cringing mien and added: +"I tell you what, your honour, procure me some petty office at Count +Hátszegi's. I don't care what it is, so long as I get a life-long +sinecure—suppose we say his bailiff, or his librarian, or his +secretary? A single word from your honour would do it."</p> + +<p>An idea suddenly occurred to Mr. Demetrius.</p> + +<p>"Very good, Margari, very good. So it shall be. I give you my word upon +it—you shall be Hátszegi's secretary."</p> + +<p>"But it must be life-long. I humbly beg of you, it must be till the term +not of his but of my natural life."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, till the term of your natural life."</p> + +<p>"But if he won't have it?"</p> + +<p>"I'll pay you myself. You shall receive your regular salary from me +without including whatever you may get over and above from him. Will you +be satisfied with a yearly salary of three hundred florins with your +board and keep?"</p> + +<p>At these words Margari's breath failed him. It was not without +difficulty that he put the rapacious question: "Will your honour do me +the favour to give me this promise in writing?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly! Bring writing materials and I will dictate it to you on the +spot."</p> + +<p>And so an agreement was duly drawn up whereby Mr. Margari, in +consideration of a yearly salary of 300 florins to be punctually sent to +him at the beginning of every quarter, undertook in his capacity of +secretary to Baron Hátszegi, to keep his Honour Demetrius Lapussa +informed of all that he saw and heard at the residence of that +gentleman, Henrietta's future husband, and this obligation of +maintaining Margari was to be transferred on the death of Mr. Demetrius +to his son John. And no doubt Mr. Demetrius knew very well what he was +about.</p> + +<p>This document signed and sealed, Mr. Margari, with the greatest +alacrity, produced the Latin exercises in question, first of all, +however, respectfully kissing the hand of his patron.</p> + +<p>It took till midnight to read and translate all these documents one by +one. Mr. Demetrius was very well satisfied with the result, that is to +say so far as concerned the fidelity of the translation,—with the tenor +of the original text he had not the slightest reason to be pleased.</p> + +<p>When, shortly after midnight, these revelations were concluded, Mr. +Demetrius commanded Margari to go up into his room and have a complete +translation of all this Latin rigmarole written down in honest Hungarian +by the morning and to encourage him in his task he gave him two guldens +and an order on the butler for as much punch as he could drink. By the +morning all the punch was drunk, but the translation also was finished, +to the tune of bacchanalian songs which Margari kept up with great +spirit all night long.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Next day, punctually at the appointed hour, the lawyer, Mr. Sipos, +appeared at the house of the Lapussas, with the necessary documents +neatly tied up with tape, under his arm as usual; he was not like our +modern lawyers who carry their masterpieces in portfolios as if they are +ashamed of them. The only persons in the reception room besides the old +man, were Madame Langai and Mr. John. Henrietta, still an invalid, had +been allowed to take a stroll to the woods near the town in order to +visit her favourite flowers once more and possibly take leave of them +for ever. She had received no invitation-card for this lecture. Why, +indeed, should a bride know anything of her bridegroom's biography +before marriage! The lawyer took his place at the table, untied his pile +of documents and began to read.</p> + +<p>It appeared from these documents that the founder of the Hátszegi +family, the great grandfather of the present baron, was one Mustafa, who +had been a Defterdar<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> at Stamboul, and had used his unrivalled +opportunities for making money so well that he found it expedient to fly +from Jassy to Transylvania, where he made haste to get baptized and +naturalized. His son, now an Hungarian nobleman, cut a fine figure at +court and gallantly distinguished himself in the Turkish wars against +his former compatriots, his exploits winning for him the estate of +Hidvár and the title of baron. His son again was a miser of the first +water who could be enticed neither to court nor into the houses of his +neighbours. He was continually scraping money together and was not over +particular in the choice of his scraper. By adroit chicanery he acquired +possession of the gold mines of Verespatak, which he exploited with +immense advantage, and by means of money lending and mortgages got into +his hands the vast estate of Hátszegi in the counties of Hunyad and +Feher, so that when he died it took thirty heavy wagons to convey his +ready money in gold and silver alone from the Vadormi caverns, where he +had concealed it to the castle of Hidvár, which his only son, Leonard, +chose as his residence after his father's death. All these details were +certified by unimpeachable documents in schedules B. C. and D.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The chief of the financial department in the Turkish +vilagets.</p></div> + +<p>Moreover, the blood of many nationalities circulated in the veins of +Baron Leonard. The Defterdar himself was a Turk of Roumelian origin, +whose only son was the child of his Hindu concubine. He again married +the daughter of a Polish countess at the court of Vienna. The wife of +Baron Leonard's father was a wallachized Hungarian lady, whom he married +for her wealth. It was not wonderful, therefore, if the noble baron +possessed the qualities of five distinct races. Thus he had something of +the voluptuousness of the Turk, the ostentation of the Hindu, the +flightiness of the Pole, the foolhardiness of the Hungarian, and the +obstinacy of the Wallach.</p> + +<p>"For, I speak of his faults first," the lawyer proceeded, "because I +consider that they outweigh his good qualities. That the baron is a +rich man is evident from the accounts and inventories classed under +schedule E; that the baron is a handsome man is evident from the +photograph under schedule H; that the baron is physically sound is clear +from the certificates annexed to schedules I and K, one of which is +supplied by his physician and the other by his hunting comrades. Those +who require nothing from a man save health, wealth, strength, and +beauty, will of course consider him fit and proper to make a woman +happy. Yet having regard to the following facts (1) that the aforesaid +baron is not merely unstable in love affairs but capricious to the verge +of eccentricity, and a winebibber and gourmand to boot; (2) that he is +as vain as an Indian prince who takes unto him a wife for the mere pomp +and show of the thing; (3) that he is violent and brutal, sparing nobody +in his sudden fits of passion and, as the documents testify, has +frequently inflicted mortal injuries on those who have come in his way +while he was in an ill-humour; (4) that he has an odd liking for rowdy +adventures, which do not reflect much credit upon him; and (5) that, +according to the whispers of those nearest to him there is a strange +mystery pervading his whole life, inasmuch as mysterious disappearances, +which nobody can make head or tail of, occupy an incalculable number of +his days and weeks which remain unaccounted for, and make a pretty +considerable hiatus in every year of his life—taking all these things +into consideration, I am constrained to give it as my opinion that I do +not consider such a man a fit and proper husband for such a tender, +sympathetic young lady as the Miss Henrietta in question, and let the +world if it likes consider such a match as the greatest piece of good +fortune imaginable, I, for my part, would nevertheless call it a +calamity to be avoided at any price. And now would you do me the honour +to examine the original documents I have brought with me as exhibits in +corroboration of my statements—though I would mention," he quickly +added, perceiving that Madame Langai had greedily clutched hold of them, +"that among those documents there are sundry by no means suited for a +lady's perusal."</p> + +<p>"When I come across any such I will pass them over," said she. Of course +these were the very passages she proceeded to search for straight away.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Mr. Demetrius also had drawn a packet of papers from +underneath the cushions of his sofa and handed them to Mr. Sipos.</p> + +<p>"Then you do not advise me to give Henrietta to Baron Hátszegi to wife? +Good! And now, perhaps, while we run through the exhibits and schedules, +perhaps you'll be so good as to cast your eye over these papers. I don't +think they will bore you."</p> + +<p>These documents, by the way, were the Latin documents discovered by Mr. +Margari—<i>in natura</i>.</p> + +<p>Mr. John was marching pettishly up and down the room, and Madame Langai +was reading her documents with the greatest attention so that nobody +observed the surprise, the confusion reflected in the countenance of the +lawyer as he looked through the fatal Latin manuscripts. He kept shaking +his head and twisting his moustache right and left, fidgeted in his +armchair, and the beads of perspiration which stood out on his forehead +gave him enough to do to wipe them away with his pocket-handkerchief; at +last he had read the papers, and then he laid the whole bundle on the +table and stared silently before him like one whose reason for the +moment had no counsel to give him.</p> + +<p>Just about the same time Madame Langai had completed the perusal of +<i>her</i> documents, and now she too seemed to be in an extreme state of +agitation. During the course of her reading, she had been unable to +restrain herself from exclaiming at intervals: "the monster! the +scoundrel!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Demetrius had been amusing himself all this time by carefully +observing the various mutations of expression in the faces of the +readers, which certainly afforded considerable entertainment to an +onlooker with any sense of humour.</p> + +<p>When every document had produced its expression, he remarked in a soft +gentle voice: "Well, my daughter, what do <i>you</i> think of the affair?"</p> + +<p>Madame Langai clapped to her eyeglass and, with the air of one who had +made up his mind once for all, replied instantly: "I would not allow a +decent chambermaid to become Baron Hátszegi's wife, let alone a +Henrietta Lapussa."</p> + +<p>"And what is your opinion, Mr. Lawyer?" enquired the old man turning to +Mr. Sipos.</p> + +<p>"I?" replied the honest man, visibly perturbed, with a voice full of +emotion: "I would advise that the young lady should be married to the +baron as quickly as possible."</p> + +<p>Madame Langai regarded him with wide-open eyes.</p> + +<p>"What! After all that is in these papers?"</p> + +<p>"No, after all that is in those other documents."</p> + +<p>"What are they?" cried Madame Langai pouncing upon them incontinently +and extremely vexed, the next moment, to find them all written in Latin. +She perceived that they were Koloman's exercises, and that was all. She +did not understand their connection with the case in point.</p> + +<p>"I'll take those documents back please," said old Demetrius, stretching +out a skinny hand towards them. "They will be of use to us though I have +a translation of them besides. Then, you think, Mr. Lawyer, it will be +as well to marry Henrietta to the baron, eh? Very well! Let me add that +on the day when Henrietta goes to the altar with Baron Leonard, I will +make you a present of all this scribble. Till then I shall require them. +Do you understand?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Sipos was completely beaten; you might have knocked him down with a +feather. He had never been so badly worsted in his professional +capacity. Madame Langai would have besieged him with questions, but he +avoided her, put on his hat and departed.</p> + +<p>Madame Langai thereupon turned to her father: "What is the cause of this +wondrous change?" she cried. "What secrets do those miraculous papers +contain?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Demetrius tucked the documents in question well beneath him and +replied: "They contain secrets the discovery whereof will be a great +misfortune and yet a great benefit to the parties concerned."</p> + +<p>"Have they any connection with Henrietta's wedding?"</p> + +<p>"They have a direct bearing thereupon, and, indeed, necessitate it!"</p> + +<p>"Poor girl!" sighed Madame Langai.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. Sipos passed by his own dwelling three times before he knew that he +had reached home, so confused was he by what he had just learnt. When he +<i>did</i> get inside the house he walked for a long time up and down his +consulting room as if he were trying to find a beginning for a business +he would very much have liked to be at the end of. At last he gave the +bellrope a very violent pull and told the clerk who answered the bell to +send him his assistant, Mr. Szilard, at once.</p> + +<p>Szilard appeared on the very heels of the messenger. His was one of +those faces which women never forget. There was ardent passion in every +feature and the large flaming black eyes, which spoke of courage and +high enthusiasm, harmonized so well with the wan hue of the pallid face.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear fellow, do you feel quite well again now?" asked Mr. +Sipos in a tone of friendly familiarity; "did the doctor call to see you +to-day?"</p> + +<p>"I have no need of him, there's nothing the matter with me."</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay! Not so reckless! You have been working again, I see. You know +the doctor has forbidden it."</p> + +<p>"I only work to distract my thoughts."</p> + +<p>"You should seek amusement rather. Why don't you mix in society like +other young men? Why don't you frequent the coffee-houses and go to a +dance occasionally? Why, you slave away like a street-porter! Young +blood needs relaxation."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am all right. My dear uncle, you are very kind, but you worry +about me more than I deserve."</p> + +<p>"That is my duty, my dear nephew. Don't you know that your poor father +confided you to my care on his death-bed, bade me be a father to you. +Don't you remember?"</p> + +<p>"I do," replied the young man, and catching hold of his guardian's hand +he pressed it, murmuring in a scarcely audible voice: "You have indeed +been a second father to me!"</p> + +<p>But Mr. Sipos tore his hand passionately from the young man's grasp and +said in a somewhat rougher tone: "But suppose your dead father were to +say: 'That is not true! You have <i>not</i> watched over my son as a father +should! You have lightly left him to himself. He was in danger and you +were unaware of it. He hovered on the edge of the abyss and you were +blind and saw nothing. And if God and my dead hand had not defended him, +he would have become a suicide and you knew it not—wherefore?'"—</p> + +<p>The young man trembled at these words, he grew even paler than before +and gazed with a look of stupefaction at his chief. Then the old man +approached him, and took him by the hand as if he would say: "I am going +to scold you, but fear nothing. I am on your side."</p> + +<p>"My dear Szilard," said he, "don't you recollect that when you were a +little child and did anything you should not have done, and your father +questioned you about it, did he not always say to you: 'when you have +done wrong and are ashamed to confess it, keep silence! press your teeth +together! but don't lie, don't deny it, never think of taking refuge +behind any false excuse, for your name is Szilard,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> and cowardice does +not become the bearer of such a name!' You understood him. You acted as +he would have had you act. And now I also would remind you once more +that you were christened Szilard and I ask you therefore to listen +calmly to what I am about to say to you. Don't interrupt, don't attempt +to deceive me. If you don't want to answer my questions, simply shake +your head! And now sit down, my son! You are still barely convalescent. +Your head is weak and what I have to say to you might very well make it +reel again."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Strong, firm.</p></div> + +<p>Then the old lawyer tenderly pressed the youth into a chair and sighing +deeply, thus continued: "You fell in love with the daughter of a great +family and she with you. You got acquainted at a dance and the intimacy +did not stop there. Every conceivable obstacle intervened between you, +but love is artful and inventive and you found a way. The rich girl had +a neglected brother whom his relations sent to the grammar school and +the rascal frequently took refuge with me, the family attorney, when he +was ill-treated at home, and here you came across him. You cared for him +and explained to him the difficulties in his lessons which he was unable +to do for himself. The boy grew very fond of you. He spoke to you of +your beloved, and he spoke to her of you, and he was always praising +each of you to the other. The grandfather, the uncle, the aunt, the +governess, the domestics who never took their eyes off the girl for an +instant, had no idea that she was already involved in a love affair. But +amazing is the ingenuity of love and lovers! You knew that none of the +older members of the family understood the classical language of the +orators, and the girl loved so dearly that she did not consider it too +great a labour to learn a dead tongue which could be of no further use +to her in order to be able to say to her beloved: <i>Ego te in aeternum +amabo!</i> One must admit that that was a great and noble sacrifice. Every +day you corresponded with each other. Before school time the girl +dictated his lessons to her young brother, beginning with the usual +scholastic flowers of rhetoric but ending in the passionate voice of +love, and after school was over, you, in your turn dictated a similar +lesson for the lad to carry back with him. Naturally, <i>this</i> lesson book +he <i>never</i> took to school with him; you kept the other here, the genuine +one which he had to show to his masters. And this ingenious smuggling +was carried on beneath the very eyes of the family without their +perceiving it. Yet at last it <i>was</i> discovered. This very day, only an +hour ago, the old head of the family placed these papers in my hands +that I might read them, informing me at the same time that he had +already read a translation of them. Terrible were the things I +discovered in these papers. The appearance of a rich and noble suitor +who, according to the notions of the world, was just made for the girl, +frustrated all your plans of waiting patiently for better times. The +family forced this union upon the girl. You, in your despair, racked +your brain as to what you should do. At first you resolved upon an +elopement, but the redoubled vigilance with which every step of the +young girl was watched made this impossible. Then a black and terrible +thought occurred to you both. You resolved to kill yourselves—it was +your one remaining means of deliverance. Yes, you resolved to kill +yourselves at once, on the self-same day, in the self-same manner. For +many days you deliberated together as to the best way of accomplishing +your design. Great caution was necessary. You had to pick your words +lest the little brother who wrote them down from dictation should have +guessed your intentions. The girl asked you, at last, to send her a book +on natural science. You sent it to her. She, with the help of it tried +to find out what sorts of poisons could be most easily procured. For two +whole days you deliberated together as to the best way of obtaining +matches, the phosphorus of which is the most efficacious of poisons. But +in vain. In great houses only the domestics have charge of the matches, +it was impossible to get any. At last the girl hit on an expedient. She +discovered that if you put a copper coin in a glass dish and pour strong +vinegar over it, verdegris will be formed and verdegris is poison. Your +minds were at once made up. The girl prepared poison for herself and +taught you to do the same. . . . Merciful Heaven! what notions children +do get into their heads to be sure."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>SHE IS NOT FOR YOU</h3> + + +<p>Up to this moment the youth had listened to the lecture in silence, but +now he arose and said in a calm clear voice: "'Tis all true; it is so!"</p> + +<p>"I should say it was all very bad, very bad indeed!" said the lawyer +vehemently, as if completing a broken sentence. "What! Children to +meditate suicide because things in this world don't go exactly according +to their liking! Have you never regarded the affair from its practical +side? Did you imagine that the girl's relations would support you? And +would you yourself endure to be their pensioner, their butt, the scorn +of the very domestics, for a poor son-in-law is the standing jest of the +very flunkeys—you ought to know that!"</p> + +<p>Szilard's face burned like fire at these words, but the old man hastened +to soothe him.</p> + +<p>"No, you could never reconcile yourself to that, I am sure. But you +thought, perhaps, that the girl might descend to your level and share +your poverty. There are in the world many a poor lad and lass who endow +one another with nothing but their ardent love and yet make happy +couples enough. So, no doubt, you argued, and herein lies the fallacy +that has deceived you. If you had been enamoured of a poor girl, I +should have said: it is rather early to think of marriage, but if it be +God's will, take her! Work and fight your way through the world where +there is room enough for every one. The lass, too, is used to +deprivation, and you are also. She will be content with little. She can +sew, she will do your cooking for you, and, if need be, your washing +likewise! She can make one penny go as far as two. When there is a lot +to do she will sing to make the work lighter, and when your supper is +slender, her good humour and her loving embraces will make it more. But +my dear boy! how are you going to make a poor housewife out of a girl +who has been rich? How can she ever feel at home in a wretched, +out-of-the-way shanty, where she will not even have you always by her +side, for you will have to be looking after your daily bread? She will +say nothing, she will make no complaint, but you will perceive that she +misses something. She will not ask you for a new dress, but you will see +that the one she wears is shabby and it would break your heart to +reflect that you have fettered the girl you love to your step-motherly +destiny, and your manly pride would one day blush for the recklessness +which led you to drag her down with you."</p> + +<p>"My dear guardian," said Szilard, "to prove to you that I did think of +all these things let me tell you that I have put by from my salary and +commissions enough to enable us to live comfortably for at least a +twelvemonth. For a whole year I have lived on two pence a day in order +to save, and during all that time I am sure you have not heard from me +one word of complaint."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sipos was horrified. It was an even worse case than he had imagined. +What! to live for a whole year on two pence a day in order to scrape +together a small capital for one's beloved! It would be very difficult +to cure a madness which took such a practical turn as this!</p> + +<p>"But my dear boy!" he resumed, "what is the good of it all? What can you +do now that your secrets are discovered? It would have served you right +if the girl's parents had proceeded against you on a charge of murder, +for you were an accomplice in this poisoning business; but I am pretty +sure they will only threaten to do so in case she refuses the baron. And +what, pray, can you do in case they thus compel her to become his wife?"</p> + +<p>"Whoever the baron may be," rejoined Szilard, "I suppose he is at least +a gentleman; and if a woman looks him straight in the face on the +wedding day and says to him: 'I cannot love you because I love another +and always will love another,'—I cannot think he will be so devoid of +feeling as to make her his wife notwithstanding."</p> + +<p>"And if she does not say this, but voluntarily gives him her hand in +order to save you from the persecutions of her family, what then?"</p> + +<p>"Hearken, my dear guardian! She may be compelled to write to me that +she loves me no more and I must forget her, but I shall not believe it +till she pronounces or writes down a word the meaning of which only we +two understand and nobody else in the world can discover. So long as +this one word does not get into the possession of a third person, I +shall know that she has not broken with me and no power in this world +shall tear her from my heart. She may be silent, because she is not free +to speak; she may speak because she is commanded to speak; yet, for all +that, this religiously guarded word tells me what she really feels—and +what no other human intelligence can understand. If you like, my dear +guardian, you may betray this confession of mine to Henrietta's +relatives and they will torment the girl till they get her to pronounce +the mysterious word which once pronounced will burst the bonds that +unite us. She will be driven to say something. But oh! women who love +are very crafty. The word they will report to me will not be the right +one. It is possible, too, that they may take her far away from me. Let +them guard her well I say, let those who watch over her never close an +eye. And if they give her a husband, they had best pray for his life for +they know not what a fated thing it is to give away in marriage a girl +who bears about in her heart the secret of a third person."</p> + +<p>"My dear young friend, I see that we shall not come to an understanding +with each other. You are bent upon plunging into ruin a poor +defenceless girl in the name of what you call love, and will not +renounce, though you have not the slightest hope of winning her—that I +do not understand. I, on the other hand, am the legal adviser of the +young lady's family, and, in that capacity, I considered it my duty to +protest very energetically against the match in question. But when they +placed those precious papers in my hands, I said at once that they must +marry her to this man in any case. Otherwise they would have fancied I +was advocating your crazy hopes, that I was an interested party and +simply opposed the family candidate in order to smuggle in a kinsman of +my own in his stead. That idea I was determined to knock out of their +heads, happen what would. But that of course you do not understand. And +now you had better return to your room. Destiny will one day explain to +all of us what we do not understand now."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At about the same hour the second act of this drama was proceeding in +the torture-chamber of the Lapussa family.</p> + +<p>Henrietta had returned home from her little tour laden with flowers, +when old Demetrius sent word to her that he would like to see her in his +room. He had taken the precaution of sending Madame Langai away shortly +before and Mr. John was absent at the Corn Exchange.</p> + +<p>"My little maid, Hetty, come nearer to me," said the old gentleman, +turning sideways on his couch and ferreting out from beneath his +pillows a concave snuff-box, "pray do not be angry with me for putting +you to inconvenience. Bear with me for the little time I have still to +live. But if you find living under the same roof with me unendurable, +all the greater reason for you to seize the opportunity of releasing +yourself as quickly as possible."</p> + +<p>Henrietta was too much used to these choleric outbursts to think of +replying to them.</p> + +<p>"Pray, put your hand beneath my pillow. You will find a packet of papers +there. Take them out and look at them."</p> + +<p>Henrietta did with stolid indifference what the old man bade her and +drew forth from this peculiar repository—which served as a sort of lair +for snuff-boxes, pill-boxes and odd bits of pastry—a large bundle of +manuscripts which she recognized at the first glance. The apprehended +papers, which during her illness had prevented her from sleeping, which +had made it impossible for her to get well, were now in the possession +of him from whom she had been most anxious to conceal them. The criminal +stood face to face with the witness whose damning evidence was to +condemn her. There was no escape, no defence.</p> + +<p>"My little maid," said the old man, exultantly stuffing his eagle nose +full of that infernal heating material which goes by the name of snuff, +"don't be angry with me for directing your attention to this scribble. I +don't want to make any use of it. I know quite enough of it already, +but be so good as to listen to me!"</p> + +<p>Henrietta absolutely could not look away from her grandfather's +blood-shot eyes; it seemed to her as if those eyes must gradually bore +through to her very heart.</p> + +<p>"You won't marry an eminent and wealthy man who bestows an honour upon +your family by asking for your hand, and yet you would run away with a +worthless fellow who does not even know why he was put into the world, +and when your family steps in to prevent it, you would violently put +yourself to death in order to die with him, to our eternal shame and +dishonour. That was not nice of you. But sit down. I see you are all of +a tremble. I would fetch you a chair myself if it was not for this +infernal gout of mine."</p> + +<p>Henrietta accepted the invitation and sat down, otherwise she must have +collapsed.</p> + +<p>"Now look ye, my dear little girl! if you had to deal with an +unmerciful, austere old fellow, a veritable old tiger, in fact, as I +have no doubt you fancy I am, he would make no bones about it but pack +you straight off to a nunnery and so cut you off from the world for +ever."</p> + +<p>Henrietta sighed. Such a threat as that sounded to her like a +consolation.</p> + +<p>"In the second place, an old tyrant, such as I am imagining, would have +sent that rip of a brother of yours, who is not ashamed to lend a hand +in the seduction of his own sister, would have sent him, I say, to a +reformatory. I may tell you there are several such institutions, +celebrated for their rigour, whither it is usual to send precocious and +incorrigible young scapegraces. And richly he would have deserved it, +too."</p> + +<p>"Poor Koloman!" thought the little sister. They were tenderly devoted to +each other.</p> + +<p>"In the third place, our old tiger would have prosecuted at law that +reckless youth who had a share in this fine suicide project of yours. +For death, my dear, is no plaything and jests with poison are strictly +forbidden. He would certainly be condemned to hard labour for five or +six years, which would be a very wholesome lesson for him."</p> + +<p>"Grandfather!" screamed the tortured child. This last allusion dissolved +her voice in tears. She fell down on her knees before him and shed +innocent tears enough on his hand to wash out all the old specks and +stains on it.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see those tears, my dear little girl, they show that you +have confidence in me. I am not a tiger who eats little children, what I +have said <i>might</i> happen but I don't say it necessarily <i>must</i>. I don't +want to be cruel and vindictive. I don't want to recollect anything of +the insults showered upon me in that scribble of yours, all I ask of you +is that you will not stand in your own way. Get up and don't cry any +more or you will be ill again. Go up into your own room and ponder +deeply what you ought to do! In two hours' time I shall send for you +again, and in the meantime make up your mind about it. You have the +choice between accepting as your husband an honourable gentleman of +becoming rank and at the same time renouncing and forgetting a fellow +who will never be able to raise himself to your level, or of taking the +veil and bidding good-bye to this world. In the latter case, however, +your brother will be sent to a reformatory and an action will be +commenced against your accomplice. It is for you to choose. You have two +whole hours to turn the matter over in your mind. In the meantime I +shall send for my lawyer and, according to your decision, I shall get +him to draw up a marriage contract or a summons to the criminal court. +It all depends upon you. And now put back those documents beneath my +head. Remember that you will only receive them back from me as a bridal +gift. Go now to your own room and reflect. For two hours nobody shall +disturb you."</p> + +<p>The girl mechanically complied with his commands. She put back the +ominous documents in their receptacle and withdrew to her room. There +she stood in front of a vase of flowers and regarded their green leaves +for an hour without moving. In the vase was a fine specimen of one of +those wondrous tropical plants whose leaves never fall off, one of those +plants which the seasons leave unchanged and which, therefore, is such a +beautiful emblem of constancy. This beautiful plant has a peculiar +property. If one of its compact shining leaves be planted in the earth +it takes root and grows into a shrub whose fragrant wax-like flowers +diffuse an enchanting perfume. Three years before at a jurists' ball, +when Henrietta and Szilard met for the first time, he had given her a +bouquet, among the flowers of which was one of these green-gold leaves, +and when she got home she had planted it in a jar and it had taken root, +spread its shoots abroad and grown larger and larger every year. And +Henrietta had called it Szilard and watched over its growth and cared +for it as if it had been a living human creature. For a long time she +stood before this flowering plant as if she would have spoken to it and +taken counsel of it. At last she turned away and with her hands behind +her head, she walked slowly up and down the room, and as often as she +paused before the vase, she behaved like one whose heart is breaking. +But time was hastening on, an hour is so short when one would have it +stay. Alas! nowhere was there any help, any refuge. She was abandoned. +She had nothing in the world but this one flowering plant which she +called Szilard. And the moments swiftly galloping after one another +called for a decision. There must be an end to it. Once more she +approached her darling plant and kissed all the leaves of its beautiful +flowers one by one. And now there came a knock at the door. Mr. +Demetrius's messenger had come and a cold shudder ran through the girl's +tender frame. "I am coming!" she cried. The next moment not a tear was +to be seen on her face, nay, not a trace of sorrow, or fear, but only +snow-white tranquillity.</p> + +<p>All the members of the family were assembled together again in +grandpapa's room. Mr. Sipos was also present, he had been told all about +the business.</p> + +<p>"Well my dear little grandchild," said Mr. Demetrius, motioning +Henrietta to take her place at the table with the others, "have you made +up your mind?"</p> + +<p>"I have."</p> + +<p>"Veil or myrtle wreath?"</p> + +<p>"I will be married."</p> + +<p>"To the baron?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the girl in a strangely calm and courageous tone, "but I +also have my conditions to impose."</p> + +<p>"Let us hear them."</p> + +<p>"In the first place I must be sure that my brother Koloman will not be +persecuted. I suppose you will not let him come with me?"</p> + +<p>"No, that one thing cannot be allowed."</p> + +<p>"But I cannot let him remain here. Send him to some other town. You are +always talking of your rank and riches, give him an education to +correspond."</p> + +<p>The child in those two hours had grown older by ten years, she now spoke +to the other members of the family with the air of a matron.</p> + +<p>"Agreed!" cried Mr. Demetrius. "Besides it will be much better if we do +not see him."</p> + +<p>"My second request is that I may take the furniture I have been used to +and my flowers along with me to the place where I have to go."</p> + +<p>"Granted, a harmless feminine caprice. Be it so!"</p> + +<p>"In the third place I should like the papers grandfather knows of to be +given back to him whom it most concerns."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Mr. Demetrius, "I promised, did I not, that it should +form part of your marriage portion. Mr. Sipos, would you be so good as +to place these documents in the hands—of the proper person?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Sipos bowed and promised to carry out the mournful commission.</p> + +<p>"And now, my girl, the marriage-contract is before you, the baron has +already signed it and awaits your decision in the adjoining room. Show +us what a nice hand you can write."</p> + +<p>And Henrietta did show it. She signed her name there in such pretty +little delicately rounded letters that it looked as if some fairy had +breathed a spell upon the page.</p> + +<p>"And just one thing more, my dear young lady," put in Mr. Sipos +politely, "while the pen is still in your hand, would you be so good as +to write down on the cover of the returned documents a particular word, +that particular word, I mean, which is known only to yourself and one +other person in the world, as a proof that your renunciation is genuine +and irrevocable."</p> + +<p>The girl fixed her mysterious black eyes for a long time on those of +the lawyer. It was in her power to deceive him if she would and he knew +it well. At last she gently stooped over the bundle of papers and +pressing down the pen with unusual firmness she wrote that barbarously +sounding name of a beautiful bright star: "Mesarthim" and then quietly +laid down the pen. There was not the slightest sign of agitation in her +face. Could it be the right word?</p> + +<p>"And now the bridegroom can come in and the necessary pre-nuptial legal +formalities can be carried out."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When Mr. Sipos got home he went straight up to the room of his young +protegé.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," said he, "I have brought you some medicine. As you +know, medicine is generally nasty and bitter, but perhaps none the worse +on that account. As I said beforehand, the young lady reconsidered her +position, chose the better way and consented to the marriage with the +baron. The betrothal is an accomplished fact and they signed the +marriage contract before my eyes."</p> + +<p>"Doubtless," returned Szilard coldly.</p> + +<p>"My friend, the girl did not make such a sour face over it as you are +doing. She was strong-minded and decided. I was amazed at the composure +with which she addressed her family, she was like the capitulating +commandant of a fortress dictating the terms of surrender. Not a tear +did she shed in their presence and yet I believe she suffered."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she has lots of courage."</p> + +<p>"I wish you had as much. Here is your absurd scribble, its surrender was +one of the conditions imposed. I am glad these mischievous exercises are +safely in our hands again. Don't bother your head about them any more! +The girl is going away, you will remain here, in a year's time you will +have forgotten each other."</p> + +<p>Szilard smiled frostily.</p> + +<p>"And that word which binds us together or tears us asunder?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I thought of that, too. She looked me straight in the eyes for a +long time when I asked for it and I told her I wanted the real, the +genuine word. She has written it on the back of these papers, look!"</p> + +<p>Szilard stretched forth a tremulous hand towards the papers, seized +them, turned them round, and cast one look at the word written there and +then fell at full length on the floor, striking his head against the +corner of the table so that the blood flowed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sipos, cursing the whole stupid business and wishing the papers at +the bottom of the sea, raised the young man tenderly and bathed his head +with cold water. He did not call for assistance (why should the whole +world be taken into his confidence?), but when the youth came to again, +he soothed and consoled him with loving words. And Szilard, unable to +contain himself any longer, hid his head in the good old man's bosom, +pressed his lips to his hand and wept long and bitterly.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A fortnight later the marriage of Baron Hátszegi and Henrietta Lapussa +was solemnized with great pomp and befitting splendour. The bride bore +herself bravely throughout the ceremony, and they tell me that her lace +and her diamonds were fully described in all the fashionable papers.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>BRINGING HOME THE BRIDE</h3> + + +<p>In those days there were no railways in Hungary. It took a whole week to +travel post from Pest to the depths of Transylvania, with relays of +horses provided beforehand at every station. On the very day after the +wedding the young bride set out on her journey. She had only stipulated +that they should set off very early before anyone was up and stirring. +They travelled in two carriages. In the first sat the bride and +Clementina, who had begged and prayed so urgently to be allowed to +accompany the young lady that to get rid of her they had at last +consented. The poor thing fancied she would better her position thereby: +it was not from pure love of Henrietta that she had been so importunate. +In the second carriage sat the baron and Margari. Margari was just the +sort of man the baron wanted. He was a scholar who could be converted +into a domestic buffoon whenever one was required. Now-a-days it is +difficult to catch such specimens, all our servants have become so +stuck-up. Henrietta did not dare to ask how far they were going, or +where they were to pass the night, she felt so strange amidst her new +surroundings. Her husband was very obliging and polite towards her,—in +fact he gave her no trouble at all.</p> + +<p>Towards the evening they stopped at a village to water the horses and +there Hátszegi got out of his carriage and, approaching his wife's, +spoke to her through the window: "We shall rest in an hour," said he. +"We shall put up for the night at the castle of an old friend of mine, +Gerzson Satrakovich. He has been duly apprised of our coming and expects +us."</p> + +<p>But the promised hour turned out to be nearly two hours. The roads were +very bad here and it was as much as the carriage wheels could do to +force their way through the marshy sand. The monotonous <i>Bucskak</i><a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> +which extended desolately, like a billowy sandy ocean, to the very +horizon, were overgrown with dwarf firs that looked more like shrubs +than trees. Not a village, not a hut was anywhere to be seen. From the +roadside sedges, flocks of noisy wild-geese, from time to time, flew +across the sky which the setting sun coloured yellow. At last a great +clattering and rattling gave those sitting in the carriage to understand +that they were passing into a courtyard and the carriage door was +opened. Henrietta got out. The young wife looked around with the same +sort of curiosity which a robber condemned to a long term of +imprisonment and conveyed to a distant jail might feel on first +surveying his new environment.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Sand hills.</p></div> + +<p>In the midst of a spacious courtyard, surrounded by stone walls, stood +an old-fashioned mansion with a verandah in front of it, resting on +quadrangular columns which one ascended by a staircase whose brick +parapet served as a lounge both for the gentlemen guests and their +heydukes whenever they wanted to take their ease,—though, of course, +the gentlemen occupied one end of it and the heydukes the other. A +couple of favourite dogs were also accommodated with a place there. But +when the carriages stopped in front of the verandah, every one instantly +quitted this favourite sun-lit resting place and rushed down to meet +them—host, guests, heydukes, and dogs.</p> + +<p>The first to reach the carriage door was a peculiar looking man, a more +repulsively mutilated creature it was impossible to imagine. He might +have been fifty, but it was difficult to read his age from his face. His +features were scarred with ancient scars and a piece of his mouth was +missing—and perhaps a tooth or two as well, if one could have seen +through his thick grizzled moustache. An eye was missing on the same +side, and half his face was tattooed with little black points as if from +an exploded musket. His nose was bent sideways and quite flattened at +the top, doubtless owing to a heavy fall. He had only three whole +fingers on the right hand, the other two were fearfully mutilated. As +for the left arm it was horribly distorted from its natural position, +the elbow being twisted right round and the joint immovable. Add to +this that one of his legs was shorter than the other. Yet, in spite of +everything, this fraction of a man was so agile that he anticipated all +the others and was the first to courteously kiss the hand of the +descending lady, who shrank back horror-stricken at the contact of those +crippled fingers.</p> + +<p>"My wife—my friend Gerzson," said Hátszegi hastening to introduce them +to each other. The master of the house professed himself delighted at +his good fortune; pressed his friend's hand with his third remaining +finger and presented his arm, the stiff one, to the lady who touched it +as gingerly as if she was afraid of hurting it.</p> + +<p>The master of the house laughed aloud at her misgivings.</p> + +<p>"Lean on it hard your ladyship!" cried he, "it won't break, it is as +strong as iron. Down Fecske, down sir!" (this to a dog who had expressed +his joy at the sight of Henrietta by jumping on her shoulder.) "I +rejoice that I have the felicity to welcome your ladyship. I have +arranged a great fox hunt in your ladyship's honour for to-morrow. We +are all fox hunters here. I hope your ladyship will take part in it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know how to ride," replied the child-wife simply.</p> + +<p>"Oh! that's nothing, we will teach you. I have got a good nag who is as +gentle as a lamb. We won't let your ladyship go till we have taught +you."</p> + +<p>When they reached the saloon a number of jackbooted, brass-buttoned, +gentlemen of various ages were presented in turn to Henrietta who forgot +all their names the moment after they were introduced and was quite +delighted when she was conducted to her room and left alone with +Clementina.</p> + +<p>She had scarce time to change her travelling dress when supper was +announced. The meal was laid on a large round table in the midst of a +vast hall; there were more wine bottles than dishes; the handles of the +knives and forks were made from the horns of elks and the antlers of +stags,—the principal meats were cold venison, highly spiced and +peppered stews and pickled <i>galuska</i>.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> A sort of large dumpling.</p></div> + +<p>"I am afraid this is only a hunter's repast, my lady!" opined Mr. +Gerzson conducting Henrietta to the table, at which she and Clementina +were the only ladies present. "Unfortunately this house has no mistress +and an old bachelor like me must serve others as he himself is served."</p> + +<p>"Then why don't you marry?" bantered Hátszegi.</p> + +<p>"I wanted to once, but it all come to nothing. The bride was already +chosen and the day for the bridal banquet was fixed. My lady bride was a +fine handsome lassie. On the eve of my wedding day, in order that the +business might not escape my memory, I told my heyduke to place by my +bed in the morning my nice bright dress boots instead of my old hunting +jacks. Very well! Early next morning while I was still on my back in +bed, I heard a great barking and yelping in the garden below. 'What's +the row?' I shouted. They told me the dogs had started a lynx out of the +bushes. 'What! a lynx!' I cried, for a lynx, let me tell you, is a rare +beast in these parts. I was out of bed in a twinkling, plunged into the +nice dress boots, snatched my gun from the wall and was off into the +thicket. I soon found the trail and after that lynx I went. The dogs led +me further and further into the depths of the forest and the further I +went the more fiery grew the pursuit. Once or twice I had a sort of +feeling that I had forgotten something at home, and I felt myself all +over, but no, powder horn, pipe case, tobacco pouch, flint, +steel—everything was there. So on I went further and further. Again I +felt bothered, but by this time the lynx quite carried me away with him +and kept appearing and disappearing again in the most distracting +fashion. Only towards evening did I hold its pelt in my hand and home +with it I went straightway. And now, again, an oppressive feeling +overcame me, just as if there was something wrong going on somewhere in +the world which it was in my power to prevent. Only in the evening when +I was pulling off my dress boots did it flash across me that I ought to +have been present at my wedding that very day. And so matters remained +as they were, for my bride was so angry with me for my forgetfulness +that she went away and married a lawyer fellow. No doubt she got the +right man, but since then I have had no desire for matrimony."</p> + +<p>The company laughed heartily at this jest, and then attacked the +patriarchal banquet with tremendous appetite, nor did they wait to be +asked twice to fill their glasses. Henrietta, naturally, did not touch +anything. Even at ordinary times she ate very little, but now there was +nothing at all she fancied. Mr. Gerzson was in despair.</p> + +<p>"My dear lady," said he, "you eat so little that if I were a day +labourer I could easily support you on my wages."</p> + +<p>The company laughed aloud at this. The idea of a day labourer with such +hands and feet as that!</p> + +<p>Then Gerzson proceeded to relate to them the exploits or misadventures +in which his various limbs had more or less come to grief. "And now," +concluded he, "I will tell your ladyship how I came by this scar on my +forehead. A few years ago I was visiting our friend Leonard, your +husband, my dear lady, at his castle at Hidvár, and whilst there we +spent two weeks among the glaciers."</p> + +<p>"Night and day?" enquired the astonished Henrietta.</p> + +<p>"Well, at night we built ourselves huts out of the branches of fir +trees. If, however, no rain fell we encamped in the open round our +watch-fire snugly wrapped up in our <i>bundas</i><a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>. Splendid fun I can +tell you! For two days, when our stores gave out, we lived on nothing +but bilberries and broiled bear's flesh."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Sheepskins.</p></div> + +<p>"You were badly off then."</p> + +<p>"No, on the contrary, the paws of a bear are great delicacies, only we +had no salt to salt them with."</p> + +<p>"Why did you not return home?"</p> + +<p>"We could not, for four days together we had been on the track of a +blood-bear. Do you know what a blood-bear is? A bear is a very mild, +harmless sort of a beast in general, and is quite content with honey, +berries, and roots; but let him once taste blood and he rages about like +a lion, and more than that, he has a decided preference for human blood +before all other kinds of blood. We had been pursuing one of these old +malefactors four days running, as I have said; four times we got within +range of him and four times he broke away. He carried a few bullets away +with him beneath his hide, indeed, but a lot he cared about that! He +gave one or two of our badly-aiming huntsmen a clout on the head which +sent them flying, stripped the skin from the head of one of the beaters +and then took refuge in the wilderness. Friend Leonard and the other +gentlemen now wanted to abandon the chase, for they were frightfully +hungry and the heavy rain and rock scrambling had pretty well torn our +clothes from our bodies, yet I urged them to make another attempt on +the morrow. I assured them that if they beat up the wood once more we +should capture the bear. The whole lot of them were against me. Friend +Leonard insisted that we should not catch him, as a bear never remains +in the place where he has been wounded, but runs on and on night and +day; by this time he would have got right across the border into +Wallachia. 'Very well!' I said, 'What do you bet that he is not quite +near and we shall come upon him to-morrow?' Leonard replied he would bet +me two to one we shouldn't. 'All right!' said I. 'I'll pay you a hundred +ducats if we don't find Bruin to-morrow.' 'And I'll pay you a thousand +if we do,' said he. So the bet was clinched. Next morning in a thick +mist we sent out the beaters while we ourselves stood on our guard. +Leonard and I took up our post near a ravine waiting impatiently for the +mist to disperse. Towards mid-day it began to clear. No end of stags and +foxes ambled slowly past us, but we did not even aim at them; the bear +was our watchword. The beaters had pretty nearly finished their work. We +were standing only fifty paces or so apart, so we began to chat +together. 'I begin to be sorry for your hundred ducats,' said Leonard. +'I am still sorrier for the lost bear's skin,' said I. 'It is in +Wallachia by this time!' he replied. Behind my back, some ten yards off, +was the opening of a narrow hole; there were hundreds such in the rocks +all about. 'Come, now!' I cried, 'suppose my bear has stowed himself +away in this hollow!'—and there and then, like a mischievous little +boy, I poked the barrel of my gun into the hollow and fired off a couple +of shots in quick succession. A frightful roar came from the depths of +the cavern. The wild beast during all this noise, clamour and beating +about the bush was actually behind my back holding his tongue,—and a +splendid big beast he was, two heads taller than I and with tusks like a +wild boar. In a moment he was upon me, and I had already discharged my +two barrels. It is all over with me now, I thought! Why, it will be +nothing at all to a magnificent beast like this to tear such a wretched +creature as myself limb from limb! Erect on his hind legs he came +straight at me, smashing my hunting-knife at a single blow, and, +enfolding me in his terrible arms, he tried to mangle my features with +his teeth. At the last moment I called to Leonard: 'Shoot between us, +old chap! you will hit one of us anyhow!' I preferred being killed by a +bullet to being torn to bits. The next instant a report sounded, and I +was only just aware that the pair of us, still tightly embraced, were +rolling backwards into the bottom of the ravine. There, however, the +thick undergrowth held us up, and I perceived that my bear was quite +done for. The bullet had gone clean through his ear. Yes, a masterly +shot on Leonard's part it was, I must confess—at fifty paces at the +very moment when the bear's head and mine were near enough for kissing. +And I do think it was so nice of Leonard to risk a shot for me, when if +he had simply allowed me to be torn to pieces he would have saved his +thousand ducats, for he lost his bet, you see. Not only did he liberate +me, but he paid a thousand ducats for doing so."</p> + +<p>"He acted like a true gentleman!" they all cried. It was the general +opinion.</p> + +<p>"Your ladyship will see this splendid bear skin at Hidvár, it is a real +treasure for a hunter, I can tell you. And in fact if I had had the +choice I would much rather have had the bear skin than the thousand +ducats, and the exchange would have been much better for me too in the +long run, for I should have the skin to this day, whereas the thousand +ducats were forcibly taken from me at Dévá by that villain, Fatia +Negra."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Black face.</p></div> + +<p>"Who is that?" enquired Henrietta curiously.</p> + +<p>"A famous robber-chieftain in these mountains whom they can never lay +hands upon."</p> + +<p>Henrietta cast anxious glances around her.</p> + +<p>But here Hátszegi coolly interrupted him by striking his plate with his +fork: "I won't have my wife frightened to death by your highwayman +yarns," cried he, and changed the conversation. Shortly afterwards +Henrietta went to her chamber, leaving her husband with Mr. Gerzson and +his guests.</p> + +<p>Such was Henrietta's first night after her marriage. She at least was so +far fortunate as not to be obliged to see her husband. Towards morning +she dozed off, and when she awoke again she found that the whole +company had long ago set off fox-hunting, nor did they return till late +in the evening, tired out, wet through, and dripping with sweat. +Henrietta meanwhile had discovered the remains of a dilapidated library +in an old disused huntsman's hut, had ferretted out of it a few Latin +books, and had amused herself with them,—at least so far as she was +able, for many of the leaves had been torn out and used as tinder.</p> + +<p>It is notorious that tired sportsmen are about the dullest dogs on +earth; so Henrietta felt that she would not lose much when her husband +told her she had better go to rest early, as they must be up betimes +next morning. And, indeed, next morning they were off so early that, +except their old host, not one of the hunting party was there to bid +them God speed! But he again conducted his lady-guest to her carriage on +his crippled arm and arranged her cushions comfortably for her with his +three-fingered hand.</p> + +<p>It was a very fine day for a journey, and the windows of the two +carriages were let down so that Henrietta was able to view the landscape +stretching out before her. She had never been here before, it was all +new to her. She discovered from Clementina's lamentations that they had +still a three days' journey before they reached home, and that they +would spend the coming night at the castle of Count Kengyelesy. The +coachmen had told Margari so, and he passed the news on to Clementina. +It also appeared that Count Kengyelesy was a very curious sort of man, +who contradicted Baron Hátszegi in everything, yet for all that they +were never angry with and always glad to see each other. The count was +also said to have a young wife who did not love him. So ran the gossip +of the servants. It was all one to Henrietta what they said about Count +Kengyelesy and his consort.</p> + +<p>Between five and six in the afternoon they reached the count's castle, +which lay outside the village in the midst of rich tobacco and rapeseed +fields, and enclosed on three sides by a splendid English garden; the +place was arranged with taste and evidently well-cared for.</p> + +<p>That the count expected the arrival of the Hátszegis was evident from +the fact that dinner was awaiting them. Kengyelesy was a little puny bit +of a man with very light bright hair, white eyelashes, and a pointed +chin made still more pointed by a long goatish beard. It always pleased +him very much when his friends confidentially assured him that he had a +perfect satyr-like countenance.</p> + +<p>His wife was a young, chubby, lively lady with smiling blue eyes +unacquainted with sorrow, whom her husband on the occasion of a <i>bal +paré</i> at Vienna had seen, fallen in love with, and carried off, although +the girl's father, a retired Field-marshal, was quite ready to surrender +her—they preferred, however, the romance of an elopement.</p> + +<p>The countess received her lady-guest with the most effusive heartiness, +called her by her Christian name on the spot, and invited her to do that +same with her. She told Henrietta she was to feel quite at home, dragged +her all over the castle, and showed her in rapid succession her rare +flowers, her Parisian furniture, her Japanese curiosities; played +something for her on the piano, made her parrot talk to her and +incontinently popped on her finger a large and beautiful opal ring, +which she told her she was to keep as an eternal souvenir.</p> + +<p>Then the countess seized the hand of the child-wife and led her into her +bed-chamber. On the wall hung a fine large battle-piece, a splendid oil +painting by a Viennese master.</p> + +<p>"A magnificent picture, is it not?" enquired the countess with a broad +smile.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Henrietta absently.</p> + +<p>"How do you like the central figure? I mean the hero on horseback with +the standard in his hand?"</p> + +<p>"He is handsome, but it seems to me that, situated as he is, he smiles +too much."</p> + +<p>The countess laughed loudly at this remark.</p> + +<p>"That," said she, "is the portrait of a young hussar officer who for a +long time paid his court to me. I could not, of course, keep his +portrait in my room, for there everyone would know all about it, so I +had a battle-piece painted in all round, and nobody suspects anything. +Oh! my friend, if women were not so inventive, they would often be very +unhappy. But that, mind! is a secret; not a soul must know about it."</p> + +<p>Henrietta grew pensive. She also had her secret, but she would tell it +to nobody, not even on her death-bed. She also had a portrait written in +ineffaceable characters in her heart, yet between him and her stand two +infinite obstacles, the one a betrayed star whose name is Mesarthim, the +other that unbetrayable thing, whose name is—woman's honour!</p> + +<p>"<i>Madame est servie!</i>" cried the epauletted lacquey, and the countess +drawing her arm through Henrietta's, led her into the dining-room, where +the gentlemen already awaited them.</p> + +<p>After dinner the humorous young countess entertained Henrietta for a +long time with her amusing chatter. She told her, at the very outset, +things that young wives, as a rule, only confide to their most intimate +friends. She told her, for instance, how very jealous her little +Squirrel was (she called her husband by this pet name) and how he would +never take her to Vienna or Pest, because he suspected that she might +find someone there to interest her. Anything like correspondence on her +part was of course impossible; a wise woman will always have sense +enough never to part with a line of writing. Everything else, she +witnesses, treacherous servants, for instance—can always be disowned; +but there is no defence against a letter which has fallen into the wrong +hands. Oh no! she knew a trick worth two of that. Whenever the Squirrel +went to Vienna, she gave him a list of articles required by her from a +modiste in the town, on this list are set down hats, head-dresses, +muffs, and other similar articles. Squirrel always reads this list over +ten times at least, but finds nothing in it to excite his suspicions. +But it regularly escapes his attention what day is indicated by the date +at the head of the list, for he can never tell for the life of him on +what day of the month such or such a day will fall. Now at the head of +this list stands, instead of the date on which the goods are to be sent, +the date up to which the Squirrel intends to divert himself at Vienna. +This list the Squirrel in person conveys to the modiste, who +communicates with the person whom it most concerns, and the Kengyelesy +<i>puszta</i><a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> will not seem the end of the world to whomsoever has a +magnet in his heart to draw him thither.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Heath. But also, as in this place, used to designate the +uncut terated land forming part of a nobleman's estate.</p></div> + +<p>Henrietta was amazed and confounded by this new science, the very +alphabet of which was unknown to her. Even when she lay in bed she +ruminated for a long time how it was possible that certain things which +break the hearts of some people are nevertheless regarded by other +people as mere frolics all their lives.</p> + +<p>The next morning everyone arose late. The gentlemen had been up till the +small hours and were hard to wake. They all met together in the +breakfast-room. Hátszegi and his host were preparing for the journey. +The count asked the young wife what she had dreamt about, "for," added +he, "whatever one dreams about the first night in a strange place is +sure to come true."</p> + +<p>Henrietta did not like to speak of her dreams; her waking thoughts were +too often interwoven with them.</p> + +<p>"And you, you great silly," said the countess to her husband in a +bantering tone, "did you dream anything of me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling, I dreamt that we shall spend the coming winter in Vienna. +Don't put so much sugar in my tea!"</p> + +<p>"What! not for such a nice dream as that. Will it really come to pass?"</p> + +<p>"Most certainly, pussy. We will go there together after the bathing +season is over."</p> + +<p>The countess possessed sufficient self-control to conceal her delight.</p> + +<p>"By the bye," said Kengyelesy, turning to Henrietta, "how does your +ladyship like the Kengyelesy <i>puszta?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Very well."</p> + +<p>"And the castle?"</p> + +<p>"That is nice too."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it a good joke that yesterday your ladyship and your +honoured husband were my guests, whilst to-day we are your ladyship's +guests and that, too, without our having to move out of the house?"</p> + +<p>"How?" enquired the astonished Henrietta.</p> + +<p>"Why, we made an agreement this very morning whereby friend Leonard is +going to take over the whole property and everything belonging to +it—not you, my dear, of course," this to his wife, "I mean the nags and +the cows—and henceforth this house belongs to you."</p> + +<p>"Don't forget to invite the countess to Hidvár for the vintage +festival," whispered Hátszegi to his wife.</p> + +<p>Henrietta accordingly made the effort, and when they rose from the +breakfast she timidly expressed the wish that the Kengyelesys would do +them the honour to return their visit at Hidvár.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we will be sure to come!" the fair countess hastened to reply, +"Squirrel will bring me to you in the autumn and we will remain a whole +month."</p> + +<p>Kengyelesy also courteously accepted the invitation and then taking +Henrietta's little hand between his own palms so that he could just +manage to kiss the tips of her fingers, he said to her in a strange and +piteous sort of voice: "But then you must promise to love our friend +Leonard here a little better than you have done hitherto."</p> + +<p>A shudder ran through Henrietta's body at these words. The very air of +the room was all at once difficult to breathe, and she only felt better +when she sat in the carriage again. But even there she was haunted by +some unendurable, undefinable, torturing feeling which struck her still +more unpleasantly when Clementina remarked: "Yes, there is nothing but +good land on this <i>puszta</i>."</p> + +<p>Why, what could it matter to the honest creature whether the land was +good or not, it was surely all one to her?</p> + +<p>"Two thousand acres in one lot, nothing but first-class land."</p> + +<p>"How do you know that?" asked Henrietta.</p> + +<p>"Margari told me he drew up the agreement and witnessed it, and yet no +money was paid down."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p> + +<p>"Did not your ladyship then understand the allusion the count made just +now when he asked you to love your husband a little more than hitherto?"</p> + +<p>"What has such nonsense to do with me?"</p> + +<p>"He meant by that that he who is unlucky in love is lucky at play; for +last night my lord baron played cards with my lord count and won from +him the whole Kengyelesy estate straight off."</p> + +<p>Henrietta felt like one who is in the embrace of the boa-constrictor and +unable to defend himself. She had not expected this.</p> + +<p>But Clementina was only too delighted to have something to chatter +about. "And do you know, your ladyship," she continued, "the baron and +the count have been rivals for a long time, and each has always been +trying his hardest to ruin the other—in a friendly way, of course. The +chambermaid told Margari, and Margari told me. 'I will not be content, +comrade,' my lord baron used to say to my lord count, 'till one of us is +reduced to his last jacket, and as soon as one of us is absolutely +beggared, the other will hold himself bound to maintain him, in a way +befitting a gentleman till the day of his death.' Strange men these, +madame, eh!"</p> + +<p>Perceiving, however, from Henrietta's looks that there was something +depressing to her young mistress in her narration, she tried to soften +the effect of her words by intimating that the count had another +property besides, although not such a nice castle, and also that it was +open to him to buy back the former estate in thirty years' time if he +could find the money.</p> + +<p>"That will do, Clementina, my head aches badly!" said Henrietta. She +wished to rid herself of this uncalled-for gabble, in order that she +might devote herself to her own thoughts.</p> + +<p>And what thoughts! She had had no idea that such things could be. How +was it possible that two men who called themselves friends, could ruin +one another thus in cold blood? How was it possible that a man could +enter the house of an affectionate host as a welcome guest in the +evening, and by next morning leave him not an inch of land on which to +put his foot, or a roof to cover his head! "And one has to get +accustomed to such things!" thought she.</p> + +<p>All the day long their journey lay through that brain-wearying plain +whose endless flatness oppressed soul and body with its monotony and +soon drove her back to her own thoughts. Towards evening there were +signs of rain. Clouds were rising and then, at least, there would be +something new to point at in the eternal monotony of the sky. +Unfortunately clouds have the bad habit of bringing tempests along with +them, and tempests are evil travelling companions on the steppes of the +<i>Alföld</i>.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> The towers of the town they were trying to reach were still +only dimly visible on the horizon. In ordinary weather it would not have +mattered if they had arrived late, for they had reckoned upon the +moonlight; but there could be no moon to-night, instead of her a storm +full of angry lightnings was approaching. Already from afar they could +hear it rumbling as it drove dust-clouds before it, could hear that +peculiar, continuous, roar as of some giant hand playing uninterruptedly +on the keys of some terrible organ. Whoever has been caught on the +<i>Alföld</i> in a storm knows the meaning of that wind; it means that the +tempest is bringing hail with it.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The great Hungarian plain.</p></div> + +<p>One thing was now certain: they must turn aside somewhere. All that +Henrietta observed, however, was that her carriage stood still for a +moment, and then Hátszegi's carriage went on in front, the baron himself +seizing the horses' reins and shouting to the coachman behind him: +"After me as hard as you can tear!" With that they left the road and +plunged right across country through ditches and swamps and low, marshy +ground till the water came up to the very axles of the wheels and +Clementina shrieked that they were perishing. But there was no need to +be afraid. Hátszegi was a skilful coachman, who could ever find his way +even where there was no way at all. About a four hours' journey off, a +pump now became visible, and beyond it a little hut loomed white and +high, there they must seek a refuge from the tempest as it passed over +them. And indeed they had only just reached the small courtyard when the +first lumps of ice as big as nuts, began bombarding the windows of the +carriages.</p> + +<p>"Quick, quick, into the house!" cried Hátszegi. The baron himself helped +his wife and Clementina to descend and hurried them in beneath the +verandah, which was made of crooked branches and hung over the kitchen +door like a shade over the forehead of a weak-sighted man.</p> + +<p>On their approach the woman of the house emerged from the kitchen with +her head tied up in a red handkerchief. She was no longer young, but +ruddy, robust, bright-eyed, and bustling, and as full of sparkle as if +she had just sprung out of the fire.</p> + +<p>On perceiving her guests she clapped her hands together.</p> + +<p>"Lord deliver us, if it isn't his lordship! And only just married now, +eh!—after all these years! But which is the bride, your lordship? +Surely not this one (pointing to Clementina) for she is an old +dear!—and yet the other is but a child!"</p> + +<p>The baron hastened to interrupt this uncalled-for outburst.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, my good woman! No chatter now, please, for the hail will be +upon us in a moment; but take these ladies into a room and see that it +is clean and comfortable. Henrietta! pray get out of the rain."</p> + +<p>The <i>csárdá</i><a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> woman kissed Henrietta's hand with great familiarity +and kept on saying in a quavering voice: "Oh, thou tender little +creature! to think of giving them to husbands so early!" cried she. But +Clementina, who was always nervous in strange places, called the baron's +attention to the fact that loud masculine voices were proceeding from +somewhere within the <i>csárdá</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Inn.</p></div> + +<p>"Have you anyone here now?" enquired the baron of the <i>csárdá</i> woman.</p> + +<p>"Yes, three or four lads and <i>Ripa</i>. The old fellow has just been +released from the prison at Arad. I don't know whether he served his +full time. Pray walk in!"</p> + +<p>"They are not robbers, are they?" asked Clementina hesitating.</p> + +<p>"No, dear heart alive, there are no robbers in these parts, but only +poor vagabonds. You will not find robbers nearer than the Bakony forest. +These poor fellows hurt nobody, least of all ladies. I don't count old +Ripa at all, but only the other three. It would be another thing if +Blackey were here, for he is a fine gentleman and likes to amuse +himself with the ladies. But don't think, dear soul, that his features +are black, oh, dear, no! I call him 'Blackey' because he always wears a +mask of black velvet lest he should be recognized, only his eyes and +mouth are ever visible."</p> + +<p>And with such comforting assurances she escorted Henrietta and +Clementina up the narrow staircase.</p> + +<p>They had to pass through the long tap-room before they came to the inner +parlour. At the guest table were sitting three hardy looking young +fellows and an old pock-marked man, a foxey-eyed rascal who drank out of +the others' glasses from time to time and kept the conversation going.</p> + +<p>"Come! shut up, Ripa!" said the landlady to the old man. "This is no +Jew-Madame, but the spouse of my lord, Baron Hátszegi. Show your manners +if you have any and thank her for the honour."</p> + +<p>The old rascal rose from his bench with cunning humility and twisting up +both ends of his gray moustache, politely kissed Henrietta's hand, and +would have paid the same compliment to Clementina if the landlady had +not prevented him by shouting: "Leave her alone, she is only a sort of +servant!"</p> + +<p>With that she led the ladies into the inner room, where were two lofty +bedsteads reaching to the beams above, covered with bright bedding and +prettily painted over with tulips and roses. In the window screens were +wide-spreading rosemary and musk plants. In front of one of the great +chests stood a spinning wheel. From this the landlady, winter and +summer, spun off that fine thread from which were woven those bright and +gay handkerchiefs which could be seen bobbing about in the doorway of +the inn from afar. One would never have expected to find such ease and +comfort in a <i>csárdá</i> of the <i>puszta</i>.</p> + +<p>The landlady very politely divested Henrietta of her travelling clothes, +made a soft resting place for her with cushions in an arm-chair, put a +stool beneath her feet, and in less time than it took to draw a breath, +totted up ten different kinds of dishes that she might choose from them +the one she liked best. Perhaps she would like some leaf-cake? It was +just cooking and would be served up immediately, and she began spreading +the table with a nice horse-cloth. Clementina whispered Henrietta to +beware of poison, whereupon Henrietta told the landlady that she <i>would</i> +have a bit of that nice dish, and when it came she really enjoyed it, +though she did not know what it was, at which the landlady was +infinitely pleased.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Hátszegi came in after seeing that the carriages were put into +a dry place. He took no notice of the poor vagabonds, but hastily +demanded a change of clothes, as his own were soaking, and was amazed to +see Henrietta handling her knife and fork so well; it was the first time +on the whole journey that she had eaten with appetite. Henrietta said +that this peasant roast suited her taste.</p> + +<p>"And now, Dame Kardos, will you put the ladies up for the night?" said +Hátszegi to the woman of the <i>csárdá</i>.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," returned the worthy woman, "I have feather mattresses +enough and bedsteads enough for as many guests of quality as your +lordship likes. This bed will be my lord baron's and this my lady's, and +this the lady attendant's!"</p> + +<p>"Not so quick, not so quick! I shall not lie here."</p> + +<p>"Not lie here?" cried this child of the <i>puszta</i>. "Why, pray?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I'll find some place or other in the tap-room outside."</p> + +<p>"It's a way great folks have, I suppose," murmured Dame Kardos, +shrugging her shoulders, "but I never saw or heard the likes of it +before."</p> + +<p>"But, my lord," lisped Clementina, greatly agitated, "won't those wild +vagabonds outside disturb you?"</p> + +<p>"Me?" exclaimed Hátszegi, "how the devil can they disturb <i>me?</i>"</p> + +<p>"They are such wicked men, surely?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care what sort of men they are." And with that he went out with +the utmost <i>sang froid</i>; nay, as Clementina herself noticed, he drew +forth his pocket pistols and left them behind him on the table.</p> + +<p>"His lordship has no need to fear such men," the landlady reassured the +ladies, "for he can talk to them in their own lingo."</p> + +<p>Henrietta did not understand. Did robbers then speak a dialect peculiar +to themselves? She became quite curious to hear how Hátszegi would speak +to the robbers in their own language.</p> + +<p>But the landlady knew exactly what to do. She filled a <i>kulacs</i><a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> for +the baron and placed it on the table before him. Hátszegi took a good +pull at it, dried the mouth of the <i>kulacs</i> and passed it on to the old +pockmarked vagabond who, after raising his cap, took a little drop +himself and then passed it on to the others.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> A wooden field-flask.</p></div> + +<p>"Well, old fellow, is the wine good?"</p> + +<p>"Wine is always good."</p> + +<p>"Have you had enough?"</p> + +<p>"One can never have enough."</p> + +<p>"Then God grant you plenty!—By the way, does the wind still blow +through the crevices of the prison door at Arad?"</p> + +<p>"It blows for him who lists to it. Let him who likes it not close his +ears to it."</p> + +<p>"Have many children been born to the governor of the jail lately?"<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Whenever a new convict arrives at the jail, the governor +is said to have another son born to him.—<i>Jókai</i>.</p></div> + +<p>"Yes, lots have been born there—and christened too."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>i.e.</i>, with stripes.—<i>Jókai</i>.</p></div> + +<p>"Has the daughter of the cord<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> been married lately?"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> A flowery expression for the gallows.—<i>Jókai</i>.</p></div> + +<p>"Only Marczi Csendes has been elevated lately. He was a fool. He took +the crime of two comrades on his shoulders in order to let them go free. +They were caught in the act, but he swore he did the deed. They were +young bloods, you see, and he had nobody to care for him. And yet it was +they who presented the empty pistol at the Jew's head. The Jew himself +pointed them out, but Marczi steadfastly maintained that it was he who +frightened the fellow."</p> + +<p>"So they made him cold against the winter time?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but he didn't very much care. The hour before his execution he +took an affectionate leave of his comrades, and to me he bequeathed his +warm old sheepskin. When the priest asked him whether he had anything +upon his conscience, he merely said the only thing that grieved him was +the thought that he would never again be able in this life to eat his +fill of well peppered <i>gulyás</i><a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> such as old Ripa knew how to cook. +They humoured him, and I was sent into the kitchen to prepare it. My old +friend ate with a good appetite and wanted me to take a bit too; but my +throat felt as cramped as if they had already taken my measure round it +with the gallows rope. He gave each of the two heydukes who accompanied +him in the felon's car, one on his right, the other on his left, a +silver coin apiece. The heydukes told us afterwards that when he got +outside he rose up in the car and addressed the people. He was a tall, +handsome fellow with red cheeks, long black hair and a fine sonorous +voice like any chaplain's. His last words were: 'Well, I now look upon +this fair world for the last time.'"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Hungarian pilau.</p></div> + +<p>"Did he leave behind him any new songs," enquired Hátszegi. "He was +always a famous singer."</p> + +<p>"Yes, one he made in jail, and a splendid song it was too, I can tell +you. Bandi! pipe it to his lordship on your <i>tilinka</i> as I have taught +you." At these words one of the youths drew forth from his sleeve one of +those flutes made of elder-wood, which in Hungarian goes by the name of +a <i>tilinka</i>, and which with its poor six holes is able to give forth as +many variations as the throat of a lark; then, without any virtuoso airs +he simply piped the plaintive melody.</p> + +<p>The baron was immensely pleased. "Margari," cried he, "go to the +carriage, look for my fiddle and bring it hither!"</p> + +<p>At this command poor Margari had a veritable ague fit of terror. All +this time he had remained ducking down in the carriage firmly persuaded +that the robbers in this lonely place would cut down every mother's son +of them at nightfall. In such a case he was prepared to swear that he +had never belonged to the party at all, but would pretend he was only a +poor tramp, and so escape that way. And now the baron had ruined his +little plan by ordering him to come forth! The robbers would now +absolutely believe that he also was a swell. Oh, it is a frightful +situation when a poor devil has managed to get a 100 gulden into his +purse for the first time in his life and is obliged the very next +evening to put up at an inn full of robbers! What the devil did the +baron want with the fiddle at all? And then what sort of a thing <i>was</i> a +fiddle? When a man is terrified he easily mistakes one thing for another +and Margari's first experiment was to carry in to the baron a long +leaden box containing the territorial chart of the Kengyelesy +estate—was that what his lordship wanted?</p> + +<p>"Have you lost your wits, Margari? How could you possibly get a fiddle +into that? Or has the fellow never cast eyes on a fiddle? Bandi, you go +and look in the carriage for the fiddle!"</p> + +<p>But this was not at all to Margari's liking. What, send that vagabond to +the carriage to ferret about there! His lordship must have clean taken +leave of his senses. Why, in the carriage was Margari's own brand-new +mantle, for which he had paid nine and twenty gulden. The vagabond would +be sure to lay his hands upon it. No, he would rather go to look for the +fiddle himself. So he found the violin case at last somehow, and handing +it to the baron through the <i>csárdá</i> window (for he durst not trust +himself inside), he retired again beneath the coach-house, although the +rain was now splashing down upon it.</p> + +<p>Baron Leonard took from its morocco case his splendid Straduarius, that +relic of the greatest master of fiddle-making, for which he had paid a +small fortune, and following the lead of the young vagabond's <i>tilinka</i> +played the bitter-sweet melancholy air on the sonorous instrument, and +at the third trial he enriched it with so many variations as to astonish +everyone. Then Ripa became enthusiastic and chimed in with his hoarse +old voice.</p> + +<p>When the baron once had the violin in his hands, he was not content with +playing a single song, one melody enticed another forth, and so, one +after another, his fiddle-bow ran through all those rhapsodies of the +last century, those compositions of the "Gipsy-Beethoven," Bihari, and +other great popular masters, with the most classical variations. Princes +listen not to such a concert as now resounded through that wretched, +desolate <i>csárdá</i>. Even Henrietta arose from her couch the better to +enjoy these melancholy airs. If ever in her life, it was at this moment +that she beheld her husband in an aureole of dazzling light which +irresistibly attracted, overpowered, subdued.</p> + +<p>One thing, however, struck her as strange, incredible—how could a +fashionable man brought up in the atmosphere of elegant saloons, find +any pleasure in playing <i>bravoura</i> pieces in the tap room of a miserable +<i>csárdá</i> to an audience of half-tipsy vagabonds? Was this an habitual +diversion of these wealthy magnates, or was it only Hátszegi's bizarre +humour?</p> + +<p>However, when "the lads" began to chime in a little too vigourously, +Hátszegi restored the violin to its case, took out his pocket-book, +opened it before them all and nonchalantly displayed as he did so the +bundles of thousand-gulden notes which it contained. Nay, he searched +among them for stray ten-gulden notes and gave one to each of the four +vagabonds "for the fine song they had taught him"—that was the way he +put it—at the same time requesting them to quit the tap-room, as the +ladies in the adjoining chamber wanted to sleep and must not be kept +awake by any further noise. The vagabonds must seek a couch elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The vagabonds, without the slightest objection, arose, drank up the +dregs of the wine, pocketed the bank-notes without so much as a "thank +you!" and settled down for the night on the roof of the coach-house—to +the great terror of Margari, who was concealed in one of the coaches and +did not have a wink of sleep all night, his teeth chattered so.</p> + +<p>But Hátszegi, when the drinkers had withdrawn, spread out his hunting +pelisse on the long table, laid down thereon and quietly fell asleep. He +did not even shut the door, nor did he have his pistols by him.</p> + +<p>In the adjoining chamber, meanwhile, the <i>csárdá</i>-woman had brought out +her spindle, set all its many wheels a-working and began to tell her +ladyship a lot of those wondrous tales that have neither beginning nor +end, <i>puszta</i> adventures, the atrocities of vagabonds and their +fellows, the sad love stories of poor deserted maidens and such like. +And all the while the wheels of the spindle whirr-whirr-whirred +monotonously, and Henrietta felt like a little child whose nurse sits +beside her bed and lulls her to sleep with fairy tales. For weeks she +had not enjoyed so quiet and dreamless a slumber as she had that night +beneath the roof of the <i>csárdá</i> in the midst of the lonely <i>puszta</i>.</p> + +<p>Next morning Clementina, after first making quite sure that nobody had +had his or her throat cut during the night, was moved by curiosity to +ask what sort of connection his lordship had with this <i>csárdá</i> since he +seemed to know everybody in it. And then she learnt that not only this +<i>csárdá</i> but the whole of the surrounding <i>puszta</i> also was the property +of his lordship, for which the people who lived upon it paid very little +rent, inasmuch as his lordship did not look upon it as a source of +income but chiefly valued it on account of its numerous reedy lakes +where he was wont every year to hunt water-fowl and beavers on a grand +scale. Moreover, from this spot to his own house, a good two days' +journey by foot, everything belonged to his lordship's estate. Nay, his +lordship, if he liked, could traverse the whole kingdom from Deva to +Pest, and be on his own property the whole time, it was only like moving +from one of his houses to another.</p> + +<p>The next day the Hungarian plain came to an end and the Transylvanian +Alps drew nearer and nearer. In the evening they descended into a little +mining town whose forges and furnaces were all illuminated in honour of +the arriving guests. Henrietta then learnt that this mining town also +belonged to her husband.</p> + +<p>On the third day, quite early in the morning, they crossed the +Transylvanian frontier. The whole of that splendid region seemed to +smile, but the faces of its inhabitants are sad and mysterious. +Henrietta had a peculiar sense of anxiety during her stay among these +angry looking people who spoke a language she had never heard before. At +intervals of a mile all along the road a roughly carved cross shot up, +covered with clumsily carved letters, which did not in the least +resemble those we are accustomed to. Clementina once asked the coachman +what these crosses might mean and repented doing so immediately +afterwards, for he informed her that they marked the places where +unlucky travellers had come by an untimely death; the inscriptions were +the records of the tragic romances through the scene of which they were +passing.</p> + +<p>The valleys grew narrower and narrower, the road wound upward among +precipices, and the loquacious coachman attached horrible stories to +every rock and ruin. Each valley seemed to have its own particular +ghost.</p> + +<p>Here and there by the roadside stood silent houses not one of which had +an inviting appearance, it would never have occurred to a human soul to +knock at any of them, even at midnight, to ask for a night's lodging. +They were all of them sooty dilapidated shanties, which might easily +have been taken for stables, consisting of a single room in which the +whole family lived, livestock and all. The church often lay far away +from the settlement as if it belonged to two villages equally.</p> + +<p>Then the road rose again between bare and barren cliffs, where only here +and there a solitary bush seemed to cling to the rocky wall. There was +no trace of a garden, but here and there was a fenced in space in which +the Roumanians are wont to unload their hay, with a long pole sticking +up in the midst of the hay ricks to prevent the wind from carrying it +away, or else the hay was piled up on the branch of a living tree like a +bird's nest.</p> + +<p>Down-pouring mountain streams traversed the path at intervals, over +which never a bridge is built, all cars and coaches must cross by the +fords. From the depths of the wooded mountain slopes was reflected the +blood-red glare of iron works and foundries, and the droaning monotonous +din of the machinery scares away the stillness till it loses itself in +the loud murmuring of the mountain torrents.</p> + +<p>At every fresh mile, Henrietta felt how lonely she was in this strange +world, whose giant mountains shut her out from the very prospect of the +familiar places from which she had come and from every possibility of +returning; and whose inhabitants would not even be able to answer her if +she were to ask them: "Which is the way back to my native place?"</p> + +<p>They travelled onwards till late at night by the light of the moon. +Hidvár was now close at hand. As the prospect opened out on both sides, +at the turn of a narrow defile, suddenly, like a picture in a black +frame, between two mountain slopes, thickly covered with dark +beech-trees, the castle of Hidvár came full in view, standing lonely and +isolated on the summit of a hill. The mountain torrent shot swiftly down +beneath a shaky bridge. The round moon stood straight over the tower of +the castle, as if it had been impaled on the point of it, and painted +everything with its silvery light, the tower, the bastions, the brook +and the valley—only one thing it brightened not, the heart of the young +wife.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE CAVERN OF LUCSIA</h3> + + +<p>Not so very long ago there was in Transylvania a wide-spreading society +of coiners which, it is now notorious, had carried on its nefarious +business undetected for more than half a century. The science was an +inheritance descending from father to son, people married and were born +into it. Careful parents trained their children to follow it, and a very +lucrative profession it proved to be. That it should have remained +undiscovered for so long a time, that it should have been plied +successfully for more than fifty years under the very noses of the +authorities—all this was capable of a very simple explanation, <i>these +men coined gold pieces</i>.</p> + +<p>Yes, genuine ducats, of full weight, out of real three-and-twenty carat +gold, without any admixture of baser metal, so that they absolutely +could not be distinguished from the royal ducats of the authorized +minting towns, Körmöcz and Gyulafehervár. If they fell into the hands of +a goldsmith, and he melted them, he found that they did not contain half +a grain more silver than the genuine ones. Indeed the public lost +nothing by their fabrication, though the state treasury suffered +considerably.</p> + +<p>The whole region, in fact, from Zalathna to Verespatak abounded in that +precious metal which some fool or other has called "a mere chimera," and +the gold mining was farmed out to private individuals, the yearly output +from the shafts being twelve hundredweights. These private diggers are +bound to deliver the gold they obtain to the minting towns at Abradbanya +or Gyulafehervár and there receive coined money in exchange. +Nevertheless, during some fifty years, only about six hundredweights +were delivered annually at these places; the rest disappeared, though at +first nobody could suspect it. The State pays to the diggers 441 guldens +for every pound of gold dust, which quantity when coined is worth 720 +guldens. But it occurred to the mountaineers that they also might +profitably engage in coining and circulate the money so coined. So they +provided themselves with all the necessary implements and machinery +(there were skilled workmen among them) and issued false ducats to their +very great advantage. Their existence was not even suspected except by +the parties interested in the concern, and they had every motive in the +world for preserving the secret.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Travelling from Abradbanya up towards Bucsum, one might have seen two +riders toiling up the mountain along the stream overshadowed by dark +alders; one of them was a grey-haired, gigantic Roumanian, the other a +proud-looking young woman. The old man wore a lambskin mantle, on his +head he carried a tall pointed cap, also of lambs' wool, drawn down over +his eyebrows, his body was carelessly girdled with a golden girdle. His +rich grey locks were plaited into two thick pig-tails which reached down +to his broad shoulders, and his snow-white moustache hung down from his +mouth like two seamew's wings. A coarse sack lay in front of him across +his saddle, both ends of which appeared to be full of something heavy; +across the sack lay his fowling-piece.</p> + +<p>The fair cavalier was sitting on a small, wild, shaggy horse, which +constantly evinced a praiseworthy endeavour to overtake the rider in +front of him; his mistress with difficulty held him in. She was one of +those famous Roumanian beauties. Her features, the cut of her lips, her +full chin could have stood as a model beside any antique statue. And +then those sparkling eyes, that vividly red complexion, those coal-black +eyebrows—they made an ideal beauty of her. And the picturesque +Roumanian costume enhanced her charms. Her black hair, twisted into a +double plait, was bound round with a flaming-red scarf, and on her head +she wore a round hat, trimmed with pearls and garnished in front with a +row of gold pieces which reached down to her marble-white forehead. +Moreover, her fine cambric shirt embellished with bright flowers and +gold ornaments fitted so closely as to betray the outlines of her +harmonious figure. Wound ten times round her neck she wore a necklace +of gold coins extending down to her bosom. As she rode along (and she +sat astride her saddle like a man), every now and then one could catch +glimpses beneath her variegated girdle of her red morocco boots and of a +Turkish dagger, with a massive silver handle, gleaming forth from their +shafts. On each side of her holsters peeped forth a double-barrelled +pistol with an ivory handle.</p> + +<p>When the old man stopped to water his horse at the spring gushing forth +from the black slate rock, he said to the girl: "Anicza, when did you +speak last with Fatia Negra?"</p> + +<p>"Just a month ago. It was at the time of the full moon, like it is now. +He then said that he was going away on a long journey."</p> + +<p>"And yet he has already been at home these two days. I saw his sign over +against my window."</p> + +<p>"Impossible. It cannot be," cried the girl passionately.</p> + +<p>"What cannot be? Do you think I am dreaming or lying?"</p> + +<p>"If he were at home, he would have come to see me ere this."</p> + +<p>The old man shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"And yet he did not come. But the day before yesterday, about midnight, +I found the three owl-feathers there in the window."</p> + +<p>"The wind carried them thither."</p> + +<p>"The wind did not carry them thither for they were stuck fast in putty. +And only we three know what that means. Fatia Negra would speak with us +and we are going to meet him in the Lucsia cavern."</p> + +<p>"It cannot, cannot be—three days at home and never to come to me—to +<i>me!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Who knows?" said the old man coolly, tightening his saddle girth, "a +whole month is a long while, long enough for the moon herself to change +four times. There are many pretty wenches on the other side of the +mountain."</p> + +<p>"O no! such a one as I am he will not find there," said the girl +proudly, glancing into the tremulous water-mirror which threw back a +distorted likeness of her defiant face—"and besides he knows very well +that I should murder him were such a woman to mock me."</p> + +<p>"Ah, ah!" mocked the old man, "so Fatia Negra is afraid of you, +eh?"—and with that he swung himself back into his saddle with +youth-like agility. "Black Face fears nobody, I tell you. He is not even +afraid of the commandant of Gyulafehervár, nor of the lord-lieutenant of +Krasna, and they have no end of soldiers and heydukes. Nay, he fears not +the devil himself."</p> + +<p>And with that he urged on his horse which ambled forward meditatively, +whilst the girl's little nag whinnied in the rear.</p> + +<p>"He may not fear the great gentlemen, he may not fear the devil, but I +tell you that he would be afraid of the girl he made to love him, if he +proved false to her."</p> + +<p>"So you really think he loves you violently?" said the old man casting a +backward glance at her.</p> + +<p>"He swore he did."</p> + +<p>"To whom? the priest?"</p> + +<p>"Go along with you! No, to me!"</p> + +<p>At this the old man chuckled—"little fool!" said he.</p> + +<p>"And if he breaks his oath now, the devil shall have him. I'll murder +him."</p> + +<p>"Very well, I suppose you know him. Yet you have never seen his face. If +he were to tear the black velvet mask from his face you would never +recognize him."</p> + +<p>"But that he cannot do as to that mask he owes all his power."</p> + +<p>"Well, you are a comical wench—to be enamoured of a man whose face you +have never seen!"</p> + +<p>"I recognize him by his voice, by the beating of his heart."</p> + +<p>"Well, if I were a girl and had a lover, I would insist on seeing his +face. He should not come to me in a mask anyhow."</p> + +<p>"He cannot put off his mask, I tell you. His oath forbids him to. The +moment he removes his mask from his face his power is gone, and neither +the devil nor the good angels will obey him any longer."</p> + +<p>"That is true," returned the old man solemnly. "When he likes he can +make himself invisible. I know it. He has always escaped pursuit even +when the whole country was out after him, and when they thought they had +him fast he always disappeared in the earth or in the air. Yet, for all +that, if I were his love, see his face I would."</p> + +<p>"He told me I should die of fright if I beheld it."</p> + +<p>"Then I <i>would</i> die of fright—but I would see it."</p> + +<p>"His eyes are very fine,—they glow like coals."</p> + +<p>"Like coals? Perhaps he is the Dracu<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> himself. Have you ever tried to +make him kiss the amulet on which is the image of St. George and the +Dragon?"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Dracu-dragon, <i>i.e.</i>, devil.</p></div> + +<p>"Yes he has kissed it and was none the worse."</p> + +<p>"Have you tried to get him to lay his three fingers on a copper +crucifix?"</p> + +<p>"He laid his fingers thereon and yet they were not burnt."</p> + +<p>"Can he say the prayer of condemnation without trembling?"</p> + +<p>"He has said it hundreds of times."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, I maintain he is no mortal man."</p> + +<p>"If he should love another woman, I swear that he will very soon find +out that he <i>is</i> mortal."</p> + +<p>Talking thus the riders had descended into the depths of the valley, and +when the mountain stream again crossed their path they quitted the usual +footpath and followed the bed of the stream. And a very good road it is +for such as do not wish to leave foot-marks behind them. The rapid +current swiftly fills the traces of the horses' hoofs with leaves and +pebbles.</p> + +<p>The ravine grew ever deeper and narrower, and the stream at intervals +formed small cataracts which the horses, who had been trained thereto, +had to cross. Finally, at a sudden declivity, the water took an +unexpected leap of four yards, and when the riders reined up at this +very spot, it was plain that here a mill had been built into the +hillside, whose wheel it was which drove the swiftly plunging water +along.</p> + +<p>If a stranger saw this mill he would certainly say: "What foolish man +the miller must be who has built his mill here," (——) and that for +three reasons. Firstly, because it was so concealed beneath the thick +alders that even if one sees it one cannot get at it. Secondly, because +it is built exactly under the water-fall which drives the wheel as +rapidly as a spindle, so that the millstone must needs be red hot +beneath it. Thirdly, because the way to this mill is so peculiar, +passing right through the mountain torrent and then winding down to the +door by way of a foot-path hewn in the naked rock, and inaccessible to +horses. Well, such a miller will surely get but little grain to grind!</p> + +<p>When the two riders reached this spot they sprang from their horses, led +them into a little dry islet formed by the alders and tied them by +their halters to the branches. Then the old man lifted the sack from +the saddle.</p> + +<p>"Give me a lift up, Anicza!" said he.</p> + +<p>One would hardly have supposed that an old fellow of such a colossal +build would have required any help at all in order to get this sack +across his shoulders, nor would one have supposed from the size of the +sack that it would have been so heavy to lift or that it would have +weighed so heavily on the old man's shoulders that he had to plant his +hand firmly on his hip in order to carry the load.</p> + +<p>Then the girl drew both pistols forth from her holsters, stuck them into +her girdle, threw the long fowling-piece across her shoulder and +springing fearlessly across the stream from boulder to boulder followed +behind the stooping old man along the narrow foot-path which led to the +mill. In the doorway of the mill stood a youth clad in the usual coarse +cloth "<i>guba</i>" and half concealed by the door post. In one hand he held +a double-barrelled musket, an implement not absolutely necessary for a +miller. The old man addressed him while still a good way off:</p> + +<p>"<i>Che timpu?</i>"<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> What sort of weather?</p></div> + +<p>"<i>Luna plina.</i>"<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Full moon.</p></div> + +<p>A strange sort of greeting, more like an exchange of pass-words.</p> + +<p>Then both the new arrivals entered the mill in the midst of which a +dilapidated grinding machine was revolving, the central wheel was minus +a couple of teeth.</p> + +<p>"Plenty of grinding going on, Paul?" asked the old man.</p> + +<p>"Quite enough."</p> + +<p>"Help me down with this sack."</p> + +<p>"It is heavy certainly," said the other, panting beneath the strain, +"how much does it hold?"</p> + +<p>"A hundredweight and eighty pounds."</p> + +<p>"No mere Turkish maize, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Stop the wheel!"</p> + +<p>The young man at once obeyed by driving an iron beam clean through the +wheel which brought the machinery to a standstill. Then he raised the +central revolving disc which was in connection with the millstone, hung +in the hook of the millstone an iron chain which was wound round the +beam and this done, laid the sack and its contents on the bolting-hutch. +Then the old man himself, sat down on the hutch and extended his hand to +the girl. "Jump on Anicza." And the girl jumped on without help for she +was as agile as a chamois.</p> + +<p>"Paul," said the old man to the young journeyman, "was not Fatia Negra +here before us?"</p> + +<p>"He has not been through here either to-day or yesterday. It has been my +turn to watch these last two days."</p> + +<p>"I am right you see; he is not here," said the girl.</p> + +<p>"He <i>is</i> here, I tell you."</p> + +<p>"Come Onucz," said the youth, "can Black Face make himself invisible +then? He could not pass here without my knowing it!"</p> + +<p>"What do you know about it?" answered the old man, adjusting himself on +the bolting-hutch. "Let the mill go!"</p> + +<p>As now the revolving disc or platform began to move, the machinery stood +still, yet the millstone together with the bolting-hutch began slowly to +sink downwards together with those sitting upon it, and after some +moments, disappeared entirely into a dark gulf, the chain unwinding and +rattling after it. Suddenly from the depths below resounded the old +man's voice: "Halt!" Then Paul stopped the mill, hung the chain in an +iron ring and the machinery once more set in motion, raised the +millstone up, Paul fastened the revolving disc to it and it began to +rattle round again so furiously that sparks flew out of it. Now whoever +had any meal to grind might come, he was quite ready for them.</p> + +<p>It was a huge subterraneous cavern into which Onucz and Anicza had +descended. At the bottom of this hollow flowed a branch of the mountain +stream which turned the mill and indeed was diverted thither by means of +wooden pipes. Here, however, it flowed in its regular bed, glistening +here and there in the light of two oil lamps which burnt on both sides +of a small iron bridge that traversed the stream.</p> + +<p>In the background of this hollow stood a peculiar, roofless, stone +building, whose two round little windows, like the eternally watchful +eyes of some underground worm, shone with a red glare which dazzled the +eyes, while the slate-covered chimney belched forth a thick smoke filled +with sparks into the subterranean midnight.</p> + +<p>From the interior of the building resounded heavy thuds and the din of +grinding as of machinery in perpetual motion which made the very +foundations of the rocks quiver. On the bridge stood another armed man +with whom the new arrivals exchanged watchwords and the same thing was +done at the door of the stone building where the old man made the girl +stop.</p> + +<p>"Now Anicza," said he, "while I go in, you sit down on that stone bench +and wait for me."</p> + +<p>"Why cannot I go into the house as well?" enquired the girl, +impatiently.</p> + +<p>"No more of that. Once a year we come here and every time you ask again +if you can come in, and every time I tell you that cannot be. And now I +tell you once more: <i>it cannot be</i>—and there's an end on't."</p> + +<p>"But why may others go in and I not?"</p> + +<p>"Why—why! because you are a girl, of course. Leave me in peace. Women +have no business in there, they are always so inquisitive, want to know +everything and then blab it all out—it is their nature so."</p> + +<p>"I'm not like that."</p> + +<p>"And then whoever enters here has to swear a frightful oath that he +will divulge nothing that he sees. I myself shudder all over when I have +to repeat it; it is not fit for the mouth of a woman."</p> + +<p>"As if <i>I</i> were afraid of any oath!" cried the girl defiantly. "I would +say any thing that a man might say."</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool, Anicza. A girl cannot come in here, because everyone +has to strip himself stark naked before he goes out, before the +watchman, and then dress himself again. So you see it won't do."</p> + +<p>This difficulty appeared insuperable even to the iron will of Anicza. It +was a test even she could not submit to. She stamped her foot with rage +and uttered again and again the word Dracu, which in Roumanian means +nothing less than his highness the devil himself.</p> + +<p>Old Onucz and the watchman thereupon laughed heartily, and the same +instant the iron door of the building opened and the girl exclaimed +joyfully: "Fatia Negra!"</p> + +<p>Onucz and the watchman immediately tore their caps from their heads. It +was, indeed, Fatia Negra.</p> + +<p>How could he get hither invisibly through all the ambushes set for him? +Who could tell? Who had the courage to ask him? Not even Anicza. All she +thought of at that moment was to rush forward, fall upon the neck of her +mysterious lover and cover his eyes and mouth, which the mask left +exposed, with kisses.</p> + +<p>"Let Anicza come in!" said the black-masked man, "I'll answer for her, +and she shall, like myself, be exempted from undressing."</p> + +<p>"It is well, Domnule,"<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> said the watchman, "but let her at least take +the oath which everyone here must swear."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Master.</p></div> + +<p>"I am ready," cried the girl boldly.</p> + +<p>"No, Anicza," replied Black Mask, "you shall swear to me a stronger oath +even than that, you shall swear—by our eternal love."</p> + +<p>The proud maiden, trembling with joy, fell at the feet of Fatia Negra at +these words, and pressing one of her hands to her heart, raised the +other aloft, and, raising her lovely eyes—which reflected the infernal +glare of the windows—aloft, towards the smoking canopy above her head, +she swore by her eternal love to her beloved that she would never, not +even on the rack itself, betray a word, a syllable of what she was about +to learn.</p> + +<p>But old Onucz scratched his poll.</p> + +<p>"Domnule, it is not wise of you to let women swear on such useless +things. It is just as if one of us were to hold a penny in his hand and +swear by that. It binds nobody."</p> + +<p>"It is enough for me," replied the Mask, "and my head is no cheaper than +yours. Let him who trusts me not keep away from here."</p> + +<p>And holding the girl in his arms, he carried her with him into the +building while old Onucz had to dress himself from head to foot in other +clothes and leave those he had brought with him outside. He would have +on his return to put on his own again and leave these others behind. +Thus smuggling was impossible.</p> + +<p>The first room was for the smelting.</p> + +<p>Here there was nothing to be seen of the blazing fire which illuminated +the dark hollow through the windows, in one corner of the room was a +simple cylinder shaped iron furnace which radiated a burning heat, on +the top of which stood a round graphite crucible covered in at the top +and provided with a lateral pipe.</p> + +<p>"Here the gold is remelted after it has come out of the purifying oven," +said Fatia Negra to the girl who pressed close up to him. "Heretofore it +required a whole apparatus of boilers and loads and loads of wood to +bring it to smelting heat, but since I got that cylinder-stove, ten +hundredweights of metal can be melted in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"But where does the fire come from?" enquired the girl.</p> + +<p>"From the earth, my beloved."</p> + +<p>The girl shrank back with horror, and yet Fatia Negra did not mean hell +but that furnace whose powerful bellows drove the melting heat into the +double cylinder.</p> + +<p>He looked at his watch, the moment had come. At a single whistle a +couple of workmen appeared, each of them stripped to the waist on +account of the great heat; they held in their hands large iron moulds +and stood facing each other opposite the crucible. Then by means of an +iron tap Fatia Negra turned the pipe of the crucible and immediately a +pale glare began to spread through the room—the liquid gold ran in a +thin jet out of the crucible and that was the cause of the light. +Actually genuine pure gold made liquid in the fire like wine in a glass +and emitting on every side of it a glowing white radiance! Each of the +two workmen held his mould beneath it and the girl surveyed the scene +with bated breath.</p> + +<p>When the operation was finished Black Face turned to the girl again and +embraced her saying: "So you see, darling, that is how gold is melted." +The girl smiled back at him; what a pity the Black Mask could not smile +in return. And now old Onucz came up with his sack for the purifying +furnace.</p> + +<p>"How much have you in your sack?" asked Fatia Negra.</p> + +<p>"A hundredweight and eighty pounds."</p> + +<p>"Now we'll see into how much pure gold it will work out."</p> + +<p>"The dross mixed with it is only a few pounds in weight."</p> + +<p>"Of what quality is it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, they purify it very incompletely you know. It is only +two-and-twenty carat gold."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't matter: we will coin Prussian ducats out of it."</p> + +<p>"But where's the mould?"</p> + +<p>"I brought it with me, to-day; we'll adjust that also to the machine. +We shall gain a hundred florins in every thousand."</p> + +<p>Old Onucz kissed Fatia Negra's hand. "Domnule," said he, "you are a man +indeed. Domnule, since you became our chief our gains have doubled and +the ducats are so good that one cannot distinguish them from the +Imperial ones."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the girl felt her head going round to hear them talk of +nothing but money, gold, gain!</p> + +<p>"Come Onucz, let us look at the new machinery," said the Mask.</p> + +<p>"When did you bring the new machinery here?"</p> + +<p>"A long time ago; we have coined a great deal of money since it first +came. The work is all the quicker and we need fewer men to work it."</p> + +<p>They went into the next room through a low door, all three of them +having to bow their heads as they entered, and there they saw a gigantic +machine at work between whose revolving cylinders depended the long gold +ingots which were gradually reduced to the proper thinness for making +gold coins.</p> + +<p>"Don't you see, Onucz? Hitherto we wasted too much time and labour in +cutting the gold plates thin enough and the edges were always too thick +to our great loss. Now the machine rolls them all out uniformly. It only +cost 10,000 ducats."</p> + +<p>"Very cheap indeed!" cried the old man, who was wearing a ragged +sheepskin and yet considered ten thousand ducats a moderate price for a +rolling mill.</p> + +<p>The Mask took up one of the little glistening plates.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, my friend, the name of this?" said he.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Its name is Zain. In order that you may not forget it I will wind it +round your arm." And as if it were merely hard paper he lightly bent the +gold plate round the girl's wrist and then pressed the ends of this +improvised bracelet together with his steel-like fingers. "Don't forget +that this is called Zain and that you got it from me."</p> + +<p>The girl looked doubtfully at him as if she would have said: "Is it +lawful for you to give away everything here as if it were your own."</p> + +<p>But the old man could not look on at this in silence. "Alas! alas! +Domnule, give not away uncoined gold. Rather squander coined gold in +heaps. The other is of itself a witness against us and thereby we shall +furnish a clue to our enemies."</p> + +<p>"It is in a good place," replied Fatia Negra; "it is on Anicza's arm and +there it will keep silence."</p> + +<p>Anicza replied to this apology with ten kisses. And she calculated +rightly. This necklace weighed exactly ten double ducats—but the kisses +also were double ones.</p> + +<p>Then Fatia Negra led them to another machine which cut round gold +pieces out of the rolled out "Zain." He showed the girl how every +clipper, how every screw beneath the impulsion of the piston did its +proper share of the work, and how the whole process was set going by +steam power from without and could therefore be directed and controlled +by one man with another man to relieve him at intervals.</p> + +<p>"Dumnezu!"<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> sighed old Onucz, "when I think that fifty years ago we +did all this with only our hammers and chisels! We sweated two whole +days over a piece of work which this marvel can do in an hour. And how +many hands we employed too!"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> My master.</p></div> + +<p>Then they went to another machine. This was a small table whose steel +wheels notched the ducats before they passed beneath the stamping +machine. Perpetually moving elastic springs pushed the gold pieces +forward one after the other, turned them round and jerked them away. You +saw no other motive power but a large wheel revolving under a broad +strap; the strap disappeared through the floor, it was underneath there +that the man who set it in motion lived.</p> + +<p>Old Onucz sighed aloud. "What things they do invent now-a-days," said +he.</p> + +<p>But Anicza, full of superstitious fear, clung silently to the arm of +Fatia Negra whom all these speechless marvels served and obeyed. +Finally, descending six stone steps they entered the actual minting +room.</p> + +<p>A gigantic screw press stood in the midst of the low vaulted chamber. +Through the head of the screw was driven a long moving bar, with leaden +bullets at both ends and two strong fellows were pushing this bar +backwards and forwards; the weight of the machine, as it turned, forced +the screw sharply down and in a second it pressed the two round gold +pieces laid in the steel matrix into the stamping dies, on one of which +was the image of the Mother of God and on the other the cuirassed +likeness of the reigning monarch. Immediately after the two matrices +recoiled again of their own accord and the two powerful men repeated the +pressure. Then a little steel ring shifted suddenly, flinging aside the +coined ducat, and a fresh gold piece took its place. The coined ducats +already lay in a heap in front of the machine and the workmen, now and +then, kicked them away with their feet.</p> + +<p>There was something impressive in the spectacle. Here were two poor men, +working hard perhaps for their daily bread with little hillocks of +seductive gold piled up all around them, gold of which everyone is +enamoured in the earth above them, gold for which so many men gladly +give up everything, even to their hope in Heaven!</p> + +<p>Now and again a third man comes in and pitches the gold into a linen +sack with a wooden shovel.</p> + +<p>"Let us stamp a few ducats ourselves by way of souvenirs," said Fatia +Negra. Anicza assenting, the workmen stepped aside, and Fatia Negra and +the girl placed themselves on either side of the leaden bullets on the +turning bar.</p> + +<p>The Mask bade his sweetheart be careful to avoid the recoil of the +machine for should the handle hit her the blow might prove fatal, +whereupon the girl, burning to show off her great strength, did not wait +for the end of the bar to recover its normal position, but seizing the +iron rod when it was only half way round, tore it back again, with the +result that the steel clapper did not cast the gold piece between the +matrices in the usual way and it thus received a double impression, +being stamped with a two-fold figure of the Mother of God on one side +and a two-fold figure of the royal profile on the other.</p> + +<p>Old Onucz rushed towards Anicza and angrily tore her away:</p> + +<p>"You little fool, be off!" cried he, "you will spoil the machine, it is +not for the likes of you."</p> + +<p>But Fatia Negra now picked up the ducat which had fallen to the ground +and showed it with a smile to Anicza: "Look," said he, "there is now a +double picture on it."</p> + +<p>The girl turned it curiously between her fingers.</p> + +<p>"And what will happen to it now?"</p> + +<p>"It will go into the smelting furnace again."</p> + +<p>"Ah, don't destroy it, give it to me!"</p> + +<p>At this the old man fairly lost his temper.</p> + +<p>"Are you out of your mind to ask for such a thing? What! a ducat with a +flaw in it, which, if seen in your hands would saddle us with the +vengeance of the whole government! Domnule, be not so mad as to let her +have that ducat! If she has no sense, you at least be sensible. You +might ruin the whole lot of us with it."</p> + +<p>"Well, Anicza will not wear it on her head, I suppose, or even on her +neckerchief, but will fasten it to a little bit of thread and wear it +next her heart, there nobody will find it but myself."</p> + +<p>Onucz would very much have liked to say: "Neither have you any right to +look there, Domnule, for you have not yet spoken to the priest about +it"—but this was the one thing he durst not say.</p> + +<p>But Anicza gratefully kissed Fatia Negra's hand like a child who has +received a gift, not indeed for the ducat, but for the boundless +confidence he had shown in giving it to her, which was the surest token +of his love. Then she drew forth a little Turkish dagger, bored a hole +with it through the ducat and fastened it to a little piece of thin +black cord by the side of her little crucifix which she wore upon her +bosom—and hid both of them away again.</p> + +<p>"Well Domnule," remarked Onucz sulkily, "since we have placed our heads +in the girl's hands we must beware of ever offending her."</p> + +<p>But now the assayer came up, bringing with him a nice elaborate +calculation on a black slate, showing exactly how much pure gold Onucz +had handed in to the coining department, how much it would be worth when +coined and deducting three per cent for expenses, how much he was to +receive in cash by way of exchange.</p> + +<p>"And now go and let the cashier pay you what is due to you, Onucz," said +Fatia Negra.</p> + +<p>And so while he remained behind for the purpose of settling his account +Anicza and Fatia Negra retired to a little adjoining chamber. There +would be plenty of time for two lovers to talk over their love affairs +while so many gold coins were being counted out.</p> + +<p>"Where have you been? it's a whole month since I saw you?" asked Anicza +sitting on the adventurer's knee. "Do you know how long a month is to +me? First quarter, new moon, full moon, last quarter, all this have I +watched through and never saw you once, where have you been?"</p> + +<p>"I have been abroad for those new machines. That is a business one +cannot entrust to another."</p> + +<p>"Are there pretty girls abroad?—Might you not fall in love with them?"</p> + +<p>"Hush! Those are not the questions that men should be asked."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Because men are not in the habit of answering them."</p> + +<p>"But suppose a girl wants to know?"</p> + +<p>"Then it will go badly with her. Besides, what do you want me to tell +you? Would you like to know that I'm such a block, a clod, that no +other eye but yours takes any pleasure in looking at me? Or would you +like to hear that I am a sort of hermit who has wandered in disguise +through seven kingdoms and casts down his eyes whenever he encounters a +petticoat? Or that I cross myself and turn away whenever a woman looks +at me? Or shall I tell you: in such and such a place I nipped the white +cheeks of a pretty blonde, and in such and such a place the coquettrie +of a pair of blue eyes made me forget myself, and in such another place +I bedded my intoxicated head in the arms of a brunette?—and that after +wandering through seven kingdoms I have found no lovelier girl than my +own enchanting Anicza?"</p> + +<p>The girl could neither reply nor scold, for her mouth was closed fast +with kisses.</p> + +<p>"You know I am very jealous," she said at last, when she was able to +tear herself free. "I do not love as others love. I can only think of +you and your love. I am neither hungry nor thirsty but only—in love. I +am never weary, I scarcely know that I am working, for love makes me +sing and sing all day. I dream only of you. I care not what is going on +in the whole world so long as I only know what is happening to you. I +know that you love me and that you are mine so long as you are here. But +how often you are far away! How often I do not see you for weeks, for +months at a time! Then I get nearly mad. I am determined to find out +where you are and what you are doing, with whom you are speaking and +then I say, I feel quite mad."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! Then let me tell you, my dear girl, that it would do you no +good to know where I am, for I am much more exposed to the fire of +pointed rifles than to the fire of pretty eyes."</p> + +<p>"Are you then a robber chieftain, a mountain smuggler?"</p> + +<p>"I am a lot of things."</p> + +<p>"Then take me with you into your band"—she spoke with heaving bosom.</p> + +<p>But Fatia Negra stamped his foot.</p> + +<p>"It cannot be, Anicza," said he; "think no more of it! I will never take +you with me."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked the girl and her eyes flashed like a wild cat's.</p> + +<p>"Because then I should become jealous of you and that would be bad for +us both. Remain in your father's house; there you are safe."</p> + +<p>The girl drew from her bosom the defaced ducat she had just received +together with the crucifix.</p> + +<p>"Hearken, Fatia Negra! my father says that this badly coined piece of +gold places your life in my hand. And know, besides, Fatia Negra, that I +have sworn on this Crucified One here that if ever you betray me I will +kill you in my fury without thinking twice about the how or where. It is +not well that two such dangerous objects should repose on my heart. +Look! I give them both to you."</p> + +<p>"Wherefore, Anicza?"</p> + +<p>"Take the things, I say, and keep them, for my guardian angel knows, I +have told him, that with me they are not in a safe place. You do not +know me yet."</p> + +<p>The girl burst out crying, and Fatia Negra could no longer soothe her +with kisses, and then old Onucz poked his gray shaggy head through the +doorway and said: "I have been paid already, Domnule, have you?"</p> + +<p>Fatia Negra stroked the girl's hair and face and whispered her not to +take on so.</p> + +<p>The stitches of the old Roumanian's patience now, at last, gave way +altogether. "Domnule," said he, "would you not, if I earnestly besought +you to do so, begin to think of the day on which you intend to become my +daughter's husband?"</p> + +<p>For a moment Fatia Negra seemed thunderstruck; then he recovered himself +and replied in a calm but menacing voice: "If ever it occurs to you to +put the question to me again, your head will reach home an hour earlier +than yourself."</p> + +<p>The old man made no reply, but he seized the girl by the hand and led +her away with him, returning to the mill with her by the same way that +he had come. They found their horses by the alder trees and remounted. +It was a fine clear night, and Onucz told his daughter to ride in front. +They had now divided the coined gold into two portions. When they had +once more reached the ridge of the mountain the old man pronounced +Anicza's name in a low tone. The girl looked, backwards and perceived +that the old man's long-barrelled rifle was pointed directly at the back +of her head. In her terror she covered her face with her hands. "What +would you do?" cried she.</p> + +<p>"Fear nothing, I only want that piece of gold which Fatia Negra gave +you. I'll not stake <i>my</i> head on <i>your</i> whimsies!"</p> + +<p>The girl had anticipated something much worse than this, so she quietly +answered: "You can spare yourself the trouble, I have already returned +it to Fatia Negra. I would not carry it about with me any longer."</p> + +<p>"You have acted wisely," said the old man, lowering his musket. "Now you +can ride on."</p> + +<p>The early dawn was breaking as they reached home. When Anicza entered +her room she found hanging up beneath the ikon that gleamed and shone +over her bed both the damaged ducat and the little cross which she had +given to Fatia Negra two hours before. He must indeed be in league with +the devil—else how could he have got there, invisibly, so long before +them?</p> + +<p>Anicza said not a word about it to anybody, but she hid both the amulets +safely away in her bosom again—and now she was right proud of her Fatia +Negra!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>STRONG JUON</h3> + + +<p>Henrietta's married life was not a happy one. Her husband was polite, +complaisant, and conventionally correct in his behaviour towards her, +and that was all. And then she saw so little of him. He was frequently +absent from Hidvár for weeks at a time, and when he returned he +regularly brought in his train a merry company of comrades, in whose +pastimes Henrietta could take no sort of pleasure.</p> + +<p>During those long days when she had Hidvár all to herself and was left +entirely to the company of her sad thoughts, she would sometimes walk +about till late in the evening in the shady alleys of the home park, +listening to the songs of the girls working in the fields. At the end of +the park was a church, and in front of it a small clearing fenced around +with stakes and looking like a cabbage garden. It surely belonged to +some poor man or other. It did—and the poor man was the parish-priest.</p> + +<p>Henrietta often saw him, a tall, grey-bearded man in a long black +cassock, hastening to his little garden; there the reverend gentleman +would divest himself of his long habit, produce a rake, and work till +late in the evening. Henrietta fancied at first that was merely a +dietetic diversion, but afterwards, when she found him there the next +day and the day after that, and at every hour of the day; when she saw +him wiping the sweat from his brow in the burning afternoons and leaning +wearily at intervals on his rake to rest a while from his labour, then +she was persuaded that this work was not a pastime, but a bitter toil +for daily bread.</p> + +<p>Often times she would very much have liked to ask him how this was, but +she was a stranger in these parts and did not understand his language; +at last, however, the priest, perceiving the lady one day, peered at her +through the palings and wished her good-day in the purest Hungarian, +thereby giving her to understand that the language of the gentry was +well known to him.</p> + +<p>Henrietta begged the old man to leave his labour and come to her.</p> + +<p>"It cannot be, your ladyship; his lordship has forbidden me to appear in +his courts."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"I am always a nuisance."</p> + +<p>"How so?"</p> + +<p>"Because I am always on some begging errand. At one time the wind +carries off the roof of the church; at another, something is broken in +the belfry. It is a year ago now since the school was burnt down, and +since then the walls have become overgrown with thistles; the +schoolmaster too has gone away, and there is nobody to teach the +children, so that they grow up louts and robbers, to the great hurt and +harm of the gentry."</p> + +<p>"But why is not all this put to rights?"</p> + +<p>"Because the poor folks are lazy and drunken, and his lordship is +stingy."</p> + +<p>Henrietta was astonished at the old man's words.</p> + +<p>"Yes, stingy, that's the word," continued the priest. "I do not pick my +words, for I am a priest and used to hunger. And he who is used to +hunger is free from the yoke of servility. I told his lordship that to +his face, and that was why he forbade me the castle."</p> + +<p>Henrietta could not continue the conversation, so upset was she at the +idea of Hátszegi's stinginess. What! the man who raked in hundreds of +thousands at a time with the greatest ease, and no doubt scattered them +as recklessly, could shut his door in the face of a poor priest who +begged for the house of God and the education of the people! She hastily +wished the priest good-night and returned to the castle.</p> + +<p>The same evening she sought her husband, who had just come home wearied +from the chase, "I have a favour to ask of you," said she. Hátszegi +looked astonished: it was the first favour the wife had ever asked her +husband.</p> + +<p>"Command me!" said he. "Whatever you like to ask is as good as granted +already."</p> + +<p>"I should like to learn the language of the people in the midst of whom +we dwell. I am like a deaf-mute among them at present."</p> + +<p>"That will not be difficult. The Wallachian tongue is easily acquired, +especially by anyone with a knowledge of French or Latin."</p> + +<p>Henrietta blushed scarlet. Was there a covert allusion behind these +words? Did Hátszegi know that she understood Latin?</p> + +<p>"I should like to have a master who can put me in the way of it. The +parish priest here would be a suitable person."</p> + +<p>For an instant Hátszegi's eyebrows contracted.</p> + +<p>"You shall have your way," he said at last. "It is true that he is the +one man in the world who insults me to my face with impunity whenever he +meets me, and even presumes to chalk upon the walls of my own castle +denunciations against me from the book of the Prophet Nehemiah, so that +I was obliged to forbid him ever to appear before me under pain of being +thrown headlong out of the window; yet to show you what an obedient +servant I am of yours, madame, I will not baulk you of your desire, or +desire you to choose another master, but will send and invite him to +come up here at once. Everyone shall see that in my house, my wife is +the master." And with that Leonard kissed his wife's hand and withdrew.</p> + +<p>Early next day the pastor arrived. Margari informed him of her +ladyship's desire to learn the Roumanian language, and the words almost +stuck in his throat when he added that his Reverence would receive a +hundred florins every month for it. Fancy! a hundred florins a month for +teaching a lingo only spoken by bumpkins.</p> + +<p>Todor Rubán—that was the priest's name—was at once conducted to her +ladyship. He was an elderly man, of an open, cheerful countenance; his +fine, long white hair fell in thick locks on his simple black cassock, +which showed considerable signs of wear.</p> + +<p>Henrietta was not in time to prevent the old pastor from kissing her +hand.</p> + +<p>"This is no slavish obsequiousness towards a great lady," said he, "but +the respect of a poor pastor for an angel whom Heaven by a peculiar act +of grace has sent down to us. This is no empty compliment, your +ladyship. I am not very lavish of such things myself, but I feel bound +to address you thus because I am well aware that it is not merely to +learn our poor language that you pay me so well for so little trouble. +No, I recognize herein the good will which would do what it can to raise +and help a poor neglected population: for I certainly shall not exchange +my simple maize-bread for better, but will employ your ladyship's gift +in the service of God and of our poorer brethren."</p> + +<p>From that day Henrietta believed that a call from on high had summoned +her to Hidvár to be the guardian angel, the visible providence of a +poor, forsaken people, and her most pleasant occupation was now to go +from village to village,—often in the company of the priest, and at +other times accompanied by a single groom or quite alone. Thus she +visited one after the other all the surrounding parishes like any +archdeacon, enquiring after and helping their necessities, distributing +money for school-buildings and service books, collecting all manner of +stray orphans and bringing them home with her to be fed and instructed; +nay she erected a regular foundling hospital at Hidvár for the benefit +of the sprouting urchins of the district, and had the liveliest debates +with the priest as to the best method of managing it. Her benevolent +enthusiasm cost Hátszegi a pretty penny.</p> + +<p>"She is a child; let her play!" he would only say when Margari and +Clementina represented to him that Henrietta had pawned her jewels at +Fehervár in order to teach some more little Roumanian rag-a-muffins how +to go about with gloves on like their betters. Nay the baron secretly +instructed the tradesmen with whom Henrietta had pawned her jewels to +advance her four times as much as they were worth, <i>he</i> would make it +good again, he said—and then he would buy his wife fresh jewels. An +admirable husband, truly!</p> + +<p>One day, Henrietta had ridden out to the neighbouring Ravacsel in order +to visit a poor Wallachian peasant woman, to whom she had sent some +medicine a few days before. The woman, naturally, never drank the +medicine, but instead of that got a village quack to rub her stomach +with some wonder-working salve so vigorously that the poor patient died +in consequence; in fact she was already at the last gasp when Henrietta +arrived. Henrietta was beside herself with grief and anger. She felt +like a doctor whose prescriptions have been interfered with by a +competitor. She could not indeed help the woman, who expired soon after +her arrival, but she had at least the satisfaction of making +arrangements for a decent funeral. In the meantime it had grown so late +that when she turned back toward Hidvár the moon was already pretty high +in the heavens.</p> + +<p>She was alone on horseback, for it was only a two hours' journey between +the two places, and she had therefore not thought it worth while to +bring an escort with her. Besides, whom had she to fear? Since she had +lived in these parts, all the bad men had disappeared, and whoever she +might meet in the roads or lanes would be ready to kiss her hand.</p> + +<p>So she turned homewards again alone. The road wound in and out among the +valleys and was therefore much longer than if it had gone in a straight +direction across the mountains. She had, however, often heard from the +peasants that there was a shorter way to Hidvár from Ravacsel on which +mules and ponies could go, and she thought it better to look for this +road lest night should surprise her among the mountains. But a road that +is good enough for mules and ponies may not suit a thoroughbred English +steed which does not care about putting its hoofs into the tracks of +other beasts; and besides, a hundred paces on level ground is much +shorter than twenty-five up hill. Henrietta vividly experienced the +truth of this when she reached the summit of the hill, for her horse was +sweating from every pore and trembling from the violent exertion. Such +horses should not be used in hilly country: a shaggy, sturdy little pony +would have treated the whole thing as a joke and not said a word about +it.</p> + +<p>But the real difficulties of the road only began during the descent, +which was equally dangerous for horse and rider. The track, a mere +channel washed out of the soft sandstone by the mountain torrents, +descended abruptly, the stones giving way beneath the horse's hoofs and +plunging after it. Frequently they had to cross very awkward places, and +Henrietta could see from the way in which her horse pricked up his ears, +snorted and shook his head, that he was as frightened as his mistress.</p> + +<p>At last they came to a very bad spot indeed, where on one side of the +road there was a sheer abyss, while the rocky mountain side rose +perpendicularly on the other. The narrow path here ran so close to the +rock that the rider had to bend her head aside so as not to knock it, +and the horse could only go forward one foot at a time.</p> + +<p>For an instant the horse stood still, as if weighing his chances on that +narrow path; but, as there was no turning back now, he was obliged at +last to go on.</p> + +<p>Henrietta looked shudderingly down into the chasm below her, over which +she seemed to hang suspended; and she thought to herself, with something +very like a sob: what if we should stumble now!</p> + +<p>The thought was scarcely in her mind when one of the horse's hind legs +tripped, and the same instant horse and rider were precipitated into the +abyss.</p> + +<p>Henrietta never lost her head during the fall. She noticed everything +that happened during the brief plunge, how the horse struggling +desperately clattered down the mountain-side, how the saddle girth burst +beneath the strain, how for a mere second some bush or shrub arrested +the descent, and how the next instant the weight of the horse tore it +down along with him. Finally, falling still lower and turning right +round on its back the horse got wedged in between two rocks from which +position he was fortunately unable to disengage himself, for had he +fallen any further he would have been dashed to pieces.</p> + +<p>Henrietta was quite conscious the whole time. Holding on with both hands +to the roots of a bush with her left leg still in the stirrup (for +saddle and stirrup also remained hanging in the bush) it occurred to her +in this painful situation that she still had time to commend her soul to +God and then face death more calmly. As to help, there was no hope of +it, for the place was far away from all human dwellings; night would +soon fall and the bush would presently yield beneath her +feet—destruction was certain.</p> + +<p>But while the lady neglected to call for assistance, the wedged-in horse +did so all the more loudly. Supine and unable to free himself from his +uncomfortable position, he repeatedly uttered that terrified scream +which one never hears from this noble and reticent beast except in dire +extremity. Whoever has heard such a cry will readily admit that it is +far more terrible than any merely human appeal for assistance.</p> + +<p>After a few moments it seemed to Henrietta as if a halloo were +resounding from the depths below; looking down she perceived by the +light of the moon a black shape leaping from rock to rock like a +chamois, and gradually approaching the dangerous point where she hung.</p> + +<p>Any efforts on this man's part seemed to her impossible. There was not a +single visible gap or crevice in the face of the steep rock by means of +which he could scramble up to her; and how could he help her, how could +he liberate her, if he did manage to get at her?</p> + +<p>Nevertheless the man drew nearer and nearer. She could by this time make +out his goatskin cloak, his high broad cap, the clean shaved face +peculiar to the mountain goatherds. His dexterity was as astonishing as +the physical strength, with which he often raised himself on the tips of +his toes in order to reach a cleft in the rocks, scarcely visible high +above his head; often he could scarce hold on by the tips of his +fingers, yet the next moment he would swing himself up with half a hand +and, setting his foot in the cleft, look about for a fresh foothold.</p> + +<p>About a yard below Henrietta was a projecting piece of rock just large +enough for a man's foot to stand upon. The next moment Henrietta saw the +herdsman mount to this place. He himself was a good fathom in height and +his head reached up as far as Henrietta's hips. He looked up at her with +a friendly smile, as if he had merely come there to help her down from +her horse. Then he said to her in Roumanian: "<i>Noroc bun Domna!</i>" which +means "Good luck to you, my lady!" So even in this perilous situation it +occurred to him to say something pleasant.</p> + +<p>"The horse took a false step, my lady," said he, "but all's well that +ends well. Prithee, mount upon my shoulder, this bush will not hold fast +much longer, it is only a juniper, its roots are weak." Henrietta's +heart failed her. This man surely does not imagine that he will be able +to carry her down on his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Come, my lady, don't be afraid, I can easily carry you down. Why I +often roam about like this after my kids when they fall into the +precipice; and you are no heavier than a young kid, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>And then, with the hand that remained free, he plucked at the remainder +of the damaged bush. Henrietta perceived with astonishment that the +roots which had not snapped asunder beneath his weight were loosened +from the rock by the mere tug of the man's hand. But what was he going +to do with them?</p> + +<p>The herdsman bade the lady fear nothing; no further accident could +happen, he said; then, sticking the torn out stump between his legs like +a hobby-horse and pressing it against the rock with one hand, he himself +turned his back to the mountain-side and suddenly, stretching his legs +wide apart, let himself glide down the shelving rock.</p> + +<p>Henrietta shrieked aloud, she thought she was lost, but the next moment +the herdsman stood on solid ground and looked up at her with a smile: +"We're all right, you see," he cried. "Oh, I have travelled like this +many a time; it is rare fun,—sledging I call it."</p> + +<p>Sledging indeed!—to plunge down a steep mountain side five fathoms deep +with the aid of a juniper bush!</p> + +<p>From where they now stood it was an easy matter to convey the lady to +the bottom of the precipice, which was overgrown with bright grass, on +which he deposited her.</p> + +<p>"There you are, my lady," said he. "Don't be frightened; I will soon be +back again."</p> + +<p>And with that he scrambled up again towards the wedged-in horse. +Henrietta gazed after him in amazement—whatever was he going to do +there?</p> + +<p>The fellow, on reaching the wriggling horse, first of all caught firm +hold of its front legs and then tied all four legs tightly together with +the stirrup-straps. Thereupon, he seized the beast by his fettered legs, +pulled them over his shoulders, and with a violent jerk freed the animal +from its uncomfortable position and carried it down into the valley +likewise. There he untied its legs, helped it on to its hoofs again, +and, turning with a smile to Henrietta, said: "A fine horse that; it +would have been a shame to have let it come to grief!"</p> + +<p>"And you were able to carry it on your shoulders?" gasped Henrietta.</p> + +<p>"That isn't very much. It scarce weighs more than four hundredweight. +The bear not long ago weighed five, and I had to beat it to death before +I could take it home. Surely your ladyship knows that I am the strong +Juon—Juon Tare?" And the goatherd said this with as much self-evident +pride, as if everyone in the wide world had heard that strong Juon dwelt +among these forests. Henrietta's look of surprise apprised him, however, +that she, at least, had never heard of him.</p> + +<p>"You do not know then, Domna, who I am? Yet I know who you are. I have +often met the <i>Dumnye Barbatu</i><a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> and he knows me well. He is the only +man in the world who is as strong as I am. We have often wrestled +together on this grass-plot for a wager. Neither of us has ever been +able to throw the other. His lordship can throw an axe deeper into a +tree than I can, but I can put a greater weight. His lordship can kill +an ox with a blow from his fist, but I can throttle a bear to death. But +we cannot overcome each other, though we have often stood up +together—only in joke, only in sport, of course, your ladyship. It +would not be well if we encountered each other in our wrath—that would +be terrible."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> My lord, your husband.</p></div> + +<p>All the time he spoke Juon was skilfully mending the torn saddle-girths +and the bridle; then he re-saddled the horse, which was still trembling +in every limb, wiped the bloody foam from its mouth, washed its sores +and encouraged the lady to remount. In a quarter of an hour, he said, +they would meet the road again, and in half an hour they would be at +Hidvár.</p> + +<p>Then the goatherd, who was well acquainted with all the meanderings of +the valley, took the horse's rein and conducted the lady to the mountain +pass, where the beaten track began again. There he kissed her hand and +parted from her.</p> + +<p>"I must now go back," said he, "for they are waiting for me."</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"My goats and my wife."</p> + +<p>"Then you have a wife? Do you love her?"</p> + +<p>"Love her?" cried the herdsman proudly,—and then he added in a lower +voice: "She is as beautiful as your ladyship!—<i>Buna nopte, Domna!</i>"<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Good night, my lady.</p></div> + +<p>And without waiting for an answer, he plunged back into the forest, +disappearing by leaps and bounds.</p> + +<p>When Henrietta got home she said not a word to anyone about what had +taken place, though the condition of the horse and his harness sufficed +to show that an accident had happened. But she could scarce wait for the +morrow to come, bringing along with it Todor Rubán, from whom she meant +to find out everything relating to Juon Tare.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> From the Roumanian <i>Taria</i>, strength, solidity.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE GEINA MAID-MARKET</h3> + + +<p>"Would your ladyship believe,"—so Todor<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Rubán began his story of +Juon the strong,—"sitting here as you do by the fireside, accustomed +from your birth to every elegant luxury, with a particular servant +always ready to fly obediently to accomplish each separate command, and +with different glasses and porcelain for each several course at +meals—would your ladyship believe, I ask, that there are people in this +world who know not what it is to have a roof above their heads when they +go to sleep, who would not recognize a bed or a dinner service if they +saw them, nay, who often are in want of bread—and yet, for all that, +are happy?</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Theodore.</p></div> + +<p>"And yet such people live quite close to us. We need not think of the +savage inhabitants of Oceania,—we can see enough of them and to spare +in this very place. Your ladyship can hear from your balcony the +melancholy songs of their pastoral flutes, especially of an evening, +when the milch-goats are returning from the deep valleys.</p> + +<p>"The herdsman here never sleeps beneath a roof either summer or winter; +every spring he counts the goats of his master's herds and the half of +every increase belongs to him; nobody enquires how he lives there among +his herds in the lofty mountain-passes, how he defends himself against +hurricanes and snow-storms, yes, and against the wild beasts of the +forest, the bears and wolves—nobody troubles his head about all that.</p> + +<p>"Such a goatherd is that same Juon whom your ladyship has learnt to +know. Perhaps we shall hear something more about him some other time, +for his life has been very romantic; now, however, I will only tell you +of a single episode therein:</p> + +<p>"There once lived near here in the district of Vlaskutza, a rich +<i>pakular</i><a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> who had scraped together a lot of gold out of a mining +venture at Verespatak, and therefore went by the name of wealthy Misule.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Roguish speculator.</p></div> + +<p>"He had an only daughter, Mariora by name,—and has your ladyship any +idea of what Roumanian beauties are? A sculptor could not devise a +nobler model. So beautiful was she that her fame had spread through the +Hungarian plain as far as Arad, and whenever great folks from foreign +lands came to see Gyenstar and Brivadia they would make a long circuit +and come to Vlaskucza in order to rest at the house of old Misule, where +the finest prospect of all was a look into the eyes of Mariora.</p> + +<p>"This wonderously beautiful maiden loved the poor goatherd Juon, who +possessed nothing in the world but his sheepskin pelisse and his +alpenstock; him she loved and him alone. Wealthy old Misule would +naturally have nothing to say to such a match; he had in his eye an +influential friend of his, a gentleman and village elder in the county +of Féhervár, one Gligor Tobicza,—to him he meant to give his daughter. +Reports were spread that Juon was a wizard. It was Misule's wife who +fastened this suspicion upon him, because he had succeeded in bewitching +her daughter. She said among other things, that he understood the +language of the brute beasts, that he had often been seen speaking with +wolves and bears, and that when he spread out his shaggy sheepskin, he +sat down at one end of it and a bear at the other. There was this much +of truth in the tale, that once when he was tending his flocks Juon +heard a painful groaning in the hollow of a rock, and, venturing in, +perceived lying in one corner a she-bear who, mortally injured in some +distant hunt, had contrived to drag its lacerated body hither to die. +Beside the old she-bear lay a little suckling cub. The mother dying +before his very eyes, Juon had compassion on the desolate cub, took it +under his protection, and carried it to a milch-goat, who suckled it. +The little wild beast thrived upon the milk of the tame animal and, +softened by human fellowship, grew up much attached to its master. +Bears, I may tell your ladyship, are not bloodthirsty by nature. +Henceforth the bear went forth with the herdsman and the herds, helped +to drive the goats together of an evening, and enlivened the long +dreary days by turning somersaults—an art at which bears excel. At +night it slept by Juon's side and made itself cosey by burying its snout +in his bosom. When meal-time came, the bear sat down beside Juon, for he +knew that every second slice of cheese would be his. He also fetched +fire-wood to put under the pot in which the maize-pottage was boiling. +Then, too, he explored the woods in search of wild honey and brought +back his booty to share it with Juon. When it was very hot he carried +his pelisse after him, a pelt more or less made very little difference +to him. Juon had nobody to speak to but the bear, and if a man speaks +quite seriously to the beasts they get to understand him at last. +Moreover, in moments of ill temper the bear had learnt to recognize that +Juon's fists were no less vigorous than his own paws, so that he had no +temptation to be ungrateful.</p> + +<p>"This, then, was the man beloved by Mariora.</p> + +<p>"In our part of the country, my lady, there is an original popular +custom, the maiden-market.</p> + +<p>"In the highlands of Bihar stands the rocky bluff of Geina, which grows +green, like every other Transylvanian height, as soon as it is cleansed +from snow. There I first met Juon, many years ago. He stood there on the +mountain summit the live-long day, blowing on his alpenstock, while the +bear was plucking strawberries in the valley below and guarding the +goats, not from running away, but from other wild beasts. The prospect +from this spot is really sublime. In one direction you can see the +mountain-chain of Vulcani, in the other the environs of Klausenberg and +the Gyalian Alps. But westwards stretches the great Hungarian plain, +whose misty expanse loses itself against the horizon.</p> + +<p>"On a certain day of the year things are very lively at Geina. In the +evening of the first Sunday after St. John Baptist's day the +ginger-bread-bakers come thither from Rezbanya and Topanfalu with their +horses dragging loads of honey-cakes, and barrels full of meal and +brandy, and pitch their tents in the forest-clearing. On that Sunday the +highlands are full of merry folks, and the maiden-market is held there.</p> + +<p>"From near and far repair thither the mothers and their marriageable +daughters, all tricked out with their dowries ready in the shape of +strings of gold and silver coins round their necks, with bright +variegated garments at their horses' sides, and stuffed pillows and +painted pitchers on the saddles in front of them. All these things they +unpack and arrange in rows in front of the tents, just as at an ordinary +fair; and then the purchasers come along, jaunty, connubially-inclined +young fellows, who inspect the dowries, engage the wenches in +conversation, and chaffer and haggle and go away again if they cannot +come to terms. Many of the girls are kept back, others are given up to +the first bidder, and when once a couple is mated they are escorted to +the tune of lively flutes and bagpipes to the first Kalugye,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> or +pastor, who sanctifies the union according to the religion of the +spouses.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Or rather, <i>Calugaru</i>, monk, not pastor.</p></div> + +<p>"Your ladyship laughs at this custom, yet it is capable of a very +natural explanation. The inhabitants of these Alpine regions live +necessarily far away from one another—how else could they tend their +herds?—even the nearest neighbours being a good stiff half hour's walk +apart. So the young girls stay at home, and the young fellows only see +them once a year—at the maiden-market of Geina.</p> + +<p>"Now, of course such a famous beauty as Mariora had no need to go all +the way to the Geina fair in search of a husband, especially as one had +already been chosen for her who brought with him all the pride of +riches. But her father Misule would not on any account have neglected +the opportunity of exhibiting his daughter, during the pilgrimage to +Geina, as the most lovely girl of the district; and his wife could not +have lived unless she had hung out Mariora's gold-embroidered shift in +front of the tent and haughtily sent at least ten suitors about their +business.</p> + +<p>"Gligor Tobicza, coming all the way from Rezpatak, appeared at the fair +at the same time, with twelve high-backed horses and six Gipsy +musicians, ribbons and coloured kerchiefs fluttering from every horse +and every cap. The comrades drank together and then had a little rumpus +also. Tobicza broke the heads of a few of the more uproarious spirits, +and then peace was restored again, and the general good humour was +higher than ever—only the bride remained sad.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly it occurred to Tobicza that it would be nice to get a kiss +from Mariora. But the girl repulsed him: 'I am not your wife yet,' she +cried.</p> + +<p>"'Yet if Juon were to ask for you, I suppose you would not say no?'</p> + +<p>"The girl honestly confessed that she would not.</p> + +<p>"At this Tobicza was mad with rage. 'Let him come hither then, if he +loves you,' cried he, 'let him tear you away from me if he be the better +man. I will strike him dead with this—see!' And drawing a long +goat-skin bag out of his girdle, the bottom of which was choke full of +ducats, and whirling it round his head like a morning-star<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> he turned +forestwards and roared: 'Come hither, tattered Juon, thou ragged dog! +'Tis now maiden-market day if you want to buy Mariora! Come forth thou +cowardly hound and let me beat you to death! I'll fell you to the earth +with my ducats. I'll break your head with my gold money.' And the whole +crowd laughed at and loudly applauded these witticisms.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> A spiked club.</p></div> + +<p>"But just as he was raging most furiously, a great roaring suddenly +arose from the direction of the forest,—whereupon the crowd rushed away +from their tents to their horses, overturning barrels and trunks as they +went, the women screaming and the men cursing, and all with one voice +exclaiming: 'the bear is coming!' 'Juon is coming with his bear!'</p> + +<p>"That was enough for every one. Only the most determined sportsmen care +about tackling a bear in the open, for even when mortally wounded the +beast is quite capable of taking his revenge. In an instant every soul +rushed headlong from the summit of Geina into the roads below, leaving +behind bride, dowry and drinking booth; so that when the bear and Juon +leaped out of the juniper bushes there was nobody left on Geina. Nobody, +that is, but Mariora, who did not fly with the fugitives, but hid +herself in the tent.</p> + +<p>"Tobicza had headed the race, but as his legs were heavy with the mead +he had drunk, he threw away his big bag of gold to lighten his limbs and +prevent Juon from overtaking him. But Juon, snatching it up, whirled it +round like a sling and threw it with all his might after his rival, +exclaiming: 'There's your money, big voice! take it and buy a wife with +it. You are nothing at all without it. But I am still Juon, though I +have only an axe in my hands.'</p> + +<p>"Then he went up to Mariora, kissed and embraced her, and asked her if +she would be his bride and go away and live with him in the forest. And +when she said: 'Yes,' he kissed her again and took her with him into the +free forest without once looking back at the dowry lying abandoned there +with all its gold and glitter. In his eyes only Mariora was of gold, +nothing else.</p> + +<p>"The bear meanwhile made some little havoc in a mild sort of way, among +the honey-cakes, but he did no other damage.</p> + +<p>"And I can assure your ladyship that this wife who has nothing in the +world but her husband, but that husband all her own—is even now very +happy."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE BLACK JEWELRY</h3> + + +<p>It was during this time that Henrietta cherished the bizarre illusion +that it was her vocation to cultivate the acquaintance of the honest but +homely peasantry living around, in whose lowly circles a widowed +protestant pastor's wife and a worn-out old miner were the principal +personages. Her husband laughed good-humouredly at her vagaries, as he +called them: "She is only a child," he cried, "let her play and cut out +dolls' clothes for those who want them! When she has grown up, she will +very soon look out for other diversions." "My dear child," he would +sometimes say to her, "do exactly as you like. I only beg of you one +thing: whenever you are tired of these innocent, well-meaning illusions +and return to rough, prosaic, brutal reality; whenever you feel yourself +deceived or wounded by those whom you may have implicitly trusted, pray +recollect that you have a natural protector, a real friend—your +husband!"</p> + +<p>Thus it was that Hátszegi spoke to his child-wife on the rare occasions +when they met together.</p> + +<p>It was only rarely, for they saw nothing of each other for the greater +part of the day. During the so-called honey-moon the husband and wife +had scarcely spent half an hour a day in each other's company.</p> + +<p>On one occasion the pastor went to Déva, and when he returned he had a +lot to tell her ladyship of a fine young fellow, Szilard by name, who +held the office of magistrate at Lippá. His other name he had forgotten, +but Henrietta easily guessed it. Mr. Szilard had been very polite to +him, the parson added, and had joyfully listened to all he had to tell +him about Hidvár and its mistress; but when the priest had pressed him +to pay a visit to that part of the country to see and admire its rare +natural beauties, the young man had replied: "Anywhere in the world but +there." What possible objection could he have against the district?</p> + +<p>This piece of news gave Henrietta plenty to think about for days and +nights together. So Szilard had not remained at Pest; he had followed +her to the utmost confines of the realm; they were now quite close to +each other and yet he would not see her. He seeks her out and avoids her +at the same time. What a romantic dreamer!</p> + +<p>And yet there was nothing romantic in it after all. Szilard had come to +Arad county on a visit to Mr. Sipos's relations; he had been elected a +magistrate there, and he did not approach Hidvár because he had no +desire to run after a former sweetheart who was now another man's wife. +As for Henrietta she had long ago earned from her husband's friends the +name of the "little nun," the "little eremite" because nothing could +entice her from her seclusion. If only they had known her thoughts!</p> + +<p>One day, however, she surprised her husband by expressing a wish to go +to the Charity Ball at a neighbouring mining town; it was for raising +funds to build up again a burnt-down village.</p> + +<p>Hátszegi, always courteous, bowed and consented.</p> + +<p>Henrietta had made up her mind to go as simply dressed as possible. She +wanted to be modest and humble, as it befitted a woman who, rich +herself, envied everyone who was poor. While she was still in the midst +of her preparations, she received through the post (Margari went to the +nearest post-office once a week) a little sealed packet which, to judge +from the postmark, must have been posted at Lippá. Before breaking it +open, she locked herself in her room, like one about to commit a capital +offence, and three times examined the seals which guarded it before she +ventured to open it. The seal bore the impress not of a crest or an +initial letter as usual, but of a single star. There could be no doubt +whatever now as to who the sender was.</p> + +<p>Then, very cautiously, she broke the seals and opened with a beating +heart the lid of the box. Inside was a little morocco casket.</p> + +<p>With a tremulous hand she opened it, and found inside it a pair of +earrings and a brooch. Both earrings and brooch were of oxydized silver, +dark blue in colour passing insensibly into black. The pendants of the +earrings were in the shape of little fishes hanging upon little hooks +and with mobile little scales, which at the slightest movement made them +seem alive. Each of them had a pair of very tiny but very brilliant +diamond eyes. The brooch on the other hand represented a butterfly, also +with two sparkling diamond eyes; one of them was blue, a rare colour for +a diamond.</p> + +<p>Henrietta was indeed pleasantly surprised.</p> + +<p>There was not a line of writing along with them, but was there any +necessity for it? How simple, how nice it all was! How well he must know +her taste who had selected it! Her husband could never have hit upon +such an idea.</p> + +<p>What should she say to her husband if he should notice them? But why +should she show them to anybody? She would not even put them on till the +last moment, just before she started on her journey. All day long she +was as happy as a child who is going to its first party; even in her +husband's presence she could not control her delight.</p> + +<p>But Hátszegi never enquired why she was so joyous. On the day before the +entertainment he went with his wife to the town in question, where he +owned, not the castle, it is true, but a comfortable mansion of +considerable extent, whose first floor was rented by a mining engineer +and his family. These worthy people felt highly honoured at receiving +the baron and his lady beneath their roof. They gave their distinguished +guests their best rooms which looked out upon the street, and retired +themselves to the back of the house. The mining engineer had a pretty +young wife, with whom Henrietta immediately made friends. Ladies love +the close companionship of their own sex best whenever something +entirely different is occupying their thoughts.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the great day the big-wigs of the little town hastened +to pay their respects to the great lady who had arrived in their midst, +and whose reputation for benevolence had spread far and wide. Amongst +them was an aged woman whose hands and head were continually shaking, +and who almost collapsed with terror every time anybody accosted her +unexpectedly. She was the widow of a Unitarian pastor, well to do, +people said, and a large mining proprietor. Her nervous affection was +due to a painful episode in her life. One night Fatia Negra and his band +had broken into her house and played havoc there, and ever since she had +been tremulous and easily terror-stricken. The old woman was delighted +to see Henrietta, whom she called the guardian angel of the county, and +she would not be content till she had seized Henrietta's little hands in +her own trembling ones and raised them painfully to her lips.</p> + +<p>At last the joyous evening arrived. Henrietta put on a very simple +ball-dress, compared with which the dress of the mining engineer's wife +was really luxurious. The black ornaments well became her attire, but +the engineer's wife was astounded at the simplicity of the great lady's +costume. She had now only one anxious moment to go through, the moment +when her husband first saw the new ornaments. But this moment sped away +without any catastrophe, although with much of heart throbbing. Hátszegi +observed the jewels in the ears and round the neck of his bride and paid +her the compliment of saying that they contrasted admirably with the +snowy whiteness of her alabaster neck.</p> + +<p>So no ill came of it after all.</p> + +<p>When the time came, the baron's carriage drove up to the door and the +ladies entered it. The baron himself was to come afterwards with the +mining engineer when the empty carriage returned. In the meantime the +baroness was entrusted to the care of the mining engineer's wife, who +was one of the notabilities of the little town.</p> + +<p>The ball was to take place in the large room of the chief inn of the +place, and the baroness, on entering it, was surrounded by a crowd of +admirers. The young wife felt that she was being made much of. She felt +in the midst of all this homage and devotion as if she had been lifted +up to Heaven, and her heart was full of gratitude. If he be here (and he +<i>must</i> be here somewhere, hiding in the crowd, no doubt, in order not to +excite attention) then he will be able to see from his hiding-place how +pale the face of his old love is from sorrow—and yet how radiant +because of the honour now shown to her.</p> + +<p>But Szilard did not see her face at that moment. He was far away, never +dreaming that anybody still thought of him. A surprise of quite another +sort awaited Henrietta.</p> + +<p>After she had twice walked round the room—there was a pause just then +between two dances—she perceived sitting on a corner seat the old lady +already alluded to, whose head and hands were always shaking so, and +hastened up to her as to an old acquaintance.</p> + +<p>The old pastor's wife, perceiving Henrietta, rose at first from her seat +in order to meet her half way, but the next moment she fell back +horror-stricken, at the same time stretching out both hands in front of +her with widely-outspread fingers as if to ward her off. Henrietta, +unable to explain this odd gesture, remained rooted to the spot with +astonishment.</p> + +<p>The old lady, still continuing to stretch out her trembling hands, now +advanced towards her with tottering footsteps indeed, yet with flaming +eyes. Everyone regarded the two women with amazement. There was a dead +silence, and in the midst of this astonishment, in the midst of this +silence, the old woman shrieked with a voice full of horror that turned +everybody's blood cold: "Madame!—those jewels—on your neck—that black +butterfly—'tis the very same—which on that fearful night—that +accursed Fatia Negra—tore from my neck—those black earrings which he +tore from my ears—one eye of the butterfly is a blue diamond!"</p> + +<p>Henrietta felt as if the floor were slipping away from beneath her feet. +She was wearing stolen jewels on her neck, and their former owner had +recognized them!</p> + +<p>She heard a hissing and a murmuring all around her. She gazed about her, +possibly for a protector, and she perceived that she was standing alone +in the midst of the room and that everyone recoiled from her, even her +companion, and all eyes were fixed upon her. She had a feeling of being +branded with red-hot irons as she stood there, dishonoured and +unprotected in the midst of so many strangers, and over against her a +terrible accuser who had the horrible right to ask her: "Madame, where +did you get those stolen jewels?"—and she had nought to say to such a +question.</p> + +<p>At that moment a manly voice, which she at once recognized, rang out +close beside her.</p> + +<p>"Madame, give me your arm!—I bought those jewels for you at Paris. I +will be responsible for them."</p> + +<p>It was her husband. And with that, he strode up to his wife, seized her +hand and, casting a glance at the surrounding throng, cried in a +threatening voice to those closest to him: "Whoever dares to cast a +disrespectful glance upon my wife, will have to reckon with me. Make +room there!"</p> + +<p>Henrietta saw how the crowd made way, how everyone stepped aside at +this word of command; she saw even the shaking widow sit down somewhere; +but then everything began to grow black before her eyes and she sank +swooning into the arms of the man whom, hitherto, she had hated so much, +and who in this most awful moment had been her sole deliverer! When she +came to again, she found herself in the carriage. Her husband had not +stayed a single instant longer in that town, but was conveying her, +though it was now night time, straight to Hidvár.</p> + +<p>It is not very advisable to travel in pitch-black darkness along +mountain roads. Henrietta could gather from the slow jolting of the +coach that they were proceeding very cautiously. She opened the window +and peeped out. She then saw her husband walking along by the side of +the coach with a lantern in his hand picking his way. The coachman was +sitting on the box and the heyduke was close to the carriage in order to +steady it over the more difficult places.</p> + +<p>A voice within her reproached her for hating this man so long—how could +she have done it? He had always been delicacy itself towards her, he had +never demanded anything of her, and no doubt the reason why he had held +back from his young wife for a time was because he would not importune +her with his presence—her who had now learnt to recognize him as her +sole protector!</p> + +<p>After a vast amount of jolting and tumbling about, they got at last on +to a regular road again. Here the baron halted the coach and looked +inside it. When he saw that Henrietta was awake, he asked her if she +wanted anything, and whether she would allow him to sit down beside her.</p> + +<p>Henrietta had resolved to tell her husband everything at the very first +question, everything, even to her most secret enthusiasms; nay, even +that which God alone could read in her heart. But Hátszegi gave her no +opportunity of doing so.</p> + +<p>"My dear Henrietta," said he, "don't imagine for a moment that I shall +trouble my head as to how you came into possession of that mysterious +jewelry, or why you should have chosen them out of all your bijous to +wear on this particular evening. I have charged myself with all the +responsibility in the matter. I could not think of anything more +appropriate to say at the moment. Only one thing I beg of you: tell me +no lies. Act as if you had received the jewelry from me. I will so +arrange the matter that nothing more will be heard about it. Such things +may happen to anybody. The only awkwardness about the business is that +the things were recognized in such a public place, and that the former +possessor of the ornaments is so extremely nervous. Don't be afraid! +Give me your hand! Why do you tremble so? I'll guarantee that there +shall be no unpleasant consequences for you. In case, however, you did +not receive this jewelry from your dear grandfather, I ought, I think, +to write to the good old man and put his mind at ease by letting him +know that I gave it you, as goodness only knows what Rumour may whisper +in his ear."</p> + +<p>Could any man have asked his wife for a confession more tenderly?</p> + +<p>"Shall I write to him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, write," said Henrietta, and with that she fell upon her husband's +bosom and began to sob bitterly—and a husband's breast is no bad place +for a wife's flowing tears.</p> + +<p>Henrietta was forced to confess to herself that her husband, at least so +far as she was concerned, was a man of noble and tender sentiments. From +henceforth she began to regard him through a glass of quite another +colour; she began to believe that the faults she had noticed in him were +only the usual bad habits of his sex, and began to discover all sorts of +hidden good qualities in him. She began to love her husband.</p> + +<p>When early next morning the carriage stood in the courtyard of Hidvár. +Henrietta awoke in her husband's arms: there she had been sleeping for a +long time. When she looked round and encountered Hátszegi's bright manly +glances it almost seemed to her as if the dreadful scene of the night +before was a mere dream, from which it was a joy to awake. When her +husband kissed her hand before departing for his own room, Henrietta +pressed <i>his</i> hand in return and gave him a grateful smile.</p> + +<p>But what then was the key to this horrible mystery? Who could have hit +upon the idea of sending this jewelry? There was not a gleam of light to +go by. An enigma closed the way to every elucidation, and this enigma +was—Fatia Negra. How did the jewelry get out of his hands into +Henrietta's? What was the motive for such a transfer? And who was the +man himself? This thought gave Henrietta no rest.</p> + +<p>Why could they not seize this famous robber? First of all, she kept on +asking her husband about it, and he replied that the whole story about +Fatia Negra was only a Wallachian fable. It was true that robberies were +committed by men who regularly wore black masks, but it was never one +and the same man who was guilty of these misdeeds. Nevertheless the name +had won a sort of nimbus of notoriety among the common people, many had +made use of it as well as of the mask attaching to it, and though it was +an undeniable fact that Fatia Negra had been caught and hanged more than +once, yet he still continued to live and go about. The popular mythology +had immortalized him.</p> + +<p>The parson, however, had quite a different opinion of the matter; he +seemed to be more particularly informed. Although he opined Fatia Negra +wandered through every corner of the kingdom, his abiding nest was in +this district; he had a sweetheart here to whom he appeared +periodically.</p> + +<p>"Why don't they seize him then?" asked Henrietta.</p> + +<p>"Because a part of the common folks holds with him, and the other part +thinks he is in league with the devil."</p> + +<p>"I would set a high price on his head and give it to whomsoever caught +him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my lady, the various counties have done that scores of times, and +now and then a young fellow braver than the rest has tried to catch him; +but they have all of them ended by losing their own heads instead of +getting his."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, I will not be satisfied till that man is in my power. Ah, +the robber-chieftain little imagines what an enemy he has raised up +against him in me, when he put this terrible riddle into my heart. And +it is a riddle I mean to solve, too."</p> + +<p>The priest shook his head as if he would have said: "Strong men have +given up the task, what can a weak woman do?"</p> + +<p>Henrietta told her husband not a word of all this, and the chatter about +the black jewelry gradually died a natural death. Hátszegi sent back her +property to the widow and told her where she could find the vendor—in +Paris. We can readily imagine that she did not go all the way to Paris +to make enquiries, being quite content with getting back her stolen +property.</p> + +<p>This incident made such an impression on Henrietta that she avoided all +those circles in which she had been so ruthlessly exposed to insult. A +blush of shame and anger suffused her face whenever she thought of it. +She also abandoned all her work of benevolence among the people. She +began to think that her husband was right after all when he said, as he +did continually: "Let the gentry stick to the gentry, and the poor to +the poor!" In fact she was now inclined to think him right in +everything; the easiest thing a wife can do, she said to herself, is to +trust her husband implicitly. Henceforth Henrietta adopted another mode +of life; her motto now was: "Whatever my husband chooses, for at home he +is my lord!"</p> + +<p>So the halls of Hidvár overflowed with guests again, and balls, +<i>soirées</i>, and picnics followed each other in quick succession. The +young wife learnt to know the gentry and magnates of Transylvania face +to face, and it was no wonder if she quickly accommodated herself to her +new surroundings and began to be reconciled to her fate. She felt like +one who, after seeing a landscape by moonlight and thinking it highly +crude, sees it again by the light of day and finds it quite different.</p> + +<p>And now the autumn came, the season when men prepare and congregate +together for dangerous hunting expeditions. Bears and boars are now the +only topics. For a week beforehand the women cannot get a word out of +the gentlemen, they herd together in the armoury and talk of nothing but +guns and dogs, firing each other by recounting their past exploits, +making bets, and playing at cards. The ladies at such times are shelved +altogether.</p> + +<p>During the actual hunting season the men are not to be seen for whole +weeks at a time, but off they go to the woods and stalk or lurk for +their prey in the midst of water and ice, and the ladies think it +nothing extraordinary if their husbands or lovers, as the case may be, +come back, or are carried back, drenched with rain, invisible for mud, +with their garments torn to shreds and their limbs mangled; for after +all it is the only manly diversion—the only diversion really fit for a +gentleman.</p> + +<p>When the bear-hunting began, that heroic cripple, Squire Gerzson, also +appeared with Count Kengyelesy and numerous other familiar faces from +distant counties, who had all met together on the day after Henrietta's +wedding, and who regularly made Hidvár their autumn trysting-place.</p> + +<p>Count Kengyelesy did not bring his wife with him: the little rogue on +her husband's departure declared that she was ill and remained +behind—<i>verbum sap!</i></p> + +<p>Henrietta was very much occupied by the duties of hospitality. She took +a pride in anticipating the wants of all her guests, and at the evening +<i>soirées</i> she played the part of hostess with becoming <i>aplomb</i>.</p> + +<p>One day the gentlemen with their beaters, rangers, dogs, and carts, had +all gone off to the forest as usual, and Henrietta was left alone in the +castle with Clementina, Margari, and the domestics. As for Margari, he +would not have gone to the woods for all the bears in the world.</p> + +<p>Clementina, solemnly cackling gossip as usual, imparted to Henrietta +that the night before, when the gentlemen played at cards, the luck had +run dead against Hátszegi: Count Kengyelesy had won back from him the +whole of the Kengyelesy estate. "Thank God!" sighed Henrietta at this +glad intelligence. This was one of the things that had weighed down her +heart like a nightmare, one of the partition-walls, so to speak, which +had hitherto separated her from her husband. This, at any rate, had now +disappeared.</p> + +<p>Clementina went on to say that my lord baron had not cared a straw for +this loss; nay, he had laughed and said that it only showed how lucky he +was in love. Henrietta applied the saying to herself and began to be +quite proud of it.</p> + +<p>The count, however, pursued Clementina, had said that he durst not +rejoice in his winnings or that accursed Fatia Negra might rob him of +them again on the highroad as he had done once before.</p> + +<p>A cold shudder ran through Henrietta's limbs at that accursed name. That +Fatia Negra! She had already begun to forget him. And thus old memories +began to revive, and at last her excited imagination began to fancy that +there was some sort of connecting link between Szilard and Fatia Negra, +between the dearest and the most terrible of beings! What if her +rejected lover had avenged himself by publicly shaming her! It was with +such anxieties as these that the young wife went to sleep in her lonely +chamber.</p> + +<p>Early next day she received a visit from the priest.</p> + +<p>All the time the army of guests was going in and out of the castle +gates, he never came near the place, but now he hastened to exchange a +few words with the lady of the house. And Henrietta was very glad that +he had come.</p> + +<p>"I bring you news of Fatia Negra and of other things also," said the +priest, as soon as he was alone with the lady.</p> + +<p>Henrietta was instantly all attention.</p> + +<p>"Yesterday the famous butterwoman who dwells at Dupe Piatra came to open +her soul to me in a very difficult matter. This woman, as the whole +country-side knows, is a famous quack and a preparer of such specifics +as it is unlawful for one man to give to another. Formerly she was +visited by multitudes of people suffering from every sort of +ill—especially girls. More than once she has paid dearly for her +quackery, for the county authorities apprehended her for poisoning, and +clapped her into jail for some years. Since then she has grown more +cautious and does not care about seeing everyone in her lonely little +forest hut, especially since I impressed upon her severely what a heavy +load she was burdening her conscience with by turning the secret healing +forces which Nature had implanted in the herbs of the field, to the +destruction of ignorant humanity. Yesterday, then, this woman came to +me (and it is a very rare thing to see her among men) and informed me +that last night Fatia Negra had visited her."</p> + +<p>Henrietta shuddered all over. So he was as near as that!</p> + +<p>"The medicine-woman said that the mask requested her to prepare poison +for him that would be sure to kill. She said she would not as she had no +wish to fall again into the hands of the county authorities. He promised +her money, he showed her a lot of ducats. She told him it wouldn't do. +Then he drew forth a pistol, pressed the barrel to her temples, and +threatened instantly to blow her brains out if she did not comply with +his request. 'Very well,' said she, 'fire away: I would rather be shot +than hanged.' Perceiving he could do nothing with her by threats, he +fell to entreating, and said it was not a man he wanted to poison but a +wild beast. 'What sort of a beast do you want to kill?' she asked him. +'That is no business of yours,' said he. 'But it is my business,' she +replied, 'for the poison that a wolf or a savage dog will eat, a bear +will not even sniff at, and what makes one beast ill, on that will +another beast thrive.' 'Then you must know that it is a bear.'—'Swear +that you do not want the venom for a human being.' Fatia Negra swore +with all sorts of subterranean oaths that it was really for a bear that +he wanted the poison. The medicine-woman thereupon prepared for him a +mortal concoction capable of killing the most vigorous beast in the +world; then she kneaded honey-cakes, a delicacy to which bears are very +partial as everyone knows, and mixed it well into them. Fatia Negra gave +her ten ducats for the poison, but the old woman's conscience would not +allow her to rest, and the next day she brought the ducats to me for the +church's needs, as she put it,—and would I help her to relieve her soul +of the heavy burden which oppressed it. And what now if Fatia Negra, +contrary to his oath, were to make use of this poison against his +fellow-men?"</p> + +<p>"That would be horrible," said Henrietta apprehensively.</p> + +<p>"I don't think he will," said the priest; "the poison is really meant +for a beast."</p> + +<p>"I suppose he wants to kill some animal who is a domestic guardian, in +order that he may rob a rich man's house."</p> + +<p>"No. He wants to kill a faithful animal in order that he may steal a +poor man's only treasure—his wife."</p> + +<p>"How so?"</p> + +<p>"Listen, my lady, and I will tell you. After this had happened, Juon +Tare's wife, Mariora, came to me at an unusual hour. Generally she only +comes on a Sunday for prayers. What she said to me was not so much a +confession made to a priest as a confidence reposed in a friend; I am +therefore not committing sacrilege by retailing it to another person. +That young woman is exposed to temptation."</p> + +<p>"What! in the midst of the forest?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, in the midst of the forest, where, for weeks at a stretch, the +herdsman hears no other human voice than his own thrown back to him by +the echoes. The seducer in this case is Fatia Negra."</p> + +<p>"Then he must dwell hard by."</p> + +<p>"None knows his abiding dwelling, but his temporary resting places among +the high Alps are these herdsmen's lonely huts. For this reason he lives +in good fellowship with the mountain goatherds, does them no harm, +brings presents for them and their wives, pays handsomely for every bit +of bread, and thus makes it pretty sure that they will never betray him. +The place where Juon Tare's wife dwells is called the ice valley. They +call it so because it is here that the first ice of the winter appears; +as early as mid-September the stream is fringed with it. There, by the +side of the stream, stands a little wooden hut, one of whose walls +reposes on the ascending rock behind it. Here dwells the fair Mariora +all alone. And yet I am wrong to say alone, for three of them dwell +together there—herself, a little one-year-old child, and a tame bear. +Her husband she sometimes does not see for a week at a time, especially +in the autumn and winter when the freshly fallen snow has obliterated +the pastures. At such times the goatherd encamps on the summit of the +mountains and nourishes his kids by felling with his axe a growing +beech-tree, on which the little creatures fall and gnaw off the juicy +buds. Whenever a snowstorm overtakes him, the herdsman drives the goats +into a glen, and lest the snow should bury them all by the morning while +they sleep, he drives them continually up and down, thus making them +trample down the falling flakes. Meanwhile Mariora sits at home and +spins the wool from which she makes her own and her husband's clothes, +or she pounds maize into meal in a stone mortar for household needs, +playing at intervals with her child."</p> + +<p>"And an evil hand would destroy their simple joys!"</p> + +<p>"Hitherto the goatherd and his wife feared nothing. It is good to be in +those solitudes. God dwells very near to them there. Then, too, Juon +Tare is a strong man; no evil beast can harm him. Nor has he any fear of +robbers. What can they deprive him of? Mariora is in a good place out of +the reach of snow-storms. If a savage beast or a vagabond were to try to +harm her, there is Ursu, the bear, with the terrible jaws,—he would +tear them to pieces. So your ladyship will perceive that Juon Tare's +castle is provided with a very strong guardian against thieves and wild +beasts—but who can guard it against the wily and the insinuating? Fatia +Negra is a guest of longstanding at the hut in the ice valley, and never +goes thither empty handed. He brought the woman pearls and coral which +she innocently hung about her person. How was she to know whether such +trinkets were worth thousands or whether they could be bought in a +pedler's booth for a few pence? She fancies it is but the thank-offering +of a grateful guest. But now her eyes have been opened to the fact that +these gifts <i>are</i> costly, very costly,—for the Black Mask demanded a +price for them which all the treasures in the world could not outweigh, +a price, the bare mention of which caused her to shut the door in his +face. And when he, unable to obtain his desire by fair words, attempted +to gain his object by force, a single cry for help from the woman caused +Fatia Negra to feel Ursu's paws on his shoulders and so he knows that +this lonely woman is right well defended. Only at Mariora's command did +the bear release Black Mask who, attacked from behind, was unable to +defend himself. Burning with rage, he quitted the hut and said, +meaningly to the woman: 'You shall be mine nevertheless!' Mariora came +to me next day, full of despair, telling me the whole story, and asking +me whether she ought to tell her husband. I advised her to keep the +secret in her own bosom and to close her door against Fatia Negra. Oh, I +know the fellow! It is good to guard against him but it is not advisable +to scratch him. He is no ordinary man. And now putting together all this +with the confession of the Dupe Piatra milk-woman, I have a strong +suspicion that Fatia Negra wants to poison the herdsman's bear."</p> + +<p>"I will not allow it," interrupted the baroness emphatically.</p> + +<p>"We shall scarcely be able to prevent it, my lady, for how can we warn +the dwellers in the mountain hut of their danger? It is of no use +sending a letter for they cannot read. We cannot entrust the secret to +anyone, for no living soul in these parts would dare to convey any +message to the disadvantage of the mysterious Fatia Negra. I myself dare +not do it. I too am afraid of him. I am sure that if he found it out, +and he is sure to do so, my days would be numbered."</p> + +<p>"Yet I know someone who will take this message to the hut of Juon Tare."</p> + +<p>"Not your ladyship, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"No. Even if I knew my way among these mountains I would not venture to +expose myself to the perils of such a journey after my last experience; +since then I have grown timid and nervous. But I know of one who will +hasten to take it, who will not be afraid, and who will show no mercy to +him before whom everyone else trembles."</p> + +<p>The priest did not guess to whom Henrietta alluded, yet he himself had +once told her ladyship that Black Mask had a sweetheart to whom he had +been married, not before a priest indeed, but in the sight of Heaven, +and that this woman was very jealous and very brave. "But I beg of your +ladyship," the priest had said on that occasion, "to leave my name out +of the transaction if you repeat this secret, for otherwise, people will +hear one fine morning that the worthy pastor of Hidvár has been found in +his room with a split skull."</p> + +<p>Scarcely had the priest quitted the castle than Henrietta had the horses +put to the carriage, took Clementina with her in order to avoid all +suspicion, and drove to Tökefalu. There, in front of the house of rich +old Onucz she stopped and descended. The Wallachian Nabob was much +pleased to have the honour of entertaining so distinguished a guest, and +immediately spread his table and loaded it with preserves, honey, and +fresh cheese. Clementina, who had a good appetite, remained with their +host and made ready to talk scandal of her mistress and insinuate that +the baroness wanted to get some money without her husband's knowledge, +whilst Henrietta locked herself up with Anicza in the latter's bedroom +and talked with her concerning things which had no relationship whatever +with money.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>TWO TALES, OF WHICH ONLY ONE IS TRUE</h3> + + +<p>After a couple of days the whole hunting party returned from the +mountains. This was much sooner than they had determined, and the cause +was a very serious accident which had befallen Baron Hátszegi. They +brought him home in an ambulance car to Henrietta's great consternation. +The baroness, sitting by the bedside, heard from the doctor that her +husband's wounds were serious, but that his life was not in danger, and +that he might even be allowed to smoke a cigar if he liked. Then Mr. +Gerzson related how it had happened: "Only imagine, your ladyship! This +irrepressible friend of ours, not content with pursuing game all day +through the thickets, learns, late in the evening, that a gigantic old +bear was trotting towards the ice valley, and, without saying a word to +anybody, must needs leave the company and set off alone, late at night, +on the track, with only a double-barrelled musket and not so much as a +dog to keep him company. The bear enticed Leonard further and further. +At last down he squats before him in the bright moonlight and begins +licking his paws; then suddenly quits the path and disappears. Leonard +thought at first that the bear had returned within the deadly circle +drawn for him by our beaters, till, all at once, on reaching a steep +slope covered with reeds, he again heard a growling and perceived the +savage beast trying to scale the slope. The place was too steep for a +man to climb, but a bear with the help of his long strong claws can +scale it like a fly climbing up a wall. Leonard soon saw that he would +be unable to get a close shot at the bear, so he resolved to fire down +from where he was at random. But the experienced old brute, guessing +this good idea, instantly executed one of those surprising feats which +only fall within the observation of veteran hunters. While Leonard was +taking aim, the bear rolled rapidly down the steep incline by means of a +series of clever somersaults and rushed upon Leonard with a sort of +swift shamble. And a cursed bad manoeuvre it is, I can tell you. The +acrobatic beast, whether a man hits it or not inevitably bears down the +hunter by his sheer weight, and as a man's bones are more brittle than a +beast's, and he has no tough pelt to cover him withal, he will be +infallibly crushed to pulp,—while the bear takes the whole thing as a +mere joke and ambles on further. But the whole affair did not last half +as long as I take to tell it. Leonard had just time enough to fling +himself on the ground before the first rush came. Then he felt a heavy +body fall prone upon him and then they began to roll over and over in +company among all sorts of stones and bushes, till a benevolent rock +interrupted their rapid descent. Fortunately the bear was underneath and +lay stunned at full length upon the ground. Our friend Leonard naturally +did not wait for his travelling companions to pick him up. He had lost +his musket and it was a good job that his hunting-knife had snapped off +close at the hilt instead of running into his body; then, too, his knees +and elbows were badly crushed, yet he had sufficient strength and +presence of mind to drag himself back to our hunting box, and his story +was a very pleasant surprise for us, I can tell you. At first, indeed, +we were much alarmed, and fancied that every bone in his body was out of +joint, but now we can look on it merely as soldiers' luck. To-morrow +he'll be up no doubt, and the day after to-morrow we shall all be +dancing."</p> + +<p>Henrietta had never removed her eyes from her husband's face during this +narration, and it was plain from his looks that he was not proud of his +adventure and did not want it talked about. "Why do you frighten my wife +to death?" he said. "It is a mere trifle. Let me remain for a whole +night in cold wet wraps, and to-morrow I shall be all right. And now, +enough of the stupid business. And will you please, Henrietta, look +after my guests while I lie here in swaddling bands? All I want is a +couple of days of rest and then I shall be on my legs again."</p> + +<p>Towards midnight Henrietta disappeared from among her guests and went to +enquire after Leonard; but she found his chamber door locked, and +received no answer to her gentle enquiries, from which she gathered that +Leonard was still dozing. She did not want to disturb him, and as her +husband's guests, judging by the noise they made, had evidently begun to +amuse themselves in real earnest after her departure, she did not return +to them, but hastened to her own chamber.</p> + +<p>How amazed was she to find Anicza there closeted with Clementina!</p> + +<p>The Roumanian girl had been awaiting Henrietta for some time, and +Clementina thought it quite natural to conduct her into her mistress's +sleeping-room, imagining that there was some monetary transaction +between them, of which the baron and the domestics need know nothing. In +order that she might not be bored by waiting, Clementina entertained her +for a whole hour with a hair-raising account of the hunting accident, +with which the whole castle was full. Anicza let the other talk on +without so much as a hint that she had a still more hair-raising and +terrific tale to tell of the night just past than ever Miss Clementina +had.</p> + +<p>As soon as Henrietta perceived Anicza, she politely requested Clementina +to be so good as to leave them to themselves, a request which Clementina +very naturally regarded as incomprehensible; and, of course, the instant +she had crossed the threshold, she diligently took up her position +before the keyhole. She was, however, furious to discover that +Henrietta proceeded, more prudently than speakers on the stage who +regularly allow themselves to be overheard by eaves-droppers, for she +drew together the heavy damask curtains of the alcove and retired behind +them with Anicza, so that neither prying eyes nor listening ears could +find anything there to satisfy their inquisitiveness.</p> + +<p>"It almost succeeded!" said the Roumanian girl impatiently, beginning +her story at the end instead of at the beginning.</p> + +<p>"Only almost?" repeated the dissatisfied Henrietta.</p> + +<p>"So far the game is neither over nor lost."</p> + +<p>"Did Fatia Negra appear at the hut in the ice valley?"</p> + +<p>"Pardon, my lady, but please never mention that name before me, for on +hearing it everything I look upon grows red, and every limb of my body +begins to tremble. You see, my hands are trembling now. Let us speak of +him in future as the Unknown; so far as I am concerned he shall +henceforth be the Unknown for ever more."</p> + +<p>"Then you met him there?"</p> + +<p>"Suffer me, my lady, to rally my scattered wits a bit. Oh! what a +horrible night this has been! When I look back upon it, I feel giddy. +But anger and despair sustain me. Oh! what have I not sacrificed for +that man, for that devil, and oh! how I have been betrayed! But why +should I worry your ladyship with my misery! Listen to what happened. +When your ladyship left me the other night, I immediately saddled my +horse and set off for the ice valley. The way thither is very bad, +dangerous in fact, but fortunately the moon was high and bright and made +it easier for me to find the path. The Pole star was already sinking +when I reached the bottom of the valley, and I could see from afar that +there was a light still burning in the goatherd's little hut. The night +owls soon drove it out of my eyes, for in that valley dwells so many +owls, and they are so bold that the tips of their wings brush against +people's faces as they sweep past. I had known Mariora for a long time, +while she still lived at home with her father, but since she became Juon +Tare's wife we have only seen each other occasionally and at long +intervals, and then too only when I visited her, for she, the +poorly-married woman, never came to visit us—the rich people. On +reaching the hut, I tied up my horse and tapped at the little window, +through which one cannot peep as, instead of glass, the window-frames +are filled with opaque mica which Juon Tare himself discovered amongst +the hills. Mariora recognized my voice and hastened to unbar the door. +She was much surprised and much delighted to see me at that hour. She +embraced, kissed me, and burst into tears. At first I thought it was +from pure joy,—then I thought she pitied me. 'Is there anything wrong?' +I asked. Then she pulled herself together, dried her tears and said: 'I +have an invalid on my hands.'—'Your child?'—'No, Ursu.'—It was just +as if a viper had stung me.—'Ursu sick?' I cried.—'Yes, I don't know +what ails him. Since yesterday he has been lying down shaking and +trembling, while the day before he was skipping about and turning +somersaults. Fatia Negra (Domne Zeu,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> forgive my lips for uttering +that name) was playing with him for a long time.' 'Did he come hither?' +'Yes, he said he was on his way to you.' 'He lied. Then it was he who +poisoned the bear.'</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> The Lord God.</p></div> + +<p>"Mariora trembled at these words, and grew paler than ever.</p> + +<p>"I seized her by the hand and drew her with me into the hut. I whispered +in her ear that I knew all. 'The accursed wretch has been faithless to +me because of your pretty eyes. He swore to me by sunlight and he swore +to you by moonlight, but you would not listen to him. You love your +husband and Black Mask relies on his strength now that fair words have +failed. The coward has poisoned your faithful guardian like the wretched +thief, the miserable house-breaker, that he is.'—Mariora's hut was +lighted by the flame that flickered on the hearth. A bedstead of +linden-wood covered with goat-skins, a table of slate and a few +three-legged chairs were all the furniture. There was also a nicely +carved and painted little cradle in which lay the little child, +sleeping, with his plump little hands drawn up behind his head, like an +angel. In the extreme corner of the room the faithful beast lay all of a +heap on a lair of soft moss,—at the last gasp. He groaned and shivered +continually like one in a fever, and raised his failing eyes with such +an eloquent appeal to his mistress, as if he would have spoken to her. +Sometimes he pricked his ears as if he were listening and snuffed +joyously. Perchance he expected his master, perhaps he wanted to lick +his hands for the last time. Poor beast, how I pitied him! 'He will +die,' I whispered to Mariora. I durst not say it aloud for I imagined +the beast understood everything which men say to one another. 'And then +will come the tempter, who knows that you are alone and defenceless.' I +told her everything which your ladyship told me, and the woman trembled +like an aspen-leaf.</p> + +<p>"'Where is Juon Tare encamping now?' I asked Mariora.</p> + +<p>"'Only a mile from here in the Vale Capra.'</p> + +<p>"Hem! It is impossible to get there on horseback, but I can reach him by +going on foot. Meanwhile you lock yourself in, put out the fire, and +whatever noise you hear, do not open the door till we come back.</p> + +<p>"'Nay,' said Mariora, 'you must not go away. If Juon ought to come home, +there is a sign between us. I have here an Alpine horn; he has taught me +how to blow upon it, and has told me that if ever I should be in great +danger I must blow it, and however distant he may be, he will hear it +and hasten home.'</p> + +<p>"'But it is night now; perhaps he is asleep.'</p> + +<p>"'Juon never sleeps at night, he must be awake and protect his herds.'</p> + +<p>"'And what then will become of his goats if he leaves them?'</p> + +<p>"'Are not I and my child dearer to him than all his property?'</p> + +<p>"Then I told Mariora that no time must be lost, and that she should blow +the horn at once. It is a long tube made out of the bark of trees, with +the end tilted upwards, and anyone who knows how to blow it can make its +voice heard for miles. Mariora was too feeble with it. Perhaps at +another time she would have been more up to it, but now she was upset, +there was something which weighed down her bosom and hampered her +breathing: the horn gave forth but a feeble and uncertain sound. We +listened for the echoes and they scarce resounded from the sides of the +adjacent hills. Juon would never hear that. 'Give it to me,' I said. 'I +shall throw more force into it.' A moment after I had blown the horn, +the woody heights repeated the sound just as if there was another +horn-blower there. Presently, from afar, right away among the hills, +another horn replied, just as if there was another echo there. That was +Juon's answer. He had heard the summons; we could now rest content. In +half an hour he would have bounded across the mountains and through the +glens and would be here. In the meantime we would barricade ourselves +inside the hut. Mariora anxiously asked me what we should do if her +husband were the last to arrive, for the robber had firearms. Acting on +my advice, we closed the door with a heavy beam and put out the fire. +The child began to cry, but Mariora took it in her arms and soothed it +to sleep. A heavy groan sounded from a corner of the room: it was the +faithful beast breathing forth his last breath. We exchanged not another +word in order not to betray the fact that Mariora was not alone. Half an +hour had nearly elapsed when we heard footsteps in the distance +approaching. We listened. Who was coming? Which of us would recognize +those footsteps first? I did. It was he! he for whose sake I had brought +down a curse upon my head.</p> + +<p>"For about as long a time as it would take one to repeat a Paternoster, +he remained standing there before the door. Then he rapped lightly with +his fingers and I heard the voice I knew so well: 'Mariora, are you +asleep?'</p> + +<p>"'I am awake. What do you want?' she replied.</p> + +<p>"'Let me in, Mariora; open the door!'</p> + +<p>"I whispered to her what she should say.</p> + +<p>"'I cannot, my husband is not at home. I am alone.'</p> + +<p>"'For that very reason open, so that we two may have it all to +ourselves?'</p> + +<p>"'There will be three of us, don't forget Ursu.'</p> + +<p>"'It is all up with Ursu,' laughed the robber outside.</p> + +<p>"'You have killed him, you villain!' cried Mariora though I never +whispered this to her.</p> + +<p>"'Not I, but the honey-cake.'</p> + +<p>"'Why did you do so?'</p> + +<p>"'Because he was in my way.'</p> + +<p>"'Who will defend me now?'</p> + +<p>"'I will defend you. I will take you away with me. I will take you to a +beautiful city full of palaces. I will buy you a house and an estate and +you shall be a great lady.'</p> + +<p>"'It cannot be. I already have my lawful husband and you too have your +lawful wife.'</p> + +<p>"'Your lawful husband shall die when I choose, and you will then be a +widow. As for Anicza, she only married a mask. I will tear it off and +she will no longer know who I was.'</p> + +<p>"Oh, my lady, can you not fancy how my heart broke at these words! Yet I +did not weep.</p> + +<p>"'You will deceive me as you deceived her,' replied Mariora.</p> + +<p>"Then the robber began to swear that I had deceived him first. He lied +concerning me, oh! the accursed wretch! Yet the game had to go on. +Mariora was no longer the mistress of her own thoughts. She is a +helpless creature. If I had not whispered in her ear what she was to +say, she would have had no answer ready for him.</p> + +<p>"'I fear you,' she said at my prompting, 'for you are a robber; it is +not love but money that you want. Why did it not occur to you to court +me before? You have only come now because you have found out that my +father has been here and offered me a hundred ducats that we may buy a +little estate with it. You have only come here to rob me of that.'</p> + +<p>"The tempter grew furious at so much gainsaying.</p> + +<p>"'Stupid wench!' he cried, 'what are your hundred ducats to me? I will +give you ten times as much. Here! take them!' And with that he pitched +through the little window—opening above the door a heavy purse which +fell rattling at our feet. It was full of ducats. I kicked it aside with +loathing.</p> + +<p>"'It is easy to talk,' replied Mariora. 'Now, you give and give, but if +I were to let you in, you would take them back again to-morrow with my +own.'</p> + +<p>"'I swear I will not.'</p> + +<p>"'No, I will not believe the oaths of a robber. You have firearms and I +am therefore defenceless against you. Go and hang up your musket, your +pistols, and your hunting-knife on that beech-tree, which is a hundred +paces distant from the house; when you come back without your firearms I +will believe that you do not want to kill me and will listen to what you +have to say?'</p> + +<p>"The robber fell into the snare and did as he was bid. Then he +returned. 'Here I am without weapons,' said he. 'Let me in!'</p> + +<p>"We had to gain as much time as possible, so I whispered Mariora to say +that she must first stir up the fire into a blaze for she could not let +him in in the dark.</p> + +<p>"These words inflamed the passion of the tempter still more.</p> + +<p>"'You will have time for that afterwards,' said he. 'I can see your +beautiful eyes even in the dark, for then they shine all the more +brightly.'</p> + +<p>"'Then I suppose I have eyes like a cat?' I made Mariora say.</p> + +<p>"'Silly fool!' growled the tempter to himself in Hungarian, which +Mariora did not understand. 'No,' he then added in Roumanian, 'you have +eyes like stars.'</p> + +<p>"'But confess now, do you really love me? Or do you only come hither +with evil designs? Don't you want, now, to cut off the hands of my +little child? for robbers covet the hacked off hands of babies,—they +make them invisible.'</p> + +<p>"At this the man's temper fairly gave way. He perceived that he was +being trifled with and exclaimed roughly: 'Woman, open the door, or I'll +bring it down about your ears!' And he gave the door such a blow with +his clenched fist that it cracked from end to end. 'I tell you for the +last time,' cried he, 'let me in peaceably. If you will come with me, I +will take you, and your child also, to a pleasant place. I will make a +gentleman of him and a lady of you. But if you gainsay me another +moment, I'll batter in the door, dash the brains of your brat out +against the wall and carry you off by force wherever I please.'</p> + +<p>"Thereupon Mariora paid no more attention to me but began wringing her +hands and I snatched up the child, who had been awakened by the noise +and begun to cry. I drew my pistol from my bosom and planted myself +beside the door. If there's nobody else, I thought, I must bear the +brunt of it.</p> + +<p>"The robber planted his shoulder against the door and pressed it inwards +with tremendous force. The boards cracked and as the middle of the door +was barricaded by a stout beam, there was soon a regular gap between the +two folds of the door and the door inclined more and more inwards. +Through the opening thus made, I held the pistol, pointed straight at +his temples and only an inch away from him. He is a very strong man, I +thought, but another effort of strength and he will be lying dead at my +feet."</p> + +<p>The girl was quite overcome by the narration of this scene. She paused +for a moment to recover herself, during which Henrietta, as pale as a +statue, gazed at her in silence.</p> + +<p>Presently she resumed:</p> + +<p>"At that critical moment, a cry like the howl of a wild beast resounded +in front of the hut. The door fell back into its proper place and +rushing to the little window, I saw that <i>two</i> men now stood in front +of the hut.</p> + +<p>"Juon Tare had arrived at last!</p> + +<p>"It was neither speech nor language that he addressed to his antagonist +in the first instant of their encounter, it was the savage roar of a +wild beast rushing upon its prey.</p> + +<p>"Juon Tare is a very strong man. Fortunately, he is also a peaceful, +retiring creature, for if he were as passionate as he is strong and +frequented the wine shops, every carouse would end with the death of a +man. All the more horrible was it therefore to behold him at that moment +like a ravening beast of prey.</p> + +<p>"The detected seducer at once made a rush for his arms, but Juon Tare +overtook him with an enormous bound and seized one of his hands. If +Fatia Negra had been one of God's ordinary creatures, he must have been +writhing the next moment with crushed limbs on the ground beneath Juon's +knee; but at the very instant in which Juon caught hold of one hand, the +robber faced about and seizing the herdsman round the body began to +wrestle with him.</p> + +<p>"The moon flooded the valley with its light; the whole course of the +struggle was plainly visible.</p> + +<p>"As soon as Juon Tare perceived that his antagonist was foolhardy enough +to try a fall with him, he complacently allowed his body to be encircled +and calmly murmured: 'Ho, ho! then you would wrestle with me, eh, Fatia +Negra! Very well, be it so!'</p> + +<p>"Then he also quietly encircled the trunk of his opponent with those +terrible arms of his, which had shown themselves capable on one occasion +of throttling a bear, and prepared to crush his adversary.</p> + +<p>"And thus began an awful struggle, the mere remembrance of which is a +horror.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing more terrible than when two men struggle for life or +death with their bare hands.</p> + +<p>"Juon Tare's tremendous strength was unable to crush Fatia Negra. The +herdsman might perhaps have been a little exhausted by his swift run, +but the robber was skilful and opposed a steel-like elasticity to the +herdsman's massive weight.</p> + +<p>"Now the one, now the other was forced down upon his knee, only to bound +instantly back again. The grass was rooted up by their stamping feet. +Tightly embraced, with straining shoulders, with their fists tearing at +each other's bodies, their faces were pressed so closely together that +the two heads seemed but one.</p> + +<p>"Now and then they would pause for an instant to take breath and at such +times would gasp out short, fierce words.</p> + +<p>"'Who are you?' growled Juon. 'Who are you that you can resist the arm +of Juon Tare? Who are you that Juon Tare cannot put to silence?'</p> + +<p>"'What is it you want, you fool?' the robber gasped back. 'Has that two +hundred ducats, the price set on my head, tempted you? Is that why you +want to catch me? Let me go, and I will give you five hundred.'</p> + +<p>"'I will not let you go. I want neither your money, nor yet the money of +the magistrates. Your destruction is all that I want. You should not +escape from these hands if you were thrice a devil.'</p> + +<p>"'We will see.'</p> + +<p>"And again the tussle began. Each of the two men put forth all his +strength against his adversary. Fatia Negra's garments split into rags, +the blood spouted from his shoulders where Juon had worried him with his +sharp teeth like a wild beast. Not another word did they now speak, only +their panting sobs were to be heard like the snorting of two wild boars +as they dragged and dashed each other up and down on the sward.</p> + +<p>"I was obliged to restrain Mariora violently from rushing to her +husband's assistance. She would only have distracted his attention. And +besides I would not have it so. Let the men fight it out, I thought. +They are a well matched pair."</p> + +<p>"Then you still love Fatia Negra?" enquired Henrietta sadly.</p> + +<p>The girl blushed.—"I love him, yes,—and therefore he must die."</p> + +<p>She went on:</p> + +<p>"'At that moment he was like a magician battling with a giant. The other +was half a head taller than he, and the muscles of his arms stood out +like the rugged bark of an oak's trunk. Black Mask was much the slimmer. +But every muscle in his frame seemed made of steel. His gigantic +adversary might pitch and toss him wherever he pleased, he always fell +on his feet; nor was the other ever able, squeeze as he might, to +disjoint his arms or free his own head from Fatia Negra's embrace, +though again and again he ducked down to do it; and then they would +struggle more fiercely than ever, on their knees, with their limbs +interlaced like one single, inseparable quivering mass of flesh.</p> + +<p>"'If I could only see your hidden face!' roared Juon, throwing himself +with all his might on Black Mask. 'You devil, you, I'll tear your +mummery off for you!'—and he gnashed at his opponent's face with his +teeth, trying to snap his mask off.</p> + +<p>"This attempt seemed to redouble Fatia Negra's fury. He too now began +roaring like a wounded bear, struggling with a huntsman. It was no +longer a struggle between men, but a ravening of two beasts. The +combatants had now rolled far away from the hut. Their savage yells +resounded through the still pastures. We, watching them from the hut, +could see that they were drawing near the edge of a steep abyss with a +sheer descent of many fathoms, at the bottom of which are the sources of +the little mountain streams.</p> + +<p>"'Take care, Juon!' cried Mariora despairingly. But her voice was +unheard. Both of them were deaf and blind. The next moment Juon gave his +adversary a fierce shake and instantly the pair of them plunged head +over heels into the gulf below.</p> + +<p>"We both rushed after them, and on reaching the edge of the abyss +perceived one shape lying motionless among the rocks of the stream, and +another limping painfully towards the further shore. This second figure +was Fatia Negra."</p> + +<p>"Surely Juon was not dead?" cried Henrietta, horrified.</p> + +<p>"No; only crippled by the fall. He fell undermost, the other on top. Yet +the other must have suffered severely. We could see from his heavy +movements that he had more than one limb damaged. Only with the utmost +exertion did he manage to scale the opposite cliff.</p> + +<p>"While he was clambering up the mountain-side, Mariora sobbing and +screaming, rushed down to her insensible husband, and taking his head +into her bosom dragged his limp body out of the cold water of the brook, +whilst I took down from the beech-tree Fatia Negra's double-barrelled +musket and raised it to my cheek. Before me on the white rock, in the +full light of the moon, a good mark for a marksman was that panting +black object struggling upwards. I pointed the barrel straight at him. I +took a long and careful aim. I am certain I should have hit him. And +then I bethought me how much I had loved him once upon a time, and the +weapon sank down. I flung it from me."</p> + +<p>The girl ceased to speak and covered her face with both her hands. It +was a long time before she took them away again.</p> + +<p>At last she sprang up quickly, and turning her pale face towards +Henrietta, said in a hard, dry voice: "It will be the last time, your +ladyship. I am weak because I am a woman, folks would say. But they +shall know that that is not true. Don't be afraid, my lady; what I have +promised, that will I do. You have been very good to me in telling me +that I was being deceived, and I will requite you for it. And now, God +bless you, my lady. Farewell!"</p> + +<p>"But surely you are not thinking of going home so late at night?"</p> + +<p>"What care I about the night? No spectre can meet me anywhere that is +worse than the horrible thing that dwells at the bottom of my heart. God +bless your ladyship. You shall hear from me soon. Farewell!"</p> + +<p>Then the girl gently kissed Henrietta's hand and left the room, throwing +into her gait and bearing an energy and a self-confidence which she was +far from feeling.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE SOIREES AT ARAD</h3> + + +<p>Despite his misgivings, Count Kengyelesy succeeded in reaching his home +at Arad without being robbed by Fatia Negra.</p> + +<p>During the evenings of his visit at Hidvár he had won back everything +which he had lost on the occasion of his friend Hátszegi's visit at +Kengyelesy, and in the joy of his heart he gave his countess <i>carte +blanche</i> in the matter of entertaining her friends and opened his halls +freely to the elegant world of Arad.</p> + +<p>For the society of Arad is distinctly elegant. Excepting Pest, there is +no other place in Hungary where the aristocratic element is so strongly +represented. Nay, it has this advantage over Pest that its society does +not scatter as the seasons change. Such pleasure-resorts as Csákó, +Ménes, Magyarát and Világos and the castles of the magnates residing on +the circumjacent <i>puszta</i> are all of a heap, so to speak, around Arad; +so that there is no occasion for acquaintances to separate in spring or +autumn; wherefore to all those who would devote themselves +uninterruptedly to social joys, Arad is a veritable Eldorado.</p> + +<p>There was no need to offer the Countess Kengyelesy such an opportunity +twice,—the very next day the round of visiting began. All the +notabilities of the higher circles got themselves introduced to her +ladyship by mutual friends, and the lesser fry, whom nobody knew, were +introduced to her by the count himself. Amongst those who came from afar +was a young man from Pest who had an official post in the county, a rare +distinction in those days, who was much praised for his culture and who +had spoken once or twice very sensibly at Quarter Sessions,—a certain +Szilard Vamhidy. But what interested the ladies in the young man far +more than his official orations was the rumour connecting his name with +a romantic attachment he was said to have had with the daughter of a +wealthy merchant of Pest. The young man, being disappointed in his love, +had resolved to kill himself, and had persuaded the girl to do likewise +at the same time. Only with difficulty had they been snatched from the +threshold of death. Subsequently, on account of this very thing, the +girl had been compelled to become the wife of the wealthy Hátszegi.</p> + +<p>The countess quickly made up her mind that such a young man as this was +an indispensable acquaintance. What! Henrietta's ideal, with whom she +had been in love and who would have gladly embraced death with her! Here +indeed was a rare species, especially in these modern days, which +deserved to be exhibited; and she gave her husband no rest till he had +promised to introduce the young man to her. To this end it was necessary +that he should first of all make the young man's acquaintance himself, +but this was an easy matter. The deputy Lord-lieutenant of the county +knew them both and at his house they learnt to know each other. And +Count Kengyelesy was one of those men whom it is impossible to avoid +when once you have made his acquaintance. It was not very long, +therefore, before he took his new friend, absolutely under his +protection and hauled him off to his wife.</p> + +<p>The usual stiffness of a first introduction was speedily broken down by +the quaint conceits of the count.</p> + +<p>The countess had donned a flowing antique <i>moiré</i> dress and wore her +hair in long English curls to match.</p> + +<p>"Come now, friend Szilard!" cried the count, "what do you say? this +dress and that <i>coiffure</i> hardly suit the countess's style of face—eh?"</p> + +<p>Many a worthy young man would have been plunged into confusion by such a +silly question, but our Szilard's eternally composed countenance was not +ruffled for an instant.</p> + +<p>"Everything becomes the countess," he replied; "but I know of something +which is still more charming and would make any fair woman still more +beautiful."</p> + +<p>"Really! You make me quite curious," said the countess.</p> + +<p>"Why, Szilard, you a connoisseur!—you surprise me!" cried the count.</p> + +<p>"I mean those blue stuff gowns with white spots, which lend quite a +peculiar charm to our women, especially if you set it off with an +old-fashioned <i>csipkeköto</i>."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> A Hungarian headdress made of black lace. The dress +suggested was also of native Hungarian manufacture worn at one time by +the greatest ladies.</p></div> + +<p>At the very next <i>soirée</i> the Countess Kengyelesy was attired in one of +these blue stuff gowns with white spots, of home manufacture, and with a +black lace head-dress—exactly as Szilard had described it to her.</p> + +<p>"My dear friend, be so good as to look there!" said the count +appropriating Szilard while he was still only half through the doorway. +"There she is costumed from head to foot exactly as you advised. Ah! I +pity you. You are already in the toils."</p> + +<p>Szilard hastened at once to greet the countess, who treated the handsome +young fellow with marked distinction all through the evening. Indeed she +made no secret of it.</p> + +<p>Three days later Szilard was bound, by custom to pay a complimentary +visit upon the Countess. He purposely chose an hour when he knew she +would not be at home, and left his card, but the same evening he +encountered her at the theatre. It was in the entrance hall, where she +was waiting for her carriage, and till it drove up Szilard could not +very well leave her.</p> + +<p>"Ah, ah! my honoured friend," cried the countess archly, "this won't do. +You wait till I am not at home, and then you go and leave your card +upon me as a token of respect. But I don't mean to let you off so +easily. I have got a lot to say to you which I am determined you shall +listen to. You must therefore promise to come to my house at twelve +o'clock to-morrow, or else I shall astonish the world by inviting you to +come along with me this instant in my carriage."</p> + +<p>A man, in another mood, could scarcely have resisted the temptation of +replying that he would be delighted if the countess put her threat into +execution then and there, even at the risk of astonishing the world. +Szilard merely looked grave and said that he would be happy to pay his +respects to the countess at twelve on the morrow.</p> + +<p>He went accordingly. His pulses beat no more quickly than usual as he +entered the countess's private apartment, although she gave the footman +to understand in a low voice that she would be at home to nobody else, +and invited the young man to sit down close beside her, face to face.</p> + +<p>The countess was a beautiful woman, and she possessed the art of +dressing beautifully likewise. The countess had beautiful eyes and she +could smile beautifully with them, too. The countess had an extremely +pretty mouth, and when she spoke it was prettier still, for she had a +witty way with her. The danger of the situation was very appreciable.</p> + +<p>"My dear, good Szilard," began the countess, with that light, natural +<i>naïveté</i> which so easily disarms the strongest of us, "do not take it +ill of me if I speak to you confidentially. The world will very soon be +saying that you are in love with me and I with you. I shall not believe +the former and you will not believe the latter. Let the world say what +it likes. I have a real blessing of a husband, whom it would be a shame +to offend, and you have quite other ideas. I know what they are. Don't +be angry, don't frown! I am not exacting. I don't want to fetch you away +from other people. I will not ask where you have buried your treasures. +I will merely say to you that I know you have treasures and that they +are buried. Is it not so? You need not be afraid of me."</p> + +<p>Szilard was a little taken aback by this unexpected turn. Could it be +sheer curiosity, he thought?</p> + +<p>"I have nothing to be afraid of, countess," remarked Szilard, smiling, +"I have no buried secrets. I was a young man once, that is all. I have +had my foolish illusions, like other people, and like other people I +have cured myself of them."</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay, sir, now you are not quite sticking to the truth; you are +<i>not</i> cured of them. But before I go any further let me tell you that +all this is not mere feminine curiosity on my part. I want you to trust +me and I will trust you equally. Believe me when I say that if I love to +make fun of empty-headed noodles, I can always respect a good heart +because it is a rarity. The lady I want to speak to you about is my +dear friend and she is very, very unhappy."</p> + +<p>Szilard was bound to believe that this was true, for tear-drops sparkled +in the countess's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Is it my fault?" he asked bitterly.</p> + +<p>"It is neither your fault nor hers. I know that as a fact. The cause of +it all is money, the thirst for money. There is not a more miserable +creature in the wide world than the daughter of a rich man. But that is +the least of her misfortunes. They married her to a man who did not love +her, who only took her because her grandfather was a millionaire. Her +grandfather frightened her into the match by threatening her with his +curse and now, when she has become the wife of this man who does not +even feel friendship for her, I hear that this same old grandfather has +made another will depriving her of everything."</p> + +<p>Szilard's lips trembled at these words.</p> + +<p>"You can imagine what will be the result. This young woman loves not and +is not loved. They gave her away to an Oriental nabob who, imagining his +wife to be wealthy, scatters his money like a prince. And now this man +has suddenly been startled by the report that his wife has absolutely +nothing!—do you know the meaning of the expression: bread of charity?"</p> + +<p>"I have heard the expression, but the bread itself I have never tasted."</p> + +<p>"Then you can have no idea what that sort of bread is like which a man +gives to the wife whom he finds to be poor, when he fancied her to be +rich—oh! that sort of bread is very, very bitter!"</p> + +<p>Ah! thought Szilard, the bread that <i>I</i> offered her was only dry—not +bitter.</p> + +<p>"I can tell you on very good authority," resumed the countess, "that the +baron's conduct towards his wife has completely changed since he +discovered that she has been disinherited. He had lost heavily at cards +when the news first reached him, and he took no pains to conceal his +ill-humour from his wife in consequence. The poor of the district had +got to regard Henrietta as their ministering angel because of her +labours of love among them, but now she can play the part of lady +bountiful no longer. She has to shut her door in the faces of her poor +petitioners, for her husband will not allow any unnecessary expense. +Nay, more, they say that Hátszegi now keeps his wife's private jewels +under lock and key to prevent her from pawning them and relieving the +needs of the poor with the proceeds, as she was wont to do, and only +brings them out on state occasions when he compels her to pile them all +on her person. Isn't that a humiliation for a woman?"</p> + +<p>"If only you had become mine," Szilard mentally apostrophized poor +Henrietta, "you would now have had a cosey little chimney-corner, and a +nice little room all to yourself; and though I could not have bought you +jewels, the best of every morsel of food we shared together would always +have been yours."</p> + +<p>"And," pursued the countess, "most degrading experience of all, +Hátszegi no longer attempts to conceal from his wife his outrageous +<i>liaisons</i> with pretty peasant women. The thing has long been a byeword, +though his wife knew nothing of it—but she knows it now. Nor is this +all, my dear Vámhidy. Poor Henrietta's heart is suffering from another +sorrow which she feels all the more keenly because it smarts +unceasingly. Her young brother, Koloman, has suddenly disappeared from +Pest and left no trace behind him. They say all sorts of things about +him, which I do not care about telling you, but most of them are bad +enough. On the news reaching Henrietta, she asked her husband to make +enquiries as to the cause of Koloman's disappearance. Hátszegi wrote to +his agent and received an answer which he will not show to Henrietta on +any consideration; nay, more, he commanded his wife never to mention +Koloman's name before him again. The poor woman is naturally in despair. +She cannot conceive why the cause of her brother's disappearance should +be hidden from her. And now I am coming to the end and aim of all this +rigmarole. Henrietta believes, and I am likewise convinced of it, that +if her brother be alive, there is only one person in the world whom he +will try and seek out and that is yourself."</p> + +<p>"Poor lad! he loved me much," sighed Szilard.</p> + +<p>"And now you understand what I am driving at, don't you? If anybody can +find out the whereabouts of Henrietta's brother and the real reason why +he fled from his relations at Pest and took refuge neither with his +aunt, Madame Langai, who, I hear, has taken his part all through, nor +yet with his sister, it is most certainly you. This is no lawyer's +business, for a lawyer would set about it too gingerly. Here sympathy +and chivalry are before all other things necessary, and if the husband +declines this noble task, we have nobody to turn to except—the man who +has been sacrificed."</p> + +<p>Szilard bit his lips to prevent the tears from coming. Who could ever +have thought that so frivolous a woman would have had so much feeling +for her friend? Then he rose, bowed and curtly informed the countess +that he would undertake the commission.</p> + +<p>The countess pressed his hand affectionately: "And keep me informed of +everything," said she, "for I am the common post between you two."</p> + +<p>Szilard thanked the countess and withdrew. He pondered the matter +carefully till the evening, and by that time he had a plan all ready in +his head.</p> + +<p>For a whole week after this, nothing was to be seen of Vámhidy. Count +Kengyelesy sought him everywhere and could find him nowhere. Every day +he asked his countess what she had done with the young man.</p> + +<p>Ten days after the first <i>soirée</i> the date for another had been fixed. +Szilard did not appear even at this. Kengyelesy hunted for him from +pillar to post, but could not discover what had become of him. Nobody +had heard anything of him.</p> + +<p>"He has poisoned himself," said Kengyelesy at last to a group of his +sporting friends. "It is quite plain to me. When a fellow has got that +sort of thing into his head once, he will try it again and again. I wash +my hands of the business, it is all the fault of the countess. Why does +she play her tricks with such people? No doubt he has swallowed poison +and then crawled away into some nook or corner of a forest. In a month +or two, I suppose, we shall come upon him unexpectedly."</p> + +<p>"Whom shall we come upon unexpectedly?" cried a voice behind his back. +He looked around and there was the long lost Szilard.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there you are, eh? What have you been doing with yourself all this +time? Come along with me—and Heaven help you!—I will take you to my +wife. Poor young chap! I thought you had already had enough of it and +made away with yourself in consequence."</p> + +<p>Then he drew his arm through Szilard's and tripped off to the countess. +"Here he is!" he cried. "We have found him, do not abandon yourself to +despair on his account. Be so good as to sit down beside him!—here's a +chair! I'll take care nobody disturbs you!"</p> + +<p>The countess pressed Szilard's hand and made a sign to him to remain.</p> + +<p>"I have just arrived from Pest," said Szilard.</p> + +<p>"Really! Well?"</p> + +<p>"I have found out everything, or rather, I should say, a good deal."</p> + +<p>"Do pray tell me at once. All the people are dancing, they will take no +notice of us."</p> + +<p>"Ever since old Lapussa's death," began Szilard, "for he died soon after +he had altered his will, all the members of his family have been at +bitter variance. Madame Langai, the old man's widowed daughter, disputes +the validity of the last will—whereby Mr. John Lapussa becomes heir to +the exclusion of everybody else, and has instituted legal proceedings to +upset it. Madame Langai seeks to prove that old Lapussa was <i>non compos +mentis</i> when he disinherited the other members of his family, and she +also maintains, that the old fellow had no reason whatever for hating +his grandchildren and reducing them to beggary as he has done. On the +other hand, Mr. John maintains that his dear father had excellent +reasons for detesting his grandchildren because the Baroness Hátszegi +has never written a letter to her grandfather since her marriage and +both she and her husband have expressed themselves, at home, in the most +disrespectful terms imaginable concerning the old gentleman, even giving +it to be understood that they would be very glad if they had not to wait +too long for the curtain to fall on the fifth act of his life's drama. +He calls as his witness one Margari, who was formerly old Lapussa's +reader before the girl was married, and since then has been compelled +to act as secretary to Hátszegi, or rather as a spy upon him. This +fellow, who is now the mere tool of Mr. John, is quite prepared to +retail all sorts of horrors about the Hátszegis. As to the other +grandchild, the boy Koloman I mean, his uncle has saddled him with a +terrible charge. He has produced a bill for 40,000 florins which he +accuses the lad of forging in the name of his sister, the Baroness +Hátszegi."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" exclaimed the countess in an incredulous voice.</p> + +<p>"The thing is ridiculously incredible, I know, yet there the bill is; I +have seen it, for it has been sequestered by the Court. It is obviously +in the youth's handwriting as also is the very bad imitation of his +sister's signature. In connection therewith is the fact of the youth's +sudden disappearance (and every attempt to trace his whereabouts has +failed), for, on the very day when the subject of the bill was first +broached, he vanished from his college, and apparently he had been +preparing for flight some time before."</p> + +<p>"But what could have induced a mere child to do such a thing, he is +scarcely thirteen years old?"</p> + +<p>"He was always somewhat flighty by nature, though that, of course, is +not sufficient to explain how he came to forge his sister's name on a +draft for 40,000 florins."</p> + +<p>"But why will not the baron tell his wife all about it?"</p> + +<p>"Does not your ladyship see?—It is quite plain to me. Hátszegi +understands his wife thoroughly. He feels certain that as soon as the +baroness hears of what her brother is accused, she would not hesitate a +moment to acknowledge the forged signature as really her own."</p> + +<p>"True, true. And then I suppose her brother could be saved."</p> + +<p>"Completely."</p> + +<p>"And then, I suppose, she would have to pay the money?"</p> + +<p>"Either pay it or be sued for it."</p> + +<p>"Poor woman! I know she has no money. A most awkward position, most +awkward. But it does not matter; if her jewels are under lock and key, +nobody guards mine."</p> + +<p>At these words which came straight from the best of hearts, Szilard +could not restrain himself from impressing a burning kiss on the +countess's hand so affected was he by this outburst of generosity.</p> + +<p>"Ah, ha!" cackled the count behind his back, "so we have got as far as +that already, eh! Capital, capital, upon my word! Nay, nay, my young +friend, don't be afraid of me. Do not put yourself out in the least on +my account! God bless you, my boy!"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow, we'll plan it all out, I'll be waiting for you at one +o'clock," whispered the countess to Szilard, "now I must go, the +cotillion is beginning."</p> + +<p>"Don't you dance then?" enquired the count of Szilard. "Nonsense! +they'll say you are mourning somebody. Thank God, old Lapussa was not +<i>your</i> father-in-law, but Hátszegi's. It is for him to pull a long face, +but you go and dance!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>TIT FOR TAT</h3> + + +<p>It may seem strange to us that the rumour of Fatia Negra's nocturnal +adventure was not spread abroad in these parts, but as a matter of fact +nobody did speak of it. It seemed as if everybody who knew anything +about it, died out of the world before he could pass the news on to his +neighbour.</p> + +<p>The dwellers in the hut in the Ice Valley had vanished without leaving a +trace behind them. The herd, untended by a shepherd, was scattered to +the winds by wolves. Nobody could say what had become of Juon Tare and +Mariora. The person who shewed least of all tell that she knew anything +about this midnight adventure was Anicza herself. She had sobbed out the +whole story before Henrietta, but after that she kept her own counsel +and kept a good countenance also when folks looked at her. But there was +venom at the bottom of her heart, and she nourished it there.</p> + +<p>In a fortnight's time Fatia Negra visited her again. There was now +nothing the matter with him, all traces of the life and death struggle +had disappeared. Anicza was more affectionate towards him than ever. She +did not even ask him where he had been all this time, nor did she notice +the scar on his neck which had not been there before.</p> + +<p>Fatia Negra came to her at night, as he always did. The famous +adventurer was very cautious. Anicza knew for certain that whenever he +came to visit her in a populous place like this, before him and behind +him went faithful henchmen who stood on guard at the corners of the +streets and gave a signal at the approach of any danger. Only amongst +the snowy mountains was he wont to go alone. He was also very wary in +other ways. Thus, he never drank wine: there was really no getting at +him. And if once he had his weapons handy, then he could always cut his +way through his enemies, even if he were completely surrounded.</p> + +<p>"Fatia Negra," said the girl, throwing her arms round his neck, "last +night I had an evil dream. I dreamt that the smallpox had ruined my +face. Would you love me if I were pockmarked?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I would still love you," replied the adventurer.</p> + +<p>"Well, as it happens I am not. Kiss me! Then I dreamt another dream. I +dreamt that all our property was destroyed. I was a ragged wandering +beggar with my head tied up. Would you love me if I were a ragged +beggar?"</p> + +<p>"Little fool, of course I should love you."</p> + +<p>"Then embrace me nicely. After that I dreamt that some one had shut me +up in prison for some great offence; they had condemned me to many +years' imprisonment, condemned me to spend all my youth behind +iron-barred windows and they would only let me free again when I had +become a wrinkled old hag. Would you love me if I was in prison? Would +you come and stand outside my iron bars and speak to me now and then?"</p> + +<p>"Stop this foolish chatter! Who is able to answer such questions?" and +in order that she should obey the more readily he closed her mouth with +kisses.</p> + +<p>But as soon as the kisses were over, she began to prattle again:</p> + +<p>"But after that I went on dreaming again, and I dreamt what made me very +angry with myself. I dreamt that I married someone else and forgot you. +Would you still love me if I were to deceive you and wed another?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I would love you even then, Anicza,—and my love for you would +make me shoot you through the heart."</p> + +<p>How the girl laughed when he said this!</p> + +<p>"Wait a bit," said she, "and you will see that it will all come to pass. +I shall grow sick and ugly. I shall become a poor beggar. They will send +me to prison and make a slave of me. I shall deceive you and wed +another. Then we shall see whether you will love me; then we shall see +whether you will kill me."</p> + +<p>Anicza thought all this so amusing that she laughed aloud. The noise +brought old Onucz into the room. His daughter turned towards him +smilingly. "Isn't it true, father, that three suitors are courting me?" +she asked. "I was asking Fatia Negra which of the three I should take."</p> + +<p>Old Onucz scratched his nose pretty hard at this question. He would have +liked to have said: "whichever you like, as long as it is the right +one!" but he was afraid of offending Fatia Negra.</p> + +<p>"Well, Domnule," said he at last, "truth is truth, after all. I'm +getting an old man now, and what's the good of my scraping together and +piling up all these ducats if nothing comes of it all? I have indeed an +only daughter, a pretty girl and a good girl, too, but what's the use of +that? You are not her husband. If I only knew of some corner of the +world quite out of your reach, I would gather together all my +belongings, seek it out and settle down there; but it would be of no +avail, you would always find me out and befool my girl again, so I have +to stay where I am."</p> + +<p>"Don't grumble, old chap, there is a time for all things. This black +mask shall not always cover my face; when I come to see you, my name +shall not always be Fatia Negra. The day will come when a carriage and +four shall drive into your courtyard, a sabre-tashed heyduke will then +leap from the box and open the silver-plated coach and a cavalier in +cloth of gold will step out who comes to you as a suitor. If you see +this ring on his finger you will know that it is I, and there will no +longer be a Fatia Negra in the wide world. We will go together to +Bucharest, a true Roumanian city, where folks will respect us and then +our happy days will begin."</p> + +<p>"If only that could be soon! But you have been telling me this for a +long, long time."</p> + +<p>"That is because we cannot put an end to our work yet. There are very +many people who still expect much from us. If I do not satisfy them they +will remain a perpetual danger to us. That is why I am compelled to wear +this mask a little longer. When once I have taken it off, he who used to +wear it is dead and has nothing more in common with me."</p> + +<p>"Then you really mean to break away from everything one day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is high time. My little finger whispers that someone wants to +betray me. But say that to nobody. We must not frighten our own people. +The Government is getting suspicious at the disappearance of so much +gold. It is sniffing about, but at present it is on a wrong track. The +Jews of Hungary are suspected and they happen to know nothing at all +about it. But it is quite enough that suspicion <i>has</i> been aroused. So +far they fancy that only about fifty to sixty pounds of gold a year are +unlawfully made away with. They don't know yet that it amounts to five +or six hundredweight, which is coined into ready money underneath the +ground. This business must be put a stop to. This year the mines yielded +a rich profit. Next Saturday there will be a last delivery of gold in +the Lucsia cavern. As soon as the coins are struck, we shall divide the +profits, wish one another 'buna nopte!'<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> and depart our respective +ways. We shall destroy the machinery, blow up the smelting furnaces with +gunpowder, break down the aqueducts and close up the mouth of the +cavern. After that everyone can do as he likes with his gold. I shall +wash my hands of it."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Good night.</p></div> + +<p>"Well said!" cried old Onucz, "that is as I would have it also. The +whole lot of us who are partners in the concern will meet once more in +the Lucsia cavern. There we will listen to what you say and swear to +each other that we will not say a word of what has gone on down below +there. Then everyone will do as you bid, for you are the most prudent of +us all."</p> + +<p>"Then I shall only have to wait another week?" enquired Anicza, winding +the locks of Fatia Negra round her fingers.</p> + +<p>"For what?" asked the adventurer.</p> + +<p>"Nay, but surely you know?"</p> + +<p>"Aha! of course!" said he smiling. "You mean you will only have to wait +another week for me to cease to be your husband under a mask and become +your real, true husband, eh? That is the end of all your thoughts, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes!" said the girl, but she thought within herself: "I shall only +have to wait a week to give up your masked head into the hands of the +hangman!"</p> + +<p>So Fatia Negra unsuspiciously rocked the girl up and down on his knee +and reflected complacently: "Girls are made in order that they may +believe the lies which men choose to tell them."</p> + +<p>But Anicza was a Wallachian girl and Wallachian girls are jealous, +revengeful and artful.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That Saturday had arrived.</p> + +<p>Seven hundred torches lit up the Lucsia Grotto. In between, from out of +the corners of the cavern Bengal lights burst forth from time to time +flooding for a few moments the whole of that gloomy palace with green, +blue, white and rose-coloured flames to which the red flame of the +pitch-torches with their black smoke formed a spectral contrast.</p> + +<p>The great company of coiners had arranged for the last evening before +their separation a sumptuous feast in this subterranean hall. The floor +was strewn with white sand and all round about tents were erected in +which roast and baked meats were piled up into veritable hillocks on +broad beech-wood dishes. In order to show the wealth at their command an +ox was roasting whole on a flaming fire, revolving as it roasted, while +two men, one on each side, basted it well with bacon fat held on iron +forks. Close behind it was a gigantic vat of wine, everybody was free to +drink out of it as much as he chose. Right in front of the smithy, too, +was another gigantic vat holding about fifty firkins, filled to the brim +with the finest eau de vié. A couple of young fellows lolled in front of +the vat; they were already too lazy to dip their glasses into the fluid, +they sucked it in from the brim of the vat itself.</p> + +<p>The glare of the smelting oven no longer shone from the windows of the +stone building in the midst of the cavern, the smoke intermingled with +sparks no longer welled out of the flue, the subterranean hubbub no +longer accompanied the stroke of the hammers, the machinery was silent, +its work was done.</p> + +<p>Two hundred and fifty thousand coined ducats await distribution; of +these, fifty thousand belong to Fatia Negra and twenty thousand to old +Onucz.</p> + +<p>The smithy to-day is adorned with green twigs and bright ribbons, and on +its massive chimneys all the requisites for a pyrotechnical display have +been heaped up; it is from these that the rockets will ascend, it is +here the blue and red Catherine wheels will revolve. The vaulted ceiling +of the cavern is so high that the rockets in their highest flight will +not graze it. An orchestral-like balustrade has been provided for the +musicians. The shareholders themselves will do their best to enliven the +festivities with fiddles, flutes and bagpipes. The guests are already +appearing, singly and in groups, down through the machinery of the mill. +The men are all accompanied by their womenkind in gala costumes.</p> + +<p>Before the appearance of Fatia Negra, mirth and uproar have full swing. +Everyone gives free course to his jollity till the chief comes whose +black mask is sufficient to quiet everyone's good humour.</p> + +<p>And to-day brings with it its own peculiar festivity. After the great +distribution of money, Fatia Negra will take the daughter of Onucz by +the hand and plight his troth to her in front of a crucifix placed on a +high pedestal. The oath of betrothal will be an invention of Fatia Negra +himself, filled with well assorted curses and promises. And he will +swear to regard Anicza as his lawful bride from this day forth until +such time as he can, without any mask or disguise, conduct her before a +priest and solemnize his wedding in another place and before other +people. For a long time this ceremony has been the pet idea of old Onucz +and now Fatia Negra has agreed to it.</p> + +<p>Gradually all the partners have assembled in the cavern. Amongst the +last to arrive are old Onucz and his daughter with the bridesmaids. +Anicza is dressed as usual with her girdle and embroidered bodice and a +round hat on her head. The only difference is that now she sparkles all +over with gold and jewels and her pig-tail is interwoven with real +pearls. Amongst all the picked beauties who have gathered together here, +she is still the most beautiful.</p> + +<p>Only the bridegroom still keeps the good folks waiting. He is a long +time coming, as becomes a great man. Nay, it is quite possible he may +be there already without anyone seeing him. Perchance he is walking +along there behind the bride in an invisible mantle and only when he +throws it off, then only and not till then will the people see him.</p> + +<p>Anicza screams aloud—perhaps with joy! Everyone is thunderstruck; they +imagine their leader must be in league with the devil himself, for he +comes up from out of the earth!</p> + +<p>And with what splendour does he ascend! The purple robe that he wears is +scarce discernible for gold lace; a long embroidered mantle, like the +mantle of a prince, floats down from his shoulders and on his head he +wears a golden helmet from which the mask depends.</p> + +<p>The top of this helmet is set all round about with diamonds, and one of +his comrades makes the remark that the spike of this helmet is somewhat +muddy. He wore no weapon by his side, not even a dagger. Naturally,—one +generally lays aside one's arms when one is about to swear solemnly +before an altar. Onucz approached him obsequiously and kissed the hand +of his mysterious leader with profound respect, whilst Anicza approached +him with roguish archness, adroitly feigning a superstitious fear of her +magician of a sweetheart.</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid of you, Fatia Negra! though you come and go unseen. I +fear you come not in God's name."</p> + +<p>"That is true. We are nearer methinks to the Kingdom of the Devil."</p> + +<p>"Hush! say not so!"</p> + +<p>"Why not? If these men had imagined that I came down from Heaven, they +would have betrayed me long ago. They would have carried me bound to +Fehervár; but because they fancy I came from below and am acquainted +with the devil, they fear me and are faithful. It is the same with you: +you love me because you fear me."</p> + +<p>"Ho, ho, ho! We shall see. I fear nobody, not even you. It was a joke +when I said just now: I am afraid. You did not see that."</p> + +<p>"Come now, I'll put you to the test at once. You see that crucifix on +the altar? On that we will swear fidelity to each other and everyone +here present will also swear to preserve eternal secrecy. As, however, +we coiners cannot call God to witness, for by our trade we have rejected +him, our oaths cannot ascend to Heaven but must descend elsewhere. In +order then that our oath may be effectual, go if you have the courage, +turn the crucifix and return it to its place—only upside down."</p> + +<p>For an instant the girl grew pale and trembled, then she advanced boldly +up to the altar, seized the crucifix and lifting it up, turned it round +and thrust it upside down into a hole that happened to be on the altar, +so that its pedestal stood up in the air.</p> + +<p>All who were present looked on with wonder and horror.</p> + +<p>As the girl raised the cross and put it down again reverse ways, a +mechanical involuntary jolting motion of her arms was discernible, +though her face betrayed nothing. An electrical machine hidden beneath +the altar was the cause of this shock.</p> + +<p>"Well?" enquired Fatia Negra as she returned to her place.</p> + +<p>"The crucifix struck me when I seized it, and struck me again when I put +it down," whispered the girl; and as she said these words she was very +pale.</p> + +<p>"And yet you did what I told you," said Fatia Negra, placing his hand on +Anicza's shoulder. "You are a brave girl, and worthy of me."</p> + +<p>"Comrades!" the leader of the adventurers now cried with a thundrous +voice, "come and listen to me!"</p> + +<p>Everyone thereupon abandoned his booth, his table or his diversion and +stood in a circle round Black Mask.</p> + +<p>"Ye know," he began, "the name of that place which is under the earth! +Its name is the grave. Ye are all of you at this moment in the grave +with me and if I wish it, dead men. Whoever would see once more the +bright sunlight of the upper world where dawn is now breaking, he must +swear that he will never at any time, drunk or sober, tell to any man +what has happened, what he has seen or heard in this underground tomb, +but will regard it all as a dream which he has forgotten on awakening. +Swear this with me in this hour! I myself will first of all repeat the +oath and ye must say whether ye are content therewith or not."</p> + +<p>Thereupon he approached the altar whose basement formed the glass +isolating "island" which all of us who have ever seen an electrical +machine know so well. The electric machine itself, a battery of Leyden +jars was hidden under the altar and connected by a piece of clockwork +with that opening covered with metal in which the crucifix had been +planted.</p> + +<p>Black Mask stood silently for a moment on the basement of the altar +after removing his helmet from his head, and those who stood nearest +were horrified to observe that single hairs of his long flowing mane of +hair rose slowly and remained stiffly suspended in the air. There was a +deep silence, the silence that prevails under the earth—among the Dead.</p> + +<p>And now Fatia Negra began to recite the words of the oath in a solemn +ghostly voice: "I, the bearer of the Black Mask, Fatia Negra, as they +call me, swear in the subterranean midnight by the living fire which +falling like rain reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes; by the flood +which killed all the dwellers upon earth; by the gaping gulf which +swallowed up the traitorous bands of Dathan and Abiram; by the spirit +which announced the death of King Saul; by the Angel Lucifer who by +reason of his rebellion was cast down from Heaven; by the angel Malach +Hamovesh who carries in his hands the sword of violent death; by the +twelve plagues of Egypt with which Moses visited the land of the +Pharaohs; by all these things and by the star under which I was born do +I swear secresy—and may I perish in fire and water, may I be buried +alive in the bowels of the earth, may I become a pillar of salt, may the +wild beast of the forest tear me to pieces, may my own weapon turn +against me in the evil hour, may I be terrified by midnight spectres and +hag-ridden, may my body be smitten with leprosy, my eyes with blindness, +my tongue with dumbness, my bones by rottenness, if ever I speak one +syllable to anybody, be it priest, or child, or father, or condemning +judge, or threatening headsman, of anything I have seen, heard or learnt +in this place, or write it down with my hand or put anybody on the track +of it! May every drop of my blood become curse-laden; may my remotest +posterity anathematize me; may I awake in my grave and go about again as +a spectre, if ever I act in anyway contrary to what I now swear! May all +those who are under the earth and above the earth be the witnesses of +this my oath!"</p> + +<p>This drastic formula satisfied everybody. In those parts the people much +prefer such unmeaning self-objurgation to our legal oaths as taken in +the presence of the judges and they are considered a hundred times more +binding. Meanwhile numerous single hairs had seemed to detach themselves +from Black Mask's long locks and now stood upright all around his head +like some spectral crown. Those who stood around regarded him with deep +horror. Many believed that a supernatural marvellous power was in his +words; only the girl did not believe in him at all.</p> + +<p>In order to increase still further this terrified respect the adventurer +beckoned towards him the old men of the assembly.</p> + +<p>"Come hither, that ye may see for yourselves how well acquainted with +the words of the oath are those in that other place where knowledge +needs must be; stretch out your hands towards me, touch me with the tips +of your fingers and ye will discover there is something else present +here besides yourselves."</p> + +<p>Old Onucz tremblingly stretched out his hand in the direction of Fatia +Negra and the next moment collapsed with fear when he perceived sparks +crackle forth from his leader's garments which burnt his finger tips. +More than one elder was afraid at first to put out his hand till +curiosity made him venture everything. Several wanted to convince +themselves personally of this miracle, which they could not credit from +the hearsay of others and the juggler himself encouraged those standing +near him to touch him wherever they chose and fire would spring from his +body. Sparks sometimes leaped forth from his neck and sometimes from +the tips of his ears and everyone was persuaded that the curse had +already made its way into every drop of his blood.</p> + +<p>Anicza alone did not draw near him.</p> + +<p>"Are you afraid of me, then?" enquired the imposter.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Come and kiss me then!"</p> + +<p>Anicza approached and allowed herself to be kissed.</p> + +<p>Immediately afterwards a shudder ran through her.</p> + +<p>"Well? What did you feel?"</p> + +<p>"Your mouth burnt my mouth," replied the girl, and Fatia Negra happening +to look aside just then, she furtively crossed herself.</p> + +<p>Fatia Negra was completely satisfied with the success of this comedy. +Their awe of the mysterious and the unintelligible had made his comrades +his slaves; he need have no more scruples concerning them.</p> + +<p>"Give me your right hand, Anicza," said he, "and give your other hand to +your next neighbour, and let everyone take the hand of the person next +to him."</p> + +<p>Thus he made them form a long chain, the extreme end of which was +brought up by old Onucz in whose hand he placed a slender conducting rod +which hung down from the altar. Then he recited the fantastic oath +before them all once more, whilst they repeated every syllable of it +after him. The comedy was concluded by a violent electric shock which +instantly sent a spasm of pain through the muscles and sinews of every +member of the living chain. The poor untaught creatures all imagined +that the devil himself was flying through their limbs and with tears and +groans they begged Black Mask not to put them to any further test.</p> + +<p>"And now, Fatia Negra," said old Onucz respectfully, "the moment has +come in which you also must keep your word. Will you really take my +daughter to wife?"</p> + +<p>"I will not see the light of day again until I have done so."</p> + +<p>"Will you swear to be her husband in the way you promised to swear?"</p> + +<p>"You shall hear me."</p> + +<p>"Then have I something else to say to you. Over there, as you see, +stands the great weighing machine, in one of the scales I will place +Anicza and in the other as many piles of ducats as will make her kick +the beam. I will give my girl as many gold ducats as she weighs."</p> + +<p>Thereupon the two bridesmen produced a large wooden platter, placed the +bride on it, raised it high in the air and carried it to the huge +weighing machine. Onucz bade them place both bride and platter in the +scale that it might weigh the heavier. Then they piled up into the other +scale as many of the sacks of ducats sealed with the seal of Onucz as +were necessary to establish an absolute equipoise between the two +scales, and then while both the girl and the gold, balancing each other +were floating in the air, old Onucz, his face beaming with triumph, +poked Fatia Negra in the side with his elbows and said: "And now all +that is yours."</p> + +<p>The adventurer rushed to the weighing-machine, not indeed to the scale +on which the gold was, but to where the girl stood and lifted her down +on his arm as if she were a child. The other scale, losing its balance, +rushed earthwards and the sacks filled with gold ducats toppled off it +left and right.</p> + +<p>At this the company was delighted. Fatia Negra's manly tenderness was +appreciated by everyone and old Onucz, radiant with joy, turned towards +his cronies: "You see it is not my money but my daughter that he is +after!"</p> + +<p>And yet if Fatia Negra had only been able to foresee what was about to +happen the next instant, if only he had been able to guess what would +happen during the first few moments of the first approaching quarter of +an hour, could he but have heard one step, one bump which might have +told him what was going on just then above his head, instead of +extending his hands towards the girl, he would have done much more +wisely if he had grasped in each hand one of the sacks lying on the +other scale and made off with it somewhere through that dark corridor +which nobody knew of but he himself, under the special protection of the +devil. Just now, however, the devil was evidently not looking after him +as carefully as usual, for he returned to the altar with the girl in his +arms and deposited his load on the altar steps. The girl knelt down.</p> + +<p>"Strew over her corn moistened with honey!" whispered old Onucz to the +bridesmaids;—he considered this old custom as of the highest +importance. Possibly it was a symbol of fruitfulness.</p> + +<p>Anicza wanted Fatia Negra to bend down to her. She had something to +whisper in his ear. He leant over her as she desired, drew her pretty +face close up to his, and the girl timidly whispered:</p> + +<p>"Are you going to take me away under the earth?"</p> + +<p>"Are you afraid I shall do so?"</p> + +<p>"With you I will go wherever you choose and will fear nothing."</p> + +<p>"I take you at your word."</p> + +<p>"I don't care. Whither lies the way, to the right or to the left?"</p> + +<p>"To the left. Everything which brings luck must be done lefthandedly."</p> + +<p>"Is the door underneath the coining-shop?" asked the girl carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, if you must know."</p> + +<p>"I am ready. Say the oath that I may hear it!"</p> + +<p>Fatia Negra repeated his hocus-pocus, kneeling down beside Anicza on the +steps of the altar, and raising his eyes towards the black vault of the +cavern as he recited the words of a new oath, which kept all the +listeners spellbound, so full it was of grisly images and hellish +fancies. So deep indeed was the general attention that nobody observed +in the meantime that, in the dark background formed by the distant walls +of the cavern, a multitude of strange faces were popping up. First two +men descended through the machinery of the mill and then two others +until, gradually, a hundred of them had assembled. They were all armed +and dressed in uniform, but their arms were concealed beneath their +mantles, that they might not glimmer through the darkness. And then they +quietly formed into ranks like supernumeraries on the stage of a theatre +whilst the chief comedian is ending his monologue in front of the +footlights. Only Anicza had observed them. During the whole course of +the oath, she had not once looked at Fatia Negra's cursing lips, but at +the groups forming in the darkness above his head.</p> + +<p>The oath over, Fatia Negra seized the reversed crucifix and an electric +shock again jolted the hand of the girl which he held fast in his own +right hand. "Now, you swear it also!" cried he.</p> + +<p>The only reply the girl gave was to passionately tear her hand out of +the adventurer's. Rising from her knees, and with her handsome face full +of rage, scorn and hatred, she turned upon him, who knelt at her feet, +gnashing her pearly teeth as she spoke: "Wretched play-actor! masked +imposter! You have deceived everybody, but nobody so much as me. Do you +remember that night in the ice valley and how shamefully you betrayed me +there? Know then that I was present in that hut, that it was I who blew +the horn and brought back the jealous husband from the forest. I saw the +tussle that followed and I swore, there and then, that I would be your +ruin. Just now you swore that if ever you betrayed me, thus might you +yourself be betrayed by whomsoever you trusted most. You said: 'Let +water pursue; let fire seize me, let the axe of the headsman descend +upon me and the dogs drink up my blood!' Be it so, then—here is fire in +front of you and water behind you and the headsman's sword above your +head! The dogs that are to lick your blood are already barking for it. I +have betrayed you. Look behind you!"</p> + +<p>The armed band of soldiers, moving forward in line, like a piece of +machinery, suddenly disclosed a row of bayonets glittering in the light +of the torches. "We are lost!" howled the mob, whilst the voice of the +officer in command (it had a strong foreign accent), rose above the din: +"Down with your arms! no resistance!"</p> + +<p>Onucz rushed roaring towards his sacks of ducats, the women scattered +screaming among the tents. For an instant Fatia Negra stood petrified +before Anicza, like a devil caught in a trap, and gazed vacantly at the +girl's flaming face.</p> + +<p>Anicza now turned quickly towards the armed soldiers and cried with a +piercing voice: "Hasten Juon Tare! Seize the smelting-oven entrance, +else this devil will still escape us!"</p> + +<p>That was why she wanted to know from Fatia Negra which way they would go +underground.</p> + +<p>At these words, however, the adventurer recovered himself. He saw a +pitiless enemy and a troop of armed men hastening to the door of the +smelting-furnace and that way of refuge was consequently closed. The +same instant an infernal idea occurred to him.</p> + +<p>Hastily snatching up a burning torch from the altar with a couple of +vigorous bounds he approached the smelting-furnace. Twenty bayonets and +a long axe in the hands of Juon Tare were raised against him—and he was +unarmed.</p> + +<p>But it was not to the door he wished to get. With a spring sideways he +reached the huge vat filled with brandy, threw the burning torch down in +front of it and placing his muscular shoulders against the vat, with a +desperate exertion of strength scattered its contents on to the floor of +the cavern from end to end.</p> + +<p>In an instant the whole cavern was in flames!</p> + +<p>The floor was of stone so that it could not absorb the spirit as it +leaked out and it flashed up as it caught the flame of the torch close +at hand. It spread rapidly like a lake of fire that has burst its dams.</p> + +<p>The blue spirit-flame filled the whole of the empty cavern with a pale, +ghastly glare, the air, the empty space itself seemed to burst into +flame. Hundreds of torches, burnt down to their very roots, flickered +luridly in the midst of this blue fire of hell, and the heaped-up fire +works,—the Bengali pyramids and the rockets and crackers—flamed, +fizzled and banged about in the midst of the terrible heat. And in the +thick of this infernal blaze black figures, like the souls of the +Accursed, were running frantically about, howling, shrieking and +toppling over one another and seeking a refuge on the higher rocks +whither the flames, spreading through the air, leaped after them. Juon +Tare lost his eyesight in the flames. The others tried to find a refuge +in the aqueduct running through the cavern, but the pursuing alcohol +rushed after them like a living cataract of fire. Everyone seemed bound +to perish at this hellish marriage feast.</p> + +<p>Only two people did not lose their presence of mind; only two knew what +ought to be done, and one of these was Fatia Negra. When the armed +soldiers scattered from before the door of the smelting-furnace, he had +boldly waded through the burning spirit; he knew very well that it could +not set fire to clothing immediately and he took care to hold his hands +in front of his eyes to save himself from being blinded. He tore the +door open and hastily vanished through it.</p> + +<p>The other was Anicza, who, when she saw that in the hundred-fold +confusion everyone had lost his head and was running desperately to +certain death, quickly snatched up an axe, rushed to the gigantic beer +vats and staved in their bottoms. The neutral fluid streamed down upon +the floor like a water fall and, gradually gaining ground, forced the +flaming <i>palinka</i><a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> back further and further, till at last the +infernal blue light was gradually extinguished.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Hungarian brandy.</p></div> + +<p>By that time, however, the beautiful bride was a sight of horror, her +face was burnt out of all recognition.</p> + +<p>Every member of the party had received injuries from the fire. Some of +them, already blinded, writhed in agony on the ground and dipped their +faces in the cool puddles formed by the flowing beer. Old Onucz had not +a hair of his head left, but for all that he was still sitting on a heap +of ducats, which were rolling in every direction out of the half charred +sacks. His scorched hands he dug down deep among his ducats, and +thought, perhaps, that they would assuage his pangs.</p> + +<p>Both of Juon Tare's eyes had been burnt out by an explosion of +gunpowder, and two of the soldiers had also received serious injuries.</p> + +<p>Only after the general terror had subsided a little, did it occur to +someone that now that the fire had been brought under, Fatia Negra might +be pursued. This someone was the bride.</p> + +<p>It was she who seized a new torch, it was she who cried to the soldiers: +"After me!" and was the first to tear open the door of the +smelting-furnace. Within was darkness. By torchlight they explored every +corner of that underground world—but Fatia Negra was nowhere to be +found.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>THE MIKALAI CSÁRDA</h3> + + +<p>From Hidvár to Gyula Fehervár is a good day's journey, even with the +best horses and in the best weather; in the rainy season the mountain +streams make the journey still longer. Fortunately, exactly half-way +lies the Mikalai <i>csárdá</i>, in which dwells a good honest Wallachian +gentleman who also follows the profession of innkeeper. In these mining +regions there are no Jews, all the inns and <i>csárdás</i> are in the hands +of the Armenians and Wallachs: the people are content with them and the +Hungarian gentry like them.</p> + +<p>Young Makkabesku had built up his den in a most picturesque situation +beside a stream gushing down from among the mountains and forming a +waterfall close to the very house. This stream possessed the peculiar +property of turning to stone every leaf and twig which fell into it, +even the branches of the trees hanging over it were turned into pretty +white petrifactions so far as the water was able to reach them.</p> + +<p>Domnul Makkabesku did not carry on the business of inn-keeper for the +sake of gain (he would not have been able to make a living out of it if +he had tried), but from sheer goodheartedness and good-fellowship. His +charges therefore were extremely moderate. A traveller on foot who asked +for a night's lodging, had to pay twopence, a traveller on horseback a +shilling; if he required wine and brandy for supper as well, still he +was only charged a shilling. Who would go to the trouble of totting up +extra figures for trifles of that sort? A carriage and four was not +taxed at all, those who came in it paid what they chose. If anybody did +not ask what he had to pay but simply shook hands and went on his way, +mine host simply wished him a happy journey and never said a word about +his account.</p> + +<p>For Makkabesku was a proud man in his way and thought a great deal of +his gentility. He expected to be addressed as "Domnule!"<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> and was +delighted when his guests took notice of his coat of arms hanging up in +the guest chamber,—to-wit, a black bear with three darts in its +heel—and enquired as to its meaning; when he would explain that that +black bear with the three darts which was also painted on a sheet of +lead and swung backwards and forwards in front of the house between two +iron rods was not a sign-board, but his family crest.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Sir.</p></div> + +<p>Late one afternoon Baron Leonard Hátszegi might have been seen on foot +crossing the bridge which led to the Mikalai <i>csárdá</i>, and entering its +courtyard. He came on foot with a small box under his arm and his +double-barrelled gun across his shoulder. Makkabesku greeted him from +the verandah while he was still a long way off.</p> + +<p>"God be with your lordship! Is anything amiss that your lordship comes +on foot?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, at that cursed <i>tyira lupului</i><a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> the axle of my coach gave way. +I have always said that that bad bit of road ought to be seen to, this +is at least the sixth time that this accident has befallen me."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Wolf-corner.</p></div> + +<p>"God is the cause thereof, your lordship. Whenever the stream overflows +it damages the road."</p> + +<p>"That is no consolation for me. My fellows are struggling with the coach +yonder and cannot set it upright again, so badly damaged it is. It is a +good job I was driving my own horses, for otherwise my neck might have +been broken. As it is one of my heydukes has sprained his hand. Send +help to them at once, or they are likely to remain there all night. +Where's your little girl?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, my lord! your lordship will always be having your little +joke.—Flora, come hither!"</p> + +<p>A pretty little maid came out of the inn at these words, and smiled upon +the nobleman with a face toasted red by the kitchen fire.</p> + +<p>"Take his lordship's gun and little box and carry them into the +guest-room!"</p> + +<p>"Well, my little girl! how are you? not married yet, eh?" said the +baron, pinching her round red cheeks whilst the wench took his box.</p> + +<p>"Heh, but 'tis heavy!" she gasped, as if she were quite frightened at +the weight of the box. "Won't the gun go off?"</p> + +<p>"Don't turn your fiery eyes upon it, or else it might—eh, grandpapa, +what do you say?"</p> + +<p>"Come, Flora, go in, go in! His lordship is always in such capital +spirits. Even when his carriage comes to grief he will have his joke all +the same."</p> + +<p>The point of the joke was that Makkabesku was a man not much beyond +forty though there were flecks of grey on the back of his head here and +there. The girl, on the other hand, was scarcely sixteen when the +Roumanian gentleman took her to wife. Leonard therefore always made a +point of aggravating the innkeeper by pretending to believe that his +wife was his daughter and by regularly asking him, as if he were her +grandfather, when he intended to get his granddaughter married.</p> + +<p>"You need not send help to my carriage, after all," said Hátszegi, after +due reflection; "for, by and by I'll see to that myself. I am going back +that way. But I should like you to place that little box in some safe +place for the time being. It contains 4,000 ducats and that is no +trifle."</p> + +<p>"Huh! my lord!" cried the innkeeper clapping the back of his head with +both hands, as if he feared it was already about to fall off backwards. +"Your lordship dares to carry so much gold about with you and stroll so +carelessly about in these parts!"</p> + +<p>"Carelessly!—what do you mean? I cannot wheel them in front of me on a +barrow can I? I want to pay them into my account at Fehervár the day +after to-morrow; I have payments to make. That is why I carry them about +with me."</p> + +<p>"I only meant to say that it is dangerous to go about alone with so much +money."</p> + +<p>"I am not in the habit of going about with an escort."</p> + +<p>"The more's the pity, Domnule. These parts are panic-stricken, since +Anicza betrayed the coiners in the Lucsia Cavern, we have been saddled +with a whole heap of calamities. A lot of poor fools and a heap of +treasure were captured, but the head of the band, Fatia Negra, was +suffered to escape. And now, furious at his loss of treasure, he +blackmails the whole region. Nobody is safe here now,—only the day +before yesterday he stopped and robbed the royal mails on the King's +highroad."</p> + +<p>"Ho, ho! If he takes to those games, he'll soon get his teeth broken. He +won't venture to touch me though, I'll be bound."</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that Domnule. He wears a mask and therefore has no +need to blush or blanch at anything."</p> + +<p>"Does he ever look in here, or has he ever lodged with you?"</p> + +<p>"No, my lord, I can safely say that he has never been here, to my great +astonishment I must confess. For a great many gentlemen call here and +many paths lead hitherward."</p> + +<p>"Don't you keep arms in your house?"</p> + +<p>"Why should I? I have not enough money to make it worth Fatia Negra's +while to rob me. Besides, it is a great mistake to resist him. Juon Tare +actually had him in his hands, yet what was the result? He goes about +now a blind beggar. Anicza betrayed him and brought down the soldiers +upon him, yet what did <i>she</i> get by it? <i>He</i> vanished under the earth, +but she reduced her old father to poverty and is now sitting with all +her acquaintances in the dungeons of Gyula Fehervár!"</p> + +<p>"Fear nothing! At any rate no ill can befall you while I go to my +coachman and come back again. Lock this casket in your wall-cupboard in +the meantime, and keep the key yourself."</p> + +<p>"Nay, let your lordship keep it rather. I don't want it to be said that +I knew anything about it."</p> + +<p>So Makkabesku locked up the casket in the huge wall-closet which greatly +resembled a large standing clock case and in which were his diploma of +nobility and all his domestic treasures. The key of the locked closet he +returned to his guest. Then by way of extra precaution, he locked the +room as well and forced that key also upon the Baron.</p> + +<p>"Domnule," he added, when he saw that Hátszegi was determined to return +to his wrecked coach. "I can only say that I should be very glad if +your lordship would not go. The servants will be quite able to bring the +carriage along."</p> + +<p>"That they cannot: the whole lot of them are mere boors who have never +seen a carriage with an iron axle."</p> + +<p>"Let me go then, and your lordship remain here."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you want me, then, to show your daughter how to cook?"</p> + +<p>The innkeeper's eyebrows contracted at these words; his desire to go +visibly subsided.</p> + +<p>"But suppose I am afraid of being left alone in the house with so much +money?"</p> + +<p>"Come, come, wretched man!" cried Hátszegi at last losing all patience, +"you don't suppose that your blockhead of a bandit is lying in wait for +me, do you? Look you now! I'll leave you my gun. Take it in your hand +and plant yourself there before the door. Bring out a chair, if you +like, and sit down on it. Pull down the hammers of both barrels and hold +your thumb on them and your index finger on the trigger. The left barrel +is filled with ten buckshot and you can be quite sure that whoever +approaches you from the lower end of this passage will inevitably get +five in his body,—and five of them is enough for anybody. The second +barrel, the right one I mean, is loaded with a bullet which we generally +keep in reserve for a wild beast, at the last moment, at six paces; at +that distance any child could kill a giant. Don't be afraid, if he wore +a coat of mail, it would go through it, for that bullet has a steel +point and would perforate a leaden door. Come, you are not afraid now, +surely?"</p> + +<p>Makkabesku certainly felt a great stream of courage flow into his heart +at the knowledge that he held in his hand a weapon which could kill the +most terrible of men twice over.</p> + +<p>"But what about your lordship?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've got two revolvers in my pocket."</p> + +<p>And with that, gaily whistling, Hátszegi strode down the long passage +and peeped into the kitchen, on his way out, to exchange a word or two +with the fair young cook.</p> + +<p>"Look ye, my daughter, have supper ready by my return, and take care not +to over-salt the soup!" and then with the nonchalance becoming his +station he sauntered across the bridge again into the highroad, followed +all the way by the eyes of Makkabesku.—"What a gallant fellow it is!" +reflected the Roumanian.</p> + +<p>The innkeeper did not count courage among his virtues. He was a +peace-loving soul who detested the very idea of a brawl. Even when he +sat down to drink, it was always inside a room with a locked door, for +on one occasion, when he had got drunk in public, the wine had instilled +within him such unwonted audacity that he had got his skull broken in +two places in consequence. After that he avoided all such occasions of +heroism.</p> + +<p>For such folks who have nothing to do with firearms as a rule, there is +a peculiar charm in suddenly holding a loaded weapon in their hands. +Valour and a sudden access of pugnacity combine to put them in a +condition of perpetual fever. A strange longing arises within them to +make use of their weapon. Once or twice Makkabesku raised his gun to his +cheek and made a target of a fly on the wall. At the end of the +vestibule facing him was an old Roman image, the head and bust of an +Emperor, which had been unearthed in the neighbourhood of the house when +the foundations had been laid, and had been adopted forthwith as a +family relic. If this old imperial figurehead had been an enemy, let us +say the famous robber of the district, our marksman felt that he could +easily have shattered his skull for him.</p> + +<p>The sun was now slowly descending from the sky, and the lower it sank, +the less golden and the more purple grew the light which it threw upon +the ancient monument opposite, till the shadow of an adjacent column +fell softly across it and hid it half from view.</p> + +<p>Suddenly it seemed to Makkabesku as if he saw the shadow of a human head +moving beside the shadow of the column.</p> + +<p>The breath died away on his lips—someone was lurking there!</p> + +<p>"Who is there?" he cried, in a voice half choked with terror. The same +instant there stood before him at the opposite end of the +corridor—Fatia Negra!</p> + +<p>Yes, there the figure was just as it had been described to him, +enfolded in a black atlas mantle, with a black mask across its face.</p> + +<p>"Stay where you are, don't come here!" cried the armed Makkabesku, in an +agony of terror, "or I'll shoot you through," and as the mask continued +to advance, he hurriedly fired off the left barrel of the gun.</p> + +<p>The smoke of the powder cleared away, Fatia Negra stood there unwounded, +he was coming nearer and nearer!</p> + +<p>Ah, those little shots could not hurt him, of course—but now he shall +have the bullet with the steel point.</p> + +<p>As the first shot was fired, Makkabesku's wife came running out of the +kitchen and came face to face with the robber. He immediately seized her +arm with his muscular hand and flung her back into the kitchen the door +of which he locked upon her.</p> + +<p>Mr. Makkabesku permitted all this to go on before his very eyes, but he +had raised the gun and held it firmly pressed against his cheek, he +wanted the robber to draw nearer still that he might make quite sure of +him.</p> + +<p>When there were only three yards between them he aimed right at the +middle of the intruder, pressed the trigger of the gun and the right +barrel also exploded.</p> + +<p>Yet the report was followed by no death cry—and Fatia Negra still stood +in front of him unscathed.</p> + +<p>Paralyzed with terror Makkabesku continued to hold the discharged gun +in front of him as if he expected it to go off again of its own accord; +but Fatia Negra, catching hold of the end of the gun with one hand, +wrenched it out of the innkeeper's grasp and brought down the butt of it +so violently on the top of his head that he collapsed in a senseless +condition.</p> + +<p>After that nobody knew what happened.</p> + +<p>When Hátszegi and his servants arrived with the patched-up carriage, +Makkabesku was still lying on the ground unconscious, his wife was +thundering at the locked door, the door of the guest chamber was smashed +and the cupboard in the wall had been broken into and pillaged. +Curiously enough, while not one of the innkeeper's relics was missing, +Hátszegi's box with the 4,000 ducats had disappeared. A little later it +was found in the bed of the stream—empty of course.</p> + +<p>Makkabesku was a very long time coming to, but he contrived at last, in +a very tremulous voice, to tell Hátszegi the somnambulistic case of the +double shots, nay he called Heaven to witness that Fatia Negra had +caught the bullets in his hands as if they were flies.</p> + +<p>"You're a fool," cried Hátszegi angrily. "I suppose you fired above his +head on both occasions."</p> + +<p>"But then you ought to see the marks of the bullets on the opposite +wall."</p> + +<p>And it was a fact that, look as they might, they found no trace of a +bullet on the walls or anywhere else.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>WHO IT WAS THAT RECOGNIZED FATIA NEGRA</h3> + + +<p>The events at the Mikalai <i>csárdá</i> considerably upset Hátszegi. He +returned home very sulky and was unusually ungracious towards Henrietta. +There were several violent scenes between them, in the course of which +the baron twitted his wife with having betrayed him and hinted that it +was all in consequence of her own and her brother's bad conduct that she +had been disinherited by her grandfather. He revealed to her that he +knew everything. He was well aware, he said, that in her girlhood she +had had a rascally young attorney as a lover and had thereby incurred +her grandfather's anger.</p> + +<p>Henrietta, poor thing, had not the spirit to answer him back: "If you +knew this, why did you marry me? Why did you not leave me then to him +with whom I should have been happy if poor?" She could only reply with +tears. She trembled before him while she loathed him.</p> + +<p>And yet how dependent she was on him.</p> + +<p>She was well aware now of what her brother was accused, and never +doubted for a moment what she ought to do. She ought to atone for his +fault by an act of self-sacrifice. She must recognize the forgery as her +real signature. But what then? The recognition of the signature must +needs have consequences. What would be the result of her action?</p> + +<p>She could see she had no help to expect from her husband. At every step +she perceived that he eagerly sought occasion to quarrel with her and +seized every pretext for avoiding her. And now to add to her +embarrassment, there was this unlucky Mikalai accident. It seemed just +to have come in the nick of time so far as he was concerned, just as if +he had actually agreed with Fatia Negra that the latter should rob him +on the high road in the most artful manner so that she might not have +the slightest hope left of being relieved from her anxieties by the +assistance of her husband. The baron, now could always end every +<i>tête-à-tête</i> by remarking that that rogue Fatia Negra had relieved him +of all his money, and he knew not how to make good his loss.</p> + +<p>One day, while away from home hunting at Csáko, Baron Leonard learnt +that the Countess Kengyelesy's latest ideal was Szilard Vámhidy and when +chance soon afterwards brought him also to Arad, he could see for +himself that the countess really did load the young man with distinction +in society.</p> + +<p>The circumstance began to irritate him.</p> + +<p>This pale-faced youth with the big burning eyes had turned the head of +his own consort once upon a time, and now he was making other enviable +conquests. The idea occurred to Hátszegi to knock this "student chap" +out of his saddle a second time. Heretofore he had never regarded the +countess as a particularly pretty woman, but now he very readily +persuaded himself that he was over head and ears in love with her.</p> + +<p>He began to pay his court to her—and he was lucky. At least everybody +believed it—himself included.</p> + +<p>The countess always seemed pleased to see him, and the oftener he paid +his visits, the less frequent grew the visits of Szilard. Occasionally +they met at the countess's and then Szilard would hastily step aside, as +vanquished rivals are wont to do when their conquerors appear. At last +Leonard was a daily institution at the countess's, while Szilard only +appeared there occasionally.</p> + +<p>Yet one day, while Hátszegi was in the drawing room of the countess, +paying his court to her most assiduously, Vámhidy entered <i>sans gêne</i>; +whereupon the countess hastily springing up from her <i>causeuse</i> asked +leave of the baron to withdraw for a moment and there and then conducted +Vámhidy into her private boudoir and remained closeted with him for a +good quarter of an hour, whilst Hátszegi, yellow with jealousy, was left +alone with the countess's French companion, who could answer nothing but +"oui" and "non" to all his remarks.</p> + +<p>When the countess emerged from her room, she seemed to be in a very good +humour. She accompanied Szilard all the way to the drawing-room door, +pressed his hand, and when they parted at the door exchanged a +significant look with him, at the same time touching her lips with her +index finger—a very confidential piece of pantomime as any connoisseur +will tell you.</p> + +<p>And all this Hátszegi saw reflected in the mirror, opposite to which he +sat.</p> + +<p>As soon as the countess sat down, her companion, as if at a given +signal, arose and left the room.</p> + +<p>Scarcely were they alone when the baron petulantly remarked: "It appears +as if your ladyship and our young friend rejoiced in very intimate +mutual relations."</p> + +<p>"Oh, very intimate. I assure you he is a most worthy, honourable man."</p> + +<p>"So I observe."</p> + +<p>"I am quite in earnest. I find him quite a treasure, and he is +extraordinarily attached to me."</p> + +<p>"Very nice of him, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you gentlemen, what mockers you are. There are men, I can tell you, +who for all that they are poor are more capable of self-sacrifice than +the haughtiest nabobs who make such a fuss over us till we are in +trouble and then snatch up their hats and fly from the house. You also +belong to that class, my lord!"</p> + +<p>"I don't understand you."</p> + +<p>"Suppose, for instance, I were to say to you: my dear friend, I have +fallen into quite an awkward predicament and to-day or to-morrow they +will distrain upon me for 40,000 florins."</p> + +<p>The baron burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>"Don't laugh, for so it really is. That need cause <i>you</i> no anxiety, +however, I only ask you to tell nobody, especially my husband. He would +be capable of making an end of me if he knew it."</p> + +<p>"But seriously, countess, who could ever have lent you 40,000 florins?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody, and yet I am indebted to that amount. You must know that once +upon a time, many years ago, when we lived at Vienna, I was given to +card playing. We played for high stakes in those days. One evening not +only did I lose all my cash, but had to give I.O.U.'s for 1,000 florins +besides. Debts contracted at play cannot remain unpaid for more than a +couple of days. It was absolutely indispensable that I should procure +these thousand florins somehow. I would not ask my husband for them and +that was very foolish of me. I got the amount at last from a wretched +usurer at an enormous rate of interest. When the amount plus interest +became due again, I was still more afraid to tell my husband, and so +kept on giving fresh bills, with the result that the amount of my +indebtedness grew and grew as the years rolled on, till it resembled the +egg of the widow in the nursery tale—out of which came first two cocks, +then a bristling boar, then a camel, and finally a carriage and four, +for at last my original poor little debt of one thousand florins swelled +into forty thousand and the usurers became importunate and would allow +me no more credit. Once when I was in a very bad humour, I let out my +secret before Szilard, and the worthy young man undertook to relieve me +of my burden. I don't know whether he detected a technical flaw in my +bonds or whether he found out some other means of frightening my +creditor; anyway, he assured me I only need pay the original sum with +interest upon it at the legal rate. Moreover, he undertook to procure me +an honourable loan on easy conditions, which to me was a veritable +godsend. And so now you know, my dear friend, why Vámhidy is so welcome +a guest at my house that I leave even you all alone with my companion +when he comes. But you can see for yourself how dear and necessary he is +to me and how much I owe to him."</p> + +<p>Hátszegi remained in a brown study for several moments, and began biting +his lips. The countess sat down at the piano with the most amiable +nonchalance as if she gave not another thought to what she had been +speaking about.</p> + +<p>"If only I had not had the misfortune to be robbed!" cried Hátszegi at +last.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what, my dear friend," said the countess, at the same time +letting her fingers glide lightly over the ivory keys of the piano, "I +consider the whole of that affair as simply incredible. Two shots so +close to a man and no result!—why it borders a little upon the +fabulous!"</p> + +<p>"Then I suppose you think it was the innkeeper himself who robbed me?"</p> + +<p>The countess shrugged her round shoulders slightly and went on playing.</p> + +<p>"That is not possible," resumed the baron, answering his own query, "for +I myself saw the blow which Makkabesku received on the head from the +butt of the musket, and I can tell your ladyship that there are no four +thousand ducats in the world for the sake of which I could lend my head +to such a blow."</p> + +<p>The countess interrupted her <i>roulades</i> for a moment:</p> + +<p>"You saw it, eh? And did anybody else see it?"</p> + +<p>Hátszegi was strangely surprised by this question.</p> + +<p>"What is in your mind, Countess?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I am thinking, my dear friend, that you have some particular reason for +playing the injured man, and I have read the whole tale of the Maccabees +in some history or other of the Jews which you would now palm off upon +the world as something new."</p> + +<p>"Your jests are most unmerciful, Countess; but may I beg of you to give +that piano a little rest, especially as it wants tuning. I should like +to speak seriously to you for a moment or two."</p> + +<p>"About the Maccabees, eh?" enquired the countess, laughing.</p> + +<p>"No. About myself. I am quite serious when I say I have had losses. +Your ladyship need not know how. But for all that I know what a +gentleman ought to do after such a revelation as that with which the +countess has just honoured me and which I accept as a most flattering +mark of confidence."</p> + +<p>"Impossible."</p> + +<p>"What I say is never impossible; but what that student fellow has chosen +to palm off on your ladyship that <i>is</i> impossible. He will not be able +to help your ladyship without a great scandal. Naturally a mere attorney +looks upon that as a matter of course. He does not understand that there +are cases in which a person would rather spring into a well than risk +her reputation in the eyes of the world by appealing to the courts for +redress. I make your ladyship another proposal: I will exchange a bond +of my own against the bond of the countess to an equal amount. I feel +confident that the usurers will lend readily on my paper and will jump +at the exchange."</p> + +<p>"Oh, many thanks, many thanks! But, first of all, I should like to know +what interest you mean to charge me; for I am not going to pay anything +usurious again."</p> + +<p>"Legal and Christian interest, I assure you. But I must impose one +condition: your ladyship's doors must henceforth be closed against this +lawyer fellow."</p> + +<p>"Are you serious, Baron?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly so."</p> + +<p>"Are you not afraid I shall take you at your word?"</p> + +<p>"By doing so you will satisfy my desires. Look, Countess! I consider +myself as one of your most sincere admirers and it wounds me to hear all +this tittle-tattle circulating in our set which links your ladyship's +name with that of young Vámhidy."</p> + +<p>"But will it not injure the respect you entertain for me if your name +takes the place of Vámhidy's in the gossip you complain of?"</p> + +<p>"All that I desire is that a certain man shall be excluded from this +house, and if the countess desires it I will then keep away likewise."</p> + +<p>The countess hastened to press Hátszegi's hand as a sign that <i>she</i> did +not desire <i>that</i>.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, to prove to you that my relations with Vámhidy were +purely professional, I will break off all further intercourse with him."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll clinch your ladyship's determination at once. May I make use +of your writing table? Have you any other ink than this rose-coloured +ink, with which to be sure, your ladyship generally writes your letters, +but which is a little unusual in official documents?"</p> + +<p>"Everything you desire, sealing-wax included."</p> + +<p>"That is not necessary for bills. What a fortunate thing that I have a +blank form with me."</p> + +<p>The baron discovered in his pocket a blank form, without which no +gentleman ever goes about, and filled it up in the usual way. The +countess, with her elbows on the back of the armchair, looked over the +baron's shoulder while he signed the precious document, and thought to +herself: what an odd thing it is when a rich and influential man +refuses, with a heart of iron, to give his wife a little assistance +which would make her happy and save her brother from dishonour, and yet +lightly pitches the very sum required out of the window for the sake of +a pretty speech from another woman who is almost a stranger to him!</p> + +<p>After signing the document Leonard did not linger another instant, but +snatched up his hat and hastened off so as to avoid the suspicion that +he was expecting some little gratification on account.</p> + +<p>The pressure of the hand which the countess exchanged with him at +parting assured him that this conquering manoeuver on his part was a +complete success.</p> + +<p>Subsequently, however, as, stretched at full length on his sofa, he was +smoking his first pipe of tobacco, he grew suspicious, and speedily felt +convinced that the countess's tale of the usurers was a fable from +beginning to end and that Vámhidy was some broker or other who lent +money privately; and he began to be not quite so proud at having ousted +the fellow from her ladyship's drawing room.</p> + +<p>But a still greater surprise awaited him.</p> + +<p>He had a shrewd suspicion that the Countess Kengyelesy did not require +the bill he had signed to discharge any debt to usurers; but not even +in his dreams would it ever have occurred to him that Madame Kengyelesy, +at the very moment when he had gone out into the street, had sat down on +the very same chair from which the baron had arisen, taken into her hand +the very same pen in which the ink he had used was not yet dry, and +selecting a sheet of letter paper, written a few lines of her long +pointed pot-hooks to her friend, the Baroness Hátszegi: informing her in +a most friendly manner that she had succeeded in persuading Hátszegi to +exchange the bill that Koloman was suspected of forging for one of his +own in order to give his wife the opportunity of acknowledging the +signature as her own and putting a stop to all further legal +proceedings. All this was set forth with far greater elaboration than it +is here, but was nevertheless perfectly intelligible. The original bill +was appended to the letter and the letter was posted. Henrietta was +bound to receive it next day.</p> + +<p>Imagine then the surprise of Hátszegi, who for the last three days had +been pacing impatiently up and down his room, naturally expecting every +moment that the countess would surrender at discretion and send for him +out of sheer gratitude, when the door was suddenly opened with +considerable impetuosity and in came—Henrietta. Before he could +sufficiently recover from his amazement to ask her what she was looking +for there, his wife fell on his neck, and, sobbing with emotion, came +out with some long rigamarole about delicacy,—gratitude—a delightful +surprise—and only half suspected kindness of heart—and a lot more of +unintelligible nonsense, winding up by begging his pardon if ever she +had unwittingly offended him and promising him that <i>after this</i> she +would ever be his faithful slave!</p> + +<p><i>After this!</i>—after <i>what?</i></p> + +<p>It was only when his wife told him that she was alluding to that bill +for 40,000 florins which he had been so kind as to send her through the +countess, that some inkling of the truth burst upon him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that eh! It quite escaped my memory and is not worth mentioning," +he cried, hiding his astonishment beneath the affectation of a +magnanimity which scorned even to remember such trifles.</p> + +<p>Oh, if the countess had been able to see him at that moment, how she +would have laughed!</p> + +<p>Every drop of Leonard's blood seemed to turn to gall. How ridiculous he +had been made to appear by a woman's nobility, and the consciousness +thereof was still further embittered by the artless and innocent +gratitude of that other woman—his own wife. He could have torn the pair +of them to pieces. What a pretty fool he had made of himself. He had +purchased the love of his wife for 40,000 florins. He could not demand +back the bill from her, nor could he explain to her the compromising +origin of that document. And in addition to that, he must play the part +of dignified pater familias which his wife had assigned to him in this +domestic drama, instead of that of first lover which was so much more to +his liking.</p> + +<p>"All right, Henrietta," said he, assuming a calmness he was far from +feeling. "If you like to give me the bill, I'll see that it is posted to +your lawyer at Pest, Mr. Sipos."</p> + +<p>Henrietta thanked him sincerely, but said she would rather take it to +Pest herself in order that she might have a long confidential talk with +Mr. Sipos personally about her poor brother.</p> + +<p>"Then wait, Henrietta, till the Arad races are over. You know I am +greatly interested in them. If I am not there myself they are quite +capable of striking my horses out."</p> + +<p>"My dear Leonard, I don't want you to interrupt any of your business or +pleasure on my account. I can easily go by myself. But I don't want to +postpone the matter a single day. You know how anxious I am about my +poor brother."</p> + +<p>"Well, but you know that the roads are very dangerous just now. You know +what happened to myself a little while ago."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I have my plan all cut and dried. I am prepared for the very worst. +If robbers attack me I will give up to them, at the first challenge, all +the cash I have about me. What I am most afraid of is the bill, but I +will hide that so that nobody can find it."</p> + +<p>"My dear, these men are very artful."</p> + +<p>"Oh, they won't find it, I can tell you. The insides of my +upper-sleeves consist of steel rings which fasten close to the arms, and +I will roll up my bill, insert it within my sleeve and draw a steel ring +over it. They will never guess that, will they?"</p> + +<p>"A good idea, certainly."</p> + +<p>Yet, good idea as he thought it, Hátszegi nevertheless complained to his +friend Gerzson, whom he met at the club the same evening, how anxious he +was about his wife, who was going all the way to Pest next day, and how +glad he would be, since he was unable to accompany her himself, if +someone would persuade her not to go.</p> + +<p>Naturally Mr. Gerzson at once offered to dissuade the baroness, as +Hátszegi had anticipated, and was invited to tea by him the same day +with that express purpose, but, talk as he might, he could not prevail +with Henrietta. In reply to all his arguments, she pleaded for her poor +brother, whose fate, she added, with tears, depended upon her instant +action.</p> + +<p>Now, Mr. Gerzson was a gentleman—every inch of him. He was also +kind-hearted to a fault, and when he beheld the poor woman in despair, +he put an end to the difficulty by saying: "Very well, my lady, then I +will escort you to Pest myself."</p> + +<p>At this Hátszegi fairly lost all patience. "Why, what can you be +thinking of?" cried he.</p> + +<p>"Your pardon, Leonard, but I suppose you may regard me as old enough and +honourable enough to fill the place of a father to your wife on an +occasion like this! It appears to me that it will never enter anybody's +head to speak slightingly of a lady because she travelled alone with +me."</p> + +<p>Good, worthy old man, he was quite proud that no woman could look at his +face without a shudder.</p> + +<p>"And then I fancy that there's still quite enough of me left to defend a +woman against anybody, even though it were the devil himself. And I +should advise that worthy Fatia Negra not to show his mug to me, for my +stunted hand does not fire guns as our friend Makkabesku is in the habit +of doing, nor will my bullets be caught like flies, I warrant."</p> + +<p>"You will be done out of the horse-racing, all through me," remarked +Henrietta sadly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it does not interest me much. I don't care much about it."</p> + +<p>This was not true, but it was all the nicer of the old man to say so.</p> + +<p>"Then you really mean to escort my wife to Pest?" said Hátszegi, at +last.</p> + +<p>"With the greatest of pleasure."</p> + +<p>"Very well. At any rate, I will see to all the travelling arrangements +that there may be no delay at any of the stages. Which way do you prefer +to go <i>via</i> Csongrad or <i>via</i> Szeged?</p> + +<p>"By way of Csongrad."</p> + +<p>"Well, 'tis the shorter of the two certainly, but at this season of the +year the road is as hard as steel. It will be as well to provide my +horses with fresh shoes."</p> + +<p>"It is now ten o'clock. By midnight your coachman will have managed to +do all that. The baroness would do well if she had a little sleep now. +Meanwhile I will go home for my luggage and my weapons; at two o'clock +in the morning I shall be here again, and at three we can start."</p> + +<p>"I will be awake and watching for you, and I thank you with all my +heart."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerzson drank up his tea and hastened home. Leonard advised +Henrietta to go and sleep—and she really was very sleepy—while he went +to the stables to see to the horses.</p> + +<p>It was about midnight when he returned. He looked very tired, like one +who has had a great deal of bustling about. He was alone in the drawing +room, so he stirred up the fire, lit a cigar and waited in silence.</p> + +<p>At half past two Mr. Gerzson rang the gate-bell; he entered the +drawing-room very boisterously like one resolved to wake up the whole +house. A little coffer hung upon his stunted arm, in the other hand he +carried a double-barrelled gun, and from a pouch, fastened by straps to +his shoulder, peeped forth two four-barrelled pistols.</p> + +<p>"Why, plague take it!" laughed Hátszegi, "you are armed for a whole +guerilla warfare."</p> + +<p>"No more than Fatia Negra deserves," replied Mr. Gerzson with a sombre +grimace. "Is your wife up and dressed?"</p> + +<p>"I fancy she lay down ready dressed."</p> + +<p>"All the better. It'll be as well if we start early."</p> + +<p>"I hear the opening and closing of doors in her apartments, no doubt +your ringing disturbed her. She will be here in an instant, for she is +very impatient."</p> + +<p>"That is only natural."</p> + +<p>"And in the meantime, let us have something to strengthen the heart," +said Hátszegi producing a flask of <i>szilvapalinka</i><a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> and filling his +own and his guest's glass. "If you have a chance of shooting Fatia +Negra, you must give me one half of the thousand ducats set upon his +head, because I have abandoned this fine opportunity to you."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Hungarian cherry brandy.</p></div> + +<p>At this Mr. Gerzson coughed.</p> + +<p>"I have also provided you with a good wooden flask of <i>Hegyalja</i>,"<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> +said Leonard, taking from the sideboard a handsome flask bound in +foal-skin.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> A species of Tokay.</p></div> + +<p>"Therein you acted wisely."</p> + +<p>"All this side of the Theiss you will get no drinkable water, and +Henrietta always gets ague at once if the water is bad. Although but a +child, she will never take any wine unless you force her to do so. I +earnestly beg of you to take great care of her. I don't like this +journey a bit. A letter would have done the business just as well; but I +make it a rule never to thwart her when she gets these ideas into her +head. All I say is: take care of her."</p> + +<p>"I'll watch over her as if she were my own child."</p> + +<p>In a quarter of an hour Henrietta appeared in full travelling costume. +The lacquey brought in breakfast. The gentlemen also sat down to it lest +the lady should breakfast alone.</p> + +<p>"We shall have splendid weather, Baroness," observed Mr. Gerzson, +dipping his cake into his black coffee. "The sky is full of stars, we +could not wish for better travelling weather."</p> + +<p>"The sky is nice enough, but the ground is a little stumbly," put in +Hátszegi. "Around Dombhegyhaza in particular the roads will spill you if +you don't look out."</p> + +<p>"I don't care a bit, for I mean to drive the horses myself."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that I will not allow," said Henrietta. "It is no joke to hold the +reins, for hours at a stretch, on bad roads."</p> + +<p>"I do it because I like it, your ladyship. You know I love my pipe, and +how can I smoke it in a covered carriage?"</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards Mr. Gerzson asked leave to go out and inspect the +coach and the coachman, and after closely investigating everything and +wrangling a little with the coachman, purely from traditional habit, +just to show the fellow that he understood all about it, he ascended to +the drawing-room again and announced that the horses had been put to.</p> + +<p>Hátszegi helped his wife to adjust her mantle over her shoulders, and +impressed a cold kiss upon her forehead. Henrietta once more thanked him +warmly for being so good to her and allowed Mr. Gerzson to escort her +down the steps. The old gentleman, however, would not allow himself to +be persuaded to take his place in the carriage by her side. His hands +itched to hold the reins and he would, he said, be sure to go to sleep +and make himself a nuisance if he sat inside. So he had his way, and +indeed in all the Hungarian plain a more adroit and careful driver could +not have been found.</p> + +<p>Gradually the night began to die away and the sky began to grow lighter +behind the mountains of Bihar, which they had now left behind them. The +smaller stars vanished in groups before the brightening twilight; only +the larger constellations still sparkled through the dawn. Presently a +hue of burning pink lit up the sky and long straight strips of cloud +swam, like golden ribbons, before the rising sun whose increasing +radiance already lit up the broad cupolas of the dark mountains. Before +the travellers extended the endless plain of the <i>Alföld</i>,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> like a +bridge rising from her bed to greet her beloved Lord, the Sun.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> The great Hungarian plain.</p></div> + +<p>On Mr. Gerzson, however, the romantic spectacle of sunrise on the +<i>puszta</i> produced no romantic impression whatsoever. He neither observed +the golden clouds in the sky, nor the dappled shadows flitting across +the dewy fields, nor the lilac-coloured nebulous horizon. He saw none +of these things, I say, but he saw something else which did not please +him at all.</p> + +<p>"I say, Joska, the right leader is limping."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it certainly is," replied the coachman.</p> + +<p>"Get down and see what's the matter."</p> + +<p>The coachman got down, lifted the horse's leg, brushed away the dust +from around the hoof and said with the air of a connoisseur: "This +horse's hoof has been pricked."</p> + +<p>"What the devil . . . !" rang out Mr. Gerzson, but there he stopped, for +it is not becoming to curse and swear when a lady is in the carriage +behind you, even if she does not hear.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the coachman mounted up beside him and they drove on again.</p> + +<p>"Well we cannot drive that horse much further," grumbled Mr. Gerzson, +"the other three must pull the carriage. At Csongrad we must get another +to take its place and leave it behind there."</p> + +<p>A long discussion thereupon ensued between him and the coachman as to +the clumsiness of smiths in general, who when they pare away a horse's +hoofs in order to shoe it, so often cut into the living flesh, which is +very dangerous, and is technically known as "pricking."</p> + +<p>They had scarce proceeded for more than another half hour when Mr. +Gerzson again began to cast suspicious glances down from the box-seat.</p> + +<p>"I say, Joska," he cried at last, "it seems to me the left leader, the +whip horse, is also limping."</p> + +<p>Down leaped the coachman, examined the horse's foot and pronounced that +the hoof of the left leader had also been pricked.</p> + +<p>"Devil take . . . !" cried Mr. Gerzson, but once more he did not +enlighten the devil as to the particular individual he was desirous of +drawing his attention to.</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose we must go on as best we can with two horses now, for +the first two are good for nothing." And in the spirit of a true driver +he stuck his whip beneath him, as being a thing for which there was now +no further use, and resumed his argument with the coachman about the +inefficiency of smiths in general.</p> + +<p>"As soon as we reach Oroshaza, we'll get two fresh horses; we ought to +be getting there now."</p> + +<p>Yet the steeple of Oroshaza was, as yet, scarcely visible and midday was +already approaching. There was no intermediate station where they could +change horses.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later Mr. Gerzson dashed his clay pipe against the wheel of +the coach and swore that he would be damned if ever such a silly-fool +thing had ever befallen him before, for now the thill horse also began +to limp.</p> + +<p>Naturally, that also was found to have been pricked.</p> + +<p>"May the devil take all those scamps of smiths who look after the poor +beasts so badly! A pretty fix we are in now. We may thank our stars if +we are able to crawl into Oroshaza before nightfall. A pretty amble we +shall have now, I'll be bound."</p> + +<p>And indeed ambling was about all they could do. As for the Oroshaza +steeple, so far from drawing any nearer, it seemed to be travelling away +from them, and with very much better horses than they had. It seemed to +get further off every moment.</p> + +<p>"Well, all we want now is for the saddle horse also to throw up the +sponge and we shall be complete."</p> + +<p>If that were Mr. Gerzson's one remaining wish, Fate very speedily +granted it to him, for they had not gone another quarter of an hour when +all four horses began to limp together, one with the right foot, another +with the left, the third with the fore and the fourth with the hind leg, +till it was positively frightful to look at them.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerzson leaped from the box, and in his rage and fury dashed his +pipe-stem into a thousand pieces.</p> + +<p>"What can the smith have been about!" whined the coachman shaking his +head, "and yet his lordship had a look at them too!"</p> + +<p>"Devil take your smith, and his lordship also for the matter of that. +The whole lot of you deserves hanging." And it was a good thing for the +coachman that he happened to be standing on the other side of the +horses, as otherwise he would certainly have had a taste of Squire +Gerzson's riding whip.</p> + +<p>Henrietta, who had hitherto been sleeping quietly in the carriage, +aroused by the loud voices, put her head out of the window and timidly +inquired what was the matter. At the first sound of her voice, Squire +Gerzson grew as mild as a lamb.</p> + +<p>"Nothing much," said he. "I have only been trying to put together again +my broken pipe-stem, the carriage-wheel has gone over my pipe, that is +all."</p> + +<p>"But where are we now?" asked Henrietta, peeping curiously out of the +carriage. Then of course they had to tell her the truth.</p> + +<p>"We are three leagues from the station in front of us, and about four +from the one behind us, and there is no prospect of our getting on any +further. All four horses are lame, they have been damaged during the +shoeing."</p> + +<p>"What steeple is that in front of us?"</p> + +<p>"Oroshaza, I fancy, but with these four lame horses I don't believe we +shall get there before midnight."</p> + +<p>Henrietta perceived the confusion of the old gentleman, who for sheer +rage and worry could not keep his hat on his burning head, so she tried +to comfort him.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, dear papa Gerzson, not far from here must lie Leonard's +<i>csárdá</i>. You and I, papa Gerzson, might go on there with the horses +while the coachman makes the best of his way on foot to Oroshaza, where +he can get fresh horses and join us early in the morning at the +<i>csárdá</i>."</p> + +<p>Squire Gerzson jerked his head significantly.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to alarm you, my dear Baroness," said he, "but that +<i>csárdá</i> lies in the beat of the "poor vagabonds"—you may have heard of +them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I have spent a night there already. I know the innkeeper's wife. +She is a very good sort of woman, who told us tales all night long while +she worked her distaff at my bedside. I should very much like to see her +again. Besides, I know the "poor vagabonds" also. All of them kissed my +hand in turn when I was there. If, however, anybody should be rude to +me, have I not papa Gerzson?—when he is by I fear nobody."</p> + +<p>"Noble heart!—very well, be it so! If your ladyship fears nothing, I +think I may very well say the same."</p> + +<p>Whereupon Squire Gerzson gave the coachman two florins to speed him on +to Oroshaza, where he was to get fresh horses and come on the same night +to the <i>csárdá</i>, so that they might be able to set off again before dawn +on the morrow. He himself then quitted the highroad in the direction of +the well-known <i>csárdá</i> which, with sound horses, he might have reached +in about an hour, but which with lame ones he only got up to towards +evening, having repeatedly to rest on the way. Squire Gerzson kept on +asking Henrietta whether she was hungry or thirsty and offered her his +flask again and again; but she always gently declined it, the old man +feeling in honour bound to follow her example. He comforted her, +however, with the assurance that the <i>csárdá</i>-woman was a dab hand at +turning out all sorts of good old savoury Hungarian dishes.</p> + +<p>At last, after a weary journey, when evening was already closing upon +them, Henrietta perceived the <i>csárdá</i> gleaming white behind the acacia +trees. When they stumbled into the courtyard they found nobody, and +nobody came out of the door to meet them.</p> + +<p>"All the better, nobody will see these game-legged nags," growled Squire +Gerzson as he helped Henrietta out of the carriage.</p> + +<p>"It is odd that the woman of the inn does not come out to meet me," said +Henrietta. "She liked me so. How pleased she will be to see me."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless no one came. Squire Gerzson grew impatient. He could not +leave the coach and horses all by themselves.</p> + +<p>"Hie! somebody! Who's at home? Landlady, wenches, or whoever you are, +can't you creep out of your hole?"</p> + +<p>In reply to his hallooing, a hoarse voice resounded from the taproom: +"Who is it? Can't you come inside instead of standing and bawling +there?"</p> + +<p>"What, you scoundrel! Come out this instant, Sirrah, do you hear, or do +you want me to come and fetch you?"</p> + +<p>At this categorical command, the speaker inside made his appearance. +Henrietta recognized him at once, though Squire Gerzson saw him now for +the first time. It was old Ripa.</p> + +<p>"I am a guest here myself," said he.</p> + +<p>"Thou blockhead! by the soul of thy father I charge thee—where is the +hostess?"</p> + +<p>"She is outside in the cool air."</p> + +<p>"What is she doing there?"</p> + +<p>"She is guarding the moles"—which means in the flowery language of the +<i>puszta</i>: "she is dead."</p> + +<p>"Surely she is not dead?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—she did away with herself."</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"The day before yesterday."</p> + +<p>"What was the matter with her?"</p> + +<p>"She drank too much water."</p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"In the hurdle well."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because her feet did not reach the bottom."</p> + +<p>"She leaped in then?"</p> + +<p>"It looks something like it."</p> + +<p>"But why did she do so?"</p> + +<p>"She was much upset about her lover."</p> + +<p>"Did he leave her?"</p> + +<p>"The rope-girl<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> took him."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i>, the gallows.</p></div> + +<p>Henrietta listened with a sort of stupefaction to the cynical answers +of the old scoundrel, and her heart grew heavy within her. To think that +that merry, rosy cheeked young woman should have killed herself out of +grief for her lover.</p> + +<p>"Then who is carrying on the house?" enquired Squire Gerzson.</p> + +<p>"Nobody. All the servants bolted after the funeral, in order that they +might not appear as witnesses."</p> + +<p>"Then why do you remain here all alone?"</p> + +<p>"Because if I went on my way, everyone would be sure to say that I had +murdered the hostess, I mean to remain here till they come for me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you old swine, and drink up every drop of wine that remains in the +meantime."</p> + +<p>"Your pardon, sir, but it all turned to vinegar when the landlady killed +herself. That is always the case."</p> + +<p>"None of your nonsense, Sirrah, but listen to me. There's a shilling for +you, forget for the time that you are a guest here. Take out the horses, +put them into the stable, give them hay at once and water them in about +an hour's time. Don't steal them for they are lame and you would be +caught at once. We shall remain here till our coachman returns with four +fresh horses. Should any troublesome person look in, you may tell him +that the consort of Baron Hátszegi is here and that Gerzson of +Satrakovics is mounting guard before her door."</p> + +<p>Old Ripa kissed her ladyship's hand without so much as thanking Squire +Gerzson for his tip, but he quietly unyoked the horses and brought into +the house some of the things he found in the coach.</p> + +<p>And Henrietta stood once more in the landlady's room and gazed pensively +out of the window. Her meditations were presently disturbed by Squire +Gerzson.</p> + +<p>"My dear good lady," he began, "fate has certainly sworn to be our enemy +in every possible way to-day. I would not have believed it myself if I +had not actually experienced it. First of all, all our four horses fall +lame on the road. Then, at the very place where we decide to take up our +quarters, we find that the landlady has jumped down the well. Truly fate +pursues us with a vengeance. But we'll defy it, won't we my lady? Fate +is very much mistaken if it fancies it will get the better of us, eh? it +does not know with whom it has to deal, I'll be bound. For our hearts +are in the right place and we'll pretty soon show that we have not lost +our heads. Our greatest misfortune is that the fine supper we promised +ourselves has vanished to dust beneath our very noses. Never mind. We +have brought with us in our knapsack, after the custom of our ancestors, +some good ham, some hung beef and some white loaves, to say nothing of a +flask of prime wine; we don't mean to starve ourselves do we, my lady?"</p> + +<p>The good old gentleman then took out of his knapsack all these good +things and piled them up on the table, then he fetched the carriage lamp +to light up the room a bit and politely invited Henrietta to partake of +his simple banquet.</p> + +<p>The young lady smilingly took her place on the bench.</p> + +<p>"We really cannot drink the water here, your ladyship," said Gerzson, +handing her his flask; "to all appearance nobody will ever drink the +water out of the well of this shanty again. Such wells are generally +walled up."</p> + +<p>Merely to oblige the old man, Henrietta raised the flask to her lips and +pretended to drink out of it so as not to spoil her companion's good +humour, but really she drank not a drop. She never used to drink wine +and wiped off the drops that remained on her lips with her pocket +handkerchief. Nor did she eat anything except an apple which was just +sufficient to keep the pangs of hunger off.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerzson, however, fell to like a man. He had generally a good +appetite, and the lack of a dinner, the worry and trouble of the +journey, and the labour of driving had made him hungrier than ever. He +cut such whacking slices off the loaf and off the good red ham beside +him that it was a joy to watch him; after he had raised the +cluck-clucker<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> to his lips, his conversation became so entertaining +that Henrietta listened to him with delight.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i>, the wine-flask.</p></div> + +<p>"But now I am not going to drink any more," said Mr. Gerzson at last, +"for it is apt to make me sleepy and I don't want to sleep to-night. +About midnight the coachman will arrive with the fresh relay of horses. +Won't your ladyship rest a little in the adjoining room?"</p> + +<p>Henrietta shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose you are right. How indeed could you remain all alone in +the room of a suicide? Let us stay together then and tell each other +tales."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that will be nice, and I'll begin by telling papa Gerzson +something."</p> + +<p>"I could go on listening to you till morning, it will be like the angels +singing in my ears."</p> + +<p>So Henrietta began to tell him all about the dead hostess and about her +love, and also the story of the robber who was hanged for his companion.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerzson, with his head supported by his hand, listened religiously +and struck himself violently on the mouth when he was seized by an +involuntary fit of gaping.</p> + +<p>"I cannot understand why I am so sleepy,—my eyes seem to be closing in +spite of me."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you have a pipe then? Come light up!"</p> + +<p>"What, light up? Your ladyship will really allow me? You are sure you +don't mind tobacco smoke? You are indeed a blessed creature. But are you +sure it won't make your head ache?"</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, I like tobacco smoke."</p> + +<p>Squire Gerzson half drew out his cigar case, but he immediately shoved +it back again.</p> + +<p>"No, I won't smoke a cigar. One ought not to abuse one's good fortune. I +shall get on well enough."</p> + +<p>Then Henrietta began to tell him of Fatia Negra's Transylvanian +exploits, of the Lucsia Cavern, of the capture of the coiners—and then +she observed that Mr. Gerzson's eyelids were sinking lower and lower and +he was nodding his head violently.</p> + +<p>"Now you really must light up, papa Gerzson," she cried, "or you'll +never be able to keep awake."</p> + +<p>On being thus accosted, Mr. Gerzson bobbed up his head with a frightened +air and rubbed his eyes, like one who has been suddenly aroused from +slumber and knows not what is going on under his very nose.</p> + +<p>"I am not asleep, 'pon my word I'm not. I was only nodding a little."</p> + +<p>"Light a cigar."</p> + +<p>"No I won't. I prefer to go out and have a turn in the open air and get +the cobwebs out of my head. I'll have a look round outside a bit."</p> + +<p>And with that he planted both his arms on the table, laid his head upon +them and fell fast asleep.</p> + +<p>Henrietta could not help smiling. Poor old gentleman, he had had a good +deal of exertion and no doubt that wine was uncommonly strong. Let him +rest a bit. He had had no sleep the night before. It would be quite +sufficient if one of them kept awake.</p> + +<p>Then she took up the lamp and went out into the hall observing to her +great satisfaction that the door thereof was provided with a good lock. +So she locked and fastened it. With timid curiosity she then explored +every corner with the lamp and came upon nothing suspicious. Finally she +returned to the guest room, locked the door of that also and placed the +carriage lamp on the table, turning its shade towards the sleeping old +man so that he might not be awakened by the glare of the lamp; and there +she remained all alone, watching in the <i>csárdá</i> of the desolate +<i>puszta</i>, patiently waiting for the night to pass over her homeless +head.</p> + +<p>So patient was she that only once did she take her watch from her bosom +to see what the time was.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was now past midnight.</p> + +<p>She began to calculate how long it would take the coachman to get to +Oroshaza and how much time he would require to reach this place. If he +had got horses at once he ought to be near now.</p> + +<p>A short time afterwards she heard the tread of horses' feet in the +courtyard. Those must be our horses, thought she, and hastening to the +window looking out upon the courtyard, she pulled the blind a little to +one side and looked out.</p> + +<p>The night was so light outside that she could see the four horses quite +plainly in the courtyard—but she observed that a man was sitting on +<i>each</i> of them.</p> + +<p>"This is very curious," thought she, "<i>two</i> men would have been quite +sufficient to bring along the relay."</p> + +<p>Three of the four men dismounted from their horses and a fifth came out +of the stable and had a short consultation with them; then the three +approached the <i>csárdá</i> door and tried to open it.</p> + +<p>This struck Henrietta as suspicious and she thought it was now high time +to awake Mr. Gerzson.</p> + +<p>"Pardon, papa Gerzson, but four men have arrived here."</p> + +<p>Still Mr. Gerzson did not awake.</p> + +<p>Henrietta approached, bent over him and gently insisted:</p> + +<p>"My dear papa Gerzson, just wake up for a moment, somebody wants to come +in."</p> + +<p>Even then Mr. Gerzson did not awake.</p> + +<p>Henrietta listened. Outside, the hall door was beginning to groan and +rock. They were forcing it.</p> + +<p>Full of terror now, she seized Mr. Gerzson's arm.</p> + +<p>"Sir, sir! robbers are upon us. Awake, awake. This is no time for +slumber."</p> + +<p>But Mr. Gerzson still slumbered on—he might have been dead. In vain she +tore him away from the table, he fell back again all of a heap and went +on slumbering.</p> + +<p>The strangers were now in the hall, and a heavy hand was trying the +latch of the guest chamber.</p> + +<p>"My God, my God!" moaned Henrietta, wringing her hands and rushing up +and down the room, terrorstricken, not knowing where to look now for +refuge.</p> + +<p>A violent thud resounded against the door. Someone had placed his +shoulder against it. Henrietta clung to the table to save herself from +falling.</p> + +<p>At last the lock burst, the door flew open, and Fatia Negra with two +masked companions stood before the lady. The same instant Henrietta +recovered her presence of mind. At a pace's distance from danger she +ceased to tremble and calmly addressed them: "What do you want?"</p> + +<p>"Why are you not asleep now like your companion?" enquired Fatia Negra +in a low voice.</p> + +<p>One of his comrades approached the sleeper and held the barrel of his +pistol to his temples. In Fatia Negra's hand there was only a dagger.</p> + +<p>"Don't wake him," he whispered to Henrietta, "for if he should but raise +his head his brains will be blown out."</p> + +<p>"Do him no harm!" implored the lady. "I will give you everything you +want. Here is my pocketbook, here are my jewels, and you shall have my +watch too. See, I will draw off my rings, only don't touch me. But if +possible let me keep this round ring for it is my wedding ring."</p> + +<p>"All that is nothing," whispered Fatia Negra, "nor do we want these +things. Your ladyship has received a bill for 40,000 florins from your +husband; give up that and swear that you will not say anything about it +to anyone for three days so that we may have time to turn it into cash."</p> + +<p>At the mention of the bill Henrietta felt her head reel, the blood stood +still in her veins, she could scarce keep her feet. Her voice trembled +as she lied to the robber denying that she had any such thing.</p> + +<p>"We will search you, my lady, if you do not give it up voluntarily."</p> + +<p>Henrietta persisted in her falsehood: "I have nothing upon me. I posted +it in order that it might get to its destination more safely."</p> + +<p>"My lady, you are only wasting our time. Turn round, take that steel +netting out of your puffed sleeves and hand it over to us."</p> + +<p>At these words, all the blood flew to Henrietta's head. It was no longer +fear but the fury of despair that possessed her. It suddenly occurred to +her that here was the man whom nobody had ever recognized; the man who +had made so many people unhappy; who had robbed her husband and would +now stifle her last hope of saving her brother from disgrace. Who could +this terrible man, this accursed wretch, be? And so, as Black Mask drew +near to her, flashing his dagger before her eyes, she, the weakest, the +most timid of women, made a sudden snatch at the mask and tore it off.</p> + +<p>She saw his face and recognized him. . . .</p> + +<p>For an instant her eyes gazed upon him and then she collapsed on the +ground in a swoon.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was pretty late next morning when Mr. Gerzson raised his muddled head +from the table. The sun was shining brightly through the blinds.</p> + +<p>He looked around him. He was quite alone.</p> + +<p>He looked for Henrietta, he called her by name. She was nowhere to be +seen. Their luggage had also disappeared. He went into the courtyard and +looked for the carriage. That also was nowhere to be seen. Only the four +horses were in the stable, and they were neighing for water; nobody had +watered them.</p> + +<p>After that Mr. Gerzson's head grew more muddled than ever.</p> + +<p>What had become of the lady? What had happened during the night? How was +it that he remembered nothing about it, he who generally used to sleep +so lightly that the humming of a midge was sufficient to awake him?</p> + +<p>Gradually he bethought him that the evening before he had drunk some +wine with an unusual flavour. Even now he was conscious of a peculiar +taste in his mouth. Yet no wine in the world had ever been able to do +him harm. He returned to the room to examine the contents of his flask. +But even the flask was now nowhere to be seen. There was not a single +forgotten object, not a single indication to give him a clue in this +obscure confusion. What could have happened here?—he had not the +faintest idea.</p> + +<p>He went and stood in front of the <i>csárdá</i>. He gazed out upon the +desolate <i>puszta</i> stretching around him in every direction. From every +point of the compass wagon tracks, some old, some still fresh, +zig-zagged to and from the <i>csárdá</i> and he could not make up his mind +which of them to take in order to reach the world beyond.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>LEANDER BABEROSSY</h3> + + +<p>Whenever one carts away a heap of stones which have been lying +undisturbed for years, or whenever one removes the shingle-roof of an +ancient tenement, or drains off the water from a marshy place, one +generally stumbles upon all sorts of hitherto undiscovered, curious +beetles, odd looking moths and spiral-shaped, creeping things in these +routed out lurking places, which nobody ever saw before or read of in +the natural history books; and at such times a man bethinks him how +wonderful it is of Mother Nature to provide even such holes and corners +as these with living inhabitants which never see the light of day at +all.</p> + +<p>Once, while on circuit, Vamhidy was obliged to lie one night at a +village within his jurisdiction whose inhabitants were a strong mixture +of Hungarian, Servian and Wallachian ingredients. Arriving late, it was +a long time before he could go to sleep, and he was awakened rather late +next morning by an unusual hubbub. His bedchamber was only separated +from the large drinking room by a door and through this door broke every +now and then very peculiar sounds the meaning of which, on a first +hearing, it was very difficult to explain.</p> + +<p>It sounded as if a couple of women and a couple of men were roundly +abusing one another, sometimes in a low tone and sometimes in a loud, +and the most peculiar thing about the whole business was that two of +them never spoke at once but each one of them allowed each of the others +to have his say out to the end. All at once the noise grew more alarming +and broken outbursts plainly suggested that someone in the adjoining +room wanted to murder somebody else. Vamhidy leaped from his bed and was +about to intervene when in came the landlord with his coffee.</p> + +<p>"What is that row going on next door?" enquired Szilard irritably.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I cry your honour's pardon," replied the innkeeper with a proud +smile, "it is only our actors. They are rehearsing a new piece which +they are going to act this evening. I hope your honour will condescend +to go and see it—it will be real fine."</p> + +<p>"What, actors in this village?" cried Szilard in amazement. "Why, where +do they come from?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody knows where they came from or whither they mean to go, your +honour."</p> + +<p>"How many of them are there then, and who is their manager?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it seems that there is only one man among them and he is half a +child; all the others are women and girls, even to the ticket taker and +the prompter."</p> + +<p>"And what sort of pieces do they act?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, all sorts, your honour. Those of the women who have the deepest +voices dress up as men, stick on beards and mustaches and act much +better than men would, because they don't get drunk."</p> + +<p>"And they are able to make a living here? Who goes to the theatre then?"</p> + +<p>"Well, the rustics about here come if there is anything to grin at. They +don't give money because they have none themselves; but they bring corn, +potatoes, sausages and hams and the actors live upon the proceeds as +best they can. When they have made any debts they cannot pay they simply +bolt on the first fine night and go somewhere else."</p> + +<p>"But don't they leave their decorations or their wardrobe in pledge +behind them?"</p> + +<p>At this the landlord laughed aloud as if it were a capital joke.</p> + +<p>"Decorations, wardrobes, indeed! Why their stage curtain consists of a +large piece of threadbare sackcloth pasted over with tricolored paper on +which they have painted the national coat of arms. Their wardrobe too is +of the very simplest description. When they play a piece in which kings +and queens appear, they borrow the gold bespangled dresses of the rich +Servian women of the district to serve them as royal mantles. All they +require besides is a little tinsel, some spangles and some +pasteboard—and there you are! The manager, as I have said, is still but +a child, but so ingenious is he that he can make moonshine out of a +yellow gourd and produce thunder and lightning,—but that is a +professional secret. It is true they have only six pieces in all, and +when they have played these through they begin them all over again. The +public, naturally, does not like to see the same piece twice, so the +manager gives the piece another title, changes the titles of all the +characters and represents the piece over again as a brand new one."</p> + +<p>"I should like to see to-day's representation," said Szilard, whose +curiosity had been excited by this peculiar description.</p> + +<p>"I'll fetch your honour a play bill immediately," said the innkeeper.</p> + +<p>Off went mine host returning in a few moments with a MS. play bill on +which was written in large red letters: "Hernáni or Castilian Honour," +followed by the names of the personages. Hernáni was naturally the +manager himself, Leander Babérossy,<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> Elvira was to be played by Miss +Palmira, the other gentlemen were simply indicated by N. N., X. X. or +* *. "They are all women you know," explained the innkeeper, "who don't +want to advertise their names. The charge for the front seats is 2½d, +for the second-class places, a penny."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i>, Laurel bearer.</p></div> + +<p>"The gentry can sit where they please, I presume?"</p> + +<p>"I suggested to the manager that he should write that on the play bill, +but he replied that that would be an impertinence. I also advised him to +take the play bill to your honour himself and was almost kicked out of +the room for my pains. Did I take him for a bill poster? he said."</p> + +<p>"This manager of yours seems to have a pretty good opinion of himself."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he is frightfully proud, your honour. He will play no other pieces +but sword pieces because, says he, they are classical. The poor fellow +is so very young you know. When he grows a little older and learns to +starve a bit he will soon lower his crest."</p> + +<p>"I like him none the less for holding up his head. I will come to the +play."</p> + +<p>"But you must be there at seven o'clock sharp. He always begins +punctually; whether there is any audience or not."</p> + +<p>"The lad has character, I see; pray give him this"—and he handed the +innkeeper half a sovereign. He quickly returned with the reply that the +manager could not for the moment give change.</p> + +<p>"But I meant him to keep the whole of it as an admittance fee."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes."</p> + +<p>A short time afterwards, the innkeeper reappeared with a whole bundle of +admission tickets for Szilard, saying that the manager thanked him for +his sympathy, but as he was not in the habit of accepting presents from +anyone, he assumed that his honour meant to engage the whole house for +himself that evening and he, the manager, would therefore give a +representation for his honour's sole benefit.</p> + +<p>Szilard laughed heartily at this comical conscientiousness, and after +dressing, he went about his official business with as much dispatch as +possible in order to arrive at the play at seven o'clock sharp, for he +was now the whole public and the public ought always to be punctual.</p> + +<p>When he got to the room set apart for the performance he found that, +despite the provisional <i>abonnement suspendu</i> arrangement, the place was +not quite empty, for the gratis public, the lenders of the theatrical +requisites and their families, the letters of lodgings to the actors and +other peaceful creditors, occupied a couple of benches, so that Szilard +had the opportunity of effacing himself and thus avoiding confusing the +<i>troupe</i> by his solitary and imposing personality.</p> + +<p>No sooner had the innkeeper's cuckoo clock struck seven than the ring of +the prompter's bell resounded behind the curtain (it sounded +suspiciously like a glass struck smartly with the back of a knife) and +by means of a highly ingenious piece of machinery the drop-curtain, +stuck over with the tricolored cardboard representing the national flag, +was hoisted up to the ceiling-beam, and the open stage was revealed.</p> + +<p>The background was formed by a collapsible screen which was painted to +represent a room; in the foreground on one side was a paper window +painted black and white, and on the other side the cellar door, +metamorphosed into the portal of a Gothic palace. Through this entry the +whole of the <i>dramatis personae</i> came and went, for it was the only one.</p> + +<p>The piece acted was, naturally, not "Hernáni or Castilian Honour," but +Schiller's "Robbers." Szilard recognized it at the very first three +words. He also noticed that the characters of Karl and Franz Moor were +acted by one and the same person (the manager himself, as he was +informed) with a simple change of voice and mask, and despite the +different disguises employed, it constantly seemed to Szilard as if he +had seen that caricature of a face somewhere else and the voice, +parodied as it now was, nevertheless seemed familiar to him. No less +familiar appeared the violent gestures of the young actor which +frequently endangered the side scenes.</p> + +<p>Now as early as Scene 2 the noble public began to be aware of the +unheard of fraud practiced upon it; a murmuring, an agitation, a +whispering and a wagging of heads, and finally an impatient thumping of +sticks began to mingle with the bustle of the drama, till at last a +worthy cobbler, who had lent the <i>troupe</i> three wooden benches and +received in return a free pass every day, suddenly bawled out: "Halloh +there, Mr. Manager! we have seen this piece once before. There's +politics in it."</p> + +<p>Franz Moor, disturbed in his artistic interpretation by this sudden +onslaught, suddenly forgot himself, lost his cue and answering the +interpellator in his natural, everyday voice (he knew he had only a free +list public to deal with) exclaimed: "Whoever has seen this piece before +and does not wish to see it again, will have his money returned to him +on applying at the ticket office."</p> + +<p>These words were no sooner uttered than Vamhidy leaped from his seat, +rushed upon the stage, caught Franz Moor in his arms and kissed his +painted face crying with a voice trembling with joy: "Coloman!"</p> + +<p>Franz Moor hesitated for an instant, then tore off his Spanish beard, +dropped his red wig, wiped the painted wrinkles from his forehead and +Szilard saw before him a pale, melancholy, childish countenance.</p> + +<p>Leander Babérossy was young Coloman, Henrietta's brother.</p> + +<p>The representation naturally ceased at once. Szilard hustled the +rediscovered "prodigal son" off the boards and never let him stop for an +instant till he had got him safe and sound into his own private room. +There he embraced him again, held him at arms' length and had a good +look at him. The lad seemed to be twenty years old at the very least, +yet really he was but fifteen. Play acting, want and premature shaving +soon make a youth look old. Moreover, in his whole bearing, in all his +movements, there was something precocious, a resolute, bold expression +which made one forget that he was a mere child—a sort of cynicism not +pleasant to behold.</p> + +<p>Szilard soon had a good supper ready for him, which the youth fell to +work upon without ceremony.</p> + +<p>"My dear Leander," said Vamhidy when the meal was over, "no doubt it is +a very fine thing when one can say that he is his own master, nor is it +so difficult to attain to such a position after all. All that is wanted +is a strength of character always true to itself. But you, my friend, +have committed follies which might easily make of you something very +different."</p> + +<p>Coloman shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I have committed many follies no doubt, but I do not call to mind any +which I should be afraid to confess."</p> + +<p>Szilard began to fancy that his suspicions were groundless.</p> + +<p>"People are talking of a certain <i>bill</i> which you have given in your +sister's name?"</p> + +<p>At these words Coloman cast down his eyes upon his plate and his whole +face grew blood-red. In a scarcely audible voice he enquired: "And has +Henrietta refused to honour that bill?"</p> + +<p>Vamhidy sighed deeply. Then it was really true that this thoughtless +child had committed the crime!</p> + +<p>"My dear Coloman," said he, dropping the Leander now, "your sister is +the martyr of her own devotion. She was most certainly ready to +acknowledge the bill as her own; but you ought to have thought what +sacrifices she will have to make now that her grandfather has cut her +off with a shilling and her husband refuses to place such a considerable +amount at her disposal."</p> + +<p>"Good gracious!" cried the itinerant actor, thrusting his hands deep +down into his empty pockets, "what then do these big wigs call +considerable amounts. Very well, sir. I had no idea that the Baroness +Hátszegi was <i>so very poor</i>. I will try to recover the bill, and it +shall be the first thing I will pay off with my benefit money."</p> + +<p>Szilard could not help being struck by the terrible comicality of the +idea.</p> + +<p>"But, my dear young friend," said he, "if you had two benefits every +year and got a clear forty florins at every one of them, it would take +you at least a hundred years from to-day to discharge the amount."</p> + +<p>"What?" cried Coloman with wide open eyes, and in his amazement seizing +the candlestick instead of his fork.</p> + +<p>"Why, don't you know that the bill is for 40,000 florins?"</p> + +<p>"What?" thundered the young vagabond. And kicking aside his chair, he +snatched up a knife lying by the side of his plate and, bareheaded as he +was, rushed towards the door. Szilard had need of all his dexterity to +catch him before he reached it and prevent him from rushing into the +street like a madman.</p> + +<p>"Let me murder him, let me murder that villain," he cried.</p> + +<p>Szilard was a strong man so he easily disarmed the youth.</p> + +<p>Then Coloman began to weep and fling himself on the ground. Szilard +seized him by the arm and hoisted him on to a chair again.</p> + +<p>"Be a man!" he cried. "Of whom do you speak?—whom do you want to kill?"</p> + +<p>"That villain Margari."</p> + +<p>"Then it was he who persuaded you to take this step?"</p> + +<p>"I will tell you all about it, sir, and you shall judge me. When I left +my grandfather's house, that Satan sought me out, affected sympathy for +me and asked me what I meant to do. I told him I intended to go on the +stage and he said I did well not to remain there. I had only a florin +which I borrowed from one of the lacqueys, and I told this devil that I +should require 20 florins at the very least. He promised to get them for +me from a usurer but told me I should have to give a bill for forty. Do +you think I cared what I signed then? Not long afterwards he came back +again and said the usurer would give nothing on the strength of my +signature, because I was a minor, but that if my sister's name stood +upon the bill he would advance upon that because she was a married +woman. Margari persuaded me to sign the bill in her name. What was forty +florins to Henrietta? he said, a mere trifle. If I were to ask her, she +would give me twice as much. Surely she would not proclaim me, whom she +loved so much, a forger for the sake of a paltry 40 florins? But 40,000 +florins, 40,000!—that is a frightful, a horrible villainy. I only made +it forty."</p> + +<p>And with that he began to dash his head against the wall like a madman.</p> + +<p>"My dear Coloman, do pull yourself together," said Szilard, "what you +have just told me is of the very greatest importance. Be quiet and don't +tear out your hair! Are you aware that your infinitely good sister has +honoured the 40,000 florin bill also in order to save you?"</p> + +<p>The poor youth was thunderstruck at these words.</p> + +<p>"And now you can imagine the embarrassment of the baroness, who has been +disinherited and is nevertheless responsible for this very considerable +sum without being at all sure that her husband will pay it for her."</p> + +<p>"I will hang myself."</p> + +<p>"That would be the most gigantic piece of folly you could commit. You +must make good your fault. And now for a time we cease to be friends and +I am simply an examining magistrate, and you are an accused prisoner who +is about to make a voluntary confession before me. Pray sit right +opposite to me and answer all my questions clearly and accurately—in +fact tell me exactly what happened."</p> + +<p>And Vamhidy produced paper and writing requisites, lit a pair of candles +which he placed by his side and began the examination of the youth +sitting in front of him.</p> + +<p>By midnight the confession was duly written down.</p> + +<p>When, however, Vamhidy proposed that Coloman should now come back to +Pest and be reconciled to his relations, the youth hesitated: "We will +see," said he.</p> + +<p>"At any rate remain here with me then," continued Szilard. "Sleep in my +room and take till to-morrow to think it over. I won't lock the door but +you must give me your word of honour that you will not go out of that +door without my knowledge."</p> + +<p>"I give you my word upon it."</p> + +<p>Then Szilard made the youth lie down and only went to rest himself when +he was sure that Coloman was asleep.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless on awaking next morning and looking round the room he could +see no trace of Coloman, but there was a letter from him on the table as +follows: "Dear old friend, I thank you for your extreme kindness to me, +but I don't want to see my relations any more, not because I fear to +meet them, but because I have a holy horror of the very atmosphere they +breathe. My confession will suffice to rectify my fault. I am going on +the tramp again. The linen tent is my home. And then—there are +obligations in respect to the discharge whereof I am not my sister's +brother. I have taken nothing with me but four cigar ends from the +table, a liberty I hope you will pardon me. As I have given you my word +that I would not go out of the door without your knowledge, I have been +obliged to make my exit through the window. Adieu! Till death thy +faithful admirer. COLOMAN."</p> + +<p>A couple of hours later Vamhidy learnt from the innkeeper that the +manager, without any previous leave-taking, had decamped leaving behind +him his decorations and theatrical wardrobe as some compensation for his +trifling debts. All he had taken away with him was what he actually had +on his person—and Miss Palmira.</p> + +<p>And now Szilard understood the meaning of the passage "there are +obligations in respect to the discharge whereof I am not my sister's +brother."</p> + +<p>This vagabond comedian had an equally vagabond childish ideal, and when +he had to make his choice, he flung his arm around her and fled away +with her—into the wide, wide world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>MR. MARGARI</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Margari had got on in the world. He was now a real gentleman who had +a four-roomed domicile, paid house-rent, and had even gone the length of +marrying. And can you guess the lady of his choice?—why it was no other +than Miss Clementina. That worthy virgin was of just the proper age for +him, moreover a cosy little bit of cash might safely be assumed to go +with her, which exercised a strong attraction upon Mr. Margari—and goes +to prove that iron is not the only metal susceptible of the influence of +the magnet. The worthy maiden had persuaded her respected swain to +abduct her from Hidvár, an enterprise which he had nobly performed while +the lady of the house was travelling with her husband to Arad. It is +true there was no necessity whatever for an elopement, for the baroness +was very far from being one of those dragons in feminine shape who love +to tear asunder hearts that are burning for each other. If Mr. Margari +had respectfully solicited the hand of her lady-companion, there is no +reason to suppose he would have sued in vain; but Clementina was far too +romantic for anything so humdrum as that. She insisted that he should +abduct her, at night too and through a window, although she had the key +of every door close at hand.</p> + +<p>So Margari had managed to set up as a gentleman and become his own +master. Clementina's money bought the furniture and they even sported a +musical clock.</p> + +<p>Mr. Margari had a smoking-room all to himself, in which he did nothing +all day but smoke his pipe. No more work for him now, no more copying of +MSS. There the happy husband, dressed in a flowered dressing-gown, +stretched himself out at full length on the sofa and blew clouds of +smoke all around him out of his long csibuk, stuffed full with the best +Turkish tobacco.</p> + +<p>Clementina was always scolding him for putting his legs upon the sofa. +It was a nasty habit she said, and not only unbecoming but expensive, +because it ruined the furniture. Clementina, in fact, was scolding him +all day; and this was very natural, for any woman who has been condemned +to obsequious servility for thirty whole years and has silently endured +the caprices of her betters all that time, when she sets up as a lady on +her own account will do her best to compensate herself for this +interminable suppression of her natural instincts. But Mr. Margari used +only to laugh when his wife began nagging at him. "<i>Alios jam vidi ego +ventos, aliasque procellas</i>," he would say. He was only too glad to have +a home of his own at all.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, woman!" he would say with reference to the furniture, +"when that's worn out, I'll buy some more. John Lapussa, Esq., will give +me whatever I want."</p> + +<p>"He may be fool enough to do so now," replied Clementina, "but just you +wait till he has won his action against Madame Langai and has no further +need of you, he won't care two pence for you then. I know Mr. John +Lapussa."</p> + +<p>"So do I," retorted Margari. "He has paid me hitherto to say what he +tells me, he shall pay me hereafter for holding my tongue. John Lapussa, +Esq., will have to take care that Margari has plenty to eat and decent +clothes to put on, for, if Margari grows hungry, Margari will bite."</p> + +<p>Mr. Margari spoke with an air of such impertinent assurance and blew +about such clouds of smoke that Clementina began to respect him, and sat +down on the sofa by his side, no doubt to protect her property. "If you +hold his honour so completely in the palm of your hand," said she, "why +don't you provide better for yourself and me? It is all very well for +his honour to fork out now when you press him, but money goes and more +is wanted. One of these days something will happen to him and he will +die,—and you can't follow him to the moon."</p> + +<p>This was indeed a hard nut for Margari to crack. One cannot squeeze much +out of dead men. Such an impression did the remark make upon him that he +took his feet off the sofa and sat bolt upright.</p> + +<p>"Then what do you think I ought to do?" he asked his wife.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is of no use his doling you out mere driblets; for the great +services you have rendered him he ought to give you something more in +proportion to your merits—a little estate in the country, for instance. +There we could settle down comfortably."</p> + +<p>"True, and he has lots of such little properties which are of no use to +him at all. What do you say, for instance, to an estate of one hundred +acres or so; it would be a mere flea-bite to him. But flea-bite or no +flea-bite that's all one to me. I <i>wish</i> him to give it me and give it +he must. I mean to pick and choose."</p> + +<p>"And suppose he says no?"</p> + +<p>"He'll never say that, or if he does, I shall say something to somebody +and then it will be he who will be sorry and not I. Oh, he'll take jolly +good care not to make Margari angry. His honour has much more need of +Margari's friendship than Margari has of his honour's."</p> + +<p>And we shall very soon see under what auspices Margari hoped to get the +little country estate from Mr. John Lapussa as a reward for his faithful +services.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the action brought by Madame Langai against Mr. John Lapussa +was still in its initial stage. Both parties were inexhaustible in +producing documents and raising points of law, but it seemed highly +probable that Mr. John would win. Mr. John appeared almost daily before +the magistrate, whom he called his dear friend and whom he frequently +invited to dine, an invitation which, naturally, was never accepted. One +day Mr. Monori, for that was the worthy magistrate's name, asked Mr. +John whether he knew anything of a certain Margari who was soliciting +the post of a clerk in the district court and gave as his reference the +Lapussa family in whose service he had been for some years. Mr. John, +with his innate niggardliness, at once seized this opportunity for +disembarrassing himself of an importunate beggar by saddling the county +with him. He exalted "the worthy, excellent man" to the skies, and +especially praised his rectitude, his sobriety, his diligence!</p> + +<p>"But is he trustworthy?" inquired the magistrate. "You see there are +various little cash payments he will have to see to, is he clean +handed?"</p> + +<p>"As good as gold, I assure you. I could trust him with thousands. Why +some of my own bills are in his keeping—" and with that he proceeded to +say as many pretty things of Margari as if he were a horse dealer trying +to palm off a blind nag on some ignorant bumpkin at a fair.</p> + +<p>In his delight at having so successfully rid himself of such an incubus, +he made his <i>valet-de-chambre</i> slip over to Margari to tell the worthy +man to wait upon him on the morrow at 11 o'clock precisely, as he had a +very pleasant piece of news to impart to him; for he meant to make +Margari believe that it was through his, Mr. John Lapussa's special +influence, that he had obtained the coveted appointment and so get him +to renounce all further claims upon his old patron.</p> + +<p>On the very same day Mr. John was surprised to receive a visit from the +magistrate, Mr. Monori, and this certainly was a wonder, for the +magistrate never made any but official visits.</p> + +<p>"To what do I owe this extraordinary pleasure?" asked Mr. John, +familiarly inviting the magistrate to sit down on a couch.</p> + +<p>"I have come in the matter of this Margari," said Monori, holding +himself very stiffly and fixing his eyes sharply on Mr. John. "Since our +conversation of this morning, the circumstance has come to my knowledge +that one of my colleagues in the county of Arad has succeeded in finding +the long-lost Coloman Lapussa."</p> + +<p>At these words Mr. John began to smooth out the ends of his mustache and +chew them attentively.</p> + +<p>"The young man confesses to having forged the bill, but asserts that it +was Margari who led him to do so, and that the bill signed by him was +originally for forty florins only, so that undoubtedly somebody else +must have turned it into 40,000."</p> + +<p>Mr. John coughed very much at these words,—no doubt the bit of mustache +which he had bit off stuck in his throat.</p> + +<p>"This is a very ticklish circumstance, I must confess," continued +Monori, "for although the young man's offence has thereby been +considerably lightened, yet the burden of the charge has now been +shifted to other shoulders hitherto quite free from suspicion. No doubt, +he being a minor, under strict control, did what he did as a mere +schoolboy frolic, but this Margari and an unknown somebody else will +find it not quite such a laughing matter."</p> + +<p>Mr. John's mustache was by this time not enough for him, he began +nibbling his nails as well.</p> + +<p>"But what are you driving at?" he said. "How does all this concern me?"</p> + +<p>"It concerns you, sir, in this way: you told me that Margari was your +confidential agent, and therefore he must have destroyed the bill at +your bidding."</p> + +<p>"I only said that to help him to get a small official post. I am +responsible for nobody. What have I to do with the characters of my +servants, my lacqueys."</p> + +<p>"But you assured me that your bills often passed through his hands."</p> + +<p>Mr. John fancied that the best way out of this unpleasant <i>cul-de-sac</i> +was by adopting a little energetic bluffing.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by cross-examining me in my own house?" he cried, with +affected <i>hauteur</i>, springing from the sofa.</p> + +<p>The magistrate rose at the same time.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, but I am here not as a visitor, but in my official +capacity—as your judge."</p> + +<p>And with that he coolly unbuttoned his <i>attila</i><a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> and drew forth from +the inside pocket a large sealed letter.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> A fur pelisse, worn on state occasions.</p></div> + +<p>"You must swear to every one of the interrogatories administered to you +by me."</p> + +<p>"I? I'll swear to nothing," cried Mr. John. "I am a Quaker and therefore +cannot take an oath."</p> + +<p>"This document, sir, is a royal mandate and whoever refuses to obey it +is liable to penalties."</p> + +<p>"What penalties?"</p> + +<p>"A fine of eighty florins."</p> + +<p>"Eighty florins? There you are then, take them!" cried Mr. John flinging +down the amount eagerly and thinking to himself that this mandate was +indeed a juridical masterpiece, not being binding on a rich man—for +what after all is eighty florins?</p> + +<p>"Very good," said Mr. Monori, giving him a receipt for the amount, "I'll +come again to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"I shall again call upon you to answer my interrogatories upon oath."</p> + +<p>"And if I won't swear?"</p> + +<p>"Why then you'll have to pay the court fine <i>toties-quoties</i>. A <i>juratus +tabulae regiae notarius</i> will call regularly every day and exact the +fine from you until such time as you make up your mind to take the +oaths. Good-day."</p> + +<p>After the magistrate had withdrawn Mr. John's fury reached its climax. +First of all he poured forth his wrath upon the poor inkstand, with the +ink from which Monori had written out the receipt. This he dashed to the +ground. The lacquey who rushed in at the commotion to inquire if his +honour had rung, he seized by the nape of the neck and flung out of the +room. Then he rushed after the man and pommelled him for daring to go +out before he had been told to go. Finally he dashed out and, for the +lowest silver coin he could make up his mind to part with, hired a +hackney coach to take him to his villa near the park, for thither he had +resolved to fly.</p> + +<p>On arriving there he recovered himself somewhat.</p> + +<p>So Coloman had been discovered and had confessed about his own doings +and Margari's. Well he must simply disavow Margari, that's all. But +suppose Margari were to make a clean breast of it? Well he could +repudiate the whole thing of course. But then that wretched royal +mandate? He must either swear or pay the court fine every day. It would +be best perhaps to fly, to leave the capital of the magistrate behind +him and set out on his travels. Perhaps then they would forget all about +it. But then there was the law-suit! And suppose it should be decided in +the meantime and decided against him! It was an absurd dilemma! To +remain here was dangerous and to go away was also dangerous. What a good +job it would be if that cursed forged-bill business could disappear from +the face of the earth. The bill ought to be withdrawn. But that was +impossible because it was already in the magistrate's hands, and +therefore could not be ignored. And then the oath required of him. +Either he must confess that he was personally interested in the matter +and then he would not be required to swear but would at the same time +make himself an object of suspicion, or else he must go on paying this +infernal toll money in order to be able to cross the non-juratory +bridge, so to speak. It was an absolutely desperating syllogism, and +after tossing about sleeplessly all night in the midst of this vicious +circle, Mr. John resolved in the morning to set off at once for the +vineyards of Promontor,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> tell his servants that he meant to remain +there and enjoy himself, and immediately afterwards get into a +post-chaise and drive to his Sarfeneki property. Nobody should know his +real address but his lawyer, and there he would await developments, only +emerging in case of the most urgent necessity.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> A village a few miles out of Pest.</p></div> + +<p>So he hastily swallowed his chocolate, wrapped himself in his mantle and +fancied that now he might safely fly; but he reckoned without his host, +for, on the very doorstep, he came face to face with Margari!</p> + +<p>"What do you want here, eh?" he inquired fiercely of the humble man he +feared so much.</p> + +<p>"You were so good as to make an appointment with me, your honour," said +Margari cringingly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, I know, I know" (he was afraid to warn him of his danger, +with all the servants listening to them), "but I cannot spare the time +now, come some other day. I cannot give you anything here."</p> + +<p>"But your honour was good enough to say that you had some glad tidings +to communicate."</p> + +<p>"Another time, another time! I am very busy just now."</p> + +<p>Mr. John would have shaken off Margari altogether, but Margari was not +so easily got rid of. He had already ascertained from the coachman that +Mr. John was off to Promontor and did not mean to return again in a +hurry, so he resolved to take his measures accordingly. He rushed +forward to open the carriage door, helped Mr. John to get into the +coach, wished him a most pleasant journey, no end of enjoyment and other +meaningless things, all of which made much the same agreeable impression +upon Mr. John as if an ant had crept into his boot and he could not kill +it because he was in company. Only when the carriage door was shut to +and he saw Margari's face no more did he begin to breathe freely again.</p> + +<p>Margari however attributed this reception, or rather, non-reception, to +the capricious humours to which his honour was constantly liable without +rhyme or reason (it is a peculiarity of self-made plutocrats as +everybody knows); but he was not a bit offended,—he knew his place. His +honour doesn't want to see Margari just now, very well, he shall not see +him so he jumped up behind the carriage alongside the lacquey. But how +surprised his honour will be when he gets to Promontor to see Margari +open the carriage door for him? How he will bid him go to the devil and +immediately after burst out laughing and give him a present! And what +will the present be? Has it anything to do with the good news with which +he meant to surprise him? And all the while, Mr. John, inside the +carriage was hugging himself with the idea that he had rid himself of +Margari for a time and devoutly wishing that the cholera, or some other +equally rapid and effectual disease, might remove the old rascal off the +face of the earth altogether.</p> + +<p>When the carriage stopped at the picturesque vineyards of Promontor, Mr. +John almost had a stroke when, on looking through the glass window, the +first feature of the panorama that presented itself was the figure of +Margari, hastening to open the door with obsequious familiarity.</p> + +<p>"You here, Sirrah," he roared (he would have choked with rage on the +spot if he had not said Sirrah). "How on earth did <i>you</i> get here?"</p> + +<p>Margari instantly imagined that his honour's flashing eyes, convulsive +mouth and distorted face were the outward signs of a jocose frame of +mind, for there was always a sort of travesty of humour in Mr. John's +features whenever he was angry. So, to his own confusion, it occurred to +him to make a joke for the first time in his life.</p> + +<p>"Crying your honour's pardon, I <i>flew</i>," said he.</p> + +<p>And in fact the very next instant he was sent flying so impetuously that +he did not stop till he plumped right into the trellis-work surrounding +a bed of vines. Never in all his life before had Mr. John dispensed such +a buffet. Margari fairly disappeared among the leaves of the friendly +vine arbours.</p> + +<p>It was now Mr. John's turn to be frightened at what he had done. He was +frightened because every box on the ears he gave used regularly to cost +him 200 florins, a very costly passion to indulge in. And besides he was +particularly anxious just then to keep Margari in a good humour. A man +may loathe a viper but he had better not tread on its tail if he cannot +tread on its head. Horrified at his own outburst of rage, the moment he +saw Margari disappear in the vine-arbours, he rushed after him, freed +him with his own hands, picked him up, set him on his legs again and +began to comfort him.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, my dear friend! compose yourself. I did not mean to hurt +you. You are not angry, are you. I hope you are not hurt? Where did you +hit yourself?"</p> + +<p>Margari, however, began whimpering like a schoolboy, the more the other +tried to quiet him, the more loudly he bellowed.</p> + +<p>"Come, come! don't make such a noise! Come under the verandah and wipe +the blood from your face!"</p> + +<p>"But I am not a dog!" roared Margari. "I won't go under the verandah, +I'll go into the street. I'll howl at the top of my voice. The whole +town shall see me bleed."</p> + +<p>"Margari, don't be a fool! I didn't mean to hurt you. I was too violent, +I admit it. Look here! I'll give you money. How much do you want? Will +200 florins be enough?"</p> + +<p>At the words "200 florins," Margari stopped roaring a bit, but he wanted +to see the colour of the money, for he thought to himself that if he +quieted down first he would get nothing at all. So he kept on whining +and limped first on one leg and then on the other and plastered his +whole face over with blood from the one little scratch he had got.</p> + +<p>Mr. John hastened to wipe Margari's face with his own +pocket handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"Come, come my dear Margari. I have told you I did not mean to do it. +Here are the two hundred florins I promised you. But now leave me alone. +Go abroad with the money and enjoy yourself and I will give you some +more later on."</p> + +<p>"I most humbly thank you," lisped the buffeted wretch with a +conciliatory voice and he kissed Mr. John's two hundred florined hand +repeatedly, while the other did all in his power to hustle him out of +the door; and so engrossed was he in the effort that he never observed +that some one had been observing the scene the whole time. He therefore +regularly collapsed when a voice which he instantly recognized, +addressed him: "Good morning, sir!"</p> + +<p>The Lernean Hydra was not more petrified at the sight of the head of +Medusa than was Mr. John by the sight of the person who had just +addressed him. It was the magistrate, Mr. Monori.</p> + +<p>At first he feared he had come after him for his diurnal eighty florins, +but something very much worse than that was in store for him.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," said the magistrate drawing nearer, "but by order of the +High Court, I am here to arrest Margari, and ascertaining that you had +taken him away with you, I was obliged to follow to prevent him from +escaping altogether."</p> + +<p>Two stout <i>pandurs</i><a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> behind the magistrate gave additional emphasis +to his words.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Hungarian police officers.</p></div> + +<p>"Arrest me?" cried Margari, "why me? I am as honest as the day. I am +neither a murderer nor yet a robber. Mr. John Lapussa can answer for me. +I am his confidential agent!"—and he clung convulsively to the coat +tail of his principal.</p> + +<p>Mr. John plainly perceived that never in his life before had he been in +such an awkward situation. They could accuse him now of having +instigated Margari to make a bolt of it. Had not the magistrate seen +him give the wretched man money to run away with? His first care was to +disengage Margari's hands from his coat tail and next to hold him at +arm's length so that he should not clutch his collar. Then with pompous +impertinence he pretended not to know him.</p> + +<p>"What does the man want? Who is he? How did he come hither?" he +exclaimed. "I know nothing about him. I boxed his ears for molesting me, +and then I gave him 200 florins which is the usual legal fine for an +assault of that kind, to prevent him bringing an action against me. We +have nothing else in common. Take him away by all means. Put him in +irons. Give him whatever punishment he has deserved. Yes," he continued, +seizing the astounded Margari by the cravat, "you are a refined +scoundrel. You persuaded my dear nephew Coloman to take that false step +and then you yourself changed the forty florins into forty thousand. You +wanted to ruin the young man's future and bring a slur upon the family. +I know everything. His honour the magistrate told me all about it +yesterday, and that is why I hand you over to the law for punishment." +And with that he shook him so violently that he fell on his back again, +this time into a bed of tomatoes, whereby his white linen pantaloons +very speedily became stained with the national colours.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Red, white and green.</p></div> + +<p>The dialogue that thereupon ensued no shorthand reporter could have +reproduced, for the pair of them began forthwith to rave and storm at +one another with all their might, stamping, swearing, shaking their +fists, and loading each other with abuse. When they had got as far as +calling each other robber and scoundrel, the magistrate thought it high +time to interfere, and at his command Margari was torn forcibly out of +the tomato bed, led to a hackney coach and thrust inside; yet even then +he put his head out of the window and shouted that he did not mean to +sit in prison alone but would very soon have Mr. John Lapussa there +also, as his companion. All the efforts of the two pandurs were +powerless to silence him.</p> + +<p>As for Mr. John, the magistrate simply said to him: "Sir, it is not good +for a man to make use of nasty tools, for by so doing he only dirties +his own hands."</p> + +<p>Then he got into a second hackney coach and drove away after the first +one.</p> + +<p>Even Mr. John could see that it was now quite impossible for him under +the circumstances to think of quitting Pest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE UNDISCOVERABLE LADY</h3> + + +<p>Squire Gerzson Satrakovics thought it best after that night at the +<i>csárdá</i> to go back to Arad. This wondrous event, the clue to which he +could not hit upon anyhow, must needs interest Hátszegi most of all. It +would be a terrible thing to appear before him with the tidings that the +lady who was intrusted to his care, had been lost on the way; yet, +nevertheless, this was the first thing he must say, and after that they +would consult together as to what was to be done to find her and where +they were to look for her.</p> + +<p>Never had Mr. Gerzson approached a bear's den with such beating of heart +as he now approached Hátszegi's chambers. His breath almost failed him +as he seized the handle of the street door and wished it might prove +locked in order that it might take a longer time to open it.</p> + +<p>And locked indeed the door proved to be, he had to ring. Thus he had, at +any rate, a respite, for he must await the result of the ringing. And a +long time he had to wait too, so long indeed that it was necessary to +ring again. Even then there was no response. Then he rang a third time, +and after that he went on ring-ring-ringing for a good half hour. At +last the bellrope remained in his hand and he put it into his pocket +that it might testify to the fact that he had been there. Then, for the +first time, he noticed that the shutters were all up—the surest sign +that nobody was at home.</p> + +<p>Gerzson explained the matter to his own satisfaction by supposing that +the whole household was at the races. It was the last day of the races +and he reached the course just as the betting was at its height and +everybody's attention was concentrated on the event of the moment. At +such time the crowd has no eyes for men, everyone is occupied with the +horses. Mr. Gerzson therefore had plenty of time to scrutinize all who +were present, but look as he would he could not see Leonard anywhere.</p> + +<p>At last he could stand the suspense no longer, and during the interval +between two races, he descended from the grand-stand, in a corner of +which he had ensconced himself in order to get a better view of the +field, and mingled in the ring with his brother sportsmen awaiting +resignedly for the expression of amazed and horrified inquiry which he +expected to see in all faces the moment they perceived him.</p> + +<p>But how taken aback was he when the first man who cast eyes on him gave +vent to a loud: Ha! ha! ha! whereupon everybody else began laughing also +and pointing their fingers at him and exclaiming: "Why here's Gerzson! +Gerzson has come back again!"</p> + +<p>"Have you all gone mad?" cried Gerzson, confused by this inexplicable +hubbub.</p> + +<p>He really fancied that he had fallen among a lot of lunatics, till at +last Count Kengyelesy forced his way through the crowd towards him, put +both his hands on his hips and began to quiz him: "Well, you are a +pretty fellow!—you are a pretty squire of dames, I must say!"</p> + +<p>"But what's the matter? What has happened? Why do you laugh?"</p> + +<p>"Listen to him!" cried the count, turning to the bystanders. "He +actually has the impertinence to ask us why we laugh! Come, sir! where +did you leave the Baroness Hátszegi?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see what there is to laugh at at such a question?" replied +Gerzson, in whose mind all sorts of dark forebodings began to arise.</p> + +<p>"What have you done with the baroness? What have you done with our +friend Leonard's wife, I say?" persisted the count.</p> + +<p>"That is a perfect riddle to me," growled Gerzson in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the count, "it is a riddle to him what has become +of his travelling companion."</p> + +<p>"But can any of you tell me what has happened to her? Is she alive?"</p> + +<p>The count clapped his hands together and flung his round hat upon the +ground.</p> + +<p>"Now, that is what I call a <i>leetle</i> too strong! He asks: is she alive? +Why, comrade, where have you been in hiding all this time?"</p> + +<p>"A truce to jesting," cried Gerzson fiercely. "Tell me all you know +about it, for it is no joking matter for me, I can assure you."</p> + +<p>On perceiving that Gerzson was seriously angry, Kengyelesy drew nearer +to him and enlightened him without any more beating about the bush: +"Well then, my dear friend, let me tell you that you have behaved very +badly. First of all you made all four of Hátszegi's horses lame; in the +second place you compelled his poor wife to spend a night in a <i>csárdá</i> +of the <i>puszta</i>, and in the third place you got so drunk that you began +to quarrel with her and at last did not know whether you were boy or +girl. The poor little woman has grown almost grey with terror, and after +you had fallen to the ground in liquor she sent the coachman to town for +fresh horses and, leaving you under the table, tried to make her way +back to Arad."</p> + +<p>"That is not true," interrupted Gerzson, his whole face purple with +rage.</p> + +<p>"What is not true?"</p> + +<p>"Where is the baroness?"</p> + +<p>"Stop, stop, my friend! Don't run away! You'll never catch her up, for, +early this morning, she drove back to Hidvár in a postchaise with her +husband."</p> + +<p>"That can not be true. Did you see her?"</p> + +<p>"I saw her through my own field glass. But we all saw her—did we not, +gentlemen?"</p> + +<p>Many of those present admitted that they had indeed seen the baroness.</p> + +<p>"But my dear fellow," said the perturbed Gerzson, "this is no joke. On +the contrary, my adventure with the baroness is somewhat tragical, and +I'll trouble you to expend no more of your feeble witticisms on me."</p> + +<p>Kengyelesy shrugged his shoulders. "I did not know you would take it so +seriously, but so it is."</p> + +<p>"From whom did you hear all this, from the baroness?"</p> + +<p>"No—from Hátszegi."</p> + +<p>An idea suddenly flashed through Gerzson's brain.</p> + +<p>"Did you speak to the baroness herself?"</p> + +<p>"No. I only saw her through the carriage window when they drove away."</p> + +<p>"Was she veiled?"</p> + +<p>"No, my friend. It was her very self I assure you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. And now, if you like, you can go on amusing yourself at my +expense. Adieu!"</p> + +<p>Only when he had got home and flung himself on the sofa in a state of +stupor, did he begin to reflect a little calmly on what he had heard. +There was so much about the affair that was startling and +incomprehensible, true and untrue, probable, incredible, shameful and +exasperating, that he could make neither head nor tail of it.</p> + +<p>That the baroness <i>had</i> returned must be true, for they all maintained +that she had come back while he was lying drunk. It is true that he had +got drunk, but he had no recollection of having been quarrelsome and +misbehaving himself. Strain his memory as he might, all he could call to +mind was Henrietta, with her angelically gentle face, sitting before him +at the table and telling him the legends of the Transylvanian Alps—all +the rest was a blank.</p> + +<p>Up he jumped at last and began pacing up and down the room. At last, +after much reflection, his mind was made up, he had formed a plan.</p> + +<p>"I'll be off. I'll be off immediately. I'll go straight to her. I am +determined to learn from her own lips exactly what happened to me and +how I came to make such a fool of myself. I will speak to her myself."</p> + +<p>And immediately he ordered his coachman to put the horses to; but he +told not a living soul whither he was going, even to the coachman he +only mentioned the first stage.</p> + +<p>At a little booth at the end of the town he bought four and twenty +double rolls and a new wooden field flask. When they came to the River +Maros, he descended to the water's edge, rinsed out his flask at least +twice and then filled it with water, finally thrusting both the rolls +and the flask into his travelling knapsack. After that he drew on his +mantle, clambered up into the back part of the coach, stuck his pipe in +his mouth and his pistol in his fist and never closed an eye till +morning.</p> + +<p>And it must be admitted that Mr. Gerzson's mode of travelling on this +occasion was decidedly eccentric. On reaching a village he would tell +his coachman where to go next but he never told him more than one stage +in advance. Every morning he would consume one of his rolls and wash it +down with the lukewarm brackish water of the Maros—and bitter enough he +found the taste of it too. He never quitted the carriage for more than +two or three minutes at a time, and he presented his pistols point blank +at everyone who approached him with inquisitive questions.</p> + +<p>Only twice during the night did he allow the horses an hour or two of +rest—and then away over stock and stone again.</p> + +<p>The coachman, who was unaccustomed to such queer ways, presently shook +his head every time he received orders to go on further, but by dawn of +day he had had about enough of the job.</p> + +<p>"Your honour," said he, "are we going to stop at all? It would do the +horses no harm if they had a little rest."</p> + +<p>"What's that to you, you rascal, eh?" roared Mr. Gerzson, "I suppose +you're sleepy, you lazy good-for-nothing? Off the box then, you hound, +you! I'll drive the horses myself, you gallows-bird!"</p> + +<p>The old fellow, who had been in the service of the family for twenty +years and had never had so many insulting epithets thrown at his head +before explained that he did not speak for himself but for the horses.</p> + +<p>"If they perished on the spot, Sirrah, what business is it of yours? +When one pursues the enemy in time of war, does one think of food or +fodder?"—whence the coachman concluded that there was some one whom the +squire meant to cut to pieces.</p> + +<p>It was only when they came to the road leading to Hidvár that the +coachman began to suspect that they were about to go in that direction. +It was now the evening of the second day and both man and beast were +tired to death. It was indispensable that they should stay the night +here, for if they passed Hidvár they would have to go on the whole night +before they reached the next stage—or come to grief on the road, which +was much more probable.</p> + +<p>"You will stop in front of the castle!" commanded Mr. Gerzson when they +were crossing the castle bridge.</p> + +<p>The coachman looked back and shook his head. He did not like it at all.</p> + +<p>"Shan't we turn into the castle yard?" enquired he.</p> + +<p>"No!" bellowed Squire Gerzson, so venomously that the "why not?" he was +about to say, stuck in the poor coachman's throat like a fish-bone.</p> + +<p>"Now listen to me," said Gerzson, when they had fairly got across to +the other side: "Keep your eyes open and try and take in what I am going +to say to you. I don't know how long I may remain inside there—possibly +some time. At any rate you must not loiter about here with the horses +but go on to the priest and beg him, civilly, mind, to kindly +accommodate my nags in his stable and give them two bushels of maize. As +soon as I return I'll settle with him, but don't say anything about +payment, or else you will offend him. Kiss his hand, for he is a priest +and you are only a lazy vagabond. If you hear no news of me by to-morrow +morning, put the horses into the carriage again and return to Arad where +Count Kengyelesy will tell you what to do next."</p> + +<p>Then he turned upon his heel and set off towards the castle.</p> + +<p>It was already evening. In the upper story seven of the windows were lit +up and the moon shone into the eighth. That was Henrietta's bedroom. +Squire Gerzson knew it. He was quite at home in the castle.</p> + +<p>At the hall entrance he encountered Leonard's huntsman, an impertinent, +bony, jowly loafer whom he had never been able to endure. The fellow +barred the way.</p> + +<p>"Good evening your honour."</p> + +<p>"Why should <i>you</i> wish <i>me</i> good evening, you stupid jackass! Do you +suppose I have travelled five and twenty miles for the pleasure of +wishing <i>you</i> good evening? Who's at home?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody."</p> + +<p>"Go along with you, you sodden-headed son of a dog. Nobody at home and +seven windows in the upper story all alight!"</p> + +<p>"It is true the rooms are lit up, but that is on account of her +ladyship—they are sitting up with her."</p> + +<p>"Then where's your master?"</p> + +<p>"He has trotted into Klausenburg for the learned doctor."</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with her ladyship?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. They say she is mad."</p> + +<p>"You are mad yourself, you stupid beast. Who told you that?"</p> + +<p>"I saw it, I heard it myself, and others also have seen that she is +mad."</p> + +<p>"Cannot I speak to her?"</p> + +<p>"How can you? That's just the mischief of it, that she cannot be spoken +to."</p> + +<p>"You rascal, I tell you your master <i>is</i> at home. I am sure of it."</p> + +<p>Long-legs shrugged his shoulders and began to whistle.</p> + +<p>"Look ye here, my son," said Gerzson, scarcely able to contain himself, +"the fist that you see in my pocket here is pulling the trigger of a +revolver and I have a jolly good mind to send a bullet in between your +onion chawing teeth, so I should advise you not to try any of your +tom-foolery on me. On this occasion I have not come to pay your master +a visit but for other reasons. Speak the truth, sirrah! Is your master +at home or is he not?"</p> + +<p>"I have just told you that there is not a soul at home except her +ladyship, and she is mad."</p> + +<p>At that same moment Gerzson thought he heard a fiddle in the upper +story.</p> + +<p>"What, music here!" he cried.</p> + +<p>The fellow laughed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they are trying to cure the sick baroness by playing to her."</p> + +<p>"But I hear the sound of men's voices also as if there were guests +here."</p> + +<p>"Where? I hear nothing. It is only the dogs barking in the enclosure."</p> + +<p>"You did not hear it, sirrah?"</p> + +<p>"I heard nothing."</p> + +<p>"Very well, my son, I see you have orders to make a fool of me; but it +strikes me that both you and your master will have to get up pretty +early to do that. You need not be so anxious to guard the door, I shall +not try to force my way up to your master. I'll wager he will come and +see me first. Wait a bit."</p> + +<p>And with that Gerzson sat down on the step, tore a leaf out of his +pocketbook and, placing it on his knee, wrote with his pencil the +following words: "Sir, I declare you to be a miserable coward. If you +want to know why, you will find me at the parson's, there I will tell +you and after that we can arrange our little business between ourselves.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right">"GERZSON SATRAKOVICS."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerzson had even taken the trouble to provide himself with +sealing-wax and matches so he could seal his letter without any +difficulty and the step served him as a table.</p> + +<p>But suppose even this letter did not make Hátszegi come forth? Struck by +this idea he tore open the note again and added this postscript: "If you +do not give me proper satisfaction, I will wait for you at the gate of +your own castle and shoot you down like a dog!!"</p> + +<p>Surely <i>that</i> would be enough!</p> + +<p>Again he sealed the letter and was about to hand it to the huntsman when +it suddenly occurred to him that Hátszegi might chuck the note unopened +into the fire. Now, therefore, he wrote on the outside of it, just below +the address: "If you don't open this letter, I will have an exact copy +of it posted upon the notice-board of the club at Arad."</p> + +<p>"And now, you door-keeping Cerberus," said he, "take this and give it to +your master, wherever he may be."</p> + +<p>He wasted no more words upon the fellow, but went straight to the +dwelling of the old priest who was awaiting him in his porch.</p> + +<p>"I must beg your reverence for a night's lodging, I am afraid," said +Squire Gerzson, cordially pressing the old clergyman's hand. "There is +serious illness at the baron's house so I don't want to incommode them +with my company. All I want is a place whereon to lay my head. My wants +are few. You know me of old."</p> + +<p>"Gladly will I share with your honour the little I have. God hath +brought you hither. I am glad you did not stay at the castle. The +company there is not fit for your honour."</p> + +<p>"Then there is company there, eh? What sort of folks are they?"</p> + +<p>"Folks I should not care about meeting. Drahhowecz and Muntya, and +Harastory, and Brinkó, and Bandán, and Kerakoricz, and . . ."</p> + +<p>"That will do," interrupted Mr. Gerzson, aghast at so many odd, strange +names not one of which he had ever heard of before. "New comers, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"I was sure their names would be quite unfamiliar to your honour," +remarked the priest smiling, and he led his guest into his narrow +dwelling, looking cautiously round first of all to make sure that nobody +was listening. Once inside he carefully barred the door, seated his +guest at the carved wooden table, which was covered with a pretty +covering made from foal-skin, and filled a dish with fresh maize +pottage, adding thereto a ham bone and a jug of mead. Mr. Gerzson fell +to, like a man, on the very first invitation; and each armed with a +wooden spoon, attacked the maize pottage from different points till +their assiduously tunnelling spoons met together in the centre of the +large platter.</p> + +<p>"A capital dish, your reverence, really capital."</p> + +<p>"Very good for poor folks like we are, I admit. I know you don't have +fare like this in Hungary."</p> + +<p>"I suppose we don't know how to prepare it properly," said Gerzson.</p> + +<p>And then the priest explained how hot the water must be when maize meal +or sweet-broom meal has to be mixed with it, how the whole mess must be +stirred with a spoon, how a little finely grated cheese has to be added +to it, and how it had then all to be tied up in a cloth like a +plum-pudding and have milk poured over it. And Squire Gerzson listened +to him as attentively as if he had come all the way from Arad to Hidvár +on purpose to learn the art of cooking maize pottage. And after that +they pledged each other's health in long draughts from the mead jug.</p> + +<p>"And now," said the priest when they had well supped, "I know that your +honour spent all last night upon the road. You must be tired and instead +of boring yourself by listening to my uninteresting gossip, it would be +better, methinks, if we both went to bed."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't mind lying down at all, but alas! I have an appointment +here with some one."</p> + +<p>"May I ask with whom?"</p> + +<p>"I have written the baron a letter and I await a reply."</p> + +<p>"He will not send one: he is too much taken up with his pleasures just +now."</p> + +<p>"My letter contains things which a man durst not ignore."</p> + +<p>"Was your letter an insulting one?"</p> + +<p>"I don't wish to advertise its contents."</p> + +<p>"Very good. But for all that you may as well lie down. The ways of the +baron are incalculable. Even when he is angry he knows what he is +about."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll wait for him till morning."</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile repose in peace. My humble dwelling is not very luxurious, +but let your honour imagine that it is a hunting hut in the forest."</p> + +<p>"But where then will your reverence sleep?"</p> + +<p>"I'll go out to the bee-house. I can sleep there excellently well, I +have a couch of linden leaves."</p> + +<p>"Nay, but I also love to sleep on linden leaves, covered with my +<i>bunda</i>.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> I'll lie there to-night. I am accustomed to sleeping in the +open air at night, and you are an old man"—he forgot that he was one +himself—"I could never permit you to sacrifice your comfort for my +sake."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> A sheepskin mantle.</p></div> + +<p>The clergyman paused for an instant like one who is suddenly struck by a +new and odd idea.</p> + +<p>"You said just now that you had insulted Hátszegi, did you not?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"Well—yes!—if you <i>must</i> know."</p> + +<p>"Grossly?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and most deliberately."</p> + +<p>"Very good, I only asked the question out of curiosity. You shall have +the choice of your resting place, where would you like to sleep?"</p> + +<p>"I choose the bee-house."</p> + +<p>"Good. It is true that the night air is not very good for me. I will +sleep then in my usual resting place."</p> + +<p>"And I will sleep among the bees. Their humming close beside a man's +ears generally brings him dreams that a king would envy."</p> + +<p>"Then good night, sir."</p> + +<p>"Good night."</p> + +<p>They parted at the little porch. Gerzson wrapped his <i>bunda</i> round his +shoulders and went towards the bee-house, but the priest returned to his +chamber, blew out the light, lay down fully dressed on his bed, took up +his rosary and fell a-praying like one who does not expect to see the +dawn of another day.</p> + +<p>He knew his man; he knew what was coming.</p> + +<p>Squire Gerzson, on the other hand, troubled himself not a jot about +possible consequences. With the nonchalance of a true sportsman, he lit +his pipe and, lest he should set anything on fire, he made up his mind +not to sleep a wink till he had smoked his pipe right out.</p> + +<p>In order that slumber might not come upon him unawares, he resolved to +fix his eyes on the castle windows—as the best preservative against +dropping off. He could see them quite plainly from the bee-house.</p> + +<p>The illuminated windows were darkened one by one. It seemed as if, +contrary to the words of the clergyman, the revellers within there did +not mean to await the rosy dawn glass in hand, but had lain down early.</p> + +<p>For, indeed, it was still early. The village cocks had only just crowed +for the first time. It could not be much beyond eleven.</p> + +<p>After the lamps had been extinguished, the castle stood there in the +semi-obscurity of night like a black, old-world ruin. It stood right in +front of the moon which was now climbing up behind its bastions and +where its light fell upon two opposite windows which met together in a +corner room it shone through them both and lighted up the whole +apartment. This room was the baroness's dormitory.</p> + +<p>While Mr. Gerzson was luxuriating in the contemplation of the moonlight, +he suddenly observed that the moonlight falling upon the windows was +obscured for an instant, as if somebody were passing up and down the +room. In a few moments this obscuration was repeated, and the same thing +happened a third time, and a fourth, and many times more, just as if +some one were passing up and down in that particular room in the middle +of the night restlessly, incessantly.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerzson counted on his pulses the seconds which elapsed between each +obscuration—sixteen seconds, consequently the room in which this person +was to-and-froing it so late at night like a spectre, must be sixteen +paces from one end to the other. So long as the other windows had been +lit up, this person had not begun to walk but as soon as the whole +castle was slumbering its restless course began.</p> + +<p>Gerzson felt that if he looked much longer, he would become moonstruck +himself.</p> + +<p>Slowly divesting himself of his <i>bunda</i>, and after knocking the burning +ashes out of his pipe, he noiselessly quitted the bee-house, traversed +the garden and sprang over the fence at a single bound. Then he stole +along in the shadow of the poplar avenue leading up to the castle till +he stood beneath the moon-lit window, climbed, like a veritable lunatic +on to the projecting stones of the old bastion, and gazed from thence, +at closer quarters, at the regularly recurring shadow.</p> + +<p>But not even now was he content, but began to break off little portions +of the mouldering mortar and cautiously throw them at the window. When +one of these little fragments of mortar rattled against the glass the +whole window was quickly obscured by a shadow as if the night wanderer +had rushed to it in order to look out. Gerzson felt absolutely certain +that he must be observed for there he stood clinging fast on to the +moulding. A few moments afterwards the shadow disappeared suddenly from +the window and again the moonlight shone uninterruptedly through it.</p> + +<p>Gerzson determined to remain where he was, to see what would come of it.</p> + +<p>In a short time the shadow reappeared in front of the moonlight, the +window was silently and very slightly raised, and through the slit +fluttered a rolled up piece of paper.</p> + +<p>This missive fell from the moulding of the bastion down into the moat. +Mr. Gerzson scrambled down after it, grabbed at it in the dark and +sticking it into his pocket, returned to the dwelling of the priest.</p> + +<p>Not wishing to arouse the clergyman, he went to his carriage which stood +in the stable and lit the lamp in order to read the mysterious missive.</p> + +<p>The letter was written on a piece of paper torn out of an album. He +recognized Henrietta's handwriting, and the contents of the note were as +follows: "Good kind Gerzson! I implore you, in the name of all that is +sacred, to depart from hence this instant. Depart on foot by bye +paths—the priest will guide you. If you do not wish me to lose my +reason altogether, tarry here no longer. I am very unhappy, but still +more unhappy I should be if you were to remain here. Avoid us—and +forget me forever—your affectionate—respectful—friend who will ever +mention you in her prayers—and whom you have treated as a +daughter—HENRIETTA."</p> + +<p>Gerzson's first feeling on reading this letter was one of +relief—evidently Henrietta was not angry with him or she would not have +alluded to herself as his daughter! There must therefore have been some +other reason for her turning back other than the squabble between them +which Hátszegi had so industriously circulated. Well, he would settle +accounts with Hátszegi presently.</p> + +<p>What he found especially hard to understand, however, was the mysterious +warning contained in the letter.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear parson," he said to himself, "I very much regret having +to arouse you from your slumbers, but there's nothing else to be done," +and, unscrewing the coach lamp, he took it with him and went towards the +house.</p> + +<p>The hall door was closed, he had to shake it.</p> + +<p>The parson was evidently still awake, his voice resounded from within +the house: "All good spirits praise the Lord!"</p> + +<p>"Amen! 'Tis I who am at the door. Let me in reverend father."</p> + +<p>The priest immediately opened the door and, full of amazement, asked Mr. +Gerzson what had happened.</p> + +<p>"Read that!" said Gerzson handing him the letter and lighting him with +the lamp.</p> + +<p>"This is the baroness's writing," said the priest, who immediately +recognized the script.</p> + +<p>"What do you say to its contents?"</p> + +<p>"I say that you must get away from this place immediately. I quite +comprehend the meaning of the baroness's directions."</p> + +<p>"What! fly from a man whom I have just called out?"</p> + +<p>"No, you must fly from the man you have <i>not</i> called out."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"You will one day, but there is no time for parleying now. First of all, +put on my garments, while I dress up in peasants' clothes."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Why! Because I must be your guide through the mountains. I cannot trust +another to do you that service. Do quickly what I tell you."</p> + +<p>The priest gave his orders to Mr. Gerzson with imperious brevity, but +that gentleman, even in his present situation, could not divest himself +of his homely humour, and as he was donning the parson's long cassock +and pressed the broad brimmed clerical hat down upon his head, he fell a +laughing at the odd figure he cut.</p> + +<p>"Deuce take it!" he cried, "I never imagined that I should ever be +turned into a parson."</p> + +<p>But the priest was angry at the untimely jest and turning savagely upon +Squire Gerzson, said: "Sir, this is no time for jesting, we are both of +us standing on the very threshold of death."</p> + +<p>Gerzson was no coward, nor did he trouble himself very much about death, +but the emphatic tone of the parson at least induced him, at last, to +take the matter seriously.</p> + +<p>"Then according to that you also are in danger on my account?"</p> + +<p>"Ask no questions! I knew what would happen when I gave you a night's +lodging."</p> + +<p>Then he took out of a drawer a packet of letters and bade Gerzson put +them in the pocket of his cassock as the coat he was wearing had no +pockets.</p> + +<p>"Why do you take these with you?"</p> + +<p>"Because I fear to leave them here, and also because I believe I shall +never return to this house any more. I have one request to make of you +and that is that you will read these letters and keep the contents to +yourself." Gerzson promised to do so.</p> + +<p>It was just as the descending moon seemed to be resting on the summits +of the mountains that the priest and his guest quitted the quiet little +house by way of the garden. The night which covered the retreat of the +fugitives was pitch dark. Nobody but one who had been accustomed to that +district for years and knew all its ins and outs could have found a path +through those wooded gorges.</p> + +<p>By the morning light the fugitives perceived the little posting station +on the high road. There the priest exchanged clothes with Gerzson and +resumed his clerical attire.</p> + +<p>"Nothing can detain us now," said the priest, "you can procure post +horses here and return home, but I go in an opposite direction."</p> + +<p>"Whither?"</p> + +<p>"The world is wide. Do not trouble yourself about me. In a month's time +we shall meet again."</p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"At this very place."</p> + +<p>The priest hastily quitted Gerzson and returned towards the forest, +while the latter went on to the little town, where he speedily got post +horses.</p> + +<p>When now he found himself sitting all safe and sound, in the carriage, +it suddenly struck him how remarkably odd it was that he and the parson +should have actually fled away from a non-existent danger. How they +would laugh at him from one end of the kingdom to the other! Suppose +Henrietta had been playing a practical joke upon him! But then, on the +other hand, Henrietta was not of that sort—so he consoled himself.</p> + +<p>But there was another thing which bothered him a good deal. The coachman +had been left behind with the four horses and would not know what to +make of the disappearance of his master and the priest. When, however, +the post chaise stopped in front of his house at Arad who should he see +coming to meet him through the gate but this very coachman whose +astonishment at the meeting was even greater than his master's. And +then, to the amazement of the postillion, master and servant fell upon +each other's necks and embraced each other again and again.</p> + +<p>"Come into the house," said Mr. Gerzson at last, "and tell me what +befell you. I don't want you to bellow it out here before all the +world."</p> + +<p>"I hardly know how to put it, sir, but I will tell it you as best I can. +After watering the horses, I lay down and went to sleep. A loud neighing +suddenly awoke me and, looking around, I saw a great light. The +parson's house was all in flames. Up I was in a jiffy and ran to the +door to call your honour but I found the door was locked from the +inside. I then ran to the windows and found that the shutters were +nailed down over them. What horrified me most of all, however, was that +nobody came from the castle to put the fire out. Then I began to roar +for help and while I was roaring and running up and down looking for an +axe with which to batter in the door—'burum! burum!' I heard two shots +and the bullets whistled to the right and left about my ears. At that +all my pluck went down to my heels; I rushed under the shelter of the +barn, cut the tether ropes of the horses, swung myself up on to the +saddle horse, driving the others before me, and trotted into Arad +without once stopping to water them."</p> + +<p>So he had reached home more quickly than Squire Gerzson himself.</p> + +<p>"Well, my son," said Gerzson, "all that you have told me is gospel truth +I have no doubt, but say not a word of it to anybody, or else . . ." +(and here he uttered the threat which the ordinary Hungarian common folk +fear most of all)—"or else the affair will come before the courts and +you will have to give testimony on oath."</p> + +<p>After that he was sure of the fellow's silence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE SHAKING HAND</h3> + + +<p>Whoever in an evil hour encountered Fatia Negra had a shaking hand for +the rest of his life.</p> + +<p>Ever since that meeting at the <i>csárdá</i> Henrietta's hand also trembled +to such an extent that it was only with the utmost difficulty that she +could sign her own name.</p> + +<p>What happened to her after that meeting? Whom did she recognize in Fatia +Negra? How did she get home?—all these things remained eternal secrets. +The lady was never able to tell it to anybody. Perchance she herself +regarded it as a dream.</p> + +<p>The poor lady used now to pray all day. For hours at a time she would +kneel before the altar of the castle chapel returning thence to her +perpetual walking to and fro, to and fro, kneeling down to pray again +when she was tired out. And so she went on from morning to evening, nay, +till late into the night, sometimes till midnight, sometimes till the +dawn of the next day, up and down, up and down, between four walls, and +then on her knees again a-praying.</p> + +<p>She never appeared in the dining-room; her meals were sent to her room. +She scarcely touched them, it was difficult to understand how she kept +body and soul together.</p> + +<p>She only quitted her chamber to go to chapel. At such times she would +frequently meet domestics or strangers in the castle corridors, but she +looks at nobody and says not a word. She does not notice that they are +there, that they are amazed at her, that they greet her. No one has +heard her speak for a long time.</p> + +<p>And therefore they think her mad. At first only the domestics whispered +this among themselves, then the villagers—and in a month's time it was +notorious through Transylvania that the youthful Baroness Hátszegi was +out of her mind.</p> + +<p>Early one morning, as Henrietta was returning from chapel, there +suddenly appeared before her a ragged woman who must have been hidden in +some niche as the servants had not seen her or driven her out.</p> + +<p>"Stop one moment, my lady," whispered the woman and Henrietta seemed to +hear in that whisper the voice of an old acquaintance, though she did +not recognize the face. It was half masked in a cloth and the little she +could see of it was disfigured by wounds and scars like the face of one +who had been badly injured by fire. Henrietta was horrified at the sight +of her, she looked so dreadful.</p> + +<p>"Don't be frightened, my lady," said the woman falling down on her knees +before her and seizing Henrietta's dress to prevent her from escaping, +"I am Anicza."</p> + +<p>Henrietta fixed her eyes upon the woman full of stupid amazement, and +vainly sought in her face for some trace of the ideal loveliness which +only the other day, so it seemed, had made her so charming. She began to +fancy that the woman was under some evil spell and that if anyone could +but repeat the talismanic word, her former loveliness would be restored +to her.</p> + +<p>"You cannot recognize me your ladyship for my face was burnt to death in +the Lucsia Cavern. Oh, if it had only always been what it is now. I am +much better as I am now. God has punished me because I let my soul be +lost for the sake of my fair face. I am not vain now as I used to be. +Yes, God has smitten all of us on account of our sins, as your ladyship +already knows; but none has he smitten so hard as me. I denounced all my +kinsfolk and acquaintances to the tribunal to be avenged on one man who +had deceived me,—all of them were taken except him and he escaped. And +now I am a beggar, an accursed creature whom everyone drives from his +door, but what care I?—I never feel hungry. They took away all my +father's property—heaven only knows how much there was, more than +twenty thousand ducats, I think, and it would have been mine for I am +his only child. I was summoned before the court, they said they would +reward me for denouncing the society, they said they would give me a +thousand ducats. Ha, ha, ha! a thousand ducats for making myself the +wretched creature I am! But I did not come here to frighten your +ladyship, I came here to humbly beg a favour. Gracious lady, the +magistrates told me that a mixed commission will be appointed to try the +forgers and that his lordship, the baron, will be the president of this +commission; on him depends the life and death of everyone concerned."</p> + +<p>Henrietta felt obliged to lean against the wall.</p> + +<p>"My lady, I do not expect impossibilities, I cannot wish that the guilty +should remain unpunished—justice is justice! But the leader of the +whole gang was Fatia Negra, he planned everything, the others only +carried out his orders. And now there is a lot of false witnesses ready +to swear that my father was the ring-leader and throw all the blame upon +him, but it was Fatia Negra and nobody else as God knows."</p> + +<p>Every time the peasant woman mentioned Fatia Negra's name a spasmodic +twitch convulsed Henrietta's pale features.</p> + +<p>"Gracious lady," continued Anicza, "I implore you by the tender mercies +of God not to abandon me. Grant me my petition! Either let them kill me +or lock me up with the others. I implore you, my lady, to speak or write +to your husband (if these things must be in writing) on my behalf. Do +not let me perish. God will not be angry with you for protecting me."</p> + +<p>Henrietta was now even less able to speak than before. But though she +could not express herself in words, she placed one hand on the girl's +head and raised the other tremulous hand to heaven, as one who takes a +solemn oath before God. Then she tore herself away from Anicza, who had +stooped to kiss the hem of her garment, and hastened back to her own +room. On reaching the threshold of the house she looked back and saw +that the girl had sunk down in the dust and was gratefully kissing the +very traces of the footsteps of the departing lady.</p> + +<p>On reaching her room Henrietta paced up and down it for a long time, +wringing her hands as she went and moaning loudly: "My God! my God!" +Then she flung herself down on her couch, writhing like one in mortal +agony.</p> + +<p>But soon she strengthened her heart and sat down at the writing-table. +What had become of that beautiful handwriting of hers which had +resembled copper plate? Scarcely legible letters now issued from her +trembling hand, dumb witnesses of the terror of her heart, and yet write +she must for it was her petition to her husband. Ah! that she should be +forced to write to him.</p> + +<p>Her letter was as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"DREAD SIR: Tremulously and submissively I approach you. In the +name of an unhappy creature I appeal to your compassion. You will +be the judge of a lot of wretched men. Be merciful to them. By the +grace of heaven I implore you, condemn them not! In the name of +God, I implore you not to sign their death warrants. By the +terrors of eternity I implore you do not ruin these men, for they +are most innocent. N. N."</p></blockquote> + +<p>She durst not subscribe her own name.</p> + +<p>And now she waited, she watched for the moment when Leonard quitted his +room and, slipping in, laid the petition on the couch where he would be +sure to find it. Nobody observed her.</p> + +<p>The same day she encountered him, she had in fact sought for such an +encounter. It was in the great armoury. Leonard, as soon as he perceived +his wife, began humming some mad operatic tune, an opera bouffé air and +bawled through the door to the dog-keeper to unleash the hounds.</p> + +<p>The pale lady nevertheless approached him, with tottering but determined +footsteps, and folding both her trembling hands as if in prayer, stood +mutely in front of the door through which Leonard would have to pass, +like some dumb spirit from another world. But Leonard merely shrugged +his shoulders and passed her by, whistling all the time.</p> + +<p>Again, on the following day, the timid petition lay on Leonard's table, +written in the same tremulous characters. Henrietta had written it +again, and again had crept into his chamber and in whatever part of the +house the magnate might now be found, he everywhere encountered this +pale tremulous figure who pressing her hands together and without +uttering a word gazed at him beseechingly, imploringly—only they two +knew why.</p> + +<p>On the third day Leonard again found the petition and again encountered +Henrietta.</p> + +<p>This time he spoke to her.</p> + +<p>"My dear Henrietta, have you read 'The Mysteries of Paris?'"</p> + +<p>Henrietta, as usual, only stared at the speaker with frightened eyes and +said nothing.</p> + +<p>"How did you like the description of Bicètre? A horrible place, eh? I +have noticed that you have been behaving in rather a peculiar way +lately. In fact, the whole district has been talking about it and saying +that you are a little crazy. I have been asked all sorts of questions +about it too.—Hitherto I have always told everybody that it is not +true.—But if once I should say that it <i>is</i> true, then, you will be +most certainly shut up in a mad house. Regulate your conduct +accordingly."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>THE FIGHT FOR THE GOLD</h3> + + +<p>Of late Mr. Gerzson Satrakovics had invented for himself a peculiar sort +of pastime.</p> + +<p>He had renounced bear hounds and grey hounds and all other kinds of +dogs, he did not care a jot when partridge shooting began, but he hung +up his gun on a nail and began regularly visiting one after another the +session courts of the counties of Arad, Biehar and Temes, in all of +which he was a justice of the peace, and moving resolutions.</p> + +<p>The object of these resolutions was to induce the three counties to +endeavour with their united strength, and in conjunction with the +Transylvanian counties of Hunyad, Fehér and Zarand, to extirpate the +robber bands that had so long been terrorizing the whole district. He +compiled lists of the atrocities perpetrated in the various localities +and connected them all with the name of one particular robber, the +notorious "Fatia Negra." He produced convincing proofs of the existence +of a combination extending from the depths of the dungeons to the +summits of the mountains which was held together by the magic influence +of this one man and he left no stone unturned to bring him to book.</p> + +<p>He, naturally, became quite a laughing stock for his pains, and his +acquaintances could not for the life of them understand what had come to +the man.</p> + +<p>"Why, old fellow!" said Count Kengyelesy to him one day, after he had +been indulging in an unusually fiery philippic at Quarter Sessions, +"why, old fellow, what sort of venom have you swallowed that makes you +perorate so savagely against this worthy Fatia Negra. If anybody has +cause to complain against him it is I, for he relieved me of 1,000 +ducats on the high road, and so cleverly did the rascal manage it, that +I cannot find it in my heart to bear him any ill-will. But what have you +got to do with him I should like to know? What is all this cock and bull +story you keep on spouting out concerning organized robber bands and +mysterious chieftains? Is it your ambition, my friend, to become public +prosecutor?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is, and public prosecutor I will be, too. I want six counties +to place their armed constabulary at my beck and call, and if they do, +I'll wager that I'll so purify all these Alpine regions that the robbers +will not have a single lurking hole left."</p> + +<p>"Rubbish! Don't make a fool of yourself. Besides, they say that Fatia +Negra has flown to America."</p> + +<p>"Newspaper lies. He is here, I know he is."</p> + +<p>"And suppose he is, what harm can he do? This band has been cut off to +the very last man. They have all been sentenced heavily, the older men +to twenty years penal servitude, the younger men to penal servitude for +life. I had it from Hátszegi himself who was the president of the mixed +commission that tried them, and signed the judgment himself. The whole +fraternity is now sitting in chains in the trenches of Gyula Fehérvár +and we have seen the last of it."</p> + +<p>"What guarantee have you of that?"</p> + +<p>"What guarantee?—why the security of the whole region ever since. Why, +everyone there can now sleep with open doors and if you yourself were to +lie dead drunk in the public thoroughfare you would not have your money +stolen from your pocket any more."</p> + +<p>Squire Gerzson protested vehemently against the assumption that he was +in the habit of sprawling tipsily on the king's high road.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you," said he, "why everything is so secure just now. The +confiscated gold of Fatia Negra is still at Gyula Fehérvár, as a forfeit +to the crown, and, sooner or later, must be sent to Vienna. Fatia Negra +is <i>not</i> dead, his robber band has <i>not</i> been captured and does <i>not</i> +sit in irons at Gyula Fehérvár, and the present tranquillity and +imagined security suit their plans nicely. The band now pretends to have +vanished, but just you wait till the gold is sent under convoy from +Gyula Fehérvár to Vienna—and you will see some fun."</p> + +<p>"How do you know that?"</p> + +<p>"I know it sir, because I know that this man, this brazen faced, +iron-fisted man is not such a chicken-hearted creature as to allow a +half-million or so to be snatched from him without stirring every nerve +and muscle to try and win it back again. For I know that hitherto he has +always triumphed over the power of the law and has always escaped from +the most dangerous ambushes."</p> + +<p>"Well, all I can say is that I do not understand what you have to do +with this worthy man."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The falsely coined gold pieces deposited at Gyula Fehérvár, had, after +the trial was over, to be sent to Hungary to be recoined. The precious +consignment filled two post-wagons and was of the estimated value of a +million and a half. Four and twenty Uhlans were told off to escort it. +This was a more than sufficient protection for the most costly treasure +at ordinary times. Moreover, in Hungary, cavalry has always inspired the +mob with terror. During the disturbances at the time of the cholera +outbreak, two squadrons of Hussars were easily able to quell the whole +riot. It was impossible to calculate how many robbers and peasants the +four and twenty Uhlans were capable of coping with. So, at least, the +county magistrates believed.</p> + +<p>The soldiers were commanded by a lieutenant, the post-wagons were under +the charge of an official accountant and a comptroller. All the +postillions were provided with pistols and it was strictly ordered that +the wagons were not to travel on the high-road after six o'clock. There +was no lack of precaution, anyhow!</p> + +<p>Now when the post wagons had reached the celebrated Bridge of Piski,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> +lo, there and then, face to face, four and twenty horsemen came, riding +towards them from the opposite side of the bridge and the five and +twentieth was Fatia Negra.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> It was here that a small band of Hungarians under Czsez +and Kureny held a whole Austrian army at bay on Feb. 9, 1849.—<i>Tr.</i></p></div> + +<p>All the four and twenty had black crape wound round their faces, their +clothes had the lining turned outwards and they were well provided with +swords, csákánys<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> and muskets. Fatia Negra himself rode a vigorous +black stallion and held in his hand a broad, naked sword.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Hooked axes.</p></div> + +<p>The horse of the Uhlan lieutenant took fright at the sight of the black +faces and began to rear, it was as much as his rider could do to prevent +him from springing over the parapet of the bridge.</p> + +<p>Fatia Negra and his band halted in the centre of the bridge and did not +budge from the spot.</p> + +<p>The lieutenant was a brave soldier, who never lost his presence of mind; +he tightened the reins of his plunging horse and turning towards +Black-Mask, exclaimed: "Who are you, what do you want, and why do you +block up the bridge?"</p> + +<p>A deep, thundrous manly voice replied to him from afar: "I am Fatia +Negra. The treasure which you have with you is mine,—it has been stolen +from me. I now want to have it back again. I have brought hither a man +to every man of yours, we are as strong as you. I meet you openly in the +light of day. Give me back my gold or you shall have a taste of my +iron."</p> + +<p>The lieutenant, who was one of the best swordsmen and one of the bravest +heroes in the regiment, did not think twice about accepting the +challenge, but put spurs to his steed and fell upon the adventurer who +awaited him in the middle of the bridge.</p> + +<p>He encountered a terrible antagonist. Fatia Negra warded every blow and +countered instantly; the young officer was thrown into confusion by the +superior dexterity of his opponent, and it was only a soldier's sense of +honour that induced him to continue an attack which was bound to end +fatally for himself: practised fencers always know at once whether they +can vanquish their antagonist or not. At the same time it was really +surprising that Fatia Negra did not immediately take advantage of his +strength and skill. He seemed to be sparing his enemy, nay, he even +retreated before him step by step.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the <i>melée</i> on the bridge had become general. The lancers +hastened to the assistance of their leader, the black masks slashed away +at them with their csákánys, and soon there were very few among the +combatants who had not received a lance thrust or a csákány blow. The +adventurers were forced by the lancers to the opposite end of the +bridge, when the miller, who lived in the mill beside the bridge, +thrust his head out of the window and shouted: "Take care, soldiers! the +beams of the bridge have been sawn through!"</p> + +<p>Was this the fact? Was it the plan of the adventurers to entice the +horses on to the bridge in order that it might break down beneath their +weight?—or was the miller also an accomplice and only shouted this +because the soldiers were gaining the upperhand? In either case the +warning cry had a magical effect upon the pursuers, for they immediately +turned back in alarm and strove to reach their own end of the bridge +again.</p> + +<p>And now they perceived what a two fold trap the cunning adventurers had +set for them, for whilst the lancers had been fighting with the mounted +robbers, a large band of footpads armed with firearms had surrounded the +post wagons in their rear, disarmed the postillions and were now engaged +in attempting to overturn the wagons into the ditch by the roadside.</p> + +<p>The lancers dashed towards the wagons and freed them in a moment from +the hands of the mob which, on their appearance, dispersed among the +brushwood by the roadside from whence they began firing.</p> + +<p>Not far from the bridge was a <i>csárdá</i>, and there the cavalry and the +post-wagons sought a refuge. And indeed they needed it. The number of +the footpads armed with guns was about a couple of hundred; they +enfiladed the whole road and, more than that, it was easy to perceive +that some of the tall roadside poplars had been sawn through beforehand +so that they might be made to fall down and thus make it impossible for +the post wagons across the road behind the backs of the soldiers, to +force their way through.</p> + +<p>The soldiers had, indeed, no reason to fear that the rabble, nine-tenths +of which had no professional knowledge of the art of war, would boldly +storm the <i>csárdá</i>, for in such a case the soldiers would know how to +defend themselves vigourously, well provided as they were with carbines; +but they were well aware of one thing, to wit, that if they allowed +themselves to be surprised after nightfall they were lost, for the +robbers could then set fire to the house over their heads and burn them +alive.</p> + +<p>For their lives they cared nothing; it is a soldier's business to die; +but how to save the enormous sum of money intrusted to them—that was +the problem. Four and twenty horsemen in a solid mass might, with a +desperate effort, cut their way through a mob, despite every obstacle, +but to take the heavy wagons along with them was impossible, for the +road in front was barred by the mob; the bridge and the road behind by +the felled poplars.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, the officer in command had read the history of Napoleon's +Russian campaign and he recollected how the guard on one occasion had +saved the military chest from the Cossacks when the wagon, from want of +horses, had to be left behind. He now applied his knowledge +practically.</p> + +<p>The ducats were taken out of the post-wagons and distributed among the +soldiers; knapsacks, cartridge-boxes, belts and shakos were filled with +the treasure; not a cent was left in the wagons, yet they nailed down +the chests inside them carefully that it might take all the longer to +break them open. Then they mounted the postilions and the civilians on +the spare horses, hastily threw open the gates and the whole band rushed +into the courtyard.</p> + +<p>A sharp volley poured in upon them from every side; some of them were +wounded, but none mortally, for their assailants either fired from afar +or aimed badly. And this was well, for every dead man among them would +have been worth 100,000 guldens.</p> + +<p>Fatia Negra and his horsemen stood close at hand with their loaded +muskets pointed in their hands, but they did not fire.</p> + +<p>"Let the lancers run if they like!" cried Fatia Negra. "Give all your +attention to the wagons!"</p> + +<p>The cavalry soon escaped from the mob of sharpshooters, leaped over the +barriers and began galloping rapidly back to Széb safe and sound. And +they had need to haste, for it was easy to foresee that as soon as the +cry of victory behind their backs had changed into a cry of fury, it +would be a sign that Fatia Negra's band was rushing after them.</p> + +<p>And, indeed, scarce a quarter of an hour had elapsed, when they could +perceive clouds of dust whirling up behind them which proved that the +audacious adventurers, after discovering the fraud, were actually in +pursuit.</p> + +<p>What unheard of audacity! In broad daylight, on the King's highway, +within the borders of a highly civilized, well-organized state, a troop +of adventurers dares to attack an equal number of trained soldiers. Gold +must have turned the heads of the men who had the audacity to do such a +thing! Yet they did it.</p> + +<p>The soldiers saw the cloud of dust behind their backs gradually draw +nearer, the neutral ground between gradually diminished, the fellows +were capitally mounted, there could be no doubt of that.</p> + +<p>The lieutenant ordered his men to halt and face the foolhardy bandits. +He arranged them two deep and spread them out so that they extended +right across the road. He himself stood in the centre a little in +advance of the rest; the civilians were in the rear.</p> + +<p>Presently single shapes were discernible through the approaching cloud +of dust. The robbers were galloping along in no regular order with +intervals of from ten to twenty yards between each one of them.</p> + +<p>More than a thousand yards in front of his comrades galloped Fatia +Negra. His splendid English thoroughbred, as if it would outstrip the +blast which whirled the dust aloft, flew along with him and seemed to +share the blind fury of his master who waved his flashing sword above +his horse's head and bellowed at his opponents from afar like a wild +beast.</p> + +<p>"We'll seize the fellow before his companions come up," said the +lieutenant to his men. "Cut him down from his horse and capture him +alive."</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" roared the lonely horseman, now only a yard off. +"Hurrah!"—the next moment he was in the midst of them.</p> + +<p>And now began a contest which, had it been recorded in the chronicles of +the Crusades, would have been regarded as an act of heroism that only +awaited immortality from a poet great enough to sing it. Fatia Negra, +alone and surrounded, fought single-handed in the midst of the hostile +band. His light sword flashing in his hand like lightning, never stayed +to parry but attacked incessantly. Handless swords and headless shakos +flew around him in the air and whithersoever his horse turned its head, +an empty space gaped before him, every antagonist retreating before him. +So close was the <i>melée</i> that the soldiers stood in each other's way and +could not use their firearms for fear of shooting their comrades. The +lieutenant was the only man who did not avoid him. Like a true soldier +who considers wounds an honour, he did not trouble himself to recollect +that his adversary was superior to him both in strength and skill, but +strove incessantly to urge his horse towards him. Twice he struck the +fellow but he did not seem to feel the blow. Once he dealt him a skilful +thrust in the side, but the sword bent nearly double without entering +his body. "Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Fatia Negra—he must have put on a coat +of mail beneath his jacket—and the same instant he countered so +savagely that if the lieutenant had not dodged his head, he must have +lost it. As it was the sword pierced through his shako and out poured +the gold pieces by thousands on to the highroad.</p> + +<p>At the sight of the shower of gold pieces, Fatia Negra roared like a +demon. What he had done hitherto was a mere joke—now the battle began +in grim earnest.</p> + +<p>"Down with your heads, down with your headpieces!" he thundered, and +with the fury of a lion he flung himself on his opponents, everyone of +whom wore on his head the dangerous magnet which irresistibly attracted +his flashing sword.</p> + +<p>He himself was invulnerable. Neither sword nor lance could penetrate his +shirt of mail. And meanwhile his companions were rapidly galloping up. +Now another shako flew into the air and the horse's hoofs trampled the +falling ducats in the mud.</p> + +<p>"Shoot down his horse!" cried the voice of the post-office functionary +from the rear, and the same instant three pistol shots resounded. At the +third, which struck him full in the chest, the animal reared high in the +air. Fatia Negra, perceiving the danger, and before the horse had time +to fall and crush him, leaped from the saddle on to the ground.</p> + +<p>And now he attacked the enemy on foot. He was blind now. He saw nothing +before him but blood and ducats—he was drunk with both.</p> + +<p>All at once he observed that he was alone, and, fighting the air—he no +longer felt the contact of swords, or skulls or human bodies. After the +officer had been wounded, the post-office functionary took the command +and concluded it advisable not to await the arrival of the whole robber +band. It was his duty to save the money. He ordered the soldiers to turn +back and make the best of their way to Szászvár, the money that had been +already spilt was given up for lost. It was of no use for mere men to +attempt to grapple with such a devil incarnate as Fatia Negra.</p> + +<p>"After them, after them!—Give me a horse!" roared Fatia Negra to his +comrades as they came galloping up, whereupon they all leaped from their +nags, not so much indeed for the sake of giving him a mount as for the +sake of grabbing the scattered heaps of ducats.</p> + +<p>"Let that alone; it won't run away" cried the adventurer. "The bulk of +it is galloping in front of us—follow me!"</p> + +<p>And at that, without waiting their decision, he seized one of the +horses, swung himself into the saddle and dashed after the lancers. +Nobody followed him. The robbers were wise enough to perceive that if +they left lying here these thousands of ducats, actually won, in order +to run after ten times as many which they had still to catch, (not to +mention the broken heads which they were sure to get into the bargain), +the loafing members of the confraternity who were following behind them +on foot, would pocket the booty nicely at their ease, so they stayed +where they were, with the comfortable persuasion that Fatia Negra would +be sure to turn back when he perceived he was alone.</p> + +<p>He, however, never gave them a thought, but putting spurs to his horse, +pursued the soldiers. In vain. He had no longer a blood horse beneath +him and was unable to overtake the bearers of the lost treasure. Nor did +they halt again to give him anything to do. Looking back from time to +time, they saw how a single horseman was galloping after them, with his +sword blade firmly gripped between his teeth, and a shuddering +recollection of the old nursery tales of nether-world monsters came over +them.</p> + +<p>The solitary horseman pursued them right up to the toll-house of +Szászvár, and even when he gave up the pursuit the toll-man saw him for +a long time trotting round about the outskirts of the town shaking his +fist and shouting imprecations. Once or twice he drew near enough to +fire his pistols through the doors and windows of the toll-house, and so +great was the spell of terror surrounding the person of the terrible +adventurer that nobody ventured outside the city wall to try and +capture him; nay, the burgesses even remained under arms in the streets +all night guarding the principal entrances for fear lest Fatia Negra and +his band might take it into their heads to formally besiege the place, +and, had it only depended upon his will to do so, he would assuredly +have made the attempt.</p> + +<p>But it never came to that. On returning to the place of combat Fatia +Negra found his horsemen still searching in the mud and darkness for the +lost ducats, and made an attempt to reorganize his band, which did, +indeed, do a little maurauding on its own account; but when the news +reached him, through one of his paid spies, that four hundred infantry +with a cannon had reached Szászvár from Szeb—the very word "a connon" +had such an effect upon the robbers that they scattered in every +direction as if a tempest had dispersed them. Next morning there was not +a trace of them anywhere.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE HUNTED BEAST</h3> + + +<p>Such a piece of audacity could not be overlooked.</p> + +<p>That a robber horseman should in the middle of the nineteenth century +and within the confines of a civilized state take it into his head to +attack, in broad daylight, post wagons defended by a strong escort of +regular soldiers—was a thing unheard of.</p> + +<p>The news spread like lightning through the six confederated counties and +everyone seized his sword and musket. So old Gerzson Satrakovics whom +everybody had laughed at, was right after all. It was universally agreed +that a stop must be put to this sort of thing once for all. There was no +waiting now for the meetings of Quarter Sessions. The lord-lieutenants +of the counties proclaimed the <i>statarium</i>,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> called out the +<i>banderia</i><a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> and gathered together the county <i>pandurs</i><a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> and the +militia, in order by their combined efforts, to extirpate the evil +without having recourse to the assistance of the military—a measure +always repugnant to the freedom-loving Magyars.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> A decree authorizing summary procedure.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Mounted gentry.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Police.</p></div> + +<p>Squire Gerzson was elected the leader of this vast hunt, whose area +extended over hundreds of square miles, by all the six counties +concerned—it was generally felt that this was but due to him for the +neglect of his warnings—and Mr. Gerzson proved on this occasion that if +he was not a great strategist, at any rate he was a great beater up of +game. His plan was to occupy all the mountain roads and passes leading +out of the six counties with armed bands of militia, while at the same +time he himself advanced slowly along the highroads with his +gentlemen-volunteers joining hands together from place to place. Between +various groups of the volunteers were regular lines of <i>pandurs</i> who had +to thoroughly scour all the forests they came to. The encircling network +of this gigantic army of beaters grew narrower and narrower day by day +and was to converge towards a fixed point which Squire Gerzson said he +would more definitely indicate later on.</p> + +<p>Moreover there was a flying column admitted to the full confidence of +its leader, whose duty it was to appear suddenly and unexpectedly in all +parts of the closely environed region, in order to head off anything +like a definite plan of defence on the part of the adventurers and track +them down more easily. The leadership of this special corps was +entrusted to young Szilard Vamhidy, upon whose ingenuity, determination +and ability Squire Gerzson professed to place the utmost reliance.</p> + +<p>As soon as he had received this important charge, Szilard took horse +and set off at the head of his four and twenty <i>pandurs</i>. First of all +he went in the direction of the Alps of Bihár and along a narrow +mountain path and through a melancholy, uncanny, region with not a +living plant by the wayside and not a morsel of moss on the naked rock. +No sound is to be heard there but the eternal sighing of the wind, and +in the dizzy depths below the traveller sees nothing but dense, dreary +forests crowding one upon another with the Alpine eagles circling and +screaming above them.</p> + +<p>It was just the place for a hunted band of robbers to turn upon their +pursuers for a last life and death struggle,—here where even the bodies +of the slain would never be found. For not once in two years does a +wanderer chance to come this way, and long before that time the wolves +and the vultures will have dispersed the bones of the fallen.</p> + +<p>Yet this time the robber bands did not fall in with their pursuers, a +sufficient proof that Szilard's plan was skilfully laid and +unanticipated. For had Fatia Negra had any idea of his design, it is +absolutely inconceivable that he would not have laid in wait for him on +this spectre-haunted path, where ten resolute men could have held a +whole army at bay.</p> + +<p>For hours Szilard's long troop of horsemen pursued their way along +without meeting a soul. Late in the afternoon they came upon the first +shepherd's hut. The herdsman himself was out in the forest with his +flocks; there was nobody at home but a lame dog which barked at them.</p> + +<p>In the evening they met a mounted countryman carrying maize to be ground +at the mill, him they took along with them as guide.</p> + +<p>After that they travelled all night long, passing through Skeritora and +Nyigsa, till they came to the cataract of Vidra, which they reached at +dawn of day.</p> + +<p>The houses of these Alpine villages are so far apart that next +neighbours cannot even see each other's dwellings, as there is at least +half a league between them. This circumstance and the night-season +favoured Szilard's plans. They could surround each house, one by one, +without the inhabitants of the other houses being aware of what had +happened in the first ones.—A fruitless labour for they found nothing +of a suspicious nature.</p> + +<p>Tired out, the band, early in the morning, reached the house beneath the +waterfall; here they felt the need of halting. Szilárd put some +questions to the guide and then dismissed him, commanding him to return +to Skeritora.</p> + +<p>When the guide had mounted, the <i>pandur</i> sergeant observed to Szilard: +"I fancy, your honour, that that rascal does not mean to return to +Skeritora, but as soon as he is out of sight will turn back and give the +alarm beforehand in all the districts on our line of march."</p> + +<p>"I fancy so too."</p> + +<p>"But then every suspected person will get wind of the whole affair and +have time to bolt."</p> + +<p>"That is just what I want. The trouble is at present that they lie so +still."</p> + +<p>And with that he ordered half of his <i>pandurs</i> to lie down and sleep and +the other half to remain awake and so relieve each other every three +hours. So the <i>pandurs</i> rested till midday and then the sergeant began +to urge Szilard to set off again or else they would arrive too late.</p> + +<p>"It is too early yet," replied Szilard, and he spent a good half of the +afternoon there doing nothing. Only then did he take horse again, +complaining to everyone how much yesterday's ride had taken it out of +him, and asking everybody he met on the road, coming or going, where the +next village lay?—how to get to it?—and in what direction the highroad +lay?</p> + +<p>The old <i>pandurs</i> naturally began murmuring among themselves. "Oh!" said +they, "if he keeps on blurting out his whole line of route like this, we +shall only have the empty nests of the robbers to thresh out for our +trouble."</p> + +<p>"And this chap thinks, forsooth, that he will capture Fatia Negra!" +growled the veteran sergeant.</p> + +<p>But no sooner did they get beyond the fenced fields than Szilard +suddenly turned his horse's head and leading the way to the other side +of the mountain-stream, cut his way through the forest, ordering his +comrades to hurry after him as speedily as possible. What he was aiming +at, nobody had the least idea. If he meant to lose his way in the forest +he was setting about the best way to do it.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he ordered his followers to dismount and lead their horses by +their bridles up to the top of the mountain. The old sergeant now +guessed what he was after, but did not approve of it.</p> + +<p>"There is no path for a horse up this mountain," said he.</p> + +<p>"Silence, sir! I know what I am about. Follow me!"</p> + +<p>And so, for a good half hour, cursing their leader bitterly beneath +their breaths, they painfully struggled after him up the dangerous path +and then, suddenly, a marvellous sight met their gaze. An immense cavern +gaped open before them through which, as through a tunnel, they could +reach the valley on the other side. This was the so-called "Roman Gate." +Many believe that the Romans dug this passage through the mountain, but +this marvellous piece of workmanship has been carried out on too vast a +scale for anybody else but Nature to be its architect; it is possible, +however, that the Romans may have used this passage for their campaigns.</p> + +<p>And now the <i>pandurs</i> understood the plan of their young leader and were +ready to follow him blindly through fire and water.</p> + +<p>In another half hour they had passed through the "Roman Gate" and +reached the valley beyond, and by next morning Vamhidy had lit down +like a thunderbolt from the sky where nobody expected him.</p> + +<p>By the evening he had run down eight persons who were under very strong +suspicion. After dusk the same day he sent the following letter to +Gerzson by one of his men: "I feel certain I hold the thread of the +whole conspiracy in my hands. We are on their track."</p> + +<p>At nightfall he encamped in a lonely mill, which he chose because, in +case of necessity, it could easily be defended. He had reasons for +thinking that he might be attacked in the night.</p> + +<p>The mill was built over a rushing mountain-stream so that the stream +shot through and under the building, over the wheels. In front, three +sluices confined within the basin the collected flood of water which was +here very deep. A broad, thick board, laid across three stout piles, +formed the bridge which connected the foot-path sloping down from the +forest, with the foot-path on the opposite side.</p> + +<p>Towards evening his pickets came and told Vamhidy that a blind beggar +wanted to speak to him and in secret, so that nobody could hear.</p> + +<p>Szilard ordered the blind man to be led in. He seemed to be a muscular, +athletic fellow with broad shoulders and a huge body—what a pity he was +blind.</p> + +<p>"Domnule, are we quite alone?" inquired the blind man when he stood +before Vamhidy.</p> + +<p>"We are quite by ourselves; what is it you want, my good fellow?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir, for calling me a good fellow, for I <i>was</i> good for +something once upon a time, and will be so again. I am the famous Juon +Tare whose eyes were burnt out in the Lucsia Cavern when they wanted to +catch Fatia Negra, and the monster set the whole cavern on fire. I want +the head of Fatia Negra. I am after that head now and when I get it all +my woe will cease. Do you want that head Domnule?—I can tell you where +it is."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Have you pluck enough not to be afraid of him, Domnule?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid of nothing."</p> + +<p>"And yet many brave men fall back at the sight of that black face, which +never changes, which is just like steel and which they fancy neither +sword nor bullet can hurt; but my nails have torn his body and I have +seen his blood flow."</p> + +<p>"Say where he is!"</p> + +<p>"Close at hand."</p> + +<p>"In which direction?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! Domnule!" sighed Juon Tare, "how can I answer that, I who can see +neither heaven nor earth?"</p> + +<p>"Then how do you know that he is hard by?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, Domnule, I can recognize him by his voice, and if I do not hear him +speak, I can recognize the sound of his footsteps when I hear him draw +nigh. Nobody else has his trick of walking. Sometimes he goes as softly +as a spectre so that only the ears of a blind man can detect his +footfall and at other times he tramps as if the whole earth beneath him +were hollow and it resounds at every step. Oh, I have often heard him +approaching when he was still far, far away."</p> + +<p>"But do you know anything certain about him?"</p> + +<p>"I will tell you everything, Domnule, beginning at the beginning. You +see that I am blind, a blind beggar, for begging is my trade. So long as +my wife was alive, I had no need to turn beggar, for she worked for me +and kept me. But she died. After that I would gladly have died of +hunger, but she left me a little son, a child but two years old and I go +a begging for him. Above the brook here on the King's highway is a stone +bridge built by the county. Early in the morning my little son is wont +to lead me hither and then returns to the village, little mite as he is +the wife of the scrivener looks after him, and in the evening he comes +and fetches me home again. Whatever is given me by charitable wayfarers +I share with my poor hostess, who is poorer than any beggar. Yesterday +something happened. It was this. I was sitting outside there at the end +of the bridge and as I had not heard a human voice about me for a long +time and it was extremely hot, slumber weighed heavily upon me. I +struggled hard against it but it was too much for me. I was afraid that +if I fell across the road a cart might go over me. So I laid myself down +under the arch of the bridge. I knew the place well for I had often +sheltered there from the storm. Suddenly I was awakened by those +familiar footsteps. They passed across the bridge over my head. I will +take my oath that it was he. He stood still in the middle of the bridge. +Shortly afterwards I heard the sound of many more footsteps coming, some +from the left and some from the right. Men were coming in all directions +towards the bridge, and there in the middle of it they stood; I counted +them—there were four and twenty of them."</p> + +<p>Szilard now began to listen attentively.</p> + +<p>"Then he spoke. Oh, even if I had had the light of both my eyes, I could +not have seen him so plainly before me as I saw him in my blindness when +I heard him speak. It was indeed he, at the very first word I recognized +him; but when I tell you what he said, then you also will recognize him +Domnule. Those four and twenty men are a sworn confederacy. It was a +secret plot they were hatching at that place, where nobody could +surprise them, as it is girt about with woods on every side. He called +his companions here to tell them of the measures that were being taken +against them. He told them they had no need to fear all that the six +counties were doing but that the little band which was zig-zagging +through the whole district was greatly to be feared. It was the cause of +all the mischief and must be put out of the way. But his comrades made +no reply. They grumbled and muttered among themselves and at last they +said that this would be a difficult thing to do. They all said they +would not tackle the <i>pandurs</i> because they were better shots than any +robber and were used to hunting and all its wiles. In vain were all the +assurances of Fatia Negra; they said they meant to hide away as best +they could. 'Then hide and be d——d to you,' said their leader, 'I will +tackle them single-handed. I'll seek them out and show you that they too +are but mortal men.' Those were his last words to them; they scattered +again, to the right and left, and I heard their departing footsteps over +my head. But believe me, sir, Fatia Negra will try to do what he said."</p> + +<p>"What! come and attack us?—alone, against so many?"</p> + +<p>"You do not believe what I say, sir, but so it will be."</p> + +<p>"Nay, my good fellow, but are you quite certain you did not dream it +all?"</p> + +<p>"Domnule, in the first moment of my amazement that is what I fancied +myself. How can a blind man know whether he is awake or dreaming. I +therefore drew forth my pocket-knife and with the point of it I cut a +cross in my left arm. Look, sir, there it is!"</p> + +<p>Juon tucked up the wide shirt sleeve from his herculean arm and Szilard +was astonished to see the half healed and cross-like scar—it had been +a deep gash.</p> + +<p>"So now, sir," pursued Juon, "you can see that I am not dreaming. Watch +well, for Fatia Negra will come. Not to-night for he awaits you on the +road by which you came. But to-morrow he will know that you have dodged +him by going through the 'Roman Gate' and to-morrow night you can safely +reckon upon him."</p> + +<p>Szilard charged Juon not to say a word to anybody about what he had told +him and promised him a reward if what he had said really came to pass.</p> + +<p>That night nothing happened, and till the afternoon of the next day he +lingered idly at the mill. Towards midday they heard in the forest a +loud barking of dogs; the miller said it was no doubt the lord of the +manor hunting bears.</p> + +<p>"He chooses a very inopportune time," growled Vamhidy, "he will scare +<i>my</i> game away."</p> + +<p>The hunters were not long in issuing from the forest, they seemed to +have lost the track of the bear.</p> + +<p>Vamhidy sent word to the gentlemen that he would be much obliged to them +if they would postpone their amusement to some more convenient season as +business of a graver sort was going on here. Word was at once brought +back that the company was quite ready to do as he said. The dogs were +quickly leashed again, the beaters recalled by signals and the whole +hunt came straight towards the mill. A few moments later Vamhidy +recognized in the leader of the hunt—Leonard Hátszegi.</p> + +<p>It was an unwelcome surprise on both sides, but Hátszegi was the first +to recover himself, and he greeted him with as radiant a countenance as +if he had never had any cause of quarrel with him.</p> + +<p>"We both of us seem to be on a hunting expedition your honour!" said he.</p> + +<p>"Mine is an official pursuit."</p> + +<p>"And mine pure pastime. Had I known you would have taken this road, I +should certainly not have engaged in such a mal-apropos diversion. But +it is over now, we are all going back. My bear may run—how about +yours?"</p> + +<p>"No sign of him yet."</p> + +<p>"Well, I could regale you with no end of interesting anecdotes +concerning the hunted adventurer, for I have had more than one famous +<i>rencontre</i> with him myself. If it were only worth your while to pay us +a visit at Hidvár I could promise you the heartiest reception—not only +on my own part but also on the part of my wife."</p> + +<p>"I am much obliged to your lordship," replied Vamhidy cooly, "but I am +bound by instructions from which I cannot depart. It is not pleasure +that brings me hither. Besides I have got a sure clue at last which I +must follow up and I know not whither it may lead me."</p> + +<p>"Bravo! So you are on his track at last, eh! Take care my friend it is +not a false clue. These rascals are very crafty."</p> + +<p>"It is a real clue that I have discovered. You must know that before the +confiscated gold captured in the Lucsia Cavern was sent to Vienna, every +coin of it was marked with a little cross, a very simple official +precaution, but it has proved very useful to us. Now I have come upon +these marked ducats among the people here. They themselves, I believe, +are innocent and can give the name of the persons from whom they +received them; and so, by tracing the various intermediaries, we shall +come at last, upon the original dispensers of these ducats. I can +imagine how Fatia Negra will laugh when he hears that the soldiers of +six counties are hunting for him in the depths of the forests and +tapping every rotten tree-stump in search of him while he is sitting +comfortably in some large theatre and eyeing the ballet-dancers through +his opera glass; but he will be very much surprised when, one fine day, +without any preliminary siege-operations we shall tap at his own door +and enquire: 'Is Fatia Negra at home?'"</p> + +<p>Hátszegi laughed heartily.</p> + +<p>"Not a bad idea, upon my honour! I myself am inclined to think that the +worthy highwayman will be sooner found in a coffee house than in a +forest. I only regret that I did not mark my own coins so that I might +recognize them again."</p> + +<p>And so laughing and whistling, he returned to his party which appeared +to consist of mere dependents and gave them his orders.</p> + +<p>"Unpack the horses and get lunch ready," said he, "we will not go any +further."</p> + +<p>Then he turned again to Vamhidy.</p> + +<p>"Since we are obliged to capitulate to superior force, would you be so +good as to pick out with me a nice, round, shadowy spot in the forest +where we may encamp and share with each other our provisions which have +thus become the spoils of war?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, my lord," replied Vamhidy coldly, "but I have already had my +lunch."</p> + +<p>His lunch, by the way, had consisted of a maize cake baked in the ashes.</p> + +<p>"Then won't you allow your men to drink my health in a glass of wine, +since they are actually on my domains?"</p> + +<p>"My <i>pandurs</i> are not allowed to drink; they have to remain sober. They +must not leave the mill without my leave and your lordship must not camp +out here although the mill is your property. For just now I am +'verbiro,'<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> here with the right to open and close every door as I may +think fit."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> A magistrate with the power of life and death in his +hands.</p></div> + +<p>"Then I shall know how to respect your authority. All the same, I do not +withdraw my offer. My castle and every house and shanty on my estate is +at your disposal and if you should not find me at home at Hidvár, as I +have to be off early to-morrow morning to Szeb, my wife will be +delighted to see you."</p> + +<p>And with that he threw his gun across his shoulder and tripped away with +well bred nonchalance across the field, and, calling to his party to +follow him, disappeared in the depths of the forest from which he had +just emerged.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And now it was evening and the heavens were full of stars and Szilard +began to gaze at the stars and as he did so he forgot all about the +official burdens that weighed so heavily upon his shoulders, all about +Fatia Negra and the robbers. He fancied that his eyes encountered among +the stars the eyes of "another" whom slumber and happiness had deserted +just as they had deserted him.</p> + +<p>How close to each other chance had brought them once more! He had only +to accept her husband's invitation in order to meet her face to face. +What would they not have to say to one another?</p> + +<p>The night was quite still, the whole region was dumb save for the +gurgling of the water rushing through the sluices. The <i>pandurs</i> were +snoring in the living room, for they were allowed to sleep till two +o'clock. Only Vamhidy kept watch with a single <i>pandur</i> who was guarding +the prisoners in the cellar.</p> + +<p>"The Lord God bless thee!" a hushed voice suddenly resounded from among +the brown bushes and Szilard distinguished by the light of the rising +moon a tall dark shape approaching the mill path. It was blind Juon.</p> + +<p>"How did you know anyone was here?" enquired Szilard suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"I heard you sigh, sir, once or twice and I knew you were awake for I +warned you beforehand to watch—to-night he will be upon you."</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"Who? Why Fatia Negra."</p> + +<p>"So you think he will be bold enough?"</p> + +<p>"I know that he is already on the way."</p> + +<p>"And where were you just now?"</p> + +<p>"I was working in the mill-ditch."</p> + +<p>"At night! What were you doing there?"</p> + +<p>"I have removed the supporting beam underneath the bridge leading across +the reservoir! It was a hard bit of work but I had the strength to do +it."</p> + +<p>"Why did you do that?"</p> + +<p>"Because he will come from the opposite side and immediately he steps on +the middle of the bridge the plank will give way beneath him and he will +fall into the water like a mouse in a trap."</p> + +<p>"What is the good of that, he will only swim out again."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but his pistols will then be full of water and he will be unable +to use them against you."</p> + +<p>Szilard began to perceive that he had a most determined ally with all +sorts of ideas in his head that had never occurred to himself.</p> + +<p>"But surely, my poor fellow, you do not imagine that anybody will be +mad enough to face so many armed men alone."</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir, but I also do not know whether you yourself may not +be alone among so many armed men, for I hear snoring among the very +guard you told off to watch the cellar."</p> + +<p>Szilard was startled. He immediately hastened to the place indicated and +there, sure enough, he saw the sentry stretched at full length across +the cellar door. He angrily hastened to arouse him and seized the +sleeper by the arm; but all his efforts were powerless to awake the +fellow,—he might just as well have been dead.</p> + +<p>"Try to wake the others, sir," said Juon.</p> + +<p>The pandurs lay in long rows stretched out upon the straw in the meal +magazine.</p> + +<p>Szilard spoke to them, first gently, then loudly, and at last angrily, +calling them by name, one after the other; but not one of them awoke. He +tore the sleepers away from their places, but they were not aware of it; +as soon as he let them go they rolled back again into their former +positions.</p> + +<p>"What has happened?" cried the confounded Szilard.</p> + +<p>"There must be a traitor among them, sir, a hireling of Fatia Negra; he +has his hirelings everywhere, in forests, in palaces, in dungeons, in +barracks, everywhere. And this traitor has mingled thorn-apple juice in +the drink of his comrades and they will now sleep on for a night and a +day. The traitor himself is pretending to sleep along with his fellows +but he is only awaiting the arrival of Fatia Negra and then up he will +get and release the captives. It was an artful dodge, your honour!"</p> + +<p>Szilard felt a tremor running through all his limbs.</p> + +<p>"You see, sir, you are here alone, but Fatia Negra is never alone. But +so far no great harm has been done. We will make him to be alone also. +We cannot find out just now which of the four and twenty is a traitor. +But we will bind the whole four and twenty hand and foot, and then the +traitor also will be helpless."</p> + +<p>Szilard began to perceive that this blind man was right in everything. +His words must be listened to, for the danger was close at hand, there +was no time for hesitation. So he quickly routed up all the halters in +the mill and they set to work.</p> + +<p>The blind giant laid the pandurs one by one across his knee and placing +their hands behind their backs crosswise held them towards Szilard, who +bound them fast. Three and twenty of them felt nothing of all this and +the four and twentieth who did feel it thought it just as well to go on +feigning slumber, for had it been discovered that he was awake one grip +of those enormous fists would have made of him a sleeper indeed—for +ever more.</p> + +<p>"Is your sword sharp, sir?" enquired the blind man when this piece of +work was done.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I have pistols likewise."</p> + +<p>"Test them, sir, for I suspect they have been tampered with."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"If ever, sir, you have pursued some wild beast, a bear or a buffalo, +for instance, you know the rule surely: never rely upon any weapon which +has not been freshly loaded by your own hand. Let us take the loading +out of your pistols. It won't do to fire them off for we are lying in +wait for big game and at such times one must keep very quiet."</p> + +<p>Szilard hearkened to the warning and drew the loading out of both his +well charged pistols. It is usual when the powder is taken out to blow +down the barrel and as he did so now he remarked that something was +wrong. The ramrod encountered some soft substance which he drew forth. +Juon smelt it and pronounced it to be the wax of wild bees.</p> + +<p>"You see, sir, you will not be able to discharge this pistol, for the +touch holes are so plugged up that it will take you some hours to +thoroughly clean them."</p> + +<p>"At any rate I have still the firearms of my pandurs."</p> + +<p>"Let us examine them also, sir!"</p> + +<p>They did so forthwith and found that they too had been utterly ruined. +And all this must have been done while Szilard had been sitting outside +and his men had been sleeping!</p> + +<p>"Then your sword is sharp, sir, eh?" enquired the blind man, "for I +hear the footsteps of Fatia Negra."</p> + +<p>The sensitive ears of the blind man "scented" so to speak the well known +footfalls while they were still approaching on the distant forest paths.</p> + +<p>The young man felt an involuntary shudder run through his body as the +moment drew near when he would have to face the hunted foe. The magical +mysteriousness which enveloped his pursuer; the marvellous audacity +which ensured the success of all his projects; his gigantic bodily +strength—all these things were sufficient to make any man's heart beat +more quickly at the prospect of encountering Black-Mask in a life and +death struggle at a lonely place.</p> + +<p>But Szilard was resolved to see the business through. The strong will +peculiar to men of his nature broke down his fear. He had no business to +tremble, it was not permitted to him to fear. He who has a sword in his +hand is never alone—a sword is also a man.</p> + +<p>The blind man trembled in his stead. He feared for him. When Szilard +returned with his naked sword, the blind man passed his finger along its +edge from end to end to test its sharpness.</p> + +<p>"A good sword, a very good sword, Domnule. Fear him not, but when he +scrambles out of the water, rush upon him and strike at his neck. Do not +aim at his body for this accursed one wears a coat of mail so that no +weapon can pierce him. If he comes to close quarters, do not defend +yourself but slash away at him, you may perhaps be wounded, but if you +stand on the defensive, he will kill you. If he gets too much for you, +call out and I will rush in and strangle him with my naked hands. Oh, +what would I not give now for the sight of my two eyes."</p> + +<p>And the blind man began to weep bitterly.</p> + +<p>"That man killed my wife and blinded me and now when I hear him +approach, when I hear him coming towards me all alone I cannot see him. +I cannot rush in and close with him. Be valiant, Domnule, and God be +with you. May the soul of my Mariora direct the edge of your sword and +darken his eyes. Hearken!—is not that he approaching!"</p> + +<p>And it was actually he. The tall elegant figure was descending the +moonlight rocks with a light, elastic tread, dressed from head to foot +in a black atlas mantle. Szilard saw him drawing nearer and nearer, step +by step, to the mill behind a pillar of whose verandah he himself was +concealed expectant.</p> + +<p>At the very moment when he perceived this figure, his former terror gave +way before a strange, resolute fury which now filled his heart, a +feeling familiar only to those whose blood is set boiling whenever they +are suddenly confronted by a pressing danger. He feared the man no +longer, he burned to encounter him.</p> + +<p>Blind Juon stood beside him and pressed his hand. They both of them +began to listen intently, nature itself was as still as if the wind +also would listen. Nothing was audible but the dull measured tramp of +the approaching footsteps.</p> + +<p>The black shape now footed the bridge; with a confident gait he +approached the middle of it, another step and the bridge gave way +beneath him and with an involuntary cry the man in black plunged into +the water.</p> + +<p>"Now, sir, rush in!" whispered Juon to Szilard. But the latter could not +help thinking at that moment that it was an act of cowardice to attack a +man when he could not defend himself, even though that man was a robber, +so he allowed him to scramble out onto the other side.</p> + +<p>The black mantle had fallen from the shoulders of Fatia Negra into the +water and there he now stood before Szilard with his wet clothes +clinging closely to his body like a statue of Antinous, a shape of +athletic beauty.</p> + +<p>In his girdle were a couple of pistols, in all probability rendered +useless by the water and a long Arab yataghan almost as long as an +ordinary sword but without the usual cruciform hilt.</p> + +<p>Szilard barred the way.</p> + +<p>For an instant Fatia Negra was taken aback by his antagonist's +unexpected wariness and courage, but the next moment his drawn yataghan +flashed in his hand and the second flash was the clash of the contending +weapons.</p> + +<p>And now happened what happens hundreds and thousands of times in actual +life. At the very first onset Fatia Negra, the notorious, the +practised, the invincible swordsman was disarmed by a young civilian who +had never, perhaps, held a naked sword in his hand before and possessed +no advantage over his opponent save the courage of an honest man as +opposed to the effrontery of a malefactor—a marvel indeed!</p> + +<p>Both of them had lunged at the same time, neither of them had parried, +Szilard's sword cut through his adversary's wrist and at the same +instant Fatia Negra's yataghan fell from his hand.</p> + +<p>The wounded robber set up a howl like a wild beast and Juon, lurking +beneath the verandah of the mill responded with another howl of joy that +sounded like an echo. The blind man had recognized that Fatia Negra was +in danger and at once rushed out upon him.</p> + +<p>The disarmed adventurer lost his presence of mind along with his sword. +His right hand suddenly sank helpless to his side and his stout heart +was seized with a sort of paralysis. He perceived that this was the man +sent by fate to announce to him that his last hour was at hand. He +turned and fled toward the forest.</p> + +<p>Szilard rushed after him.</p> + +<p>"Take care," screamed blind Juon. But none heeded him. Fatia Negra flew +away before his enemy. At first he left him far behind, but gradually +the continuous loss of blood began to weaken him and it also occurred to +him that even if he succeeded in distancing his adversary, he would +still leave a trail of blood behind him. To complete his confusion the +moon made the whole region as light as day. He was forced to sit down on +a tree stump to tie up his wounded hand; at least he would stop the flow +of blood and make the trail more difficult to follow.</p> + +<p>While with the help of his left hand and his teeth he was binding up his +useless right hand, his pursuer overtook him.</p> + +<p>"Fatia Negra—surrender!"</p> + +<p>The only reply the adventurer gave was to try to fire his pistols and +finding them only flash in the pan he hurled them one after the other at +his enemy's head. Szilard then had practical experience of the rumor +that Fatia Negra could throw very well even with his left hand,—had he +not leaped aside at the nick of time the pistols would have dashed his +brains out.</p> + +<p>Then up Fatia Negra started to his feet again and fled away still +further. The pursuer and the pursued now sped along with pretty equal +energy, though the loss of blood continued to weaken the robber. Yet he +made one desperate effort to scale the steep side of the mountain. An +ordinary man could rarely breast such an ascent, yet he tried it. But he +soon found that even thus he could not shake off his enemy. He remained +indeed some hundreds of paces behind but he could not dodge out of his +sight in the now open glade.</p> + +<p>On the brow of the hill the adventurer stopped to pant and surveyed the +undulating thickly wooded hills stretching away on every side of him. +He drew a silver whistle from his bosom and gave with it three +penetrating signals which re-echoed from among the distant mountains. +But it was only an echo, only the note of the whistle that he heard, he +waited in vain for anything else. All his accomplices had evidently +hidden away.</p> + +<p>And again the pursuer overtook him. He waited till he was only two paces +off and then he seized a stone weighing half a hundred weight and hurled +it at him—the tree trunk behind which Szilard had taken refuge bent +beneath the blow. Then Fatia Negra fled down towards the valley.</p> + +<p>It was a desperate way for him to take, for down hill his adversary +could cover the ground as quickly as he could; the distance between them +was never more than ten paces, the wound the robber had received began +to enervate his whole body, and he was not long in finding out that the +hurling of missiles is a very profitless mode of warfare when you have +only one hand at your disposal.</p> + +<p>Panting hard he fled on further seeking refuge. And now he took to +zigzagging through the wood in the hope of dodging his pursuer if only +for an instant as a flying fox is wont to do when he is already nearing +his hole whose entrance he does not wish to betray to his pursuer.</p> + +<p>A little further on a stout quickset hedge barred their way. Fatia Negra +burst through it and Szilard followed in the gap that he had made.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a hunting lodge came in view—at least the antlers on the top +of the porch and above the windows suggested that that was what it was +intended for.</p> + +<p>One of the windows looking out upon the forest stood open. Fatia Negra +suddenly stopped short, waited till his adversary was close up to him +and then shaking his fist at him sprang through the open window.</p> + +<p>Vamhidy did not hesitate a moment about following the adventurer into +the house. He forced his way through the window and found himself in a +dark corridor at the extreme end of which the footsteps of the hunted +adventurer were still resounding. And after him he ran straightway.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>THE SIGHT OF TERROR</h3> + + +<p>"My dear Henrietta," Leonard had said to his wife the day before, as he +shook the dust of the chase off his clothes, "very shortly some guests +will arrive at Hidvár and possibly they may be numerous. May I ask you +to make ready for their reception?"</p> + +<p>Henrietta signified by a motion of her head that she understood.</p> + +<p>"It is possible you may have to perform the duties of hostess without my +assistance, for I have to be off at once to Szeb and don't expect to be +back for a couple of days. It is possible that the gentlemen in question +may arrive during my absence which I should very much regret. +Nevertheless you may depend upon my hastening home as quickly as I can +to meet them here."</p> + +<p>All this did not seem to interest Henrietta very much. Leonard noticed +it.</p> + +<p>"Let the gentry, my dear, occupy the room overlooking the park, the +servants had better have the six rooms generally given to hunting +parties on the ground floor, with the four and twenty beds."</p> + +<p>At these directions the lady looked at her lord with an expression of +surprised inquiry.</p> + +<p>"I see," resumed her husband, "you are asking yourself what sort of +company that can be for whose master one room suffices while the +servants require six. I will tell you. It is the armed corps from Arad +which is charged with the capture of Fatia Negra and his associates. As +they will pass by this way I don't see how they can avoid calling at +Hidvár. In fact I have invited the magistrate who commands the corps to +make Hidvár the centre of his operations and if he is a sensible man he +will accept my invitation. The name of my guest I have not yet +mentioned," continued Leonard with easy levity, "it is Szilard Vamhidy, +a justice of the peace of the county of Arad—really a very nice young +man."</p> + +<p>Henrietta became as white as a statue.</p> + +<p>"You will greatly oblige me, my dear Henrietta, if you will do your best +to make our guest feel quite at home in our house. But you are a +sensible woman, so I have no need to press the point. Let me kiss your +hand—<i>au revoir!</i>"</p> + +<p>Henrietta watched him go out, watched him get into his carriage and bowl +off and then began to weep and hide her head among the cushions that +nobody might hear her.</p> + +<p>They are pursuing Fatia Negra! ... Szilard Vamhidy is pursuing Fatia +Negra!</p> + +<p>He will come hither, he will enter this very castle. Leonard himself has +invited him!</p> + +<p>He will certainly come to see his former love once more. The thought was +terrible!</p> + +<p>But it must not, it should not happen.</p> + +<p>Leonard himself had invited Vamhidy to his castle. This man relied too +much on the terror of a poor timid woman, he built too much on that +nimbus of terror which made him so horribly unassailable in her eyes. +What! first to invite the former lover of his wife to be his guest and +then show his indifference by choosing that very time to absent himself +from the house for some days!</p> + +<p>But on one thing she was resolved—Vamhidy should not find her at +Hidvár. She would fly. She would leave her husband's house. Where should +she go? Who would receive her? What would become of her? She did not +know, she gave the matter no thought, but one thing was certain: Szilard +and she might meet together in the grave but they should never encounter +each other beneath the shadow of the halls of Hidvár.</p> + +<p>There was nobody she could confide in. All the servants were her +husband's paid spies and her own jailors. The priest had disappeared +altogether from Hidvár. In her despair an old memory rose up before her. +She called to mind that during the earlier days of her stay at Hidvár +when she had explored the whole region under the delusion that she could +make the wretched happy, she had often passed a little house which had +always riveted her attention. It was a little hunting hut in the midst +of the forest built entirely of wood and planed smoothly outside like a +little polished cabinet. In front of it stood broad spreading fruit +trees, crowded with flowers in spring, crowded with fruit in autumn, +wild vines and moss grew all over its roofs.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the listening woods this little house had such an +inviting exterior that the very first time she saw it, Henrietta could +not resist the temptation of entering it.</p> + +<p>The door of the little house stood open before her, being only on the +latch. She had stepped in: there was nobody inside. In the first room +there was furniture of some hard wood; close to the wall stood a carved +side-board with painted earthenware on it, on a table was a pitcher of a +similar ware full of fresh pure water. The door of another room to the +right was also open and in that room also she found nobody. There stood +a bed with a bear skin for a coverlet, other bear skins spread on the +floor served instead of carpets and on the walls were bright lynx, and +wildcat skins.</p> + +<p>From this room there was a door leading into a third room and here also +she found nobody. The walls of this room were covered with +weapons—guns, pistols and curiously shaped swords and daggers, in rows +and crossed, hanging on nails and leaning against the walls. On the +oaken table stood stuffed beasts and birds, under the table was a +stuffed fox fastened to a chair; a pair of wild boars' heads with +powerful tusks were over the door, but there was no sign of any living +beast.</p> + +<p>Henrietta fancied that the master of this little house must be away but +not far off and she made up her mind to wait till he returned home. Yet +one hour after another passed away and Henrietta was at last obliged to +go on further lest she should have to pass the night there and, only +when she was already some distance away, was she struck by the peculiar +circumstance that all round the hut grass was growing thickly and that +no path led up to it.</p> + +<p>In a few weeks' time curiosity drew her again in the same direction. +Alone, without any escort, she stood before the forest dwelling, +fastened her horse to the fence and passed through the door.</p> + +<p>Everything was just as she had seen it on the first occasion. In the +first room on the table was the earthenware pitcher full of water; in +the second room was the bed covered with a bear skin and in the third +room were all the guns and other weapons just as she had seen them +before.</p> + +<p>Again she waited for a long time for some of the dwellers of this little +house to draw near, and again she waited in vain; even by eventide not a +human being had approached the hut.</p> + +<p>These hut dwellers must be curious folks she thought, they leave +everything unlocked, evil disposed people might steal everything.</p> + +<p>On the way back she met some charcoal burners and asked them about the +lonely little house in the midst of the forest. Three of the four +pretended not to understand: they did not remember ever seeing such a +house they said. The fourth, however, told the lady in reply that in +that house dwelt "Dracu."<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> The Devil.</p></div> + +<p>This only made Henrietta more than ever curious. She asked the priest +about it and even he was inclined to be evasive. He evidently either +knew nothing about it or was casting about in his mind for some +plausible explanation. At last he said that rumour had it that a +huntsman's family had either been murdered or had committed suicide +there, and, ever since, nobody dwelling in the district could be +persuaded to cross its threshold, let alone steal anything out of it; +they would not even take shelter there during a storm, for they believed +that an evil spirit dwelt there.</p> + +<p>Henrietta, however, did not believe in these invisible evil spirits. The +evil spirits she was acquainted with all went about in dress clothes and +surtouts. The atmosphere of mystery and enchantment which made the +little house uninhabitable only stimulated her fancy. She determined to +discover whether it was really uninhabited or not.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, when she entered the house for the third time, she plucked +a wild rose and threw one of its buds into the pitcher of water on the +table, a second on the bear skin coverlet of the bed and a third, fourth +and fifth she stuck into the barrels of the muskets hanging up in the +armour room.</p> + +<p>When now, she visited the lonely house for the fourth time, she looked +for the rose buds and could not find one of them in the places where +she had put them. Consequently there must needs be someone who slept in +the bed, drank the fresh water from the pitcher and used the firearms.</p> + +<p>Her thirst for knowledge now induced her to enquire of her husband +concerning this little dwelling and he, then and there, elucidated the +mystery.</p> + +<p>It was quite true that a lonely inhabitant of this house had once been +murdered there, that the common people believed it to be haunted, and +that consequently not one of them would cross its threshold at any price +either by day or by night. An old landed proprietor from the mining town +of X., who owned a small strip of forest in those parts and was at the +same time an enthusiastic huntsman, had taken advantage of this popular +superstition to buy this little house, for a mere song. He used it as a +hunting box. He could not afford to keep a huntsman of his own to look +after it and knowing that if he locked it up, thieves would most +probably break into it and steal everything, he left the doors wide open +and everyone instantly avoided it as uncanny. The reason Henrietta never +met him was that this old gentleman was a government official, who had +to live most of his time in the town of Klausenburg, but whenever he was +not hunting here he was out in the forests all night till dawn when he +turned into the little house for a nap and was off again before the +afternoon; and so Henrietta who regularly visited the hut in the +afternoon, naturally never encountered him.</p> + +<p>Leonard even named the old gentleman's name and then Henrietta +remembered meeting him at the <i>soirées</i> at Klausenburg. Leonard, +however, warned his wife never to mention the matter in the presence of +the old gentleman in question, if she should ever meet him, for he had +sundry relations with poachers and other people of that sort. The fact +was, his own strip of forest was not very large and therefore he very +frequently trespassed on Leonard's property in pursuit of game. The old +gentleman was, therefore, very desirous to keep his passion for the +chase a secret, especially as his relations with Leonard were none of +the best.</p> + +<p>After that Henrietta had visited the little forest house no more. This +prosaic explanation had robbed it in her eyes of all its mysterious +interest, nor did she think it becoming to enter a house whose owner was +not on very good terms with her husband. Only now did the recollection +of the little forest dwelling recur to her, and in the terror of her +soul she began to regard the little moss-covered hut whose doors stood, +open, night and day, as a possible asylum. It was the only place where +she could take refuge, the only place where she had no need to fear +spies, where nobody would look for her, where she might remain in hiding +and from whence she might either return home or wander further out into +the world according as fate was kind or unkind to her.</p> + +<p>At night there would be nobody in the little house, for the enthusiastic +old hunter would be stalking the forest. It was also possible that his +official duties might keep him away for days together. But even if she +were to meet him, why should she be afraid of the eccentric old man? +Would she not rather find in him a natural protector who would conduct +her out of the mountains to Klausenburg or Banfi-Hunyad, from whence she +would make her way to Pest and there seek a refuge in her aunt's house?</p> + +<p>She did not think twice about it, but accepted the idea as a heaven-sent +inspiration which it was her duty to follow. She put on a shawl as if +she were only going to take a walk in the moonlight and descended into +the park accompanied by the gardener's daughter whom she had bribed to +help her to escape. The girl succeeded in hoodwinking the men servants +by dressing herself up in a mantle of her mistress's, pretending she +would have supper out in the park as the night was so fine and warm, so +that by the time the fraud was discovered and the alarm given, Henrietta +had had a start of several hours and although the men, fearful of the +anger of their master when he should return and find his wife flown, +searched in every direction with lighted torches they were unable to +discover a trace of the missing lady.</p> + +<p>Terror lends strength to the most feeble. Ordinarily Henrietta was so +weak that it was as much as she could do to promenade through the park. +But to-day after a two hours' run over stones and through briars and +bushes, at midnight, she still did not feel weary. From the top of a +hill she looked back. She could still see the tower of the castle of +Hidvár in the valley, but it looked blue through the mist in the +distance and then she hastened down into the valley whose steep +overhanging sides hid her even from the moonlight.</p> + +<p>The night was noiseless, the forest dark. Now and again a humming night +beetle circled round and round her and obstinately pursued her as if he +also was a spy sent after her. The poor thing's heart throbbed +violently. What if she had lost her way? What if she fell into the hands +of the robbers whom they were now actually pursuing through the woods? +Yet still greater was her terror of Hidvár and a hundred times more +homelike was the dreadful forest with its giant trees speaking in their +sleep than the tapestried walls of the Castle of Hidvár.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a glade opened up before her which seemed to greet her as an +old acquaintance.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, there were the wild roses which she had so often plucked to +adorn her hat. The hunting-box could not be far off now. It conceals +itself to the right of the rose bushes beneath a lofty birch.</p> + +<p>A few moments later she found herself outside its door.</p> + +<p>As she laid her hand on the latch, a thought of terror transfixed her. +What if the door should be shut?</p> + +<p>But she had only to press the latch in order to put all her fears to +flight. The door this time also was not fastened.</p> + +<p>Standing on the threshold she enquired with a trembling voice: "Is +anybody in?"</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>Then she closed the door behind her and opened the door of the second +room. There also nobody responded to her enquiry. The third room was +also open as usual, nay even one of its windows was opened towards the +orchard. Moreover, everything was in its proper place just as she had +always found it—the weapons, the bear skin coverlet and the water +pitcher.</p> + +<p>It occurred to Henrietta to close the door from the inside so that +nobody might come upon her unawares while she slept. But then the +thought also struck her that it was not right to lock the old gentleman +out of his own house especially as he might turn up in the early morning +tired out and half frozen. So she ultimately decided to stay up for him +in order to tell him, as soon as he arrived, that she meant to obtain a +separation from her husband, whose conduct she could no longer endure. +Till then she would try hard not to go to sleep. But she was tired to +death from her long run through the forest and was obliged at last to +throw herself on the bear skin coverlet to rest; and gradually sleep +overcame all her anguish, all her terror.</p> + +<p>She might have slept for about a half an hour, a restless, +phantom-haunted sleep at best, when she suddenly awoke.</p> + +<p>It seemed to her as if she had heard a distant cry. Perhaps she had only +imagined she had heard it in her slumbers, and perhaps what she had +dreamt was so awful and what she fancied she had heard was so terrible, +that it had awakened her.</p> + +<p>She began to listen attentively. After midnight every light sound seems +so loud.</p> + +<p>She fancied in the great stillness that she could hear rapidly +approaching footsteps.</p> + +<p>Again a cry! like the cry of a hunted beast, like the cry of a wounded +wolf!</p> + +<p>She was not dreaming now, she could hear it plainly. She saw where she +was. The moonlight was streaming through the window, she could see to +the end of all three rooms.</p> + +<p>Suddenly at the window overlooking the garden whence the moonbeams +streamed in, a black shape appeared which obscured the moonlight for an +instant.</p> + +<p>This shape leaped through the window and, panting hard, rushed through +the two rooms into the third where the arms stood.</p> + +<p>Henrietta saw it fly past her bed, she heard its panting sobs +and—recognized it.</p> + +<p>It was Fatia Negra! this was Fatia Negra's house!</p> + +<p>And this was not all.</p> + +<p>Close upon the traces of Fatia Negra rushed another phantom with a drawn +sword in its hand, but its face was towards her and she recognized in +it—Szilard Vamhidy.</p> + +<p>And yet she did not lose her consciousness at this double sight of +terror, though it would have been much better for her if she had.</p> + +<p>Fatia Negra plunged into the armoury and plucked down a pistol from the +wall.</p> + +<p>Szilard paused on the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Halt!" cried Fatia Negra with a voice like a scream—"this is my house +and your tomb."</p> + +<p>Szilard did not condescend to reply but drew a step nearer.</p> + +<p>"Sir, but one word more," said Fatia Negra in a fainter voice and so +hoarsely as to be scarcely audible, "you have wounded me, you have run +me down; but your life is now in my hands and I could kill you this +instant if I had a mind to. Let us bargain a bit: I won't kill you if +you will not pursue me any further. You return and say you could not +catch me. I swear to you that to-morrow I will send you twenty thousand +ducats."</p> + +<p>With contemptuous coldness Szilard replied: "Surrender, I will not +bargain."</p> + +<p>"You won't bargain, you crushed worm you! The mouth of my pistol is on a +level with your forehead. I have only to press my finger and your head +would be shattered—and yet you dare to have it out with me? Do you want +to save your head?"</p> + +<p>"I mean to have yours," said Szilard and he drew a step nearer to the +adventurer.</p> + +<p>"My head, eh? Ha, ha, ha! You would have it would you, and have it here! +Take it then!"</p> + +<p>At that moment a piercing shriek startled the two deadly antagonists and +in the adjoining room a white figure fell prone upon the floor.</p> + +<p>The next moment there was a loud report and Fatia Negra fell back +lifeless on the bear skin carpet.</p> + +<p>At the very moment when he had laughed aloud and cried: "Take it then!" +he had suddenly put the mouth of the pistol into his own mouth and fired +it off. The heavy charge blew his head to bits, Szilard felt a warm red +rain showering down upon him.</p> + +<p>So Fatia Negra, after all, did not give up his head, the pistol shot had +annihilated it.</p> + +<p>And nobody ever knew who Fatia Negra really was.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE ACCOMMODATION</h3> + + +<p>It was now the seventh time that Mr. John Lapussa had informed Mr. Sipos +that he wanted to see him and for the seventh time word was sent back +that the lawyer could not come. Why could he not come? They could not +say. Finally a message was delivered to the effect that the lawyer could +not come either that day, or the next, or indeed on any other day in the +whole year. In a word Mr. Sipos declined to have anything more to do +with the Lapussa family or its affairs. Their transactions were not at +all to his taste.</p> + +<p>So, as Mr. Sipos would not appear at the summons of Mr. John Lapussa, +Mr. John Lapussa must needs call upon Mr. Sipos.</p> + +<p>He was wearing mourning in his hat and tried hard to lend his face a +funereal appearance also.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard the news?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sipos had heard nothing.</p> + +<p>"Don't you see the mourning in my hat? Alas! my poor niece, unhappy +Henrietta!"</p> + +<p>"Well, what has happened?"</p> + +<p>"Hátszegi has been drowned in the Maros."</p> + +<p>"Impossible, he was a first-rate swimmer."</p> + +<p>"His horse ran away with him, he had lost all control over it. When he +saw that the horse was determined to plunge into the river from the +high bank, he tried to spring out of the saddle, but his spur +unfortunately caught in the stirrups and the horse dragged him down with +it into the water. There in the full stream, with his head downwards and +his legs in the air, he vainly attempted to extricate himself. The +frantic horse swam with him to the opposite shore, dragging the poor +wretch after it, and before the opposite bank was reached, his head was +so shattered that it was impossible to recognize his features. It is now +a week since they buried him in the family vault at Hidvár. Poor +Henrietta! So young to be left a widow! And to have lost so handsome, so +beloved a husband through so sad a death! Really lamentable!"</p> + +<p>"I wonder what the rascal is after now," thought Mr. Sipos.</p> + +<p>"My heart really is breaking for her! If only there were not these +unhappy money differences between us. I am not a tiger. My heart is not +made of stone. Perhaps you don't believe me! Let me tell you that I have +half resolved, despite the old gentleman's will, to transfer to my +niece, Henrietta, the Kerekedar property."</p> + +<p>"Because its expenses are greater than its revenue, I presume?"</p> + +<p>"None of your poor witticisms, sir. I am ready to make any sacrifices to +oblige my relatives. The world misjudges me. They call me greedy and +avaricious; if only they could look into my heart!"</p> + +<p>"What you have done hitherto, sir, does not testify to any great regard +for your relatives. For instance, look at the case of my client, young +Coloman—for you know that Vamhidy has instructed me to act for him. +What intrigues, what tricks were employed to fasten upon him the +suspicion of forgery! Nobody knows that better than you, sir. And let me +tell you that although my young client is nothing but a strolling +player, I shall spare no pains to thoroughly vindicate his good name and +you, with all your wealth and property, will be unable to affect the +issue one jot."</p> + +<p>Mr. John pondered for a moment. "Look here," said he at last, "let us +pitch the whole confounded suit into the fire. I have a compromise to +propose. I candidly confess I am in a bit of a hole. That bill business +is now before the courts and when it comes on for trial, it will cause a +horrible scandal and people have condemned me beforehand. I only wish I +had never mixed myself up in it."</p> + +<p>"Suppose I help you out of the difficulty!"</p> + +<p>"In that case you may dictate your own conditions and I will consent to +them beforehand."</p> + +<p>"There is only one way to save you. Henrietta must say that the bill is +not forged, but is really signed by her and she must then pay and cancel +it, then every foundation of a charge against you vanishes."</p> + +<p>"A sublime idea," cried Mr. John springing from his seat. "And now let +me hear your conditions."</p> + +<p>"My only condition is, complete satisfaction to be made to the children +of your second sister."</p> + +<p>"What! surrender a whole third of the property to them without any +deduction?"</p> + +<p>"We will accept nothing less."</p> + +<p>"What must I do first then?"</p> + +<p>"First you must pay the baroness forty thousand florins."</p> + +<p>"Forty thousand florins! Why?"</p> + +<p>"In order that she may meet the bill as soon as she has acknowledged her +signature."</p> + +<p>"Well, and what next?"</p> + +<p>"You must sign deeds whereby you undertake to surrender to the children +of your late sister the estates of Zôldhalom and Orökvar bequeathed to +them by your father."</p> + +<p>"Why, they are the best paying properties of all."</p> + +<p>"Then pay them the value of the estates in cash."</p> + +<p>"That would seriously inconvenience me."</p> + +<p>"Then make over your houses in Vienna and Pest."</p> + +<p>"I cannot find it in my heart to part with them."</p> + +<p>"Then propose some other expedient."</p> + +<p>"Very well, I will. Give me till to-morrow to think it over."</p> + +<p>And with that Mr. John put on his hat and took his leave.</p> + +<p>The following day the lawyer awaited him in vain; then he waited for +him a whole fortnight, but Mr. John never came near him. Then he went to +the courts to find out what was being done and there he learnt, to his +astonishment, that the declaration of the Baroness Hátszegi +acknowledging the genuineness of her signature to the bill had already +arrived.</p> + +<p>What had happened was this: As soon as Mr. John had got Sipos's opinion +gratis, he quickly traveled post to Hidvár and had a chat with his niece +over the business. The poor lady was so utterly crushed by her +misfortunes that she could scarce fix her mind steadily on anything and +was a mere tool in his hands. She accepted the properties offered to her +by her uncle—what did it matter to her now how much or how little they +brought in!—and gave an acknowledgment in writing that the signature to +the bill was her own.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sipos was therefore not very much surprised when one day he received +a commission from the baroness's agent to pay over the forty thousand +florins in question to a financial agent at Pest. So Mr. John made a +rattling good profit out of the transaction and Henrietta in return for +her generosity had to pay up in cash as Mr. Sipos had shrewdly +anticipated she would have to do all along. But it was all one to +Henrietta.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>CONCLUSION</h3> + + +<p>Meanwhile the long drawn out process between Mr. John and his sister +Madame Lángai continued its course. There was no thought of a compromise +between the parties. Madame Lángai expended so much of her private means +in the action that nearly the whole of the property left her by her +husband went in costs. She could now neither keep her coach nor live in +a large house. She cooped herself up in a couple of small rooms, visited +nobody and wore dresses that had been out of fashion for at least four +years—and all to be able to carry on the action!</p> + +<p>It was ten years before the suit came to an end.</p> + +<p>Mr. John lost it and a fearful blow it was to him, for he had to pay out +a million to his sister without any further delay. It is true he had as +much again left for himself, but to be the possessor of only a single +million is nevertheless a fearful thought to anyone who has hitherto +been the possessor of two millions.</p> + +<p>The poor plutocrat! How deeply it disturbed him to be obliged to pay his +only sister her due portion! How the constant thought that he was now +only half as rich as he had been before gnawed his life away! Poor, poor +plutocrat!</p> + +<p>Szilard had a brilliant career—a career extending far beyond the +horizon of this simple story. He never married. Count Kengyelesy quizzed +him often enough and was continually asking him why he did not try his +luck again with his former ideal now that she had become a widow. All +such questions, however, he used to evade in a corresponding tone of +jocularity. But once when Kengyelesy inquired seriously why he never +approached Baroness Hátszegi and at the same time reproached him for his +want of feeling in so obstinately keeping out of the poor lady's way, +Szilard replied: "I am not one of those who can be thrown away to-day +and picked up again to-morrow."</p> + +<p>After that the count never mentioned Henrietta's name in Szilard's +presence again—and who knows whether there was not some impediment +between these two from which no sacrament could absolve them. Who knows +whether it might not after all have been as well for Vamhidy to avoid +any meeting whatever with—the widow of the late Baron Hátszegi?</p> + +<p>Yet it was she who was, in any case, the most wretched of them all. +Although only six and twenty she could already be called an old woman. +She was the victim of her shattered nerves night and day. The least +noise made her tremble. The opening of a door was sufficient to make her +start up. When she was only four and twenty she had already given up +plucking out her grey hairs, there were so many of them. She found no +relaxation in the society of her fellows and therefore avoided all +social gatherings. Most of her time she spent at home, sitting all by +herself in the remotest chamber of the house, half of whose wall was by +this time overgrown by the asclepia which Szilárd had given her ages +ago—or so it seemed to her. This was the only one of her acquaintances +which had not forsaken her, and luckily for her it was tenacious of +life, for if that too had perished, with whom could poor Henrietta have +held converse?</p> + +<p>So there was at least one creature in the world to whom this possessor +of millions could still confide her reminiscences and her sorrows. Poor +rich lady, all the poorer because of her great wealth! Poor plutocrat!</p> + + +<p class="center">THE END</p> + +<p>[Transcriber's Note: Most obvious typographical errors have been +corrected. Foreign words may appear at some points in the text with +accents and at other points without, and proper names may be spelled +differently in different parts of the text. These inconsistencies +have been preserved from the original publication.]</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poor Plutocrats, by Maurus Jókai + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POOR PLUTOCRATS *** + +***** This file should be named 18705-h.htm or 18705-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/0/18705/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Poor Plutocrats + +Author: Maurus Jokai + +Translator: R. Nisbet Bain + +Release Date: June 27, 2006 [EBook #18705] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POOR PLUTOCRATS *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +WORKS OF MAURUS JOKAI + +HUNGARIAN EDITION + +THE POOR PLUTOCRATS + +_Translated from the Hungarian_ + +_By_ + +R. NISBET BAIN + +NEW YORK +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + +COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO. + + + + +PREFACE + + +"Szegeny Gazdagok" is, perhaps, the most widely known of all Maurus +Jokai's masterpieces. It was first published at Budapest, in 1860, in +four volumes, and has been repeatedly translated into German, while good +Swedish, Danish, Dutch and Polish versions sufficiently testify to its +popularity on the Continent. Essentially a tale of incident and +adventure, it is one of the best novels of that inexhaustible type with +which I am acquainted. It possesses in an eminent degree the quality of +vividness which R. L. Stevenson prized so highly, and the ingenuity of +its plot, the dramatic force of its episodes, and the startling +unexpectedness of its _denouement_ are all in the Hungarian master's +most characteristic style. I know of no more stirring incident in +contemporary fiction than the terrible wrestling match between strong +Juon the goatherd and the supple bandit Fatia Negra in the presence of +two trembling, defenceless women, who can do nothing but look on, though +their fate depends upon the issue of the struggle,--and we must go back +to the pages of that unsurpassed master of the weird and thrilling +Sheridan Le Fanu to find anything approaching the terror of poor +Henrietta's awful midnight vigil in the deserted _csarda_ upon the +lonely heath when, at the very advent of her mysterious peril, she +discovers, to her horror, that her sole companion and guardian, the +brave old squire, cannot be aroused from his drugged slumbers. + +There is naturally not so much scope for the display of Jokai's peculiar +and delightful humour, in a novel of incident like the present tale as +there is in that fine novel of manners: "A Hungarian Nabob." Yet even in +"Szegeny Gazdagok," many of the minor characters (e.g., the parasite +Margari, the old miser Demetrius, the Hungarian Miggs, Clementina, the +frivolous Countess Kengyelesy), are not without a mild Dickensian +flavour, while in that rugged but good-natured and chivalrous Nimrod, +Mr. Gerzson, the Hungarian novelist has drawn to the life one of the +finest types we possess of the better sort of sporting Magyar squires. + +Finally, this fascinating story possesses in an eminent degree the charm +of freshness and novelty, a charm becoming rarer every year in these +globe-trotting days, when the ubiquitous tourist boasts that he has +been everywhere and seen everything. Yet it may well be doubted whether +even he has penetrated to the heart of the wild, romantic, sylvan +regions of the Wallachian and Transylvanian Alps, which is the theatre +of the exploits of that prince of robber chieftains, the mighty and +mysterious Fatia Negra, and the home of those picturesque Roumanian +peasants whom Jokai loves to depict and depicts so well. + +R. NISBET BAIN. + + + + +Contents + + +CHAPTER + + I. BOREDOM + II. A NEW MODE OF DUELLING + III. AN AMIABLE MAN + IV. CHILDISH NONSENSE + V. SHE IS NOT FOR YOU + VI. BRINGING HOME THE BRIDE + VII. THE CAVERN OF LUCSIA + VIII. STRONG JUON + IX. THE GEINA MAID-MARKET + X. THE BLACK JEWELRY + XI. TWO TALES, OF WHICH ONLY ONE IS TRUE + XII. THE SOIREES AT ARAD + XIII. TIT FOR TAT + XIV. THE MIKALAI CSARDA + XV. WHO IT WAS THAT RECOGNIZED FATIA NEGRA + XVI. LEANDER BABEROSSY + XVII. MR. MARGARI +XVIII. THE UNDISCOVERABLE LADY + XIX. THE SHAKING HAND + XX. THE FIGHT FOR THE GOLD + XXI. THE HUNTED BEAST + XXII. THE SIGHT OF TERROR +XXIII. THE ACCOMMODATION + XXIV. CONCLUSION + + + + +POOR PLUTOCRATS + +CHAPTER I + +BOREDOM + + +"Was it you who yawned so, Clementina?" + +Nobody answered. + +The questioner was an old gentleman in his eightieth year or so, dressed +in a splendid flowered silk Kaftan, with a woollen night-cap on his +head, warm cotton stockings on his feet, and diamond, turquoise, and +ruby rings on his fingers. He was reclining on an atlas ottoman, his +face was as wooden as a mummy's, a mere patch-work of wrinkles, he had a +dry, thin, pointed nose, shaggy, autumnal-yellow eyebrows, and his large +prominent black eyes protected by irritably sensitive eyelids, lent +little charm to his peculiar cast of countenance. + +"Well! Will nobody answer? Who yawned so loudly behind my back just +now?" he asked again, with an angry snort. "Will nobody answer?" + +Nobody answered, and yet there was a sufficient number of people in the +room to have found an answer between them. In front of the hearth was +sitting a young woman about thirty or thirty-five, with just such a +strongly-pronounced pointed nose, with just such high raised eyebrows as +the old gentleman's, only her face was still red (though the favour of +Nature had not much to do with that perhaps) and her eyebrows were still +black; but her thin lips were just as hermetically sealed as the old +man's, when she was not speaking. This young woman was playing at +Patience. + +In one of the windows sat a young girl of sixteen, a delicate creature +of rapid growth, whose every limb and feature seemed preternaturally +thin and fragile. She was occupied with some sort of sewing. At another +little sewing-table, immediately opposite to her, was a red-cheeked +damsel with a frightful mop of light hair and a figure which had all the +possibilities of stoutness before it. She was a sort of governess, and +was supposed to be English, though they had only her word for it. She +was reading a book. + +On the silk ottoman behind lay the already-mentioned Clementina, who +ought to have confessed to the sin of yawning. She was a spinster +already far advanced in the afternoon of life, and had cinder-coloured +ringlets around her temples and a little bit of beard on her chin. She +was no blood relation of the family but, as an ancient companion to a +former mistress of the house, had long eaten the bread of charity under +that roof. She was now engaged upon some eye-tormenting, fine fancy +work which could not have afforded the poor creature very much +amusement. + +The old gentleman on the sofa used to divert himself the whole day by +assembling as many human beings around him as possible and driving them +to desperation by his unendurable nagging and chiding; they, on the +other hand, had by this time discovered that the best defence against +this domestic visitation was never to answer so much as a word. + +"Of course! Of course!" continued the old gentleman with stinging +sarcasm. "I know what a bore it is to be near me and about me. I see +through it all. Yes, I _know_ that I am an unendurable old fellow on +whom not a single word should be wasted. I know well enough that you are +not sitting here beside me because you like to be here. Who compels you +to? I certainly shall not prevent anybody's petticoat from going away by +laying hold of it. The gate is not closed. Nothing easier than to be +off. Yet nobody likes the idea, eh? Ah-ha! It is possible that when the +eye of old Lapussa no longer sees, the heart of old Lapussa may no +longer remember. Besides, nobody can tell exactly when the old man may +die. Indeed they are waiting for his death every hour--he is beyond +eighty already. A most awful bore certainly. Ah ha! The old fool is +unable to get up any more, he is not even able to strike anybody. If he +cries out, nobody is afraid of him; but, at any rate, he has strength +enough to pull the bell-rope, send for his steward, tell him to go to +the office of the _alispan_[1] there ferret out and bring back his last +will and testament--and then he can dictate another will to his lawyer +quite cosily at his ease." + +[Footnote 1: Vice-lieutenant of the county.] + +And in order to emphasize his words more terribly, he there and then +gave a tug at the bell-rope. + +Yet for all that nobody turned towards him; the lady kept dealing out +the cards, the young girl continued working beads into her sampler, the +governess went on reading, and the old spinster was still intent upon +some delicate operation with her needle--just as if nobody had spoken a +word. + +In answer to the bell an ancient serving-man appeared in the doorway, +and the old gentleman, after waiting a little to see from the +countenances of those present (he could observe them in the mirror +opposite) whether his allusion to his will had produced any effect, and +finding no notice taken of it whatever, said in a sharp, petulant voice: +"Louis!" + +The servant approached the sofa and then stood still again. + +"My dinner!" + +This was the end of the awe-inspiring threat. + +The old gentleman observed, or rather, suspected, some slight amusement +in the company present. + +"Miss Kleary!" he observed irritably, "don't you observe that Henrietta +is looking out of the window again? I am bound, Miss, to direct your +attention to the fact that I consider such a thing decidedly unbecoming +in a young lady." + +"Dear Grandpapa.....!" began the accused. + +"Silence! I did not speak to Henrietta, I spoke to Miss Kleary. Miss +Henrietta is still a child who understands nothing. I neither address +her nor attempt to explain anything to her. But I keep Miss Kleary in +this house, I pay Miss Kleary a princely salary, in order that I may +have some one at hand to whom I can explain my educational ideas. Now my +educational ideas are good; nay, Miss, I think I may even say that they +are very good. I will therefore beg you to do me the favour to stick to +them. I know what ought and what ought not to be allowed young girls; I +know that....." + +The young girl's face blushed beneath the reproachful look of the old +tyrant, whilst the governess rose defiantly from her place, and in order +that she might wreak her anger upon some one, industriously proceeded to +pick holes in Henrietta's sewing and effectually spoil her whole day's +work. + +Thus, it will be perceived, only one person had the right to speak; the +only right the other people had was not to listen to him. + +But there was someone else in the background who had better rights than +anybody, and this someone now began to hammer with his fists on the +door, that very door at which the oldest and most trusty domestics +hardly dared to tap--began, I say, to hammer with his fists and kick +with his heels till everyone was downright scared. + +This was the little grandson, the old gentleman's spoiled darling little +Maksi. + +"Why don't you let in little Maksi?" cried the old gentleman, when he +heard him. "Open the door for little Maksi; don't you know that he is +not tall enough to reach the door-handle? Why don't you let him come to +me when he wants to come?" + +At that moment the footman opened the door and the little family prince +bounded in. It was a pale little mouldy sort of flower, with red eyes +and a cornerless mouth like a carp, but with the authentic family nose +and the appurtenances thereof, which took up so much room as to +seriously imperil the prospects of the rest of the head growing in +proportion. The little favourite was wearing a complete Uhlan costume, +even the four-cornered chako was stuck on the side of his head; he was +flourishing a zinc sword and grumbling bitterly. + +"What's the matter with little Maksi? Has anybody been annoying him?" + +Grandpapa succeeded at last in making out that on running out Maksi had +tripped over his sword, that his tutor had wanted to take it away, that +Maksi had thereupon drawn his weapon and made the aggressor's hand smart +with it, and that finally he had fled for refuge to grandpapa's room as +the only place where he was free from the persecutions of his +instructors. + +Grandpapa, in a terrible to do, began to question him: "Come here! Where +did you hit yourself? On the head, eh! Let us see! Why, it is swollen +up--quite red in fact! Put some opodeldoc on it! Clementina, do you +hear?--some opodeldoc for Maksi!" So the family medicament had to be +fetched at once; but Maksi, snatching it from the worthy spinster's +hand, threw it violently to the ground, so that the whole carpet was +bespattered with it. + +Nobody was allowed to scold him for this, however, as grandpapa was +instantly ready with an excuse: "Maksi must not be vexed," said he. +"Does not Maksi wear a sword by his side already? Maksi will be a great +soldier one of these days!" + +"Yes," replied the lad defiantly, "I'll be a general!" + +"Yes, Maksi shall be a general; nothing less than a general, of course. +But come, my boy, take your finger out of your mouth." + +The English governess here thought she saw an opportunity of insinuating +a professional remark. + +"He who would be a general, must, first of all, learn a great deal." + +"I don't want to learn. I mean to know everything without learning it. I +say, grandpapa, if you've lots of money, you will know everything at +once without learning it, won't you?" + +The old man looked around him triumphantly. + +"Now that I call genius, wit!" cried he. + +And with that he tenderly pressed the little urchin's head to his breast +and murmured: "Ah! he is my very grandson, my own flesh and blood." + +He was well aware how aggravated all the others would be at these words. + +Meanwhile the footman was laying a table. This table was of palisander +wood and supported by the semblance of a swan. It could be placed close +beside the ottoman and was filled with twelve different kinds of dishes. +All these meats were cold, for the doctor forbade his patient hot food. +The old gentleman tasted each one of the dishes with the aid of his +finger-tips, and not one of them pleased him. This was too salt, that +was too sweet, a third was burnt, a fourth was tainted. He threatened to +discharge the cook, and bitterly complained that as he did not die +quickly enough for them, they were conspiring to starve him. They might +have replied that he had ordered all these things himself yesterday; but +nobody took the trouble to contradict him any longer, so gradually the +storm died away of its own accord and the old man, turning towards +Maksi, tenderly invited him to partake of the disparaged dishes. + +"Come and eat with me, Maksi, my darling." + +"That I will," cried the little horror, grabbing at everything +simultaneously with both hands. + +"Oh, fie, fie!" said grandpapa gently. "Take Maksi out for a ride and +let the lacquey go with him instead of his tutor!" The old gentleman +then pushed the little round table aside and signalled to the footman +that he was to put all the dishes carefully away, as he should want to +see them again on the morrow. The footman conscientiously obeyed this +command--which was given regularly every day--and locked up all the +dishes well aware that he would get a sound jacketting if he failed to +produce a single one of them when required to do so. + +The old man knew well enough that there was not a servant in the house +who, for any reward on earth, would think of touching any food that had +ever lain on his table; indeed, they held it in such horror that they +used regularly to distribute it among the poor. In order therefore that +the very beggars might have nothing to thank him for, he had the food +kept till it was almost rotten before he let them have it. As for his +own family, he had not dined at the same table with them for ten years. + +It was certainly not a sociable family. For example, the old gentleman's +widowed daughter, red-cheeked Madame Langai, did not exchange a single +word with her father for weeks at a time. At first he had expected her +to remain in the same room with him till nine o'clock every evening, +dealing out cards for him or boring herself to death in some other way +for his amusement. She endured it for a whole month without a word; but +at last, one evening, at seven o'clock, she appeared before him in +evening dress and said that she was going to the theatre. + +Old Lapussa glared at her with all his eyes. + +"To the theatre?" cried he. + +"Yes, I have ordered a box." + +"Really? Well, I hope you will enjoy yourself!" + +The lady quitted him with a shrug. She knew that from that moment she +would inherit a million less than her elder brother; but nevertheless +she went to the theatre regularly every day, and never stirred from her +box so long as there was any one on the stage who had a word to say. + +The Lapussa family was of too recent an origin for the great world to +take much notice of it, and the fame of its fabulous wealth went hand in +hand with the rumour of a sordid avarice which was not a recommendable +quality in the eyes of the true gentry. The Lapussas were, in fact, not +of gentle blood at all, but simply rich. Madame Langai's elder brother, +John, was notoriously the greatest bore in the town, whom nobody, from +the members of his own family down to his coffee-house acquaintances, +could endure for a moment. Only his father made much of him. For all his +great wealth, he was very stingy and greedy; he even lent money at usury +to his best friends. Our amusing little friend Maksi was this man's son. +The slender, fanciful damsel, Henrietta, who appeared in that family +like an errant angel specially sent there to be tormented for the sins +of her whole race, was the orphan daughter of another son of old +Lapussa, who had lost father and mother at the same time in the most +tragical manner; they had both been drowned by the capsizing of a small +boat on the Danube. Henrietta herself had only been saved with the +utmost difficulty. She was only twelve years old at the time, and the +catastrophe had had such an effect upon her nerves that ever afterwards +she collapsed at the least sign of anger, and often fell a weeping for +no appreciable cause. Since the death of her parents, who had loved her +dearly, Henrietta had been obliged to live at her grandfather's house, +where nobody loved anybody. + +But no, I am mistaken. She had a brother, Koloman by name, who was a +somewhat simple but thoroughly good-natured youth. He used to appear +very rarely among his relations because they always fell foul of him. +The poor fellow's sole fault was that he was in the habit of regularly +selling his new clothes. Still, I am doubtful, after all, whether this +can fairly be imputed to him as a fault at all, for although it was +always being dinned into his ears that his family was immensely rich, he +was never blessed with a penny to spend in amusing himself with his +comrades, and therefore had to do the best he could to raise the wind. +Another failing of Koloman's was that he would not learn Latin, and in +consequence thereof he had to suffer many things. Old Lapussa and his +son John indeed had no notion whatever of the Latin tongue. The former +in his youthful days had never gone to school at all, because he was +occupied in building up a business. The latter had not gone to school in +_his_ youth because by that time his people were already rich and he +considered it beneath him. The consequence was that neither father nor +son had a proper idea on the simplest subjects, except what they picked +up on their travels. Still that was no reason why Koloman should not +learn, but as the tutor had his hands full already with little Maksi, +Koloman was obliged to go to the national school in order to become a +wiser man than his forbears. + +Poor Henrietta often slaved away for hours at a time with her younger +brother sitting at the table by her side, helping him to struggle +through the genders, declensions, conjugations, or whatever else the +infernal things were called; and the end of it all was that, at last, +she learnt to know Latin better than Koloman, and secretly translated +all his exercises from Cornelius Nepos and the Bucolics of Virgil for +him. + +But we must not linger any longer over these Latin lessons, for a much +more important event claims our attention--Mr. John is coming home, and +we must hasten forward to admire him. + +Mr. John Lapussa was a perfect prototype of the whole family. His +extraordinarily lanky pinched figure seemed even lankier than it was by +nature because he always carried his head so high: he peered down from +that elevation upon humanity at large as if there was something the +matter with his eyes which prevented him from properly raising the lids. +In him the dimensions of the family nose were made still more remarkable +by an inordinately tiny chin and thin compressed lips. His moustache was +shaved down to the very corners of his mouth, only a little mouse-tail +sort of arrangement being left on each side, which was twisted upwards +and dyed black with infinite skill. His costume was elegant and +ultra-refined, and only differed from the fashion in being extra stiff +and tight-fitting. Moreover, all the buttons of his shirt and his +waistcoat were precious stones, and he had a plenitude of rings on his +fingers which he delighted to show off by ostentatiously adjusting his +cravat in the course of conversation, or softly stroking the surface of +his superfine coat. + +Mr. John entered the room without looking at a soul, and paced up and +down it with his hands behind his back. Then he suddenly caught sight of +his father, kissed his hand and resumed his dignified saunter. It was +evident that he was bursting for some one to speak and ask him what was +the matter. + +Clementina was the first to speak. + +"Your honour!" said she. + +"What is it?" he asked, lifting his head still higher. + +"I have finished the embroidery for your shirt front which your honour +was pleased to command." + +His honour with a haughty curl of the lip condescended to glance down +upon the proffered embroidery. I am afraid Clementina was a poor +physiognomist, she might have noticed from his face how utterly +indifferent he was to her and her embroidery, which he regarded with +puckered eyes and screwed-up mouth. + +"No good. Those flowers are too big; it is the sort of thing the +Wallachian peasants stitch on to their shirts." And with that he took up +Clementina's scissors from the work-table and deliberately snipped into +little bits the whole of the difficult piece of work which the worthy +woman had been slaving away at for a week and more, finally pitching it +away contemptuously while she sat there and stared at him dumfoundered. + +"John, John!" said the old man in mild remonstrance. + +"To show me such rubbish when I am mad! When I am wroth! When I am +beside myself with fury!" + +"Why are you angry, and with whom?" + +John went on as if he did not mean to tell the cause of his anger. He +flung himself into an armchair, crossed his legs, plunged his hands into +the depths of his pockets and then, starting up, began to pace the room +again. + +"I am furious." + +"Then what's the matter?" enquired the old man anxiously. + +John again flung himself into an armchair and cocked one leg over the +arm of the chair: "It is all that good-for-nothing Hatszegi!" he cried. +"The fellow is a villain, a scoundrel, a robber!" + +"What has he done?" + +"What has he done?" cried John, leaping to his feet again, "I'll tell +you. Yesterday he sent word to me by his broker that he would like to +buy those houses of ours in the Szechenyi Square which I have offered +for sale. Wishing to save broker's expenses I went to see him myself at +twelve o'clock. Surely that is the most convenient time for paying +business calls. At least I have always supposed so. I entered his +ante-chamber and there stood a flunkey. He told me I must wait! Told +_me_ forsooth--_me_, John Lapussa--that I must cool my heels in an +ante-chamber, at an inn, to please that wretched Hatszegi. Very well. I +waited. I sent him a message that I _would_ wait. Meanwhile I found I +could not sit down anywhere, for the rascal had piled dirty boots and +brushes on all the chairs. Presently the rascal of a servant came back +and told me that his master could not see me then, would I come back +again in the afternoon--I, John Lapussa, forsooth! Absolutely would not +speak to me, but told me to come again another time! Thou dog, thou +wretched rascal! But wait, I say, that's all!" + +At this the old man also grew excited. + +"Why did you not box his ears?" cried he. + +"I'll do it, and do it well. I'll not stand it. What! send a Lapussa +packing! It cannot be overlooked. I shall immediately go and find two +seconds and challenge him to a duel." + +"Nay, John, don't do that! Don't even box his ears in the street, but +give a street-porter ten shillings to cudgel him well as he comes out of +the theatre; that will be best!" + +"No, I will kill him. I will shed his blood. He who insults me in a +gentlemanly manner must be shown that I can revenge myself like a +gentleman. I will wipe off the score with pistols--with pistols I say." + +The old man and the female members of the family were duly impressed by +this bragging, or rather all except Madame Langai, who was getting ready +for the theatre and took no notice of the general conversation. + +Mr. John was much put out by her indifference. "Matilda," he asked, +"what do _you_ say? Ought I not to fight, after such an insult?" + +Madame Langai answered the unavoidable question with a cold smile: "I +would only say that if anyone angers you another time you had better +expend your wrath upon him before dinner, for if you nurse your wrath +till after dinner you spoil the whole thing." + +Mr. John listened to her in silence and then resumed his promenade with +his hands behind his back snorting furiously. Suddenly he snatched up +his cap and rushed out. + +"John, John, what are you going to do?" the old man called after him in +a supplicating voice. + +"You'll very soon see, I'll warrant you," and he banged the door behind +him. + +The old man turned reproachfully towards Madame Langai. "Why did you +irritate him when he was mad enough already?" he cried. "What will you +gain by his death? He has a son who will inherit everything, you know. +Yes, everything will belong to little Maksi." + +Madame Langai calmly went on tying her bonnet strings. + +"I know what fiery blood he has," mumbled the old man. "When he is angry +he will listen to nobody, and is capable of facing a whole army. We must +prevent this duel somehow. And you are actually preparing to go to the +theatre when things have come to such a pass? You are actually going to +see a comedy!" + +"The actor Ladislaus plays just the same parts on the stage as John does +off the stage," replied Madame Langai bitterly. "And I am as little +afraid of John's rhodomontade as I am of the result of stage duels. +Don't be afraid! He'll come to no harm." + +A lacquey now entered to announce that the coach was ready, and Madame +Langai, adjusting her mantilla, went to the playhouse where the actors +were, at least, amusing. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A NEW MODE OF DUELLING + + +Old Lapussa always liked to have under his eye, night and day, some one +or other whom he could plague and worry. Till eight o'clock every +evening he was fully occupied in tormenting the whole family. Then +Madame Langai went to the theatre and Henrietta and the governess had to +sit down at the piano in the large drawing-room till it was time to put +the child to bed. But when Clementina and the domestics had had supper +and there was no longer anybody else with him, the turn of the night +nurse began. + +The duties of a night nurse are never very enviable or diverting at the +best of times, yet penal servitude for life was a fate almost preferable +to being the nocturnal guardian of old Demetrius Lapussa. The unhappy +wretch who was burdened with this heavy charge had to sit at Mr. +Lapussa's bed from nine o'clock at night till early the following +morning and read aloud to him all sorts of things the whole time. Old +Demetrius was a very bad sleeper. The whole night long he scarcely slept +more than an hour at a time. His eyes would only close when the droaning +voice of some one reading aloud made his head dizzy, and then he would +doze off for a short time. But at the slightest pause he would +instantly awake and angrily ask the reader why he left off, and urge him +on again. + +The reader in question was a student more than fifty years old, who, +time out of mind, had been making a living by fair-copying all sorts of +difficult manuscripts. He was an honest, simple creature who, in his +time, had tried hard to push his way into every conceivable business and +profession without ever succeeding till, at last, when he was well over +fifty, he was fortunate enough to fall in with an editor who happened to +know that Demetrius Lapussa wanted a reader, and recommended the poor +devil for the post. He knew Hungarian, Latin, and Slovack well enough to +mix them all up together; German he could read, though he did not +understand it, but this was not necessary, for he was not expected to +read for his own edification. + +This worthy man, then, grew prematurely old in reading, year out year +in, aloud to Mr. Demetrius, one after another, all the German +translations of French novels procurable at Robert Lempel's circulating +library without understanding a single word of them. Mr. Demetrius had, +naturally, no library of his own, for reading to him, in his condition, +was pretty much the same as medicine, and who would ever think of +keeping a dispensary on his own premises? I may add that the reader +received free board and lodging and ten florins a month pocket-money for +his services. + +On that particular night when Mr. John flung out of the house in such a +violent rage, Mr. Demetrius was particularly sleepless. I know not +whether Monte Cristo, the first volume of which honest Margari happened +to be reading just then, was the cause of this, or whether it was due to +the old man's nervousness about the terrible things John was likely to +do, but the fact remains that poor Margari on this occasion got no +respite from his labours. At other times Margari did manage to get a +little relief. Whenever he observed that Mr. Demetrius was beginning to +draw longer breaths than usual he would let his head sink down on his +book and fall asleep immediately till the awakened tyrant roused him out +of his slumbers and made him go on again. But now he was not suffered to +have a moment's peace. + +Monte Cristo had already been sitting in his dungeon for some time when +Madame Langai's carriage returned from the theatre. Then Mr. Demetrius +rang up the porters to inquire whether Mr. John had also returned home. +No, was the answer. At eleven o'clock Mr. John had still not returned. +Meanwhile Monte Cristo's neighbour had traced the figure on the floor of +the dungeon. Mr. Demetrius here demanded a fuller explanation of the +circumstances. "How was that, Margari?" he enquired. + +"I humbly beg your honour's pardon, but I don't understand." + +"Very well, proceed!" + +Every time a door below was opened or shut, Mr. Demetrius rang up the +porter to enquire whether Mr. John had come in, to the intense +aggravation of the porter, who appeared in the door of the saloon with a +surlier expression and his hair more and more ruffled on each occasion, +inwardly cursing the fool of a student who had not even wit enough to +send an old man asleep, and envying the other servants who at least were +able to sleep at night without interruption. + +And still Margari went on reading. + +By this time Monte Cristo had had himself sewn up in a sack and flung +into the sea as a corpse. + +"Would you have dared to have that done to you, Margari?" interrupted +Mr. Demetrius. + +"If I had a lot of money I might, begging your honour's pardon, but a +poor devil like me is only too glad to live at any price," replied +Margari, whose answer naturally had no relation whatever to the text, +not a word of which he understood. + +"You are a simple fellow, Margari; but go on, go on!" + +Margari gaped violently, he would have liked to have stretched himself +too, but he bethought him in time that his coat had already burst +beneath his armpits, and he had no wish to make the rent still larger, +so he let it alone and proceeded with his bitter labour. + +By the time Monte Cristo had swum back to dry land, Margari's eyelids +were almost glued to his eyes and still the old gentleman showed no +sign of drowsiness. Mr. John's threat had kept Mr. Demetrius awake all +night, and consequently had kept poor Margari awake too. Once or twice +an unusually interesting episode excited the old man's attention, and +for the time he forgot all about John's duel--for example, when Monte +Cristo discovered the enormous treasure on the island--and he would then +rouse up Margari and make him go and find a map and point out the exact +position of Monte Cristo's island. Margari searched every corner of the +sea for it, and at last looked for it on the dry land also without +finding it. Tiring at length with the fruitless search he proposed, as +the best way out of the difficulty, that he should write on the +afternoon of the following day to Monsieur Alexander Dumas himself to +explain to his honour where the island used to be and whether it still +existed. + +"What a blockhead you are," said the old man, "but go on, go on!" + +Margari gave a great sigh and looked at the clock on the wall, but, +alas! it was still a long way from six o'clock. At last, however, while +he was still reading, the clock _did_ strike six. Margari instantly +stood up in the middle of a sentence, marked the passage with his +thumb-nail so as to know at what word to begin again on the following +evening, turned down the leaf and closed the book. + +"Well! is that the end of it?" enquired Mr. Demetrius in angry +amazement. + +"I humbly beg your honour's pardon," said Margari with meek intrepidity, +"there's nothing about reading _after six_ in our agreement"--and off he +went. Mr. Demetrius thereupon flew into a violent rage, cursed and +swore, vowed that he would dismiss his reader on the spot, and as the +morning grew lighter fell into a deep, death-like, narcotic sleep from +which he would not have awakened if the house had come tumbling about +his ears. When he did awake, about ten o'clock, his first care was to +make enquiries about Mr. John. Then he sent the porter to the police +station to inform the authorities that his son and Mr. Hatszegi, who +were both staying at the Queen of England inn, were going to fight a +duel, which should be prevented at all hazards. A police constable, at +this announcement, flung himself into a hackney-coach and set off at +full speed to make enquiries. Half an hour later a heyduke was sent back +to the porter to tell him that either the whole affair must be a hoax, +as nothing was known of a duel, or else that the two combatants must +already be dead and buried, as not a word could be heard of either of +them. Luckily, towards the afternoon, Mr. John himself arrived in a +somewhat dazed condition, like one who has been up drinking all night. +The members of the family were all sitting together as usual in Mr. +Demetrius's room, listening in silence to his heckling, when the tidings +of Mr. John's arrival reached him. Demetrius immediately summoned him. +He sent back word at first that he was lying down to try to sleep, which +was an absurd excuse for even the richest man to give in the forenoon; +on being summoned a second time he threatened to box the porter's ears; +only the third time, when Clementina was sent with the message that if +he did not come at once, his sick father would come and fetch him, did +he respond to the call and appear before them in a pet. + +"Well, thou bloodthirsty man, what has happened? What was the end of +it?" + +"What has happened?" repeated John with monstrously dilated eyes. "What +marvel do you expect me to relate?" + +"Clementina, Miss Kleary, Henrietta, retire," cried the old man; +"retire, go into the next room. These are not the sort of things that +children should hear." + +When they had all withdrawn except Madame Langai, Demetrius again +questioned his son: "Now then, what about this affair, this _rencontre_ +with Hatszegi; did you challenge him, did you meet him?" + +"Eh? Oh--yes! Naturally. Of course I sought him out, I have only just +come from him. We have been making a night of it together at the Queen +of England. I can honestly say that he is a splendid fellow, a gallant, +charming gentleman. He has really noble qualities. I am going to bring +him here this afternoon. You shall all see him. Even you will like him, +Matilda. But now, adieu, I must really have a little sleep, we were +drinking champagne together all night. Oh, he is a magnificent, a truly +magnificent character." + +Mr. Demetrius said not a word in reply, but he compressed his thin lips +and wagged his head a good deal. Nobody made any observation. Mr. John +was allowed to go to bed according to his desire. A little time after he +had withdrawn, however, the old man said to Madame Langai: "What are you +doing Matilda?" + +"I am trying to guess a rebus which has just appeared in 'The Iris.'" + +"Don't you think that what John has just said is rather odd?" + +"I have not troubled my head about it one way or the other." + +"I can see through it though. John wants to pay off Hatszegi in his own +coin. He has invited him here this afternoon in order to keep him +waiting in the ante-chamber, and then send him word that he can't see +him till to-morrow. Oh! Jack is a sly lad, a very sly lad, but I can see +through him. I can see through him." + + * * * * * + +Mr. John passed the whole afternoon in his father's room; he did not +even go to his club. No doubt he was awaiting his opportunity for +revenge. He amused himself by sitting down beside his niece, stroking +her hand, admiring the whiteness of her skin, and, drawing the +governess into the conversation, enquired how Henrietta was getting on +with her studies, whether she had still much to learn in English and +French, and whether she was not, by this time, quite a virtuoso at the +piano. He insinuated at the same time that it would be just as well, +perhaps, if she made haste to learn all that was necessary as soon as +possible, because she was no longer a child, and when once a woman is +married she has not very much time for study. + +"By the way, Henrietta," he added suddenly, "have you chosen a lover +yet?" + +Henrietta was too much afraid of him even to blush at this question, she +only glanced at him with timid, suspicious eyes and said nothing. + +"Don't be afraid, sisterkin," continued Mr. John encouragingly. "I'll +bring you such a nice bridegroom that even your grandpapa, when he sees +him, will snatch up his crutches in order to go and meet him half-way." +Here the old man growled something which John smothered with a laugh. +"Yes, and if he won't give you up we'll carry you off by force." + +Henrietta shuddered once or twice at her uncle's blandishments, like one +who has to swallow a loathsome medicine and has caught a whiff of it +beforehand. + +The porter interrupted this cheerful family chat by announcing that his +lordship Baron Hatszegi wished to pay his respects to Mr. Lapussa. + +Mr. Demetrius immediately raised himself on his elbows to read from Mr. +John's features what he was going to do. Would he tell the lacqueys to +turn Hatszegi out of the house? or would he send him word to wait in the +ante-chamber, as he himself had waited at Hatszegi's, and then put him +off till the morrow? Oh! John would be sure to do something of the sort, +for a very proud fellow was John. + +But, so far from doing any of these things, Mr. John rushed to the door +to meet the arriving guest and greeted him aloud from afar in the most +obliging, not to say obsequious, terms, bidding him come in without +ceremony and not make a stranger of himself. And with that he passed his +arm through the arm of his distinguished guest and, radiant with joy, +drew him into the midst of the domestic sanctum sanctorum and presenting +him in a voice that trembled with emotion: "His lordship, Baron Leonard +Hatszegi, my very dear friend!" + +And then he was guilty of the impropriety of introducing his guest first +of all to his father and his niece, simply because they happened to be +the nearest, only afterward he bethought him of turning towards Matilda +to introduce her, whereupon Matilda's face assumed a stony expression +like that of the marble maiden in Zampa, to the great confusion of John, +who felt bound to enquire in a half-whisper: "Why, what's the matter?" + +"You dolt," she whispered back, "have you not learnt yet that the lady +of the house should be introduced to her guests not last, but first?" + +John's first impulse was to be shocked, his second was to be furious, +but finally he thought it best to turn with a smile to Baron Hatszegi, +who courteously helped him out of his embarrassment by observing: "It is +my privilege to be able to greet your ladyship as an old acquaintance +already. Many a time have I had the opportunity of secretly admiring you +in your box at the theatre." + +"Pray be seated, sir...!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AN AMIABLE MAN + + +Baron Hatszegi was certainly a very amiable man. He had a handsome face +full of manly pride, sparkling eyes, and a powerful yet elegant figure. +He moved and spoke with graceful ease, bore himself nobly, picked his +words--in short, was a perfect gentleman. Mr. Demetrius was quite taken +with him, although Hatszegi hardly exchanged a word with him, naturally +devoting himself principally to the widowed lady who played the part of +hostess. What the conversation was really about nobody distinctly +recollected--the usual commonplaces no doubt, balls, soirees, +horse-racing. Henrietta took no part in the talk; Mr. John, on the other +hand, had a word to say on every subject, and, although nobody paid any +attention to him, he enjoyed himself vastly. + +When Hatszegi had departed, John, with a beaming face, asked Madame +Langai what she thought of the young man. + +Instead of replying, Madame Langai asked what had induced him to bring +him there. + +"Well, but he's a splendid fellow, isn't he?" + +"You said yesterday that he was a vagabond." + +"I said so, I know, but it is not true." + +"You said, too, that he was a robber." + +"What! I said that? Impossible. I didn't say that." + +Old Demetrius here intervened as a peacemaker. + +"You said it, John, you did indeed; but you were angry, and at such +times a man says more than he means." + +"So far from being a robber or a vagabond," replied John, "he is one of +the principal landowners in the Hatszegi district. How _could_ I have +said such things! He has a castle that is like a fortress. He is like a +prince, a veritable prince in his own domains. He is just like a petty +sovereign. I must have been downright mad to call him a vagabond. . . ." + +"Yet, yesterday, you would have called him out," continued Madame Langai +teasingly. + +"Yes, I was angry with him then, but there are circumstances which may +reconcile a couple of would-be duellists, are there not?" + +"Oh, certainly, if a man is a man of business before all things, or has +perhaps a valuable house or two on his hands." + +"This has nothing to do with business or selling houses. If you must +know," he continued, lowering his voice, "it is about something entirely +different, but of the very greatest importance." + +"Indeed?" returned Madame Langai, "a new Alexander the Great, I suppose, +who has gone forth to conquer, and who has come to look not for a house, +but for a house and home perhaps?" + +She thought to herself that it was some adventurer whom her brother +John would palm off upon her as a husband so as to get her away from the +old man. + +"Something of the sort," replied John. "Yes, you have guessed half--but +the wrong half." + +"I am glad to hear it." + +"Ah!" put in the old man sarcastically, "Matilda will never marry again, +I'm sure; she loves her old dad too much and feels far too happy at home +to do that." + +"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed John scornfully, "I did not mean Matilda, I was +not thinking of her. Ho, ho, ho! Madame Langai imagines that _she_ is +the only person in the house whose hand can be wooed and won." + +Dame Langai, with a shrug, looked incredulously round the room to see if +there was anybody else who could possibly become the object of the +baron's sighs. All at once her eyes accidentally encountered those of +Henrietta, and immediately she knew even more than her brother John did. +For she now clearly understood three things: the first was that +Henrietta had taken in John's meaning more quickly than she had done, +the second was that John had brought the suitor to the house on +Henrietta's account, and the third was that Henrietta loathed the man. + +She at once bade Miss Kleary give Henrietta an extra lesson on the piano +in the adjoining room, and when they had taken her at her word and +disappeared, she said to John in her usual quiet, mincing tone: + +"You surely do not mean to give Henrietta to that man?" + +"Why not, pray?" + +"Because she is still a mere child, a mere schoolgirl; five years hence +it will be quite time enough to provide her with a husband." + +"But the girl is sixteen if she is a day." + +"Yes, and delicate, sickly, and nervous." + +"She will soon be well enough when she is married." + +"And who, may I ask, _is_ this suitor of yours. Is it not your duty, +Demetrius Lapussa, as the girl's grandfather, to make the fullest +enquiries about any man who may sue for your grand-daughter's hand? Is +it not your duty, I say, to find out who and what he is and everything +relating to him? For brother John may be very much mistaken in fancying +his dear friend to be a wealthy and amiable nobleman. Whether he be +amiable or not does not concern you personally, I know; but you ought +certainly to know how he stands, for he may have castles and mansions +and yet be up to the very ears in debt. In such a case if he is a +nobleman so much the worse for you: for he will then have all the +greater claim upon you. It may cost you dearly to admit a ruined baron +into the bosom of your family." + +John grew yellow with rage: "How dare you talk like that of anyone you +do not know?" he cried. + +"Then, do you know him any better?" + +But here the old man intervened: + +"You're a fool, John," said he. "Matilda is right. I will send for my +lawyer, Mr. Sipos. He understands all about such things and will advise +us in the matter. We _must_ find out how the baron stands." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CHILDISH NONSENSE + + +Meanwhile Hatszegi continued to call every day, dividing his attention +equally between the widow and Henrietta; and at the end of a fortnight +everyone was charmed with his personal qualities. It could not be denied +that he was a delightful companion, always merry, lively, frank, and +entertaining. He even made the old gentleman laugh aloud more than once; +in fact Demetrius Lapussa grew quite impatient if Hatszegi was five +minutes late. Mr. John was more delighted with him than ever. They took +walks together, invariably drove in the same carriage to the park, and +John was to be seen every night in the baron's box at the theatre, +talking at the top of his voice so that everybody might become aware of +the fact. Nay, he succeeded, through the courtesy of his new friend, in +making the acquaintance of one or two magnates who subsequently lifted +their hats to John in the street and thus gratified the dearest desire +of his heart. + +The enquiries made about Hatszegi also proved extremely satisfactory. He +was certainly sound and solid financially, had never had a bill +dishonoured, had no dealings with usurers, always paid cash and was +never even in temporary embarrassment, as is so often the case with most +landed proprietors when the crops fail. In fact, he seemed to have +unlimited funds constantly at his disposal and to be scarcely less +wealthy than old Lapussa himself. + +So far then, everything was as it should be, and everyone was enchanted +with him personally. + +But what of Henrietta, the intended bride? + +Oh! she was not even consulted in the matter; it is not usual, and +besides she had neither mind nor will enough to have a voice in so +important a matter as the disposal of her hand. Nay, she was not even +told that she was going to be married. She only got an inkling of it +from various phenomena that struck her from time to time, such as the +polite attentions of the baron, the whispering of the domestics, the +altered attitude towards her of the various members of the family--who +now addressed her in the tone you employ when speaking to a baroness +that is to be. And then there was Clementina's chatter! Clementina was +now for ever talking of all the sewing and stitching that had to be done +for the young lady, and of the frightful quantities of linen and lace +and silk that were being made up into dresses and other garments. Six +seamstresses were hard at work, she said, and she was helping them and +yet they had to make night into day in order to get the necessary things +ready in time. + +So gradually they accustomed her to the idea of it, till at last one +day Madame Langai took her aside and lectured her solemnly as to the +duties of women in general and of women of rank in particular, pointing +out at the same time how much such women owed to their own families for +looking after and providing for them and expressing the hope that +Henrietta would be duly grateful to the end of her days to _her_ +family--from all which she was able to gather that any opposition on her +part would not be tolerated for a moment. + +The day was already fixed for the exchange of the bridal rings, but the +night before that day, Henrietta suddenly fell ill, and, what is more, +dangerously ill, so that they had to run off for the family physician +incontinently. The doctor was much struck by the symptoms of the illness +and the first thing he did was to make the patient swallow a lot of milk +and oil. Then he drove the servants headlong to the chemist's, and +descending into the kitchen closely examined every copper vessel there +by candle light, scolded the cook and the scullery maids till they were +in tears, and terrified Clementina by telling her she was the cause of +it all to the speechless confusion of the innocent creature. Not content +with this, he made his way at once to Mr. Demetrius's room and there +cross-examined everyone with the acerbity of an Old Bailey judge. What +had the young lady been in the habit of eating and drinking? They must +fetch what had been left over from her meals, he must see and examine +everything. What had she eaten yesterday evening? Preserves? Then what +sort of sugar was used, and where was the spoon? He insisted on seeing +everything. + +"But doctor," whined old Lapussa, "you surely don't mean to say that the +child has been poisoned?" + +"I do indeed, and with copper oxide too." + +"How is that possible?" + +"Why, simply because some of her food, preserve, for instance, has been +allowed to stand too long in a copper or silver vessel and copperas has +been developed." + +The old man did not know enough of chemistry to understand how copperas +could be developed from silver, but he was seriously alarmed. + +"I hope there's no danger?" said he. + +"It is a good job you sent for me when you did," replied the doctor, +"for otherwise she would have been dead before morning. Copperas is a +very dangerous poison, and if it gets into one's food in large +quantities there is practically no antidote. A vigorous constitution, +indeed, has a good chance of throwing it off; but, taking into +consideration the state of the young lady's nerves and her general +debility, I should say that her case was downright dangerous; anyhow she +will be ailing for some time." + +"Oh, doctor, doctor! and we all love Hetty so much, she is the very +light of our eyes! I cannot tell you how anxious I am, on her account I +should be so glad, doctor, if you could stay with her night and day and +never leave the house. I would richly recompense you." + +"I will do all I can, though I can't do that, and unless any unforeseen +accident arise, I think I can answer for the result. But one thing I +must insist upon, all these copper and silver vessels of yours must go +to the devil. I'll come to-morrow and examine thoroughly the whole lot +of them by daylight. The health of the family must not be endangered by +such recklessness. And let me tell your honour something else. Are you +aware that your honour's business-man, Mr. Sipos, who is only a lawyer +and, therefore, can ill afford to do so in comparison with your honour, +are you aware, I say, that he has on this very occasion sent all his +copper vessels to the lumber-room?" + +"On this occasion! what do you mean?" enquired the old man eagerly. + +"I mean that I have just come from him and a similar case has happened +in his house. His assistant--a fine young fellow, you know him, +perhaps?--has also been poisoned by copperas. I have only this instant +quitted him." + +"What an odd coincidence." + +"Very odd, indeed. Two exactly similar cases of poisoning at the same +time and all because copper vessels were used and not properly cleaned." + +"And how is the young man progressing? Is he out of danger?" + +"Fortunately; although at the outset his was an even worse case than the +young lady's. But then he is so much stronger. Well, good-bye! I will +look in again to-morrow." + +"But I should be so much easier, doctor, if you never left my +grandchild's side." + +"I would willingly do even that if I had not other patients in the town +to attend to." + +"Could you not entrust them to someone else?" + +"Impossible. My reputation would be at stake. Besides I do not often +have the chance of studying two such interesting parallel cases of +poisoning at the same time." + +"Very well, doctor. All I ask of you is to cure our little one." + +"I hope to save the pair of them. And now I'll go up and have a look at +her, and then I must return to Mr. Sipos's house. But I shall be here +again in an hour or so." + +And with that the old man had to be content. + +During the whole course of Henrietta's illness he sent to enquire after +his grandchild every hour. Clementina and an old maid-servant took it in +turns to watch by her bedside. It was strictly forbidden to leave +Henrietta alone for an instant, and Mr. Demetrius gave special orders +that her brother Koloman was not to be allowed to approach within six +paces of her bed because he was sure to bring cold air into the room, or +convey to her surreptitiously something which she ought not to have and +behave like a blockhead generally. So he was obliged to keep his +distance. + +At last when weeks and weeks had flown by, God and blessed nature +helped the doctor to triumph over the effects of the poison. Henrietta +slowly began to mend. She was still very weak, but the doctor assured +them that she was quite out of danger and that the little capricious +fancies of convalescence might now be safely humoured. + +Madame Langai, in the doctor's presence, asked the sick girl whether +there was anything in particular she would like, any food she fancied, +any pastime she preferred. + +The pale, delicate-looking child languidly cast down her eyes as if she +would say: "I should like to lie in the grave--deep, deep, down." But +what she really did say was: "I should like to read something. I feel so +dull." + +"That I cannot allow," said the doctor, "it would make your head ache, +but I have no objection to someone reading to you some nice, amusing +novel, Dickens's "Pickwick Papers," for instance, or a story of +Marryat's, something light and amusing, I mean, which will not excite +you too much." + +"I should like that," said Henrietta and the choice fell on the +"Pickwick Papers." But as the English governess complained that she +could never read aloud for ten minutes at a time without growing hoarse +and Clementina's eyes were too weak for any such office, it was +suggested that Margari should be asked to submit to this extra +sacrifice, and Clementina succeeded in persuading him to do so by +promising him a liberal reward. So she brought him back with her and +seated him behind a curtain so that he could not see the invalid (that +would have been scarcely proper), and put the book into his hand. + +But scarcely had Margari struggled through a few lines when Henrietta +again became fidgety and said she longed for something to eat. The +good-natured Clementina jumped with joy at this sign of returning +appetite, and asked her what she would like and how she would like it. +Henrietta thereupon directed her to have prepared a soup of such a +complicated character (only the morbid imagination of an invalid could +have conceived such a monstrosity), that Clementina felt obliged to +descend to the kitchen herself to superintend its concoction herself, +for it was certain that any servant would have forgotten half the +ingredients before she could get down stairs. + +Scarcely had Clementina shut the door behind her when Henrietta +interrupted Margari's elocution. + +"For Heaven's sake, come nearer to me," she said, "I want to speak to +you." + +The worthy man was so frightened by this unexpected summons that he had +half a mind to rush out and call for assistance. He fancied that the +young lady had become delirious--it was such an odd thing to ask him to +draw nearer. But the sick girl, pressing together her trembling hands, +looked at him so piteously that he could hesitate no longer but +approached her bedside. + +Henrietta did not scruple to seize the hand of the embarrassed +gentleman. + +"For God's sake, help me, my good Margari," she whispered. "I am plagued +by an anxiety which prevents me from closing my eyes. Even here when I +sleep it follows me into my dreams. You can free me from it. In you +alone have I confidence. You suffer in this house as much as I do. You +have no cause to torment or persecute me. Will you do what I ask you, my +dear, good Margari?" + +It occurred to Margari that the young lady was wandering in her mind, so +to humour her, he promised to do whatever she asked him without +hesitation. + +"I will be very good to you, I will never forget all my life long the +kindness you are about to do me." + +"Your humble servant, Miss! but you have always been good to me. As far +as I can remember, while the others took a delight in vexing me, you +were the only one who always took my part. I don't forget that either. +Command me! I will go through fire and water for you." + +"Look, then!" said the girl, drawing from her bosom a little key +attached to a black cord, "this is the key of my toilet casket. Open it +and you will find a bundle of documents tied together with a blue +ribbon, take them. All through my illness I trembled at the thought that +they might ransack my things and find them, and when I came to myself I +was worrying myself with the idea that I might perhaps have spoken about +these papers in my delirium. Oh! it would have been frightful if my +relations had seized them. Take them, quickly, before Clementina +returns. I must conceal everything, even from her." + +Margari accomplished the task with tolerable dexterity. He only broke +the looking-glass while he was opening the casket, and that was little +enough for him. There the documents were right enough, nicely tied +together. + +And then Henrietta seized his hand and pressed it so warmly and looked +at him with her lovely, piteous, imploring eyes--a very lunatic might +have been healed by such a look. + +"I know you for an honourable man," continued she, "promise me not to +look at these papers, but give them to my brother Koloman, he will know +what to do with them. You will do this for my sake, dear Margari, will +you not? It is just as though one of the dead were to come back to you +from the world beyond the grave and implore you, with desperate +supplications, to free its soul from a thought which rested upon it like +a curse and would not let it rest in the grave." + +Margari shuddered at these words. A corpse that returns from the world +beyond the grave! This young gentlewoman certainly had a terrifying +imagination. Nevertheless he swore by his hope of salvation that he +would not bestow a glance upon the papers, but would give them to young +Koloman. + +"Hide them, pray!" + +And indeed it was high time that he should bestow them in the well-like +pocket of his long coat, for Clementina's steps were already audible in +the adjoining chamber. When she appeared, however, he was sitting behind +the curtain again, reading away as if nothing had happened. + +When the clock struck four, at which time Koloman usually returned from +school, Henrietta said to Margari that she had had enough of +romance-reading for that day, but thanked him for his kindness and asked +him to come again on the morrow if he would be so good. Margari +protested that he should consider it the highest honour, the greatest +joy. He would willingly read even English to her, if she liked, and +without any special honorarium either, and then off he went to seek +young Koloman. + +Now it so happened that young Koloman did not come home at the usual +time that day, and Margari after looking for him in vain became very +curious as to the contents of the packet entrusted to him. What sort of +mysterious letters could they be which Miss Henrietta was afraid of +falling into the hands of her family. Hum! how nice it would be to find +out! + +The packet was tied up--naturally! But it was possible to undo and then +retie the knots in just the same way as before, so that nobody would be +any the wiser. To an honourable man, indeed, the mere knowledge that +another's secret was concealed therein which he was bidden to guard +would have been as invincible an impediment as unbreakable bolts and +bars; but the worthy fellow reassured himself with the reflection that, +after all, he was not going to tell anybody the contents of these +documents, and he so very much longed to know what it could be that Miss +Henrietta was so anxious to hide away, and old Lapussa would so much +like to find out. As if he would ever betray the secret of such a nice, +kindly creature to such an old dragon! Why, he would rather have his +tongue torn out than betray it!--but know it he must and would! + +So he locked himself up in his little room on the third storey, and very +cautiously opened the bundle which was enwrapped in I know not how many +folds of paper and greedily devoured the contents of the various +documents. + +But how great was his fury when, instead of the expected secrets, he +found nothing but dull Latin exercises, wearisome rhetorical +commonplaces on such subjects as the charms of spring and summer, the +excellence of agriculture, the advantages of knowledge, the danger of +the passions, and similar interesting themes. He was just about to tie +the bundle up again, when it occurred to him to read one of these +tiresome dissertations to the end, just to see what sort of style the +young scholar affected. And now a great surprise awaited him, for he +found that after the first five or six lines the theme suddenly broke +off and there followed something altogether different, which though also +written in the Latin tongue had nothing whatever to do, either with the +beauties of spring or the excellencies of agriculture, but was, +nevertheless, of the most interesting and engrossing character. + +Now, indeed, he read every one of the exercises from beginning to end, +and, when he had done so, he clearly perceived that if old Demetrius +Lapussa had very particular reasons for ferreting out these things, Miss +Henrietta had still greater reason for concealing them. + +After having neatly tied up the packet again, he bethought him what he +had better do next. Miss Henrietta had confided the secret to his +safe-keeping, but Mr. Demetrius had commanded him to keep an eye upon +Koloman and his Latin exercises--which of them had the best right to +command in that house? But was it right to divulge a secret? Ah! that +was another question. It is true that, as a general rule, it is wrong to +betray secrets; yet, it is nevertheless true, that to betray a secret +that ought to be known is at least justifiable. Moreover, was it not a +Christian duty to let the grandfather know as soon as possible what +extraordinary things his granddaughter was turning over in her noddle? +And finally--there was money in it!--good solid cash! If old Lapussa did +not choose to pay a price for it, and a liberal price too, he should be +told nothing at all and Margari would show the old miser that he had a +man of character to deal with. For after all poor Margari had to live, +and this was worth as much as a thousand florins to him or its +equivalent anyhow. Surely Miss Henrietta could not be so unreasonable as +to expect poor Margari to chuck such a piece of good fortune out of the +window, especially as she had given him nothing herself. + +At that moment someone knocked at the door and enquired whether Mr. +Margari was there. + +Margari was so frightened that he bawled out: "No, I am not!"--so of +course he was obliged to open the door, but he concealed the packet of +letters in his pocket first. + +It was the lacquey who came to ask whether Mr. Margari was aware that it +was past seven o'clock; he must come and read to the old gentleman. + +Margari could not endure to hear the domestics speaking to him +familiarly. + +"Seven o'clock! What do you mean?" said he. "Am I bound to know when it +is seven o'clock? Am I a clockmaker or a bell-ringer? If your master +wants me to know what a clock it is, let him send me, not a lacquey, but +a gold repeater watch!" + +And salving his wounded dignity with these and similar effusions, +Margari trotted alongside the lacquey to the room of Mr. Demetrius, to +whom he immediately notified the change in the situation by sinking +down into a soft and cosey arm-chair instead of sitting down on the edge +of the hard leather-chair, expressly provided for him. + +Demetrius measured him from head to foot with his terrible eagle eyes +and observed in an even more stridently moral voice than usual: "Well, +Margari, when are we going to have our novel reading?" + +"We will have our reading presently, but it won't be a novel to-day." + +"What do you mean, sir?" + +"I humbly beg to remind your honour that you were pleased to commission +me to lay hands upon certain Latin exercises of your grandson Koloman. I +humbly beg to inform you that they are now in my possession." + +"Oh!" said old Lapussa, with a forced assumption of _sang froid_, "you +may give them to me to-morrow, I will look them through." + +"Crying your honour's pardon, they are in Latin." + +"Well, I can get someone to look them through for me." + +"I beg humbly to represent that it would not be well to put them into +anybody's hands, for strange things are contained therein." + +"What!" cried the old man angrily, "you don't mean to say _you_ have +looked into them?" + +"Yes, I have read them all through." + +"I did not tell you to do that." + +"No, but you were graciously pleased _not_ to forbid me to do so. Now, +I know everything. I know the cause of the young lady's illness. I know +why she does not wish to become the wife of Count Hatszegi. Nay, I even +know what will happen in case she does. I know all that I say--and here +it is in my pocket." + +"And what presumption on your part to read other people's letters!" + +"I beg your honour's pardon, but it is not presumption; I only wanted to +know the value of the wares I have obtained for your honour. I wanted to +know whether they were worth one florin, two florins, a hundred florins, +a thousand florins, lest you should do me the favour to say to me: +'look, ye, Margari, my son, here are some coppers, go and drink my +health!'--and so get the better of me." + +"You are becoming impertinent! Do you want me to ring for the footman?" + +"Pray do not give yourself the trouble! If you are determined to take +the documents away from me by force I will fling them into the fire that +is burning there on the hearth before the footman can come in and there +will be an end to them." + +"Then it is money you want, eh? How much?" + +This question made Margari still more bumptious. + +"How much do I want? A good deal, a very good deal, I can tell you. In +fact I cannot tell at present how much." + +But then he suddenly reassumed his obsequious cringing mien and added: +"I tell you what, your honour, procure me some petty office at Count +Hatszegi's. I don't care what it is, so long as I get a life-long +sinecure--suppose we say his bailiff, or his librarian, or his +secretary? A single word from your honour would do it." + +An idea suddenly occurred to Mr. Demetrius. + +"Very good, Margari, very good. So it shall be. I give you my word upon +it--you shall be Hatszegi's secretary." + +"But it must be life-long. I humbly beg of you, it must be till the term +not of his but of my natural life." + +"Yes, yes, till the term of your natural life." + +"But if he won't have it?" + +"I'll pay you myself. You shall receive your regular salary from me +without including whatever you may get over and above from him. Will you +be satisfied with a yearly salary of three hundred florins with your +board and keep?" + +At these words Margari's breath failed him. It was not without +difficulty that he put the rapacious question: "Will your honour do me +the favour to give me this promise in writing?" + +"Certainly! Bring writing materials and I will dictate it to you on the +spot." + +And so an agreement was duly drawn up whereby Mr. Margari, in +consideration of a yearly salary of 300 florins to be punctually sent to +him at the beginning of every quarter, undertook in his capacity of +secretary to Baron Hatszegi, to keep his Honour Demetrius Lapussa +informed of all that he saw and heard at the residence of that +gentleman, Henrietta's future husband, and this obligation of +maintaining Margari was to be transferred on the death of Mr. Demetrius +to his son John. And no doubt Mr. Demetrius knew very well what he was +about. + +This document signed and sealed, Mr. Margari, with the greatest +alacrity, produced the Latin exercises in question, first of all, +however, respectfully kissing the hand of his patron. + +It took till midnight to read and translate all these documents one by +one. Mr. Demetrius was very well satisfied with the result, that is to +say so far as concerned the fidelity of the translation,--with the tenor +of the original text he had not the slightest reason to be pleased. + +When, shortly after midnight, these revelations were concluded, Mr. +Demetrius commanded Margari to go up into his room and have a complete +translation of all this Latin rigmarole written down in honest Hungarian +by the morning and to encourage him in his task he gave him two guldens +and an order on the butler for as much punch as he could drink. By the +morning all the punch was drunk, but the translation also was finished, +to the tune of bacchanalian songs which Margari kept up with great +spirit all night long. + + * * * * * + +Next day, punctually at the appointed hour, the lawyer, Mr. Sipos, +appeared at the house of the Lapussas, with the necessary documents +neatly tied up with tape, under his arm as usual; he was not like our +modern lawyers who carry their masterpieces in portfolios as if they are +ashamed of them. The only persons in the reception room besides the old +man, were Madame Langai and Mr. John. Henrietta, still an invalid, had +been allowed to take a stroll to the woods near the town in order to +visit her favourite flowers once more and possibly take leave of them +for ever. She had received no invitation-card for this lecture. Why, +indeed, should a bride know anything of her bridegroom's biography +before marriage! The lawyer took his place at the table, untied his pile +of documents and began to read. + +It appeared from these documents that the founder of the Hatszegi +family, the great grandfather of the present baron, was one Mustafa, who +had been a Defterdar[2] at Stamboul, and had used his unrivalled +opportunities for making money so well that he found it expedient to fly +from Jassy to Transylvania, where he made haste to get baptized and +naturalized. His son, now an Hungarian nobleman, cut a fine figure at +court and gallantly distinguished himself in the Turkish wars against +his former compatriots, his exploits winning for him the estate of +Hidvar and the title of baron. His son again was a miser of the first +water who could be enticed neither to court nor into the houses of his +neighbours. He was continually scraping money together and was not over +particular in the choice of his scraper. By adroit chicanery he acquired +possession of the gold mines of Verespatak, which he exploited with +immense advantage, and by means of money lending and mortgages got into +his hands the vast estate of Hatszegi in the counties of Hunyad and +Feher, so that when he died it took thirty heavy wagons to convey his +ready money in gold and silver alone from the Vadormi caverns, where he +had concealed it to the castle of Hidvar, which his only son, Leonard, +chose as his residence after his father's death. All these details were +certified by unimpeachable documents in schedules B. C. and D. + +[Footnote 2: The chief of the financial department in the Turkish +vilagets.] + +Moreover, the blood of many nationalities circulated in the veins of +Baron Leonard. The Defterdar himself was a Turk of Roumelian origin, +whose only son was the child of his Hindu concubine. He again married +the daughter of a Polish countess at the court of Vienna. The wife of +Baron Leonard's father was a wallachized Hungarian lady, whom he married +for her wealth. It was not wonderful, therefore, if the noble baron +possessed the qualities of five distinct races. Thus he had something of +the voluptuousness of the Turk, the ostentation of the Hindu, the +flightiness of the Pole, the foolhardiness of the Hungarian, and the +obstinacy of the Wallach. + +"For, I speak of his faults first," the lawyer proceeded, "because I +consider that they outweigh his good qualities. That the baron is a +rich man is evident from the accounts and inventories classed under +schedule E; that the baron is a handsome man is evident from the +photograph under schedule H; that the baron is physically sound is clear +from the certificates annexed to schedules I and K, one of which is +supplied by his physician and the other by his hunting comrades. Those +who require nothing from a man save health, wealth, strength, and +beauty, will of course consider him fit and proper to make a woman +happy. Yet having regard to the following facts (1) that the aforesaid +baron is not merely unstable in love affairs but capricious to the verge +of eccentricity, and a winebibber and gourmand to boot; (2) that he is +as vain as an Indian prince who takes unto him a wife for the mere pomp +and show of the thing; (3) that he is violent and brutal, sparing nobody +in his sudden fits of passion and, as the documents testify, has +frequently inflicted mortal injuries on those who have come in his way +while he was in an ill-humour; (4) that he has an odd liking for rowdy +adventures, which do not reflect much credit upon him; and (5) that, +according to the whispers of those nearest to him there is a strange +mystery pervading his whole life, inasmuch as mysterious disappearances, +which nobody can make head or tail of, occupy an incalculable number of +his days and weeks which remain unaccounted for, and make a pretty +considerable hiatus in every year of his life--taking all these things +into consideration, I am constrained to give it as my opinion that I do +not consider such a man a fit and proper husband for such a tender, +sympathetic young lady as the Miss Henrietta in question, and let the +world if it likes consider such a match as the greatest piece of good +fortune imaginable, I, for my part, would nevertheless call it a +calamity to be avoided at any price. And now would you do me the honour +to examine the original documents I have brought with me as exhibits in +corroboration of my statements--though I would mention," he quickly +added, perceiving that Madame Langai had greedily clutched hold of them, +"that among those documents there are sundry by no means suited for a +lady's perusal." + +"When I come across any such I will pass them over," said she. Of course +these were the very passages she proceeded to search for straight away. + +Meanwhile Mr. Demetrius also had drawn a packet of papers from +underneath the cushions of his sofa and handed them to Mr. Sipos. + +"Then you do not advise me to give Henrietta to Baron Hatszegi to wife? +Good! And now, perhaps, while we run through the exhibits and schedules, +perhaps you'll be so good as to cast your eye over these papers. I don't +think they will bore you." + +These documents, by the way, were the Latin documents discovered by Mr. +Margari--_in natura_. + +Mr. John was marching pettishly up and down the room, and Madame Langai +was reading her documents with the greatest attention so that nobody +observed the surprise, the confusion reflected in the countenance of the +lawyer as he looked through the fatal Latin manuscripts. He kept shaking +his head and twisting his moustache right and left, fidgeted in his +armchair, and the beads of perspiration which stood out on his forehead +gave him enough to do to wipe them away with his pocket-handkerchief; at +last he had read the papers, and then he laid the whole bundle on the +table and stared silently before him like one whose reason for the +moment had no counsel to give him. + +Just about the same time Madame Langai had completed the perusal of +_her_ documents, and now she too seemed to be in an extreme state of +agitation. During the course of her reading, she had been unable to +restrain herself from exclaiming at intervals: "the monster! the +scoundrel!" + +Mr. Demetrius had been amusing himself all this time by carefully +observing the various mutations of expression in the faces of the +readers, which certainly afforded considerable entertainment to an +onlooker with any sense of humour. + +When every document had produced its expression, he remarked in a soft +gentle voice: "Well, my daughter, what do _you_ think of the affair?" + +Madame Langai clapped to her eyeglass and, with the air of one who had +made up his mind once for all, replied instantly: "I would not allow a +decent chambermaid to become Baron Hatszegi's wife, let alone a +Henrietta Lapussa." + +"And what is your opinion, Mr. Lawyer?" enquired the old man turning to +Mr. Sipos. + +"I?" replied the honest man, visibly perturbed, with a voice full of +emotion: "I would advise that the young lady should be married to the +baron as quickly as possible." + +Madame Langai regarded him with wide-open eyes. + +"What! After all that is in these papers?" + +"No, after all that is in those other documents." + +"What are they?" cried Madame Langai pouncing upon them incontinently +and extremely vexed, the next moment, to find them all written in Latin. +She perceived that they were Koloman's exercises, and that was all. She +did not understand their connection with the case in point. + +"I'll take those documents back please," said old Demetrius, stretching +out a skinny hand towards them. "They will be of use to us though I have +a translation of them besides. Then, you think, Mr. Lawyer, it will be +as well to marry Henrietta to the baron, eh? Very well! Let me add that +on the day when Henrietta goes to the altar with Baron Leonard, I will +make you a present of all this scribble. Till then I shall require them. +Do you understand?" + +Mr. Sipos was completely beaten; you might have knocked him down with a +feather. He had never been so badly worsted in his professional +capacity. Madame Langai would have besieged him with questions, but he +avoided her, put on his hat and departed. + +Madame Langai thereupon turned to her father: "What is the cause of this +wondrous change?" she cried. "What secrets do those miraculous papers +contain?" + +Mr. Demetrius tucked the documents in question well beneath him and +replied: "They contain secrets the discovery whereof will be a great +misfortune and yet a great benefit to the parties concerned." + +"Have they any connection with Henrietta's wedding?" + +"They have a direct bearing thereupon, and, indeed, necessitate it!" + +"Poor girl!" sighed Madame Langai. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Sipos passed by his own dwelling three times before he knew that he +had reached home, so confused was he by what he had just learnt. When he +_did_ get inside the house he walked for a long time up and down his +consulting room as if he were trying to find a beginning for a business +he would very much have liked to be at the end of. At last he gave the +bellrope a very violent pull and told the clerk who answered the bell to +send him his assistant, Mr. Szilard, at once. + +Szilard appeared on the very heels of the messenger. His was one of +those faces which women never forget. There was ardent passion in every +feature and the large flaming black eyes, which spoke of courage and +high enthusiasm, harmonized so well with the wan hue of the pallid face. + +"Well, my dear fellow, do you feel quite well again now?" asked Mr. +Sipos in a tone of friendly familiarity; "did the doctor call to see you +to-day?" + +"I have no need of him, there's nothing the matter with me." + +"Nay, nay! Not so reckless! You have been working again, I see. You know +the doctor has forbidden it." + +"I only work to distract my thoughts." + +"You should seek amusement rather. Why don't you mix in society like +other young men? Why don't you frequent the coffee-houses and go to a +dance occasionally? Why, you slave away like a street-porter! Young +blood needs relaxation." + +"Oh, I am all right. My dear uncle, you are very kind, but you worry +about me more than I deserve." + +"That is my duty, my dear nephew. Don't you know that your poor father +confided you to my care on his death-bed, bade me be a father to you. +Don't you remember?" + +"I do," replied the young man, and catching hold of his guardian's hand +he pressed it, murmuring in a scarcely audible voice: "You have indeed +been a second father to me!" + +But Mr. Sipos tore his hand passionately from the young man's grasp and +said in a somewhat rougher tone: "But suppose your dead father were to +say: 'That is not true! You have _not_ watched over my son as a father +should! You have lightly left him to himself. He was in danger and you +were unaware of it. He hovered on the edge of the abyss and you were +blind and saw nothing. And if God and my dead hand had not defended him, +he would have become a suicide and you knew it not--wherefore?'"-- + +The young man trembled at these words, he grew even paler than before +and gazed with a look of stupefaction at his chief. Then the old man +approached him, and took him by the hand as if he would say: "I am going +to scold you, but fear nothing. I am on your side." + +"My dear Szilard," said he, "don't you recollect that when you were a +little child and did anything you should not have done, and your father +questioned you about it, did he not always say to you: 'when you have +done wrong and are ashamed to confess it, keep silence! press your teeth +together! but don't lie, don't deny it, never think of taking refuge +behind any false excuse, for your name is Szilard,[3] and cowardice does +not become the bearer of such a name!' You understood him. You acted as +he would have had you act. And now I also would remind you once more +that you were christened Szilard and I ask you therefore to listen +calmly to what I am about to say to you. Don't interrupt, don't attempt +to deceive me. If you don't want to answer my questions, simply shake +your head! And now sit down, my son! You are still barely convalescent. +Your head is weak and what I have to say to you might very well make it +reel again." + +[Footnote 3: Strong, firm.] + +Then the old lawyer tenderly pressed the youth into a chair and sighing +deeply, thus continued: "You fell in love with the daughter of a great +family and she with you. You got acquainted at a dance and the intimacy +did not stop there. Every conceivable obstacle intervened between you, +but love is artful and inventive and you found a way. The rich girl had +a neglected brother whom his relations sent to the grammar school and +the rascal frequently took refuge with me, the family attorney, when he +was ill-treated at home, and here you came across him. You cared for him +and explained to him the difficulties in his lessons which he was unable +to do for himself. The boy grew very fond of you. He spoke to you of +your beloved, and he spoke to her of you, and he was always praising +each of you to the other. The grandfather, the uncle, the aunt, the +governess, the domestics who never took their eyes off the girl for an +instant, had no idea that she was already involved in a love affair. But +amazing is the ingenuity of love and lovers! You knew that none of the +older members of the family understood the classical language of the +orators, and the girl loved so dearly that she did not consider it too +great a labour to learn a dead tongue which could be of no further use +to her in order to be able to say to her beloved: _Ego te in aeternum +amabo!_ One must admit that that was a great and noble sacrifice. Every +day you corresponded with each other. Before school time the girl +dictated his lessons to her young brother, beginning with the usual +scholastic flowers of rhetoric but ending in the passionate voice of +love, and after school was over, you, in your turn dictated a similar +lesson for the lad to carry back with him. Naturally, _this_ lesson book +he _never_ took to school with him; you kept the other here, the genuine +one which he had to show to his masters. And this ingenious smuggling +was carried on beneath the very eyes of the family without their +perceiving it. Yet at last it _was_ discovered. This very day, only an +hour ago, the old head of the family placed these papers in my hands +that I might read them, informing me at the same time that he had +already read a translation of them. Terrible were the things I +discovered in these papers. The appearance of a rich and noble suitor +who, according to the notions of the world, was just made for the girl, +frustrated all your plans of waiting patiently for better times. The +family forced this union upon the girl. You, in your despair, racked +your brain as to what you should do. At first you resolved upon an +elopement, but the redoubled vigilance with which every step of the +young girl was watched made this impossible. Then a black and terrible +thought occurred to you both. You resolved to kill yourselves--it was +your one remaining means of deliverance. Yes, you resolved to kill +yourselves at once, on the self-same day, in the self-same manner. For +many days you deliberated together as to the best way of accomplishing +your design. Great caution was necessary. You had to pick your words +lest the little brother who wrote them down from dictation should have +guessed your intentions. The girl asked you, at last, to send her a book +on natural science. You sent it to her. She, with the help of it tried +to find out what sorts of poisons could be most easily procured. For two +whole days you deliberated together as to the best way of obtaining +matches, the phosphorus of which is the most efficacious of poisons. But +in vain. In great houses only the domestics have charge of the matches, +it was impossible to get any. At last the girl hit on an expedient. She +discovered that if you put a copper coin in a glass dish and pour strong +vinegar over it, verdegris will be formed and verdegris is poison. Your +minds were at once made up. The girl prepared poison for herself and +taught you to do the same. . . . Merciful Heaven! what notions children +do get into their heads to be sure." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SHE IS NOT FOR YOU + + +Up to this moment the youth had listened to the lecture in silence, but +now he arose and said in a calm clear voice: "'Tis all true; it is so!" + +"I should say it was all very bad, very bad indeed!" said the lawyer +vehemently, as if completing a broken sentence. "What! Children to +meditate suicide because things in this world don't go exactly according +to their liking! Have you never regarded the affair from its practical +side? Did you imagine that the girl's relations would support you? And +would you yourself endure to be their pensioner, their butt, the scorn +of the very domestics, for a poor son-in-law is the standing jest of the +very flunkeys--you ought to know that!" + +Szilard's face burned like fire at these words, but the old man hastened +to soothe him. + +"No, you could never reconcile yourself to that, I am sure. But you +thought, perhaps, that the girl might descend to your level and share +your poverty. There are in the world many a poor lad and lass who endow +one another with nothing but their ardent love and yet make happy +couples enough. So, no doubt, you argued, and herein lies the fallacy +that has deceived you. If you had been enamoured of a poor girl, I +should have said: it is rather early to think of marriage, but if it be +God's will, take her! Work and fight your way through the world where +there is room enough for every one. The lass, too, is used to +deprivation, and you are also. She will be content with little. She can +sew, she will do your cooking for you, and, if need be, your washing +likewise! She can make one penny go as far as two. When there is a lot +to do she will sing to make the work lighter, and when your supper is +slender, her good humour and her loving embraces will make it more. But +my dear boy! how are you going to make a poor housewife out of a girl +who has been rich? How can she ever feel at home in a wretched, +out-of-the-way shanty, where she will not even have you always by her +side, for you will have to be looking after your daily bread? She will +say nothing, she will make no complaint, but you will perceive that she +misses something. She will not ask you for a new dress, but you will see +that the one she wears is shabby and it would break your heart to +reflect that you have fettered the girl you love to your step-motherly +destiny, and your manly pride would one day blush for the recklessness +which led you to drag her down with you." + +"My dear guardian," said Szilard, "to prove to you that I did think of +all these things let me tell you that I have put by from my salary and +commissions enough to enable us to live comfortably for at least a +twelvemonth. For a whole year I have lived on two pence a day in order +to save, and during all that time I am sure you have not heard from me +one word of complaint." + +Mr. Sipos was horrified. It was an even worse case than he had imagined. +What! to live for a whole year on two pence a day in order to scrape +together a small capital for one's beloved! It would be very difficult +to cure a madness which took such a practical turn as this! + +"But my dear boy!" he resumed, "what is the good of it all? What can you +do now that your secrets are discovered? It would have served you right +if the girl's parents had proceeded against you on a charge of murder, +for you were an accomplice in this poisoning business; but I am pretty +sure they will only threaten to do so in case she refuses the baron. And +what, pray, can you do in case they thus compel her to become his wife?" + +"Whoever the baron may be," rejoined Szilard, "I suppose he is at least +a gentleman; and if a woman looks him straight in the face on the +wedding day and says to him: 'I cannot love you because I love another +and always will love another,'--I cannot think he will be so devoid of +feeling as to make her his wife notwithstanding." + +"And if she does not say this, but voluntarily gives him her hand in +order to save you from the persecutions of her family, what then?" + +"Hearken, my dear guardian! She may be compelled to write to me that +she loves me no more and I must forget her, but I shall not believe it +till she pronounces or writes down a word the meaning of which only we +two understand and nobody else in the world can discover. So long as +this one word does not get into the possession of a third person, I +shall know that she has not broken with me and no power in this world +shall tear her from my heart. She may be silent, because she is not free +to speak; she may speak because she is commanded to speak; yet, for all +that, this religiously guarded word tells me what she really feels--and +what no other human intelligence can understand. If you like, my dear +guardian, you may betray this confession of mine to Henrietta's +relatives and they will torment the girl till they get her to pronounce +the mysterious word which once pronounced will burst the bonds that +unite us. She will be driven to say something. But oh! women who love +are very crafty. The word they will report to me will not be the right +one. It is possible, too, that they may take her far away from me. Let +them guard her well I say, let those who watch over her never close an +eye. And if they give her a husband, they had best pray for his life for +they know not what a fated thing it is to give away in marriage a girl +who bears about in her heart the secret of a third person." + +"My dear young friend, I see that we shall not come to an understanding +with each other. You are bent upon plunging into ruin a poor +defenceless girl in the name of what you call love, and will not +renounce, though you have not the slightest hope of winning her--that I +do not understand. I, on the other hand, am the legal adviser of the +young lady's family, and, in that capacity, I considered it my duty to +protest very energetically against the match in question. But when they +placed those precious papers in my hands, I said at once that they must +marry her to this man in any case. Otherwise they would have fancied I +was advocating your crazy hopes, that I was an interested party and +simply opposed the family candidate in order to smuggle in a kinsman of +my own in his stead. That idea I was determined to knock out of their +heads, happen what would. But that of course you do not understand. And +now you had better return to your room. Destiny will one day explain to +all of us what we do not understand now." + + * * * * * + +At about the same hour the second act of this drama was proceeding in +the torture-chamber of the Lapussa family. + +Henrietta had returned home from her little tour laden with flowers, +when old Demetrius sent word to her that he would like to see her in his +room. He had taken the precaution of sending Madame Langai away shortly +before and Mr. John was absent at the Corn Exchange. + +"My little maid, Hetty, come nearer to me," said the old gentleman, +turning sideways on his couch and ferreting out from beneath his +pillows a concave snuff-box, "pray do not be angry with me for putting +you to inconvenience. Bear with me for the little time I have still to +live. But if you find living under the same roof with me unendurable, +all the greater reason for you to seize the opportunity of releasing +yourself as quickly as possible." + +Henrietta was too much used to these choleric outbursts to think of +replying to them. + +"Pray, put your hand beneath my pillow. You will find a packet of papers +there. Take them out and look at them." + +Henrietta did with stolid indifference what the old man bade her and +drew forth from this peculiar repository--which served as a sort of lair +for snuff-boxes, pill-boxes and odd bits of pastry--a large bundle of +manuscripts which she recognized at the first glance. The apprehended +papers, which during her illness had prevented her from sleeping, which +had made it impossible for her to get well, were now in the possession +of him from whom she had been most anxious to conceal them. The criminal +stood face to face with the witness whose damning evidence was to +condemn her. There was no escape, no defence. + +"My little maid," said the old man, exultantly stuffing his eagle nose +full of that infernal heating material which goes by the name of snuff, +"don't be angry with me for directing your attention to this scribble. I +don't want to make any use of it. I know quite enough of it already, +but be so good as to listen to me!" + +Henrietta absolutely could not look away from her grandfather's +blood-shot eyes; it seemed to her as if those eyes must gradually bore +through to her very heart. + +"You won't marry an eminent and wealthy man who bestows an honour upon +your family by asking for your hand, and yet you would run away with a +worthless fellow who does not even know why he was put into the world, +and when your family steps in to prevent it, you would violently put +yourself to death in order to die with him, to our eternal shame and +dishonour. That was not nice of you. But sit down. I see you are all of +a tremble. I would fetch you a chair myself if it was not for this +infernal gout of mine." + +Henrietta accepted the invitation and sat down, otherwise she must have +collapsed. + +"Now look ye, my dear little girl! if you had to deal with an +unmerciful, austere old fellow, a veritable old tiger, in fact, as I +have no doubt you fancy I am, he would make no bones about it but pack +you straight off to a nunnery and so cut you off from the world for +ever." + +Henrietta sighed. Such a threat as that sounded to her like a +consolation. + +"In the second place, an old tyrant, such as I am imagining, would have +sent that rip of a brother of yours, who is not ashamed to lend a hand +in the seduction of his own sister, would have sent him, I say, to a +reformatory. I may tell you there are several such institutions, +celebrated for their rigour, whither it is usual to send precocious and +incorrigible young scapegraces. And richly he would have deserved it, +too." + +"Poor Koloman!" thought the little sister. They were tenderly devoted to +each other. + +"In the third place, our old tiger would have prosecuted at law that +reckless youth who had a share in this fine suicide project of yours. +For death, my dear, is no plaything and jests with poison are strictly +forbidden. He would certainly be condemned to hard labour for five or +six years, which would be a very wholesome lesson for him." + +"Grandfather!" screamed the tortured child. This last allusion dissolved +her voice in tears. She fell down on her knees before him and shed +innocent tears enough on his hand to wash out all the old specks and +stains on it. + +"I am glad to see those tears, my dear little girl, they show that you +have confidence in me. I am not a tiger who eats little children, what I +have said _might_ happen but I don't say it necessarily _must_. I don't +want to be cruel and vindictive. I don't want to recollect anything of +the insults showered upon me in that scribble of yours, all I ask of you +is that you will not stand in your own way. Get up and don't cry any +more or you will be ill again. Go up into your own room and ponder +deeply what you ought to do! In two hours' time I shall send for you +again, and in the meantime make up your mind about it. You have the +choice between accepting as your husband an honourable gentleman of +becoming rank and at the same time renouncing and forgetting a fellow +who will never be able to raise himself to your level, or of taking the +veil and bidding good-bye to this world. In the latter case, however, +your brother will be sent to a reformatory and an action will be +commenced against your accomplice. It is for you to choose. You have two +whole hours to turn the matter over in your mind. In the meantime I +shall send for my lawyer and, according to your decision, I shall get +him to draw up a marriage contract or a summons to the criminal court. +It all depends upon you. And now put back those documents beneath my +head. Remember that you will only receive them back from me as a bridal +gift. Go now to your own room and reflect. For two hours nobody shall +disturb you." + +The girl mechanically complied with his commands. She put back the +ominous documents in their receptacle and withdrew to her room. There +she stood in front of a vase of flowers and regarded their green leaves +for an hour without moving. In the vase was a fine specimen of one of +those wondrous tropical plants whose leaves never fall off, one of those +plants which the seasons leave unchanged and which, therefore, is such a +beautiful emblem of constancy. This beautiful plant has a peculiar +property. If one of its compact shining leaves be planted in the earth +it takes root and grows into a shrub whose fragrant wax-like flowers +diffuse an enchanting perfume. Three years before at a jurists' ball, +when Henrietta and Szilard met for the first time, he had given her a +bouquet, among the flowers of which was one of these green-gold leaves, +and when she got home she had planted it in a jar and it had taken root, +spread its shoots abroad and grown larger and larger every year. And +Henrietta had called it Szilard and watched over its growth and cared +for it as if it had been a living human creature. For a long time she +stood before this flowering plant as if she would have spoken to it and +taken counsel of it. At last she turned away and with her hands behind +her head, she walked slowly up and down the room, and as often as she +paused before the vase, she behaved like one whose heart is breaking. +But time was hastening on, an hour is so short when one would have it +stay. Alas! nowhere was there any help, any refuge. She was abandoned. +She had nothing in the world but this one flowering plant which she +called Szilard. And the moments swiftly galloping after one another +called for a decision. There must be an end to it. Once more she +approached her darling plant and kissed all the leaves of its beautiful +flowers one by one. And now there came a knock at the door. Mr. +Demetrius's messenger had come and a cold shudder ran through the girl's +tender frame. "I am coming!" she cried. The next moment not a tear was +to be seen on her face, nay, not a trace of sorrow, or fear, but only +snow-white tranquillity. + +All the members of the family were assembled together again in +grandpapa's room. Mr. Sipos was also present, he had been told all about +the business. + +"Well my dear little grandchild," said Mr. Demetrius, motioning +Henrietta to take her place at the table with the others, "have you made +up your mind?" + +"I have." + +"Veil or myrtle wreath?" + +"I will be married." + +"To the baron?" + +"Yes," replied the girl in a strangely calm and courageous tone, "but I +also have my conditions to impose." + +"Let us hear them." + +"In the first place I must be sure that my brother Koloman will not be +persecuted. I suppose you will not let him come with me?" + +"No, that one thing cannot be allowed." + +"But I cannot let him remain here. Send him to some other town. You are +always talking of your rank and riches, give him an education to +correspond." + +The child in those two hours had grown older by ten years, she now spoke +to the other members of the family with the air of a matron. + +"Agreed!" cried Mr. Demetrius. "Besides it will be much better if we do +not see him." + +"My second request is that I may take the furniture I have been used to +and my flowers along with me to the place where I have to go." + +"Granted, a harmless feminine caprice. Be it so!" + +"In the third place I should like the papers grandfather knows of to be +given back to him whom it most concerns." + +"Certainly," said Mr. Demetrius, "I promised, did I not, that it should +form part of your marriage portion. Mr. Sipos, would you be so good as +to place these documents in the hands--of the proper person?" + +Mr. Sipos bowed and promised to carry out the mournful commission. + +"And now, my girl, the marriage-contract is before you, the baron has +already signed it and awaits your decision in the adjoining room. Show +us what a nice hand you can write." + +And Henrietta did show it. She signed her name there in such pretty +little delicately rounded letters that it looked as if some fairy had +breathed a spell upon the page. + +"And just one thing more, my dear young lady," put in Mr. Sipos +politely, "while the pen is still in your hand, would you be so good as +to write down on the cover of the returned documents a particular word, +that particular word, I mean, which is known only to yourself and one +other person in the world, as a proof that your renunciation is genuine +and irrevocable." + +The girl fixed her mysterious black eyes for a long time on those of +the lawyer. It was in her power to deceive him if she would and he knew +it well. At last she gently stooped over the bundle of papers and +pressing down the pen with unusual firmness she wrote that barbarously +sounding name of a beautiful bright star: "Mesarthim" and then quietly +laid down the pen. There was not the slightest sign of agitation in her +face. Could it be the right word? + +"And now the bridegroom can come in and the necessary pre-nuptial legal +formalities can be carried out." + + * * * * * + +When Mr. Sipos got home he went straight up to the room of his young +protege. + +"My dear fellow," said he, "I have brought you some medicine. As you +know, medicine is generally nasty and bitter, but perhaps none the worse +on that account. As I said beforehand, the young lady reconsidered her +position, chose the better way and consented to the marriage with the +baron. The betrothal is an accomplished fact and they signed the +marriage contract before my eyes." + +"Doubtless," returned Szilard coldly. + +"My friend, the girl did not make such a sour face over it as you are +doing. She was strong-minded and decided. I was amazed at the composure +with which she addressed her family, she was like the capitulating +commandant of a fortress dictating the terms of surrender. Not a tear +did she shed in their presence and yet I believe she suffered." + +"Oh, she has lots of courage." + +"I wish you had as much. Here is your absurd scribble, its surrender was +one of the conditions imposed. I am glad these mischievous exercises are +safely in our hands again. Don't bother your head about them any more! +The girl is going away, you will remain here, in a year's time you will +have forgotten each other." + +Szilard smiled frostily. + +"And that word which binds us together or tears us asunder?" said he. + +"Yes, I thought of that, too. She looked me straight in the eyes for a +long time when I asked for it and I told her I wanted the real, the +genuine word. She has written it on the back of these papers, look!" + +Szilard stretched forth a tremulous hand towards the papers, seized +them, turned them round, and cast one look at the word written there and +then fell at full length on the floor, striking his head against the +corner of the table so that the blood flowed. + +Mr. Sipos, cursing the whole stupid business and wishing the papers at +the bottom of the sea, raised the young man tenderly and bathed his head +with cold water. He did not call for assistance (why should the whole +world be taken into his confidence?), but when the youth came to again, +he soothed and consoled him with loving words. And Szilard, unable to +contain himself any longer, hid his head in the good old man's bosom, +pressed his lips to his hand and wept long and bitterly. + + * * * * * + +A fortnight later the marriage of Baron Hatszegi and Henrietta Lapussa +was solemnized with great pomp and befitting splendour. The bride bore +herself bravely throughout the ceremony, and they tell me that her lace +and her diamonds were fully described in all the fashionable papers. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BRINGING HOME THE BRIDE + + +In those days there were no railways in Hungary. It took a whole week to +travel post from Pest to the depths of Transylvania, with relays of +horses provided beforehand at every station. On the very day after the +wedding the young bride set out on her journey. She had only stipulated +that they should set off very early before anyone was up and stirring. +They travelled in two carriages. In the first sat the bride and +Clementina, who had begged and prayed so urgently to be allowed to +accompany the young lady that to get rid of her they had at last +consented. The poor thing fancied she would better her position thereby: +it was not from pure love of Henrietta that she had been so importunate. +In the second carriage sat the baron and Margari. Margari was just the +sort of man the baron wanted. He was a scholar who could be converted +into a domestic buffoon whenever one was required. Now-a-days it is +difficult to catch such specimens, all our servants have become so +stuck-up. Henrietta did not dare to ask how far they were going, or +where they were to pass the night, she felt so strange amidst her new +surroundings. Her husband was very obliging and polite towards her,--in +fact he gave her no trouble at all. + +Towards the evening they stopped at a village to water the horses and +there Hatszegi got out of his carriage and, approaching his wife's, +spoke to her through the window: "We shall rest in an hour," said he. +"We shall put up for the night at the castle of an old friend of mine, +Gerzson Satrakovich. He has been duly apprised of our coming and expects +us." + +But the promised hour turned out to be nearly two hours. The roads were +very bad here and it was as much as the carriage wheels could do to +force their way through the marshy sand. The monotonous _Bucskak_[4] +which extended desolately, like a billowy sandy ocean, to the very +horizon, were overgrown with dwarf firs that looked more like shrubs +than trees. Not a village, not a hut was anywhere to be seen. From the +roadside sedges, flocks of noisy wild-geese, from time to time, flew +across the sky which the setting sun coloured yellow. At last a great +clattering and rattling gave those sitting in the carriage to understand +that they were passing into a courtyard and the carriage door was +opened. Henrietta got out. The young wife looked around with the same +sort of curiosity which a robber condemned to a long term of +imprisonment and conveyed to a distant jail might feel on first +surveying his new environment. + +[Footnote 4: Sand hills.] + +In the midst of a spacious courtyard, surrounded by stone walls, stood +an old-fashioned mansion with a verandah in front of it, resting on +quadrangular columns which one ascended by a staircase whose brick +parapet served as a lounge both for the gentlemen guests and their +heydukes whenever they wanted to take their ease,--though, of course, +the gentlemen occupied one end of it and the heydukes the other. A +couple of favourite dogs were also accommodated with a place there. But +when the carriages stopped in front of the verandah, every one instantly +quitted this favourite sun-lit resting place and rushed down to meet +them--host, guests, heydukes, and dogs. + +The first to reach the carriage door was a peculiar looking man, a more +repulsively mutilated creature it was impossible to imagine. He might +have been fifty, but it was difficult to read his age from his face. His +features were scarred with ancient scars and a piece of his mouth was +missing--and perhaps a tooth or two as well, if one could have seen +through his thick grizzled moustache. An eye was missing on the same +side, and half his face was tattooed with little black points as if from +an exploded musket. His nose was bent sideways and quite flattened at +the top, doubtless owing to a heavy fall. He had only three whole +fingers on the right hand, the other two were fearfully mutilated. As +for the left arm it was horribly distorted from its natural position, +the elbow being twisted right round and the joint immovable. Add to +this that one of his legs was shorter than the other. Yet, in spite of +everything, this fraction of a man was so agile that he anticipated all +the others and was the first to courteously kiss the hand of the +descending lady, who shrank back horror-stricken at the contact of those +crippled fingers. + +"My wife--my friend Gerzson," said Hatszegi hastening to introduce them +to each other. The master of the house professed himself delighted at +his good fortune; pressed his friend's hand with his third remaining +finger and presented his arm, the stiff one, to the lady who touched it +as gingerly as if she was afraid of hurting it. + +The master of the house laughed aloud at her misgivings. + +"Lean on it hard your ladyship!" cried he, "it won't break, it is as +strong as iron. Down Fecske, down sir!" (this to a dog who had expressed +his joy at the sight of Henrietta by jumping on her shoulder.) "I +rejoice that I have the felicity to welcome your ladyship. I have +arranged a great fox hunt in your ladyship's honour for to-morrow. We +are all fox hunters here. I hope your ladyship will take part in it?" + +"I don't know how to ride," replied the child-wife simply. + +"Oh! that's nothing, we will teach you. I have got a good nag who is as +gentle as a lamb. We won't let your ladyship go till we have taught +you." + +When they reached the saloon a number of jackbooted, brass-buttoned, +gentlemen of various ages were presented in turn to Henrietta who forgot +all their names the moment after they were introduced and was quite +delighted when she was conducted to her room and left alone with +Clementina. + +She had scarce time to change her travelling dress when supper was +announced. The meal was laid on a large round table in the midst of a +vast hall; there were more wine bottles than dishes; the handles of the +knives and forks were made from the horns of elks and the antlers of +stags,--the principal meats were cold venison, highly spiced and +peppered stews and pickled _galuska_.[5] + +[Footnote 5: A sort of large dumpling.] + +"I am afraid this is only a hunter's repast, my lady!" opined Mr. +Gerzson conducting Henrietta to the table, at which she and Clementina +were the only ladies present. "Unfortunately this house has no mistress +and an old bachelor like me must serve others as he himself is served." + +"Then why don't you marry?" bantered Hatszegi. + +"I wanted to once, but it all come to nothing. The bride was already +chosen and the day for the bridal banquet was fixed. My lady bride was a +fine handsome lassie. On the eve of my wedding day, in order that the +business might not escape my memory, I told my heyduke to place by my +bed in the morning my nice bright dress boots instead of my old hunting +jacks. Very well! Early next morning while I was still on my back in +bed, I heard a great barking and yelping in the garden below. 'What's +the row?' I shouted. They told me the dogs had started a lynx out of the +bushes. 'What! a lynx!' I cried, for a lynx, let me tell you, is a rare +beast in these parts. I was out of bed in a twinkling, plunged into the +nice dress boots, snatched my gun from the wall and was off into the +thicket. I soon found the trail and after that lynx I went. The dogs led +me further and further into the depths of the forest and the further I +went the more fiery grew the pursuit. Once or twice I had a sort of +feeling that I had forgotten something at home, and I felt myself all +over, but no, powder horn, pipe case, tobacco pouch, flint, +steel--everything was there. So on I went further and further. Again I +felt bothered, but by this time the lynx quite carried me away with him +and kept appearing and disappearing again in the most distracting +fashion. Only towards evening did I hold its pelt in my hand and home +with it I went straightway. And now, again, an oppressive feeling +overcame me, just as if there was something wrong going on somewhere in +the world which it was in my power to prevent. Only in the evening when +I was pulling off my dress boots did it flash across me that I ought to +have been present at my wedding that very day. And so matters remained +as they were, for my bride was so angry with me for my forgetfulness +that she went away and married a lawyer fellow. No doubt she got the +right man, but since then I have had no desire for matrimony." + +The company laughed heartily at this jest, and then attacked the +patriarchal banquet with tremendous appetite, nor did they wait to be +asked twice to fill their glasses. Henrietta, naturally, did not touch +anything. Even at ordinary times she ate very little, but now there was +nothing at all she fancied. Mr. Gerzson was in despair. + +"My dear lady," said he, "you eat so little that if I were a day +labourer I could easily support you on my wages." + +The company laughed aloud at this. The idea of a day labourer with such +hands and feet as that! + +Then Gerzson proceeded to relate to them the exploits or misadventures +in which his various limbs had more or less come to grief. "And now," +concluded he, "I will tell your ladyship how I came by this scar on my +forehead. A few years ago I was visiting our friend Leonard, your +husband, my dear lady, at his castle at Hidvar, and whilst there we +spent two weeks among the glaciers." + +"Night and day?" enquired the astonished Henrietta. + +"Well, at night we built ourselves huts out of the branches of fir +trees. If, however, no rain fell we encamped in the open round our +watch-fire snugly wrapped up in our _bundas_[6]. Splendid fun I can +tell you! For two days, when our stores gave out, we lived on nothing +but bilberries and broiled bear's flesh." + +[Footnote 6: Sheepskins.] + +"You were badly off then." + +"No, on the contrary, the paws of a bear are great delicacies, only we +had no salt to salt them with." + +"Why did you not return home?" + +"We could not, for four days together we had been on the track of a +blood-bear. Do you know what a blood-bear is? A bear is a very mild, +harmless sort of a beast in general, and is quite content with honey, +berries, and roots; but let him once taste blood and he rages about like +a lion, and more than that, he has a decided preference for human blood +before all other kinds of blood. We had been pursuing one of these old +malefactors four days running, as I have said; four times we got within +range of him and four times he broke away. He carried a few bullets away +with him beneath his hide, indeed, but a lot he cared about that! He +gave one or two of our badly-aiming huntsmen a clout on the head which +sent them flying, stripped the skin from the head of one of the beaters +and then took refuge in the wilderness. Friend Leonard and the other +gentlemen now wanted to abandon the chase, for they were frightfully +hungry and the heavy rain and rock scrambling had pretty well torn our +clothes from our bodies, yet I urged them to make another attempt on +the morrow. I assured them that if they beat up the wood once more we +should capture the bear. The whole lot of them were against me. Friend +Leonard insisted that we should not catch him, as a bear never remains +in the place where he has been wounded, but runs on and on night and +day; by this time he would have got right across the border into +Wallachia. 'Very well!' I said, 'What do you bet that he is not quite +near and we shall come upon him to-morrow?' Leonard replied he would bet +me two to one we shouldn't. 'All right!' said I. 'I'll pay you a hundred +ducats if we don't find Bruin to-morrow.' 'And I'll pay you a thousand +if we do,' said he. So the bet was clinched. Next morning in a thick +mist we sent out the beaters while we ourselves stood on our guard. +Leonard and I took up our post near a ravine waiting impatiently for the +mist to disperse. Towards mid-day it began to clear. No end of stags and +foxes ambled slowly past us, but we did not even aim at them; the bear +was our watchword. The beaters had pretty nearly finished their work. We +were standing only fifty paces or so apart, so we began to chat +together. 'I begin to be sorry for your hundred ducats,' said Leonard. +'I am still sorrier for the lost bear's skin,' said I. 'It is in +Wallachia by this time!' he replied. Behind my back, some ten yards off, +was the opening of a narrow hole; there were hundreds such in the rocks +all about. 'Come, now!' I cried, 'suppose my bear has stowed himself +away in this hollow!'--and there and then, like a mischievous little +boy, I poked the barrel of my gun into the hollow and fired off a couple +of shots in quick succession. A frightful roar came from the depths of +the cavern. The wild beast during all this noise, clamour and beating +about the bush was actually behind my back holding his tongue,--and a +splendid big beast he was, two heads taller than I and with tusks like a +wild boar. In a moment he was upon me, and I had already discharged my +two barrels. It is all over with me now, I thought! Why, it will be +nothing at all to a magnificent beast like this to tear such a wretched +creature as myself limb from limb! Erect on his hind legs he came +straight at me, smashing my hunting-knife at a single blow, and, +enfolding me in his terrible arms, he tried to mangle my features with +his teeth. At the last moment I called to Leonard: 'Shoot between us, +old chap! you will hit one of us anyhow!' I preferred being killed by a +bullet to being torn to bits. The next instant a report sounded, and I +was only just aware that the pair of us, still tightly embraced, were +rolling backwards into the bottom of the ravine. There, however, the +thick undergrowth held us up, and I perceived that my bear was quite +done for. The bullet had gone clean through his ear. Yes, a masterly +shot on Leonard's part it was, I must confess--at fifty paces at the +very moment when the bear's head and mine were near enough for kissing. +And I do think it was so nice of Leonard to risk a shot for me, when if +he had simply allowed me to be torn to pieces he would have saved his +thousand ducats, for he lost his bet, you see. Not only did he liberate +me, but he paid a thousand ducats for doing so." + +"He acted like a true gentleman!" they all cried. It was the general +opinion. + +"Your ladyship will see this splendid bear skin at Hidvar, it is a real +treasure for a hunter, I can tell you. And in fact if I had had the +choice I would much rather have had the bear skin than the thousand +ducats, and the exchange would have been much better for me too in the +long run, for I should have the skin to this day, whereas the thousand +ducats were forcibly taken from me at Deva by that villain, Fatia +Negra."[7] + +[Footnote 7: Black face.] + +"Who is that?" enquired Henrietta curiously. + +"A famous robber-chieftain in these mountains whom they can never lay +hands upon." + +Henrietta cast anxious glances around her. + +But here Hatszegi coolly interrupted him by striking his plate with his +fork: "I won't have my wife frightened to death by your highwayman +yarns," cried he, and changed the conversation. Shortly afterwards +Henrietta went to her chamber, leaving her husband with Mr. Gerzson and +his guests. + +Such was Henrietta's first night after her marriage. She at least was so +far fortunate as not to be obliged to see her husband. Towards morning +she dozed off, and when she awoke again she found that the whole +company had long ago set off fox-hunting, nor did they return till late +in the evening, tired out, wet through, and dripping with sweat. +Henrietta meanwhile had discovered the remains of a dilapidated library +in an old disused huntsman's hut, had ferretted out of it a few Latin +books, and had amused herself with them,--at least so far as she was +able, for many of the leaves had been torn out and used as tinder. + +It is notorious that tired sportsmen are about the dullest dogs on +earth; so Henrietta felt that she would not lose much when her husband +told her she had better go to rest early, as they must be up betimes +next morning. And, indeed, next morning they were off so early that, +except their old host, not one of the hunting party was there to bid +them God speed! But he again conducted his lady-guest to her carriage on +his crippled arm and arranged her cushions comfortably for her with his +three-fingered hand. + +It was a very fine day for a journey, and the windows of the two +carriages were let down so that Henrietta was able to view the landscape +stretching out before her. She had never been here before, it was all +new to her. She discovered from Clementina's lamentations that they had +still a three days' journey before they reached home, and that they +would spend the coming night at the castle of Count Kengyelesy. The +coachmen had told Margari so, and he passed the news on to Clementina. +It also appeared that Count Kengyelesy was a very curious sort of man, +who contradicted Baron Hatszegi in everything, yet for all that they +were never angry with and always glad to see each other. The count was +also said to have a young wife who did not love him. So ran the gossip +of the servants. It was all one to Henrietta what they said about Count +Kengyelesy and his consort. + +Between five and six in the afternoon they reached the count's castle, +which lay outside the village in the midst of rich tobacco and rapeseed +fields, and enclosed on three sides by a splendid English garden; the +place was arranged with taste and evidently well-cared for. + +That the count expected the arrival of the Hatszegis was evident from +the fact that dinner was awaiting them. Kengyelesy was a little puny bit +of a man with very light bright hair, white eyelashes, and a pointed +chin made still more pointed by a long goatish beard. It always pleased +him very much when his friends confidentially assured him that he had a +perfect satyr-like countenance. + +His wife was a young, chubby, lively lady with smiling blue eyes +unacquainted with sorrow, whom her husband on the occasion of a _bal +pare_ at Vienna had seen, fallen in love with, and carried off, although +the girl's father, a retired Field-marshal, was quite ready to surrender +her--they preferred, however, the romance of an elopement. + +The countess received her lady-guest with the most effusive heartiness, +called her by her Christian name on the spot, and invited her to do that +same with her. She told Henrietta she was to feel quite at home, dragged +her all over the castle, and showed her in rapid succession her rare +flowers, her Parisian furniture, her Japanese curiosities; played +something for her on the piano, made her parrot talk to her and +incontinently popped on her finger a large and beautiful opal ring, +which she told her she was to keep as an eternal souvenir. + +Then the countess seized the hand of the child-wife and led her into her +bed-chamber. On the wall hung a fine large battle-piece, a splendid oil +painting by a Viennese master. + +"A magnificent picture, is it not?" enquired the countess with a broad +smile. + +"Yes," replied Henrietta absently. + +"How do you like the central figure? I mean the hero on horseback with +the standard in his hand?" + +"He is handsome, but it seems to me that, situated as he is, he smiles +too much." + +The countess laughed loudly at this remark. + +"That," said she, "is the portrait of a young hussar officer who for a +long time paid his court to me. I could not, of course, keep his +portrait in my room, for there everyone would know all about it, so I +had a battle-piece painted in all round, and nobody suspects anything. +Oh! my friend, if women were not so inventive, they would often be very +unhappy. But that, mind! is a secret; not a soul must know about it." + +Henrietta grew pensive. She also had her secret, but she would tell it +to nobody, not even on her death-bed. She also had a portrait written in +ineffaceable characters in her heart, yet between him and her stand two +infinite obstacles, the one a betrayed star whose name is Mesarthim, the +other that unbetrayable thing, whose name is--woman's honour! + +"_Madame est servie!_" cried the epauletted lacquey, and the countess +drawing her arm through Henrietta's, led her into the dining-room, where +the gentlemen already awaited them. + +After dinner the humorous young countess entertained Henrietta for a +long time with her amusing chatter. She told her, at the very outset, +things that young wives, as a rule, only confide to their most intimate +friends. She told her, for instance, how very jealous her little +Squirrel was (she called her husband by this pet name) and how he would +never take her to Vienna or Pest, because he suspected that she might +find someone there to interest her. Anything like correspondence on her +part was of course impossible; a wise woman will always have sense +enough never to part with a line of writing. Everything else, she +witnesses, treacherous servants, for instance--can always be disowned; +but there is no defence against a letter which has fallen into the wrong +hands. Oh no! she knew a trick worth two of that. Whenever the Squirrel +went to Vienna, she gave him a list of articles required by her from a +modiste in the town, on this list are set down hats, head-dresses, +muffs, and other similar articles. Squirrel always reads this list over +ten times at least, but finds nothing in it to excite his suspicions. +But it regularly escapes his attention what day is indicated by the date +at the head of the list, for he can never tell for the life of him on +what day of the month such or such a day will fall. Now at the head of +this list stands, instead of the date on which the goods are to be sent, +the date up to which the Squirrel intends to divert himself at Vienna. +This list the Squirrel in person conveys to the modiste, who +communicates with the person whom it most concerns, and the Kengyelesy +_puszta_[8] will not seem the end of the world to whomsoever has a +magnet in his heart to draw him thither. + +[Footnote 8: Heath. But also, as in this place, used to designate the +uncut terated land forming part of a nobleman's estate.] + +Henrietta was amazed and confounded by this new science, the very +alphabet of which was unknown to her. Even when she lay in bed she +ruminated for a long time how it was possible that certain things which +break the hearts of some people are nevertheless regarded by other +people as mere frolics all their lives. + +The next morning everyone arose late. The gentlemen had been up till the +small hours and were hard to wake. They all met together in the +breakfast-room. Hatszegi and his host were preparing for the journey. +The count asked the young wife what she had dreamt about, "for," added +he, "whatever one dreams about the first night in a strange place is +sure to come true." + +Henrietta did not like to speak of her dreams; her waking thoughts were +too often interwoven with them. + +"And you, you great silly," said the countess to her husband in a +bantering tone, "did you dream anything of me?" + +"Yes, darling, I dreamt that we shall spend the coming winter in Vienna. +Don't put so much sugar in my tea!" + +"What! not for such a nice dream as that. Will it really come to pass?" + +"Most certainly, pussy. We will go there together after the bathing +season is over." + +The countess possessed sufficient self-control to conceal her delight. + +"By the bye," said Kengyelesy, turning to Henrietta, "how does your +ladyship like the Kengyelesy _puszta_?" + +"Very well." + +"And the castle?" + +"That is nice too." + +"Don't you think it a good joke that yesterday your ladyship and your +honoured husband were my guests, whilst to-day we are your ladyship's +guests and that, too, without our having to move out of the house?" + +"How?" enquired the astonished Henrietta. + +"Why, we made an agreement this very morning whereby friend Leonard is +going to take over the whole property and everything belonging to +it--not you, my dear, of course," this to his wife, "I mean the nags and +the cows--and henceforth this house belongs to you." + +"Don't forget to invite the countess to Hidvar for the vintage +festival," whispered Hatszegi to his wife. + +Henrietta accordingly made the effort, and when they rose from the +breakfast she timidly expressed the wish that the Kengyelesys would do +them the honour to return their visit at Hidvar. + +"Oh, we will be sure to come!" the fair countess hastened to reply, +"Squirrel will bring me to you in the autumn and we will remain a whole +month." + +Kengyelesy also courteously accepted the invitation and then taking +Henrietta's little hand between his own palms so that he could just +manage to kiss the tips of her fingers, he said to her in a strange and +piteous sort of voice: "But then you must promise to love our friend +Leonard here a little better than you have done hitherto." + +A shudder ran through Henrietta's body at these words. The very air of +the room was all at once difficult to breathe, and she only felt better +when she sat in the carriage again. But even there she was haunted by +some unendurable, undefinable, torturing feeling which struck her still +more unpleasantly when Clementina remarked: "Yes, there is nothing but +good land on this _puszta_." + +Why, what could it matter to the honest creature whether the land was +good or not, it was surely all one to her? + +"Two thousand acres in one lot, nothing but first-class land." + +"How do you know that?" asked Henrietta. + +"Margari told me he drew up the agreement and witnessed it, and yet no +money was paid down." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Did not your ladyship then understand the allusion the count made just +now when he asked you to love your husband a little more than hitherto?" + +"What has such nonsense to do with me?" + +"He meant by that that he who is unlucky in love is lucky at play; for +last night my lord baron played cards with my lord count and won from +him the whole Kengyelesy estate straight off." + +Henrietta felt like one who is in the embrace of the boa-constrictor and +unable to defend himself. She had not expected this. + +But Clementina was only too delighted to have something to chatter +about. "And do you know, your ladyship," she continued, "the baron and +the count have been rivals for a long time, and each has always been +trying his hardest to ruin the other--in a friendly way, of course. The +chambermaid told Margari, and Margari told me. 'I will not be content, +comrade,' my lord baron used to say to my lord count, 'till one of us is +reduced to his last jacket, and as soon as one of us is absolutely +beggared, the other will hold himself bound to maintain him, in a way +befitting a gentleman till the day of his death.' Strange men these, +madame, eh!" + +Perceiving, however, from Henrietta's looks that there was something +depressing to her young mistress in her narration, she tried to soften +the effect of her words by intimating that the count had another +property besides, although not such a nice castle, and also that it was +open to him to buy back the former estate in thirty years' time if he +could find the money. + +"That will do, Clementina, my head aches badly!" said Henrietta. She +wished to rid herself of this uncalled-for gabble, in order that she +might devote herself to her own thoughts. + +And what thoughts! She had had no idea that such things could be. How +was it possible that two men who called themselves friends, could ruin +one another thus in cold blood? How was it possible that a man could +enter the house of an affectionate host as a welcome guest in the +evening, and by next morning leave him not an inch of land on which to +put his foot, or a roof to cover his head! "And one has to get +accustomed to such things!" thought she. + +All the day long their journey lay through that brain-wearying plain +whose endless flatness oppressed soul and body with its monotony and +soon drove her back to her own thoughts. Towards evening there were +signs of rain. Clouds were rising and then, at least, there would be +something new to point at in the eternal monotony of the sky. +Unfortunately clouds have the bad habit of bringing tempests along with +them, and tempests are evil travelling companions on the steppes of the +_Alfoeld_.[9] The towers of the town they were trying to reach were still +only dimly visible on the horizon. In ordinary weather it would not have +mattered if they had arrived late, for they had reckoned upon the +moonlight; but there could be no moon to-night, instead of her a storm +full of angry lightnings was approaching. Already from afar they could +hear it rumbling as it drove dust-clouds before it, could hear that +peculiar, continuous, roar as of some giant hand playing uninterruptedly +on the keys of some terrible organ. Whoever has been caught on the +_Alfoeld_ in a storm knows the meaning of that wind; it means that the +tempest is bringing hail with it. + +[Footnote 9: The great Hungarian plain.] + +One thing was now certain: they must turn aside somewhere. All that +Henrietta observed, however, was that her carriage stood still for a +moment, and then Hatszegi's carriage went on in front, the baron himself +seizing the horses' reins and shouting to the coachman behind him: +"After me as hard as you can tear!" With that they left the road and +plunged right across country through ditches and swamps and low, marshy +ground till the water came up to the very axles of the wheels and +Clementina shrieked that they were perishing. But there was no need to +be afraid. Hatszegi was a skilful coachman, who could ever find his way +even where there was no way at all. About a four hours' journey off, a +pump now became visible, and beyond it a little hut loomed white and +high, there they must seek a refuge from the tempest as it passed over +them. And indeed they had only just reached the small courtyard when the +first lumps of ice as big as nuts, began bombarding the windows of the +carriages. + +"Quick, quick, into the house!" cried Hatszegi. The baron himself helped +his wife and Clementina to descend and hurried them in beneath the +verandah, which was made of crooked branches and hung over the kitchen +door like a shade over the forehead of a weak-sighted man. + +On their approach the woman of the house emerged from the kitchen with +her head tied up in a red handkerchief. She was no longer young, but +ruddy, robust, bright-eyed, and bustling, and as full of sparkle as if +she had just sprung out of the fire. + +On perceiving her guests she clapped her hands together. + +"Lord deliver us, if it isn't his lordship! And only just married now, +eh!--after all these years! But which is the bride, your lordship? +Surely not this one (pointing to Clementina) for she is an old +dear!--and yet the other is but a child!" + +The baron hastened to interrupt this uncalled-for outburst. + +"Come, come, my good woman! No chatter now, please, for the hail will be +upon us in a moment; but take these ladies into a room and see that it +is clean and comfortable. Henrietta! pray get out of the rain." + +The _csarda_[10] woman kissed Henrietta's hand with great familiarity +and kept on saying in a quavering voice: "Oh, thou tender little +creature! to think of giving them to husbands so early!" cried she. But +Clementina, who was always nervous in strange places, called the baron's +attention to the fact that loud masculine voices were proceeding from +somewhere within the _csarda_. + +[Footnote 10: Inn.] + +"Have you anyone here now?" enquired the baron of the _csarda_ woman. + +"Yes, three or four lads and _Ripa_. The old fellow has just been +released from the prison at Arad. I don't know whether he served his +full time. Pray walk in!" + +"They are not robbers, are they?" asked Clementina hesitating. + +"No, dear heart alive, there are no robbers in these parts, but only +poor vagabonds. You will not find robbers nearer than the Bakony forest. +These poor fellows hurt nobody, least of all ladies. I don't count old +Ripa at all, but only the other three. It would be another thing if +Blackey were here, for he is a fine gentleman and likes to amuse +himself with the ladies. But don't think, dear soul, that his features +are black, oh, dear, no! I call him 'Blackey' because he always wears a +mask of black velvet lest he should be recognized, only his eyes and +mouth are ever visible." + +And with such comforting assurances she escorted Henrietta and +Clementina up the narrow staircase. + +They had to pass through the long tap-room before they came to the inner +parlour. At the guest table were sitting three hardy looking young +fellows and an old pock-marked man, a foxey-eyed rascal who drank out of +the others' glasses from time to time and kept the conversation going. + +"Come! shut up, Ripa!" said the landlady to the old man. "This is no +Jew-Madame, but the spouse of my lord, Baron Hatszegi. Show your manners +if you have any and thank her for the honour." + +The old rascal rose from his bench with cunning humility and twisting up +both ends of his gray moustache, politely kissed Henrietta's hand, and +would have paid the same compliment to Clementina if the landlady had +not prevented him by shouting: "Leave her alone, she is only a sort of +servant!" + +With that she led the ladies into the inner room, where were two lofty +bedsteads reaching to the beams above, covered with bright bedding and +prettily painted over with tulips and roses. In the window screens were +wide-spreading rosemary and musk plants. In front of one of the great +chests stood a spinning wheel. From this the landlady, winter and +summer, spun off that fine thread from which were woven those bright and +gay handkerchiefs which could be seen bobbing about in the doorway of +the inn from afar. One would never have expected to find such ease and +comfort in a _csarda_ of the _puszta_. + +The landlady very politely divested Henrietta of her travelling clothes, +made a soft resting place for her with cushions in an arm-chair, put a +stool beneath her feet, and in less time than it took to draw a breath, +totted up ten different kinds of dishes that she might choose from them +the one she liked best. Perhaps she would like some leaf-cake? It was +just cooking and would be served up immediately, and she began spreading +the table with a nice horse-cloth. Clementina whispered Henrietta to +beware of poison, whereupon Henrietta told the landlady that she _would_ +have a bit of that nice dish, and when it came she really enjoyed it, +though she did not know what it was, at which the landlady was +infinitely pleased. + +Meanwhile Hatszegi came in after seeing that the carriages were put into +a dry place. He took no notice of the poor vagabonds, but hastily +demanded a change of clothes, as his own were soaking, and was amazed to +see Henrietta handling her knife and fork so well; it was the first time +on the whole journey that she had eaten with appetite. Henrietta said +that this peasant roast suited her taste. + +"And now, Dame Kardos, will you put the ladies up for the night?" said +Hatszegi to the woman of the _csarda_. + +"Certainly," returned the worthy woman, "I have feather mattresses +enough and bedsteads enough for as many guests of quality as your +lordship likes. This bed will be my lord baron's and this my lady's, and +this the lady attendant's!" + +"Not so quick, not so quick! I shall not lie here." + +"Not lie here?" cried this child of the _puszta_. "Why, pray?" + +"Oh! I'll find some place or other in the tap-room outside." + +"It's a way great folks have, I suppose," murmured Dame Kardos, +shrugging her shoulders, "but I never saw or heard the likes of it +before." + +"But, my lord," lisped Clementina, greatly agitated, "won't those wild +vagabonds outside disturb you?" + +"Me?" exclaimed Hatszegi, "how the devil can they disturb _me_?" + +"They are such wicked men, surely?" + +"I don't care what sort of men they are." And with that he went out with +the utmost _sang froid_; nay, as Clementina herself noticed, he drew +forth his pocket pistols and left them behind him on the table. + +"His lordship has no need to fear such men," the landlady reassured the +ladies, "for he can talk to them in their own lingo." + +Henrietta did not understand. Did robbers then speak a dialect peculiar +to themselves? She became quite curious to hear how Hatszegi would speak +to the robbers in their own language. + +But the landlady knew exactly what to do. She filled a _kulacs_[11] for +the baron and placed it on the table before him. Hatszegi took a good +pull at it, dried the mouth of the _kulacs_ and passed it on to the old +pockmarked vagabond who, after raising his cap, took a little drop +himself and then passed it on to the others. + +[Footnote 11: A wooden field-flask.] + +"Well, old fellow, is the wine good?" + +"Wine is always good." + +"Have you had enough?" + +"One can never have enough." + +"Then God grant you plenty!--By the way, does the wind still blow +through the crevices of the prison door at Arad?" + +"It blows for him who lists to it. Let him who likes it not close his +ears to it." + +"Have many children been born to the governor of the jail lately?"[12] + +[Footnote 12: Whenever a new convict arrives at the jail, the governor +is said to have another son born to him.--_Jokai_.] + +"Yes, lots have been born there--and christened too."[13] + +[Footnote 13: _i.e._, with stripes.--_Jokai_.] + +"Has the daughter of the cord[14] been married lately?" + +[Footnote 14: A flowery expression for the gallows.--_Jokai_.] + +"Only Marczi Csendes has been elevated lately. He was a fool. He took +the crime of two comrades on his shoulders in order to let them go free. +They were caught in the act, but he swore he did the deed. They were +young bloods, you see, and he had nobody to care for him. And yet it was +they who presented the empty pistol at the Jew's head. The Jew himself +pointed them out, but Marczi steadfastly maintained that it was he who +frightened the fellow." + +"So they made him cold against the winter time?" + +"Yes, but he didn't very much care. The hour before his execution he +took an affectionate leave of his comrades, and to me he bequeathed his +warm old sheepskin. When the priest asked him whether he had anything +upon his conscience, he merely said the only thing that grieved him was +the thought that he would never again be able in this life to eat his +fill of well peppered _gulyas_[15] such as old Ripa knew how to cook. +They humoured him, and I was sent into the kitchen to prepare it. My old +friend ate with a good appetite and wanted me to take a bit too; but my +throat felt as cramped as if they had already taken my measure round it +with the gallows rope. He gave each of the two heydukes who accompanied +him in the felon's car, one on his right, the other on his left, a +silver coin apiece. The heydukes told us afterwards that when he got +outside he rose up in the car and addressed the people. He was a tall, +handsome fellow with red cheeks, long black hair and a fine sonorous +voice like any chaplain's. His last words were: 'Well, I now look upon +this fair world for the last time.'" + +[Footnote 15: Hungarian pilau.] + +"Did he leave behind him any new songs," enquired Hatszegi. "He was +always a famous singer." + +"Yes, one he made in jail, and a splendid song it was too, I can tell +you. Bandi! pipe it to his lordship on your _tilinka_ as I have taught +you." At these words one of the youths drew forth from his sleeve one of +those flutes made of elder-wood, which in Hungarian goes by the name of +a _tilinka_, and which with its poor six holes is able to give forth as +many variations as the throat of a lark; then, without any virtuoso airs +he simply piped the plaintive melody. + +The baron was immensely pleased. "Margari," cried he, "go to the +carriage, look for my fiddle and bring it hither!" + +At this command poor Margari had a veritable ague fit of terror. All +this time he had remained ducking down in the carriage firmly persuaded +that the robbers in this lonely place would cut down every mother's son +of them at nightfall. In such a case he was prepared to swear that he +had never belonged to the party at all, but would pretend he was only a +poor tramp, and so escape that way. And now the baron had ruined his +little plan by ordering him to come forth! The robbers would now +absolutely believe that he also was a swell. Oh, it is a frightful +situation when a poor devil has managed to get a 100 gulden into his +purse for the first time in his life and is obliged the very next +evening to put up at an inn full of robbers! What the devil did the +baron want with the fiddle at all? And then what sort of a thing _was_ a +fiddle? When a man is terrified he easily mistakes one thing for another +and Margari's first experiment was to carry in to the baron a long +leaden box containing the territorial chart of the Kengyelesy +estate--was that what his lordship wanted? + +"Have you lost your wits, Margari? How could you possibly get a fiddle +into that? Or has the fellow never cast eyes on a fiddle? Bandi, you go +and look in the carriage for the fiddle!" + +But this was not at all to Margari's liking. What, send that vagabond to +the carriage to ferret about there! His lordship must have clean taken +leave of his senses. Why, in the carriage was Margari's own brand-new +mantle, for which he had paid nine and twenty gulden. The vagabond would +be sure to lay his hands upon it. No, he would rather go to look for the +fiddle himself. So he found the violin case at last somehow, and handing +it to the baron through the _csarda_ window (for he durst not trust +himself inside), he retired again beneath the coach-house, although the +rain was now splashing down upon it. + +Baron Leonard took from its morocco case his splendid Straduarius, that +relic of the greatest master of fiddle-making, for which he had paid a +small fortune, and following the lead of the young vagabond's _tilinka_ +played the bitter-sweet melancholy air on the sonorous instrument, and +at the third trial he enriched it with so many variations as to astonish +everyone. Then Ripa became enthusiastic and chimed in with his hoarse +old voice. + +When the baron once had the violin in his hands, he was not content with +playing a single song, one melody enticed another forth, and so, one +after another, his fiddle-bow ran through all those rhapsodies of the +last century, those compositions of the "Gipsy-Beethoven," Bihari, and +other great popular masters, with the most classical variations. Princes +listen not to such a concert as now resounded through that wretched, +desolate _csarda_. Even Henrietta arose from her couch the better to +enjoy these melancholy airs. If ever in her life, it was at this moment +that she beheld her husband in an aureole of dazzling light which +irresistibly attracted, overpowered, subdued. + +One thing, however, struck her as strange, incredible--how could a +fashionable man brought up in the atmosphere of elegant saloons, find +any pleasure in playing _bravoura_ pieces in the tap room of a miserable +_csarda_ to an audience of half-tipsy vagabonds? Was this an habitual +diversion of these wealthy magnates, or was it only Hatszegi's bizarre +humour? + +However, when "the lads" began to chime in a little too vigourously, +Hatszegi restored the violin to its case, took out his pocket-book, +opened it before them all and nonchalantly displayed as he did so the +bundles of thousand-gulden notes which it contained. Nay, he searched +among them for stray ten-gulden notes and gave one to each of the four +vagabonds "for the fine song they had taught him"--that was the way he +put it--at the same time requesting them to quit the tap-room, as the +ladies in the adjoining chamber wanted to sleep and must not be kept +awake by any further noise. The vagabonds must seek a couch elsewhere. + +The vagabonds, without the slightest objection, arose, drank up the +dregs of the wine, pocketed the bank-notes without so much as a "thank +you!" and settled down for the night on the roof of the coach-house--to +the great terror of Margari, who was concealed in one of the coaches and +did not have a wink of sleep all night, his teeth chattered so. + +But Hatszegi, when the drinkers had withdrawn, spread out his hunting +pelisse on the long table, laid down thereon and quietly fell asleep. He +did not even shut the door, nor did he have his pistols by him. + +In the adjoining chamber, meanwhile, the _csarda_-woman had brought out +her spindle, set all its many wheels a-working and began to tell her +ladyship a lot of those wondrous tales that have neither beginning nor +end, _puszta_ adventures, the atrocities of vagabonds and their +fellows, the sad love stories of poor deserted maidens and such like. +And all the while the wheels of the spindle whirr-whirr-whirred +monotonously, and Henrietta felt like a little child whose nurse sits +beside her bed and lulls her to sleep with fairy tales. For weeks she +had not enjoyed so quiet and dreamless a slumber as she had that night +beneath the roof of the _csarda_ in the midst of the lonely _puszta_. + +Next morning Clementina, after first making quite sure that nobody had +had his or her throat cut during the night, was moved by curiosity to +ask what sort of connection his lordship had with this _csarda_ since he +seemed to know everybody in it. And then she learnt that not only this +_csarda_ but the whole of the surrounding _puszta_ also was the property +of his lordship, for which the people who lived upon it paid very little +rent, inasmuch as his lordship did not look upon it as a source of +income but chiefly valued it on account of its numerous reedy lakes +where he was wont every year to hunt water-fowl and beavers on a grand +scale. Moreover, from this spot to his own house, a good two days' +journey by foot, everything belonged to his lordship's estate. Nay, his +lordship, if he liked, could traverse the whole kingdom from Deva to +Pest, and be on his own property the whole time, it was only like moving +from one of his houses to another. + +The next day the Hungarian plain came to an end and the Transylvanian +Alps drew nearer and nearer. In the evening they descended into a little +mining town whose forges and furnaces were all illuminated in honour of +the arriving guests. Henrietta then learnt that this mining town also +belonged to her husband. + +On the third day, quite early in the morning, they crossed the +Transylvanian frontier. The whole of that splendid region seemed to +smile, but the faces of its inhabitants are sad and mysterious. +Henrietta had a peculiar sense of anxiety during her stay among these +angry looking people who spoke a language she had never heard before. At +intervals of a mile all along the road a roughly carved cross shot up, +covered with clumsily carved letters, which did not in the least +resemble those we are accustomed to. Clementina once asked the coachman +what these crosses might mean and repented doing so immediately +afterwards, for he informed her that they marked the places where +unlucky travellers had come by an untimely death; the inscriptions were +the records of the tragic romances through the scene of which they were +passing. + +The valleys grew narrower and narrower, the road wound upward among +precipices, and the loquacious coachman attached horrible stories to +every rock and ruin. Each valley seemed to have its own particular +ghost. + +Here and there by the roadside stood silent houses not one of which had +an inviting appearance, it would never have occurred to a human soul to +knock at any of them, even at midnight, to ask for a night's lodging. +They were all of them sooty dilapidated shanties, which might easily +have been taken for stables, consisting of a single room in which the +whole family lived, livestock and all. The church often lay far away +from the settlement as if it belonged to two villages equally. + +Then the road rose again between bare and barren cliffs, where only here +and there a solitary bush seemed to cling to the rocky wall. There was +no trace of a garden, but here and there was a fenced in space in which +the Roumanians are wont to unload their hay, with a long pole sticking +up in the midst of the hay ricks to prevent the wind from carrying it +away, or else the hay was piled up on the branch of a living tree like a +bird's nest. + +Down-pouring mountain streams traversed the path at intervals, over +which never a bridge is built, all cars and coaches must cross by the +fords. From the depths of the wooded mountain slopes was reflected the +blood-red glare of iron works and foundries, and the droaning monotonous +din of the machinery scares away the stillness till it loses itself in +the loud murmuring of the mountain torrents. + +At every fresh mile, Henrietta felt how lonely she was in this strange +world, whose giant mountains shut her out from the very prospect of the +familiar places from which she had come and from every possibility of +returning; and whose inhabitants would not even be able to answer her if +she were to ask them: "Which is the way back to my native place?" + +They travelled onwards till late at night by the light of the moon. +Hidvar was now close at hand. As the prospect opened out on both sides, +at the turn of a narrow defile, suddenly, like a picture in a black +frame, between two mountain slopes, thickly covered with dark +beech-trees, the castle of Hidvar came full in view, standing lonely and +isolated on the summit of a hill. The mountain torrent shot swiftly down +beneath a shaky bridge. The round moon stood straight over the tower of +the castle, as if it had been impaled on the point of it, and painted +everything with its silvery light, the tower, the bastions, the brook +and the valley--only one thing it brightened not, the heart of the young +wife. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE CAVERN OF LUCSIA + + +Not so very long ago there was in Transylvania a wide-spreading society +of coiners which, it is now notorious, had carried on its nefarious +business undetected for more than half a century. The science was an +inheritance descending from father to son, people married and were born +into it. Careful parents trained their children to follow it, and a very +lucrative profession it proved to be. That it should have remained +undiscovered for so long a time, that it should have been plied +successfully for more than fifty years under the very noses of the +authorities--all this was capable of a very simple explanation, _these +men coined gold pieces_. + +Yes, genuine ducats, of full weight, out of real three-and-twenty carat +gold, without any admixture of baser metal, so that they absolutely +could not be distinguished from the royal ducats of the authorized +minting towns, Koermoecz and Gyulafehervar. If they fell into the hands of +a goldsmith, and he melted them, he found that they did not contain half +a grain more silver than the genuine ones. Indeed the public lost +nothing by their fabrication, though the state treasury suffered +considerably. + +The whole region, in fact, from Zalathna to Verespatak abounded in that +precious metal which some fool or other has called "a mere chimera," and +the gold mining was farmed out to private individuals, the yearly output +from the shafts being twelve hundredweights. These private diggers are +bound to deliver the gold they obtain to the minting towns at Abradbanya +or Gyulafehervar and there receive coined money in exchange. +Nevertheless, during some fifty years, only about six hundredweights +were delivered annually at these places; the rest disappeared, though at +first nobody could suspect it. The State pays to the diggers 441 guldens +for every pound of gold dust, which quantity when coined is worth 720 +guldens. But it occurred to the mountaineers that they also might +profitably engage in coining and circulate the money so coined. So they +provided themselves with all the necessary implements and machinery +(there were skilled workmen among them) and issued false ducats to their +very great advantage. Their existence was not even suspected except by +the parties interested in the concern, and they had every motive in the +world for preserving the secret. + + * * * * * + +Travelling from Abradbanya up towards Bucsum, one might have seen two +riders toiling up the mountain along the stream overshadowed by dark +alders; one of them was a grey-haired, gigantic Roumanian, the other a +proud-looking young woman. The old man wore a lambskin mantle, on his +head he carried a tall pointed cap, also of lambs' wool, drawn down over +his eyebrows, his body was carelessly girdled with a golden girdle. His +rich grey locks were plaited into two thick pig-tails which reached down +to his broad shoulders, and his snow-white moustache hung down from his +mouth like two seamew's wings. A coarse sack lay in front of him across +his saddle, both ends of which appeared to be full of something heavy; +across the sack lay his fowling-piece. + +The fair cavalier was sitting on a small, wild, shaggy horse, which +constantly evinced a praiseworthy endeavour to overtake the rider in +front of him; his mistress with difficulty held him in. She was one of +those famous Roumanian beauties. Her features, the cut of her lips, her +full chin could have stood as a model beside any antique statue. And +then those sparkling eyes, that vividly red complexion, those coal-black +eyebrows--they made an ideal beauty of her. And the picturesque +Roumanian costume enhanced her charms. Her black hair, twisted into a +double plait, was bound round with a flaming-red scarf, and on her head +she wore a round hat, trimmed with pearls and garnished in front with a +row of gold pieces which reached down to her marble-white forehead. +Moreover, her fine cambric shirt embellished with bright flowers and +gold ornaments fitted so closely as to betray the outlines of her +harmonious figure. Wound ten times round her neck she wore a necklace +of gold coins extending down to her bosom. As she rode along (and she +sat astride her saddle like a man), every now and then one could catch +glimpses beneath her variegated girdle of her red morocco boots and of a +Turkish dagger, with a massive silver handle, gleaming forth from their +shafts. On each side of her holsters peeped forth a double-barrelled +pistol with an ivory handle. + +When the old man stopped to water his horse at the spring gushing forth +from the black slate rock, he said to the girl: "Anicza, when did you +speak last with Fatia Negra?" + +"Just a month ago. It was at the time of the full moon, like it is now. +He then said that he was going away on a long journey." + +"And yet he has already been at home these two days. I saw his sign over +against my window." + +"Impossible. It cannot be," cried the girl passionately. + +"What cannot be? Do you think I am dreaming or lying?" + +"If he were at home, he would have come to see me ere this." + +The old man shrugged his shoulders. + +"And yet he did not come. But the day before yesterday, about midnight, +I found the three owl-feathers there in the window." + +"The wind carried them thither." + +"The wind did not carry them thither for they were stuck fast in putty. +And only we three know what that means. Fatia Negra would speak with us +and we are going to meet him in the Lucsia cavern." + +"It cannot, cannot be--three days at home and never to come to me--to +_me_!" + +"Who knows?" said the old man coolly, tightening his saddle girth, "a +whole month is a long while, long enough for the moon herself to change +four times. There are many pretty wenches on the other side of the +mountain." + +"O no! such a one as I am he will not find there," said the girl +proudly, glancing into the tremulous water-mirror which threw back a +distorted likeness of her defiant face--"and besides he knows very well +that I should murder him were such a woman to mock me." + +"Ah, ah!" mocked the old man, "so Fatia Negra is afraid of you, +eh?"--and with that he swung himself back into his saddle with +youth-like agility. "Black Face fears nobody, I tell you. He is not even +afraid of the commandant of Gyulafehervar, nor of the lord-lieutenant of +Krasna, and they have no end of soldiers and heydukes. Nay, he fears not +the devil himself." + +And with that he urged on his horse which ambled forward meditatively, +whilst the girl's little nag whinnied in the rear. + +"He may not fear the great gentlemen, he may not fear the devil, but I +tell you that he would be afraid of the girl he made to love him, if he +proved false to her." + +"So you really think he loves you violently?" said the old man casting a +backward glance at her. + +"He swore he did." + +"To whom? the priest?" + +"Go along with you! No, to me!" + +At this the old man chuckled--"little fool!" said he. + +"And if he breaks his oath now, the devil shall have him. I'll murder +him." + +"Very well, I suppose you know him. Yet you have never seen his face. If +he were to tear the black velvet mask from his face you would never +recognize him." + +"But that he cannot do as to that mask he owes all his power." + +"Well, you are a comical wench--to be enamoured of a man whose face you +have never seen!" + +"I recognize him by his voice, by the beating of his heart." + +"Well, if I were a girl and had a lover, I would insist on seeing his +face. He should not come to me in a mask anyhow." + +"He cannot put off his mask, I tell you. His oath forbids him to. The +moment he removes his mask from his face his power is gone, and neither +the devil nor the good angels will obey him any longer." + +"That is true," returned the old man solemnly. "When he likes he can +make himself invisible. I know it. He has always escaped pursuit even +when the whole country was out after him, and when they thought they had +him fast he always disappeared in the earth or in the air. Yet, for all +that, if I were his love, see his face I would." + +"He told me I should die of fright if I beheld it." + +"Then I _would_ die of fright--but I would see it." + +"His eyes are very fine,--they glow like coals." + +"Like coals? Perhaps he is the Dracu[16] himself. Have you ever tried to +make him kiss the amulet on which is the image of St. George and the +Dragon?" + +[Footnote 16: Dracu-dragon, _i.e._, devil.] + +"Yes he has kissed it and was none the worse." + +"Have you tried to get him to lay his three fingers on a copper +crucifix?" + +"He laid his fingers thereon and yet they were not burnt." + +"Can he say the prayer of condemnation without trembling?" + +"He has said it hundreds of times." + +"Nevertheless, I maintain he is no mortal man." + +"If he should love another woman, I swear that he will very soon find +out that he _is_ mortal." + +Talking thus the riders had descended into the depths of the valley, and +when the mountain stream again crossed their path they quitted the usual +footpath and followed the bed of the stream. And a very good road it is +for such as do not wish to leave foot-marks behind them. The rapid +current swiftly fills the traces of the horses' hoofs with leaves and +pebbles. + +The ravine grew ever deeper and narrower, and the stream at intervals +formed small cataracts which the horses, who had been trained thereto, +had to cross. Finally, at a sudden declivity, the water took an +unexpected leap of four yards, and when the riders reined up at this +very spot, it was plain that here a mill had been built into the +hillside, whose wheel it was which drove the swiftly plunging water +along. + +If a stranger saw this mill he would certainly say: "What foolish man +the miller must be who has built his mill here," (----) and that for +three reasons. Firstly, because it was so concealed beneath the thick +alders that even if one sees it one cannot get at it. Secondly, because +it is built exactly under the water-fall which drives the wheel as +rapidly as a spindle, so that the millstone must needs be red hot +beneath it. Thirdly, because the way to this mill is so peculiar, +passing right through the mountain torrent and then winding down to the +door by way of a foot-path hewn in the naked rock, and inaccessible to +horses. Well, such a miller will surely get but little grain to grind! + +When the two riders reached this spot they sprang from their horses, led +them into a little dry islet formed by the alders and tied them by +their halters to the branches. Then the old man lifted the sack from +the saddle. + +"Give me a lift up, Anicza!" said he. + +One would hardly have supposed that an old fellow of such a colossal +build would have required any help at all in order to get this sack +across his shoulders, nor would one have supposed from the size of the +sack that it would have been so heavy to lift or that it would have +weighed so heavily on the old man's shoulders that he had to plant his +hand firmly on his hip in order to carry the load. + +Then the girl drew both pistols forth from her holsters, stuck them into +her girdle, threw the long fowling-piece across her shoulder and +springing fearlessly across the stream from boulder to boulder followed +behind the stooping old man along the narrow foot-path which led to the +mill. In the doorway of the mill stood a youth clad in the usual coarse +cloth "_guba_" and half concealed by the door post. In one hand he held +a double-barrelled musket, an implement not absolutely necessary for a +miller. The old man addressed him while still a good way off: + +"_Che timpu?_"[17] + +[Footnote 17: What sort of weather?] + +"_Luna plina._"[18] + +[Footnote 18: Full moon.] + +A strange sort of greeting, more like an exchange of pass-words. + +Then both the new arrivals entered the mill in the midst of which a +dilapidated grinding machine was revolving, the central wheel was minus +a couple of teeth. + +"Plenty of grinding going on, Paul?" asked the old man. + +"Quite enough." + +"Help me down with this sack." + +"It is heavy certainly," said the other, panting beneath the strain, +"how much does it hold?" + +"A hundredweight and eighty pounds." + +"No mere Turkish maize, eh?" + +"Stop the wheel!" + +The young man at once obeyed by driving an iron beam clean through the +wheel which brought the machinery to a standstill. Then he raised the +central revolving disc which was in connection with the millstone, hung +in the hook of the millstone an iron chain which was wound round the +beam and this done, laid the sack and its contents on the bolting-hutch. +Then the old man himself, sat down on the hutch and extended his hand to +the girl. "Jump on Anicza." And the girl jumped on without help for she +was as agile as a chamois. + +"Paul," said the old man to the young journeyman, "was not Fatia Negra +here before us?" + +"He has not been through here either to-day or yesterday. It has been my +turn to watch these last two days." + +"I am right you see; he is not here," said the girl. + +"He _is_ here, I tell you." + +"Come Onucz," said the youth, "can Black Face make himself invisible +then? He could not pass here without my knowing it!" + +"What do you know about it?" answered the old man, adjusting himself on +the bolting-hutch. "Let the mill go!" + +As now the revolving disc or platform began to move, the machinery stood +still, yet the millstone together with the bolting-hutch began slowly to +sink downwards together with those sitting upon it, and after some +moments, disappeared entirely into a dark gulf, the chain unwinding and +rattling after it. Suddenly from the depths below resounded the old +man's voice: "Halt!" Then Paul stopped the mill, hung the chain in an +iron ring and the machinery once more set in motion, raised the +millstone up, Paul fastened the revolving disc to it and it began to +rattle round again so furiously that sparks flew out of it. Now whoever +had any meal to grind might come, he was quite ready for them. + +It was a huge subterraneous cavern into which Onucz and Anicza had +descended. At the bottom of this hollow flowed a branch of the mountain +stream which turned the mill and indeed was diverted thither by means of +wooden pipes. Here, however, it flowed in its regular bed, glistening +here and there in the light of two oil lamps which burnt on both sides +of a small iron bridge that traversed the stream. + +In the background of this hollow stood a peculiar, roofless, stone +building, whose two round little windows, like the eternally watchful +eyes of some underground worm, shone with a red glare which dazzled the +eyes, while the slate-covered chimney belched forth a thick smoke filled +with sparks into the subterranean midnight. + +From the interior of the building resounded heavy thuds and the din of +grinding as of machinery in perpetual motion which made the very +foundations of the rocks quiver. On the bridge stood another armed man +with whom the new arrivals exchanged watchwords and the same thing was +done at the door of the stone building where the old man made the girl +stop. + +"Now Anicza," said he, "while I go in, you sit down on that stone bench +and wait for me." + +"Why cannot I go into the house as well?" enquired the girl, +impatiently. + +"No more of that. Once a year we come here and every time you ask again +if you can come in, and every time I tell you that cannot be. And now I +tell you once more: _it cannot be_--and there's an end on't." + +"But why may others go in and I not?" + +"Why--why! because you are a girl, of course. Leave me in peace. Women +have no business in there, they are always so inquisitive, want to know +everything and then blab it all out--it is their nature so." + +"I'm not like that." + +"And then whoever enters here has to swear a frightful oath that he +will divulge nothing that he sees. I myself shudder all over when I have +to repeat it; it is not fit for the mouth of a woman." + +"As if _I_ were afraid of any oath!" cried the girl defiantly. "I would +say any thing that a man might say." + +"Don't be a fool, Anicza. A girl cannot come in here, because everyone +has to strip himself stark naked before he goes out, before the +watchman, and then dress himself again. So you see it won't do." + +This difficulty appeared insuperable even to the iron will of Anicza. It +was a test even she could not submit to. She stamped her foot with rage +and uttered again and again the word Dracu, which in Roumanian means +nothing less than his highness the devil himself. + +Old Onucz and the watchman thereupon laughed heartily, and the same +instant the iron door of the building opened and the girl exclaimed +joyfully: "Fatia Negra!" + +Onucz and the watchman immediately tore their caps from their heads. It +was, indeed, Fatia Negra. + +How could he get hither invisibly through all the ambushes set for him? +Who could tell? Who had the courage to ask him? Not even Anicza. All she +thought of at that moment was to rush forward, fall upon the neck of her +mysterious lover and cover his eyes and mouth, which the mask left +exposed, with kisses. + +"Let Anicza come in!" said the black-masked man, "I'll answer for her, +and she shall, like myself, be exempted from undressing." + +"It is well, Domnule,"[19] said the watchman, "but let her at least take +the oath which everyone here must swear." + +[Footnote 19: Master.] + +"I am ready," cried the girl boldly. + +"No, Anicza," replied Black Mask, "you shall swear to me a stronger oath +even than that, you shall swear--by our eternal love." + +The proud maiden, trembling with joy, fell at the feet of Fatia Negra at +these words, and pressing one of her hands to her heart, raised the +other aloft, and, raising her lovely eyes--which reflected the infernal +glare of the windows--aloft, towards the smoking canopy above her head, +she swore by her eternal love to her beloved that she would never, not +even on the rack itself, betray a word, a syllable of what she was about +to learn. + +But old Onucz scratched his poll. + +"Domnule, it is not wise of you to let women swear on such useless +things. It is just as if one of us were to hold a penny in his hand and +swear by that. It binds nobody." + +"It is enough for me," replied the Mask, "and my head is no cheaper than +yours. Let him who trusts me not keep away from here." + +And holding the girl in his arms, he carried her with him into the +building while old Onucz had to dress himself from head to foot in other +clothes and leave those he had brought with him outside. He would have +on his return to put on his own again and leave these others behind. +Thus smuggling was impossible. + +The first room was for the smelting. + +Here there was nothing to be seen of the blazing fire which illuminated +the dark hollow through the windows, in one corner of the room was a +simple cylinder shaped iron furnace which radiated a burning heat, on +the top of which stood a round graphite crucible covered in at the top +and provided with a lateral pipe. + +"Here the gold is remelted after it has come out of the purifying oven," +said Fatia Negra to the girl who pressed close up to him. "Heretofore it +required a whole apparatus of boilers and loads and loads of wood to +bring it to smelting heat, but since I got that cylinder-stove, ten +hundredweights of metal can be melted in ten minutes." + +"But where does the fire come from?" enquired the girl. + +"From the earth, my beloved." + +The girl shrank back with horror, and yet Fatia Negra did not mean hell +but that furnace whose powerful bellows drove the melting heat into the +double cylinder. + +He looked at his watch, the moment had come. At a single whistle a +couple of workmen appeared, each of them stripped to the waist on +account of the great heat; they held in their hands large iron moulds +and stood facing each other opposite the crucible. Then by means of an +iron tap Fatia Negra turned the pipe of the crucible and immediately a +pale glare began to spread through the room--the liquid gold ran in a +thin jet out of the crucible and that was the cause of the light. +Actually genuine pure gold made liquid in the fire like wine in a glass +and emitting on every side of it a glowing white radiance! Each of the +two workmen held his mould beneath it and the girl surveyed the scene +with bated breath. + +When the operation was finished Black Face turned to the girl again and +embraced her saying: "So you see, darling, that is how gold is melted." +The girl smiled back at him; what a pity the Black Mask could not smile +in return. And now old Onucz came up with his sack for the purifying +furnace. + +"How much have you in your sack?" asked Fatia Negra. + +"A hundredweight and eighty pounds." + +"Now we'll see into how much pure gold it will work out." + +"The dross mixed with it is only a few pounds in weight." + +"Of what quality is it?" + +"Well, they purify it very incompletely you know. It is only +two-and-twenty carat gold." + +"It doesn't matter: we will coin Prussian ducats out of it." + +"But where's the mould?" + +"I brought it with me, to-day; we'll adjust that also to the machine. +We shall gain a hundred florins in every thousand." + +Old Onucz kissed Fatia Negra's hand. "Domnule," said he, "you are a man +indeed. Domnule, since you became our chief our gains have doubled and +the ducats are so good that one cannot distinguish them from the +Imperial ones." + +Meanwhile the girl felt her head going round to hear them talk of +nothing but money, gold, gain! + +"Come Onucz, let us look at the new machinery," said the Mask. + +"When did you bring the new machinery here?" + +"A long time ago; we have coined a great deal of money since it first +came. The work is all the quicker and we need fewer men to work it." + +They went into the next room through a low door, all three of them +having to bow their heads as they entered, and there they saw a gigantic +machine at work between whose revolving cylinders depended the long gold +ingots which were gradually reduced to the proper thinness for making +gold coins. + +"Don't you see, Onucz? Hitherto we wasted too much time and labour in +cutting the gold plates thin enough and the edges were always too thick +to our great loss. Now the machine rolls them all out uniformly. It only +cost 10,000 ducats." + +"Very cheap indeed!" cried the old man, who was wearing a ragged +sheepskin and yet considered ten thousand ducats a moderate price for a +rolling mill. + +The Mask took up one of the little glistening plates. + +"Do you know, my friend, the name of this?" said he. + +"No." + +"Its name is Zain. In order that you may not forget it I will wind it +round your arm." And as if it were merely hard paper he lightly bent the +gold plate round the girl's wrist and then pressed the ends of this +improvised bracelet together with his steel-like fingers. "Don't forget +that this is called Zain and that you got it from me." + +The girl looked doubtfully at him as if she would have said: "Is it +lawful for you to give away everything here as if it were your own." + +But the old man could not look on at this in silence. "Alas! alas! +Domnule, give not away uncoined gold. Rather squander coined gold in +heaps. The other is of itself a witness against us and thereby we shall +furnish a clue to our enemies." + +"It is in a good place," replied Fatia Negra; "it is on Anicza's arm and +there it will keep silence." + +Anicza replied to this apology with ten kisses. And she calculated +rightly. This necklace weighed exactly ten double ducats--but the kisses +also were double ones. + +Then Fatia Negra led them to another machine which cut round gold +pieces out of the rolled out "Zain." He showed the girl how every +clipper, how every screw beneath the impulsion of the piston did its +proper share of the work, and how the whole process was set going by +steam power from without and could therefore be directed and controlled +by one man with another man to relieve him at intervals. + +"Dumnezu!"[20] sighed old Onucz, "when I think that fifty years ago we +did all this with only our hammers and chisels! We sweated two whole +days over a piece of work which this marvel can do in an hour. And how +many hands we employed too!" + +[Footnote 20: My master.] + +Then they went to another machine. This was a small table whose steel +wheels notched the ducats before they passed beneath the stamping +machine. Perpetually moving elastic springs pushed the gold pieces +forward one after the other, turned them round and jerked them away. You +saw no other motive power but a large wheel revolving under a broad +strap; the strap disappeared through the floor, it was underneath there +that the man who set it in motion lived. + +Old Onucz sighed aloud. "What things they do invent now-a-days," said +he. + +But Anicza, full of superstitious fear, clung silently to the arm of +Fatia Negra whom all these speechless marvels served and obeyed. +Finally, descending six stone steps they entered the actual minting +room. + +A gigantic screw press stood in the midst of the low vaulted chamber. +Through the head of the screw was driven a long moving bar, with leaden +bullets at both ends and two strong fellows were pushing this bar +backwards and forwards; the weight of the machine, as it turned, forced +the screw sharply down and in a second it pressed the two round gold +pieces laid in the steel matrix into the stamping dies, on one of which +was the image of the Mother of God and on the other the cuirassed +likeness of the reigning monarch. Immediately after the two matrices +recoiled again of their own accord and the two powerful men repeated the +pressure. Then a little steel ring shifted suddenly, flinging aside the +coined ducat, and a fresh gold piece took its place. The coined ducats +already lay in a heap in front of the machine and the workmen, now and +then, kicked them away with their feet. + +There was something impressive in the spectacle. Here were two poor men, +working hard perhaps for their daily bread with little hillocks of +seductive gold piled up all around them, gold of which everyone is +enamoured in the earth above them, gold for which so many men gladly +give up everything, even to their hope in Heaven! + +Now and again a third man comes in and pitches the gold into a linen +sack with a wooden shovel. + +"Let us stamp a few ducats ourselves by way of souvenirs," said Fatia +Negra. Anicza assenting, the workmen stepped aside, and Fatia Negra and +the girl placed themselves on either side of the leaden bullets on the +turning bar. + +The Mask bade his sweetheart be careful to avoid the recoil of the +machine for should the handle hit her the blow might prove fatal, +whereupon the girl, burning to show off her great strength, did not wait +for the end of the bar to recover its normal position, but seizing the +iron rod when it was only half way round, tore it back again, with the +result that the steel clapper did not cast the gold piece between the +matrices in the usual way and it thus received a double impression, +being stamped with a two-fold figure of the Mother of God on one side +and a two-fold figure of the royal profile on the other. + +Old Onucz rushed towards Anicza and angrily tore her away: + +"You little fool, be off!" cried he, "you will spoil the machine, it is +not for the likes of you." + +But Fatia Negra now picked up the ducat which had fallen to the ground +and showed it with a smile to Anicza: "Look," said he, "there is now a +double picture on it." + +The girl turned it curiously between her fingers. + +"And what will happen to it now?" + +"It will go into the smelting furnace again." + +"Ah, don't destroy it, give it to me!" + +At this the old man fairly lost his temper. + +"Are you out of your mind to ask for such a thing? What! a ducat with a +flaw in it, which, if seen in your hands would saddle us with the +vengeance of the whole government! Domnule, be not so mad as to let her +have that ducat! If she has no sense, you at least be sensible. You +might ruin the whole lot of us with it." + +"Well, Anicza will not wear it on her head, I suppose, or even on her +neckerchief, but will fasten it to a little bit of thread and wear it +next her heart, there nobody will find it but myself." + +Onucz would very much have liked to say: "Neither have you any right to +look there, Domnule, for you have not yet spoken to the priest about +it"--but this was the one thing he durst not say. + +But Anicza gratefully kissed Fatia Negra's hand like a child who has +received a gift, not indeed for the ducat, but for the boundless +confidence he had shown in giving it to her, which was the surest token +of his love. Then she drew forth a little Turkish dagger, bored a hole +with it through the ducat and fastened it to a little piece of thin +black cord by the side of her little crucifix which she wore upon her +bosom--and hid both of them away again. + +"Well Domnule," remarked Onucz sulkily, "since we have placed our heads +in the girl's hands we must beware of ever offending her." + +But now the assayer came up, bringing with him a nice elaborate +calculation on a black slate, showing exactly how much pure gold Onucz +had handed in to the coining department, how much it would be worth when +coined and deducting three per cent for expenses, how much he was to +receive in cash by way of exchange. + +"And now go and let the cashier pay you what is due to you, Onucz," said +Fatia Negra. + +And so while he remained behind for the purpose of settling his account +Anicza and Fatia Negra retired to a little adjoining chamber. There +would be plenty of time for two lovers to talk over their love affairs +while so many gold coins were being counted out. + +"Where have you been? it's a whole month since I saw you?" asked Anicza +sitting on the adventurer's knee. "Do you know how long a month is to +me? First quarter, new moon, full moon, last quarter, all this have I +watched through and never saw you once, where have you been?" + +"I have been abroad for those new machines. That is a business one +cannot entrust to another." + +"Are there pretty girls abroad?--Might you not fall in love with them?" + +"Hush! Those are not the questions that men should be asked." + +"Why not?" + +"Because men are not in the habit of answering them." + +"But suppose a girl wants to know?" + +"Then it will go badly with her. Besides, what do you want me to tell +you? Would you like to know that I'm such a block, a clod, that no +other eye but yours takes any pleasure in looking at me? Or would you +like to hear that I am a sort of hermit who has wandered in disguise +through seven kingdoms and casts down his eyes whenever he encounters a +petticoat? Or that I cross myself and turn away whenever a woman looks +at me? Or shall I tell you: in such and such a place I nipped the white +cheeks of a pretty blonde, and in such and such a place the coquettrie +of a pair of blue eyes made me forget myself, and in such another place +I bedded my intoxicated head in the arms of a brunette?--and that after +wandering through seven kingdoms I have found no lovelier girl than my +own enchanting Anicza?" + +The girl could neither reply nor scold, for her mouth was closed fast +with kisses. + +"You know I am very jealous," she said at last, when she was able to +tear herself free. "I do not love as others love. I can only think of +you and your love. I am neither hungry nor thirsty but only--in love. I +am never weary, I scarcely know that I am working, for love makes me +sing and sing all day. I dream only of you. I care not what is going on +in the whole world so long as I only know what is happening to you. I +know that you love me and that you are mine so long as you are here. But +how often you are far away! How often I do not see you for weeks, for +months at a time! Then I get nearly mad. I am determined to find out +where you are and what you are doing, with whom you are speaking and +then I say, I feel quite mad." + +"Indeed! Then let me tell you, my dear girl, that it would do you no +good to know where I am, for I am much more exposed to the fire of +pointed rifles than to the fire of pretty eyes." + +"Are you then a robber chieftain, a mountain smuggler?" + +"I am a lot of things." + +"Then take me with you into your band"--she spoke with heaving bosom. + +But Fatia Negra stamped his foot. + +"It cannot be, Anicza," said he; "think no more of it! I will never take +you with me." + +"Why not?" asked the girl and her eyes flashed like a wild cat's. + +"Because then I should become jealous of you and that would be bad for +us both. Remain in your father's house; there you are safe." + +The girl drew from her bosom the defaced ducat she had just received +together with the crucifix. + +"Hearken, Fatia Negra! my father says that this badly coined piece of +gold places your life in my hand. And know, besides, Fatia Negra, that I +have sworn on this Crucified One here that if ever you betray me I will +kill you in my fury without thinking twice about the how or where. It is +not well that two such dangerous objects should repose on my heart. +Look! I give them both to you." + +"Wherefore, Anicza?" + +"Take the things, I say, and keep them, for my guardian angel knows, I +have told him, that with me they are not in a safe place. You do not +know me yet." + +The girl burst out crying, and Fatia Negra could no longer soothe her +with kisses, and then old Onucz poked his gray shaggy head through the +doorway and said: "I have been paid already, Domnule, have you?" + +Fatia Negra stroked the girl's hair and face and whispered her not to +take on so. + +The stitches of the old Roumanian's patience now, at last, gave way +altogether. "Domnule," said he, "would you not, if I earnestly besought +you to do so, begin to think of the day on which you intend to become my +daughter's husband?" + +For a moment Fatia Negra seemed thunderstruck; then he recovered himself +and replied in a calm but menacing voice: "If ever it occurs to you to +put the question to me again, your head will reach home an hour earlier +than yourself." + +The old man made no reply, but he seized the girl by the hand and led +her away with him, returning to the mill with her by the same way that +he had come. They found their horses by the alder trees and remounted. +It was a fine clear night, and Onucz told his daughter to ride in front. +They had now divided the coined gold into two portions. When they had +once more reached the ridge of the mountain the old man pronounced +Anicza's name in a low tone. The girl looked, backwards and perceived +that the old man's long-barrelled rifle was pointed directly at the back +of her head. In her terror she covered her face with her hands. "What +would you do?" cried she. + +"Fear nothing, I only want that piece of gold which Fatia Negra gave +you. I'll not stake _my_ head on _your_ whimsies!" + +The girl had anticipated something much worse than this, so she quietly +answered: "You can spare yourself the trouble, I have already returned +it to Fatia Negra. I would not carry it about with me any longer." + +"You have acted wisely," said the old man, lowering his musket. "Now you +can ride on." + +The early dawn was breaking as they reached home. When Anicza entered +her room she found hanging up beneath the ikon that gleamed and shone +over her bed both the damaged ducat and the little cross which she had +given to Fatia Negra two hours before. He must indeed be in league with +the devil--else how could he have got there, invisibly, so long before +them? + +Anicza said not a word about it to anybody, but she hid both the amulets +safely away in her bosom again--and now she was right proud of her Fatia +Negra! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +STRONG JUON + + +Henrietta's married life was not a happy one. Her husband was polite, +complaisant, and conventionally correct in his behaviour towards her, +and that was all. And then she saw so little of him. He was frequently +absent from Hidvar for weeks at a time, and when he returned he +regularly brought in his train a merry company of comrades, in whose +pastimes Henrietta could take no sort of pleasure. + +During those long days when she had Hidvar all to herself and was left +entirely to the company of her sad thoughts, she would sometimes walk +about till late in the evening in the shady alleys of the home park, +listening to the songs of the girls working in the fields. At the end of +the park was a church, and in front of it a small clearing fenced around +with stakes and looking like a cabbage garden. It surely belonged to +some poor man or other. It did--and the poor man was the parish-priest. + +Henrietta often saw him, a tall, grey-bearded man in a long black +cassock, hastening to his little garden; there the reverend gentleman +would divest himself of his long habit, produce a rake, and work till +late in the evening. Henrietta fancied at first that was merely a +dietetic diversion, but afterwards, when she found him there the next +day and the day after that, and at every hour of the day; when she saw +him wiping the sweat from his brow in the burning afternoons and leaning +wearily at intervals on his rake to rest a while from his labour, then +she was persuaded that this work was not a pastime, but a bitter toil +for daily bread. + +Often times she would very much have liked to ask him how this was, but +she was a stranger in these parts and did not understand his language; +at last, however, the priest, perceiving the lady one day, peered at her +through the palings and wished her good-day in the purest Hungarian, +thereby giving her to understand that the language of the gentry was +well known to him. + +Henrietta begged the old man to leave his labour and come to her. + +"It cannot be, your ladyship; his lordship has forbidden me to appear in +his courts." + +"Why?" + +"I am always a nuisance." + +"How so?" + +"Because I am always on some begging errand. At one time the wind +carries off the roof of the church; at another, something is broken in +the belfry. It is a year ago now since the school was burnt down, and +since then the walls have become overgrown with thistles; the +schoolmaster too has gone away, and there is nobody to teach the +children, so that they grow up louts and robbers, to the great hurt and +harm of the gentry." + +"But why is not all this put to rights?" + +"Because the poor folks are lazy and drunken, and his lordship is +stingy." + +Henrietta was astonished at the old man's words. + +"Yes, stingy, that's the word," continued the priest. "I do not pick my +words, for I am a priest and used to hunger. And he who is used to +hunger is free from the yoke of servility. I told his lordship that to +his face, and that was why he forbade me the castle." + +Henrietta could not continue the conversation, so upset was she at the +idea of Hatszegi's stinginess. What! the man who raked in hundreds of +thousands at a time with the greatest ease, and no doubt scattered them +as recklessly, could shut his door in the face of a poor priest who +begged for the house of God and the education of the people! She hastily +wished the priest good-night and returned to the castle. + +The same evening she sought her husband, who had just come home wearied +from the chase, "I have a favour to ask of you," said she. Hatszegi +looked astonished: it was the first favour the wife had ever asked her +husband. + +"Command me!" said he. "Whatever you like to ask is as good as granted +already." + +"I should like to learn the language of the people in the midst of whom +we dwell. I am like a deaf-mute among them at present." + +"That will not be difficult. The Wallachian tongue is easily acquired, +especially by anyone with a knowledge of French or Latin." + +Henrietta blushed scarlet. Was there a covert allusion behind these +words? Did Hatszegi know that she understood Latin? + +"I should like to have a master who can put me in the way of it. The +parish priest here would be a suitable person." + +For an instant Hatszegi's eyebrows contracted. + +"You shall have your way," he said at last. "It is true that he is the +one man in the world who insults me to my face with impunity whenever he +meets me, and even presumes to chalk upon the walls of my own castle +denunciations against me from the book of the Prophet Nehemiah, so that +I was obliged to forbid him ever to appear before me under pain of being +thrown headlong out of the window; yet to show you what an obedient +servant I am of yours, madame, I will not baulk you of your desire, or +desire you to choose another master, but will send and invite him to +come up here at once. Everyone shall see that in my house, my wife is +the master." And with that Leonard kissed his wife's hand and withdrew. + +Early next day the pastor arrived. Margari informed him of her +ladyship's desire to learn the Roumanian language, and the words almost +stuck in his throat when he added that his Reverence would receive a +hundred florins every month for it. Fancy! a hundred florins a month for +teaching a lingo only spoken by bumpkins. + +Todor Ruban--that was the priest's name--was at once conducted to her +ladyship. He was an elderly man, of an open, cheerful countenance; his +fine, long white hair fell in thick locks on his simple black cassock, +which showed considerable signs of wear. + +Henrietta was not in time to prevent the old pastor from kissing her +hand. + +"This is no slavish obsequiousness towards a great lady," said he, "but +the respect of a poor pastor for an angel whom Heaven by a peculiar act +of grace has sent down to us. This is no empty compliment, your +ladyship. I am not very lavish of such things myself, but I feel bound +to address you thus because I am well aware that it is not merely to +learn our poor language that you pay me so well for so little trouble. +No, I recognize herein the good will which would do what it can to raise +and help a poor neglected population: for I certainly shall not exchange +my simple maize-bread for better, but will employ your ladyship's gift +in the service of God and of our poorer brethren." + +From that day Henrietta believed that a call from on high had summoned +her to Hidvar to be the guardian angel, the visible providence of a +poor, forsaken people, and her most pleasant occupation was now to go +from village to village,--often in the company of the priest, and at +other times accompanied by a single groom or quite alone. Thus she +visited one after the other all the surrounding parishes like any +archdeacon, enquiring after and helping their necessities, distributing +money for school-buildings and service books, collecting all manner of +stray orphans and bringing them home with her to be fed and instructed; +nay she erected a regular foundling hospital at Hidvar for the benefit +of the sprouting urchins of the district, and had the liveliest debates +with the priest as to the best method of managing it. Her benevolent +enthusiasm cost Hatszegi a pretty penny. + +"She is a child; let her play!" he would only say when Margari and +Clementina represented to him that Henrietta had pawned her jewels at +Fehervar in order to teach some more little Roumanian rag-a-muffins how +to go about with gloves on like their betters. Nay the baron secretly +instructed the tradesmen with whom Henrietta had pawned her jewels to +advance her four times as much as they were worth, _he_ would make it +good again, he said--and then he would buy his wife fresh jewels. An +admirable husband, truly! + +One day, Henrietta had ridden out to the neighbouring Ravacsel in order +to visit a poor Wallachian peasant woman, to whom she had sent some +medicine a few days before. The woman, naturally, never drank the +medicine, but instead of that got a village quack to rub her stomach +with some wonder-working salve so vigorously that the poor patient died +in consequence; in fact she was already at the last gasp when Henrietta +arrived. Henrietta was beside herself with grief and anger. She felt +like a doctor whose prescriptions have been interfered with by a +competitor. She could not indeed help the woman, who expired soon after +her arrival, but she had at least the satisfaction of making +arrangements for a decent funeral. In the meantime it had grown so late +that when she turned back toward Hidvar the moon was already pretty high +in the heavens. + +She was alone on horseback, for it was only a two hours' journey between +the two places, and she had therefore not thought it worth while to +bring an escort with her. Besides, whom had she to fear? Since she had +lived in these parts, all the bad men had disappeared, and whoever she +might meet in the roads or lanes would be ready to kiss her hand. + +So she turned homewards again alone. The road wound in and out among the +valleys and was therefore much longer than if it had gone in a straight +direction across the mountains. She had, however, often heard from the +peasants that there was a shorter way to Hidvar from Ravacsel on which +mules and ponies could go, and she thought it better to look for this +road lest night should surprise her among the mountains. But a road that +is good enough for mules and ponies may not suit a thoroughbred English +steed which does not care about putting its hoofs into the tracks of +other beasts; and besides, a hundred paces on level ground is much +shorter than twenty-five up hill. Henrietta vividly experienced the +truth of this when she reached the summit of the hill, for her horse was +sweating from every pore and trembling from the violent exertion. Such +horses should not be used in hilly country: a shaggy, sturdy little pony +would have treated the whole thing as a joke and not said a word about +it. + +But the real difficulties of the road only began during the descent, +which was equally dangerous for horse and rider. The track, a mere +channel washed out of the soft sandstone by the mountain torrents, +descended abruptly, the stones giving way beneath the horse's hoofs and +plunging after it. Frequently they had to cross very awkward places, and +Henrietta could see from the way in which her horse pricked up his ears, +snorted and shook his head, that he was as frightened as his mistress. + +At last they came to a very bad spot indeed, where on one side of the +road there was a sheer abyss, while the rocky mountain side rose +perpendicularly on the other. The narrow path here ran so close to the +rock that the rider had to bend her head aside so as not to knock it, +and the horse could only go forward one foot at a time. + +For an instant the horse stood still, as if weighing his chances on that +narrow path; but, as there was no turning back now, he was obliged at +last to go on. + +Henrietta looked shudderingly down into the chasm below her, over which +she seemed to hang suspended; and she thought to herself, with something +very like a sob: what if we should stumble now! + +The thought was scarcely in her mind when one of the horse's hind legs +tripped, and the same instant horse and rider were precipitated into the +abyss. + +Henrietta never lost her head during the fall. She noticed everything +that happened during the brief plunge, how the horse struggling +desperately clattered down the mountain-side, how the saddle girth burst +beneath the strain, how for a mere second some bush or shrub arrested +the descent, and how the next instant the weight of the horse tore it +down along with him. Finally, falling still lower and turning right +round on its back the horse got wedged in between two rocks from which +position he was fortunately unable to disengage himself, for had he +fallen any further he would have been dashed to pieces. + +Henrietta was quite conscious the whole time. Holding on with both hands +to the roots of a bush with her left leg still in the stirrup (for +saddle and stirrup also remained hanging in the bush) it occurred to her +in this painful situation that she still had time to commend her soul to +God and then face death more calmly. As to help, there was no hope of +it, for the place was far away from all human dwellings; night would +soon fall and the bush would presently yield beneath her +feet--destruction was certain. + +But while the lady neglected to call for assistance, the wedged-in horse +did so all the more loudly. Supine and unable to free himself from his +uncomfortable position, he repeatedly uttered that terrified scream +which one never hears from this noble and reticent beast except in dire +extremity. Whoever has heard such a cry will readily admit that it is +far more terrible than any merely human appeal for assistance. + +After a few moments it seemed to Henrietta as if a halloo were +resounding from the depths below; looking down she perceived by the +light of the moon a black shape leaping from rock to rock like a +chamois, and gradually approaching the dangerous point where she hung. + +Any efforts on this man's part seemed to her impossible. There was not a +single visible gap or crevice in the face of the steep rock by means of +which he could scramble up to her; and how could he help her, how could +he liberate her, if he did manage to get at her? + +Nevertheless the man drew nearer and nearer. She could by this time make +out his goatskin cloak, his high broad cap, the clean shaved face +peculiar to the mountain goatherds. His dexterity was as astonishing as +the physical strength, with which he often raised himself on the tips of +his toes in order to reach a cleft in the rocks, scarcely visible high +above his head; often he could scarce hold on by the tips of his +fingers, yet the next moment he would swing himself up with half a hand +and, setting his foot in the cleft, look about for a fresh foothold. + +About a yard below Henrietta was a projecting piece of rock just large +enough for a man's foot to stand upon. The next moment Henrietta saw the +herdsman mount to this place. He himself was a good fathom in height and +his head reached up as far as Henrietta's hips. He looked up at her with +a friendly smile, as if he had merely come there to help her down from +her horse. Then he said to her in Roumanian: "_Noroc bun Domna!_" which +means "Good luck to you, my lady!" So even in this perilous situation it +occurred to him to say something pleasant. + +"The horse took a false step, my lady," said he, "but all's well that +ends well. Prithee, mount upon my shoulder, this bush will not hold fast +much longer, it is only a juniper, its roots are weak." Henrietta's +heart failed her. This man surely does not imagine that he will be able +to carry her down on his shoulders. + +"Come, my lady, don't be afraid, I can easily carry you down. Why I +often roam about like this after my kids when they fall into the +precipice; and you are no heavier than a young kid, I'm sure." + +And then, with the hand that remained free, he plucked at the remainder +of the damaged bush. Henrietta perceived with astonishment that the +roots which had not snapped asunder beneath his weight were loosened +from the rock by the mere tug of the man's hand. But what was he going +to do with them? + +The herdsman bade the lady fear nothing; no further accident could +happen, he said; then, sticking the torn out stump between his legs like +a hobby-horse and pressing it against the rock with one hand, he himself +turned his back to the mountain-side and suddenly, stretching his legs +wide apart, let himself glide down the shelving rock. + +Henrietta shrieked aloud, she thought she was lost, but the next moment +the herdsman stood on solid ground and looked up at her with a smile: +"We're all right, you see," he cried. "Oh, I have travelled like this +many a time; it is rare fun,--sledging I call it." + +Sledging indeed!--to plunge down a steep mountain side five fathoms deep +with the aid of a juniper bush! + +From where they now stood it was an easy matter to convey the lady to +the bottom of the precipice, which was overgrown with bright grass, on +which he deposited her. + +"There you are, my lady," said he. "Don't be frightened; I will soon be +back again." + +And with that he scrambled up again towards the wedged-in horse. +Henrietta gazed after him in amazement--whatever was he going to do +there? + +The fellow, on reaching the wriggling horse, first of all caught firm +hold of its front legs and then tied all four legs tightly together with +the stirrup-straps. Thereupon, he seized the beast by his fettered legs, +pulled them over his shoulders, and with a violent jerk freed the animal +from its uncomfortable position and carried it down into the valley +likewise. There he untied its legs, helped it on to its hoofs again, +and, turning with a smile to Henrietta, said: "A fine horse that; it +would have been a shame to have let it come to grief!" + +"And you were able to carry it on your shoulders?" gasped Henrietta. + +"That isn't very much. It scarce weighs more than four hundredweight. +The bear not long ago weighed five, and I had to beat it to death before +I could take it home. Surely your ladyship knows that I am the strong +Juon--Juon Tare?" And the goatherd said this with as much self-evident +pride, as if everyone in the wide world had heard that strong Juon dwelt +among these forests. Henrietta's look of surprise apprised him, however, +that she, at least, had never heard of him. + +"You do not know then, Domna, who I am? Yet I know who you are. I have +often met the _Dumnye Barbatu_[21] and he knows me well. He is the only +man in the world who is as strong as I am. We have often wrestled +together on this grass-plot for a wager. Neither of us has ever been +able to throw the other. His lordship can throw an axe deeper into a +tree than I can, but I can put a greater weight. His lordship can kill +an ox with a blow from his fist, but I can throttle a bear to death. But +we cannot overcome each other, though we have often stood up +together--only in joke, only in sport, of course, your ladyship. It +would not be well if we encountered each other in our wrath--that would +be terrible." + +[Footnote 21: My lord, your husband.] + +All the time he spoke Juon was skilfully mending the torn saddle-girths +and the bridle; then he re-saddled the horse, which was still trembling +in every limb, wiped the bloody foam from its mouth, washed its sores +and encouraged the lady to remount. In a quarter of an hour, he said, +they would meet the road again, and in half an hour they would be at +Hidvar. + +Then the goatherd, who was well acquainted with all the meanderings of +the valley, took the horse's rein and conducted the lady to the mountain +pass, where the beaten track began again. There he kissed her hand and +parted from her. + +"I must now go back," said he, "for they are waiting for me." + +"Who?" + +"My goats and my wife." + +"Then you have a wife? Do you love her?" + +"Love her?" cried the herdsman proudly,--and then he added in a lower +voice: "She is as beautiful as your ladyship!--_Buna nopte, Domna_!"[22] + +[Footnote 22: Good night, my lady.] + +And without waiting for an answer, he plunged back into the forest, +disappearing by leaps and bounds. + +When Henrietta got home she said not a word to anyone about what had +taken place, though the condition of the horse and his harness sufficed +to show that an accident had happened. But she could scarce wait for the +morrow to come, bringing along with it Todor Ruban, from whom she meant +to find out everything relating to Juon Tare.[23] + +[Footnote 23: From the Roumanian _Taria_, strength, solidity.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE GEINA MAID-MARKET + + +"Would your ladyship believe,"--so Todor[24] Ruban began his story of +Juon the strong,--"sitting here as you do by the fireside, accustomed +from your birth to every elegant luxury, with a particular servant +always ready to fly obediently to accomplish each separate command, and +with different glasses and porcelain for each several course at +meals--would your ladyship believe, I ask, that there are people in this +world who know not what it is to have a roof above their heads when they +go to sleep, who would not recognize a bed or a dinner service if they +saw them, nay, who often are in want of bread--and yet, for all that, +are happy? + +[Footnote 24: Theodore.] + +"And yet such people live quite close to us. We need not think of the +savage inhabitants of Oceania,--we can see enough of them and to spare +in this very place. Your ladyship can hear from your balcony the +melancholy songs of their pastoral flutes, especially of an evening, +when the milch-goats are returning from the deep valleys. + +"The herdsman here never sleeps beneath a roof either summer or winter; +every spring he counts the goats of his master's herds and the half of +every increase belongs to him; nobody enquires how he lives there among +his herds in the lofty mountain-passes, how he defends himself against +hurricanes and snow-storms, yes, and against the wild beasts of the +forest, the bears and wolves--nobody troubles his head about all that. + +"Such a goatherd is that same Juon whom your ladyship has learnt to +know. Perhaps we shall hear something more about him some other time, +for his life has been very romantic; now, however, I will only tell you +of a single episode therein: + +"There once lived near here in the district of Vlaskutza, a rich +_pakular_[25] who had scraped together a lot of gold out of a mining +venture at Verespatak, and therefore went by the name of wealthy Misule. + +[Footnote 25: Roguish speculator.] + +"He had an only daughter, Mariora by name,--and has your ladyship any +idea of what Roumanian beauties are? A sculptor could not devise a +nobler model. So beautiful was she that her fame had spread through the +Hungarian plain as far as Arad, and whenever great folks from foreign +lands came to see Gyenstar and Brivadia they would make a long circuit +and come to Vlaskucza in order to rest at the house of old Misule, where +the finest prospect of all was a look into the eyes of Mariora. + +"This wonderously beautiful maiden loved the poor goatherd Juon, who +possessed nothing in the world but his sheepskin pelisse and his +alpenstock; him she loved and him alone. Wealthy old Misule would +naturally have nothing to say to such a match; he had in his eye an +influential friend of his, a gentleman and village elder in the county +of Fehervar, one Gligor Tobicza,--to him he meant to give his daughter. +Reports were spread that Juon was a wizard. It was Misule's wife who +fastened this suspicion upon him, because he had succeeded in bewitching +her daughter. She said among other things, that he understood the +language of the brute beasts, that he had often been seen speaking with +wolves and bears, and that when he spread out his shaggy sheepskin, he +sat down at one end of it and a bear at the other. There was this much +of truth in the tale, that once when he was tending his flocks Juon +heard a painful groaning in the hollow of a rock, and, venturing in, +perceived lying in one corner a she-bear who, mortally injured in some +distant hunt, had contrived to drag its lacerated body hither to die. +Beside the old she-bear lay a little suckling cub. The mother dying +before his very eyes, Juon had compassion on the desolate cub, took it +under his protection, and carried it to a milch-goat, who suckled it. +The little wild beast thrived upon the milk of the tame animal and, +softened by human fellowship, grew up much attached to its master. +Bears, I may tell your ladyship, are not bloodthirsty by nature. +Henceforth the bear went forth with the herdsman and the herds, helped +to drive the goats together of an evening, and enlivened the long +dreary days by turning somersaults--an art at which bears excel. At +night it slept by Juon's side and made itself cosey by burying its snout +in his bosom. When meal-time came, the bear sat down beside Juon, for he +knew that every second slice of cheese would be his. He also fetched +fire-wood to put under the pot in which the maize-pottage was boiling. +Then, too, he explored the woods in search of wild honey and brought +back his booty to share it with Juon. When it was very hot he carried +his pelisse after him, a pelt more or less made very little difference +to him. Juon had nobody to speak to but the bear, and if a man speaks +quite seriously to the beasts they get to understand him at last. +Moreover, in moments of ill temper the bear had learnt to recognize that +Juon's fists were no less vigorous than his own paws, so that he had no +temptation to be ungrateful. + +"This, then, was the man beloved by Mariora. + +"In our part of the country, my lady, there is an original popular +custom, the maiden-market. + +"In the highlands of Bihar stands the rocky bluff of Geina, which grows +green, like every other Transylvanian height, as soon as it is cleansed +from snow. There I first met Juon, many years ago. He stood there on the +mountain summit the live-long day, blowing on his alpenstock, while the +bear was plucking strawberries in the valley below and guarding the +goats, not from running away, but from other wild beasts. The prospect +from this spot is really sublime. In one direction you can see the +mountain-chain of Vulcani, in the other the environs of Klausenberg and +the Gyalian Alps. But westwards stretches the great Hungarian plain, +whose misty expanse loses itself against the horizon. + +"On a certain day of the year things are very lively at Geina. In the +evening of the first Sunday after St. John Baptist's day the +ginger-bread-bakers come thither from Rezbanya and Topanfalu with their +horses dragging loads of honey-cakes, and barrels full of meal and +brandy, and pitch their tents in the forest-clearing. On that Sunday the +highlands are full of merry folks, and the maiden-market is held there. + +"From near and far repair thither the mothers and their marriageable +daughters, all tricked out with their dowries ready in the shape of +strings of gold and silver coins round their necks, with bright +variegated garments at their horses' sides, and stuffed pillows and +painted pitchers on the saddles in front of them. All these things they +unpack and arrange in rows in front of the tents, just as at an ordinary +fair; and then the purchasers come along, jaunty, connubially-inclined +young fellows, who inspect the dowries, engage the wenches in +conversation, and chaffer and haggle and go away again if they cannot +come to terms. Many of the girls are kept back, others are given up to +the first bidder, and when once a couple is mated they are escorted to +the tune of lively flutes and bagpipes to the first Kalugye,[26] or +pastor, who sanctifies the union according to the religion of the +spouses. + +[Footnote 26: Or rather, _Calugaru_, monk, not pastor.] + +"Your ladyship laughs at this custom, yet it is capable of a very +natural explanation. The inhabitants of these Alpine regions live +necessarily far away from one another--how else could they tend their +herds?--even the nearest neighbours being a good stiff half hour's walk +apart. So the young girls stay at home, and the young fellows only see +them once a year--at the maiden-market of Geina. + +"Now, of course such a famous beauty as Mariora had no need to go all +the way to the Geina fair in search of a husband, especially as one had +already been chosen for her who brought with him all the pride of +riches. But her father Misule would not on any account have neglected +the opportunity of exhibiting his daughter, during the pilgrimage to +Geina, as the most lovely girl of the district; and his wife could not +have lived unless she had hung out Mariora's gold-embroidered shift in +front of the tent and haughtily sent at least ten suitors about their +business. + +"Gligor Tobicza, coming all the way from Rezpatak, appeared at the fair +at the same time, with twelve high-backed horses and six Gipsy +musicians, ribbons and coloured kerchiefs fluttering from every horse +and every cap. The comrades drank together and then had a little rumpus +also. Tobicza broke the heads of a few of the more uproarious spirits, +and then peace was restored again, and the general good humour was +higher than ever--only the bride remained sad. + +"Suddenly it occurred to Tobicza that it would be nice to get a kiss +from Mariora. But the girl repulsed him: 'I am not your wife yet,' she +cried. + +"'Yet if Juon were to ask for you, I suppose you would not say no?' + +"The girl honestly confessed that she would not. + +"At this Tobicza was mad with rage. 'Let him come hither then, if he +loves you,' cried he, 'let him tear you away from me if he be the better +man. I will strike him dead with this--see!' And drawing a long +goat-skin bag out of his girdle, the bottom of which was choke full of +ducats, and whirling it round his head like a morning-star[27] he turned +forestwards and roared: 'Come hither, tattered Juon, thou ragged dog! +'Tis now maiden-market day if you want to buy Mariora! Come forth thou +cowardly hound and let me beat you to death! I'll fell you to the earth +with my ducats. I'll break your head with my gold money.' And the whole +crowd laughed at and loudly applauded these witticisms. + +[Footnote 27: A spiked club.] + +"But just as he was raging most furiously, a great roaring suddenly +arose from the direction of the forest,--whereupon the crowd rushed away +from their tents to their horses, overturning barrels and trunks as they +went, the women screaming and the men cursing, and all with one voice +exclaiming: 'the bear is coming!' 'Juon is coming with his bear!' + +"That was enough for every one. Only the most determined sportsmen care +about tackling a bear in the open, for even when mortally wounded the +beast is quite capable of taking his revenge. In an instant every soul +rushed headlong from the summit of Geina into the roads below, leaving +behind bride, dowry and drinking booth; so that when the bear and Juon +leaped out of the juniper bushes there was nobody left on Geina. Nobody, +that is, but Mariora, who did not fly with the fugitives, but hid +herself in the tent. + +"Tobicza had headed the race, but as his legs were heavy with the mead +he had drunk, he threw away his big bag of gold to lighten his limbs and +prevent Juon from overtaking him. But Juon, snatching it up, whirled it +round like a sling and threw it with all his might after his rival, +exclaiming: 'There's your money, big voice! take it and buy a wife with +it. You are nothing at all without it. But I am still Juon, though I +have only an axe in my hands.' + +"Then he went up to Mariora, kissed and embraced her, and asked her if +she would be his bride and go away and live with him in the forest. And +when she said: 'Yes,' he kissed her again and took her with him into the +free forest without once looking back at the dowry lying abandoned there +with all its gold and glitter. In his eyes only Mariora was of gold, +nothing else. + +"The bear meanwhile made some little havoc in a mild sort of way, among +the honey-cakes, but he did no other damage. + +"And I can assure your ladyship that this wife who has nothing in the +world but her husband, but that husband all her own--is even now very +happy." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE BLACK JEWELRY + + +It was during this time that Henrietta cherished the bizarre illusion +that it was her vocation to cultivate the acquaintance of the honest but +homely peasantry living around, in whose lowly circles a widowed +protestant pastor's wife and a worn-out old miner were the principal +personages. Her husband laughed good-humouredly at her vagaries, as he +called them: "She is only a child," he cried, "let her play and cut out +dolls' clothes for those who want them! When she has grown up, she will +very soon look out for other diversions." "My dear child," he would +sometimes say to her, "do exactly as you like. I only beg of you one +thing: whenever you are tired of these innocent, well-meaning illusions +and return to rough, prosaic, brutal reality; whenever you feel yourself +deceived or wounded by those whom you may have implicitly trusted, pray +recollect that you have a natural protector, a real friend--your +husband!" + +Thus it was that Hatszegi spoke to his child-wife on the rare occasions +when they met together. + +It was only rarely, for they saw nothing of each other for the greater +part of the day. During the so-called honey-moon the husband and wife +had scarcely spent half an hour a day in each other's company. + +On one occasion the pastor went to Deva, and when he returned he had a +lot to tell her ladyship of a fine young fellow, Szilard by name, who +held the office of magistrate at Lippa. His other name he had forgotten, +but Henrietta easily guessed it. Mr. Szilard had been very polite to +him, the parson added, and had joyfully listened to all he had to tell +him about Hidvar and its mistress; but when the priest had pressed him +to pay a visit to that part of the country to see and admire its rare +natural beauties, the young man had replied: "Anywhere in the world but +there." What possible objection could he have against the district? + +This piece of news gave Henrietta plenty to think about for days and +nights together. So Szilard had not remained at Pest; he had followed +her to the utmost confines of the realm; they were now quite close to +each other and yet he would not see her. He seeks her out and avoids her +at the same time. What a romantic dreamer! + +And yet there was nothing romantic in it after all. Szilard had come to +Arad county on a visit to Mr. Sipos's relations; he had been elected a +magistrate there, and he did not approach Hidvar because he had no +desire to run after a former sweetheart who was now another man's wife. +As for Henrietta she had long ago earned from her husband's friends the +name of the "little nun," the "little eremite" because nothing could +entice her from her seclusion. If only they had known her thoughts! + +One day, however, she surprised her husband by expressing a wish to go +to the Charity Ball at a neighbouring mining town; it was for raising +funds to build up again a burnt-down village. + +Hatszegi, always courteous, bowed and consented. + +Henrietta had made up her mind to go as simply dressed as possible. She +wanted to be modest and humble, as it befitted a woman who, rich +herself, envied everyone who was poor. While she was still in the midst +of her preparations, she received through the post (Margari went to the +nearest post-office once a week) a little sealed packet which, to judge +from the postmark, must have been posted at Lippa. Before breaking it +open, she locked herself in her room, like one about to commit a capital +offence, and three times examined the seals which guarded it before she +ventured to open it. The seal bore the impress not of a crest or an +initial letter as usual, but of a single star. There could be no doubt +whatever now as to who the sender was. + +Then, very cautiously, she broke the seals and opened with a beating +heart the lid of the box. Inside was a little morocco casket. + +With a tremulous hand she opened it, and found inside it a pair of +earrings and a brooch. Both earrings and brooch were of oxydized silver, +dark blue in colour passing insensibly into black. The pendants of the +earrings were in the shape of little fishes hanging upon little hooks +and with mobile little scales, which at the slightest movement made them +seem alive. Each of them had a pair of very tiny but very brilliant +diamond eyes. The brooch on the other hand represented a butterfly, also +with two sparkling diamond eyes; one of them was blue, a rare colour for +a diamond. + +Henrietta was indeed pleasantly surprised. + +There was not a line of writing along with them, but was there any +necessity for it? How simple, how nice it all was! How well he must know +her taste who had selected it! Her husband could never have hit upon +such an idea. + +What should she say to her husband if he should notice them? But why +should she show them to anybody? She would not even put them on till the +last moment, just before she started on her journey. All day long she +was as happy as a child who is going to its first party; even in her +husband's presence she could not control her delight. + +But Hatszegi never enquired why she was so joyous. On the day before the +entertainment he went with his wife to the town in question, where he +owned, not the castle, it is true, but a comfortable mansion of +considerable extent, whose first floor was rented by a mining engineer +and his family. These worthy people felt highly honoured at receiving +the baron and his lady beneath their roof. They gave their distinguished +guests their best rooms which looked out upon the street, and retired +themselves to the back of the house. The mining engineer had a pretty +young wife, with whom Henrietta immediately made friends. Ladies love +the close companionship of their own sex best whenever something +entirely different is occupying their thoughts. + +On the morning of the great day the big-wigs of the little town hastened +to pay their respects to the great lady who had arrived in their midst, +and whose reputation for benevolence had spread far and wide. Amongst +them was an aged woman whose hands and head were continually shaking, +and who almost collapsed with terror every time anybody accosted her +unexpectedly. She was the widow of a Unitarian pastor, well to do, +people said, and a large mining proprietor. Her nervous affection was +due to a painful episode in her life. One night Fatia Negra and his band +had broken into her house and played havoc there, and ever since she had +been tremulous and easily terror-stricken. The old woman was delighted +to see Henrietta, whom she called the guardian angel of the county, and +she would not be content till she had seized Henrietta's little hands in +her own trembling ones and raised them painfully to her lips. + +At last the joyous evening arrived. Henrietta put on a very simple +ball-dress, compared with which the dress of the mining engineer's wife +was really luxurious. The black ornaments well became her attire, but +the engineer's wife was astounded at the simplicity of the great lady's +costume. She had now only one anxious moment to go through, the moment +when her husband first saw the new ornaments. But this moment sped away +without any catastrophe, although with much of heart throbbing. Hatszegi +observed the jewels in the ears and round the neck of his bride and paid +her the compliment of saying that they contrasted admirably with the +snowy whiteness of her alabaster neck. + +So no ill came of it after all. + +When the time came, the baron's carriage drove up to the door and the +ladies entered it. The baron himself was to come afterwards with the +mining engineer when the empty carriage returned. In the meantime the +baroness was entrusted to the care of the mining engineer's wife, who +was one of the notabilities of the little town. + +The ball was to take place in the large room of the chief inn of the +place, and the baroness, on entering it, was surrounded by a crowd of +admirers. The young wife felt that she was being made much of. She felt +in the midst of all this homage and devotion as if she had been lifted +up to Heaven, and her heart was full of gratitude. If he be here (and he +_must_ be here somewhere, hiding in the crowd, no doubt, in order not to +excite attention) then he will be able to see from his hiding-place how +pale the face of his old love is from sorrow--and yet how radiant +because of the honour now shown to her. + +But Szilard did not see her face at that moment. He was far away, never +dreaming that anybody still thought of him. A surprise of quite another +sort awaited Henrietta. + +After she had twice walked round the room--there was a pause just then +between two dances--she perceived sitting on a corner seat the old lady +already alluded to, whose head and hands were always shaking so, and +hastened up to her as to an old acquaintance. + +The old pastor's wife, perceiving Henrietta, rose at first from her seat +in order to meet her half way, but the next moment she fell back +horror-stricken, at the same time stretching out both hands in front of +her with widely-outspread fingers as if to ward her off. Henrietta, +unable to explain this odd gesture, remained rooted to the spot with +astonishment. + +The old lady, still continuing to stretch out her trembling hands, now +advanced towards her with tottering footsteps indeed, yet with flaming +eyes. Everyone regarded the two women with amazement. There was a dead +silence, and in the midst of this astonishment, in the midst of this +silence, the old woman shrieked with a voice full of horror that turned +everybody's blood cold: "Madame!--those jewels--on your neck--that black +butterfly--'tis the very same--which on that fearful night--that +accursed Fatia Negra--tore from my neck--those black earrings which he +tore from my ears--one eye of the butterfly is a blue diamond!" + +Henrietta felt as if the floor were slipping away from beneath her feet. +She was wearing stolen jewels on her neck, and their former owner had +recognized them! + +She heard a hissing and a murmuring all around her. She gazed about her, +possibly for a protector, and she perceived that she was standing alone +in the midst of the room and that everyone recoiled from her, even her +companion, and all eyes were fixed upon her. She had a feeling of being +branded with red-hot irons as she stood there, dishonoured and +unprotected in the midst of so many strangers, and over against her a +terrible accuser who had the horrible right to ask her: "Madame, where +did you get those stolen jewels?"--and she had nought to say to such a +question. + +At that moment a manly voice, which she at once recognized, rang out +close beside her. + +"Madame, give me your arm!--I bought those jewels for you at Paris. I +will be responsible for them." + +It was her husband. And with that, he strode up to his wife, seized her +hand and, casting a glance at the surrounding throng, cried in a +threatening voice to those closest to him: "Whoever dares to cast a +disrespectful glance upon my wife, will have to reckon with me. Make +room there!" + +Henrietta saw how the crowd made way, how everyone stepped aside at +this word of command; she saw even the shaking widow sit down somewhere; +but then everything began to grow black before her eyes and she sank +swooning into the arms of the man whom, hitherto, she had hated so much, +and who in this most awful moment had been her sole deliverer! When she +came to again, she found herself in the carriage. Her husband had not +stayed a single instant longer in that town, but was conveying her, +though it was now night time, straight to Hidvar. + +It is not very advisable to travel in pitch-black darkness along +mountain roads. Henrietta could gather from the slow jolting of the +coach that they were proceeding very cautiously. She opened the window +and peeped out. She then saw her husband walking along by the side of +the coach with a lantern in his hand picking his way. The coachman was +sitting on the box and the heyduke was close to the carriage in order to +steady it over the more difficult places. + +A voice within her reproached her for hating this man so long--how could +she have done it? He had always been delicacy itself towards her, he had +never demanded anything of her, and no doubt the reason why he had held +back from his young wife for a time was because he would not importune +her with his presence--her who had now learnt to recognize him as her +sole protector! + +After a vast amount of jolting and tumbling about, they got at last on +to a regular road again. Here the baron halted the coach and looked +inside it. When he saw that Henrietta was awake, he asked her if she +wanted anything, and whether she would allow him to sit down beside her. + +Henrietta had resolved to tell her husband everything at the very first +question, everything, even to her most secret enthusiasms; nay, even +that which God alone could read in her heart. But Hatszegi gave her no +opportunity of doing so. + +"My dear Henrietta," said he, "don't imagine for a moment that I shall +trouble my head as to how you came into possession of that mysterious +jewelry, or why you should have chosen them out of all your bijous to +wear on this particular evening. I have charged myself with all the +responsibility in the matter. I could not think of anything more +appropriate to say at the moment. Only one thing I beg of you: tell me +no lies. Act as if you had received the jewelry from me. I will so +arrange the matter that nothing more will be heard about it. Such things +may happen to anybody. The only awkwardness about the business is that +the things were recognized in such a public place, and that the former +possessor of the ornaments is so extremely nervous. Don't be afraid! +Give me your hand! Why do you tremble so? I'll guarantee that there +shall be no unpleasant consequences for you. In case, however, you did +not receive this jewelry from your dear grandfather, I ought, I think, +to write to the good old man and put his mind at ease by letting him +know that I gave it you, as goodness only knows what Rumour may whisper +in his ear." + +Could any man have asked his wife for a confession more tenderly? + +"Shall I write to him?" + +"Yes, write," said Henrietta, and with that she fell upon her husband's +bosom and began to sob bitterly--and a husband's breast is no bad place +for a wife's flowing tears. + +Henrietta was forced to confess to herself that her husband, at least so +far as she was concerned, was a man of noble and tender sentiments. From +henceforth she began to regard him through a glass of quite another +colour; she began to believe that the faults she had noticed in him were +only the usual bad habits of his sex, and began to discover all sorts of +hidden good qualities in him. She began to love her husband. + +When early next morning the carriage stood in the courtyard of Hidvar. +Henrietta awoke in her husband's arms: there she had been sleeping for a +long time. When she looked round and encountered Hatszegi's bright manly +glances it almost seemed to her as if the dreadful scene of the night +before was a mere dream, from which it was a joy to awake. When her +husband kissed her hand before departing for his own room, Henrietta +pressed _his_ hand in return and gave him a grateful smile. + +But what then was the key to this horrible mystery? Who could have hit +upon the idea of sending this jewelry? There was not a gleam of light to +go by. An enigma closed the way to every elucidation, and this enigma +was--Fatia Negra. How did the jewelry get out of his hands into +Henrietta's? What was the motive for such a transfer? And who was the +man himself? This thought gave Henrietta no rest. + +Why could they not seize this famous robber? First of all, she kept on +asking her husband about it, and he replied that the whole story about +Fatia Negra was only a Wallachian fable. It was true that robberies were +committed by men who regularly wore black masks, but it was never one +and the same man who was guilty of these misdeeds. Nevertheless the name +had won a sort of nimbus of notoriety among the common people, many had +made use of it as well as of the mask attaching to it, and though it was +an undeniable fact that Fatia Negra had been caught and hanged more than +once, yet he still continued to live and go about. The popular mythology +had immortalized him. + +The parson, however, had quite a different opinion of the matter; he +seemed to be more particularly informed. Although he opined Fatia Negra +wandered through every corner of the kingdom, his abiding nest was in +this district; he had a sweetheart here to whom he appeared +periodically. + +"Why don't they seize him then?" asked Henrietta. + +"Because a part of the common folks holds with him, and the other part +thinks he is in league with the devil." + +"I would set a high price on his head and give it to whomsoever caught +him." + +"Oh, my lady, the various counties have done that scores of times, and +now and then a young fellow braver than the rest has tried to catch him; +but they have all of them ended by losing their own heads instead of +getting his." + +"Never mind, I will not be satisfied till that man is in my power. Ah, +the robber-chieftain little imagines what an enemy he has raised up +against him in me, when he put this terrible riddle into my heart. And +it is a riddle I mean to solve, too." + +The priest shook his head as if he would have said: "Strong men have +given up the task, what can a weak woman do?" + +Henrietta told her husband not a word of all this, and the chatter about +the black jewelry gradually died a natural death. Hatszegi sent back her +property to the widow and told her where she could find the vendor--in +Paris. We can readily imagine that she did not go all the way to Paris +to make enquiries, being quite content with getting back her stolen +property. + +This incident made such an impression on Henrietta that she avoided all +those circles in which she had been so ruthlessly exposed to insult. A +blush of shame and anger suffused her face whenever she thought of it. +She also abandoned all her work of benevolence among the people. She +began to think that her husband was right after all when he said, as he +did continually: "Let the gentry stick to the gentry, and the poor to +the poor!" In fact she was now inclined to think him right in +everything; the easiest thing a wife can do, she said to herself, is to +trust her husband implicitly. Henceforth Henrietta adopted another mode +of life; her motto now was: "Whatever my husband chooses, for at home he +is my lord!" + +So the halls of Hidvar overflowed with guests again, and balls, +_soirees_, and picnics followed each other in quick succession. The +young wife learnt to know the gentry and magnates of Transylvania face +to face, and it was no wonder if she quickly accommodated herself to her +new surroundings and began to be reconciled to her fate. She felt like +one who, after seeing a landscape by moonlight and thinking it highly +crude, sees it again by the light of day and finds it quite different. + +And now the autumn came, the season when men prepare and congregate +together for dangerous hunting expeditions. Bears and boars are now the +only topics. For a week beforehand the women cannot get a word out of +the gentlemen, they herd together in the armoury and talk of nothing but +guns and dogs, firing each other by recounting their past exploits, +making bets, and playing at cards. The ladies at such times are shelved +altogether. + +During the actual hunting season the men are not to be seen for whole +weeks at a time, but off they go to the woods and stalk or lurk for +their prey in the midst of water and ice, and the ladies think it +nothing extraordinary if their husbands or lovers, as the case may be, +come back, or are carried back, drenched with rain, invisible for mud, +with their garments torn to shreds and their limbs mangled; for after +all it is the only manly diversion--the only diversion really fit for a +gentleman. + +When the bear-hunting began, that heroic cripple, Squire Gerzson, also +appeared with Count Kengyelesy and numerous other familiar faces from +distant counties, who had all met together on the day after Henrietta's +wedding, and who regularly made Hidvar their autumn trysting-place. + +Count Kengyelesy did not bring his wife with him: the little rogue on +her husband's departure declared that she was ill and remained +behind--_verbum sap_! + +Henrietta was very much occupied by the duties of hospitality. She took +a pride in anticipating the wants of all her guests, and at the evening +_soirees_ she played the part of hostess with becoming _aplomb_. + +One day the gentlemen with their beaters, rangers, dogs, and carts, had +all gone off to the forest as usual, and Henrietta was left alone in the +castle with Clementina, Margari, and the domestics. As for Margari, he +would not have gone to the woods for all the bears in the world. + +Clementina, solemnly cackling gossip as usual, imparted to Henrietta +that the night before, when the gentlemen played at cards, the luck had +run dead against Hatszegi: Count Kengyelesy had won back from him the +whole of the Kengyelesy estate. "Thank God!" sighed Henrietta at this +glad intelligence. This was one of the things that had weighed down her +heart like a nightmare, one of the partition-walls, so to speak, which +had hitherto separated her from her husband. This, at any rate, had now +disappeared. + +Clementina went on to say that my lord baron had not cared a straw for +this loss; nay, he had laughed and said that it only showed how lucky he +was in love. Henrietta applied the saying to herself and began to be +quite proud of it. + +The count, however, pursued Clementina, had said that he durst not +rejoice in his winnings or that accursed Fatia Negra might rob him of +them again on the highroad as he had done once before. + +A cold shudder ran through Henrietta's limbs at that accursed name. That +Fatia Negra! She had already begun to forget him. And thus old memories +began to revive, and at last her excited imagination began to fancy that +there was some sort of connecting link between Szilard and Fatia Negra, +between the dearest and the most terrible of beings! What if her +rejected lover had avenged himself by publicly shaming her! It was with +such anxieties as these that the young wife went to sleep in her lonely +chamber. + +Early next day she received a visit from the priest. + +All the time the army of guests was going in and out of the castle +gates, he never came near the place, but now he hastened to exchange a +few words with the lady of the house. And Henrietta was very glad that +he had come. + +"I bring you news of Fatia Negra and of other things also," said the +priest, as soon as he was alone with the lady. + +Henrietta was instantly all attention. + +"Yesterday the famous butterwoman who dwells at Dupe Piatra came to open +her soul to me in a very difficult matter. This woman, as the whole +country-side knows, is a famous quack and a preparer of such specifics +as it is unlawful for one man to give to another. Formerly she was +visited by multitudes of people suffering from every sort of +ill--especially girls. More than once she has paid dearly for her +quackery, for the county authorities apprehended her for poisoning, and +clapped her into jail for some years. Since then she has grown more +cautious and does not care about seeing everyone in her lonely little +forest hut, especially since I impressed upon her severely what a heavy +load she was burdening her conscience with by turning the secret healing +forces which Nature had implanted in the herbs of the field, to the +destruction of ignorant humanity. Yesterday, then, this woman came to +me (and it is a very rare thing to see her among men) and informed me +that last night Fatia Negra had visited her." + +Henrietta shuddered all over. So he was as near as that! + +"The medicine-woman said that the mask requested her to prepare poison +for him that would be sure to kill. She said she would not as she had no +wish to fall again into the hands of the county authorities. He promised +her money, he showed her a lot of ducats. She told him it wouldn't do. +Then he drew forth a pistol, pressed the barrel to her temples, and +threatened instantly to blow her brains out if she did not comply with +his request. 'Very well,' said she, 'fire away: I would rather be shot +than hanged.' Perceiving he could do nothing with her by threats, he +fell to entreating, and said it was not a man he wanted to poison but a +wild beast. 'What sort of a beast do you want to kill?' she asked him. +'That is no business of yours,' said he. 'But it is my business,' she +replied, 'for the poison that a wolf or a savage dog will eat, a bear +will not even sniff at, and what makes one beast ill, on that will +another beast thrive.' 'Then you must know that it is a bear.'--'Swear +that you do not want the venom for a human being.' Fatia Negra swore +with all sorts of subterranean oaths that it was really for a bear that +he wanted the poison. The medicine-woman thereupon prepared for him a +mortal concoction capable of killing the most vigorous beast in the +world; then she kneaded honey-cakes, a delicacy to which bears are very +partial as everyone knows, and mixed it well into them. Fatia Negra gave +her ten ducats for the poison, but the old woman's conscience would not +allow her to rest, and the next day she brought the ducats to me for the +church's needs, as she put it,--and would I help her to relieve her soul +of the heavy burden which oppressed it. And what now if Fatia Negra, +contrary to his oath, were to make use of this poison against his +fellow-men?" + +"That would be horrible," said Henrietta apprehensively. + +"I don't think he will," said the priest; "the poison is really meant +for a beast." + +"I suppose he wants to kill some animal who is a domestic guardian, in +order that he may rob a rich man's house." + +"No. He wants to kill a faithful animal in order that he may steal a +poor man's only treasure--his wife." + +"How so?" + +"Listen, my lady, and I will tell you. After this had happened, Juon +Tare's wife, Mariora, came to me at an unusual hour. Generally she only +comes on a Sunday for prayers. What she said to me was not so much a +confession made to a priest as a confidence reposed in a friend; I am +therefore not committing sacrilege by retailing it to another person. +That young woman is exposed to temptation." + +"What! in the midst of the forest?" + +"Yes, in the midst of the forest, where, for weeks at a stretch, the +herdsman hears no other human voice than his own thrown back to him by +the echoes. The seducer in this case is Fatia Negra." + +"Then he must dwell hard by." + +"None knows his abiding dwelling, but his temporary resting places among +the high Alps are these herdsmen's lonely huts. For this reason he lives +in good fellowship with the mountain goatherds, does them no harm, +brings presents for them and their wives, pays handsomely for every bit +of bread, and thus makes it pretty sure that they will never betray him. +The place where Juon Tare's wife dwells is called the ice valley. They +call it so because it is here that the first ice of the winter appears; +as early as mid-September the stream is fringed with it. There, by the +side of the stream, stands a little wooden hut, one of whose walls +reposes on the ascending rock behind it. Here dwells the fair Mariora +all alone. And yet I am wrong to say alone, for three of them dwell +together there--herself, a little one-year-old child, and a tame bear. +Her husband she sometimes does not see for a week at a time, especially +in the autumn and winter when the freshly fallen snow has obliterated +the pastures. At such times the goatherd encamps on the summit of the +mountains and nourishes his kids by felling with his axe a growing +beech-tree, on which the little creatures fall and gnaw off the juicy +buds. Whenever a snowstorm overtakes him, the herdsman drives the goats +into a glen, and lest the snow should bury them all by the morning while +they sleep, he drives them continually up and down, thus making them +trample down the falling flakes. Meanwhile Mariora sits at home and +spins the wool from which she makes her own and her husband's clothes, +or she pounds maize into meal in a stone mortar for household needs, +playing at intervals with her child." + +"And an evil hand would destroy their simple joys!" + +"Hitherto the goatherd and his wife feared nothing. It is good to be in +those solitudes. God dwells very near to them there. Then, too, Juon +Tare is a strong man; no evil beast can harm him. Nor has he any fear of +robbers. What can they deprive him of? Mariora is in a good place out of +the reach of snow-storms. If a savage beast or a vagabond were to try to +harm her, there is Ursu, the bear, with the terrible jaws,--he would +tear them to pieces. So your ladyship will perceive that Juon Tare's +castle is provided with a very strong guardian against thieves and wild +beasts--but who can guard it against the wily and the insinuating? Fatia +Negra is a guest of longstanding at the hut in the ice valley, and never +goes thither empty handed. He brought the woman pearls and coral which +she innocently hung about her person. How was she to know whether such +trinkets were worth thousands or whether they could be bought in a +pedler's booth for a few pence? She fancies it is but the thank-offering +of a grateful guest. But now her eyes have been opened to the fact that +these gifts _are_ costly, very costly,--for the Black Mask demanded a +price for them which all the treasures in the world could not outweigh, +a price, the bare mention of which caused her to shut the door in his +face. And when he, unable to obtain his desire by fair words, attempted +to gain his object by force, a single cry for help from the woman caused +Fatia Negra to feel Ursu's paws on his shoulders and so he knows that +this lonely woman is right well defended. Only at Mariora's command did +the bear release Black Mask who, attacked from behind, was unable to +defend himself. Burning with rage, he quitted the hut and said, +meaningly to the woman: 'You shall be mine nevertheless!' Mariora came +to me next day, full of despair, telling me the whole story, and asking +me whether she ought to tell her husband. I advised her to keep the +secret in her own bosom and to close her door against Fatia Negra. Oh, I +know the fellow! It is good to guard against him but it is not advisable +to scratch him. He is no ordinary man. And now putting together all this +with the confession of the Dupe Piatra milk-woman, I have a strong +suspicion that Fatia Negra wants to poison the herdsman's bear." + +"I will not allow it," interrupted the baroness emphatically. + +"We shall scarcely be able to prevent it, my lady, for how can we warn +the dwellers in the mountain hut of their danger? It is of no use +sending a letter for they cannot read. We cannot entrust the secret to +anyone, for no living soul in these parts would dare to convey any +message to the disadvantage of the mysterious Fatia Negra. I myself dare +not do it. I too am afraid of him. I am sure that if he found it out, +and he is sure to do so, my days would be numbered." + +"Yet I know someone who will take this message to the hut of Juon Tare." + +"Not your ladyship, I hope?" + +"No. Even if I knew my way among these mountains I would not venture to +expose myself to the perils of such a journey after my last experience; +since then I have grown timid and nervous. But I know of one who will +hasten to take it, who will not be afraid, and who will show no mercy to +him before whom everyone else trembles." + +The priest did not guess to whom Henrietta alluded, yet he himself had +once told her ladyship that Black Mask had a sweetheart to whom he had +been married, not before a priest indeed, but in the sight of Heaven, +and that this woman was very jealous and very brave. "But I beg of your +ladyship," the priest had said on that occasion, "to leave my name out +of the transaction if you repeat this secret, for otherwise, people will +hear one fine morning that the worthy pastor of Hidvar has been found in +his room with a split skull." + +Scarcely had the priest quitted the castle than Henrietta had the horses +put to the carriage, took Clementina with her in order to avoid all +suspicion, and drove to Toekefalu. There, in front of the house of rich +old Onucz she stopped and descended. The Wallachian Nabob was much +pleased to have the honour of entertaining so distinguished a guest, and +immediately spread his table and loaded it with preserves, honey, and +fresh cheese. Clementina, who had a good appetite, remained with their +host and made ready to talk scandal of her mistress and insinuate that +the baroness wanted to get some money without her husband's knowledge, +whilst Henrietta locked herself up with Anicza in the latter's bedroom +and talked with her concerning things which had no relationship whatever +with money. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TWO TALES, OF WHICH ONLY ONE IS TRUE + + +After a couple of days the whole hunting party returned from the +mountains. This was much sooner than they had determined, and the cause +was a very serious accident which had befallen Baron Hatszegi. They +brought him home in an ambulance car to Henrietta's great consternation. +The baroness, sitting by the bedside, heard from the doctor that her +husband's wounds were serious, but that his life was not in danger, and +that he might even be allowed to smoke a cigar if he liked. Then Mr. +Gerzson related how it had happened: "Only imagine, your ladyship! This +irrepressible friend of ours, not content with pursuing game all day +through the thickets, learns, late in the evening, that a gigantic old +bear was trotting towards the ice valley, and, without saying a word to +anybody, must needs leave the company and set off alone, late at night, +on the track, with only a double-barrelled musket and not so much as a +dog to keep him company. The bear enticed Leonard further and further. +At last down he squats before him in the bright moonlight and begins +licking his paws; then suddenly quits the path and disappears. Leonard +thought at first that the bear had returned within the deadly circle +drawn for him by our beaters, till, all at once, on reaching a steep +slope covered with reeds, he again heard a growling and perceived the +savage beast trying to scale the slope. The place was too steep for a +man to climb, but a bear with the help of his long strong claws can +scale it like a fly climbing up a wall. Leonard soon saw that he would +be unable to get a close shot at the bear, so he resolved to fire down +from where he was at random. But the experienced old brute, guessing +this good idea, instantly executed one of those surprising feats which +only fall within the observation of veteran hunters. While Leonard was +taking aim, the bear rolled rapidly down the steep incline by means of a +series of clever somersaults and rushed upon Leonard with a sort of +swift shamble. And a cursed bad manoeuvre it is, I can tell you. The +acrobatic beast, whether a man hits it or not inevitably bears down the +hunter by his sheer weight, and as a man's bones are more brittle than a +beast's, and he has no tough pelt to cover him withal, he will be +infallibly crushed to pulp,--while the bear takes the whole thing as a +mere joke and ambles on further. But the whole affair did not last half +as long as I take to tell it. Leonard had just time enough to fling +himself on the ground before the first rush came. Then he felt a heavy +body fall prone upon him and then they began to roll over and over in +company among all sorts of stones and bushes, till a benevolent rock +interrupted their rapid descent. Fortunately the bear was underneath and +lay stunned at full length upon the ground. Our friend Leonard naturally +did not wait for his travelling companions to pick him up. He had lost +his musket and it was a good job that his hunting-knife had snapped off +close at the hilt instead of running into his body; then, too, his knees +and elbows were badly crushed, yet he had sufficient strength and +presence of mind to drag himself back to our hunting box, and his story +was a very pleasant surprise for us, I can tell you. At first, indeed, +we were much alarmed, and fancied that every bone in his body was out of +joint, but now we can look on it merely as soldiers' luck. To-morrow +he'll be up no doubt, and the day after to-morrow we shall all be +dancing." + +Henrietta had never removed her eyes from her husband's face during this +narration, and it was plain from his looks that he was not proud of his +adventure and did not want it talked about. "Why do you frighten my wife +to death?" he said. "It is a mere trifle. Let me remain for a whole +night in cold wet wraps, and to-morrow I shall be all right. And now, +enough of the stupid business. And will you please, Henrietta, look +after my guests while I lie here in swaddling bands? All I want is a +couple of days of rest and then I shall be on my legs again." + +Towards midnight Henrietta disappeared from among her guests and went to +enquire after Leonard; but she found his chamber door locked, and +received no answer to her gentle enquiries, from which she gathered that +Leonard was still dozing. She did not want to disturb him, and as her +husband's guests, judging by the noise they made, had evidently begun to +amuse themselves in real earnest after her departure, she did not return +to them, but hastened to her own chamber. + +How amazed was she to find Anicza there closeted with Clementina! + +The Roumanian girl had been awaiting Henrietta for some time, and +Clementina thought it quite natural to conduct her into her mistress's +sleeping-room, imagining that there was some monetary transaction +between them, of which the baron and the domestics need know nothing. In +order that she might not be bored by waiting, Clementina entertained her +for a whole hour with a hair-raising account of the hunting accident, +with which the whole castle was full. Anicza let the other talk on +without so much as a hint that she had a still more hair-raising and +terrific tale to tell of the night just past than ever Miss Clementina +had. + +As soon as Henrietta perceived Anicza, she politely requested Clementina +to be so good as to leave them to themselves, a request which Clementina +very naturally regarded as incomprehensible; and, of course, the instant +she had crossed the threshold, she diligently took up her position +before the keyhole. She was, however, furious to discover that +Henrietta proceeded, more prudently than speakers on the stage who +regularly allow themselves to be overheard by eaves-droppers, for she +drew together the heavy damask curtains of the alcove and retired behind +them with Anicza, so that neither prying eyes nor listening ears could +find anything there to satisfy their inquisitiveness. + +"It almost succeeded!" said the Roumanian girl impatiently, beginning +her story at the end instead of at the beginning. + +"Only almost?" repeated the dissatisfied Henrietta. + +"So far the game is neither over nor lost." + +"Did Fatia Negra appear at the hut in the ice valley?" + +"Pardon, my lady, but please never mention that name before me, for on +hearing it everything I look upon grows red, and every limb of my body +begins to tremble. You see, my hands are trembling now. Let us speak of +him in future as the Unknown; so far as I am concerned he shall +henceforth be the Unknown for ever more." + +"Then you met him there?" + +"Suffer me, my lady, to rally my scattered wits a bit. Oh! what a +horrible night this has been! When I look back upon it, I feel giddy. +But anger and despair sustain me. Oh! what have I not sacrificed for +that man, for that devil, and oh! how I have been betrayed! But why +should I worry your ladyship with my misery! Listen to what happened. +When your ladyship left me the other night, I immediately saddled my +horse and set off for the ice valley. The way thither is very bad, +dangerous in fact, but fortunately the moon was high and bright and made +it easier for me to find the path. The Pole star was already sinking +when I reached the bottom of the valley, and I could see from afar that +there was a light still burning in the goatherd's little hut. The night +owls soon drove it out of my eyes, for in that valley dwells so many +owls, and they are so bold that the tips of their wings brush against +people's faces as they sweep past. I had known Mariora for a long time, +while she still lived at home with her father, but since she became Juon +Tare's wife we have only seen each other occasionally and at long +intervals, and then too only when I visited her, for she, the +poorly-married woman, never came to visit us--the rich people. On +reaching the hut, I tied up my horse and tapped at the little window, +through which one cannot peep as, instead of glass, the window-frames +are filled with opaque mica which Juon Tare himself discovered amongst +the hills. Mariora recognized my voice and hastened to unbar the door. +She was much surprised and much delighted to see me at that hour. She +embraced, kissed me, and burst into tears. At first I thought it was +from pure joy,--then I thought she pitied me. 'Is there anything wrong?' +I asked. Then she pulled herself together, dried her tears and said: 'I +have an invalid on my hands.'--'Your child?'--'No, Ursu.'--It was just +as if a viper had stung me.--'Ursu sick?' I cried.--'Yes, I don't know +what ails him. Since yesterday he has been lying down shaking and +trembling, while the day before he was skipping about and turning +somersaults. Fatia Negra (Domne Zeu,[28] forgive my lips for uttering +that name) was playing with him for a long time.' 'Did he come hither?' +'Yes, he said he was on his way to you.' 'He lied. Then it was he who +poisoned the bear.' + +[Footnote 28: The Lord God.] + +"Mariora trembled at these words, and grew paler than ever. + +"I seized her by the hand and drew her with me into the hut. I whispered +in her ear that I knew all. 'The accursed wretch has been faithless to +me because of your pretty eyes. He swore to me by sunlight and he swore +to you by moonlight, but you would not listen to him. You love your +husband and Black Mask relies on his strength now that fair words have +failed. The coward has poisoned your faithful guardian like the wretched +thief, the miserable house-breaker, that he is.'--Mariora's hut was +lighted by the flame that flickered on the hearth. A bedstead of +linden-wood covered with goat-skins, a table of slate and a few +three-legged chairs were all the furniture. There was also a nicely +carved and painted little cradle in which lay the little child, +sleeping, with his plump little hands drawn up behind his head, like an +angel. In the extreme corner of the room the faithful beast lay all of a +heap on a lair of soft moss,--at the last gasp. He groaned and shivered +continually like one in a fever, and raised his failing eyes with such +an eloquent appeal to his mistress, as if he would have spoken to her. +Sometimes he pricked his ears as if he were listening and snuffed +joyously. Perchance he expected his master, perhaps he wanted to lick +his hands for the last time. Poor beast, how I pitied him! 'He will +die,' I whispered to Mariora. I durst not say it aloud for I imagined +the beast understood everything which men say to one another. 'And then +will come the tempter, who knows that you are alone and defenceless.' I +told her everything which your ladyship told me, and the woman trembled +like an aspen-leaf. + +"'Where is Juon Tare encamping now?' I asked Mariora. + +"'Only a mile from here in the Vale Capra.' + +"Hem! It is impossible to get there on horseback, but I can reach him by +going on foot. Meanwhile you lock yourself in, put out the fire, and +whatever noise you hear, do not open the door till we come back. + +"'Nay,' said Mariora, 'you must not go away. If Juon ought to come home, +there is a sign between us. I have here an Alpine horn; he has taught me +how to blow upon it, and has told me that if ever I should be in great +danger I must blow it, and however distant he may be, he will hear it +and hasten home.' + +"'But it is night now; perhaps he is asleep.' + +"'Juon never sleeps at night, he must be awake and protect his herds.' + +"'And what then will become of his goats if he leaves them?' + +"'Are not I and my child dearer to him than all his property?' + +"Then I told Mariora that no time must be lost, and that she should blow +the horn at once. It is a long tube made out of the bark of trees, with +the end tilted upwards, and anyone who knows how to blow it can make its +voice heard for miles. Mariora was too feeble with it. Perhaps at +another time she would have been more up to it, but now she was upset, +there was something which weighed down her bosom and hampered her +breathing: the horn gave forth but a feeble and uncertain sound. We +listened for the echoes and they scarce resounded from the sides of the +adjacent hills. Juon would never hear that. 'Give it to me,' I said. 'I +shall throw more force into it.' A moment after I had blown the horn, +the woody heights repeated the sound just as if there was another +horn-blower there. Presently, from afar, right away among the hills, +another horn replied, just as if there was another echo there. That was +Juon's answer. He had heard the summons; we could now rest content. In +half an hour he would have bounded across the mountains and through the +glens and would be here. In the meantime we would barricade ourselves +inside the hut. Mariora anxiously asked me what we should do if her +husband were the last to arrive, for the robber had firearms. Acting on +my advice, we closed the door with a heavy beam and put out the fire. +The child began to cry, but Mariora took it in her arms and soothed it +to sleep. A heavy groan sounded from a corner of the room: it was the +faithful beast breathing forth his last breath. We exchanged not another +word in order not to betray the fact that Mariora was not alone. Half an +hour had nearly elapsed when we heard footsteps in the distance +approaching. We listened. Who was coming? Which of us would recognize +those footsteps first? I did. It was he! he for whose sake I had brought +down a curse upon my head. + +"For about as long a time as it would take one to repeat a Paternoster, +he remained standing there before the door. Then he rapped lightly with +his fingers and I heard the voice I knew so well: 'Mariora, are you +asleep?' + +"'I am awake. What do you want?' she replied. + +"'Let me in, Mariora; open the door!' + +"I whispered to her what she should say. + +"'I cannot, my husband is not at home. I am alone.' + +"'For that very reason open, so that we two may have it all to +ourselves?' + +"'There will be three of us, don't forget Ursu.' + +"'It is all up with Ursu,' laughed the robber outside. + +"'You have killed him, you villain!' cried Mariora though I never +whispered this to her. + +"'Not I, but the honey-cake.' + +"'Why did you do so?' + +"'Because he was in my way.' + +"'Who will defend me now?' + +"'I will defend you. I will take you away with me. I will take you to a +beautiful city full of palaces. I will buy you a house and an estate and +you shall be a great lady.' + +"'It cannot be. I already have my lawful husband and you too have your +lawful wife.' + +"'Your lawful husband shall die when I choose, and you will then be a +widow. As for Anicza, she only married a mask. I will tear it off and +she will no longer know who I was.' + +"Oh, my lady, can you not fancy how my heart broke at these words! Yet I +did not weep. + +"'You will deceive me as you deceived her,' replied Mariora. + +"Then the robber began to swear that I had deceived him first. He lied +concerning me, oh! the accursed wretch! Yet the game had to go on. +Mariora was no longer the mistress of her own thoughts. She is a +helpless creature. If I had not whispered in her ear what she was to +say, she would have had no answer ready for him. + +"'I fear you,' she said at my prompting, 'for you are a robber; it is +not love but money that you want. Why did it not occur to you to court +me before? You have only come now because you have found out that my +father has been here and offered me a hundred ducats that we may buy a +little estate with it. You have only come here to rob me of that.' + +"The tempter grew furious at so much gainsaying. + +"'Stupid wench!' he cried, 'what are your hundred ducats to me? I will +give you ten times as much. Here! take them!' And with that he pitched +through the little window--opening above the door a heavy purse which +fell rattling at our feet. It was full of ducats. I kicked it aside with +loathing. + +"'It is easy to talk,' replied Mariora. 'Now, you give and give, but if +I were to let you in, you would take them back again to-morrow with my +own.' + +"'I swear I will not.' + +"'No, I will not believe the oaths of a robber. You have firearms and I +am therefore defenceless against you. Go and hang up your musket, your +pistols, and your hunting-knife on that beech-tree, which is a hundred +paces distant from the house; when you come back without your firearms I +will believe that you do not want to kill me and will listen to what you +have to say?' + +"The robber fell into the snare and did as he was bid. Then he +returned. 'Here I am without weapons,' said he. 'Let me in!' + +"We had to gain as much time as possible, so I whispered Mariora to say +that she must first stir up the fire into a blaze for she could not let +him in in the dark. + +"These words inflamed the passion of the tempter still more. + +"'You will have time for that afterwards,' said he. 'I can see your +beautiful eyes even in the dark, for then they shine all the more +brightly.' + +"'Then I suppose I have eyes like a cat?' I made Mariora say. + +"'Silly fool!' growled the tempter to himself in Hungarian, which +Mariora did not understand. 'No,' he then added in Roumanian, 'you have +eyes like stars.' + +"'But confess now, do you really love me? Or do you only come hither +with evil designs? Don't you want, now, to cut off the hands of my +little child? for robbers covet the hacked off hands of babies,--they +make them invisible.' + +"At this the man's temper fairly gave way. He perceived that he was +being trifled with and exclaimed roughly: 'Woman, open the door, or I'll +bring it down about your ears!' And he gave the door such a blow with +his clenched fist that it cracked from end to end. 'I tell you for the +last time,' cried he, 'let me in peaceably. If you will come with me, I +will take you, and your child also, to a pleasant place. I will make a +gentleman of him and a lady of you. But if you gainsay me another +moment, I'll batter in the door, dash the brains of your brat out +against the wall and carry you off by force wherever I please.' + +"Thereupon Mariora paid no more attention to me but began wringing her +hands and I snatched up the child, who had been awakened by the noise +and begun to cry. I drew my pistol from my bosom and planted myself +beside the door. If there's nobody else, I thought, I must bear the +brunt of it. + +"The robber planted his shoulder against the door and pressed it inwards +with tremendous force. The boards cracked and as the middle of the door +was barricaded by a stout beam, there was soon a regular gap between the +two folds of the door and the door inclined more and more inwards. +Through the opening thus made, I held the pistol, pointed straight at +his temples and only an inch away from him. He is a very strong man, I +thought, but another effort of strength and he will be lying dead at my +feet." + +The girl was quite overcome by the narration of this scene. She paused +for a moment to recover herself, during which Henrietta, as pale as a +statue, gazed at her in silence. + +Presently she resumed: + +"At that critical moment, a cry like the howl of a wild beast resounded +in front of the hut. The door fell back into its proper place and +rushing to the little window, I saw that _two_ men now stood in front +of the hut. + +"Juon Tare had arrived at last! + +"It was neither speech nor language that he addressed to his antagonist +in the first instant of their encounter, it was the savage roar of a +wild beast rushing upon its prey. + +"Juon Tare is a very strong man. Fortunately, he is also a peaceful, +retiring creature, for if he were as passionate as he is strong and +frequented the wine shops, every carouse would end with the death of a +man. All the more horrible was it therefore to behold him at that moment +like a ravening beast of prey. + +"The detected seducer at once made a rush for his arms, but Juon Tare +overtook him with an enormous bound and seized one of his hands. If +Fatia Negra had been one of God's ordinary creatures, he must have been +writhing the next moment with crushed limbs on the ground beneath Juon's +knee; but at the very instant in which Juon caught hold of one hand, the +robber faced about and seizing the herdsman round the body began to +wrestle with him. + +"The moon flooded the valley with its light; the whole course of the +struggle was plainly visible. + +"As soon as Juon Tare perceived that his antagonist was foolhardy enough +to try a fall with him, he complacently allowed his body to be encircled +and calmly murmured: 'Ho, ho! then you would wrestle with me, eh, Fatia +Negra! Very well, be it so!' + +"Then he also quietly encircled the trunk of his opponent with those +terrible arms of his, which had shown themselves capable on one occasion +of throttling a bear, and prepared to crush his adversary. + +"And thus began an awful struggle, the mere remembrance of which is a +horror. + +"There is nothing more terrible than when two men struggle for life or +death with their bare hands. + +"Juon Tare's tremendous strength was unable to crush Fatia Negra. The +herdsman might perhaps have been a little exhausted by his swift run, +but the robber was skilful and opposed a steel-like elasticity to the +herdsman's massive weight. + +"Now the one, now the other was forced down upon his knee, only to bound +instantly back again. The grass was rooted up by their stamping feet. +Tightly embraced, with straining shoulders, with their fists tearing at +each other's bodies, their faces were pressed so closely together that +the two heads seemed but one. + +"Now and then they would pause for an instant to take breath and at such +times would gasp out short, fierce words. + +"'Who are you?' growled Juon. 'Who are you that you can resist the arm +of Juon Tare? Who are you that Juon Tare cannot put to silence?' + +"'What is it you want, you fool?' the robber gasped back. 'Has that two +hundred ducats, the price set on my head, tempted you? Is that why you +want to catch me? Let me go, and I will give you five hundred.' + +"'I will not let you go. I want neither your money, nor yet the money of +the magistrates. Your destruction is all that I want. You should not +escape from these hands if you were thrice a devil.' + +"'We will see.' + +"And again the tussle began. Each of the two men put forth all his +strength against his adversary. Fatia Negra's garments split into rags, +the blood spouted from his shoulders where Juon had worried him with his +sharp teeth like a wild beast. Not another word did they now speak, only +their panting sobs were to be heard like the snorting of two wild boars +as they dragged and dashed each other up and down on the sward. + +"I was obliged to restrain Mariora violently from rushing to her +husband's assistance. She would only have distracted his attention. And +besides I would not have it so. Let the men fight it out, I thought. +They are a well matched pair." + +"Then you still love Fatia Negra?" enquired Henrietta sadly. + +The girl blushed.--"I love him, yes,--and therefore he must die." + +She went on: + +"'At that moment he was like a magician battling with a giant. The other +was half a head taller than he, and the muscles of his arms stood out +like the rugged bark of an oak's trunk. Black Mask was much the slimmer. +But every muscle in his frame seemed made of steel. His gigantic +adversary might pitch and toss him wherever he pleased, he always fell +on his feet; nor was the other ever able, squeeze as he might, to +disjoint his arms or free his own head from Fatia Negra's embrace, +though again and again he ducked down to do it; and then they would +struggle more fiercely than ever, on their knees, with their limbs +interlaced like one single, inseparable quivering mass of flesh. + +"'If I could only see your hidden face!' roared Juon, throwing himself +with all his might on Black Mask. 'You devil, you, I'll tear your +mummery off for you!'--and he gnashed at his opponent's face with his +teeth, trying to snap his mask off. + +"This attempt seemed to redouble Fatia Negra's fury. He too now began +roaring like a wounded bear, struggling with a huntsman. It was no +longer a struggle between men, but a ravening of two beasts. The +combatants had now rolled far away from the hut. Their savage yells +resounded through the still pastures. We, watching them from the hut, +could see that they were drawing near the edge of a steep abyss with a +sheer descent of many fathoms, at the bottom of which are the sources of +the little mountain streams. + +"'Take care, Juon!' cried Mariora despairingly. But her voice was +unheard. Both of them were deaf and blind. The next moment Juon gave his +adversary a fierce shake and instantly the pair of them plunged head +over heels into the gulf below. + +"We both rushed after them, and on reaching the edge of the abyss +perceived one shape lying motionless among the rocks of the stream, and +another limping painfully towards the further shore. This second figure +was Fatia Negra." + +"Surely Juon was not dead?" cried Henrietta, horrified. + +"No; only crippled by the fall. He fell undermost, the other on top. Yet +the other must have suffered severely. We could see from his heavy +movements that he had more than one limb damaged. Only with the utmost +exertion did he manage to scale the opposite cliff. + +"While he was clambering up the mountain-side, Mariora sobbing and +screaming, rushed down to her insensible husband, and taking his head +into her bosom dragged his limp body out of the cold water of the brook, +whilst I took down from the beech-tree Fatia Negra's double-barrelled +musket and raised it to my cheek. Before me on the white rock, in the +full light of the moon, a good mark for a marksman was that panting +black object struggling upwards. I pointed the barrel straight at him. I +took a long and careful aim. I am certain I should have hit him. And +then I bethought me how much I had loved him once upon a time, and the +weapon sank down. I flung it from me." + +The girl ceased to speak and covered her face with both her hands. It +was a long time before she took them away again. + +At last she sprang up quickly, and turning her pale face towards +Henrietta, said in a hard, dry voice: "It will be the last time, your +ladyship. I am weak because I am a woman, folks would say. But they +shall know that that is not true. Don't be afraid, my lady; what I have +promised, that will I do. You have been very good to me in telling me +that I was being deceived, and I will requite you for it. And now, God +bless you, my lady. Farewell!" + +"But surely you are not thinking of going home so late at night?" + +"What care I about the night? No spectre can meet me anywhere that is +worse than the horrible thing that dwells at the bottom of my heart. God +bless your ladyship. You shall hear from me soon. Farewell!" + +Then the girl gently kissed Henrietta's hand and left the room, throwing +into her gait and bearing an energy and a self-confidence which she was +far from feeling. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SOIREES AT ARAD + + +Despite his misgivings, Count Kengyelesy succeeded in reaching his home +at Arad without being robbed by Fatia Negra. + +During the evenings of his visit at Hidvar he had won back everything +which he had lost on the occasion of his friend Hatszegi's visit at +Kengyelesy, and in the joy of his heart he gave his countess _carte +blanche_ in the matter of entertaining her friends and opened his halls +freely to the elegant world of Arad. + +For the society of Arad is distinctly elegant. Excepting Pest, there is +no other place in Hungary where the aristocratic element is so strongly +represented. Nay, it has this advantage over Pest that its society does +not scatter as the seasons change. Such pleasure-resorts as Csako, +Menes, Magyarat and Vilagos and the castles of the magnates residing on +the circumjacent _puszta_ are all of a heap, so to speak, around Arad; +so that there is no occasion for acquaintances to separate in spring or +autumn; wherefore to all those who would devote themselves +uninterruptedly to social joys, Arad is a veritable Eldorado. + +There was no need to offer the Countess Kengyelesy such an opportunity +twice,--the very next day the round of visiting began. All the +notabilities of the higher circles got themselves introduced to her +ladyship by mutual friends, and the lesser fry, whom nobody knew, were +introduced to her by the count himself. Amongst those who came from afar +was a young man from Pest who had an official post in the county, a rare +distinction in those days, who was much praised for his culture and who +had spoken once or twice very sensibly at Quarter Sessions,--a certain +Szilard Vamhidy. But what interested the ladies in the young man far +more than his official orations was the rumour connecting his name with +a romantic attachment he was said to have had with the daughter of a +wealthy merchant of Pest. The young man, being disappointed in his love, +had resolved to kill himself, and had persuaded the girl to do likewise +at the same time. Only with difficulty had they been snatched from the +threshold of death. Subsequently, on account of this very thing, the +girl had been compelled to become the wife of the wealthy Hatszegi. + +The countess quickly made up her mind that such a young man as this was +an indispensable acquaintance. What! Henrietta's ideal, with whom she +had been in love and who would have gladly embraced death with her! Here +indeed was a rare species, especially in these modern days, which +deserved to be exhibited; and she gave her husband no rest till he had +promised to introduce the young man to her. To this end it was necessary +that he should first of all make the young man's acquaintance himself, +but this was an easy matter. The deputy Lord-lieutenant of the county +knew them both and at his house they learnt to know each other. And +Count Kengyelesy was one of those men whom it is impossible to avoid +when once you have made his acquaintance. It was not very long, +therefore, before he took his new friend, absolutely under his +protection and hauled him off to his wife. + +The usual stiffness of a first introduction was speedily broken down by +the quaint conceits of the count. + +The countess had donned a flowing antique _moire_ dress and wore her +hair in long English curls to match. + +"Come now, friend Szilard!" cried the count, "what do you say? this +dress and that _coiffure_ hardly suit the countess's style of face--eh?" + +Many a worthy young man would have been plunged into confusion by such a +silly question, but our Szilard's eternally composed countenance was not +ruffled for an instant. + +"Everything becomes the countess," he replied; "but I know of something +which is still more charming and would make any fair woman still more +beautiful." + +"Really! You make me quite curious," said the countess. + +"Why, Szilard, you a connoisseur!--you surprise me!" cried the count. + +"I mean those blue stuff gowns with white spots, which lend quite a +peculiar charm to our women, especially if you set it off with an +old-fashioned _csipkekoeto_."[29] + +[Footnote 29: A Hungarian headdress made of black lace. The dress +suggested was also of native Hungarian manufacture worn at one time by +the greatest ladies.] + +At the very next _soiree_ the Countess Kengyelesy was attired in one of +these blue stuff gowns with white spots, of home manufacture, and with a +black lace head-dress--exactly as Szilard had described it to her. + +"My dear friend, be so good as to look there!" said the count +appropriating Szilard while he was still only half through the doorway. +"There she is costumed from head to foot exactly as you advised. Ah! I +pity you. You are already in the toils." + +Szilard hastened at once to greet the countess, who treated the handsome +young fellow with marked distinction all through the evening. Indeed she +made no secret of it. + +Three days later Szilard was bound, by custom to pay a complimentary +visit upon the Countess. He purposely chose an hour when he knew she +would not be at home, and left his card, but the same evening he +encountered her at the theatre. It was in the entrance hall, where she +was waiting for her carriage, and till it drove up Szilard could not +very well leave her. + +"Ah, ah! my honoured friend," cried the countess archly, "this won't do. +You wait till I am not at home, and then you go and leave your card +upon me as a token of respect. But I don't mean to let you off so +easily. I have got a lot to say to you which I am determined you shall +listen to. You must therefore promise to come to my house at twelve +o'clock to-morrow, or else I shall astonish the world by inviting you to +come along with me this instant in my carriage." + +A man, in another mood, could scarcely have resisted the temptation of +replying that he would be delighted if the countess put her threat into +execution then and there, even at the risk of astonishing the world. +Szilard merely looked grave and said that he would be happy to pay his +respects to the countess at twelve on the morrow. + +He went accordingly. His pulses beat no more quickly than usual as he +entered the countess's private apartment, although she gave the footman +to understand in a low voice that she would be at home to nobody else, +and invited the young man to sit down close beside her, face to face. + +The countess was a beautiful woman, and she possessed the art of +dressing beautifully likewise. The countess had beautiful eyes and she +could smile beautifully with them, too. The countess had an extremely +pretty mouth, and when she spoke it was prettier still, for she had a +witty way with her. The danger of the situation was very appreciable. + +"My dear, good Szilard," began the countess, with that light, natural +_naivete_ which so easily disarms the strongest of us, "do not take it +ill of me if I speak to you confidentially. The world will very soon be +saying that you are in love with me and I with you. I shall not believe +the former and you will not believe the latter. Let the world say what +it likes. I have a real blessing of a husband, whom it would be a shame +to offend, and you have quite other ideas. I know what they are. Don't +be angry, don't frown! I am not exacting. I don't want to fetch you away +from other people. I will not ask where you have buried your treasures. +I will merely say to you that I know you have treasures and that they +are buried. Is it not so? You need not be afraid of me." + +Szilard was a little taken aback by this unexpected turn. Could it be +sheer curiosity, he thought? + +"I have nothing to be afraid of, countess," remarked Szilard, smiling, +"I have no buried secrets. I was a young man once, that is all. I have +had my foolish illusions, like other people, and like other people I +have cured myself of them." + +"Nay, nay, sir, now you are not quite sticking to the truth; you are +_not_ cured of them. But before I go any further let me tell you that +all this is not mere feminine curiosity on my part. I want you to trust +me and I will trust you equally. Believe me when I say that if I love to +make fun of empty-headed noodles, I can always respect a good heart +because it is a rarity. The lady I want to speak to you about is my +dear friend and she is very, very unhappy." + +Szilard was bound to believe that this was true, for tear-drops sparkled +in the countess's eyes. + +"Is it my fault?" he asked bitterly. + +"It is neither your fault nor hers. I know that as a fact. The cause of +it all is money, the thirst for money. There is not a more miserable +creature in the wide world than the daughter of a rich man. But that is +the least of her misfortunes. They married her to a man who did not love +her, who only took her because her grandfather was a millionaire. Her +grandfather frightened her into the match by threatening her with his +curse and now, when she has become the wife of this man who does not +even feel friendship for her, I hear that this same old grandfather has +made another will depriving her of everything." + +Szilard's lips trembled at these words. + +"You can imagine what will be the result. This young woman loves not and +is not loved. They gave her away to an Oriental nabob who, imagining his +wife to be wealthy, scatters his money like a prince. And now this man +has suddenly been startled by the report that his wife has absolutely +nothing!--do you know the meaning of the expression: bread of charity?" + +"I have heard the expression, but the bread itself I have never tasted." + +"Then you can have no idea what that sort of bread is like which a man +gives to the wife whom he finds to be poor, when he fancied her to be +rich--oh! that sort of bread is very, very bitter!" + +Ah! thought Szilard, the bread that _I_ offered her was only dry--not +bitter. + +"I can tell you on very good authority," resumed the countess, "that the +baron's conduct towards his wife has completely changed since he +discovered that she has been disinherited. He had lost heavily at cards +when the news first reached him, and he took no pains to conceal his +ill-humour from his wife in consequence. The poor of the district had +got to regard Henrietta as their ministering angel because of her +labours of love among them, but now she can play the part of lady +bountiful no longer. She has to shut her door in the faces of her poor +petitioners, for her husband will not allow any unnecessary expense. +Nay, more, they say that Hatszegi now keeps his wife's private jewels +under lock and key to prevent her from pawning them and relieving the +needs of the poor with the proceeds, as she was wont to do, and only +brings them out on state occasions when he compels her to pile them all +on her person. Isn't that a humiliation for a woman?" + +"If only you had become mine," Szilard mentally apostrophized poor +Henrietta, "you would now have had a cosey little chimney-corner, and a +nice little room all to yourself; and though I could not have bought you +jewels, the best of every morsel of food we shared together would always +have been yours." + +"And," pursued the countess, "most degrading experience of all, +Hatszegi no longer attempts to conceal from his wife his outrageous +_liaisons_ with pretty peasant women. The thing has long been a byeword, +though his wife knew nothing of it--but she knows it now. Nor is this +all, my dear Vamhidy. Poor Henrietta's heart is suffering from another +sorrow which she feels all the more keenly because it smarts +unceasingly. Her young brother, Koloman, has suddenly disappeared from +Pest and left no trace behind him. They say all sorts of things about +him, which I do not care about telling you, but most of them are bad +enough. On the news reaching Henrietta, she asked her husband to make +enquiries as to the cause of Koloman's disappearance. Hatszegi wrote to +his agent and received an answer which he will not show to Henrietta on +any consideration; nay, more, he commanded his wife never to mention +Koloman's name before him again. The poor woman is naturally in despair. +She cannot conceive why the cause of her brother's disappearance should +be hidden from her. And now I am coming to the end and aim of all this +rigmarole. Henrietta believes, and I am likewise convinced of it, that +if her brother be alive, there is only one person in the world whom he +will try and seek out and that is yourself." + +"Poor lad! he loved me much," sighed Szilard. + +"And now you understand what I am driving at, don't you? If anybody can +find out the whereabouts of Henrietta's brother and the real reason why +he fled from his relations at Pest and took refuge neither with his +aunt, Madame Langai, who, I hear, has taken his part all through, nor +yet with his sister, it is most certainly you. This is no lawyer's +business, for a lawyer would set about it too gingerly. Here sympathy +and chivalry are before all other things necessary, and if the husband +declines this noble task, we have nobody to turn to except--the man who +has been sacrificed." + +Szilard bit his lips to prevent the tears from coming. Who could ever +have thought that so frivolous a woman would have had so much feeling +for her friend? Then he rose, bowed and curtly informed the countess +that he would undertake the commission. + +The countess pressed his hand affectionately: "And keep me informed of +everything," said she, "for I am the common post between you two." + +Szilard thanked the countess and withdrew. He pondered the matter +carefully till the evening, and by that time he had a plan all ready in +his head. + +For a whole week after this, nothing was to be seen of Vamhidy. Count +Kengyelesy sought him everywhere and could find him nowhere. Every day +he asked his countess what she had done with the young man. + +Ten days after the first _soiree_ the date for another had been fixed. +Szilard did not appear even at this. Kengyelesy hunted for him from +pillar to post, but could not discover what had become of him. Nobody +had heard anything of him. + +"He has poisoned himself," said Kengyelesy at last to a group of his +sporting friends. "It is quite plain to me. When a fellow has got that +sort of thing into his head once, he will try it again and again. I wash +my hands of the business, it is all the fault of the countess. Why does +she play her tricks with such people? No doubt he has swallowed poison +and then crawled away into some nook or corner of a forest. In a month +or two, I suppose, we shall come upon him unexpectedly." + +"Whom shall we come upon unexpectedly?" cried a voice behind his back. +He looked around and there was the long lost Szilard. + +"Oh, there you are, eh? What have you been doing with yourself all this +time? Come along with me--and Heaven help you!--I will take you to my +wife. Poor young chap! I thought you had already had enough of it and +made away with yourself in consequence." + +Then he drew his arm through Szilard's and tripped off to the countess. +"Here he is!" he cried. "We have found him, do not abandon yourself to +despair on his account. Be so good as to sit down beside him!--here's a +chair! I'll take care nobody disturbs you!" + +The countess pressed Szilard's hand and made a sign to him to remain. + +"I have just arrived from Pest," said Szilard. + +"Really! Well?" + +"I have found out everything, or rather, I should say, a good deal." + +"Do pray tell me at once. All the people are dancing, they will take no +notice of us." + +"Ever since old Lapussa's death," began Szilard, "for he died soon after +he had altered his will, all the members of his family have been at +bitter variance. Madame Langai, the old man's widowed daughter, disputes +the validity of the last will--whereby Mr. John Lapussa becomes heir to +the exclusion of everybody else, and has instituted legal proceedings to +upset it. Madame Langai seeks to prove that old Lapussa was _non compos +mentis_ when he disinherited the other members of his family, and she +also maintains, that the old fellow had no reason whatever for hating +his grandchildren and reducing them to beggary as he has done. On the +other hand, Mr. John maintains that his dear father had excellent +reasons for detesting his grandchildren because the Baroness Hatszegi +has never written a letter to her grandfather since her marriage and +both she and her husband have expressed themselves, at home, in the most +disrespectful terms imaginable concerning the old gentleman, even giving +it to be understood that they would be very glad if they had not to wait +too long for the curtain to fall on the fifth act of his life's drama. +He calls as his witness one Margari, who was formerly old Lapussa's +reader before the girl was married, and since then has been compelled +to act as secretary to Hatszegi, or rather as a spy upon him. This +fellow, who is now the mere tool of Mr. John, is quite prepared to +retail all sorts of horrors about the Hatszegis. As to the other +grandchild, the boy Koloman I mean, his uncle has saddled him with a +terrible charge. He has produced a bill for 40,000 florins which he +accuses the lad of forging in the name of his sister, the Baroness +Hatszegi." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the countess in an incredulous voice. + +"The thing is ridiculously incredible, I know, yet there the bill is; I +have seen it, for it has been sequestered by the Court. It is obviously +in the youth's handwriting as also is the very bad imitation of his +sister's signature. In connection therewith is the fact of the youth's +sudden disappearance (and every attempt to trace his whereabouts has +failed), for, on the very day when the subject of the bill was first +broached, he vanished from his college, and apparently he had been +preparing for flight some time before." + +"But what could have induced a mere child to do such a thing, he is +scarcely thirteen years old?" + +"He was always somewhat flighty by nature, though that, of course, is +not sufficient to explain how he came to forge his sister's name on a +draft for 40,000 florins." + +"But why will not the baron tell his wife all about it?" + +"Does not your ladyship see?--It is quite plain to me. Hatszegi +understands his wife thoroughly. He feels certain that as soon as the +baroness hears of what her brother is accused, she would not hesitate a +moment to acknowledge the forged signature as really her own." + +"True, true. And then I suppose her brother could be saved." + +"Completely." + +"And then, I suppose, she would have to pay the money?" + +"Either pay it or be sued for it." + +"Poor woman! I know she has no money. A most awkward position, most +awkward. But it does not matter; if her jewels are under lock and key, +nobody guards mine." + +At these words which came straight from the best of hearts, Szilard +could not restrain himself from impressing a burning kiss on the +countess's hand so affected was he by this outburst of generosity. + +"Ah, ha!" cackled the count behind his back, "so we have got as far as +that already, eh! Capital, capital, upon my word! Nay, nay, my young +friend, don't be afraid of me. Do not put yourself out in the least on +my account! God bless you, my boy!" + +"To-morrow, we'll plan it all out, I'll be waiting for you at one +o'clock," whispered the countess to Szilard, "now I must go, the +cotillion is beginning." + +"Don't you dance then?" enquired the count of Szilard. "Nonsense! +they'll say you are mourning somebody. Thank God, old Lapussa was not +_your_ father-in-law, but Hatszegi's. It is for him to pull a long face, +but you go and dance!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +TIT FOR TAT + + +It may seem strange to us that the rumour of Fatia Negra's nocturnal +adventure was not spread abroad in these parts, but as a matter of fact +nobody did speak of it. It seemed as if everybody who knew anything +about it, died out of the world before he could pass the news on to his +neighbour. + +The dwellers in the hut in the Ice Valley had vanished without leaving a +trace behind them. The herd, untended by a shepherd, was scattered to +the winds by wolves. Nobody could say what had become of Juon Tare and +Mariora. The person who shewed least of all tell that she knew anything +about this midnight adventure was Anicza herself. She had sobbed out the +whole story before Henrietta, but after that she kept her own counsel +and kept a good countenance also when folks looked at her. But there was +venom at the bottom of her heart, and she nourished it there. + +In a fortnight's time Fatia Negra visited her again. There was now +nothing the matter with him, all traces of the life and death struggle +had disappeared. Anicza was more affectionate towards him than ever. She +did not even ask him where he had been all this time, nor did she notice +the scar on his neck which had not been there before. + +Fatia Negra came to her at night, as he always did. The famous +adventurer was very cautious. Anicza knew for certain that whenever he +came to visit her in a populous place like this, before him and behind +him went faithful henchmen who stood on guard at the corners of the +streets and gave a signal at the approach of any danger. Only amongst +the snowy mountains was he wont to go alone. He was also very wary in +other ways. Thus, he never drank wine: there was really no getting at +him. And if once he had his weapons handy, then he could always cut his +way through his enemies, even if he were completely surrounded. + +"Fatia Negra," said the girl, throwing her arms round his neck, "last +night I had an evil dream. I dreamt that the smallpox had ruined my +face. Would you love me if I were pockmarked?" + +"Yes, I would still love you," replied the adventurer. + +"Well, as it happens I am not. Kiss me! Then I dreamt another dream. I +dreamt that all our property was destroyed. I was a ragged wandering +beggar with my head tied up. Would you love me if I were a ragged +beggar?" + +"Little fool, of course I should love you." + +"Then embrace me nicely. After that I dreamt that some one had shut me +up in prison for some great offence; they had condemned me to many +years' imprisonment, condemned me to spend all my youth behind +iron-barred windows and they would only let me free again when I had +become a wrinkled old hag. Would you love me if I was in prison? Would +you come and stand outside my iron bars and speak to me now and then?" + +"Stop this foolish chatter! Who is able to answer such questions?" and +in order that she should obey the more readily he closed her mouth with +kisses. + +But as soon as the kisses were over, she began to prattle again: + +"But after that I went on dreaming again, and I dreamt what made me very +angry with myself. I dreamt that I married someone else and forgot you. +Would you still love me if I were to deceive you and wed another?" + +"Yes, I would love you even then, Anicza,--and my love for you would +make me shoot you through the heart." + +How the girl laughed when he said this! + +"Wait a bit," said she, "and you will see that it will all come to pass. +I shall grow sick and ugly. I shall become a poor beggar. They will send +me to prison and make a slave of me. I shall deceive you and wed +another. Then we shall see whether you will love me; then we shall see +whether you will kill me." + +Anicza thought all this so amusing that she laughed aloud. The noise +brought old Onucz into the room. His daughter turned towards him +smilingly. "Isn't it true, father, that three suitors are courting me?" +she asked. "I was asking Fatia Negra which of the three I should take." + +Old Onucz scratched his nose pretty hard at this question. He would have +liked to have said: "whichever you like, as long as it is the right +one!" but he was afraid of offending Fatia Negra. + +"Well, Domnule," said he at last, "truth is truth, after all. I'm +getting an old man now, and what's the good of my scraping together and +piling up all these ducats if nothing comes of it all? I have indeed an +only daughter, a pretty girl and a good girl, too, but what's the use of +that? You are not her husband. If I only knew of some corner of the +world quite out of your reach, I would gather together all my +belongings, seek it out and settle down there; but it would be of no +avail, you would always find me out and befool my girl again, so I have +to stay where I am." + +"Don't grumble, old chap, there is a time for all things. This black +mask shall not always cover my face; when I come to see you, my name +shall not always be Fatia Negra. The day will come when a carriage and +four shall drive into your courtyard, a sabre-tashed heyduke will then +leap from the box and open the silver-plated coach and a cavalier in +cloth of gold will step out who comes to you as a suitor. If you see +this ring on his finger you will know that it is I, and there will no +longer be a Fatia Negra in the wide world. We will go together to +Bucharest, a true Roumanian city, where folks will respect us and then +our happy days will begin." + +"If only that could be soon! But you have been telling me this for a +long, long time." + +"That is because we cannot put an end to our work yet. There are very +many people who still expect much from us. If I do not satisfy them they +will remain a perpetual danger to us. That is why I am compelled to wear +this mask a little longer. When once I have taken it off, he who used to +wear it is dead and has nothing more in common with me." + +"Then you really mean to break away from everything one day?" + +"Yes, it is high time. My little finger whispers that someone wants to +betray me. But say that to nobody. We must not frighten our own people. +The Government is getting suspicious at the disappearance of so much +gold. It is sniffing about, but at present it is on a wrong track. The +Jews of Hungary are suspected and they happen to know nothing at all +about it. But it is quite enough that suspicion _has_ been aroused. So +far they fancy that only about fifty to sixty pounds of gold a year are +unlawfully made away with. They don't know yet that it amounts to five +or six hundredweight, which is coined into ready money underneath the +ground. This business must be put a stop to. This year the mines yielded +a rich profit. Next Saturday there will be a last delivery of gold in +the Lucsia cavern. As soon as the coins are struck, we shall divide the +profits, wish one another 'buna nopte!'[30] and depart our respective +ways. We shall destroy the machinery, blow up the smelting furnaces with +gunpowder, break down the aqueducts and close up the mouth of the +cavern. After that everyone can do as he likes with his gold. I shall +wash my hands of it." + +[Footnote 30: Good night.] + +"Well said!" cried old Onucz, "that is as I would have it also. The +whole lot of us who are partners in the concern will meet once more in +the Lucsia cavern. There we will listen to what you say and swear to +each other that we will not say a word of what has gone on down below +there. Then everyone will do as you bid, for you are the most prudent of +us all." + +"Then I shall only have to wait another week?" enquired Anicza, winding +the locks of Fatia Negra round her fingers. + +"For what?" asked the adventurer. + +"Nay, but surely you know?" + +"Aha! of course!" said he smiling. "You mean you will only have to wait +another week for me to cease to be your husband under a mask and become +your real, true husband, eh? That is the end of all your thoughts, eh?" + +"Yes, yes!" said the girl, but she thought within herself: "I shall only +have to wait a week to give up your masked head into the hands of the +hangman!" + +So Fatia Negra unsuspiciously rocked the girl up and down on his knee +and reflected complacently: "Girls are made in order that they may +believe the lies which men choose to tell them." + +But Anicza was a Wallachian girl and Wallachian girls are jealous, +revengeful and artful. + + * * * * * + +That Saturday had arrived. + +Seven hundred torches lit up the Lucsia Grotto. In between, from out of +the corners of the cavern Bengal lights burst forth from time to time +flooding for a few moments the whole of that gloomy palace with green, +blue, white and rose-coloured flames to which the red flame of the +pitch-torches with their black smoke formed a spectral contrast. + +The great company of coiners had arranged for the last evening before +their separation a sumptuous feast in this subterranean hall. The floor +was strewn with white sand and all round about tents were erected in +which roast and baked meats were piled up into veritable hillocks on +broad beech-wood dishes. In order to show the wealth at their command an +ox was roasting whole on a flaming fire, revolving as it roasted, while +two men, one on each side, basted it well with bacon fat held on iron +forks. Close behind it was a gigantic vat of wine, everybody was free to +drink out of it as much as he chose. Right in front of the smithy, too, +was another gigantic vat holding about fifty firkins, filled to the brim +with the finest eau de vie. A couple of young fellows lolled in front of +the vat; they were already too lazy to dip their glasses into the fluid, +they sucked it in from the brim of the vat itself. + +The glare of the smelting oven no longer shone from the windows of the +stone building in the midst of the cavern, the smoke intermingled with +sparks no longer welled out of the flue, the subterranean hubbub no +longer accompanied the stroke of the hammers, the machinery was silent, +its work was done. + +Two hundred and fifty thousand coined ducats await distribution; of +these, fifty thousand belong to Fatia Negra and twenty thousand to old +Onucz. + +The smithy to-day is adorned with green twigs and bright ribbons, and on +its massive chimneys all the requisites for a pyrotechnical display have +been heaped up; it is from these that the rockets will ascend, it is +here the blue and red Catherine wheels will revolve. The vaulted ceiling +of the cavern is so high that the rockets in their highest flight will +not graze it. An orchestral-like balustrade has been provided for the +musicians. The shareholders themselves will do their best to enliven the +festivities with fiddles, flutes and bagpipes. The guests are already +appearing, singly and in groups, down through the machinery of the mill. +The men are all accompanied by their womenkind in gala costumes. + +Before the appearance of Fatia Negra, mirth and uproar have full swing. +Everyone gives free course to his jollity till the chief comes whose +black mask is sufficient to quiet everyone's good humour. + +And to-day brings with it its own peculiar festivity. After the great +distribution of money, Fatia Negra will take the daughter of Onucz by +the hand and plight his troth to her in front of a crucifix placed on a +high pedestal. The oath of betrothal will be an invention of Fatia Negra +himself, filled with well assorted curses and promises. And he will +swear to regard Anicza as his lawful bride from this day forth until +such time as he can, without any mask or disguise, conduct her before a +priest and solemnize his wedding in another place and before other +people. For a long time this ceremony has been the pet idea of old Onucz +and now Fatia Negra has agreed to it. + +Gradually all the partners have assembled in the cavern. Amongst the +last to arrive are old Onucz and his daughter with the bridesmaids. +Anicza is dressed as usual with her girdle and embroidered bodice and a +round hat on her head. The only difference is that now she sparkles all +over with gold and jewels and her pig-tail is interwoven with real +pearls. Amongst all the picked beauties who have gathered together here, +she is still the most beautiful. + +Only the bridegroom still keeps the good folks waiting. He is a long +time coming, as becomes a great man. Nay, it is quite possible he may +be there already without anyone seeing him. Perchance he is walking +along there behind the bride in an invisible mantle and only when he +throws it off, then only and not till then will the people see him. + +Anicza screams aloud--perhaps with joy! Everyone is thunderstruck; they +imagine their leader must be in league with the devil himself, for he +comes up from out of the earth! + +And with what splendour does he ascend! The purple robe that he wears is +scarce discernible for gold lace; a long embroidered mantle, like the +mantle of a prince, floats down from his shoulders and on his head he +wears a golden helmet from which the mask depends. + +The top of this helmet is set all round about with diamonds, and one of +his comrades makes the remark that the spike of this helmet is somewhat +muddy. He wore no weapon by his side, not even a dagger. Naturally,--one +generally lays aside one's arms when one is about to swear solemnly +before an altar. Onucz approached him obsequiously and kissed the hand +of his mysterious leader with profound respect, whilst Anicza approached +him with roguish archness, adroitly feigning a superstitious fear of her +magician of a sweetheart. + +"I am not afraid of you, Fatia Negra! though you come and go unseen. I +fear you come not in God's name." + +"That is true. We are nearer methinks to the Kingdom of the Devil." + +"Hush! say not so!" + +"Why not? If these men had imagined that I came down from Heaven, they +would have betrayed me long ago. They would have carried me bound to +Fehervar; but because they fancy I came from below and am acquainted +with the devil, they fear me and are faithful. It is the same with you: +you love me because you fear me." + +"Ho, ho, ho! We shall see. I fear nobody, not even you. It was a joke +when I said just now: I am afraid. You did not see that." + +"Come now, I'll put you to the test at once. You see that crucifix on +the altar? On that we will swear fidelity to each other and everyone +here present will also swear to preserve eternal secrecy. As, however, +we coiners cannot call God to witness, for by our trade we have rejected +him, our oaths cannot ascend to Heaven but must descend elsewhere. In +order then that our oath may be effectual, go if you have the courage, +turn the crucifix and return it to its place--only upside down." + +For an instant the girl grew pale and trembled, then she advanced boldly +up to the altar, seized the crucifix and lifting it up, turned it round +and thrust it upside down into a hole that happened to be on the altar, +so that its pedestal stood up in the air. + +All who were present looked on with wonder and horror. + +As the girl raised the cross and put it down again reverse ways, a +mechanical involuntary jolting motion of her arms was discernible, +though her face betrayed nothing. An electrical machine hidden beneath +the altar was the cause of this shock. + +"Well?" enquired Fatia Negra as she returned to her place. + +"The crucifix struck me when I seized it, and struck me again when I put +it down," whispered the girl; and as she said these words she was very +pale. + +"And yet you did what I told you," said Fatia Negra, placing his hand on +Anicza's shoulder. "You are a brave girl, and worthy of me." + +"Comrades!" the leader of the adventurers now cried with a thundrous +voice, "come and listen to me!" + +Everyone thereupon abandoned his booth, his table or his diversion and +stood in a circle round Black Mask. + +"Ye know," he began, "the name of that place which is under the earth! +Its name is the grave. Ye are all of you at this moment in the grave +with me and if I wish it, dead men. Whoever would see once more the +bright sunlight of the upper world where dawn is now breaking, he must +swear that he will never at any time, drunk or sober, tell to any man +what has happened, what he has seen or heard in this underground tomb, +but will regard it all as a dream which he has forgotten on awakening. +Swear this with me in this hour! I myself will first of all repeat the +oath and ye must say whether ye are content therewith or not." + +Thereupon he approached the altar whose basement formed the glass +isolating "island" which all of us who have ever seen an electrical +machine know so well. The electric machine itself, a battery of Leyden +jars was hidden under the altar and connected by a piece of clockwork +with that opening covered with metal in which the crucifix had been +planted. + +Black Mask stood silently for a moment on the basement of the altar +after removing his helmet from his head, and those who stood nearest +were horrified to observe that single hairs of his long flowing mane of +hair rose slowly and remained stiffly suspended in the air. There was a +deep silence, the silence that prevails under the earth--among the Dead. + +And now Fatia Negra began to recite the words of the oath in a solemn +ghostly voice: "I, the bearer of the Black Mask, Fatia Negra, as they +call me, swear in the subterranean midnight by the living fire which +falling like rain reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes; by the flood +which killed all the dwellers upon earth; by the gaping gulf which +swallowed up the traitorous bands of Dathan and Abiram; by the spirit +which announced the death of King Saul; by the Angel Lucifer who by +reason of his rebellion was cast down from Heaven; by the angel Malach +Hamovesh who carries in his hands the sword of violent death; by the +twelve plagues of Egypt with which Moses visited the land of the +Pharaohs; by all these things and by the star under which I was born do +I swear secresy--and may I perish in fire and water, may I be buried +alive in the bowels of the earth, may I become a pillar of salt, may the +wild beast of the forest tear me to pieces, may my own weapon turn +against me in the evil hour, may I be terrified by midnight spectres and +hag-ridden, may my body be smitten with leprosy, my eyes with blindness, +my tongue with dumbness, my bones by rottenness, if ever I speak one +syllable to anybody, be it priest, or child, or father, or condemning +judge, or threatening headsman, of anything I have seen, heard or learnt +in this place, or write it down with my hand or put anybody on the track +of it! May every drop of my blood become curse-laden; may my remotest +posterity anathematize me; may I awake in my grave and go about again as +a spectre, if ever I act in anyway contrary to what I now swear! May all +those who are under the earth and above the earth be the witnesses of +this my oath!" + +This drastic formula satisfied everybody. In those parts the people much +prefer such unmeaning self-objurgation to our legal oaths as taken in +the presence of the judges and they are considered a hundred times more +binding. Meanwhile numerous single hairs had seemed to detach themselves +from Black Mask's long locks and now stood upright all around his head +like some spectral crown. Those who stood around regarded him with deep +horror. Many believed that a supernatural marvellous power was in his +words; only the girl did not believe in him at all. + +In order to increase still further this terrified respect the adventurer +beckoned towards him the old men of the assembly. + +"Come hither, that ye may see for yourselves how well acquainted with +the words of the oath are those in that other place where knowledge +needs must be; stretch out your hands towards me, touch me with the tips +of your fingers and ye will discover there is something else present +here besides yourselves." + +Old Onucz tremblingly stretched out his hand in the direction of Fatia +Negra and the next moment collapsed with fear when he perceived sparks +crackle forth from his leader's garments which burnt his finger tips. +More than one elder was afraid at first to put out his hand till +curiosity made him venture everything. Several wanted to convince +themselves personally of this miracle, which they could not credit from +the hearsay of others and the juggler himself encouraged those standing +near him to touch him wherever they chose and fire would spring from his +body. Sparks sometimes leaped forth from his neck and sometimes from +the tips of his ears and everyone was persuaded that the curse had +already made its way into every drop of his blood. + +Anicza alone did not draw near him. + +"Are you afraid of me, then?" enquired the imposter. + +"No." + +"Come and kiss me then!" + +Anicza approached and allowed herself to be kissed. + +Immediately afterwards a shudder ran through her. + +"Well? What did you feel?" + +"Your mouth burnt my mouth," replied the girl, and Fatia Negra happening +to look aside just then, she furtively crossed herself. + +Fatia Negra was completely satisfied with the success of this comedy. +Their awe of the mysterious and the unintelligible had made his comrades +his slaves; he need have no more scruples concerning them. + +"Give me your right hand, Anicza," said he, "and give your other hand to +your next neighbour, and let everyone take the hand of the person next +to him." + +Thus he made them form a long chain, the extreme end of which was +brought up by old Onucz in whose hand he placed a slender conducting rod +which hung down from the altar. Then he recited the fantastic oath +before them all once more, whilst they repeated every syllable of it +after him. The comedy was concluded by a violent electric shock which +instantly sent a spasm of pain through the muscles and sinews of every +member of the living chain. The poor untaught creatures all imagined +that the devil himself was flying through their limbs and with tears and +groans they begged Black Mask not to put them to any further test. + +"And now, Fatia Negra," said old Onucz respectfully, "the moment has +come in which you also must keep your word. Will you really take my +daughter to wife?" + +"I will not see the light of day again until I have done so." + +"Will you swear to be her husband in the way you promised to swear?" + +"You shall hear me." + +"Then have I something else to say to you. Over there, as you see, +stands the great weighing machine, in one of the scales I will place +Anicza and in the other as many piles of ducats as will make her kick +the beam. I will give my girl as many gold ducats as she weighs." + +Thereupon the two bridesmen produced a large wooden platter, placed the +bride on it, raised it high in the air and carried it to the huge +weighing machine. Onucz bade them place both bride and platter in the +scale that it might weigh the heavier. Then they piled up into the other +scale as many of the sacks of ducats sealed with the seal of Onucz as +were necessary to establish an absolute equipoise between the two +scales, and then while both the girl and the gold, balancing each other +were floating in the air, old Onucz, his face beaming with triumph, +poked Fatia Negra in the side with his elbows and said: "And now all +that is yours." + +The adventurer rushed to the weighing-machine, not indeed to the scale +on which the gold was, but to where the girl stood and lifted her down +on his arm as if she were a child. The other scale, losing its balance, +rushed earthwards and the sacks filled with gold ducats toppled off it +left and right. + +At this the company was delighted. Fatia Negra's manly tenderness was +appreciated by everyone and old Onucz, radiant with joy, turned towards +his cronies: "You see it is not my money but my daughter that he is +after!" + +And yet if Fatia Negra had only been able to foresee what was about to +happen the next instant, if only he had been able to guess what would +happen during the first few moments of the first approaching quarter of +an hour, could he but have heard one step, one bump which might have +told him what was going on just then above his head, instead of +extending his hands towards the girl, he would have done much more +wisely if he had grasped in each hand one of the sacks lying on the +other scale and made off with it somewhere through that dark corridor +which nobody knew of but he himself, under the special protection of the +devil. Just now, however, the devil was evidently not looking after him +as carefully as usual, for he returned to the altar with the girl in his +arms and deposited his load on the altar steps. The girl knelt down. + +"Strew over her corn moistened with honey!" whispered old Onucz to the +bridesmaids;--he considered this old custom as of the highest +importance. Possibly it was a symbol of fruitfulness. + +Anicza wanted Fatia Negra to bend down to her. She had something to +whisper in his ear. He leant over her as she desired, drew her pretty +face close up to his, and the girl timidly whispered: + +"Are you going to take me away under the earth?" + +"Are you afraid I shall do so?" + +"With you I will go wherever you choose and will fear nothing." + +"I take you at your word." + +"I don't care. Whither lies the way, to the right or to the left?" + +"To the left. Everything which brings luck must be done lefthandedly." + +"Is the door underneath the coining-shop?" asked the girl carelessly. + +"Yes, if you must know." + +"I am ready. Say the oath that I may hear it!" + +Fatia Negra repeated his hocus-pocus, kneeling down beside Anicza on the +steps of the altar, and raising his eyes towards the black vault of the +cavern as he recited the words of a new oath, which kept all the +listeners spellbound, so full it was of grisly images and hellish +fancies. So deep indeed was the general attention that nobody observed +in the meantime that, in the dark background formed by the distant walls +of the cavern, a multitude of strange faces were popping up. First two +men descended through the machinery of the mill and then two others +until, gradually, a hundred of them had assembled. They were all armed +and dressed in uniform, but their arms were concealed beneath their +mantles, that they might not glimmer through the darkness. And then they +quietly formed into ranks like supernumeraries on the stage of a theatre +whilst the chief comedian is ending his monologue in front of the +footlights. Only Anicza had observed them. During the whole course of +the oath, she had not once looked at Fatia Negra's cursing lips, but at +the groups forming in the darkness above his head. + +The oath over, Fatia Negra seized the reversed crucifix and an electric +shock again jolted the hand of the girl which he held fast in his own +right hand. "Now, you swear it also!" cried he. + +The only reply the girl gave was to passionately tear her hand out of +the adventurer's. Rising from her knees, and with her handsome face full +of rage, scorn and hatred, she turned upon him, who knelt at her feet, +gnashing her pearly teeth as she spoke: "Wretched play-actor! masked +imposter! You have deceived everybody, but nobody so much as me. Do you +remember that night in the ice valley and how shamefully you betrayed me +there? Know then that I was present in that hut, that it was I who blew +the horn and brought back the jealous husband from the forest. I saw the +tussle that followed and I swore, there and then, that I would be your +ruin. Just now you swore that if ever you betrayed me, thus might you +yourself be betrayed by whomsoever you trusted most. You said: 'Let +water pursue; let fire seize me, let the axe of the headsman descend +upon me and the dogs drink up my blood!' Be it so, then--here is fire in +front of you and water behind you and the headsman's sword above your +head! The dogs that are to lick your blood are already barking for it. I +have betrayed you. Look behind you!" + +The armed band of soldiers, moving forward in line, like a piece of +machinery, suddenly disclosed a row of bayonets glittering in the light +of the torches. "We are lost!" howled the mob, whilst the voice of the +officer in command (it had a strong foreign accent), rose above the din: +"Down with your arms! no resistance!" + +Onucz rushed roaring towards his sacks of ducats, the women scattered +screaming among the tents. For an instant Fatia Negra stood petrified +before Anicza, like a devil caught in a trap, and gazed vacantly at the +girl's flaming face. + +Anicza now turned quickly towards the armed soldiers and cried with a +piercing voice: "Hasten Juon Tare! Seize the smelting-oven entrance, +else this devil will still escape us!" + +That was why she wanted to know from Fatia Negra which way they would go +underground. + +At these words, however, the adventurer recovered himself. He saw a +pitiless enemy and a troop of armed men hastening to the door of the +smelting-furnace and that way of refuge was consequently closed. The +same instant an infernal idea occurred to him. + +Hastily snatching up a burning torch from the altar with a couple of +vigorous bounds he approached the smelting-furnace. Twenty bayonets and +a long axe in the hands of Juon Tare were raised against him--and he was +unarmed. + +But it was not to the door he wished to get. With a spring sideways he +reached the huge vat filled with brandy, threw the burning torch down in +front of it and placing his muscular shoulders against the vat, with a +desperate exertion of strength scattered its contents on to the floor of +the cavern from end to end. + +In an instant the whole cavern was in flames! + +The floor was of stone so that it could not absorb the spirit as it +leaked out and it flashed up as it caught the flame of the torch close +at hand. It spread rapidly like a lake of fire that has burst its dams. + +The blue spirit-flame filled the whole of the empty cavern with a pale, +ghastly glare, the air, the empty space itself seemed to burst into +flame. Hundreds of torches, burnt down to their very roots, flickered +luridly in the midst of this blue fire of hell, and the heaped-up fire +works,--the Bengali pyramids and the rockets and crackers--flamed, +fizzled and banged about in the midst of the terrible heat. And in the +thick of this infernal blaze black figures, like the souls of the +Accursed, were running frantically about, howling, shrieking and +toppling over one another and seeking a refuge on the higher rocks +whither the flames, spreading through the air, leaped after them. Juon +Tare lost his eyesight in the flames. The others tried to find a refuge +in the aqueduct running through the cavern, but the pursuing alcohol +rushed after them like a living cataract of fire. Everyone seemed bound +to perish at this hellish marriage feast. + +Only two people did not lose their presence of mind; only two knew what +ought to be done, and one of these was Fatia Negra. When the armed +soldiers scattered from before the door of the smelting-furnace, he had +boldly waded through the burning spirit; he knew very well that it could +not set fire to clothing immediately and he took care to hold his hands +in front of his eyes to save himself from being blinded. He tore the +door open and hastily vanished through it. + +The other was Anicza, who, when she saw that in the hundred-fold +confusion everyone had lost his head and was running desperately to +certain death, quickly snatched up an axe, rushed to the gigantic beer +vats and staved in their bottoms. The neutral fluid streamed down upon +the floor like a water fall and, gradually gaining ground, forced the +flaming _palinka_[31] back further and further, till at last the +infernal blue light was gradually extinguished. + +[Footnote 31: Hungarian brandy.] + +By that time, however, the beautiful bride was a sight of horror, her +face was burnt out of all recognition. + +Every member of the party had received injuries from the fire. Some of +them, already blinded, writhed in agony on the ground and dipped their +faces in the cool puddles formed by the flowing beer. Old Onucz had not +a hair of his head left, but for all that he was still sitting on a heap +of ducats, which were rolling in every direction out of the half charred +sacks. His scorched hands he dug down deep among his ducats, and +thought, perhaps, that they would assuage his pangs. + +Both of Juon Tare's eyes had been burnt out by an explosion of +gunpowder, and two of the soldiers had also received serious injuries. + +Only after the general terror had subsided a little, did it occur to +someone that now that the fire had been brought under, Fatia Negra might +be pursued. This someone was the bride. + +It was she who seized a new torch, it was she who cried to the soldiers: +"After me!" and was the first to tear open the door of the +smelting-furnace. Within was darkness. By torchlight they explored every +corner of that underground world--but Fatia Negra was nowhere to be +found. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE MIKALAI CSARDA + + +From Hidvar to Gyula Fehervar is a good day's journey, even with the +best horses and in the best weather; in the rainy season the mountain +streams make the journey still longer. Fortunately, exactly half-way +lies the Mikalai _csarda_, in which dwells a good honest Wallachian +gentleman who also follows the profession of innkeeper. In these mining +regions there are no Jews, all the inns and _csardas_ are in the hands +of the Armenians and Wallachs: the people are content with them and the +Hungarian gentry like them. + +Young Makkabesku had built up his den in a most picturesque situation +beside a stream gushing down from among the mountains and forming a +waterfall close to the very house. This stream possessed the peculiar +property of turning to stone every leaf and twig which fell into it, +even the branches of the trees hanging over it were turned into pretty +white petrifactions so far as the water was able to reach them. + +Domnul Makkabesku did not carry on the business of inn-keeper for the +sake of gain (he would not have been able to make a living out of it if +he had tried), but from sheer goodheartedness and good-fellowship. His +charges therefore were extremely moderate. A traveller on foot who asked +for a night's lodging, had to pay twopence, a traveller on horseback a +shilling; if he required wine and brandy for supper as well, still he +was only charged a shilling. Who would go to the trouble of totting up +extra figures for trifles of that sort? A carriage and four was not +taxed at all, those who came in it paid what they chose. If anybody did +not ask what he had to pay but simply shook hands and went on his way, +mine host simply wished him a happy journey and never said a word about +his account. + +For Makkabesku was a proud man in his way and thought a great deal of +his gentility. He expected to be addressed as "Domnule!"[32] and was +delighted when his guests took notice of his coat of arms hanging up in +the guest chamber,--to-wit, a black bear with three darts in its +heel--and enquired as to its meaning; when he would explain that that +black bear with the three darts which was also painted on a sheet of +lead and swung backwards and forwards in front of the house between two +iron rods was not a sign-board, but his family crest. + +[Footnote 32: Sir.] + +Late one afternoon Baron Leonard Hatszegi might have been seen on foot +crossing the bridge which led to the Mikalai _csarda_, and entering its +courtyard. He came on foot with a small box under his arm and his +double-barrelled gun across his shoulder. Makkabesku greeted him from +the verandah while he was still a long way off. + +"God be with your lordship! Is anything amiss that your lordship comes +on foot?" + +"Yes, at that cursed _tyira lupului_[33] the axle of my coach gave way. +I have always said that that bad bit of road ought to be seen to, this +is at least the sixth time that this accident has befallen me." + +[Footnote 33: Wolf-corner.] + +"God is the cause thereof, your lordship. Whenever the stream overflows +it damages the road." + +"That is no consolation for me. My fellows are struggling with the coach +yonder and cannot set it upright again, so badly damaged it is. It is a +good job I was driving my own horses, for otherwise my neck might have +been broken. As it is one of my heydukes has sprained his hand. Send +help to them at once, or they are likely to remain there all night. +Where's your little girl?" + +"Ah, my lord! your lordship will always be having your little +joke.--Flora, come hither!" + +A pretty little maid came out of the inn at these words, and smiled upon +the nobleman with a face toasted red by the kitchen fire. + +"Take his lordship's gun and little box and carry them into the +guest-room!" + +"Well, my little girl! how are you? not married yet, eh?" said the +baron, pinching her round red cheeks whilst the wench took his box. + +"Heh, but 'tis heavy!" she gasped, as if she were quite frightened at +the weight of the box. "Won't the gun go off?" + +"Don't turn your fiery eyes upon it, or else it might--eh, grandpapa, +what do you say?" + +"Come, Flora, go in, go in! His lordship is always in such capital +spirits. Even when his carriage comes to grief he will have his joke all +the same." + +The point of the joke was that Makkabesku was a man not much beyond +forty though there were flecks of grey on the back of his head here and +there. The girl, on the other hand, was scarcely sixteen when the +Roumanian gentleman took her to wife. Leonard therefore always made a +point of aggravating the innkeeper by pretending to believe that his +wife was his daughter and by regularly asking him, as if he were her +grandfather, when he intended to get his granddaughter married. + +"You need not send help to my carriage, after all," said Hatszegi, after +due reflection; "for, by and by I'll see to that myself. I am going back +that way. But I should like you to place that little box in some safe +place for the time being. It contains 4,000 ducats and that is no +trifle." + +"Huh! my lord!" cried the innkeeper clapping the back of his head with +both hands, as if he feared it was already about to fall off backwards. +"Your lordship dares to carry so much gold about with you and stroll so +carelessly about in these parts!" + +"Carelessly!--what do you mean? I cannot wheel them in front of me on a +barrow can I? I want to pay them into my account at Fehervar the day +after to-morrow; I have payments to make. That is why I carry them about +with me." + +"I only meant to say that it is dangerous to go about alone with so much +money." + +"I am not in the habit of going about with an escort." + +"The more's the pity, Domnule. These parts are panic-stricken, since +Anicza betrayed the coiners in the Lucsia Cavern, we have been saddled +with a whole heap of calamities. A lot of poor fools and a heap of +treasure were captured, but the head of the band, Fatia Negra, was +suffered to escape. And now, furious at his loss of treasure, he +blackmails the whole region. Nobody is safe here now,--only the day +before yesterday he stopped and robbed the royal mails on the King's +highroad." + +"Ho, ho! If he takes to those games, he'll soon get his teeth broken. He +won't venture to touch me though, I'll be bound." + +"I don't know about that Domnule. He wears a mask and therefore has no +need to blush or blanch at anything." + +"Does he ever look in here, or has he ever lodged with you?" + +"No, my lord, I can safely say that he has never been here, to my great +astonishment I must confess. For a great many gentlemen call here and +many paths lead hitherward." + +"Don't you keep arms in your house?" + +"Why should I? I have not enough money to make it worth Fatia Negra's +while to rob me. Besides, it is a great mistake to resist him. Juon Tare +actually had him in his hands, yet what was the result? He goes about +now a blind beggar. Anicza betrayed him and brought down the soldiers +upon him, yet what did _she_ get by it? _He_ vanished under the earth, +but she reduced her old father to poverty and is now sitting with all +her acquaintances in the dungeons of Gyula Fehervar!" + +"Fear nothing! At any rate no ill can befall you while I go to my +coachman and come back again. Lock this casket in your wall-cupboard in +the meantime, and keep the key yourself." + +"Nay, let your lordship keep it rather. I don't want it to be said that +I knew anything about it." + +So Makkabesku locked up the casket in the huge wall-closet which greatly +resembled a large standing clock case and in which were his diploma of +nobility and all his domestic treasures. The key of the locked closet he +returned to his guest. Then by way of extra precaution, he locked the +room as well and forced that key also upon the Baron. + +"Domnule," he added, when he saw that Hatszegi was determined to return +to his wrecked coach. "I can only say that I should be very glad if +your lordship would not go. The servants will be quite able to bring the +carriage along." + +"That they cannot: the whole lot of them are mere boors who have never +seen a carriage with an iron axle." + +"Let me go then, and your lordship remain here." + +"I suppose you want me, then, to show your daughter how to cook?" + +The innkeeper's eyebrows contracted at these words; his desire to go +visibly subsided. + +"But suppose I am afraid of being left alone in the house with so much +money?" + +"Come, come, wretched man!" cried Hatszegi at last losing all patience, +"you don't suppose that your blockhead of a bandit is lying in wait for +me, do you? Look you now! I'll leave you my gun. Take it in your hand +and plant yourself there before the door. Bring out a chair, if you +like, and sit down on it. Pull down the hammers of both barrels and hold +your thumb on them and your index finger on the trigger. The left barrel +is filled with ten buckshot and you can be quite sure that whoever +approaches you from the lower end of this passage will inevitably get +five in his body,--and five of them is enough for anybody. The second +barrel, the right one I mean, is loaded with a bullet which we generally +keep in reserve for a wild beast, at the last moment, at six paces; at +that distance any child could kill a giant. Don't be afraid, if he wore +a coat of mail, it would go through it, for that bullet has a steel +point and would perforate a leaden door. Come, you are not afraid now, +surely?" + +Makkabesku certainly felt a great stream of courage flow into his heart +at the knowledge that he held in his hand a weapon which could kill the +most terrible of men twice over. + +"But what about your lordship?" he enquired. + +"Oh, I've got two revolvers in my pocket." + +And with that, gaily whistling, Hatszegi strode down the long passage +and peeped into the kitchen, on his way out, to exchange a word or two +with the fair young cook. + +"Look ye, my daughter, have supper ready by my return, and take care not +to over-salt the soup!" and then with the nonchalance becoming his +station he sauntered across the bridge again into the highroad, followed +all the way by the eyes of Makkabesku.--"What a gallant fellow it is!" +reflected the Roumanian. + +The innkeeper did not count courage among his virtues. He was a +peace-loving soul who detested the very idea of a brawl. Even when he +sat down to drink, it was always inside a room with a locked door, for +on one occasion, when he had got drunk in public, the wine had instilled +within him such unwonted audacity that he had got his skull broken in +two places in consequence. After that he avoided all such occasions of +heroism. + +For such folks who have nothing to do with firearms as a rule, there is +a peculiar charm in suddenly holding a loaded weapon in their hands. +Valour and a sudden access of pugnacity combine to put them in a +condition of perpetual fever. A strange longing arises within them to +make use of their weapon. Once or twice Makkabesku raised his gun to his +cheek and made a target of a fly on the wall. At the end of the +vestibule facing him was an old Roman image, the head and bust of an +Emperor, which had been unearthed in the neighbourhood of the house when +the foundations had been laid, and had been adopted forthwith as a +family relic. If this old imperial figurehead had been an enemy, let us +say the famous robber of the district, our marksman felt that he could +easily have shattered his skull for him. + +The sun was now slowly descending from the sky, and the lower it sank, +the less golden and the more purple grew the light which it threw upon +the ancient monument opposite, till the shadow of an adjacent column +fell softly across it and hid it half from view. + +Suddenly it seemed to Makkabesku as if he saw the shadow of a human head +moving beside the shadow of the column. + +The breath died away on his lips--someone was lurking there! + +"Who is there?" he cried, in a voice half choked with terror. The same +instant there stood before him at the opposite end of the +corridor--Fatia Negra! + +Yes, there the figure was just as it had been described to him, +enfolded in a black atlas mantle, with a black mask across its face. + +"Stay where you are, don't come here!" cried the armed Makkabesku, in an +agony of terror, "or I'll shoot you through," and as the mask continued +to advance, he hurriedly fired off the left barrel of the gun. + +The smoke of the powder cleared away, Fatia Negra stood there unwounded, +he was coming nearer and nearer! + +Ah, those little shots could not hurt him, of course--but now he shall +have the bullet with the steel point. + +As the first shot was fired, Makkabesku's wife came running out of the +kitchen and came face to face with the robber. He immediately seized her +arm with his muscular hand and flung her back into the kitchen the door +of which he locked upon her. + +Mr. Makkabesku permitted all this to go on before his very eyes, but he +had raised the gun and held it firmly pressed against his cheek, he +wanted the robber to draw nearer still that he might make quite sure of +him. + +When there were only three yards between them he aimed right at the +middle of the intruder, pressed the trigger of the gun and the right +barrel also exploded. + +Yet the report was followed by no death cry--and Fatia Negra still stood +in front of him unscathed. + +Paralyzed with terror Makkabesku continued to hold the discharged gun +in front of him as if he expected it to go off again of its own accord; +but Fatia Negra, catching hold of the end of the gun with one hand, +wrenched it out of the innkeeper's grasp and brought down the butt of it +so violently on the top of his head that he collapsed in a senseless +condition. + +After that nobody knew what happened. + +When Hatszegi and his servants arrived with the patched-up carriage, +Makkabesku was still lying on the ground unconscious, his wife was +thundering at the locked door, the door of the guest chamber was smashed +and the cupboard in the wall had been broken into and pillaged. +Curiously enough, while not one of the innkeeper's relics was missing, +Hatszegi's box with the 4,000 ducats had disappeared. A little later it +was found in the bed of the stream--empty of course. + +Makkabesku was a very long time coming to, but he contrived at last, in +a very tremulous voice, to tell Hatszegi the somnambulistic case of the +double shots, nay he called Heaven to witness that Fatia Negra had +caught the bullets in his hands as if they were flies. + +"You're a fool," cried Hatszegi angrily. "I suppose you fired above his +head on both occasions." + +"But then you ought to see the marks of the bullets on the opposite +wall." + +And it was a fact that, look as they might, they found no trace of a +bullet on the walls or anywhere else. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WHO IT WAS THAT RECOGNIZED FATIA NEGRA + + +The events at the Mikalai _csarda_ considerably upset Hatszegi. He +returned home very sulky and was unusually ungracious towards Henrietta. +There were several violent scenes between them, in the course of which +the baron twitted his wife with having betrayed him and hinted that it +was all in consequence of her own and her brother's bad conduct that she +had been disinherited by her grandfather. He revealed to her that he +knew everything. He was well aware, he said, that in her girlhood she +had had a rascally young attorney as a lover and had thereby incurred +her grandfather's anger. + +Henrietta, poor thing, had not the spirit to answer him back: "If you +knew this, why did you marry me? Why did you not leave me then to him +with whom I should have been happy if poor?" She could only reply with +tears. She trembled before him while she loathed him. + +And yet how dependent she was on him. + +She was well aware now of what her brother was accused, and never +doubted for a moment what she ought to do. She ought to atone for his +fault by an act of self-sacrifice. She must recognize the forgery as her +real signature. But what then? The recognition of the signature must +needs have consequences. What would be the result of her action? + +She could see she had no help to expect from her husband. At every step +she perceived that he eagerly sought occasion to quarrel with her and +seized every pretext for avoiding her. And now to add to her +embarrassment, there was this unlucky Mikalai accident. It seemed just +to have come in the nick of time so far as he was concerned, just as if +he had actually agreed with Fatia Negra that the latter should rob him +on the high road in the most artful manner so that she might not have +the slightest hope left of being relieved from her anxieties by the +assistance of her husband. The baron, now could always end every +_tete-a-tete_ by remarking that that rogue Fatia Negra had relieved him +of all his money, and he knew not how to make good his loss. + +One day, while away from home hunting at Csako, Baron Leonard learnt +that the Countess Kengyelesy's latest ideal was Szilard Vamhidy and when +chance soon afterwards brought him also to Arad, he could see for +himself that the countess really did load the young man with distinction +in society. + +The circumstance began to irritate him. + +This pale-faced youth with the big burning eyes had turned the head of +his own consort once upon a time, and now he was making other enviable +conquests. The idea occurred to Hatszegi to knock this "student chap" +out of his saddle a second time. Heretofore he had never regarded the +countess as a particularly pretty woman, but now he very readily +persuaded himself that he was over head and ears in love with her. + +He began to pay his court to her--and he was lucky. At least everybody +believed it--himself included. + +The countess always seemed pleased to see him, and the oftener he paid +his visits, the less frequent grew the visits of Szilard. Occasionally +they met at the countess's and then Szilard would hastily step aside, as +vanquished rivals are wont to do when their conquerors appear. At last +Leonard was a daily institution at the countess's, while Szilard only +appeared there occasionally. + +Yet one day, while Hatszegi was in the drawing room of the countess, +paying his court to her most assiduously, Vamhidy entered _sans gene_; +whereupon the countess hastily springing up from her _causeuse_ asked +leave of the baron to withdraw for a moment and there and then conducted +Vamhidy into her private boudoir and remained closeted with him for a +good quarter of an hour, whilst Hatszegi, yellow with jealousy, was left +alone with the countess's French companion, who could answer nothing but +"oui" and "non" to all his remarks. + +When the countess emerged from her room, she seemed to be in a very good +humour. She accompanied Szilard all the way to the drawing-room door, +pressed his hand, and when they parted at the door exchanged a +significant look with him, at the same time touching her lips with her +index finger--a very confidential piece of pantomime as any connoisseur +will tell you. + +And all this Hatszegi saw reflected in the mirror, opposite to which he +sat. + +As soon as the countess sat down, her companion, as if at a given +signal, arose and left the room. + +Scarcely were they alone when the baron petulantly remarked: "It appears +as if your ladyship and our young friend rejoiced in very intimate +mutual relations." + +"Oh, very intimate. I assure you he is a most worthy, honourable man." + +"So I observe." + +"I am quite in earnest. I find him quite a treasure, and he is +extraordinarily attached to me." + +"Very nice of him, I'm sure." + +"Oh, you gentlemen, what mockers you are. There are men, I can tell you, +who for all that they are poor are more capable of self-sacrifice than +the haughtiest nabobs who make such a fuss over us till we are in +trouble and then snatch up their hats and fly from the house. You also +belong to that class, my lord!" + +"I don't understand you." + +"Suppose, for instance, I were to say to you: my dear friend, I have +fallen into quite an awkward predicament and to-day or to-morrow they +will distrain upon me for 40,000 florins." + +The baron burst out laughing. + +"Don't laugh, for so it really is. That need cause _you_ no anxiety, +however, I only ask you to tell nobody, especially my husband. He would +be capable of making an end of me if he knew it." + +"But seriously, countess, who could ever have lent you 40,000 florins?" + +"Nobody, and yet I am indebted to that amount. You must know that once +upon a time, many years ago, when we lived at Vienna, I was given to +card playing. We played for high stakes in those days. One evening not +only did I lose all my cash, but had to give I.O.U.'s for 1,000 florins +besides. Debts contracted at play cannot remain unpaid for more than a +couple of days. It was absolutely indispensable that I should procure +these thousand florins somehow. I would not ask my husband for them and +that was very foolish of me. I got the amount at last from a wretched +usurer at an enormous rate of interest. When the amount plus interest +became due again, I was still more afraid to tell my husband, and so +kept on giving fresh bills, with the result that the amount of my +indebtedness grew and grew as the years rolled on, till it resembled the +egg of the widow in the nursery tale--out of which came first two cocks, +then a bristling boar, then a camel, and finally a carriage and four, +for at last my original poor little debt of one thousand florins swelled +into forty thousand and the usurers became importunate and would allow +me no more credit. Once when I was in a very bad humour, I let out my +secret before Szilard, and the worthy young man undertook to relieve me +of my burden. I don't know whether he detected a technical flaw in my +bonds or whether he found out some other means of frightening my +creditor; anyway, he assured me I only need pay the original sum with +interest upon it at the legal rate. Moreover, he undertook to procure me +an honourable loan on easy conditions, which to me was a veritable +godsend. And so now you know, my dear friend, why Vamhidy is so welcome +a guest at my house that I leave even you all alone with my companion +when he comes. But you can see for yourself how dear and necessary he is +to me and how much I owe to him." + +Hatszegi remained in a brown study for several moments, and began biting +his lips. The countess sat down at the piano with the most amiable +nonchalance as if she gave not another thought to what she had been +speaking about. + +"If only I had not had the misfortune to be robbed!" cried Hatszegi at +last. + +"Do you know what, my dear friend," said the countess, at the same time +letting her fingers glide lightly over the ivory keys of the piano, "I +consider the whole of that affair as simply incredible. Two shots so +close to a man and no result!--why it borders a little upon the +fabulous!" + +"Then I suppose you think it was the innkeeper himself who robbed me?" + +The countess shrugged her round shoulders slightly and went on playing. + +"That is not possible," resumed the baron, answering his own query, "for +I myself saw the blow which Makkabesku received on the head from the +butt of the musket, and I can tell your ladyship that there are no four +thousand ducats in the world for the sake of which I could lend my head +to such a blow." + +The countess interrupted her _roulades_ for a moment: + +"You saw it, eh? And did anybody else see it?" + +Hatszegi was strangely surprised by this question. + +"What is in your mind, Countess?" he asked. + +"I am thinking, my dear friend, that you have some particular reason for +playing the injured man, and I have read the whole tale of the Maccabees +in some history or other of the Jews which you would now palm off upon +the world as something new." + +"Your jests are most unmerciful, Countess; but may I beg of you to give +that piano a little rest, especially as it wants tuning. I should like +to speak seriously to you for a moment or two." + +"About the Maccabees, eh?" enquired the countess, laughing. + +"No. About myself. I am quite serious when I say I have had losses. +Your ladyship need not know how. But for all that I know what a +gentleman ought to do after such a revelation as that with which the +countess has just honoured me and which I accept as a most flattering +mark of confidence." + +"Impossible." + +"What I say is never impossible; but what that student fellow has chosen +to palm off on your ladyship that _is_ impossible. He will not be able +to help your ladyship without a great scandal. Naturally a mere attorney +looks upon that as a matter of course. He does not understand that there +are cases in which a person would rather spring into a well than risk +her reputation in the eyes of the world by appealing to the courts for +redress. I make your ladyship another proposal: I will exchange a bond +of my own against the bond of the countess to an equal amount. I feel +confident that the usurers will lend readily on my paper and will jump +at the exchange." + +"Oh, many thanks, many thanks! But, first of all, I should like to know +what interest you mean to charge me; for I am not going to pay anything +usurious again." + +"Legal and Christian interest, I assure you. But I must impose one +condition: your ladyship's doors must henceforth be closed against this +lawyer fellow." + +"Are you serious, Baron?" + +"Perfectly so." + +"Are you not afraid I shall take you at your word?" + +"By doing so you will satisfy my desires. Look, Countess! I consider +myself as one of your most sincere admirers and it wounds me to hear all +this tittle-tattle circulating in our set which links your ladyship's +name with that of young Vamhidy." + +"But will it not injure the respect you entertain for me if your name +takes the place of Vamhidy's in the gossip you complain of?" + +"All that I desire is that a certain man shall be excluded from this +house, and if the countess desires it I will then keep away likewise." + +The countess hastened to press Hatszegi's hand as a sign that _she_ did +not desire _that_. + +"Very well, then, to prove to you that my relations with Vamhidy were +purely professional, I will break off all further intercourse with him." + +"Then we'll clinch your ladyship's determination at once. May I make use +of your writing table? Have you any other ink than this rose-coloured +ink, with which to be sure, your ladyship generally writes your letters, +but which is a little unusual in official documents?" + +"Everything you desire, sealing-wax included." + +"That is not necessary for bills. What a fortunate thing that I have a +blank form with me." + +The baron discovered in his pocket a blank form, without which no +gentleman ever goes about, and filled it up in the usual way. The +countess, with her elbows on the back of the armchair, looked over the +baron's shoulder while he signed the precious document, and thought to +herself: what an odd thing it is when a rich and influential man +refuses, with a heart of iron, to give his wife a little assistance +which would make her happy and save her brother from dishonour, and yet +lightly pitches the very sum required out of the window for the sake of +a pretty speech from another woman who is almost a stranger to him! + +After signing the document Leonard did not linger another instant, but +snatched up his hat and hastened off so as to avoid the suspicion that +he was expecting some little gratification on account. + +The pressure of the hand which the countess exchanged with him at +parting assured him that this conquering manoeuver on his part was a +complete success. + +Subsequently, however, as, stretched at full length on his sofa, he was +smoking his first pipe of tobacco, he grew suspicious, and speedily felt +convinced that the countess's tale of the usurers was a fable from +beginning to end and that Vamhidy was some broker or other who lent +money privately; and he began to be not quite so proud at having ousted +the fellow from her ladyship's drawing room. + +But a still greater surprise awaited him. + +He had a shrewd suspicion that the Countess Kengyelesy did not require +the bill he had signed to discharge any debt to usurers; but not even +in his dreams would it ever have occurred to him that Madame Kengyelesy, +at the very moment when he had gone out into the street, had sat down on +the very same chair from which the baron had arisen, taken into her hand +the very same pen in which the ink he had used was not yet dry, and +selecting a sheet of letter paper, written a few lines of her long +pointed pot-hooks to her friend, the Baroness Hatszegi: informing her in +a most friendly manner that she had succeeded in persuading Hatszegi to +exchange the bill that Koloman was suspected of forging for one of his +own in order to give his wife the opportunity of acknowledging the +signature as her own and putting a stop to all further legal +proceedings. All this was set forth with far greater elaboration than it +is here, but was nevertheless perfectly intelligible. The original bill +was appended to the letter and the letter was posted. Henrietta was +bound to receive it next day. + +Imagine then the surprise of Hatszegi, who for the last three days had +been pacing impatiently up and down his room, naturally expecting every +moment that the countess would surrender at discretion and send for him +out of sheer gratitude, when the door was suddenly opened with +considerable impetuosity and in came--Henrietta. Before he could +sufficiently recover from his amazement to ask her what she was looking +for there, his wife fell on his neck, and, sobbing with emotion, came +out with some long rigamarole about delicacy,--gratitude--a delightful +surprise--and only half suspected kindness of heart--and a lot more of +unintelligible nonsense, winding up by begging his pardon if ever she +had unwittingly offended him and promising him that _after this_ she +would ever be his faithful slave! + +_After this!_--after _what_? + +It was only when his wife told him that she was alluding to that bill +for 40,000 florins which he had been so kind as to send her through the +countess, that some inkling of the truth burst upon him. + +"Oh, that eh! It quite escaped my memory and is not worth mentioning," +he cried, hiding his astonishment beneath the affectation of a +magnanimity which scorned even to remember such trifles. + +Oh, if the countess had been able to see him at that moment, how she +would have laughed! + +Every drop of Leonard's blood seemed to turn to gall. How ridiculous he +had been made to appear by a woman's nobility, and the consciousness +thereof was still further embittered by the artless and innocent +gratitude of that other woman--his own wife. He could have torn the pair +of them to pieces. What a pretty fool he had made of himself. He had +purchased the love of his wife for 40,000 florins. He could not demand +back the bill from her, nor could he explain to her the compromising +origin of that document. And in addition to that, he must play the part +of dignified pater familias which his wife had assigned to him in this +domestic drama, instead of that of first lover which was so much more to +his liking. + +"All right, Henrietta," said he, assuming a calmness he was far from +feeling. "If you like to give me the bill, I'll see that it is posted to +your lawyer at Pest, Mr. Sipos." + +Henrietta thanked him sincerely, but said she would rather take it to +Pest herself in order that she might have a long confidential talk with +Mr. Sipos personally about her poor brother. + +"Then wait, Henrietta, till the Arad races are over. You know I am +greatly interested in them. If I am not there myself they are quite +capable of striking my horses out." + +"My dear Leonard, I don't want you to interrupt any of your business or +pleasure on my account. I can easily go by myself. But I don't want to +postpone the matter a single day. You know how anxious I am about my +poor brother." + +"Well, but you know that the roads are very dangerous just now. You know +what happened to myself a little while ago." + +"Oh, I have my plan all cut and dried. I am prepared for the very worst. +If robbers attack me I will give up to them, at the first challenge, all +the cash I have about me. What I am most afraid of is the bill, but I +will hide that so that nobody can find it." + +"My dear, these men are very artful." + +"Oh, they won't find it, I can tell you. The insides of my +upper-sleeves consist of steel rings which fasten close to the arms, and +I will roll up my bill, insert it within my sleeve and draw a steel ring +over it. They will never guess that, will they?" + +"A good idea, certainly." + +Yet, good idea as he thought it, Hatszegi nevertheless complained to his +friend Gerzson, whom he met at the club the same evening, how anxious he +was about his wife, who was going all the way to Pest next day, and how +glad he would be, since he was unable to accompany her himself, if +someone would persuade her not to go. + +Naturally Mr. Gerzson at once offered to dissuade the baroness, as +Hatszegi had anticipated, and was invited to tea by him the same day +with that express purpose, but, talk as he might, he could not prevail +with Henrietta. In reply to all his arguments, she pleaded for her poor +brother, whose fate, she added, with tears, depended upon her instant +action. + +Now, Mr. Gerzson was a gentleman--every inch of him. He was also +kind-hearted to a fault, and when he beheld the poor woman in despair, +he put an end to the difficulty by saying: "Very well, my lady, then I +will escort you to Pest myself." + +At this Hatszegi fairly lost all patience. "Why, what can you be +thinking of?" cried he. + +"Your pardon, Leonard, but I suppose you may regard me as old enough and +honourable enough to fill the place of a father to your wife on an +occasion like this! It appears to me that it will never enter anybody's +head to speak slightingly of a lady because she travelled alone with +me." + +Good, worthy old man, he was quite proud that no woman could look at his +face without a shudder. + +"And then I fancy that there's still quite enough of me left to defend a +woman against anybody, even though it were the devil himself. And I +should advise that worthy Fatia Negra not to show his mug to me, for my +stunted hand does not fire guns as our friend Makkabesku is in the habit +of doing, nor will my bullets be caught like flies, I warrant." + +"You will be done out of the horse-racing, all through me," remarked +Henrietta sadly. + +"Oh, it does not interest me much. I don't care much about it." + +This was not true, but it was all the nicer of the old man to say so. + +"Then you really mean to escort my wife to Pest?" said Hatszegi, at +last. + +"With the greatest of pleasure." + +"Very well. At any rate, I will see to all the travelling arrangements +that there may be no delay at any of the stages. Which way do you prefer +to go _via_ Csongrad or _via_ Szeged? + +"By way of Csongrad." + +"Well, 'tis the shorter of the two certainly, but at this season of the +year the road is as hard as steel. It will be as well to provide my +horses with fresh shoes." + +"It is now ten o'clock. By midnight your coachman will have managed to +do all that. The baroness would do well if she had a little sleep now. +Meanwhile I will go home for my luggage and my weapons; at two o'clock +in the morning I shall be here again, and at three we can start." + +"I will be awake and watching for you, and I thank you with all my +heart." + +Mr. Gerzson drank up his tea and hastened home. Leonard advised +Henrietta to go and sleep--and she really was very sleepy--while he went +to the stables to see to the horses. + +It was about midnight when he returned. He looked very tired, like one +who has had a great deal of bustling about. He was alone in the drawing +room, so he stirred up the fire, lit a cigar and waited in silence. + +At half past two Mr. Gerzson rang the gate-bell; he entered the +drawing-room very boisterously like one resolved to wake up the whole +house. A little coffer hung upon his stunted arm, in the other hand he +carried a double-barrelled gun, and from a pouch, fastened by straps to +his shoulder, peeped forth two four-barrelled pistols. + +"Why, plague take it!" laughed Hatszegi, "you are armed for a whole +guerilla warfare." + +"No more than Fatia Negra deserves," replied Mr. Gerzson with a sombre +grimace. "Is your wife up and dressed?" + +"I fancy she lay down ready dressed." + +"All the better. It'll be as well if we start early." + +"I hear the opening and closing of doors in her apartments, no doubt +your ringing disturbed her. She will be here in an instant, for she is +very impatient." + +"That is only natural." + +"And in the meantime, let us have something to strengthen the heart," +said Hatszegi producing a flask of _szilvapalinka_[34] and filling his +own and his guest's glass. "If you have a chance of shooting Fatia +Negra, you must give me one half of the thousand ducats set upon his +head, because I have abandoned this fine opportunity to you." + +[Footnote 34: Hungarian cherry brandy.] + +At this Mr. Gerzson coughed. + +"I have also provided you with a good wooden flask of _Hegyalja_,"[35] +said Leonard, taking from the sideboard a handsome flask bound in +foal-skin. + +[Footnote 35: A species of Tokay.] + +"Therein you acted wisely." + +"All this side of the Theiss you will get no drinkable water, and +Henrietta always gets ague at once if the water is bad. Although but a +child, she will never take any wine unless you force her to do so. I +earnestly beg of you to take great care of her. I don't like this +journey a bit. A letter would have done the business just as well; but I +make it a rule never to thwart her when she gets these ideas into her +head. All I say is: take care of her." + +"I'll watch over her as if she were my own child." + +In a quarter of an hour Henrietta appeared in full travelling costume. +The lacquey brought in breakfast. The gentlemen also sat down to it lest +the lady should breakfast alone. + +"We shall have splendid weather, Baroness," observed Mr. Gerzson, +dipping his cake into his black coffee. "The sky is full of stars, we +could not wish for better travelling weather." + +"The sky is nice enough, but the ground is a little stumbly," put in +Hatszegi. "Around Dombhegyhaza in particular the roads will spill you if +you don't look out." + +"I don't care a bit, for I mean to drive the horses myself." + +"Oh, that I will not allow," said Henrietta. "It is no joke to hold the +reins, for hours at a stretch, on bad roads." + +"I do it because I like it, your ladyship. You know I love my pipe, and +how can I smoke it in a covered carriage?" + +Shortly afterwards Mr. Gerzson asked leave to go out and inspect the +coach and the coachman, and after closely investigating everything and +wrangling a little with the coachman, purely from traditional habit, +just to show the fellow that he understood all about it, he ascended to +the drawing-room again and announced that the horses had been put to. + +Hatszegi helped his wife to adjust her mantle over her shoulders, and +impressed a cold kiss upon her forehead. Henrietta once more thanked him +warmly for being so good to her and allowed Mr. Gerzson to escort her +down the steps. The old gentleman, however, would not allow himself to +be persuaded to take his place in the carriage by her side. His hands +itched to hold the reins and he would, he said, be sure to go to sleep +and make himself a nuisance if he sat inside. So he had his way, and +indeed in all the Hungarian plain a more adroit and careful driver could +not have been found. + +Gradually the night began to die away and the sky began to grow lighter +behind the mountains of Bihar, which they had now left behind them. The +smaller stars vanished in groups before the brightening twilight; only +the larger constellations still sparkled through the dawn. Presently a +hue of burning pink lit up the sky and long straight strips of cloud +swam, like golden ribbons, before the rising sun whose increasing +radiance already lit up the broad cupolas of the dark mountains. Before +the travellers extended the endless plain of the _Alfoeld_,[36] like a +bridge rising from her bed to greet her beloved Lord, the Sun. + +[Footnote 36: The great Hungarian plain.] + +On Mr. Gerzson, however, the romantic spectacle of sunrise on the +_puszta_ produced no romantic impression whatsoever. He neither observed +the golden clouds in the sky, nor the dappled shadows flitting across +the dewy fields, nor the lilac-coloured nebulous horizon. He saw none +of these things, I say, but he saw something else which did not please +him at all. + +"I say, Joska, the right leader is limping." + +"Yes, it certainly is," replied the coachman. + +"Get down and see what's the matter." + +The coachman got down, lifted the horse's leg, brushed away the dust +from around the hoof and said with the air of a connoisseur: "This +horse's hoof has been pricked." + +"What the devil...!" rang out Mr. Gerzson, but there he stopped, for +it is not becoming to curse and swear when a lady is in the carriage +behind you, even if she does not hear. + +Meanwhile the coachman mounted up beside him and they drove on again. + +"Well we cannot drive that horse much further," grumbled Mr. Gerzson, +"the other three must pull the carriage. At Csongrad we must get another +to take its place and leave it behind there." + +A long discussion thereupon ensued between him and the coachman as to +the clumsiness of smiths in general, who when they pare away a horse's +hoofs in order to shoe it, so often cut into the living flesh, which is +very dangerous, and is technically known as "pricking." + +They had scarce proceeded for more than another half hour when Mr. +Gerzson again began to cast suspicious glances down from the box-seat. + +"I say, Joska," he cried at last, "it seems to me the left leader, the +whip horse, is also limping." + +Down leaped the coachman, examined the horse's foot and pronounced that +the hoof of the left leader had also been pricked. + +"Devil take...!" cried Mr. Gerzson, but once more he did not +enlighten the devil as to the particular individual he was desirous of +drawing his attention to. + +"Well, I suppose we must go on as best we can with two horses now, for +the first two are good for nothing." And in the spirit of a true driver +he stuck his whip beneath him, as being a thing for which there was now +no further use, and resumed his argument with the coachman about the +inefficiency of smiths in general. + +"As soon as we reach Oroshaza, we'll get two fresh horses; we ought to +be getting there now." + +Yet the steeple of Oroshaza was, as yet, scarcely visible and midday was +already approaching. There was no intermediate station where they could +change horses. + +Half an hour later Mr. Gerzson dashed his clay pipe against the wheel of +the coach and swore that he would be damned if ever such a silly-fool +thing had ever befallen him before, for now the thill horse also began +to limp. + +Naturally, that also was found to have been pricked. + +"May the devil take all those scamps of smiths who look after the poor +beasts so badly! A pretty fix we are in now. We may thank our stars if +we are able to crawl into Oroshaza before nightfall. A pretty amble we +shall have now, I'll be bound." + +And indeed ambling was about all they could do. As for the Oroshaza +steeple, so far from drawing any nearer, it seemed to be travelling away +from them, and with very much better horses than they had. It seemed to +get further off every moment. + +"Well, all we want now is for the saddle horse also to throw up the +sponge and we shall be complete." + +If that were Mr. Gerzson's one remaining wish, Fate very speedily +granted it to him, for they had not gone another quarter of an hour when +all four horses began to limp together, one with the right foot, another +with the left, the third with the fore and the fourth with the hind leg, +till it was positively frightful to look at them. + +Mr. Gerzson leaped from the box, and in his rage and fury dashed his +pipe-stem into a thousand pieces. + +"What can the smith have been about!" whined the coachman shaking his +head, "and yet his lordship had a look at them too!" + +"Devil take your smith, and his lordship also for the matter of that. +The whole lot of you deserves hanging." And it was a good thing for the +coachman that he happened to be standing on the other side of the +horses, as otherwise he would certainly have had a taste of Squire +Gerzson's riding whip. + +Henrietta, who had hitherto been sleeping quietly in the carriage, +aroused by the loud voices, put her head out of the window and timidly +inquired what was the matter. At the first sound of her voice, Squire +Gerzson grew as mild as a lamb. + +"Nothing much," said he. "I have only been trying to put together again +my broken pipe-stem, the carriage-wheel has gone over my pipe, that is +all." + +"But where are we now?" asked Henrietta, peeping curiously out of the +carriage. Then of course they had to tell her the truth. + +"We are three leagues from the station in front of us, and about four +from the one behind us, and there is no prospect of our getting on any +further. All four horses are lame, they have been damaged during the +shoeing." + +"What steeple is that in front of us?" + +"Oroshaza, I fancy, but with these four lame horses I don't believe we +shall get there before midnight." + +Henrietta perceived the confusion of the old gentleman, who for sheer +rage and worry could not keep his hat on his burning head, so she tried +to comfort him. + +"Never mind, dear papa Gerzson, not far from here must lie Leonard's +_csarda_. You and I, papa Gerzson, might go on there with the horses +while the coachman makes the best of his way on foot to Oroshaza, where +he can get fresh horses and join us early in the morning at the +_csarda_." + +Squire Gerzson jerked his head significantly. + +"I don't want to alarm you, my dear Baroness," said he, "but that +_csarda_ lies in the beat of the "poor vagabonds"--you may have heard of +them." + +"Oh, I have spent a night there already. I know the innkeeper's wife. +She is a very good sort of woman, who told us tales all night long while +she worked her distaff at my bedside. I should very much like to see her +again. Besides, I know the "poor vagabonds" also. All of them kissed my +hand in turn when I was there. If, however, anybody should be rude to +me, have I not papa Gerzson?--when he is by I fear nobody." + +"Noble heart!--very well, be it so! If your ladyship fears nothing, I +think I may very well say the same." + +Whereupon Squire Gerzson gave the coachman two florins to speed him on +to Oroshaza, where he was to get fresh horses and come on the same night +to the _csarda_, so that they might be able to set off again before dawn +on the morrow. He himself then quitted the highroad in the direction of +the well-known _csarda_ which, with sound horses, he might have reached +in about an hour, but which with lame ones he only got up to towards +evening, having repeatedly to rest on the way. Squire Gerzson kept on +asking Henrietta whether she was hungry or thirsty and offered her his +flask again and again; but she always gently declined it, the old man +feeling in honour bound to follow her example. He comforted her, +however, with the assurance that the _csarda_-woman was a dab hand at +turning out all sorts of good old savoury Hungarian dishes. + +At last, after a weary journey, when evening was already closing upon +them, Henrietta perceived the _csarda_ gleaming white behind the acacia +trees. When they stumbled into the courtyard they found nobody, and +nobody came out of the door to meet them. + +"All the better, nobody will see these game-legged nags," growled Squire +Gerzson as he helped Henrietta out of the carriage. + +"It is odd that the woman of the inn does not come out to meet me," said +Henrietta. "She liked me so. How pleased she will be to see me." + +Nevertheless no one came. Squire Gerzson grew impatient. He could not +leave the coach and horses all by themselves. + +"Hie! somebody! Who's at home? Landlady, wenches, or whoever you are, +can't you creep out of your hole?" + +In reply to his hallooing, a hoarse voice resounded from the taproom: +"Who is it? Can't you come inside instead of standing and bawling +there?" + +"What, you scoundrel! Come out this instant, Sirrah, do you hear, or do +you want me to come and fetch you?" + +At this categorical command, the speaker inside made his appearance. +Henrietta recognized him at once, though Squire Gerzson saw him now for +the first time. It was old Ripa. + +"I am a guest here myself," said he. + +"Thou blockhead! by the soul of thy father I charge thee--where is the +hostess?" + +"She is outside in the cool air." + +"What is she doing there?" + +"She is guarding the moles"--which means in the flowery language of the +_puszta_: "she is dead." + +"Surely she is not dead?" + +"Yes--she did away with herself." + +"When?" + +"The day before yesterday." + +"What was the matter with her?" + +"She drank too much water." + +"Where?" + +"In the hurdle well." + +"Why?" + +"Because her feet did not reach the bottom." + +"She leaped in then?" + +"It looks something like it." + +"But why did she do so?" + +"She was much upset about her lover." + +"Did he leave her?" + +"The rope-girl[37] took him." + +[Footnote 37: _I.e._, the gallows.] + +Henrietta listened with a sort of stupefaction to the cynical answers +of the old scoundrel, and her heart grew heavy within her. To think that +that merry, rosy cheeked young woman should have killed herself out of +grief for her lover. + +"Then who is carrying on the house?" enquired Squire Gerzson. + +"Nobody. All the servants bolted after the funeral, in order that they +might not appear as witnesses." + +"Then why do you remain here all alone?" + +"Because if I went on my way, everyone would be sure to say that I had +murdered the hostess, I mean to remain here till they come for me." + +"Yes, you old swine, and drink up every drop of wine that remains in the +meantime." + +"Your pardon, sir, but it all turned to vinegar when the landlady killed +herself. That is always the case." + +"None of your nonsense, Sirrah, but listen to me. There's a shilling for +you, forget for the time that you are a guest here. Take out the horses, +put them into the stable, give them hay at once and water them in about +an hour's time. Don't steal them for they are lame and you would be +caught at once. We shall remain here till our coachman returns with four +fresh horses. Should any troublesome person look in, you may tell him +that the consort of Baron Hatszegi is here and that Gerzson of +Satrakovics is mounting guard before her door." + +Old Ripa kissed her ladyship's hand without so much as thanking Squire +Gerzson for his tip, but he quietly unyoked the horses and brought into +the house some of the things he found in the coach. + +And Henrietta stood once more in the landlady's room and gazed pensively +out of the window. Her meditations were presently disturbed by Squire +Gerzson. + +"My dear good lady," he began, "fate has certainly sworn to be our enemy +in every possible way to-day. I would not have believed it myself if I +had not actually experienced it. First of all, all our four horses fall +lame on the road. Then, at the very place where we decide to take up our +quarters, we find that the landlady has jumped down the well. Truly fate +pursues us with a vengeance. But we'll defy it, won't we my lady? Fate +is very much mistaken if it fancies it will get the better of us, eh? it +does not know with whom it has to deal, I'll be bound. For our hearts +are in the right place and we'll pretty soon show that we have not lost +our heads. Our greatest misfortune is that the fine supper we promised +ourselves has vanished to dust beneath our very noses. Never mind. We +have brought with us in our knapsack, after the custom of our ancestors, +some good ham, some hung beef and some white loaves, to say nothing of a +flask of prime wine; we don't mean to starve ourselves do we, my lady?" + +The good old gentleman then took out of his knapsack all these good +things and piled them up on the table, then he fetched the carriage lamp +to light up the room a bit and politely invited Henrietta to partake of +his simple banquet. + +The young lady smilingly took her place on the bench. + +"We really cannot drink the water here, your ladyship," said Gerzson, +handing her his flask; "to all appearance nobody will ever drink the +water out of the well of this shanty again. Such wells are generally +walled up." + +Merely to oblige the old man, Henrietta raised the flask to her lips and +pretended to drink out of it so as not to spoil her companion's good +humour, but really she drank not a drop. She never used to drink wine +and wiped off the drops that remained on her lips with her pocket +handkerchief. Nor did she eat anything except an apple which was just +sufficient to keep the pangs of hunger off. + +Mr. Gerzson, however, fell to like a man. He had generally a good +appetite, and the lack of a dinner, the worry and trouble of the +journey, and the labour of driving had made him hungrier than ever. He +cut such whacking slices off the loaf and off the good red ham beside +him that it was a joy to watch him; after he had raised the +cluck-clucker[38] to his lips, his conversation became so entertaining +that Henrietta listened to him with delight. + +[Footnote 38: _I.e._, the wine-flask.] + +"But now I am not going to drink any more," said Mr. Gerzson at last, +"for it is apt to make me sleepy and I don't want to sleep to-night. +About midnight the coachman will arrive with the fresh relay of horses. +Won't your ladyship rest a little in the adjoining room?" + +Henrietta shook her head. + +"Well, I suppose you are right. How indeed could you remain all alone in +the room of a suicide? Let us stay together then and tell each other +tales." + +"Yes, that will be nice, and I'll begin by telling papa Gerzson +something." + +"I could go on listening to you till morning, it will be like the angels +singing in my ears." + +So Henrietta began to tell him all about the dead hostess and about her +love, and also the story of the robber who was hanged for his companion. + +Mr. Gerzson, with his head supported by his hand, listened religiously +and struck himself violently on the mouth when he was seized by an +involuntary fit of gaping. + +"I cannot understand why I am so sleepy,--my eyes seem to be closing in +spite of me." + +"Why don't you have a pipe then? Come light up!" + +"What, light up? Your ladyship will really allow me? You are sure you +don't mind tobacco smoke? You are indeed a blessed creature. But are you +sure it won't make your head ache?" + +"On the contrary, I like tobacco smoke." + +Squire Gerzson half drew out his cigar case, but he immediately shoved +it back again. + +"No, I won't smoke a cigar. One ought not to abuse one's good fortune. I +shall get on well enough." + +Then Henrietta began to tell him of Fatia Negra's Transylvanian +exploits, of the Lucsia Cavern, of the capture of the coiners--and then +she observed that Mr. Gerzson's eyelids were sinking lower and lower and +he was nodding his head violently. + +"Now you really must light up, papa Gerzson," she cried, "or you'll +never be able to keep awake." + +On being thus accosted, Mr. Gerzson bobbed up his head with a frightened +air and rubbed his eyes, like one who has been suddenly aroused from +slumber and knows not what is going on under his very nose. + +"I am not asleep, 'pon my word I'm not. I was only nodding a little." + +"Light a cigar." + +"No I won't. I prefer to go out and have a turn in the open air and get +the cobwebs out of my head. I'll have a look round outside a bit." + +And with that he planted both his arms on the table, laid his head upon +them and fell fast asleep. + +Henrietta could not help smiling. Poor old gentleman, he had had a good +deal of exertion and no doubt that wine was uncommonly strong. Let him +rest a bit. He had had no sleep the night before. It would be quite +sufficient if one of them kept awake. + +Then she took up the lamp and went out into the hall observing to her +great satisfaction that the door thereof was provided with a good lock. +So she locked and fastened it. With timid curiosity she then explored +every corner with the lamp and came upon nothing suspicious. Finally she +returned to the guest room, locked the door of that also and placed the +carriage lamp on the table, turning its shade towards the sleeping old +man so that he might not be awakened by the glare of the lamp; and there +she remained all alone, watching in the _csarda_ of the desolate +_puszta_, patiently waiting for the night to pass over her homeless +head. + +So patient was she that only once did she take her watch from her bosom +to see what the time was. + + * * * * * + +It was now past midnight. + +She began to calculate how long it would take the coachman to get to +Oroshaza and how much time he would require to reach this place. If he +had got horses at once he ought to be near now. + +A short time afterwards she heard the tread of horses' feet in the +courtyard. Those must be our horses, thought she, and hastening to the +window looking out upon the courtyard, she pulled the blind a little to +one side and looked out. + +The night was so light outside that she could see the four horses quite +plainly in the courtyard--but she observed that a man was sitting on +_each_ of them. + +"This is very curious," thought she, "_two_ men would have been quite +sufficient to bring along the relay." + +Three of the four men dismounted from their horses and a fifth came out +of the stable and had a short consultation with them; then the three +approached the _csarda_ door and tried to open it. + +This struck Henrietta as suspicious and she thought it was now high time +to awake Mr. Gerzson. + +"Pardon, papa Gerzson, but four men have arrived here." + +Still Mr. Gerzson did not awake. + +Henrietta approached, bent over him and gently insisted: + +"My dear papa Gerzson, just wake up for a moment, somebody wants to come +in." + +Even then Mr. Gerzson did not awake. + +Henrietta listened. Outside, the hall door was beginning to groan and +rock. They were forcing it. + +Full of terror now, she seized Mr. Gerzson's arm. + +"Sir, sir! robbers are upon us. Awake, awake. This is no time for +slumber." + +But Mr. Gerzson still slumbered on--he might have been dead. In vain she +tore him away from the table, he fell back again all of a heap and went +on slumbering. + +The strangers were now in the hall, and a heavy hand was trying the +latch of the guest chamber. + +"My God, my God!" moaned Henrietta, wringing her hands and rushing up +and down the room, terrorstricken, not knowing where to look now for +refuge. + +A violent thud resounded against the door. Someone had placed his +shoulder against it. Henrietta clung to the table to save herself from +falling. + +At last the lock burst, the door flew open, and Fatia Negra with two +masked companions stood before the lady. The same instant Henrietta +recovered her presence of mind. At a pace's distance from danger she +ceased to tremble and calmly addressed them: "What do you want?" + +"Why are you not asleep now like your companion?" enquired Fatia Negra +in a low voice. + +One of his comrades approached the sleeper and held the barrel of his +pistol to his temples. In Fatia Negra's hand there was only a dagger. + +"Don't wake him," he whispered to Henrietta, "for if he should but raise +his head his brains will be blown out." + +"Do him no harm!" implored the lady. "I will give you everything you +want. Here is my pocketbook, here are my jewels, and you shall have my +watch too. See, I will draw off my rings, only don't touch me. But if +possible let me keep this round ring for it is my wedding ring." + +"All that is nothing," whispered Fatia Negra, "nor do we want these +things. Your ladyship has received a bill for 40,000 florins from your +husband; give up that and swear that you will not say anything about it +to anyone for three days so that we may have time to turn it into cash." + +At the mention of the bill Henrietta felt her head reel, the blood stood +still in her veins, she could scarce keep her feet. Her voice trembled +as she lied to the robber denying that she had any such thing. + +"We will search you, my lady, if you do not give it up voluntarily." + +Henrietta persisted in her falsehood: "I have nothing upon me. I posted +it in order that it might get to its destination more safely." + +"My lady, you are only wasting our time. Turn round, take that steel +netting out of your puffed sleeves and hand it over to us." + +At these words, all the blood flew to Henrietta's head. It was no longer +fear but the fury of despair that possessed her. It suddenly occurred to +her that here was the man whom nobody had ever recognized; the man who +had made so many people unhappy; who had robbed her husband and would +now stifle her last hope of saving her brother from disgrace. Who could +this terrible man, this accursed wretch, be? And so, as Black Mask drew +near to her, flashing his dagger before her eyes, she, the weakest, the +most timid of women, made a sudden snatch at the mask and tore it off. + +She saw his face and recognized him. . . . + +For an instant her eyes gazed upon him and then she collapsed on the +ground in a swoon. + + * * * * * + +It was pretty late next morning when Mr. Gerzson raised his muddled head +from the table. The sun was shining brightly through the blinds. + +He looked around him. He was quite alone. + +He looked for Henrietta, he called her by name. She was nowhere to be +seen. Their luggage had also disappeared. He went into the courtyard and +looked for the carriage. That also was nowhere to be seen. Only the four +horses were in the stable, and they were neighing for water; nobody had +watered them. + +After that Mr. Gerzson's head grew more muddled than ever. + +What had become of the lady? What had happened during the night? How was +it that he remembered nothing about it, he who generally used to sleep +so lightly that the humming of a midge was sufficient to awake him? + +Gradually he bethought him that the evening before he had drunk some +wine with an unusual flavour. Even now he was conscious of a peculiar +taste in his mouth. Yet no wine in the world had ever been able to do +him harm. He returned to the room to examine the contents of his flask. +But even the flask was now nowhere to be seen. There was not a single +forgotten object, not a single indication to give him a clue in this +obscure confusion. What could have happened here?--he had not the +faintest idea. + +He went and stood in front of the _csarda_. He gazed out upon the +desolate _puszta_ stretching around him in every direction. From every +point of the compass wagon tracks, some old, some still fresh, +zig-zagged to and from the _csarda_ and he could not make up his mind +which of them to take in order to reach the world beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +LEANDER BABEROSSY + + +Whenever one carts away a heap of stones which have been lying +undisturbed for years, or whenever one removes the shingle-roof of an +ancient tenement, or drains off the water from a marshy place, one +generally stumbles upon all sorts of hitherto undiscovered, curious +beetles, odd looking moths and spiral-shaped, creeping things in these +routed out lurking places, which nobody ever saw before or read of in +the natural history books; and at such times a man bethinks him how +wonderful it is of Mother Nature to provide even such holes and corners +as these with living inhabitants which never see the light of day at +all. + +Once, while on circuit, Vamhidy was obliged to lie one night at a +village within his jurisdiction whose inhabitants were a strong mixture +of Hungarian, Servian and Wallachian ingredients. Arriving late, it was +a long time before he could go to sleep, and he was awakened rather late +next morning by an unusual hubbub. His bedchamber was only separated +from the large drinking room by a door and through this door broke every +now and then very peculiar sounds the meaning of which, on a first +hearing, it was very difficult to explain. + +It sounded as if a couple of women and a couple of men were roundly +abusing one another, sometimes in a low tone and sometimes in a loud, +and the most peculiar thing about the whole business was that two of +them never spoke at once but each one of them allowed each of the others +to have his say out to the end. All at once the noise grew more alarming +and broken outbursts plainly suggested that someone in the adjoining +room wanted to murder somebody else. Vamhidy leaped from his bed and was +about to intervene when in came the landlord with his coffee. + +"What is that row going on next door?" enquired Szilard irritably. + +"Oh, I cry your honour's pardon," replied the innkeeper with a proud +smile, "it is only our actors. They are rehearsing a new piece which +they are going to act this evening. I hope your honour will condescend +to go and see it--it will be real fine." + +"What, actors in this village?" cried Szilard in amazement. "Why, where +do they come from?" + +"Nobody knows where they came from or whither they mean to go, your +honour." + +"How many of them are there then, and who is their manager?" + +"Well, it seems that there is only one man among them and he is half a +child; all the others are women and girls, even to the ticket taker and +the prompter." + +"And what sort of pieces do they act?" + +"Oh, all sorts, your honour. Those of the women who have the deepest +voices dress up as men, stick on beards and mustaches and act much +better than men would, because they don't get drunk." + +"And they are able to make a living here? Who goes to the theatre then?" + +"Well, the rustics about here come if there is anything to grin at. They +don't give money because they have none themselves; but they bring corn, +potatoes, sausages and hams and the actors live upon the proceeds as +best they can. When they have made any debts they cannot pay they simply +bolt on the first fine night and go somewhere else." + +"But don't they leave their decorations or their wardrobe in pledge +behind them?" + +At this the landlord laughed aloud as if it were a capital joke. + +"Decorations, wardrobes, indeed! Why their stage curtain consists of a +large piece of threadbare sackcloth pasted over with tricolored paper on +which they have painted the national coat of arms. Their wardrobe too is +of the very simplest description. When they play a piece in which kings +and queens appear, they borrow the gold bespangled dresses of the rich +Servian women of the district to serve them as royal mantles. All they +require besides is a little tinsel, some spangles and some +pasteboard--and there you are! The manager, as I have said, is still but +a child, but so ingenious is he that he can make moonshine out of a +yellow gourd and produce thunder and lightning,--but that is a +professional secret. It is true they have only six pieces in all, and +when they have played these through they begin them all over again. The +public, naturally, does not like to see the same piece twice, so the +manager gives the piece another title, changes the titles of all the +characters and represents the piece over again as a brand new one." + +"I should like to see to-day's representation," said Szilard, whose +curiosity had been excited by this peculiar description. + +"I'll fetch your honour a play bill immediately," said the innkeeper. + +Off went mine host returning in a few moments with a MS. play bill on +which was written in large red letters: "Hernani or Castilian Honour," +followed by the names of the personages. Hernani was naturally the +manager himself, Leander Baberossy,[39] Elvira was to be played by Miss +Palmira, the other gentlemen were simply indicated by N. N., X. X. or +* *. "They are all women you know," explained the innkeeper, "who don't +want to advertise their names. The charge for the front seats is 21/2d, +for the second-class places, a penny." + +[Footnote 39: _I.e._, Laurel bearer.] + +"The gentry can sit where they please, I presume?" + +"I suggested to the manager that he should write that on the play bill, +but he replied that that would be an impertinence. I also advised him to +take the play bill to your honour himself and was almost kicked out of +the room for my pains. Did I take him for a bill poster? he said." + +"This manager of yours seems to have a pretty good opinion of himself." + +"Oh, he is frightfully proud, your honour. He will play no other pieces +but sword pieces because, says he, they are classical. The poor fellow +is so very young you know. When he grows a little older and learns to +starve a bit he will soon lower his crest." + +"I like him none the less for holding up his head. I will come to the +play." + +"But you must be there at seven o'clock sharp. He always begins +punctually; whether there is any audience or not." + +"The lad has character, I see; pray give him this"--and he handed the +innkeeper half a sovereign. He quickly returned with the reply that the +manager could not for the moment give change. + +"But I meant him to keep the whole of it as an admittance fee." + +"Ah, yes." + +A short time afterwards, the innkeeper reappeared with a whole bundle of +admission tickets for Szilard, saying that the manager thanked him for +his sympathy, but as he was not in the habit of accepting presents from +anyone, he assumed that his honour meant to engage the whole house for +himself that evening and he, the manager, would therefore give a +representation for his honour's sole benefit. + +Szilard laughed heartily at this comical conscientiousness, and after +dressing, he went about his official business with as much dispatch as +possible in order to arrive at the play at seven o'clock sharp, for he +was now the whole public and the public ought always to be punctual. + +When he got to the room set apart for the performance he found that, +despite the provisional _abonnement suspendu_ arrangement, the place was +not quite empty, for the gratis public, the lenders of the theatrical +requisites and their families, the letters of lodgings to the actors and +other peaceful creditors, occupied a couple of benches, so that Szilard +had the opportunity of effacing himself and thus avoiding confusing the +_troupe_ by his solitary and imposing personality. + +No sooner had the innkeeper's cuckoo clock struck seven than the ring of +the prompter's bell resounded behind the curtain (it sounded +suspiciously like a glass struck smartly with the back of a knife) and +by means of a highly ingenious piece of machinery the drop-curtain, +stuck over with the tricolored cardboard representing the national flag, +was hoisted up to the ceiling-beam, and the open stage was revealed. + +The background was formed by a collapsible screen which was painted to +represent a room; in the foreground on one side was a paper window +painted black and white, and on the other side the cellar door, +metamorphosed into the portal of a Gothic palace. Through this entry the +whole of the _dramatis personae_ came and went, for it was the only one. + +The piece acted was, naturally, not "Hernani or Castilian Honour," but +Schiller's "Robbers." Szilard recognized it at the very first three +words. He also noticed that the characters of Karl and Franz Moor were +acted by one and the same person (the manager himself, as he was +informed) with a simple change of voice and mask, and despite the +different disguises employed, it constantly seemed to Szilard as if he +had seen that caricature of a face somewhere else and the voice, +parodied as it now was, nevertheless seemed familiar to him. No less +familiar appeared the violent gestures of the young actor which +frequently endangered the side scenes. + +Now as early as Scene 2 the noble public began to be aware of the +unheard of fraud practiced upon it; a murmuring, an agitation, a +whispering and a wagging of heads, and finally an impatient thumping of +sticks began to mingle with the bustle of the drama, till at last a +worthy cobbler, who had lent the _troupe_ three wooden benches and +received in return a free pass every day, suddenly bawled out: "Halloh +there, Mr. Manager! we have seen this piece once before. There's +politics in it." + +Franz Moor, disturbed in his artistic interpretation by this sudden +onslaught, suddenly forgot himself, lost his cue and answering the +interpellator in his natural, everyday voice (he knew he had only a free +list public to deal with) exclaimed: "Whoever has seen this piece before +and does not wish to see it again, will have his money returned to him +on applying at the ticket office." + +These words were no sooner uttered than Vamhidy leaped from his seat, +rushed upon the stage, caught Franz Moor in his arms and kissed his +painted face crying with a voice trembling with joy: "Coloman!" + +Franz Moor hesitated for an instant, then tore off his Spanish beard, +dropped his red wig, wiped the painted wrinkles from his forehead and +Szilard saw before him a pale, melancholy, childish countenance. + +Leander Baberossy was young Coloman, Henrietta's brother. + +The representation naturally ceased at once. Szilard hustled the +rediscovered "prodigal son" off the boards and never let him stop for an +instant till he had got him safe and sound into his own private room. +There he embraced him again, held him at arms' length and had a good +look at him. The lad seemed to be twenty years old at the very least, +yet really he was but fifteen. Play acting, want and premature shaving +soon make a youth look old. Moreover, in his whole bearing, in all his +movements, there was something precocious, a resolute, bold expression +which made one forget that he was a mere child--a sort of cynicism not +pleasant to behold. + +Szilard soon had a good supper ready for him, which the youth fell to +work upon without ceremony. + +"My dear Leander," said Vamhidy when the meal was over, "no doubt it is +a very fine thing when one can say that he is his own master, nor is it +so difficult to attain to such a position after all. All that is wanted +is a strength of character always true to itself. But you, my friend, +have committed follies which might easily make of you something very +different." + +Coloman shrugged his shoulders. + +"I have committed many follies no doubt, but I do not call to mind any +which I should be afraid to confess." + +Szilard began to fancy that his suspicions were groundless. + +"People are talking of a certain _bill_ which you have given in your +sister's name?" + +At these words Coloman cast down his eyes upon his plate and his whole +face grew blood-red. In a scarcely audible voice he enquired: "And has +Henrietta refused to honour that bill?" + +Vamhidy sighed deeply. Then it was really true that this thoughtless +child had committed the crime! + +"My dear Coloman," said he, dropping the Leander now, "your sister is +the martyr of her own devotion. She was most certainly ready to +acknowledge the bill as her own; but you ought to have thought what +sacrifices she will have to make now that her grandfather has cut her +off with a shilling and her husband refuses to place such a considerable +amount at her disposal." + +"Good gracious!" cried the itinerant actor, thrusting his hands deep +down into his empty pockets, "what then do these big wigs call +considerable amounts. Very well, sir. I had no idea that the Baroness +Hatszegi was _so very poor_. I will try to recover the bill, and it +shall be the first thing I will pay off with my benefit money." + +Szilard could not help being struck by the terrible comicality of the +idea. + +"But, my dear young friend," said he, "if you had two benefits every +year and got a clear forty florins at every one of them, it would take +you at least a hundred years from to-day to discharge the amount." + +"What?" cried Coloman with wide open eyes, and in his amazement seizing +the candlestick instead of his fork. + +"Why, don't you know that the bill is for 40,000 florins?" + +"What?" thundered the young vagabond. And kicking aside his chair, he +snatched up a knife lying by the side of his plate and, bareheaded as he +was, rushed towards the door. Szilard had need of all his dexterity to +catch him before he reached it and prevent him from rushing into the +street like a madman. + +"Let me murder him, let me murder that villain," he cried. + +Szilard was a strong man so he easily disarmed the youth. + +Then Coloman began to weep and fling himself on the ground. Szilard +seized him by the arm and hoisted him on to a chair again. + +"Be a man!" he cried. "Of whom do you speak?--whom do you want to kill?" + +"That villain Margari." + +"Then it was he who persuaded you to take this step?" + +"I will tell you all about it, sir, and you shall judge me. When I left +my grandfather's house, that Satan sought me out, affected sympathy for +me and asked me what I meant to do. I told him I intended to go on the +stage and he said I did well not to remain there. I had only a florin +which I borrowed from one of the lacqueys, and I told this devil that I +should require 20 florins at the very least. He promised to get them for +me from a usurer but told me I should have to give a bill for forty. Do +you think I cared what I signed then? Not long afterwards he came back +again and said the usurer would give nothing on the strength of my +signature, because I was a minor, but that if my sister's name stood +upon the bill he would advance upon that because she was a married +woman. Margari persuaded me to sign the bill in her name. What was forty +florins to Henrietta? he said, a mere trifle. If I were to ask her, she +would give me twice as much. Surely she would not proclaim me, whom she +loved so much, a forger for the sake of a paltry 40 florins? But 40,000 +florins, 40,000!--that is a frightful, a horrible villainy. I only made +it forty." + +And with that he began to dash his head against the wall like a madman. + +"My dear Coloman, do pull yourself together," said Szilard, "what you +have just told me is of the very greatest importance. Be quiet and don't +tear out your hair! Are you aware that your infinitely good sister has +honoured the 40,000 florin bill also in order to save you?" + +The poor youth was thunderstruck at these words. + +"And now you can imagine the embarrassment of the baroness, who has been +disinherited and is nevertheless responsible for this very considerable +sum without being at all sure that her husband will pay it for her." + +"I will hang myself." + +"That would be the most gigantic piece of folly you could commit. You +must make good your fault. And now for a time we cease to be friends and +I am simply an examining magistrate, and you are an accused prisoner who +is about to make a voluntary confession before me. Pray sit right +opposite to me and answer all my questions clearly and accurately--in +fact tell me exactly what happened." + +And Vamhidy produced paper and writing requisites, lit a pair of candles +which he placed by his side and began the examination of the youth +sitting in front of him. + +By midnight the confession was duly written down. + +When, however, Vamhidy proposed that Coloman should now come back to +Pest and be reconciled to his relations, the youth hesitated: "We will +see," said he. + +"At any rate remain here with me then," continued Szilard. "Sleep in my +room and take till to-morrow to think it over. I won't lock the door but +you must give me your word of honour that you will not go out of that +door without my knowledge." + +"I give you my word upon it." + +Then Szilard made the youth lie down and only went to rest himself when +he was sure that Coloman was asleep. + +Nevertheless on awaking next morning and looking round the room he could +see no trace of Coloman, but there was a letter from him on the table as +follows: "Dear old friend, I thank you for your extreme kindness to me, +but I don't want to see my relations any more, not because I fear to +meet them, but because I have a holy horror of the very atmosphere they +breathe. My confession will suffice to rectify my fault. I am going on +the tramp again. The linen tent is my home. And then--there are +obligations in respect to the discharge whereof I am not my sister's +brother. I have taken nothing with me but four cigar ends from the +table, a liberty I hope you will pardon me. As I have given you my word +that I would not go out of the door without your knowledge, I have been +obliged to make my exit through the window. Adieu! Till death thy +faithful admirer. COLOMAN." + +A couple of hours later Vamhidy learnt from the innkeeper that the +manager, without any previous leave-taking, had decamped leaving behind +him his decorations and theatrical wardrobe as some compensation for his +trifling debts. All he had taken away with him was what he actually had +on his person--and Miss Palmira. + +And now Szilard understood the meaning of the passage "there are +obligations in respect to the discharge whereof I am not my sister's +brother." + +This vagabond comedian had an equally vagabond childish ideal, and when +he had to make his choice, he flung his arm around her and fled away +with her--into the wide, wide world. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MR. MARGARI + + +Mr. Margari had got on in the world. He was now a real gentleman who had +a four-roomed domicile, paid house-rent, and had even gone the length of +marrying. And can you guess the lady of his choice?--why it was no other +than Miss Clementina. That worthy virgin was of just the proper age for +him, moreover a cosy little bit of cash might safely be assumed to go +with her, which exercised a strong attraction upon Mr. Margari--and goes +to prove that iron is not the only metal susceptible of the influence of +the magnet. The worthy maiden had persuaded her respected swain to +abduct her from Hidvar, an enterprise which he had nobly performed while +the lady of the house was travelling with her husband to Arad. It is +true there was no necessity whatever for an elopement, for the baroness +was very far from being one of those dragons in feminine shape who love +to tear asunder hearts that are burning for each other. If Mr. Margari +had respectfully solicited the hand of her lady-companion, there is no +reason to suppose he would have sued in vain; but Clementina was far too +romantic for anything so humdrum as that. She insisted that he should +abduct her, at night too and through a window, although she had the key +of every door close at hand. + +So Margari had managed to set up as a gentleman and become his own +master. Clementina's money bought the furniture and they even sported a +musical clock. + +Mr. Margari had a smoking-room all to himself, in which he did nothing +all day but smoke his pipe. No more work for him now, no more copying of +MSS. There the happy husband, dressed in a flowered dressing-gown, +stretched himself out at full length on the sofa and blew clouds of +smoke all around him out of his long csibuk, stuffed full with the best +Turkish tobacco. + +Clementina was always scolding him for putting his legs upon the sofa. +It was a nasty habit she said, and not only unbecoming but expensive, +because it ruined the furniture. Clementina, in fact, was scolding him +all day; and this was very natural, for any woman who has been condemned +to obsequious servility for thirty whole years and has silently endured +the caprices of her betters all that time, when she sets up as a lady on +her own account will do her best to compensate herself for this +interminable suppression of her natural instincts. But Mr. Margari used +only to laugh when his wife began nagging at him. "_Alios jam vidi ego +ventos, aliasque procellas_," he would say. He was only too glad to have +a home of his own at all. + +"Don't worry, woman!" he would say with reference to the furniture, +"when that's worn out, I'll buy some more. John Lapussa, Esq., will give +me whatever I want." + +"He may be fool enough to do so now," replied Clementina, "but just you +wait till he has won his action against Madame Langai and has no further +need of you, he won't care two pence for you then. I know Mr. John +Lapussa." + +"So do I," retorted Margari. "He has paid me hitherto to say what he +tells me, he shall pay me hereafter for holding my tongue. John Lapussa, +Esq., will have to take care that Margari has plenty to eat and decent +clothes to put on, for, if Margari grows hungry, Margari will bite." + +Mr. Margari spoke with an air of such impertinent assurance and blew +about such clouds of smoke that Clementina began to respect him, and sat +down on the sofa by his side, no doubt to protect her property. "If you +hold his honour so completely in the palm of your hand," said she, "why +don't you provide better for yourself and me? It is all very well for +his honour to fork out now when you press him, but money goes and more +is wanted. One of these days something will happen to him and he will +die,--and you can't follow him to the moon." + +This was indeed a hard nut for Margari to crack. One cannot squeeze much +out of dead men. Such an impression did the remark make upon him that he +took his feet off the sofa and sat bolt upright. + +"Then what do you think I ought to do?" he asked his wife. + +"Well, it is of no use his doling you out mere driblets; for the great +services you have rendered him he ought to give you something more in +proportion to your merits--a little estate in the country, for instance. +There we could settle down comfortably." + +"True, and he has lots of such little properties which are of no use to +him at all. What do you say, for instance, to an estate of one hundred +acres or so; it would be a mere flea-bite to him. But flea-bite or no +flea-bite that's all one to me. I _wish_ him to give it me and give it +he must. I mean to pick and choose." + +"And suppose he says no?" + +"He'll never say that, or if he does, I shall say something to somebody +and then it will be he who will be sorry and not I. Oh, he'll take jolly +good care not to make Margari angry. His honour has much more need of +Margari's friendship than Margari has of his honour's." + +And we shall very soon see under what auspices Margari hoped to get the +little country estate from Mr. John Lapussa as a reward for his faithful +services. + +Meanwhile the action brought by Madame Langai against Mr. John Lapussa +was still in its initial stage. Both parties were inexhaustible in +producing documents and raising points of law, but it seemed highly +probable that Mr. John would win. Mr. John appeared almost daily before +the magistrate, whom he called his dear friend and whom he frequently +invited to dine, an invitation which, naturally, was never accepted. One +day Mr. Monori, for that was the worthy magistrate's name, asked Mr. +John whether he knew anything of a certain Margari who was soliciting +the post of a clerk in the district court and gave as his reference the +Lapussa family in whose service he had been for some years. Mr. John, +with his innate niggardliness, at once seized this opportunity for +disembarrassing himself of an importunate beggar by saddling the county +with him. He exalted "the worthy, excellent man" to the skies, and +especially praised his rectitude, his sobriety, his diligence! + +"But is he trustworthy?" inquired the magistrate. "You see there are +various little cash payments he will have to see to, is he clean +handed?" + +"As good as gold, I assure you. I could trust him with thousands. Why +some of my own bills are in his keeping--" and with that he proceeded to +say as many pretty things of Margari as if he were a horse dealer trying +to palm off a blind nag on some ignorant bumpkin at a fair. + +In his delight at having so successfully rid himself of such an incubus, +he made his _valet-de-chambre_ slip over to Margari to tell the worthy +man to wait upon him on the morrow at 11 o'clock precisely, as he had a +very pleasant piece of news to impart to him; for he meant to make +Margari believe that it was through his, Mr. John Lapussa's special +influence, that he had obtained the coveted appointment and so get him +to renounce all further claims upon his old patron. + +On the very same day Mr. John was surprised to receive a visit from the +magistrate, Mr. Monori, and this certainly was a wonder, for the +magistrate never made any but official visits. + +"To what do I owe this extraordinary pleasure?" asked Mr. John, +familiarly inviting the magistrate to sit down on a couch. + +"I have come in the matter of this Margari," said Monori, holding +himself very stiffly and fixing his eyes sharply on Mr. John. "Since our +conversation of this morning, the circumstance has come to my knowledge +that one of my colleagues in the county of Arad has succeeded in finding +the long-lost Coloman Lapussa." + +At these words Mr. John began to smooth out the ends of his mustache and +chew them attentively. + +"The young man confesses to having forged the bill, but asserts that it +was Margari who led him to do so, and that the bill signed by him was +originally for forty florins only, so that undoubtedly somebody else +must have turned it into 40,000." + +Mr. John coughed very much at these words,--no doubt the bit of mustache +which he had bit off stuck in his throat. + +"This is a very ticklish circumstance, I must confess," continued +Monori, "for although the young man's offence has thereby been +considerably lightened, yet the burden of the charge has now been +shifted to other shoulders hitherto quite free from suspicion. No doubt, +he being a minor, under strict control, did what he did as a mere +schoolboy frolic, but this Margari and an unknown somebody else will +find it not quite such a laughing matter." + +Mr. John's mustache was by this time not enough for him, he began +nibbling his nails as well. + +"But what are you driving at?" he said. "How does all this concern me?" + +"It concerns you, sir, in this way: you told me that Margari was your +confidential agent, and therefore he must have destroyed the bill at +your bidding." + +"I only said that to help him to get a small official post. I am +responsible for nobody. What have I to do with the characters of my +servants, my lacqueys." + +"But you assured me that your bills often passed through his hands." + +Mr. John fancied that the best way out of this unpleasant _cul-de-sac_ +was by adopting a little energetic bluffing. + +"What do you mean by cross-examining me in my own house?" he cried, with +affected _hauteur_, springing from the sofa. + +The magistrate rose at the same time. + +"Pardon me, but I am here not as a visitor, but in my official +capacity--as your judge." + +And with that he coolly unbuttoned his _attila_[40] and drew forth from +the inside pocket a large sealed letter. + +[Footnote 40: A fur pelisse, worn on state occasions.] + +"You must swear to every one of the interrogatories administered to you +by me." + +"I? I'll swear to nothing," cried Mr. John. "I am a Quaker and therefore +cannot take an oath." + +"This document, sir, is a royal mandate and whoever refuses to obey it +is liable to penalties." + +"What penalties?" + +"A fine of eighty florins." + +"Eighty florins? There you are then, take them!" cried Mr. John flinging +down the amount eagerly and thinking to himself that this mandate was +indeed a juridical masterpiece, not being binding on a rich man--for +what after all is eighty florins? + +"Very good," said Mr. Monori, giving him a receipt for the amount, "I'll +come again to-morrow." + +"What for?" + +"I shall again call upon you to answer my interrogatories upon oath." + +"And if I won't swear?" + +"Why then you'll have to pay the court fine _toties-quoties_. A _juratus +tabulae regiae notarius_ will call regularly every day and exact the +fine from you until such time as you make up your mind to take the +oaths. Good-day." + +After the magistrate had withdrawn Mr. John's fury reached its climax. +First of all he poured forth his wrath upon the poor inkstand, with the +ink from which Monori had written out the receipt. This he dashed to the +ground. The lacquey who rushed in at the commotion to inquire if his +honour had rung, he seized by the nape of the neck and flung out of the +room. Then he rushed after the man and pommelled him for daring to go +out before he had been told to go. Finally he dashed out and, for the +lowest silver coin he could make up his mind to part with, hired a +hackney coach to take him to his villa near the park, for thither he had +resolved to fly. + +On arriving there he recovered himself somewhat. + +So Coloman had been discovered and had confessed about his own doings +and Margari's. Well he must simply disavow Margari, that's all. But +suppose Margari were to make a clean breast of it? Well he could +repudiate the whole thing of course. But then that wretched royal +mandate? He must either swear or pay the court fine every day. It would +be best perhaps to fly, to leave the capital of the magistrate behind +him and set out on his travels. Perhaps then they would forget all about +it. But then there was the law-suit! And suppose it should be decided in +the meantime and decided against him! It was an absurd dilemma! To +remain here was dangerous and to go away was also dangerous. What a good +job it would be if that cursed forged-bill business could disappear from +the face of the earth. The bill ought to be withdrawn. But that was +impossible because it was already in the magistrate's hands, and +therefore could not be ignored. And then the oath required of him. +Either he must confess that he was personally interested in the matter +and then he would not be required to swear but would at the same time +make himself an object of suspicion, or else he must go on paying this +infernal toll money in order to be able to cross the non-juratory +bridge, so to speak. It was an absolutely desperating syllogism, and +after tossing about sleeplessly all night in the midst of this vicious +circle, Mr. John resolved in the morning to set off at once for the +vineyards of Promontor,[41] tell his servants that he meant to remain +there and enjoy himself, and immediately afterwards get into a +post-chaise and drive to his Sarfeneki property. Nobody should know his +real address but his lawyer, and there he would await developments, only +emerging in case of the most urgent necessity. + +[Footnote 41: A village a few miles out of Pest.] + +So he hastily swallowed his chocolate, wrapped himself in his mantle and +fancied that now he might safely fly; but he reckoned without his host, +for, on the very doorstep, he came face to face with Margari! + +"What do you want here, eh?" he inquired fiercely of the humble man he +feared so much. + +"You were so good as to make an appointment with me, your honour," said +Margari cringingly. + +"Yes, yes, I know, I know" (he was afraid to warn him of his danger, +with all the servants listening to them), "but I cannot spare the time +now, come some other day. I cannot give you anything here." + +"But your honour was good enough to say that you had some glad tidings +to communicate." + +"Another time, another time! I am very busy just now." + +Mr. John would have shaken off Margari altogether, but Margari was not +so easily got rid of. He had already ascertained from the coachman that +Mr. John was off to Promontor and did not mean to return again in a +hurry, so he resolved to take his measures accordingly. He rushed +forward to open the carriage door, helped Mr. John to get into the +coach, wished him a most pleasant journey, no end of enjoyment and other +meaningless things, all of which made much the same agreeable impression +upon Mr. John as if an ant had crept into his boot and he could not kill +it because he was in company. Only when the carriage door was shut to +and he saw Margari's face no more did he begin to breathe freely again. + +Margari however attributed this reception, or rather, non-reception, to +the capricious humours to which his honour was constantly liable without +rhyme or reason (it is a peculiarity of self-made plutocrats as +everybody knows); but he was not a bit offended,--he knew his place. His +honour doesn't want to see Margari just now, very well, he shall not see +him so he jumped up behind the carriage alongside the lacquey. But how +surprised his honour will be when he gets to Promontor to see Margari +open the carriage door for him? How he will bid him go to the devil and +immediately after burst out laughing and give him a present! And what +will the present be? Has it anything to do with the good news with which +he meant to surprise him? And all the while, Mr. John, inside the +carriage was hugging himself with the idea that he had rid himself of +Margari for a time and devoutly wishing that the cholera, or some other +equally rapid and effectual disease, might remove the old rascal off the +face of the earth altogether. + +When the carriage stopped at the picturesque vineyards of Promontor, Mr. +John almost had a stroke when, on looking through the glass window, the +first feature of the panorama that presented itself was the figure of +Margari, hastening to open the door with obsequious familiarity. + +"You here, Sirrah," he roared (he would have choked with rage on the +spot if he had not said Sirrah). "How on earth did _you_ get here?" + +Margari instantly imagined that his honour's flashing eyes, convulsive +mouth and distorted face were the outward signs of a jocose frame of +mind, for there was always a sort of travesty of humour in Mr. John's +features whenever he was angry. So, to his own confusion, it occurred to +him to make a joke for the first time in his life. + +"Crying your honour's pardon, I _flew_," said he. + +And in fact the very next instant he was sent flying so impetuously that +he did not stop till he plumped right into the trellis-work surrounding +a bed of vines. Never in all his life before had Mr. John dispensed such +a buffet. Margari fairly disappeared among the leaves of the friendly +vine arbours. + +It was now Mr. John's turn to be frightened at what he had done. He was +frightened because every box on the ears he gave used regularly to cost +him 200 florins, a very costly passion to indulge in. And besides he was +particularly anxious just then to keep Margari in a good humour. A man +may loathe a viper but he had better not tread on its tail if he cannot +tread on its head. Horrified at his own outburst of rage, the moment he +saw Margari disappear in the vine-arbours, he rushed after him, freed +him with his own hands, picked him up, set him on his legs again and +began to comfort him. + +"Come, come, my dear friend! compose yourself. I did not mean to hurt +you. You are not angry, are you. I hope you are not hurt? Where did you +hit yourself?" + +Margari, however, began whimpering like a schoolboy, the more the other +tried to quiet him, the more loudly he bellowed. + +"Come, come! don't make such a noise! Come under the verandah and wipe +the blood from your face!" + +"But I am not a dog!" roared Margari. "I won't go under the verandah, +I'll go into the street. I'll howl at the top of my voice. The whole +town shall see me bleed." + +"Margari, don't be a fool! I didn't mean to hurt you. I was too violent, +I admit it. Look here! I'll give you money. How much do you want? Will +200 florins be enough?" + +At the words "200 florins," Margari stopped roaring a bit, but he wanted +to see the colour of the money, for he thought to himself that if he +quieted down first he would get nothing at all. So he kept on whining +and limped first on one leg and then on the other and plastered his +whole face over with blood from the one little scratch he had got. + +Mr. John hastened to wipe Margari's face with his own +pocket handkerchief. + +"Come, come my dear Margari. I have told you I did not mean to do it. +Here are the two hundred florins I promised you. But now leave me alone. +Go abroad with the money and enjoy yourself and I will give you some +more later on." + +"I most humbly thank you," lisped the buffeted wretch with a +conciliatory voice and he kissed Mr. John's two hundred florined hand +repeatedly, while the other did all in his power to hustle him out of +the door; and so engrossed was he in the effort that he never observed +that some one had been observing the scene the whole time. He therefore +regularly collapsed when a voice which he instantly recognized, +addressed him: "Good morning, sir!" + +The Lernean Hydra was not more petrified at the sight of the head of +Medusa than was Mr. John by the sight of the person who had just +addressed him. It was the magistrate, Mr. Monori. + +At first he feared he had come after him for his diurnal eighty florins, +but something very much worse than that was in store for him. + +"Pardon me," said the magistrate drawing nearer, "but by order of the +High Court, I am here to arrest Margari, and ascertaining that you had +taken him away with you, I was obliged to follow to prevent him from +escaping altogether." + +Two stout _pandurs_[42] behind the magistrate gave additional emphasis +to his words. + +[Footnote 42: Hungarian police officers.] + +"Arrest me?" cried Margari, "why me? I am as honest as the day. I am +neither a murderer nor yet a robber. Mr. John Lapussa can answer for me. +I am his confidential agent!"--and he clung convulsively to the coat +tail of his principal. + +Mr. John plainly perceived that never in his life before had he been in +such an awkward situation. They could accuse him now of having +instigated Margari to make a bolt of it. Had not the magistrate seen +him give the wretched man money to run away with? His first care was to +disengage Margari's hands from his coat tail and next to hold him at +arm's length so that he should not clutch his collar. Then with pompous +impertinence he pretended not to know him. + +"What does the man want? Who is he? How did he come hither?" he +exclaimed. "I know nothing about him. I boxed his ears for molesting me, +and then I gave him 200 florins which is the usual legal fine for an +assault of that kind, to prevent him bringing an action against me. We +have nothing else in common. Take him away by all means. Put him in +irons. Give him whatever punishment he has deserved. Yes," he continued, +seizing the astounded Margari by the cravat, "you are a refined +scoundrel. You persuaded my dear nephew Coloman to take that false step +and then you yourself changed the forty florins into forty thousand. You +wanted to ruin the young man's future and bring a slur upon the family. +I know everything. His honour the magistrate told me all about it +yesterday, and that is why I hand you over to the law for punishment." +And with that he shook him so violently that he fell on his back again, +this time into a bed of tomatoes, whereby his white linen pantaloons +very speedily became stained with the national colours.[43] + +[Footnote 43: Red, white and green.] + +The dialogue that thereupon ensued no shorthand reporter could have +reproduced, for the pair of them began forthwith to rave and storm at +one another with all their might, stamping, swearing, shaking their +fists, and loading each other with abuse. When they had got as far as +calling each other robber and scoundrel, the magistrate thought it high +time to interfere, and at his command Margari was torn forcibly out of +the tomato bed, led to a hackney coach and thrust inside; yet even then +he put his head out of the window and shouted that he did not mean to +sit in prison alone but would very soon have Mr. John Lapussa there +also, as his companion. All the efforts of the two pandurs were +powerless to silence him. + +As for Mr. John, the magistrate simply said to him: "Sir, it is not good +for a man to make use of nasty tools, for by so doing he only dirties +his own hands." + +Then he got into a second hackney coach and drove away after the first +one. + +Even Mr. John could see that it was now quite impossible for him under +the circumstances to think of quitting Pest. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE UNDISCOVERABLE LADY + + +Squire Gerzson Satrakovics thought it best after that night at the +_csarda_ to go back to Arad. This wondrous event, the clue to which he +could not hit upon anyhow, must needs interest Hatszegi most of all. It +would be a terrible thing to appear before him with the tidings that the +lady who was intrusted to his care, had been lost on the way; yet, +nevertheless, this was the first thing he must say, and after that they +would consult together as to what was to be done to find her and where +they were to look for her. + +Never had Mr. Gerzson approached a bear's den with such beating of heart +as he now approached Hatszegi's chambers. His breath almost failed him +as he seized the handle of the street door and wished it might prove +locked in order that it might take a longer time to open it. + +And locked indeed the door proved to be, he had to ring. Thus he had, at +any rate, a respite, for he must await the result of the ringing. And a +long time he had to wait too, so long indeed that it was necessary to +ring again. Even then there was no response. Then he rang a third time, +and after that he went on ring-ring-ringing for a good half hour. At +last the bellrope remained in his hand and he put it into his pocket +that it might testify to the fact that he had been there. Then, for the +first time, he noticed that the shutters were all up--the surest sign +that nobody was at home. + +Gerzson explained the matter to his own satisfaction by supposing that +the whole household was at the races. It was the last day of the races +and he reached the course just as the betting was at its height and +everybody's attention was concentrated on the event of the moment. At +such time the crowd has no eyes for men, everyone is occupied with the +horses. Mr. Gerzson therefore had plenty of time to scrutinize all who +were present, but look as he would he could not see Leonard anywhere. + +At last he could stand the suspense no longer, and during the interval +between two races, he descended from the grand-stand, in a corner of +which he had ensconced himself in order to get a better view of the +field, and mingled in the ring with his brother sportsmen awaiting +resignedly for the expression of amazed and horrified inquiry which he +expected to see in all faces the moment they perceived him. + +But how taken aback was he when the first man who cast eyes on him gave +vent to a loud: Ha! ha! ha! whereupon everybody else began laughing also +and pointing their fingers at him and exclaiming: "Why here's Gerzson! +Gerzson has come back again!" + +"Have you all gone mad?" cried Gerzson, confused by this inexplicable +hubbub. + +He really fancied that he had fallen among a lot of lunatics, till at +last Count Kengyelesy forced his way through the crowd towards him, put +both his hands on his hips and began to quiz him: "Well, you are a +pretty fellow!--you are a pretty squire of dames, I must say!" + +"But what's the matter? What has happened? Why do you laugh?" + +"Listen to him!" cried the count, turning to the bystanders. "He +actually has the impertinence to ask us why we laugh! Come, sir! where +did you leave the Baroness Hatszegi?" + +"I don't see what there is to laugh at at such a question?" replied +Gerzson, in whose mind all sorts of dark forebodings began to arise. + +"What have you done with the baroness? What have you done with our +friend Leonard's wife, I say?" persisted the count. + +"That is a perfect riddle to me," growled Gerzson in a low voice. + +"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the count, "it is a riddle to him what has become +of his travelling companion." + +"But can any of you tell me what has happened to her? Is she alive?" + +The count clapped his hands together and flung his round hat upon the +ground. + +"Now, that is what I call a _leetle_ too strong! He asks: is she alive? +Why, comrade, where have you been in hiding all this time?" + +"A truce to jesting," cried Gerzson fiercely. "Tell me all you know +about it, for it is no joking matter for me, I can assure you." + +On perceiving that Gerzson was seriously angry, Kengyelesy drew nearer +to him and enlightened him without any more beating about the bush: +"Well then, my dear friend, let me tell you that you have behaved very +badly. First of all you made all four of Hatszegi's horses lame; in the +second place you compelled his poor wife to spend a night in a _csarda_ +of the _puszta_, and in the third place you got so drunk that you began +to quarrel with her and at last did not know whether you were boy or +girl. The poor little woman has grown almost grey with terror, and after +you had fallen to the ground in liquor she sent the coachman to town for +fresh horses and, leaving you under the table, tried to make her way +back to Arad." + +"That is not true," interrupted Gerzson, his whole face purple with +rage. + +"What is not true?" + +"Where is the baroness?" + +"Stop, stop, my friend! Don't run away! You'll never catch her up, for, +early this morning, she drove back to Hidvar in a postchaise with her +husband." + +"That can not be true. Did you see her?" + +"I saw her through my own field glass. But we all saw her--did we not, +gentlemen?" + +Many of those present admitted that they had indeed seen the baroness. + +"But my dear fellow," said the perturbed Gerzson, "this is no joke. On +the contrary, my adventure with the baroness is somewhat tragical, and +I'll trouble you to expend no more of your feeble witticisms on me." + +Kengyelesy shrugged his shoulders. "I did not know you would take it so +seriously, but so it is." + +"From whom did you hear all this, from the baroness?" + +"No--from Hatszegi." + +An idea suddenly flashed through Gerzson's brain. + +"Did you speak to the baroness herself?" + +"No. I only saw her through the carriage window when they drove away." + +"Was she veiled?" + +"No, my friend. It was her very self I assure you." + +"Thank you. And now, if you like, you can go on amusing yourself at my +expense. Adieu!" + +Only when he had got home and flung himself on the sofa in a state of +stupor, did he begin to reflect a little calmly on what he had heard. +There was so much about the affair that was startling and +incomprehensible, true and untrue, probable, incredible, shameful and +exasperating, that he could make neither head nor tail of it. + +That the baroness _had_ returned must be true, for they all maintained +that she had come back while he was lying drunk. It is true that he had +got drunk, but he had no recollection of having been quarrelsome and +misbehaving himself. Strain his memory as he might, all he could call to +mind was Henrietta, with her angelically gentle face, sitting before him +at the table and telling him the legends of the Transylvanian Alps--all +the rest was a blank. + +Up he jumped at last and began pacing up and down the room. At last, +after much reflection, his mind was made up, he had formed a plan. + +"I'll be off. I'll be off immediately. I'll go straight to her. I am +determined to learn from her own lips exactly what happened to me and +how I came to make such a fool of myself. I will speak to her myself." + +And immediately he ordered his coachman to put the horses to; but he +told not a living soul whither he was going, even to the coachman he +only mentioned the first stage. + +At a little booth at the end of the town he bought four and twenty +double rolls and a new wooden field flask. When they came to the River +Maros, he descended to the water's edge, rinsed out his flask at least +twice and then filled it with water, finally thrusting both the rolls +and the flask into his travelling knapsack. After that he drew on his +mantle, clambered up into the back part of the coach, stuck his pipe in +his mouth and his pistol in his fist and never closed an eye till +morning. + +And it must be admitted that Mr. Gerzson's mode of travelling on this +occasion was decidedly eccentric. On reaching a village he would tell +his coachman where to go next but he never told him more than one stage +in advance. Every morning he would consume one of his rolls and wash it +down with the lukewarm brackish water of the Maros--and bitter enough he +found the taste of it too. He never quitted the carriage for more than +two or three minutes at a time, and he presented his pistols point blank +at everyone who approached him with inquisitive questions. + +Only twice during the night did he allow the horses an hour or two of +rest--and then away over stock and stone again. + +The coachman, who was unaccustomed to such queer ways, presently shook +his head every time he received orders to go on further, but by dawn of +day he had had about enough of the job. + +"Your honour," said he, "are we going to stop at all? It would do the +horses no harm if they had a little rest." + +"What's that to you, you rascal, eh?" roared Mr. Gerzson, "I suppose +you're sleepy, you lazy good-for-nothing? Off the box then, you hound, +you! I'll drive the horses myself, you gallows-bird!" + +The old fellow, who had been in the service of the family for twenty +years and had never had so many insulting epithets thrown at his head +before explained that he did not speak for himself but for the horses. + +"If they perished on the spot, Sirrah, what business is it of yours? +When one pursues the enemy in time of war, does one think of food or +fodder?"--whence the coachman concluded that there was some one whom the +squire meant to cut to pieces. + +It was only when they came to the road leading to Hidvar that the +coachman began to suspect that they were about to go in that direction. +It was now the evening of the second day and both man and beast were +tired to death. It was indispensable that they should stay the night +here, for if they passed Hidvar they would have to go on the whole night +before they reached the next stage--or come to grief on the road, which +was much more probable. + +"You will stop in front of the castle!" commanded Mr. Gerzson when they +were crossing the castle bridge. + +The coachman looked back and shook his head. He did not like it at all. + +"Shan't we turn into the castle yard?" enquired he. + +"No!" bellowed Squire Gerzson, so venomously that the "why not?" he was +about to say, stuck in the poor coachman's throat like a fish-bone. + +"Now listen to me," said Gerzson, when they had fairly got across to +the other side: "Keep your eyes open and try and take in what I am going +to say to you. I don't know how long I may remain inside there--possibly +some time. At any rate you must not loiter about here with the horses +but go on to the priest and beg him, civilly, mind, to kindly +accommodate my nags in his stable and give them two bushels of maize. As +soon as I return I'll settle with him, but don't say anything about +payment, or else you will offend him. Kiss his hand, for he is a priest +and you are only a lazy vagabond. If you hear no news of me by to-morrow +morning, put the horses into the carriage again and return to Arad where +Count Kengyelesy will tell you what to do next." + +Then he turned upon his heel and set off towards the castle. + +It was already evening. In the upper story seven of the windows were lit +up and the moon shone into the eighth. That was Henrietta's bedroom. +Squire Gerzson knew it. He was quite at home in the castle. + +At the hall entrance he encountered Leonard's huntsman, an impertinent, +bony, jowly loafer whom he had never been able to endure. The fellow +barred the way. + +"Good evening your honour." + +"Why should _you_ wish _me_ good evening, you stupid jackass! Do you +suppose I have travelled five and twenty miles for the pleasure of +wishing _you_ good evening? Who's at home?" + +"Nobody." + +"Go along with you, you sodden-headed son of a dog. Nobody at home and +seven windows in the upper story all alight!" + +"It is true the rooms are lit up, but that is on account of her +ladyship--they are sitting up with her." + +"Then where's your master?" + +"He has trotted into Klausenburg for the learned doctor." + +"What is the matter with her ladyship?" + +"I don't know. They say she is mad." + +"You are mad yourself, you stupid beast. Who told you that?" + +"I saw it, I heard it myself, and others also have seen that she is +mad." + +"Cannot I speak to her?" + +"How can you? That's just the mischief of it, that she cannot be spoken +to." + +"You rascal, I tell you your master _is_ at home. I am sure of it." + +Long-legs shrugged his shoulders and began to whistle. + +"Look ye here, my son," said Gerzson, scarcely able to contain himself, +"the fist that you see in my pocket here is pulling the trigger of a +revolver and I have a jolly good mind to send a bullet in between your +onion chawing teeth, so I should advise you not to try any of your +tom-foolery on me. On this occasion I have not come to pay your master +a visit but for other reasons. Speak the truth, sirrah! Is your master +at home or is he not?" + +"I have just told you that there is not a soul at home except her +ladyship, and she is mad." + +At that same moment Gerzson thought he heard a fiddle in the upper +story. + +"What, music here!" he cried. + +The fellow laughed. + +"Yes, they are trying to cure the sick baroness by playing to her." + +"But I hear the sound of men's voices also as if there were guests +here." + +"Where? I hear nothing. It is only the dogs barking in the enclosure." + +"You did not hear it, sirrah?" + +"I heard nothing." + +"Very well, my son, I see you have orders to make a fool of me; but it +strikes me that both you and your master will have to get up pretty +early to do that. You need not be so anxious to guard the door, I shall +not try to force my way up to your master. I'll wager he will come and +see me first. Wait a bit." + +And with that Gerzson sat down on the step, tore a leaf out of his +pocketbook and, placing it on his knee, wrote with his pencil the +following words: "Sir, I declare you to be a miserable coward. If you +want to know why, you will find me at the parson's, there I will tell +you and after that we can arrange our little business between ourselves. + "GERZSON SATRAKOVICS." + +Mr. Gerzson had even taken the trouble to provide himself with +sealing-wax and matches so he could seal his letter without any +difficulty and the step served him as a table. + +But suppose even this letter did not make Hatszegi come forth? Struck by +this idea he tore open the note again and added this postscript: "If you +do not give me proper satisfaction, I will wait for you at the gate of +your own castle and shoot you down like a dog!!" + +Surely _that_ would be enough! + +Again he sealed the letter and was about to hand it to the huntsman when +it suddenly occurred to him that Hatszegi might chuck the note unopened +into the fire. Now, therefore, he wrote on the outside of it, just below +the address: "If you don't open this letter, I will have an exact copy +of it posted upon the notice-board of the club at Arad." + +"And now, you door-keeping Cerberus," said he, "take this and give it to +your master, wherever he may be." + +He wasted no more words upon the fellow, but went straight to the +dwelling of the old priest who was awaiting him in his porch. + +"I must beg your reverence for a night's lodging, I am afraid," said +Squire Gerzson, cordially pressing the old clergyman's hand. "There is +serious illness at the baron's house so I don't want to incommode them +with my company. All I want is a place whereon to lay my head. My wants +are few. You know me of old." + +"Gladly will I share with your honour the little I have. God hath +brought you hither. I am glad you did not stay at the castle. The +company there is not fit for your honour." + +"Then there is company there, eh? What sort of folks are they?" + +"Folks I should not care about meeting. Drahhowecz and Muntya, and +Harastory, and Brinko, and Bandan, and Kerakoricz, and . . ." + +"That will do," interrupted Mr. Gerzson, aghast at so many odd, strange +names not one of which he had ever heard of before. "New comers, I +suppose?" + +"I was sure their names would be quite unfamiliar to your honour," +remarked the priest smiling, and he led his guest into his narrow +dwelling, looking cautiously round first of all to make sure that nobody +was listening. Once inside he carefully barred the door, seated his +guest at the carved wooden table, which was covered with a pretty +covering made from foal-skin, and filled a dish with fresh maize +pottage, adding thereto a ham bone and a jug of mead. Mr. Gerzson fell +to, like a man, on the very first invitation; and each armed with a +wooden spoon, attacked the maize pottage from different points till +their assiduously tunnelling spoons met together in the centre of the +large platter. + +"A capital dish, your reverence, really capital." + +"Very good for poor folks like we are, I admit. I know you don't have +fare like this in Hungary." + +"I suppose we don't know how to prepare it properly," said Gerzson. + +And then the priest explained how hot the water must be when maize meal +or sweet-broom meal has to be mixed with it, how the whole mess must be +stirred with a spoon, how a little finely grated cheese has to be added +to it, and how it had then all to be tied up in a cloth like a +plum-pudding and have milk poured over it. And Squire Gerzson listened +to him as attentively as if he had come all the way from Arad to Hidvar +on purpose to learn the art of cooking maize pottage. And after that +they pledged each other's health in long draughts from the mead jug. + +"And now," said the priest when they had well supped, "I know that your +honour spent all last night upon the road. You must be tired and instead +of boring yourself by listening to my uninteresting gossip, it would be +better, methinks, if we both went to bed." + +"I shouldn't mind lying down at all, but alas! I have an appointment +here with some one." + +"May I ask with whom?" + +"I have written the baron a letter and I await a reply." + +"He will not send one: he is too much taken up with his pleasures just +now." + +"My letter contains things which a man durst not ignore." + +"Was your letter an insulting one?" + +"I don't wish to advertise its contents." + +"Very good. But for all that you may as well lie down. The ways of the +baron are incalculable. Even when he is angry he knows what he is +about." + +"Then we'll wait for him till morning." + +"Meanwhile repose in peace. My humble dwelling is not very luxurious, +but let your honour imagine that it is a hunting hut in the forest." + +"But where then will your reverence sleep?" + +"I'll go out to the bee-house. I can sleep there excellently well, I +have a couch of linden leaves." + +"Nay, but I also love to sleep on linden leaves, covered with my +_bunda_.[44] I'll lie there to-night. I am accustomed to sleeping in the +open air at night, and you are an old man"--he forgot that he was one +himself--"I could never permit you to sacrifice your comfort for my +sake." + +[Footnote 44: A sheepskin mantle.] + +The clergyman paused for an instant like one who is suddenly struck by a +new and odd idea. + +"You said just now that you had insulted Hatszegi, did you not?" he +asked. + +"Well--yes!--if you _must_ know." + +"Grossly?" + +"Yes, and most deliberately." + +"Very good, I only asked the question out of curiosity. You shall have +the choice of your resting place, where would you like to sleep?" + +"I choose the bee-house." + +"Good. It is true that the night air is not very good for me. I will +sleep then in my usual resting place." + +"And I will sleep among the bees. Their humming close beside a man's +ears generally brings him dreams that a king would envy." + +"Then good night, sir." + +"Good night." + +They parted at the little porch. Gerzson wrapped his _bunda_ round his +shoulders and went towards the bee-house, but the priest returned to his +chamber, blew out the light, lay down fully dressed on his bed, took up +his rosary and fell a-praying like one who does not expect to see the +dawn of another day. + +He knew his man; he knew what was coming. + +Squire Gerzson, on the other hand, troubled himself not a jot about +possible consequences. With the nonchalance of a true sportsman, he lit +his pipe and, lest he should set anything on fire, he made up his mind +not to sleep a wink till he had smoked his pipe right out. + +In order that slumber might not come upon him unawares, he resolved to +fix his eyes on the castle windows--as the best preservative against +dropping off. He could see them quite plainly from the bee-house. + +The illuminated windows were darkened one by one. It seemed as if, +contrary to the words of the clergyman, the revellers within there did +not mean to await the rosy dawn glass in hand, but had lain down early. + +For, indeed, it was still early. The village cocks had only just crowed +for the first time. It could not be much beyond eleven. + +After the lamps had been extinguished, the castle stood there in the +semi-obscurity of night like a black, old-world ruin. It stood right in +front of the moon which was now climbing up behind its bastions and +where its light fell upon two opposite windows which met together in a +corner room it shone through them both and lighted up the whole +apartment. This room was the baroness's dormitory. + +While Mr. Gerzson was luxuriating in the contemplation of the moonlight, +he suddenly observed that the moonlight falling upon the windows was +obscured for an instant, as if somebody were passing up and down the +room. In a few moments this obscuration was repeated, and the same thing +happened a third time, and a fourth, and many times more, just as if +some one were passing up and down in that particular room in the middle +of the night restlessly, incessantly. + +Mr. Gerzson counted on his pulses the seconds which elapsed between each +obscuration--sixteen seconds, consequently the room in which this person +was to-and-froing it so late at night like a spectre, must be sixteen +paces from one end to the other. So long as the other windows had been +lit up, this person had not begun to walk but as soon as the whole +castle was slumbering its restless course began. + +Gerzson felt that if he looked much longer, he would become moonstruck +himself. + +Slowly divesting himself of his _bunda_, and after knocking the burning +ashes out of his pipe, he noiselessly quitted the bee-house, traversed +the garden and sprang over the fence at a single bound. Then he stole +along in the shadow of the poplar avenue leading up to the castle till +he stood beneath the moon-lit window, climbed, like a veritable lunatic +on to the projecting stones of the old bastion, and gazed from thence, +at closer quarters, at the regularly recurring shadow. + +But not even now was he content, but began to break off little portions +of the mouldering mortar and cautiously throw them at the window. When +one of these little fragments of mortar rattled against the glass the +whole window was quickly obscured by a shadow as if the night wanderer +had rushed to it in order to look out. Gerzson felt absolutely certain +that he must be observed for there he stood clinging fast on to the +moulding. A few moments afterwards the shadow disappeared suddenly from +the window and again the moonlight shone uninterruptedly through it. + +Gerzson determined to remain where he was, to see what would come of it. + +In a short time the shadow reappeared in front of the moonlight, the +window was silently and very slightly raised, and through the slit +fluttered a rolled up piece of paper. + +This missive fell from the moulding of the bastion down into the moat. +Mr. Gerzson scrambled down after it, grabbed at it in the dark and +sticking it into his pocket, returned to the dwelling of the priest. + +Not wishing to arouse the clergyman, he went to his carriage which stood +in the stable and lit the lamp in order to read the mysterious missive. + +The letter was written on a piece of paper torn out of an album. He +recognized Henrietta's handwriting, and the contents of the note were as +follows: "Good kind Gerzson! I implore you, in the name of all that is +sacred, to depart from hence this instant. Depart on foot by bye +paths--the priest will guide you. If you do not wish me to lose my +reason altogether, tarry here no longer. I am very unhappy, but still +more unhappy I should be if you were to remain here. Avoid us--and +forget me forever--your affectionate--respectful--friend who will ever +mention you in her prayers--and whom you have treated as a +daughter--HENRIETTA." + +Gerzson's first feeling on reading this letter was one of +relief--evidently Henrietta was not angry with him or she would not have +alluded to herself as his daughter! There must therefore have been some +other reason for her turning back other than the squabble between them +which Hatszegi had so industriously circulated. Well, he would settle +accounts with Hatszegi presently. + +What he found especially hard to understand, however, was the mysterious +warning contained in the letter. + +"Well, my dear parson," he said to himself, "I very much regret having +to arouse you from your slumbers, but there's nothing else to be done," +and, unscrewing the coach lamp, he took it with him and went towards the +house. + +The hall door was closed, he had to shake it. + +The parson was evidently still awake, his voice resounded from within +the house: "All good spirits praise the Lord!" + +"Amen! 'Tis I who am at the door. Let me in reverend father." + +The priest immediately opened the door and, full of amazement, asked Mr. +Gerzson what had happened. + +"Read that!" said Gerzson handing him the letter and lighting him with +the lamp. + +"This is the baroness's writing," said the priest, who immediately +recognized the script. + +"What do you say to its contents?" + +"I say that you must get away from this place immediately. I quite +comprehend the meaning of the baroness's directions." + +"What! fly from a man whom I have just called out?" + +"No, you must fly from the man you have _not_ called out." + +"I don't understand." + +"You will one day, but there is no time for parleying now. First of all, +put on my garments, while I dress up in peasants' clothes." + +"Why?" + +"Why! Because I must be your guide through the mountains. I cannot trust +another to do you that service. Do quickly what I tell you." + +The priest gave his orders to Mr. Gerzson with imperious brevity, but +that gentleman, even in his present situation, could not divest himself +of his homely humour, and as he was donning the parson's long cassock +and pressed the broad brimmed clerical hat down upon his head, he fell a +laughing at the odd figure he cut. + +"Deuce take it!" he cried, "I never imagined that I should ever be +turned into a parson." + +But the priest was angry at the untimely jest and turning savagely upon +Squire Gerzson, said: "Sir, this is no time for jesting, we are both of +us standing on the very threshold of death." + +Gerzson was no coward, nor did he trouble himself very much about death, +but the emphatic tone of the parson at least induced him, at last, to +take the matter seriously. + +"Then according to that you also are in danger on my account?" + +"Ask no questions! I knew what would happen when I gave you a night's +lodging." + +Then he took out of a drawer a packet of letters and bade Gerzson put +them in the pocket of his cassock as the coat he was wearing had no +pockets. + +"Why do you take these with you?" + +"Because I fear to leave them here, and also because I believe I shall +never return to this house any more. I have one request to make of you +and that is that you will read these letters and keep the contents to +yourself." Gerzson promised to do so. + +It was just as the descending moon seemed to be resting on the summits +of the mountains that the priest and his guest quitted the quiet little +house by way of the garden. The night which covered the retreat of the +fugitives was pitch dark. Nobody but one who had been accustomed to that +district for years and knew all its ins and outs could have found a path +through those wooded gorges. + +By the morning light the fugitives perceived the little posting station +on the high road. There the priest exchanged clothes with Gerzson and +resumed his clerical attire. + +"Nothing can detain us now," said the priest, "you can procure post +horses here and return home, but I go in an opposite direction." + +"Whither?" + +"The world is wide. Do not trouble yourself about me. In a month's time +we shall meet again." + +"Where?" + +"At this very place." + +The priest hastily quitted Gerzson and returned towards the forest, +while the latter went on to the little town, where he speedily got post +horses. + +When now he found himself sitting all safe and sound, in the carriage, +it suddenly struck him how remarkably odd it was that he and the parson +should have actually fled away from a non-existent danger. How they +would laugh at him from one end of the kingdom to the other! Suppose +Henrietta had been playing a practical joke upon him! But then, on the +other hand, Henrietta was not of that sort--so he consoled himself. + +But there was another thing which bothered him a good deal. The coachman +had been left behind with the four horses and would not know what to +make of the disappearance of his master and the priest. When, however, +the post chaise stopped in front of his house at Arad who should he see +coming to meet him through the gate but this very coachman whose +astonishment at the meeting was even greater than his master's. And +then, to the amazement of the postillion, master and servant fell upon +each other's necks and embraced each other again and again. + +"Come into the house," said Mr. Gerzson at last, "and tell me what +befell you. I don't want you to bellow it out here before all the +world." + +"I hardly know how to put it, sir, but I will tell it you as best I can. +After watering the horses, I lay down and went to sleep. A loud neighing +suddenly awoke me and, looking around, I saw a great light. The +parson's house was all in flames. Up I was in a jiffy and ran to the +door to call your honour but I found the door was locked from the +inside. I then ran to the windows and found that the shutters were +nailed down over them. What horrified me most of all, however, was that +nobody came from the castle to put the fire out. Then I began to roar +for help and while I was roaring and running up and down looking for an +axe with which to batter in the door--'burum! burum!' I heard two shots +and the bullets whistled to the right and left about my ears. At that +all my pluck went down to my heels; I rushed under the shelter of the +barn, cut the tether ropes of the horses, swung myself up on to the +saddle horse, driving the others before me, and trotted into Arad +without once stopping to water them." + +So he had reached home more quickly than Squire Gerzson himself. + +"Well, my son," said Gerzson, "all that you have told me is gospel truth +I have no doubt, but say not a word of it to anybody, or else . . ." +(and here he uttered the threat which the ordinary Hungarian common folk +fear most of all)--"or else the affair will come before the courts and +you will have to give testimony on oath." + +After that he was sure of the fellow's silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE SHAKING HAND + + +Whoever in an evil hour encountered Fatia Negra had a shaking hand for +the rest of his life. + +Ever since that meeting at the _csarda_ Henrietta's hand also trembled +to such an extent that it was only with the utmost difficulty that she +could sign her own name. + +What happened to her after that meeting? Whom did she recognize in Fatia +Negra? How did she get home?--all these things remained eternal secrets. +The lady was never able to tell it to anybody. Perchance she herself +regarded it as a dream. + +The poor lady used now to pray all day. For hours at a time she would +kneel before the altar of the castle chapel returning thence to her +perpetual walking to and fro, to and fro, kneeling down to pray again +when she was tired out. And so she went on from morning to evening, nay, +till late into the night, sometimes till midnight, sometimes till the +dawn of the next day, up and down, up and down, between four walls, and +then on her knees again a-praying. + +She never appeared in the dining-room; her meals were sent to her room. +She scarcely touched them, it was difficult to understand how she kept +body and soul together. + +She only quitted her chamber to go to chapel. At such times she would +frequently meet domestics or strangers in the castle corridors, but she +looks at nobody and says not a word. She does not notice that they are +there, that they are amazed at her, that they greet her. No one has +heard her speak for a long time. + +And therefore they think her mad. At first only the domestics whispered +this among themselves, then the villagers--and in a month's time it was +notorious through Transylvania that the youthful Baroness Hatszegi was +out of her mind. + +Early one morning, as Henrietta was returning from chapel, there +suddenly appeared before her a ragged woman who must have been hidden in +some niche as the servants had not seen her or driven her out. + +"Stop one moment, my lady," whispered the woman and Henrietta seemed to +hear in that whisper the voice of an old acquaintance, though she did +not recognize the face. It was half masked in a cloth and the little she +could see of it was disfigured by wounds and scars like the face of one +who had been badly injured by fire. Henrietta was horrified at the sight +of her, she looked so dreadful. + +"Don't be frightened, my lady," said the woman falling down on her knees +before her and seizing Henrietta's dress to prevent her from escaping, +"I am Anicza." + +Henrietta fixed her eyes upon the woman full of stupid amazement, and +vainly sought in her face for some trace of the ideal loveliness which +only the other day, so it seemed, had made her so charming. She began to +fancy that the woman was under some evil spell and that if anyone could +but repeat the talismanic word, her former loveliness would be restored +to her. + +"You cannot recognize me your ladyship for my face was burnt to death in +the Lucsia Cavern. Oh, if it had only always been what it is now. I am +much better as I am now. God has punished me because I let my soul be +lost for the sake of my fair face. I am not vain now as I used to be. +Yes, God has smitten all of us on account of our sins, as your ladyship +already knows; but none has he smitten so hard as me. I denounced all my +kinsfolk and acquaintances to the tribunal to be avenged on one man who +had deceived me,--all of them were taken except him and he escaped. And +now I am a beggar, an accursed creature whom everyone drives from his +door, but what care I?--I never feel hungry. They took away all my +father's property--heaven only knows how much there was, more than +twenty thousand ducats, I think, and it would have been mine for I am +his only child. I was summoned before the court, they said they would +reward me for denouncing the society, they said they would give me a +thousand ducats. Ha, ha, ha! a thousand ducats for making myself the +wretched creature I am! But I did not come here to frighten your +ladyship, I came here to humbly beg a favour. Gracious lady, the +magistrates told me that a mixed commission will be appointed to try the +forgers and that his lordship, the baron, will be the president of this +commission; on him depends the life and death of everyone concerned." + +Henrietta felt obliged to lean against the wall. + +"My lady, I do not expect impossibilities, I cannot wish that the guilty +should remain unpunished--justice is justice! But the leader of the +whole gang was Fatia Negra, he planned everything, the others only +carried out his orders. And now there is a lot of false witnesses ready +to swear that my father was the ring-leader and throw all the blame upon +him, but it was Fatia Negra and nobody else as God knows." + +Every time the peasant woman mentioned Fatia Negra's name a spasmodic +twitch convulsed Henrietta's pale features. + +"Gracious lady," continued Anicza, "I implore you by the tender mercies +of God not to abandon me. Grant me my petition! Either let them kill me +or lock me up with the others. I implore you, my lady, to speak or write +to your husband (if these things must be in writing) on my behalf. Do +not let me perish. God will not be angry with you for protecting me." + +Henrietta was now even less able to speak than before. But though she +could not express herself in words, she placed one hand on the girl's +head and raised the other tremulous hand to heaven, as one who takes a +solemn oath before God. Then she tore herself away from Anicza, who had +stooped to kiss the hem of her garment, and hastened back to her own +room. On reaching the threshold of the house she looked back and saw +that the girl had sunk down in the dust and was gratefully kissing the +very traces of the footsteps of the departing lady. + +On reaching her room Henrietta paced up and down it for a long time, +wringing her hands as she went and moaning loudly: "My God! my God!" +Then she flung herself down on her couch, writhing like one in mortal +agony. + +But soon she strengthened her heart and sat down at the writing-table. +What had become of that beautiful handwriting of hers which had +resembled copper plate? Scarcely legible letters now issued from her +trembling hand, dumb witnesses of the terror of her heart, and yet write +she must for it was her petition to her husband. Ah! that she should be +forced to write to him. + +Her letter was as follows: + + "DREAD SIR: Tremulously and submissively I approach you. In the + name of an unhappy creature I appeal to your compassion. You will + be the judge of a lot of wretched men. Be merciful to them. By the + grace of heaven I implore you, condemn them not! In the name of + God, I implore you not to sign their death warrants. By the + terrors of eternity I implore you do not ruin these men, for they + are most innocent. N. N." + +She durst not subscribe her own name. + +And now she waited, she watched for the moment when Leonard quitted his +room and, slipping in, laid the petition on the couch where he would be +sure to find it. Nobody observed her. + +The same day she encountered him, she had in fact sought for such an +encounter. It was in the great armoury. Leonard, as soon as he perceived +his wife, began humming some mad operatic tune, an opera bouffe air and +bawled through the door to the dog-keeper to unleash the hounds. + +The pale lady nevertheless approached him, with tottering but determined +footsteps, and folding both her trembling hands as if in prayer, stood +mutely in front of the door through which Leonard would have to pass, +like some dumb spirit from another world. But Leonard merely shrugged +his shoulders and passed her by, whistling all the time. + +Again, on the following day, the timid petition lay on Leonard's table, +written in the same tremulous characters. Henrietta had written it +again, and again had crept into his chamber and in whatever part of the +house the magnate might now be found, he everywhere encountered this +pale tremulous figure who pressing her hands together and without +uttering a word gazed at him beseechingly, imploringly--only they two +knew why. + +On the third day Leonard again found the petition and again encountered +Henrietta. + +This time he spoke to her. + +"My dear Henrietta, have you read 'The Mysteries of Paris?'" + +Henrietta, as usual, only stared at the speaker with frightened eyes and +said nothing. + +"How did you like the description of Bicetre? A horrible place, eh? I +have noticed that you have been behaving in rather a peculiar way +lately. In fact, the whole district has been talking about it and saying +that you are a little crazy. I have been asked all sorts of questions +about it too.--Hitherto I have always told everybody that it is not +true.--But if once I should say that it _is_ true, then, you will be +most certainly shut up in a mad house. Regulate your conduct +accordingly." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FIGHT FOR THE GOLD + + +Of late Mr. Gerzson Satrakovics had invented for himself a peculiar sort +of pastime. + +He had renounced bear hounds and grey hounds and all other kinds of +dogs, he did not care a jot when partridge shooting began, but he hung +up his gun on a nail and began regularly visiting one after another the +session courts of the counties of Arad, Biehar and Temes, in all of +which he was a justice of the peace, and moving resolutions. + +The object of these resolutions was to induce the three counties to +endeavour with their united strength, and in conjunction with the +Transylvanian counties of Hunyad, Feher and Zarand, to extirpate the +robber bands that had so long been terrorizing the whole district. He +compiled lists of the atrocities perpetrated in the various localities +and connected them all with the name of one particular robber, the +notorious "Fatia Negra." He produced convincing proofs of the existence +of a combination extending from the depths of the dungeons to the +summits of the mountains which was held together by the magic influence +of this one man and he left no stone unturned to bring him to book. + +He, naturally, became quite a laughing stock for his pains, and his +acquaintances could not for the life of them understand what had come to +the man. + +"Why, old fellow!" said Count Kengyelesy to him one day, after he had +been indulging in an unusually fiery philippic at Quarter Sessions, +"why, old fellow, what sort of venom have you swallowed that makes you +perorate so savagely against this worthy Fatia Negra. If anybody has +cause to complain against him it is I, for he relieved me of 1,000 +ducats on the high road, and so cleverly did the rascal manage it, that +I cannot find it in my heart to bear him any ill-will. But what have you +got to do with him I should like to know? What is all this cock and bull +story you keep on spouting out concerning organized robber bands and +mysterious chieftains? Is it your ambition, my friend, to become public +prosecutor?" + +"Yes, it is, and public prosecutor I will be, too. I want six counties +to place their armed constabulary at my beck and call, and if they do, +I'll wager that I'll so purify all these Alpine regions that the robbers +will not have a single lurking hole left." + +"Rubbish! Don't make a fool of yourself. Besides, they say that Fatia +Negra has flown to America." + +"Newspaper lies. He is here, I know he is." + +"And suppose he is, what harm can he do? This band has been cut off to +the very last man. They have all been sentenced heavily, the older men +to twenty years penal servitude, the younger men to penal servitude for +life. I had it from Hatszegi himself who was the president of the mixed +commission that tried them, and signed the judgment himself. The whole +fraternity is now sitting in chains in the trenches of Gyula Fehervar +and we have seen the last of it." + +"What guarantee have you of that?" + +"What guarantee?--why the security of the whole region ever since. Why, +everyone there can now sleep with open doors and if you yourself were to +lie dead drunk in the public thoroughfare you would not have your money +stolen from your pocket any more." + +Squire Gerzson protested vehemently against the assumption that he was +in the habit of sprawling tipsily on the king's high road. + +"I'll tell you," said he, "why everything is so secure just now. The +confiscated gold of Fatia Negra is still at Gyula Fehervar, as a forfeit +to the crown, and, sooner or later, must be sent to Vienna. Fatia Negra +is _not_ dead, his robber band has _not_ been captured and does _not_ +sit in irons at Gyula Fehervar, and the present tranquillity and +imagined security suit their plans nicely. The band now pretends to have +vanished, but just you wait till the gold is sent under convoy from +Gyula Fehervar to Vienna--and you will see some fun." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I know it sir, because I know that this man, this brazen faced, +iron-fisted man is not such a chicken-hearted creature as to allow a +half-million or so to be snatched from him without stirring every nerve +and muscle to try and win it back again. For I know that hitherto he has +always triumphed over the power of the law and has always escaped from +the most dangerous ambushes." + +"Well, all I can say is that I do not understand what you have to do +with this worthy man." + + * * * * * + +The falsely coined gold pieces deposited at Gyula Fehervar, had, after +the trial was over, to be sent to Hungary to be recoined. The precious +consignment filled two post-wagons and was of the estimated value of a +million and a half. Four and twenty Uhlans were told off to escort it. +This was a more than sufficient protection for the most costly treasure +at ordinary times. Moreover, in Hungary, cavalry has always inspired the +mob with terror. During the disturbances at the time of the cholera +outbreak, two squadrons of Hussars were easily able to quell the whole +riot. It was impossible to calculate how many robbers and peasants the +four and twenty Uhlans were capable of coping with. So, at least, the +county magistrates believed. + +The soldiers were commanded by a lieutenant, the post-wagons were under +the charge of an official accountant and a comptroller. All the +postillions were provided with pistols and it was strictly ordered that +the wagons were not to travel on the high-road after six o'clock. There +was no lack of precaution, anyhow! + +Now when the post wagons had reached the celebrated Bridge of Piski,[45] +lo, there and then, face to face, four and twenty horsemen came, riding +towards them from the opposite side of the bridge and the five and +twentieth was Fatia Negra. + +[Footnote 45: It was here that a small band of Hungarians under Czsez +and Kureny held a whole Austrian army at bay on Feb. 9, 1849.--_Tr._] + +All the four and twenty had black crape wound round their faces, their +clothes had the lining turned outwards and they were well provided with +swords, csakanys[46] and muskets. Fatia Negra himself rode a vigorous +black stallion and held in his hand a broad, naked sword. + +[Footnote 46: Hooked axes.] + +The horse of the Uhlan lieutenant took fright at the sight of the black +faces and began to rear, it was as much as his rider could do to prevent +him from springing over the parapet of the bridge. + +Fatia Negra and his band halted in the centre of the bridge and did not +budge from the spot. + +The lieutenant was a brave soldier, who never lost his presence of mind; +he tightened the reins of his plunging horse and turning towards +Black-Mask, exclaimed: "Who are you, what do you want, and why do you +block up the bridge?" + +A deep, thundrous manly voice replied to him from afar: "I am Fatia +Negra. The treasure which you have with you is mine,--it has been stolen +from me. I now want to have it back again. I have brought hither a man +to every man of yours, we are as strong as you. I meet you openly in the +light of day. Give me back my gold or you shall have a taste of my +iron." + +The lieutenant, who was one of the best swordsmen and one of the bravest +heroes in the regiment, did not think twice about accepting the +challenge, but put spurs to his steed and fell upon the adventurer who +awaited him in the middle of the bridge. + +He encountered a terrible antagonist. Fatia Negra warded every blow and +countered instantly; the young officer was thrown into confusion by the +superior dexterity of his opponent, and it was only a soldier's sense of +honour that induced him to continue an attack which was bound to end +fatally for himself: practised fencers always know at once whether they +can vanquish their antagonist or not. At the same time it was really +surprising that Fatia Negra did not immediately take advantage of his +strength and skill. He seemed to be sparing his enemy, nay, he even +retreated before him step by step. + +Meanwhile the _melee_ on the bridge had become general. The lancers +hastened to the assistance of their leader, the black masks slashed away +at them with their csakanys, and soon there were very few among the +combatants who had not received a lance thrust or a csakany blow. The +adventurers were forced by the lancers to the opposite end of the +bridge, when the miller, who lived in the mill beside the bridge, +thrust his head out of the window and shouted: "Take care, soldiers! the +beams of the bridge have been sawn through!" + +Was this the fact? Was it the plan of the adventurers to entice the +horses on to the bridge in order that it might break down beneath their +weight?--or was the miller also an accomplice and only shouted this +because the soldiers were gaining the upperhand? In either case the +warning cry had a magical effect upon the pursuers, for they immediately +turned back in alarm and strove to reach their own end of the bridge +again. + +And now they perceived what a two fold trap the cunning adventurers had +set for them, for whilst the lancers had been fighting with the mounted +robbers, a large band of footpads armed with firearms had surrounded the +post wagons in their rear, disarmed the postillions and were now engaged +in attempting to overturn the wagons into the ditch by the roadside. + +The lancers dashed towards the wagons and freed them in a moment from +the hands of the mob which, on their appearance, dispersed among the +brushwood by the roadside from whence they began firing. + +Not far from the bridge was a _csarda_, and there the cavalry and the +post-wagons sought a refuge. And indeed they needed it. The number of +the footpads armed with guns was about a couple of hundred; they +enfiladed the whole road and, more than that, it was easy to perceive +that some of the tall roadside poplars had been sawn through beforehand +so that they might be made to fall down and thus make it impossible for +the post wagons across the road behind the backs of the soldiers, to +force their way through. + +The soldiers had, indeed, no reason to fear that the rabble, nine-tenths +of which had no professional knowledge of the art of war, would boldly +storm the _csarda_, for in such a case the soldiers would know how to +defend themselves vigourously, well provided as they were with carbines; +but they were well aware of one thing, to wit, that if they allowed +themselves to be surprised after nightfall they were lost, for the +robbers could then set fire to the house over their heads and burn them +alive. + +For their lives they cared nothing; it is a soldier's business to die; +but how to save the enormous sum of money intrusted to them--that was +the problem. Four and twenty horsemen in a solid mass might, with a +desperate effort, cut their way through a mob, despite every obstacle, +but to take the heavy wagons along with them was impossible, for the +road in front was barred by the mob; the bridge and the road behind by +the felled poplars. + +Fortunately, the officer in command had read the history of Napoleon's +Russian campaign and he recollected how the guard on one occasion had +saved the military chest from the Cossacks when the wagon, from want of +horses, had to be left behind. He now applied his knowledge +practically. + +The ducats were taken out of the post-wagons and distributed among the +soldiers; knapsacks, cartridge-boxes, belts and shakos were filled with +the treasure; not a cent was left in the wagons, yet they nailed down +the chests inside them carefully that it might take all the longer to +break them open. Then they mounted the postilions and the civilians on +the spare horses, hastily threw open the gates and the whole band rushed +into the courtyard. + +A sharp volley poured in upon them from every side; some of them were +wounded, but none mortally, for their assailants either fired from afar +or aimed badly. And this was well, for every dead man among them would +have been worth 100,000 guldens. + +Fatia Negra and his horsemen stood close at hand with their loaded +muskets pointed in their hands, but they did not fire. + +"Let the lancers run if they like!" cried Fatia Negra. "Give all your +attention to the wagons!" + +The cavalry soon escaped from the mob of sharpshooters, leaped over the +barriers and began galloping rapidly back to Szeb safe and sound. And +they had need to haste, for it was easy to foresee that as soon as the +cry of victory behind their backs had changed into a cry of fury, it +would be a sign that Fatia Negra's band was rushing after them. + +And, indeed, scarce a quarter of an hour had elapsed, when they could +perceive clouds of dust whirling up behind them which proved that the +audacious adventurers, after discovering the fraud, were actually in +pursuit. + +What unheard of audacity! In broad daylight, on the King's highway, +within the borders of a highly civilized, well-organized state, a troop +of adventurers dares to attack an equal number of trained soldiers. Gold +must have turned the heads of the men who had the audacity to do such a +thing! Yet they did it. + +The soldiers saw the cloud of dust behind their backs gradually draw +nearer, the neutral ground between gradually diminished, the fellows +were capitally mounted, there could be no doubt of that. + +The lieutenant ordered his men to halt and face the foolhardy bandits. +He arranged them two deep and spread them out so that they extended +right across the road. He himself stood in the centre a little in +advance of the rest; the civilians were in the rear. + +Presently single shapes were discernible through the approaching cloud +of dust. The robbers were galloping along in no regular order with +intervals of from ten to twenty yards between each one of them. + +More than a thousand yards in front of his comrades galloped Fatia +Negra. His splendid English thoroughbred, as if it would outstrip the +blast which whirled the dust aloft, flew along with him and seemed to +share the blind fury of his master who waved his flashing sword above +his horse's head and bellowed at his opponents from afar like a wild +beast. + +"We'll seize the fellow before his companions come up," said the +lieutenant to his men. "Cut him down from his horse and capture him +alive." + +"Hurrah!" roared the lonely horseman, now only a yard off. +"Hurrah!"--the next moment he was in the midst of them. + +And now began a contest which, had it been recorded in the chronicles of +the Crusades, would have been regarded as an act of heroism that only +awaited immortality from a poet great enough to sing it. Fatia Negra, +alone and surrounded, fought single-handed in the midst of the hostile +band. His light sword flashing in his hand like lightning, never stayed +to parry but attacked incessantly. Handless swords and headless shakos +flew around him in the air and whithersoever his horse turned its head, +an empty space gaped before him, every antagonist retreating before him. +So close was the _melee_ that the soldiers stood in each other's way and +could not use their firearms for fear of shooting their comrades. The +lieutenant was the only man who did not avoid him. Like a true soldier +who considers wounds an honour, he did not trouble himself to recollect +that his adversary was superior to him both in strength and skill, but +strove incessantly to urge his horse towards him. Twice he struck the +fellow but he did not seem to feel the blow. Once he dealt him a skilful +thrust in the side, but the sword bent nearly double without entering +his body. "Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Fatia Negra--he must have put on a coat +of mail beneath his jacket--and the same instant he countered so +savagely that if the lieutenant had not dodged his head, he must have +lost it. As it was the sword pierced through his shako and out poured +the gold pieces by thousands on to the highroad. + +At the sight of the shower of gold pieces, Fatia Negra roared like a +demon. What he had done hitherto was a mere joke--now the battle began +in grim earnest. + +"Down with your heads, down with your headpieces!" he thundered, and +with the fury of a lion he flung himself on his opponents, everyone of +whom wore on his head the dangerous magnet which irresistibly attracted +his flashing sword. + +He himself was invulnerable. Neither sword nor lance could penetrate his +shirt of mail. And meanwhile his companions were rapidly galloping up. +Now another shako flew into the air and the horse's hoofs trampled the +falling ducats in the mud. + +"Shoot down his horse!" cried the voice of the post-office functionary +from the rear, and the same instant three pistol shots resounded. At the +third, which struck him full in the chest, the animal reared high in the +air. Fatia Negra, perceiving the danger, and before the horse had time +to fall and crush him, leaped from the saddle on to the ground. + +And now he attacked the enemy on foot. He was blind now. He saw nothing +before him but blood and ducats--he was drunk with both. + +All at once he observed that he was alone, and, fighting the air--he no +longer felt the contact of swords, or skulls or human bodies. After the +officer had been wounded, the post-office functionary took the command +and concluded it advisable not to await the arrival of the whole robber +band. It was his duty to save the money. He ordered the soldiers to turn +back and make the best of their way to Szaszvar, the money that had been +already spilt was given up for lost. It was of no use for mere men to +attempt to grapple with such a devil incarnate as Fatia Negra. + +"After them, after them!--Give me a horse!" roared Fatia Negra to his +comrades as they came galloping up, whereupon they all leaped from their +nags, not so much indeed for the sake of giving him a mount as for the +sake of grabbing the scattered heaps of ducats. + +"Let that alone; it won't run away" cried the adventurer. "The bulk of +it is galloping in front of us--follow me!" + +And at that, without waiting their decision, he seized one of the +horses, swung himself into the saddle and dashed after the lancers. +Nobody followed him. The robbers were wise enough to perceive that if +they left lying here these thousands of ducats, actually won, in order +to run after ten times as many which they had still to catch, (not to +mention the broken heads which they were sure to get into the bargain), +the loafing members of the confraternity who were following behind them +on foot, would pocket the booty nicely at their ease, so they stayed +where they were, with the comfortable persuasion that Fatia Negra would +be sure to turn back when he perceived he was alone. + +He, however, never gave them a thought, but putting spurs to his horse, +pursued the soldiers. In vain. He had no longer a blood horse beneath +him and was unable to overtake the bearers of the lost treasure. Nor did +they halt again to give him anything to do. Looking back from time to +time, they saw how a single horseman was galloping after them, with his +sword blade firmly gripped between his teeth, and a shuddering +recollection of the old nursery tales of nether-world monsters came over +them. + +The solitary horseman pursued them right up to the toll-house of +Szaszvar, and even when he gave up the pursuit the toll-man saw him for +a long time trotting round about the outskirts of the town shaking his +fist and shouting imprecations. Once or twice he drew near enough to +fire his pistols through the doors and windows of the toll-house, and so +great was the spell of terror surrounding the person of the terrible +adventurer that nobody ventured outside the city wall to try and +capture him; nay, the burgesses even remained under arms in the streets +all night guarding the principal entrances for fear lest Fatia Negra and +his band might take it into their heads to formally besiege the place, +and, had it only depended upon his will to do so, he would assuredly +have made the attempt. + +But it never came to that. On returning to the place of combat Fatia +Negra found his horsemen still searching in the mud and darkness for the +lost ducats, and made an attempt to reorganize his band, which did, +indeed, do a little maurauding on its own account; but when the news +reached him, through one of his paid spies, that four hundred infantry +with a cannon had reached Szaszvar from Szeb--the very word "a connon" +had such an effect upon the robbers that they scattered in every +direction as if a tempest had dispersed them. Next morning there was not +a trace of them anywhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE HUNTED BEAST + + +Such a piece of audacity could not be overlooked. + +That a robber horseman should in the middle of the nineteenth century +and within the confines of a civilized state take it into his head to +attack, in broad daylight, post wagons defended by a strong escort of +regular soldiers--was a thing unheard of. + +The news spread like lightning through the six confederated counties and +everyone seized his sword and musket. So old Gerzson Satrakovics whom +everybody had laughed at, was right after all. It was universally agreed +that a stop must be put to this sort of thing once for all. There was no +waiting now for the meetings of Quarter Sessions. The lord-lieutenants +of the counties proclaimed the _statarium_,[47] called out the +_banderia_[48] and gathered together the county _pandurs_[49] and the +militia, in order by their combined efforts, to extirpate the evil +without having recourse to the assistance of the military--a measure +always repugnant to the freedom-loving Magyars. + +[Footnote 47: A decree authorizing summary procedure.] + +[Footnote 48: Mounted gentry.] + +[Footnote 49: Police.] + +Squire Gerzson was elected the leader of this vast hunt, whose area +extended over hundreds of square miles, by all the six counties +concerned--it was generally felt that this was but due to him for the +neglect of his warnings--and Mr. Gerzson proved on this occasion that if +he was not a great strategist, at any rate he was a great beater up of +game. His plan was to occupy all the mountain roads and passes leading +out of the six counties with armed bands of militia, while at the same +time he himself advanced slowly along the highroads with his +gentlemen-volunteers joining hands together from place to place. Between +various groups of the volunteers were regular lines of _pandurs_ who had +to thoroughly scour all the forests they came to. The encircling network +of this gigantic army of beaters grew narrower and narrower day by day +and was to converge towards a fixed point which Squire Gerzson said he +would more definitely indicate later on. + +Moreover there was a flying column admitted to the full confidence of +its leader, whose duty it was to appear suddenly and unexpectedly in all +parts of the closely environed region, in order to head off anything +like a definite plan of defence on the part of the adventurers and track +them down more easily. The leadership of this special corps was +entrusted to young Szilard Vamhidy, upon whose ingenuity, determination +and ability Squire Gerzson professed to place the utmost reliance. + +As soon as he had received this important charge, Szilard took horse +and set off at the head of his four and twenty _pandurs_. First of all +he went in the direction of the Alps of Bihar and along a narrow +mountain path and through a melancholy, uncanny, region with not a +living plant by the wayside and not a morsel of moss on the naked rock. +No sound is to be heard there but the eternal sighing of the wind, and +in the dizzy depths below the traveller sees nothing but dense, dreary +forests crowding one upon another with the Alpine eagles circling and +screaming above them. + +It was just the place for a hunted band of robbers to turn upon their +pursuers for a last life and death struggle,--here where even the bodies +of the slain would never be found. For not once in two years does a +wanderer chance to come this way, and long before that time the wolves +and the vultures will have dispersed the bones of the fallen. + +Yet this time the robber bands did not fall in with their pursuers, a +sufficient proof that Szilard's plan was skilfully laid and +unanticipated. For had Fatia Negra had any idea of his design, it is +absolutely inconceivable that he would not have laid in wait for him on +this spectre-haunted path, where ten resolute men could have held a +whole army at bay. + +For hours Szilard's long troop of horsemen pursued their way along +without meeting a soul. Late in the afternoon they came upon the first +shepherd's hut. The herdsman himself was out in the forest with his +flocks; there was nobody at home but a lame dog which barked at them. + +In the evening they met a mounted countryman carrying maize to be ground +at the mill, him they took along with them as guide. + +After that they travelled all night long, passing through Skeritora and +Nyigsa, till they came to the cataract of Vidra, which they reached at +dawn of day. + +The houses of these Alpine villages are so far apart that next +neighbours cannot even see each other's dwellings, as there is at least +half a league between them. This circumstance and the night-season +favoured Szilard's plans. They could surround each house, one by one, +without the inhabitants of the other houses being aware of what had +happened in the first ones.--A fruitless labour for they found nothing +of a suspicious nature. + +Tired out, the band, early in the morning, reached the house beneath the +waterfall; here they felt the need of halting. Szilard put some +questions to the guide and then dismissed him, commanding him to return +to Skeritora. + +When the guide had mounted, the _pandur_ sergeant observed to Szilard: +"I fancy, your honour, that that rascal does not mean to return to +Skeritora, but as soon as he is out of sight will turn back and give the +alarm beforehand in all the districts on our line of march." + +"I fancy so too." + +"But then every suspected person will get wind of the whole affair and +have time to bolt." + +"That is just what I want. The trouble is at present that they lie so +still." + +And with that he ordered half of his _pandurs_ to lie down and sleep and +the other half to remain awake and so relieve each other every three +hours. So the _pandurs_ rested till midday and then the sergeant began +to urge Szilard to set off again or else they would arrive too late. + +"It is too early yet," replied Szilard, and he spent a good half of the +afternoon there doing nothing. Only then did he take horse again, +complaining to everyone how much yesterday's ride had taken it out of +him, and asking everybody he met on the road, coming or going, where the +next village lay?--how to get to it?--and in what direction the highroad +lay? + +The old _pandurs_ naturally began murmuring among themselves. "Oh!" said +they, "if he keeps on blurting out his whole line of route like this, we +shall only have the empty nests of the robbers to thresh out for our +trouble." + +"And this chap thinks, forsooth, that he will capture Fatia Negra!" +growled the veteran sergeant. + +But no sooner did they get beyond the fenced fields than Szilard +suddenly turned his horse's head and leading the way to the other side +of the mountain-stream, cut his way through the forest, ordering his +comrades to hurry after him as speedily as possible. What he was aiming +at, nobody had the least idea. If he meant to lose his way in the forest +he was setting about the best way to do it. + +Suddenly he ordered his followers to dismount and lead their horses by +their bridles up to the top of the mountain. The old sergeant now +guessed what he was after, but did not approve of it. + +"There is no path for a horse up this mountain," said he. + +"Silence, sir! I know what I am about. Follow me!" + +And so, for a good half hour, cursing their leader bitterly beneath +their breaths, they painfully struggled after him up the dangerous path +and then, suddenly, a marvellous sight met their gaze. An immense cavern +gaped open before them through which, as through a tunnel, they could +reach the valley on the other side. This was the so-called "Roman Gate." +Many believe that the Romans dug this passage through the mountain, but +this marvellous piece of workmanship has been carried out on too vast a +scale for anybody else but Nature to be its architect; it is possible, +however, that the Romans may have used this passage for their campaigns. + +And now the _pandurs_ understood the plan of their young leader and were +ready to follow him blindly through fire and water. + +In another half hour they had passed through the "Roman Gate" and +reached the valley beyond, and by next morning Vamhidy had lit down +like a thunderbolt from the sky where nobody expected him. + +By the evening he had run down eight persons who were under very strong +suspicion. After dusk the same day he sent the following letter to +Gerzson by one of his men: "I feel certain I hold the thread of the +whole conspiracy in my hands. We are on their track." + +At nightfall he encamped in a lonely mill, which he chose because, in +case of necessity, it could easily be defended. He had reasons for +thinking that he might be attacked in the night. + +The mill was built over a rushing mountain-stream so that the stream +shot through and under the building, over the wheels. In front, three +sluices confined within the basin the collected flood of water which was +here very deep. A broad, thick board, laid across three stout piles, +formed the bridge which connected the foot-path sloping down from the +forest, with the foot-path on the opposite side. + +Towards evening his pickets came and told Vamhidy that a blind beggar +wanted to speak to him and in secret, so that nobody could hear. + +Szilard ordered the blind man to be led in. He seemed to be a muscular, +athletic fellow with broad shoulders and a huge body--what a pity he was +blind. + +"Domnule, are we quite alone?" inquired the blind man when he stood +before Vamhidy. + +"We are quite by ourselves; what is it you want, my good fellow?" + +"Thank you, sir, for calling me a good fellow, for I _was_ good for +something once upon a time, and will be so again. I am the famous Juon +Tare whose eyes were burnt out in the Lucsia Cavern when they wanted to +catch Fatia Negra, and the monster set the whole cavern on fire. I want +the head of Fatia Negra. I am after that head now and when I get it all +my woe will cease. Do you want that head Domnule?--I can tell you where +it is." + +"Well?" + +"Have you pluck enough not to be afraid of him, Domnule?" + +"I am afraid of nothing." + +"And yet many brave men fall back at the sight of that black face, which +never changes, which is just like steel and which they fancy neither +sword nor bullet can hurt; but my nails have torn his body and I have +seen his blood flow." + +"Say where he is!" + +"Close at hand." + +"In which direction?" + +"Ah! Domnule!" sighed Juon Tare, "how can I answer that, I who can see +neither heaven nor earth?" + +"Then how do you know that he is hard by?" + +"Ah, Domnule, I can recognize him by his voice, and if I do not hear him +speak, I can recognize the sound of his footsteps when I hear him draw +nigh. Nobody else has his trick of walking. Sometimes he goes as softly +as a spectre so that only the ears of a blind man can detect his +footfall and at other times he tramps as if the whole earth beneath him +were hollow and it resounds at every step. Oh, I have often heard him +approaching when he was still far, far away." + +"But do you know anything certain about him?" + +"I will tell you everything, Domnule, beginning at the beginning. You +see that I am blind, a blind beggar, for begging is my trade. So long as +my wife was alive, I had no need to turn beggar, for she worked for me +and kept me. But she died. After that I would gladly have died of +hunger, but she left me a little son, a child but two years old and I go +a begging for him. Above the brook here on the King's highway is a stone +bridge built by the county. Early in the morning my little son is wont +to lead me hither and then returns to the village, little mite as he is +the wife of the scrivener looks after him, and in the evening he comes +and fetches me home again. Whatever is given me by charitable wayfarers +I share with my poor hostess, who is poorer than any beggar. Yesterday +something happened. It was this. I was sitting outside there at the end +of the bridge and as I had not heard a human voice about me for a long +time and it was extremely hot, slumber weighed heavily upon me. I +struggled hard against it but it was too much for me. I was afraid that +if I fell across the road a cart might go over me. So I laid myself down +under the arch of the bridge. I knew the place well for I had often +sheltered there from the storm. Suddenly I was awakened by those +familiar footsteps. They passed across the bridge over my head. I will +take my oath that it was he. He stood still in the middle of the bridge. +Shortly afterwards I heard the sound of many more footsteps coming, some +from the left and some from the right. Men were coming in all directions +towards the bridge, and there in the middle of it they stood; I counted +them--there were four and twenty of them." + +Szilard now began to listen attentively. + +"Then he spoke. Oh, even if I had had the light of both my eyes, I could +not have seen him so plainly before me as I saw him in my blindness when +I heard him speak. It was indeed he, at the very first word I recognized +him; but when I tell you what he said, then you also will recognize him +Domnule. Those four and twenty men are a sworn confederacy. It was a +secret plot they were hatching at that place, where nobody could +surprise them, as it is girt about with woods on every side. He called +his companions here to tell them of the measures that were being taken +against them. He told them they had no need to fear all that the six +counties were doing but that the little band which was zig-zagging +through the whole district was greatly to be feared. It was the cause of +all the mischief and must be put out of the way. But his comrades made +no reply. They grumbled and muttered among themselves and at last they +said that this would be a difficult thing to do. They all said they +would not tackle the _pandurs_ because they were better shots than any +robber and were used to hunting and all its wiles. In vain were all the +assurances of Fatia Negra; they said they meant to hide away as best +they could. 'Then hide and be d----d to you,' said their leader, 'I will +tackle them single-handed. I'll seek them out and show you that they too +are but mortal men.' Those were his last words to them; they scattered +again, to the right and left, and I heard their departing footsteps over +my head. But believe me, sir, Fatia Negra will try to do what he said." + +"What! come and attack us?--alone, against so many?" + +"You do not believe what I say, sir, but so it will be." + +"Nay, my good fellow, but are you quite certain you did not dream it +all?" + +"Domnule, in the first moment of my amazement that is what I fancied +myself. How can a blind man know whether he is awake or dreaming. I +therefore drew forth my pocket-knife and with the point of it I cut a +cross in my left arm. Look, sir, there it is!" + +Juon tucked up the wide shirt sleeve from his herculean arm and Szilard +was astonished to see the half healed and cross-like scar--it had been +a deep gash. + +"So now, sir," pursued Juon, "you can see that I am not dreaming. Watch +well, for Fatia Negra will come. Not to-night for he awaits you on the +road by which you came. But to-morrow he will know that you have dodged +him by going through the 'Roman Gate' and to-morrow night you can safely +reckon upon him." + +Szilard charged Juon not to say a word to anybody about what he had told +him and promised him a reward if what he had said really came to pass. + +That night nothing happened, and till the afternoon of the next day he +lingered idly at the mill. Towards midday they heard in the forest a +loud barking of dogs; the miller said it was no doubt the lord of the +manor hunting bears. + +"He chooses a very inopportune time," growled Vamhidy, "he will scare +_my_ game away." + +The hunters were not long in issuing from the forest, they seemed to +have lost the track of the bear. + +Vamhidy sent word to the gentlemen that he would be much obliged to them +if they would postpone their amusement to some more convenient season as +business of a graver sort was going on here. Word was at once brought +back that the company was quite ready to do as he said. The dogs were +quickly leashed again, the beaters recalled by signals and the whole +hunt came straight towards the mill. A few moments later Vamhidy +recognized in the leader of the hunt--Leonard Hatszegi. + +It was an unwelcome surprise on both sides, but Hatszegi was the first +to recover himself, and he greeted him with as radiant a countenance as +if he had never had any cause of quarrel with him. + +"We both of us seem to be on a hunting expedition your honour!" said he. + +"Mine is an official pursuit." + +"And mine pure pastime. Had I known you would have taken this road, I +should certainly not have engaged in such a mal-apropos diversion. But +it is over now, we are all going back. My bear may run--how about +yours?" + +"No sign of him yet." + +"Well, I could regale you with no end of interesting anecdotes +concerning the hunted adventurer, for I have had more than one famous +_rencontre_ with him myself. If it were only worth your while to pay us +a visit at Hidvar I could promise you the heartiest reception--not only +on my own part but also on the part of my wife." + +"I am much obliged to your lordship," replied Vamhidy cooly, "but I am +bound by instructions from which I cannot depart. It is not pleasure +that brings me hither. Besides I have got a sure clue at last which I +must follow up and I know not whither it may lead me." + +"Bravo! So you are on his track at last, eh! Take care my friend it is +not a false clue. These rascals are very crafty." + +"It is a real clue that I have discovered. You must know that before the +confiscated gold captured in the Lucsia Cavern was sent to Vienna, every +coin of it was marked with a little cross, a very simple official +precaution, but it has proved very useful to us. Now I have come upon +these marked ducats among the people here. They themselves, I believe, +are innocent and can give the name of the persons from whom they +received them; and so, by tracing the various intermediaries, we shall +come at last, upon the original dispensers of these ducats. I can +imagine how Fatia Negra will laugh when he hears that the soldiers of +six counties are hunting for him in the depths of the forests and +tapping every rotten tree-stump in search of him while he is sitting +comfortably in some large theatre and eyeing the ballet-dancers through +his opera glass; but he will be very much surprised when, one fine day, +without any preliminary siege-operations we shall tap at his own door +and enquire: 'Is Fatia Negra at home?'" + +Hatszegi laughed heartily. + +"Not a bad idea, upon my honour! I myself am inclined to think that the +worthy highwayman will be sooner found in a coffee house than in a +forest. I only regret that I did not mark my own coins so that I might +recognize them again." + +And so laughing and whistling, he returned to his party which appeared +to consist of mere dependents and gave them his orders. + +"Unpack the horses and get lunch ready," said he, "we will not go any +further." + +Then he turned again to Vamhidy. + +"Since we are obliged to capitulate to superior force, would you be so +good as to pick out with me a nice, round, shadowy spot in the forest +where we may encamp and share with each other our provisions which have +thus become the spoils of war?" + +"Thank you, my lord," replied Vamhidy coldly, "but I have already had my +lunch." + +His lunch, by the way, had consisted of a maize cake baked in the ashes. + +"Then won't you allow your men to drink my health in a glass of wine, +since they are actually on my domains?" + +"My _pandurs_ are not allowed to drink; they have to remain sober. They +must not leave the mill without my leave and your lordship must not camp +out here although the mill is your property. For just now I am +'verbiro,'[50] here with the right to open and close every door as I may +think fit." + +[Footnote 50: A magistrate with the power of life and death in his +hands.] + +"Then I shall know how to respect your authority. All the same, I do not +withdraw my offer. My castle and every house and shanty on my estate is +at your disposal and if you should not find me at home at Hidvar, as I +have to be off early to-morrow morning to Szeb, my wife will be +delighted to see you." + +And with that he threw his gun across his shoulder and tripped away with +well bred nonchalance across the field, and, calling to his party to +follow him, disappeared in the depths of the forest from which he had +just emerged. + + * * * * * + +And now it was evening and the heavens were full of stars and Szilard +began to gaze at the stars and as he did so he forgot all about the +official burdens that weighed so heavily upon his shoulders, all about +Fatia Negra and the robbers. He fancied that his eyes encountered among +the stars the eyes of "another" whom slumber and happiness had deserted +just as they had deserted him. + +How close to each other chance had brought them once more! He had only +to accept her husband's invitation in order to meet her face to face. +What would they not have to say to one another? + +The night was quite still, the whole region was dumb save for the +gurgling of the water rushing through the sluices. The _pandurs_ were +snoring in the living room, for they were allowed to sleep till two +o'clock. Only Vamhidy kept watch with a single _pandur_ who was guarding +the prisoners in the cellar. + +"The Lord God bless thee!" a hushed voice suddenly resounded from among +the brown bushes and Szilard distinguished by the light of the rising +moon a tall dark shape approaching the mill path. It was blind Juon. + +"How did you know anyone was here?" enquired Szilard suspiciously. + +"I heard you sigh, sir, once or twice and I knew you were awake for I +warned you beforehand to watch--to-night he will be upon you." + +"Who?" + +"Who? Why Fatia Negra." + +"So you think he will be bold enough?" + +"I know that he is already on the way." + +"And where were you just now?" + +"I was working in the mill-ditch." + +"At night! What were you doing there?" + +"I have removed the supporting beam underneath the bridge leading across +the reservoir! It was a hard bit of work but I had the strength to do +it." + +"Why did you do that?" + +"Because he will come from the opposite side and immediately he steps on +the middle of the bridge the plank will give way beneath him and he will +fall into the water like a mouse in a trap." + +"What is the good of that, he will only swim out again." + +"Yes, but his pistols will then be full of water and he will be unable +to use them against you." + +Szilard began to perceive that he had a most determined ally with all +sorts of ideas in his head that had never occurred to himself. + +"But surely, my poor fellow, you do not imagine that anybody will be +mad enough to face so many armed men alone." + +"I don't know, sir, but I also do not know whether you yourself may not +be alone among so many armed men, for I hear snoring among the very +guard you told off to watch the cellar." + +Szilard was startled. He immediately hastened to the place indicated and +there, sure enough, he saw the sentry stretched at full length across +the cellar door. He angrily hastened to arouse him and seized the +sleeper by the arm; but all his efforts were powerless to awake the +fellow,--he might just as well have been dead. + +"Try to wake the others, sir," said Juon. + +The pandurs lay in long rows stretched out upon the straw in the meal +magazine. + +Szilard spoke to them, first gently, then loudly, and at last angrily, +calling them by name, one after the other; but not one of them awoke. He +tore the sleepers away from their places, but they were not aware of it; +as soon as he let them go they rolled back again into their former +positions. + +"What has happened?" cried the confounded Szilard. + +"There must be a traitor among them, sir, a hireling of Fatia Negra; he +has his hirelings everywhere, in forests, in palaces, in dungeons, in +barracks, everywhere. And this traitor has mingled thorn-apple juice in +the drink of his comrades and they will now sleep on for a night and a +day. The traitor himself is pretending to sleep along with his fellows +but he is only awaiting the arrival of Fatia Negra and then up he will +get and release the captives. It was an artful dodge, your honour!" + +Szilard felt a tremor running through all his limbs. + +"You see, sir, you are here alone, but Fatia Negra is never alone. But +so far no great harm has been done. We will make him to be alone also. +We cannot find out just now which of the four and twenty is a traitor. +But we will bind the whole four and twenty hand and foot, and then the +traitor also will be helpless." + +Szilard began to perceive that this blind man was right in everything. +His words must be listened to, for the danger was close at hand, there +was no time for hesitation. So he quickly routed up all the halters in +the mill and they set to work. + +The blind giant laid the pandurs one by one across his knee and placing +their hands behind their backs crosswise held them towards Szilard, who +bound them fast. Three and twenty of them felt nothing of all this and +the four and twentieth who did feel it thought it just as well to go on +feigning slumber, for had it been discovered that he was awake one grip +of those enormous fists would have made of him a sleeper indeed--for +ever more. + +"Is your sword sharp, sir?" enquired the blind man when this piece of +work was done. + +"Yes, and I have pistols likewise." + +"Test them, sir, for I suspect they have been tampered with." + +"What?" + +"If ever, sir, you have pursued some wild beast, a bear or a buffalo, +for instance, you know the rule surely: never rely upon any weapon which +has not been freshly loaded by your own hand. Let us take the loading +out of your pistols. It won't do to fire them off for we are lying in +wait for big game and at such times one must keep very quiet." + +Szilard hearkened to the warning and drew the loading out of both his +well charged pistols. It is usual when the powder is taken out to blow +down the barrel and as he did so now he remarked that something was +wrong. The ramrod encountered some soft substance which he drew forth. +Juon smelt it and pronounced it to be the wax of wild bees. + +"You see, sir, you will not be able to discharge this pistol, for the +touch holes are so plugged up that it will take you some hours to +thoroughly clean them." + +"At any rate I have still the firearms of my pandurs." + +"Let us examine them also, sir!" + +They did so forthwith and found that they too had been utterly ruined. +And all this must have been done while Szilard had been sitting outside +and his men had been sleeping! + +"Then your sword is sharp, sir, eh?" enquired the blind man, "for I +hear the footsteps of Fatia Negra." + +The sensitive ears of the blind man "scented" so to speak the well known +footfalls while they were still approaching on the distant forest paths. + +The young man felt an involuntary shudder run through his body as the +moment drew near when he would have to face the hunted foe. The magical +mysteriousness which enveloped his pursuer; the marvellous audacity +which ensured the success of all his projects; his gigantic bodily +strength--all these things were sufficient to make any man's heart beat +more quickly at the prospect of encountering Black-Mask in a life and +death struggle at a lonely place. + +But Szilard was resolved to see the business through. The strong will +peculiar to men of his nature broke down his fear. He had no business to +tremble, it was not permitted to him to fear. He who has a sword in his +hand is never alone--a sword is also a man. + +The blind man trembled in his stead. He feared for him. When Szilard +returned with his naked sword, the blind man passed his finger along its +edge from end to end to test its sharpness. + +"A good sword, a very good sword, Domnule. Fear him not, but when he +scrambles out of the water, rush upon him and strike at his neck. Do not +aim at his body for this accursed one wears a coat of mail so that no +weapon can pierce him. If he comes to close quarters, do not defend +yourself but slash away at him, you may perhaps be wounded, but if you +stand on the defensive, he will kill you. If he gets too much for you, +call out and I will rush in and strangle him with my naked hands. Oh, +what would I not give now for the sight of my two eyes." + +And the blind man began to weep bitterly. + +"That man killed my wife and blinded me and now when I hear him +approach, when I hear him coming towards me all alone I cannot see him. +I cannot rush in and close with him. Be valiant, Domnule, and God be +with you. May the soul of my Mariora direct the edge of your sword and +darken his eyes. Hearken!--is not that he approaching!" + +And it was actually he. The tall elegant figure was descending the +moonlight rocks with a light, elastic tread, dressed from head to foot +in a black atlas mantle. Szilard saw him drawing nearer and nearer, step +by step, to the mill behind a pillar of whose verandah he himself was +concealed expectant. + +At the very moment when he perceived this figure, his former terror gave +way before a strange, resolute fury which now filled his heart, a +feeling familiar only to those whose blood is set boiling whenever they +are suddenly confronted by a pressing danger. He feared the man no +longer, he burned to encounter him. + +Blind Juon stood beside him and pressed his hand. They both of them +began to listen intently, nature itself was as still as if the wind +also would listen. Nothing was audible but the dull measured tramp of +the approaching footsteps. + +The black shape now footed the bridge; with a confident gait he +approached the middle of it, another step and the bridge gave way +beneath him and with an involuntary cry the man in black plunged into +the water. + +"Now, sir, rush in!" whispered Juon to Szilard. But the latter could not +help thinking at that moment that it was an act of cowardice to attack a +man when he could not defend himself, even though that man was a robber, +so he allowed him to scramble out onto the other side. + +The black mantle had fallen from the shoulders of Fatia Negra into the +water and there he now stood before Szilard with his wet clothes +clinging closely to his body like a statue of Antinous, a shape of +athletic beauty. + +In his girdle were a couple of pistols, in all probability rendered +useless by the water and a long Arab yataghan almost as long as an +ordinary sword but without the usual cruciform hilt. + +Szilard barred the way. + +For an instant Fatia Negra was taken aback by his antagonist's +unexpected wariness and courage, but the next moment his drawn yataghan +flashed in his hand and the second flash was the clash of the contending +weapons. + +And now happened what happens hundreds and thousands of times in actual +life. At the very first onset Fatia Negra, the notorious, the +practised, the invincible swordsman was disarmed by a young civilian who +had never, perhaps, held a naked sword in his hand before and possessed +no advantage over his opponent save the courage of an honest man as +opposed to the effrontery of a malefactor--a marvel indeed! + +Both of them had lunged at the same time, neither of them had parried, +Szilard's sword cut through his adversary's wrist and at the same +instant Fatia Negra's yataghan fell from his hand. + +The wounded robber set up a howl like a wild beast and Juon, lurking +beneath the verandah of the mill responded with another howl of joy that +sounded like an echo. The blind man had recognized that Fatia Negra was +in danger and at once rushed out upon him. + +The disarmed adventurer lost his presence of mind along with his sword. +His right hand suddenly sank helpless to his side and his stout heart +was seized with a sort of paralysis. He perceived that this was the man +sent by fate to announce to him that his last hour was at hand. He +turned and fled toward the forest. + +Szilard rushed after him. + +"Take care," screamed blind Juon. But none heeded him. Fatia Negra flew +away before his enemy. At first he left him far behind, but gradually +the continuous loss of blood began to weaken him and it also occurred to +him that even if he succeeded in distancing his adversary, he would +still leave a trail of blood behind him. To complete his confusion the +moon made the whole region as light as day. He was forced to sit down on +a tree stump to tie up his wounded hand; at least he would stop the flow +of blood and make the trail more difficult to follow. + +While with the help of his left hand and his teeth he was binding up his +useless right hand, his pursuer overtook him. + +"Fatia Negra--surrender!" + +The only reply the adventurer gave was to try to fire his pistols and +finding them only flash in the pan he hurled them one after the other at +his enemy's head. Szilard then had practical experience of the rumor +that Fatia Negra could throw very well even with his left hand,--had he +not leaped aside at the nick of time the pistols would have dashed his +brains out. + +Then up Fatia Negra started to his feet again and fled away still +further. The pursuer and the pursued now sped along with pretty equal +energy, though the loss of blood continued to weaken the robber. Yet he +made one desperate effort to scale the steep side of the mountain. An +ordinary man could rarely breast such an ascent, yet he tried it. But he +soon found that even thus he could not shake off his enemy. He remained +indeed some hundreds of paces behind but he could not dodge out of his +sight in the now open glade. + +On the brow of the hill the adventurer stopped to pant and surveyed the +undulating thickly wooded hills stretching away on every side of him. +He drew a silver whistle from his bosom and gave with it three +penetrating signals which re-echoed from among the distant mountains. +But it was only an echo, only the note of the whistle that he heard, he +waited in vain for anything else. All his accomplices had evidently +hidden away. + +And again the pursuer overtook him. He waited till he was only two paces +off and then he seized a stone weighing half a hundred weight and hurled +it at him--the tree trunk behind which Szilard had taken refuge bent +beneath the blow. Then Fatia Negra fled down towards the valley. + +It was a desperate way for him to take, for down hill his adversary +could cover the ground as quickly as he could; the distance between them +was never more than ten paces, the wound the robber had received began +to enervate his whole body, and he was not long in finding out that the +hurling of missiles is a very profitless mode of warfare when you have +only one hand at your disposal. + +Panting hard he fled on further seeking refuge. And now he took to +zigzagging through the wood in the hope of dodging his pursuer if only +for an instant as a flying fox is wont to do when he is already nearing +his hole whose entrance he does not wish to betray to his pursuer. + +A little further on a stout quickset hedge barred their way. Fatia Negra +burst through it and Szilard followed in the gap that he had made. + +Suddenly a hunting lodge came in view--at least the antlers on the top +of the porch and above the windows suggested that that was what it was +intended for. + +One of the windows looking out upon the forest stood open. Fatia Negra +suddenly stopped short, waited till his adversary was close up to him +and then shaking his fist at him sprang through the open window. + +Vamhidy did not hesitate a moment about following the adventurer into +the house. He forced his way through the window and found himself in a +dark corridor at the extreme end of which the footsteps of the hunted +adventurer were still resounding. And after him he ran straightway. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE SIGHT OF TERROR + + +"My dear Henrietta," Leonard had said to his wife the day before, as he +shook the dust of the chase off his clothes, "very shortly some guests +will arrive at Hidvar and possibly they may be numerous. May I ask you +to make ready for their reception?" + +Henrietta signified by a motion of her head that she understood. + +"It is possible you may have to perform the duties of hostess without my +assistance, for I have to be off at once to Szeb and don't expect to be +back for a couple of days. It is possible that the gentlemen in question +may arrive during my absence which I should very much regret. +Nevertheless you may depend upon my hastening home as quickly as I can +to meet them here." + +All this did not seem to interest Henrietta very much. Leonard noticed +it. + +"Let the gentry, my dear, occupy the room overlooking the park, the +servants had better have the six rooms generally given to hunting +parties on the ground floor, with the four and twenty beds." + +At these directions the lady looked at her lord with an expression of +surprised inquiry. + +"I see," resumed her husband, "you are asking yourself what sort of +company that can be for whose master one room suffices while the +servants require six. I will tell you. It is the armed corps from Arad +which is charged with the capture of Fatia Negra and his associates. As +they will pass by this way I don't see how they can avoid calling at +Hidvar. In fact I have invited the magistrate who commands the corps to +make Hidvar the centre of his operations and if he is a sensible man he +will accept my invitation. The name of my guest I have not yet +mentioned," continued Leonard with easy levity, "it is Szilard Vamhidy, +a justice of the peace of the county of Arad--really a very nice young +man." + +Henrietta became as white as a statue. + +"You will greatly oblige me, my dear Henrietta, if you will do your best +to make our guest feel quite at home in our house. But you are a +sensible woman, so I have no need to press the point. Let me kiss your +hand--_au revoir_!" + +Henrietta watched him go out, watched him get into his carriage and bowl +off and then began to weep and hide her head among the cushions that +nobody might hear her. + +They are pursuing Fatia Negra! ... Szilard Vamhidy is pursuing Fatia +Negra! + +He will come hither, he will enter this very castle. Leonard himself has +invited him! + +He will certainly come to see his former love once more. The thought was +terrible! + +But it must not, it should not happen. + +Leonard himself had invited Vamhidy to his castle. This man relied too +much on the terror of a poor timid woman, he built too much on that +nimbus of terror which made him so horribly unassailable in her eyes. +What! first to invite the former lover of his wife to be his guest and +then show his indifference by choosing that very time to absent himself +from the house for some days! + +But on one thing she was resolved--Vamhidy should not find her at +Hidvar. She would fly. She would leave her husband's house. Where should +she go? Who would receive her? What would become of her? She did not +know, she gave the matter no thought, but one thing was certain: Szilard +and she might meet together in the grave but they should never encounter +each other beneath the shadow of the halls of Hidvar. + +There was nobody she could confide in. All the servants were her +husband's paid spies and her own jailors. The priest had disappeared +altogether from Hidvar. In her despair an old memory rose up before her. +She called to mind that during the earlier days of her stay at Hidvar +when she had explored the whole region under the delusion that she could +make the wretched happy, she had often passed a little house which had +always riveted her attention. It was a little hunting hut in the midst +of the forest built entirely of wood and planed smoothly outside like a +little polished cabinet. In front of it stood broad spreading fruit +trees, crowded with flowers in spring, crowded with fruit in autumn, +wild vines and moss grew all over its roofs. + +In the midst of the listening woods this little house had such an +inviting exterior that the very first time she saw it, Henrietta could +not resist the temptation of entering it. + +The door of the little house stood open before her, being only on the +latch. She had stepped in: there was nobody inside. In the first room +there was furniture of some hard wood; close to the wall stood a carved +side-board with painted earthenware on it, on a table was a pitcher of a +similar ware full of fresh pure water. The door of another room to the +right was also open and in that room also she found nobody. There stood +a bed with a bear skin for a coverlet, other bear skins spread on the +floor served instead of carpets and on the walls were bright lynx, and +wildcat skins. + +From this room there was a door leading into a third room and here also +she found nobody. The walls of this room were covered with +weapons--guns, pistols and curiously shaped swords and daggers, in rows +and crossed, hanging on nails and leaning against the walls. On the +oaken table stood stuffed beasts and birds, under the table was a +stuffed fox fastened to a chair; a pair of wild boars' heads with +powerful tusks were over the door, but there was no sign of any living +beast. + +Henrietta fancied that the master of this little house must be away but +not far off and she made up her mind to wait till he returned home. Yet +one hour after another passed away and Henrietta was at last obliged to +go on further lest she should have to pass the night there and, only +when she was already some distance away, was she struck by the peculiar +circumstance that all round the hut grass was growing thickly and that +no path led up to it. + +In a few weeks' time curiosity drew her again in the same direction. +Alone, without any escort, she stood before the forest dwelling, +fastened her horse to the fence and passed through the door. + +Everything was just as she had seen it on the first occasion. In the +first room on the table was the earthenware pitcher full of water; in +the second room was the bed covered with a bear skin and in the third +room were all the guns and other weapons just as she had seen them +before. + +Again she waited for a long time for some of the dwellers of this little +house to draw near, and again she waited in vain; even by eventide not a +human being had approached the hut. + +These hut dwellers must be curious folks she thought, they leave +everything unlocked, evil disposed people might steal everything. + +On the way back she met some charcoal burners and asked them about the +lonely little house in the midst of the forest. Three of the four +pretended not to understand: they did not remember ever seeing such a +house they said. The fourth, however, told the lady in reply that in +that house dwelt "Dracu."[51] + +[Footnote 51: The Devil.] + +This only made Henrietta more than ever curious. She asked the priest +about it and even he was inclined to be evasive. He evidently either +knew nothing about it or was casting about in his mind for some +plausible explanation. At last he said that rumour had it that a +huntsman's family had either been murdered or had committed suicide +there, and, ever since, nobody dwelling in the district could be +persuaded to cross its threshold, let alone steal anything out of it; +they would not even take shelter there during a storm, for they believed +that an evil spirit dwelt there. + +Henrietta, however, did not believe in these invisible evil spirits. The +evil spirits she was acquainted with all went about in dress clothes and +surtouts. The atmosphere of mystery and enchantment which made the +little house uninhabitable only stimulated her fancy. She determined to +discover whether it was really uninhabited or not. + +Accordingly, when she entered the house for the third time, she plucked +a wild rose and threw one of its buds into the pitcher of water on the +table, a second on the bear skin coverlet of the bed and a third, fourth +and fifth she stuck into the barrels of the muskets hanging up in the +armour room. + +When now, she visited the lonely house for the fourth time, she looked +for the rose buds and could not find one of them in the places where +she had put them. Consequently there must needs be someone who slept in +the bed, drank the fresh water from the pitcher and used the firearms. + +Her thirst for knowledge now induced her to enquire of her husband +concerning this little dwelling and he, then and there, elucidated the +mystery. + +It was quite true that a lonely inhabitant of this house had once been +murdered there, that the common people believed it to be haunted, and +that consequently not one of them would cross its threshold at any price +either by day or by night. An old landed proprietor from the mining town +of X., who owned a small strip of forest in those parts and was at the +same time an enthusiastic huntsman, had taken advantage of this popular +superstition to buy this little house, for a mere song. He used it as a +hunting box. He could not afford to keep a huntsman of his own to look +after it and knowing that if he locked it up, thieves would most +probably break into it and steal everything, he left the doors wide open +and everyone instantly avoided it as uncanny. The reason Henrietta never +met him was that this old gentleman was a government official, who had +to live most of his time in the town of Klausenburg, but whenever he was +not hunting here he was out in the forests all night till dawn when he +turned into the little house for a nap and was off again before the +afternoon; and so Henrietta who regularly visited the hut in the +afternoon, naturally never encountered him. + +Leonard even named the old gentleman's name and then Henrietta +remembered meeting him at the _soirees_ at Klausenburg. Leonard, +however, warned his wife never to mention the matter in the presence of +the old gentleman in question, if she should ever meet him, for he had +sundry relations with poachers and other people of that sort. The fact +was, his own strip of forest was not very large and therefore he very +frequently trespassed on Leonard's property in pursuit of game. The old +gentleman was, therefore, very desirous to keep his passion for the +chase a secret, especially as his relations with Leonard were none of +the best. + +After that Henrietta had visited the little forest house no more. This +prosaic explanation had robbed it in her eyes of all its mysterious +interest, nor did she think it becoming to enter a house whose owner was +not on very good terms with her husband. Only now did the recollection +of the little forest dwelling recur to her, and in the terror of her +soul she began to regard the little moss-covered hut whose doors stood, +open, night and day, as a possible asylum. It was the only place where +she could take refuge, the only place where she had no need to fear +spies, where nobody would look for her, where she might remain in hiding +and from whence she might either return home or wander further out into +the world according as fate was kind or unkind to her. + +At night there would be nobody in the little house, for the enthusiastic +old hunter would be stalking the forest. It was also possible that his +official duties might keep him away for days together. But even if she +were to meet him, why should she be afraid of the eccentric old man? +Would she not rather find in him a natural protector who would conduct +her out of the mountains to Klausenburg or Banfi-Hunyad, from whence she +would make her way to Pest and there seek a refuge in her aunt's house? + +She did not think twice about it, but accepted the idea as a heaven-sent +inspiration which it was her duty to follow. She put on a shawl as if +she were only going to take a walk in the moonlight and descended into +the park accompanied by the gardener's daughter whom she had bribed to +help her to escape. The girl succeeded in hoodwinking the men servants +by dressing herself up in a mantle of her mistress's, pretending she +would have supper out in the park as the night was so fine and warm, so +that by the time the fraud was discovered and the alarm given, Henrietta +had had a start of several hours and although the men, fearful of the +anger of their master when he should return and find his wife flown, +searched in every direction with lighted torches they were unable to +discover a trace of the missing lady. + +Terror lends strength to the most feeble. Ordinarily Henrietta was so +weak that it was as much as she could do to promenade through the park. +But to-day after a two hours' run over stones and through briars and +bushes, at midnight, she still did not feel weary. From the top of a +hill she looked back. She could still see the tower of the castle of +Hidvar in the valley, but it looked blue through the mist in the +distance and then she hastened down into the valley whose steep +overhanging sides hid her even from the moonlight. + +The night was noiseless, the forest dark. Now and again a humming night +beetle circled round and round her and obstinately pursued her as if he +also was a spy sent after her. The poor thing's heart throbbed +violently. What if she had lost her way? What if she fell into the hands +of the robbers whom they were now actually pursuing through the woods? +Yet still greater was her terror of Hidvar and a hundred times more +homelike was the dreadful forest with its giant trees speaking in their +sleep than the tapestried walls of the Castle of Hidvar. + +Suddenly a glade opened up before her which seemed to greet her as an +old acquaintance. + +Yes, indeed, there were the wild roses which she had so often plucked to +adorn her hat. The hunting-box could not be far off now. It conceals +itself to the right of the rose bushes beneath a lofty birch. + +A few moments later she found herself outside its door. + +As she laid her hand on the latch, a thought of terror transfixed her. +What if the door should be shut? + +But she had only to press the latch in order to put all her fears to +flight. The door this time also was not fastened. + +Standing on the threshold she enquired with a trembling voice: "Is +anybody in?" + +No answer. + +Then she closed the door behind her and opened the door of the second +room. There also nobody responded to her enquiry. The third room was +also open as usual, nay even one of its windows was opened towards the +orchard. Moreover, everything was in its proper place just as she had +always found it--the weapons, the bear skin coverlet and the water +pitcher. + +It occurred to Henrietta to close the door from the inside so that +nobody might come upon her unawares while she slept. But then the +thought also struck her that it was not right to lock the old gentleman +out of his own house especially as he might turn up in the early morning +tired out and half frozen. So she ultimately decided to stay up for him +in order to tell him, as soon as he arrived, that she meant to obtain a +separation from her husband, whose conduct she could no longer endure. +Till then she would try hard not to go to sleep. But she was tired to +death from her long run through the forest and was obliged at last to +throw herself on the bear skin coverlet to rest; and gradually sleep +overcame all her anguish, all her terror. + +She might have slept for about a half an hour, a restless, +phantom-haunted sleep at best, when she suddenly awoke. + +It seemed to her as if she had heard a distant cry. Perhaps she had only +imagined she had heard it in her slumbers, and perhaps what she had +dreamt was so awful and what she fancied she had heard was so terrible, +that it had awakened her. + +She began to listen attentively. After midnight every light sound seems +so loud. + +She fancied in the great stillness that she could hear rapidly +approaching footsteps. + +Again a cry! like the cry of a hunted beast, like the cry of a wounded +wolf! + +She was not dreaming now, she could hear it plainly. She saw where she +was. The moonlight was streaming through the window, she could see to +the end of all three rooms. + +Suddenly at the window overlooking the garden whence the moonbeams +streamed in, a black shape appeared which obscured the moonlight for an +instant. + +This shape leaped through the window and, panting hard, rushed through +the two rooms into the third where the arms stood. + +Henrietta saw it fly past her bed, she heard its panting sobs +and--recognized it. + +It was Fatia Negra! this was Fatia Negra's house! + +And this was not all. + +Close upon the traces of Fatia Negra rushed another phantom with a drawn +sword in its hand, but its face was towards her and she recognized in +it--Szilard Vamhidy. + +And yet she did not lose her consciousness at this double sight of +terror, though it would have been much better for her if she had. + +Fatia Negra plunged into the armoury and plucked down a pistol from the +wall. + +Szilard paused on the threshold. + +"Halt!" cried Fatia Negra with a voice like a scream--"this is my house +and your tomb." + +Szilard did not condescend to reply but drew a step nearer. + +"Sir, but one word more," said Fatia Negra in a fainter voice and so +hoarsely as to be scarcely audible, "you have wounded me, you have run +me down; but your life is now in my hands and I could kill you this +instant if I had a mind to. Let us bargain a bit: I won't kill you if +you will not pursue me any further. You return and say you could not +catch me. I swear to you that to-morrow I will send you twenty thousand +ducats." + +With contemptuous coldness Szilard replied: "Surrender, I will not +bargain." + +"You won't bargain, you crushed worm you! The mouth of my pistol is on a +level with your forehead. I have only to press my finger and your head +would be shattered--and yet you dare to have it out with me? Do you want +to save your head?" + +"I mean to have yours," said Szilard and he drew a step nearer to the +adventurer. + +"My head, eh? Ha, ha, ha! You would have it would you, and have it here! +Take it then!" + +At that moment a piercing shriek startled the two deadly antagonists and +in the adjoining room a white figure fell prone upon the floor. + +The next moment there was a loud report and Fatia Negra fell back +lifeless on the bear skin carpet. + +At the very moment when he had laughed aloud and cried: "Take it then!" +he had suddenly put the mouth of the pistol into his own mouth and fired +it off. The heavy charge blew his head to bits, Szilard felt a warm red +rain showering down upon him. + +So Fatia Negra, after all, did not give up his head, the pistol shot had +annihilated it. + +And nobody ever knew who Fatia Negra really was. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE ACCOMMODATION + + +It was now the seventh time that Mr. John Lapussa had informed Mr. Sipos +that he wanted to see him and for the seventh time word was sent back +that the lawyer could not come. Why could he not come? They could not +say. Finally a message was delivered to the effect that the lawyer could +not come either that day, or the next, or indeed on any other day in the +whole year. In a word Mr. Sipos declined to have anything more to do +with the Lapussa family or its affairs. Their transactions were not at +all to his taste. + +So, as Mr. Sipos would not appear at the summons of Mr. John Lapussa, +Mr. John Lapussa must needs call upon Mr. Sipos. + +He was wearing mourning in his hat and tried hard to lend his face a +funereal appearance also. + +"Have you heard the news?" he asked. + +Mr. Sipos had heard nothing. + +"Don't you see the mourning in my hat? Alas! my poor niece, unhappy +Henrietta!" + +"Well, what has happened?" + +"Hatszegi has been drowned in the Maros." + +"Impossible, he was a first-rate swimmer." + +"His horse ran away with him, he had lost all control over it. When he +saw that the horse was determined to plunge into the river from the +high bank, he tried to spring out of the saddle, but his spur +unfortunately caught in the stirrups and the horse dragged him down with +it into the water. There in the full stream, with his head downwards and +his legs in the air, he vainly attempted to extricate himself. The +frantic horse swam with him to the opposite shore, dragging the poor +wretch after it, and before the opposite bank was reached, his head was +so shattered that it was impossible to recognize his features. It is now +a week since they buried him in the family vault at Hidvar. Poor +Henrietta! So young to be left a widow! And to have lost so handsome, so +beloved a husband through so sad a death! Really lamentable!" + +"I wonder what the rascal is after now," thought Mr. Sipos. + +"My heart really is breaking for her! If only there were not these +unhappy money differences between us. I am not a tiger. My heart is not +made of stone. Perhaps you don't believe me! Let me tell you that I have +half resolved, despite the old gentleman's will, to transfer to my +niece, Henrietta, the Kerekedar property." + +"Because its expenses are greater than its revenue, I presume?" + +"None of your poor witticisms, sir. I am ready to make any sacrifices to +oblige my relatives. The world misjudges me. They call me greedy and +avaricious; if only they could look into my heart!" + +"What you have done hitherto, sir, does not testify to any great regard +for your relatives. For instance, look at the case of my client, young +Coloman--for you know that Vamhidy has instructed me to act for him. +What intrigues, what tricks were employed to fasten upon him the +suspicion of forgery! Nobody knows that better than you, sir. And let me +tell you that although my young client is nothing but a strolling +player, I shall spare no pains to thoroughly vindicate his good name and +you, with all your wealth and property, will be unable to affect the +issue one jot." + +Mr. John pondered for a moment. "Look here," said he at last, "let us +pitch the whole confounded suit into the fire. I have a compromise to +propose. I candidly confess I am in a bit of a hole. That bill business +is now before the courts and when it comes on for trial, it will cause a +horrible scandal and people have condemned me beforehand. I only wish I +had never mixed myself up in it." + +"Suppose I help you out of the difficulty!" + +"In that case you may dictate your own conditions and I will consent to +them beforehand." + +"There is only one way to save you. Henrietta must say that the bill is +not forged, but is really signed by her and she must then pay and cancel +it, then every foundation of a charge against you vanishes." + +"A sublime idea," cried Mr. John springing from his seat. "And now let +me hear your conditions." + +"My only condition is, complete satisfaction to be made to the children +of your second sister." + +"What! surrender a whole third of the property to them without any +deduction?" + +"We will accept nothing less." + +"What must I do first then?" + +"First you must pay the baroness forty thousand florins." + +"Forty thousand florins! Why?" + +"In order that she may meet the bill as soon as she has acknowledged her +signature." + +"Well, and what next?" + +"You must sign deeds whereby you undertake to surrender to the children +of your late sister the estates of Zoldhalom and Oroekvar bequeathed to +them by your father." + +"Why, they are the best paying properties of all." + +"Then pay them the value of the estates in cash." + +"That would seriously inconvenience me." + +"Then make over your houses in Vienna and Pest." + +"I cannot find it in my heart to part with them." + +"Then propose some other expedient." + +"Very well, I will. Give me till to-morrow to think it over." + +And with that Mr. John put on his hat and took his leave. + +The following day the lawyer awaited him in vain; then he waited for +him a whole fortnight, but Mr. John never came near him. Then he went to +the courts to find out what was being done and there he learnt, to his +astonishment, that the declaration of the Baroness Hatszegi +acknowledging the genuineness of her signature to the bill had already +arrived. + +What had happened was this: As soon as Mr. John had got Sipos's opinion +gratis, he quickly traveled post to Hidvar and had a chat with his niece +over the business. The poor lady was so utterly crushed by her +misfortunes that she could scarce fix her mind steadily on anything and +was a mere tool in his hands. She accepted the properties offered to her +by her uncle--what did it matter to her now how much or how little they +brought in!--and gave an acknowledgment in writing that the signature to +the bill was her own. + +Mr. Sipos was therefore not very much surprised when one day he received +a commission from the baroness's agent to pay over the forty thousand +florins in question to a financial agent at Pest. So Mr. John made a +rattling good profit out of the transaction and Henrietta in return for +her generosity had to pay up in cash as Mr. Sipos had shrewdly +anticipated she would have to do all along. But it was all one to +Henrietta. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +CONCLUSION + + +Meanwhile the long drawn out process between Mr. John and his sister +Madame Langai continued its course. There was no thought of a compromise +between the parties. Madame Langai expended so much of her private means +in the action that nearly the whole of the property left her by her +husband went in costs. She could now neither keep her coach nor live in +a large house. She cooped herself up in a couple of small rooms, visited +nobody and wore dresses that had been out of fashion for at least four +years--and all to be able to carry on the action! + +It was ten years before the suit came to an end. + +Mr. John lost it and a fearful blow it was to him, for he had to pay out +a million to his sister without any further delay. It is true he had as +much again left for himself, but to be the possessor of only a single +million is nevertheless a fearful thought to anyone who has hitherto +been the possessor of two millions. + +The poor plutocrat! How deeply it disturbed him to be obliged to pay his +only sister her due portion! How the constant thought that he was now +only half as rich as he had been before gnawed his life away! Poor, poor +plutocrat! + +Szilard had a brilliant career--a career extending far beyond the +horizon of this simple story. He never married. Count Kengyelesy quizzed +him often enough and was continually asking him why he did not try his +luck again with his former ideal now that she had become a widow. All +such questions, however, he used to evade in a corresponding tone of +jocularity. But once when Kengyelesy inquired seriously why he never +approached Baroness Hatszegi and at the same time reproached him for his +want of feeling in so obstinately keeping out of the poor lady's way, +Szilard replied: "I am not one of those who can be thrown away to-day +and picked up again to-morrow." + +After that the count never mentioned Henrietta's name in Szilard's +presence again--and who knows whether there was not some impediment +between these two from which no sacrament could absolve them. Who knows +whether it might not after all have been as well for Vamhidy to avoid +any meeting whatever with--the widow of the late Baron Hatszegi? + +Yet it was she who was, in any case, the most wretched of them all. +Although only six and twenty she could already be called an old woman. +She was the victim of her shattered nerves night and day. The least +noise made her tremble. The opening of a door was sufficient to make her +start up. When she was only four and twenty she had already given up +plucking out her grey hairs, there were so many of them. She found no +relaxation in the society of her fellows and therefore avoided all +social gatherings. Most of her time she spent at home, sitting all by +herself in the remotest chamber of the house, half of whose wall was by +this time overgrown by the asclepia which Szilard had given her ages +ago--or so it seemed to her. This was the only one of her acquaintances +which had not forsaken her, and luckily for her it was tenacious of +life, for if that too had perished, with whom could poor Henrietta have +held converse? + +So there was at least one creature in the world to whom this possessor +of millions could still confide her reminiscences and her sorrows. Poor +rich lady, all the poorer because of her great wealth! Poor plutocrat! + + +THE END + +[Transcriber's Note: Most obvious typographical errors have been +corrected. Foreign words may appear at some points in the text with +accents and at other points without, and proper names may be spelled +differently in different parts of the text. These inconsistencies have +been preserved from the original publication.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poor Plutocrats, by Maurus Jokai + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POOR PLUTOCRATS *** + +***** This file should be named 18705.txt or 18705.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/0/18705/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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