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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Slaves of the Padishah, by Mor Jokai
+
+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 Slaves of the Padishah
+
+Author: Mor Jokai
+
+Translator: R. Nisbet Bain
+
+Release Date: March 4, 2012 [EBook #39048]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLAVES OF THE PADISHAH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SLAVES OF THE PADISHAH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Dr. Jokai Mor 1900]
+
+
+
+
+The Slaves of the Padishah
+
+("The Turks in Hungary," being the Sequel to
+"'Midst the Wild Carpathians")
+
+_A ROMANCE_
+
+BY MAURUS JOKAI
+
+_Author of "'Midst the Wild Carpathians," "Black Diamonds,"
+"Pretty Michal," etc._
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE SIXTH HUNGARIAN EDITION BY
+R. NISBET BAIN
+
+[Illustration: SANS PEUR ET SANS REPROCHE  THIRD EDITION]
+
+ LONDON
+ JARROLD & SONS, 10 & 11, WARWICK LANE, E.C.
+ [_All Rights Reserved_]
+ 1903
+
+ AUTHORISED VERSION
+
+ _Copyright_
+ _London: Jarrold & Sons_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+  CHAPTER                                                       PAGE
+       I.  THE GOLDEN CAFTAN                                       9
+      II.  MAIDENS THREE                                          17
+     III.  THREE MEN                                              31
+      IV.  AFFAIRS OF STATE                                       41
+       V.  THE DAY OF GROSSWARDEIN                                52
+      VI.  THE MONK OF THE HOLY SPRING                            77
+     VII.  THE PANIC OF NAGYENYED                                 93
+    VIII.  THE SLAVE MARKET AT BUDA-PESTH                        102
+      IX.  THE AMAZON BRIGADE                                    112
+       X.  THE MARGARET ISLAND                                   118
+      XI.  A STAR IN HELL                                        125
+     XII.  THE BATTLE OF ST. GOTHARD                             134
+    XIII.  THE PERSECUTED WOMAN                                  154
+     XIV.  OLAJ BEG                                              169
+      XV.  THE WOMEN'S DEFENCE                                   179
+     XVI.  A FIGHT FOR HIS OWN HEAD                              193
+    XVII.  THE EXTRAVAGANCES OF LOVE                             218
+   XVIII.  SPORT WITH A BLIND MAN                                233
+     XIX.  THE NIGHT BEFORE DEATH                                237
+      XX.  THE VICTIM                                            261
+     XXI.  OTHER TIMES--OTHER MEN                                267
+    XXII.  THE DIVAN                                             276
+   XXIII.  THE TURKISH DEATH                                     293
+    XXIV.  THE HOSTAGE                                           307
+     XXV.  THE HUSBAND                                           313
+    XXVI.  THE FADING OF FLOWERS                                 321
+   XXVII.  THE SWORD OF GOD                                      327
+  XXVIII.  THE MADMAN                                            340
+    XXIX.  PLEASANT SURPRISES                                    349
+     XXX.  A MAN ABANDONED BY HIS GUARDIAN-ANGEL                 360
+    XXXI.  THE NEWLY DRAWN SWORD                                 364
+   XXXII.  THE LAST DAY                                          371
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+"Toeroek Vilag Magyarorszagon," now englished for the first time, is a
+sequel to "Az Erdely arany kora," already published by Messrs. Jarrold,
+under the title of "'Midst the Wild Carpathians." The two tales, though
+quite distinct, form together one great historical romance, which
+centres round the weakly, good-natured Michael Apafi, the last
+independent Prince of Transylvania, his masterful and virtuous consort,
+Anna Bornemissza, and his machiavellian Minister, Michael Teleki, a sort
+of pocket-Richelieu, whose genius might have made a great and strong
+state greater and stronger still, but could not save a little state,
+already doomed to destruction as much from its geographical position as
+from its inherent weakness. The whole history of Transylvania, indeed,
+reads like an old romance of chivalry, cut across by odd episodes out of
+"The Thousand and One Nights," and the last phase of that history
+(1674-1690), so vividly depicted in the present volume, is fuller of
+life, colour, variety, and adventure than any other period of European
+history. The little mountain principality, lying between two vast
+aggressive empires, the Ottoman and the German, ever striving with each
+other for the mastery of central Europe, was throughout this period the
+football of both. Viewed from a comfortable armchair at a distance of
+two centuries, the whole era is curiously fascinating: to unfortunate
+contemporaries it must have been unspeakably terrible. Strange
+happenings were bound to be the rule, not the exception, when a Turkish
+Pasha ruled the best part of Hungary from the bastions of Buda. Thus it
+was quite in the regular order of things for Hungarian gentlemen to join
+with notorious robber-chieftains to attack Turkish fortresses; for
+bandits, in the disguise of monks, to plunder lonely monasteries; for
+simple boors to be snatched from the plough to be set upon a throne; for
+Christian girls, from every country under heaven, to be sold by auction
+not fifty miles from Vienna, and for Turkish filibusters to plant
+fortified harems in the midst of the Carpathians. Jokai, luckier than
+Dumas, had no need to invent his episodes, though he frequently presents
+them in a romantic environment. He found his facts duly recorded in
+contemporary chronicles, and he had no temptation to be unfaithful to
+them, because the ordinary, humdrum incidents of every-day life in
+seventeenth century Transylvania outstrip the extravagances of the most
+unbridled imagination.
+
+No greater praise can be awarded to the workmanship of Jokai than to say
+that, although written half a century ago (the first edition was
+published in 1853), "Toeroek Vilag Magyarorszagon" does not strike one as
+in the least old-fashioned or out of date. Romantic it is, no doubt, in
+treatment as well as in subject, but a really good romance never grows
+old, and Jokai's unfailing humour is always--at least, in his
+masterpieces--a sufficient corrective of the excessive sensibility to
+which, like all the romanticists, he is, by temperament, sometimes
+liable.
+
+Most of the characters which delighted us in "'Midst the Wild
+Carpathians" accompany us through the sequel. The Prince, the Princess,
+the Minister, Beldi, Kucsuk, Feriz, Azrael, and even such minor
+personages as the triple renegade, Zuelfikar, are all here, and remain
+true to their original presentment, except Azrael, who is the least
+convincing of them all. Of the new personages, the most original are the
+saponaceous Olaj Beg, whose unctuous suavity always conveys a menace,
+and the heroic figure of the famous Emeric Toekoely, who, but for the
+saving sword of Sobieski, might have wrested the crown of St. Stephen
+from the House of Hapsburg.
+
+
+R. NISBET BAIN.
+
+_December, 1902._
+
+
+
+
+The Slaves of the Padishah.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GOLDEN CAFTAN.
+
+
+The S---- family was one of the richest in Wallachia, and consequently
+one of the most famous. The head of the family dictated to twelve
+boyars, collected hearth-money and tithes from four-and-fifty villages,
+lived nine months in the year at Stambul, held the Sultan's bridle when
+he mounted his steed in time of war, contributed two thousand
+lands-knechts to the host of the Pasha of Macedonia, and had permission
+to keep on his slippers when he entered the inner court of the Seraglio.
+
+In the year 1600 and something, George was the name of the first-born of
+the S---- family, but with him we shall not have very much concern. We
+shall do much better to follow the fortunes of the second born, Michael,
+whom his family had sent betimes to Bucharest to be brought up as a
+priest in the Seminary there. The youth had, however, a remarkably thick
+head, and, so far from making any great progress in the sciences, was
+becoming quite an ancient classman, when he suddenly married the
+daughter of a sub-deacon, and buried himself in a little village in
+Wallachia. There he spent a good many years of his life with scarce
+sufficient stipend to clothe him decently, and had he not tilled his
+soil with his own hands, he would have been hard put to it to find
+maize-cakes enough to live upon.
+
+In the first year of his marriage a little girl was born to him, and for
+her the worthy man and his wife spared and scraped so that, in case they
+were to die, she might have some little trifle. So they laid aside a few
+halfpence out of every shilling in order that when it rose to a good
+round sum they might purchase for their little girl--a cow.
+
+A cow! That was their very ultimate desire. If only they could get a
+cow, who would be happier than they? Milk and butter would come to their
+table in abundance, and they would be able to give some away besides.
+Her calf they would rear and sell to the butcher for a good price,
+stipulating for a quarter of it against the Easter festival. Then, too,
+a cow would give so much pleasure to the whole family. In the morning
+they would be giving it drink, rubbing it down, leading it out into the
+field, and its little bell would be sounding all day in the pasture. In
+the evening it would come into the yard, keeping close to the wall,
+where the mulberry-tree stood, and poke its head through the kitchen
+door. It would have a star upon its forehead, and would let you scratch
+its head and stroke its neck, and would take the piece of maize-cake
+that little Mariska held out to it. She would be able to lead the cow
+everywhere. This was the Utopia of the family, its every-day desire, and
+Papa had already planted a mulberry-tree in the yard in order that
+Csako, that was to be the cow's name, might have something to rub his
+side against, and little Mariska every day broke off a piece of
+maize-cake and hid it under the window-sill. The little calf would have
+a fine time of it.
+
+And lo and behold! when the halfpennies and farthings had mounted up to
+such a heap that they already began to think of going to the very next
+market to bring home the cow; when every day they could talk of nothing
+else, and kept wondering what the cow would be like, brindled, or brown,
+or white, or spotted; when they had already given it its name
+beforehand, and had prepared a leafy bed for it close to the house--it
+came to pass that a certain vagabond Turkish Sheikh shot dead the elder
+brother, who was living in Stambul, because he accidentally touched the
+edge of the holy man's garment in the street. So the poor priest
+received one day a long letter from Adrianople, in which he was informed
+that he had succeeded his brother as head of the family, and, from that
+hour, was the happy possessor of an annual income of 70,000 ducats.
+
+I wonder whether they wept for that cow, which they never brought home
+after all?
+
+Mr. Michael immediately left his old dwelling, travelled with his family
+all the way to Bucharest in a carriage (it was the first time in his
+life he had ever enjoyed that dignity), went through the family
+archives, and entered into possession of his immense domain, of whose
+extent he had had no idea before.
+
+The old family mansion was near Rumnik, whither Mr. Michael also
+repaired. The house was dilapidated and neglected, its former possessors
+having lived constantly abroad, only popping in occasionally to see how
+things were going on. Nevertheless, it was a palace to the new heir,
+who, after the experience of his narrow hovel, could hardly accommodate
+himself to the large, barrack-like rooms, and finally contented himself
+with one half of it, leaving the other wing quite empty, as he didn't
+know what to do with it.
+
+Having been accustomed throughout the prime of his life to deprivation
+and the hardest of hard work, that state of things had become such a
+second nature to him, that, when he became a millionaire, he had not
+much taste for anything better than maize-cakes, and it was high
+festival with him when _puliszka_[1] was put upon the table.
+
+     [Footnote 1: A sort of maize pottage.]
+
+On the death of his wife, he sent his daughter on foot to the
+neighbouring village to learn her alphabet from the cantor, and two
+heydukes accompanied her lest the dogs should worry her on the way.
+When his daughter grew up, he entrusted her with the housekeeping and
+the care of the kitchen. Very often some young and flighty boyar would
+pass through the place from the neighbouring village, and very much
+would he have liked to have taken the girl off with him, if only her
+father would give her away. And all this time Mr. Michael's capital
+began to increase so outrageously that he himself began to be afraid of
+it. It had come to this, that he could not spend even a thousandth part
+of his annual income, and, puzzle his head as he might, he could not
+turn it over quickly enough. He had now whole herds of cows, he bought
+pigs by the thousand, but everything he touched turned to money, and the
+capital that he invested came back to him in the course of the year with
+compound interest. The worthy man was downright desperate when he
+thought upon his treasure-heaps multiplying beyond all his expectations.
+How to enjoy them he knew not, and yet he did not wish to pitch them
+away.
+
+He would have liked to have played the grand seignior, if only thereby
+to get rid of some of his money, but the role did not suit him at all.
+If, for instance, he wanted to build a palace, there was so much
+calculating how, in what manner, and by whom it could be built most
+cheaply, that it scarce cost him anything at all, but then it never
+turned out a palace. Or if he wanted to give a feast, it was easy enough
+to select the handsomest of the boyars for his guests. Whatever was
+necessary for the feast--wine, meat, bread, honey, and sack-pipers--was
+supplied in such abundance from his own magazines and villages, that he
+absolutely despaired to think how it was that his ancestors had not only
+devoured their immense estates, but had even piled up debts upon them.
+To him this remained an insoluble problem, and after bothering his head
+for a long time as to what he should do with his eternally accumulating
+capital, he at last hit upon a good idea. The spacious garden
+surrounding his crazy castle had, by his especial command, been planted
+with all sorts of rare and pleasant plants--like basil, lavender, wild
+saffron, hops, and gourds--over whom a tenant had been promoted as
+gardener to look after them. One year the garden produced such gigantic
+gourds, that each one was as big as a pitcher. The astonished neighbours
+came in crowds to gaze at them, and the promoted ex-boyar swore a
+hundred times that such gourds as these the Turkish Sultan himself had
+not seen all his life long.
+
+This gave Master Michael an idea. He made up his mind that he would send
+one of these gourds to the Sultan as a present. So he selected the
+finest and roundest of them, of a beautiful flesh-coloured rind,
+encircled by dark-green stripes, with a turban-shaped cap at the top of
+it, and, boring a little hole through it, drew out the pulp and filled
+it instead with good solid ducats of the finest stamp, and placing it on
+his best six-oxened wagon, he selected his wisest tenant, and, dinning
+well into his head where to go, what to say, and to whom to say it, sent
+him off with the great gourd to the Sublime Porte at Stambul.
+
+It took the cart three weeks to get to Constantinople.
+
+The good, worthy farmer, upon declaring that he brought gifts for the
+Grand Seignior, was readily admitted into the presence, and after
+kissing the hem of the Padishah's robe, drew the bright cloth away from
+the presented pumpkin and deposited it in front of the Divan.
+
+The Sultan flew into a violent rage at the sight of the gift.
+
+"Dost thou take me for a swine, thou unbelieving dog, that thou bringest
+me a gourd?" cried he.
+
+And straightway he commanded the Kiaja Beg to remove both the gourd and
+the man. The gourd he was to dash to pieces on the ground, the bringer
+of the gourd was to have dealt unto him a hundred stripes on the soles
+of his feet, but the sender of the gourd was to lose his head.
+
+The Kiaja Beg did as he was commanded. He banged the gourd down in the
+courtyard outside, and behold! a stream of shining ducats gushed out of
+it instead of the pulp. Nevertheless, faithful above all things to his
+orders, he had the poor farmer flung down on his face, and gave him such
+a sound hundred stripes on the soles of his feet that he had no wish for
+any more.
+
+Immediately afterwards he hastened to inform the Sultan that the gourd
+had been dashed to the ground, the hundred blows with the stick duly
+paid, the silken cord ready packed, but that the gourd was full of
+ducats.
+
+At these words the countenance of the Grand Seignior grew serene once
+more, like the smiling summer sky, and after ordering that the silken
+cord should be put back in its place, he commanded that the most
+magnificent of caftans should be distributed both to the bastinadoed
+farmer and to the boyar who had sent the gift, and that they should both
+be assured of the gracious favour of the Padishah.
+
+The former had sufficient sense when he arrived at Bucharest to sell the
+gay garment he had received to a huckster in the bazaar, but his
+master's present he carefully brought home, and, after informing him of
+the unpleasant incident concerning himself, delivered to him his
+present, together with a gracious letter from the Sultan.
+
+Master Michael was delighted with the return gift. He put on the long
+caftan, which reached to his heels, and was made of fine dark-red
+Thibetan stuff, embroidered with gold and silken flowers. Gold lace and
+galloon, as broad as your hand, were piled up on the sleeves, shoulder,
+and back, to such an extent that the original cloth was scarcely
+visible, and the hem of the caftan was most wondrously embroidered with
+splendid tulips, green, blue, and lilac roses, and all sorts of tinsel
+and precious stones.
+
+Master Michael felt himself quite another man in this caftan. The Sultan
+had sent him a letter. The Sultan had plainly written to him that he
+was to wear this caftan. This, therefore, was a command, and it was
+possible that the Sultan might turn up to-morrow or the next day to see
+whether he was wearing this caftan, and would be angry if he hadn't got
+it on. He must needs therefore wear it continually.
+
+But this golden caftan did not go at all well with his coarse fur
+jacket, nor with his wooden sandals and lambskin cap. He was therefore
+obliged to send to Tergoviste for a tailor who should make him a silk
+dolman, vest, and embroidered stockings to match the golden caftan. He
+also sent to Kronstadt for a tasselled girdle, to Braila for shoes and
+morocco slippers, and to Tekas for an ermine kalpag with a heron's plume
+in it.
+
+Of course, now that he was so handsomely dressed, it was quite out of
+the question for him to sit in a ramshackle old carriage, or to bestride
+a fifty-thaler nag. He therefore ordered splendid chargers to be sent to
+him from Bessarabia, and had a gilded coach made for him in
+Transylvania; and when the carriage and the horses were there, he could
+not put them into the muddy wagon-shed and the sparrow-frequented,
+rush-thatched stable, but had to make good stone coach-houses and
+stables expressly for them. Now, it would have looked very singular,
+and, in fact, disgusting, if the stable and coach-house had been better
+than the castle, whose shingle roof was a mass of variegated patches and
+gaping holes where the mortar had fallen out and left the bricks bare;
+so there was nothing for it but to pull down the old castle, and to
+order his steward to build up a new one in its place, and make it as
+beautiful and splendid as his fancy could suggest.
+
+Thus the whole order of the world he lived in was transformed by a
+golden caftan.
+
+The steward embellished the castle with golden lattices, turrets,
+ornamental porches and winding staircases; put conservatories in the
+garden, planted projecting rondelles and soaring belvederes at the
+corners of the castle and a regular tower in the middle of it, and
+painted all the walls and ceilings inside with green forests and
+crooked-beaked birds.
+
+Of course, he couldn't put inside such a place as this the old rustic
+furniture and frippery, so he had to purchase the large, high, shining
+hump-backed arm-chairs, the gold-stamped leather sofas, and the
+lion-legged marble tables which were then at the height of fashion.
+
+Of course, Turkey carpets had to be laid on the floor, and silver
+candelabra and beakers placed upon the magnificent tables; and in order
+that these same Turkey carpets might not be soiled by the muddy boots of
+farmyard hinds, a whole series of new servants had to be invented, such
+as footmen to stand behind the new carriage, cooks for the kitchen, and
+a special gardener for the conservatories, who, instead of looking after
+the honest, straightforward citron-trees and pumpkins, had gingerly to
+plant out cactuses and Egyptian thistles like dry stalks, in pots,
+whence, also, it came about that as there was now a regular gardener and
+a regular cook, pretty Mariska had no longer any occasion to concern
+herself either with garden or kitchen, nor did she go any more to the
+village rector to learn reading or writing, but they had to get her a
+French governess from whom she learnt good taste, elegant manners,
+embroidery, and harp-strumming.
+
+And all these things were the work of the golden caftan!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MAIDENS THREE.
+
+
+The family banner had scarce been hoisted on to the high tower of the
+new castle, the rumour of Mariska's loveliness and her father's millions
+had scarce been spread abroad, when the courtyard began to be all ablaze
+with the retinues and equipages of the most eminent zhupans,[2]
+voivodes,[3] and princes; but Master Michael had resolved within himself
+beforehand that nobody less than the reigning Prince of Moldavia should
+ever receive his daughter's hand, and stolidly he kept to his
+resolution.
+
+     [Footnote 2: A Servian Prince.]
+
+     [Footnote 3: A Roumanian Prince.]
+
+Now the reigning Prince of Moldavia no doubt had an illustrious name
+enough, but he also had inherited a very considerable load of debt, and
+what with the eternal exactions of the Tartars, and the presents
+expected by all the leading Pashas, and other disturbing causes, he saw
+his people growing poorer and poorer, and his own position becoming more
+and more precarious every year. He therefore did not keep worthy Master
+Michael waiting very long when he heard, on excellent authority, that
+there was being reserved for him in Wallachia a beautiful and
+accomplished virgin, who would bring to her husband a dowry of a couple
+of millions, in addition to an uncorrupted heart and an old ancestral
+title.
+
+So, gathering together all the boyars, retainers, and officers of his
+court, he set off a-wooing to Rumnik, where he was well received by the
+father, satisfied himself as to the young lady's good graces, demanded
+her hand in marriage, and, allowing an adequate delay for the
+preliminaries of the wedding, fixed the glad event for the first week
+after Easter.
+
+Master Michael, meantime, could think of nothing else but how he could
+cut as magnificent a figure as possible on the occasion. He invited to
+the banquet all the celebrities in Moldavia, Servia, Bosnia, and
+Transylvania. He did not even hesitate to hire from Versailles one of
+Louis XIV.'s cooks, to regulate the order and quality of the dishes. On
+the day of the banquet the good gentleman was visible everywhere, and
+saw to everything himself. Quite early, arrayed in the golden caftan,
+the heron-plumed kalpag, and the tasselled girdle, he strutted about the
+courtyard, corridors and chambers, distributing his orders and receiving
+his guests; and his heart fluttered when he beheld the courtyard filling
+with carriages, each one more brilliant than its predecessor, escorted
+by gold-bedizened cavaliers, from which silver-laced heydukes assisted
+noble ladies, in splendid pearl-embroidered costumes, to descend. There
+was such a rustling of silk dresses, such a rattling of swords, and such
+an endless procession of elegant and magnificent forms up the staircase,
+as to make the heart of the beholder rejoice.
+
+Master Michael rushed hither and thither, and pride and humility were
+strangely blended on his face. He assured all he welcomed how happy they
+made him by honouring his poor dwelling with their presence; but the
+voice with which he said this betrayed the conviction that not one of
+his guests had quitted a home as splendid as his own poor dwelling.
+
+Then he plunged into the robing-chamber of the bride, where tire-women,
+fetched all the way from Vienna, had been decking out Mariska from early
+dawn. It gave them no end of trouble to adjust her jewels and her
+gewgaws, and if they had heaped upon the fair bride all that her father
+had purchased for her, she would have been unable to move beneath the
+weight of her gems.
+
+Thence the good man rushed off to the banqueting-room, where his
+domestics had been busy making ready two rows of tables in five long
+halls.
+
+"Here shall sit the bride! That arm-chair to the right of her is for the
+Patriarch--it is his proper place. On the left will sit Prince Michael
+Apafi. He is to have the green-embossed chair, with the golden cherubim.
+The bridegroom will sit on the right hand of the Patriarch. You must
+give him that round, armless seat, so that he cannot lean back, but must
+hold himself proudly erect. Over there you must place Paul Beldi and his
+spouse, for they are always wont to sit together. Their daughter Aranka
+will also be there, and she must sit between them on that little blue
+velvet stool. Opposite to them the silk sofa is for Achmed Pasha and
+Feriz Beg, recollect that they won't want knife or fork. The Dean must
+have that painted stone bench, for a wooden bench would break beneath
+him, and no chair will hold him. The three-and-thirty priests must be
+placed all together over there--you must put none else beside them, or
+they would be ashamed to eat. Don't forget to pile up wreaths of flowers
+on the silver salvers; and remember there are peculiar reasons for not
+placing a pitcher of wine before Michael Teleki. Achmed Pasha must have
+a sherbet-bowl placed beside the can from which he drinks his wine, and
+then folks will fancy he is not transgressing the Koran. Place goblets
+of Venetian crystal before the ladies, and golden beakers before the
+gentlemen, the handsomest before Teleki and Bethlen, the commoner sort
+before the others, as they are wont to dash them against the walls. The
+bridegroom should have the slenderest beaker of all, for he'll have to
+pledge everyone, and I want no harm to befall him. Mind what I say!"
+
+Nearly all the wedding guests had now assembled. Only two families were
+still expected, the Apafis and the Telekis, whom Master Michael in his
+pride wished to see at his table most of all. He glanced impatiently
+into the courtyard every time he heard the roll of a carriage, and the
+staircase lacqueys had strict injunctions to let him know as soon as
+they saw the Prince's carriage approaching.
+
+At last the rumbling of wheels was heard. Master Michael went all the
+way to the gate to receive his guests, shoving aside all the vehicles in
+his way, and bawling to the sentinels on the tower to blow the trumpets
+as soon as ever they beheld the carriage on the road. The goodly host of
+guests also thronged the balconies, the turrets, and the rondelles, to
+catch a glance at the new arrivals, and before very long two carriages,
+each drawn by four horses, turned the corner of the well-wooded road,
+carriages supported on each side by footmen, lest they should topple
+over, and escorted by a brilliant banderium of prancing horsemen.
+
+They were instantly recognised as the carriages of the Prince and his
+Prime Minister, and the voices of the trumpets never ceased till the
+splendid, gilded, silk-curtained vehicles had lumbered into the
+courtyard, although the master of the castle was already awaiting them
+at the outer, sculptured gate, and himself hastened to open the carriage
+door, doffing first of all his ermine kalpag. But he popped it on again,
+considerably nonplussed, when, on opening the carriage, a beardless bit
+of a boy, to all appearance, leapt out of it all alone, and there was
+not a trace of the Prince to be seen in the carriage. Perhaps he had
+dismounted at the foot of the hill in order to complete the journey on
+foot, as Master Michael himself was in the habit of doing every time he
+took a drive in his coach, for fear of an accident.
+
+But the youthful jack-in-the-box lost no time in dispelling all rising
+suspicions by quickly introducing himself.
+
+"I am Emeric Toekoely," said he, "whom his Highness the Prince has sent to
+your Worship as his representative to take part in the festivities, and
+at the same time to express his regret that he was not able to appear
+personally, but only to send his hearty congratulations, inasmuch as her
+Highness the Princess is just now in good hopes, by the grace of God, of
+presenting her consort with an heir, and consequently his Highness does
+not feel himself capable of enduring the amenities which under these
+circumstances Ali Pasha might at such a time think fit to force upon
+him. Nevertheless he wishes your Worship, with God's will, all
+imaginable felicity."
+
+Master Michael did not exactly know whether to say "I am very glad" or
+"I am very sorry;" and in the meanwhile, to gain time, was turning
+towards the second carriage, when Emeric Toekoely suddenly intercepted
+him.
+
+"I was also to inform your Worship that his Excellency Michael Teleki,
+having unexpectedly received the command to invade Hungary with all the
+forces of Transylvania, has sent, instead of himself, his daughter Flora
+to do honour to your Worship, much regretting that, because of the
+command aforesaid, which will brook neither objection nor delay, he has
+been obliged to deny himself the pleasure personally to press your
+Worship's hand and exchange the warm kiss of kinsmanship; but if your
+Worship will entrust me with both the handshake and the kiss, I will
+give your Worship his and take back to him your Worship's."
+
+The good old gentleman was absolutely delighted with the young man's
+patriarchal idea, forgot the sour and solemn countenance which he had
+expressly put on in honour of the Prince, and, falling on the neck of
+the graceful young gentleman, hugged and kissed him so emphatically that
+the latter could scarcely free himself from his embraces; then, taking
+Flora Teleki, the youth's reported _fiancee_, on one arm, and Emeric
+himself on the other, he conducted them in this guise among his other
+guests, and they were the first to whom he introduced his daughter in
+all her bridal array.
+
+A stately, slender brunette was Mariska, her face as pale as a lily, her
+eyes timidly cast down, as, leaning on her lady companion's arm, and
+tricked out in her festal costume, she appeared before the expectant
+multitude. The beauty of her rich black velvet tresses was enhanced by
+interwoven strings of real pearls; her figure, whose tender charms were
+insinuated rather than indicated by her splendid oriental dress, would
+not have been out of place among a group of Naiads; and that superb
+carriage, those haughty eyebrows, those lips of hers full of the promise
+of pleasure, suited very well with her bashful looks and timid
+movements.
+
+Amongst the army of guests there was one man who towered above the
+others--tall, muscular, with broad shoulders, dome-like breast, and head
+proudly erect, whose long locks, like a rich black pavilion, flowed
+right down over his shoulders. His thick dark eyebrows and his
+coal-black moustache gave an emphatically resolute expression to his
+dark olive-coloured face, whose profile had an air of old Roman
+distinction.
+
+This was the bridegroom, Prince Ghyka.
+
+When the father of the bride introduced the new arrivals to the other
+guests, his first action was to present them to Prince Ghyka, not
+forgetting to relate how courteously the young Count had executed his
+commission as to the transfer of the kisses, which, having been received
+with general hilarity, suggested a peculiarly bold idea to the flighty
+young man.
+
+While he was being embraced by one after the other, and passed on from
+hand to hand so to speak, he suddenly stood before the trembling bride,
+who scarce dared to cast a single furtive look upon him, and, greeting
+her in the style of the most chivalrous French courtesy, at the same
+time turning towards the bystanders with a proud, not to say haughty
+smile, pardonable in him alone, said, with an amiable _abandon_:
+"Inasmuch as I have been solemnly authorised to be the bearer of kisses,
+I imagine I shall be well within my rights if I deliver personally the
+kisses which my kinswomen, Princess Apafi and Dame Teleki have charged
+me to convey to the bride."
+
+And before anyone had quite taken in the meaning of his concluding
+words, the handsome youth, with that fascinating impertinence with which
+he was wont to subdue men and women alike, bent over the charming bride,
+and while her face blushed for a moment scarlet red, imprinted a
+noiseless kiss upon her pure marble forehead. And this he did with such
+grace, with such tender sprightliness, that nothing worse than a light
+smile appeared upon the most rigorous faces present.
+
+Then, turning to the company with a proud smile of self-confidence on
+his face: "I hope," said he, tucking Flora Teleki's hand under his arm,
+"that the presence of my _fiancee_ is a sufficient guarantee of the
+respect with which I have accomplished this item of my mission."
+
+At this there was a general outburst of laughter amongst the guests. Any
+sort of absurdity could be forgiven Emeric, for he managed even his most
+practical jokes so amiably that it was impossible to be angry with him.
+
+But the cheeks of two damsels remained rosy-red--Mariska's and Flora's.
+Women don't understand that sort of joke.
+
+The bridegroom, half-smiling, half-angry, stroked his fine moustache.
+"Come, come, my lad," said he, "you have been quicker in kissing my
+bride than I have been myself."
+
+But now the reverend gentlemen intervened, the bells rang, the
+bridesmaids and the best men took possession of the bride and
+bridegroom, the ceremony began, and nobody thought any more of the
+circumstance, except, perhaps, two damsels, whose hearts had been
+pricked by the thoughtless pleasantry, one of them as by the thorn of a
+rose, the other as by the sting of a serpent.
+
+And now, while for the next hour and a half the marriage ceremony, with
+the assistance of the Most Reverend Patriarch, the Venerable Archdeacon,
+three-and-thirty reverend gentlemen of the lower clergy, and just as
+many secular dignitaries, is solemnly and religiously proceeding, we
+will remain behind in the ante-chamber, and be indiscreet enough to worm
+out the contents of the two well-sealed letters which have just been
+brought in hot haste from Kronstadt for Emeric Toekoely by a special
+courier, who stamped his foot angrily when he was told that he must wait
+till the Count came out of church.
+
+One of the letters was from Michael Teleki, and its contents pretty much
+as follows:--
+
+      "MY DEAR SIR AND SON,
+
+      "Our affairs are in the best possible order. During
+      the last few days our army, 9,000 strong, quitting
+      Gyulafehervar, has gone to await Achmed Pasha's forces
+      near Deva, and will thence proceed to unite with
+      Kiuprile's host. War, indeed, is inevitable; and
+      Transylvania must be gloriously in the forefront of
+      it. Do not linger where you are, but try and overtake
+      us. It would be superfluous for me to remind you to
+      take charge of my daughter Flora on the way. God bless
+      you.
+
+      "MICHAEL TELEKI.
+
+      "_Datum Albae Juliae._
+
+      "P.S.--Her Highness the Princess awaits a safe
+      delivery from the mercy of God. His Highness the
+      Prince has just finished a very learned dissertation
+      on the orbits of the planets."
+
+The second letter was in a fine feminine script, but one might judge
+from it that that hand knew how to handle a sword as well as a pen.
+
+It was to the following effect:--
+
+      "MY DEAR FRIEND,
+
+      "I have received your letter, and this is my answer
+      to it. I can give you no very credible news in
+      writing, either about myself or the affairs of the
+      realm. A lover can do everything and sacrifice
+      everything, even to life itself, for his love. (You
+      will understand that this reference to love refers not
+      to me, a mournful widow, but to another mournful
+      widow, who is also your mother.) I do not judge men by
+      what they say, but by what they do. All the same, I
+      have every reason to think well of you, and I shall be
+      delighted if the future should justify my good opinion
+      of you.
+
+      "Your faithful servant,
+
+      "ILONA.
+
+      "P.S.--I shall spend midsummer at the baths of
+      Mehadia."
+
+The noble bridal retinue, merrily conversing, now returned from the
+chapel to the castle, the very sensible arrangement obtaining, that when
+the guests sat down to table each damsel was to be escorted to her seat
+by a selected cavalier known to be not displeasing to her. The only
+exceptions to this rule were the right reverend brigade, and Achmed
+Pasha and Feriz Beg, the two Turkish magnates present, whose grave
+dignity restrained them from participating in this innocent species of
+gallantry.
+
+First of all, as the representative of the Prince of Transylvania, came
+Emeric Toekoely, conducting the aged mother of the bridegroom, the
+Princess Ghyka; after him came Paul Beldi, leading the bride by the
+hand. Beldi's wife was escorted by the master of the house, and her
+pretty little golden-haired daughter Aranka hung upon her left arm.
+
+Feriz Beg was standing in the vestibule with a grave countenance till
+Aranka appeared. The little girl, on perceiving the youth, greeted him
+kindly, whereupon Feriz sighed deeply, and followed her. The bridegroom
+led the beautiful Flora Teleki by the hand.
+
+On reaching the great hall, the company broke up into groups, the
+merriest of which was that which included Flora, Mariska, and Aranka.
+
+"Be seated, ladies and gentlemen! be seated!" cried the strident voice
+of the host, who, full of proud self-satisfaction, ran hither and
+thither to see that all the guests were in the places assigned to them.
+Toekoely was by the side of Mariska, opposite to them sat the bridegroom,
+with Flora Teleki by his side. Aranka was the _vis-a-vis_ of Feriz Beg.
+
+The banquet began. The endless loving-cup went round, the faces of the
+guests grew ever cheerier, the bride conversed in whispers with her
+handsome neighbour. Opposite to them the bridegroom, with equal
+courtesy, exchanged from time to time a word with the fair Flora, but
+the conversation thus begun broke down continually, and yet both the
+lady and the prince were persons of culture, and had no lack of
+mother-wit. But their minds were far away. Their lips spoke
+unconsciously, and the Prince grew ever gloomier as he saw his bride
+plunging ever more deeply into the merry chatter of her gay companion,
+and try as he might to entertain his own partner, the resounding
+laughter of the happy pair opposite drove the smile from his face,
+especially when Flora also grew absolutely silent, so that the
+bridegroom was obliged, at last, to turn to the Patriarch, who was
+sitting on his right, and converse with him about terribly dull matters.
+
+Meanwhile, a couple of Servian musicians began, to the accompaniment of
+a zithern, to sing one of their sad, monotonous, heroic songs. All this
+time Achmed Pasha had never spoken a word, but now, fired by the juice
+of the grape mediatized by his sherbet-bowl, he turned towards the
+singers and, beckoning them towards him, said in a voice not unlike a
+growl:
+
+"Drop all that martial jumble and sing us instead something from one of
+our poets, something from Hariri the amorous, something from Gulestan!"
+
+At these words the face of Feriz Beg, who sat beside him, suddenly went
+a fiery red--why, he could not have told for the life of him.
+
+"Do you know 'The Lover's Complaint,' for instance?" inquired the Pasha
+of the musician.
+
+"I know the tune, but the verses have quite gone out of my head."
+
+"Oh! as to that, Feriz Beg here will supply you with the words quickly
+enough if you give him a piece of parchment and a pen."
+
+Feriz Beg was preparing to object, with the sole result that all the
+women were down upon him immediately, and begged and implored him for
+the beautiful song. So he surrendered, and, tucking up the long sleeve
+of his dolman, set the writing materials before him and began to write.
+
+They who drink no wine are nevertheless wont to be intoxicated by the
+glances of bright eyes, and Feriz, as he wrote, glanced from time to
+time at the fair face of Aranka, who cast down her forget-me-not eyes
+shamefacedly at his friendly smile. So Feriz Beg wrote the verses and
+handed them to the musicians, and then everyone bade his neighbour hush
+and listen with all his ears.
+
+The musician ran his fingers across the strings of his zithern, and then
+began to sing the song of the Turkish poet:
+
+   "Three lovely maidens I see, three maidens embracing each other;
+    Gentle, and burning, and bright--Sun, Moon, and Star I declare them.
+    Let others adore Sun and Moon, but give me my Star, my beloved!"
+
+   "When the Sun leaves the heavens, her adorers are whelmed in slumber;
+    When the Moon quits the sky, sleep falls on the eyes of her lovers.
+    But the fall of the Star is the death of the man who adores her--
+    And oh! if _my_ load-star doth fall, Machallah! I cease from the
+                                                                living!"
+
+General applause rewarded the song, which it was difficult to believe
+had not been made expressly for the occasion.
+
+"Who would think," said Paul Beldi to the Pasha, "that your people not
+only cut darts from reeds, but pens also, pens worthy of the poets of
+love?"
+
+"Oh!" replied Achmed, "in the hands of our poets, blades and harps are
+equally good weapons; and if they bound the laurel-wreath round the
+brows of Hariri it was only to conceal the wounds which he received in
+battle."
+
+When the banquet was over, Toekoely, with courteous affability, parted
+from his fair neighbour, whom he immediately saw disappear in a window
+recess, arm-in-arm with Flora. He himself made the circuit of the table
+in order that he might meet the fair Aranka, but was stopped in
+mid-career by his host, who was so full of compliments that by the time
+Toekoely reached the girl, he found her leaning on her mother's arm
+engaged in conversation with the Prince. Aranka, feeling herself out of
+danger when she had only a married man to deal with, had quite regained
+her childish gaiety, and was making merry with the bridegroom.
+
+Toekoely, with insinuating grace, wormed his way into the group, and
+gradually succeeded in so cornering the Prince, that he was obliged to
+confine his conversation to Dame Beldi, while Toekoely himself was
+fortunate enough to make Aranka laugh again and again at his droll
+sallies.
+
+The Prince was boiling over with venom, and was on the verge of
+forgetting himself and exploding with rage. Fortunately, Dame Beldi,
+observing in time the tension between the two men, curtseyed low to them
+both, and withdrew from the room with her daughter. Whereupon, the
+Prince seized Toekoely's hand, and said to him with choleric jocosity: "If
+your Excellency's own bride is not sufficient for you, will you at least
+be satisfied with throwing in mine, and do not try to sweep every girl
+you see into your butterfly-net?"
+
+Toekoely quite understood the bitter irony of these words, and replied,
+with a soft but offensively condescending smile: "My dear friend, your
+theory of life is erroneous. I see, from your face, that you are
+suffering from an overflow of bile. You have not had a purge lately, or
+been blooded for a long time."
+
+The Prince's face darkened. He squeezed Toekoely's hand convulsively, and
+murmured between his teeth:
+
+"One way is as good as another. When shall we settle this little
+affair?"
+
+Toekoely shrugged his shoulders. "To-morrow morning, if you like."
+
+"Very well, we'll meet by the cross."
+
+The two men had spoken so low that nobody in the whole company had
+noticed them, except Feriz Beg, who, although standing at the extreme
+end of the room with folded arms, had followed with his eagle eyes every
+play of feature, every motion of the lips of the whole group, including
+Dame Beldi and the girl, and who now, on observing the two men grasp
+each other's hands, and part from each other with significant looks,
+suddenly planted himself before them, and said simply: "Do you want to
+fight a duel because of Aranka?"
+
+"What a question?" said the Prince evasively.
+
+"It will not be a duel," said Feriz, "for there will be three of us
+there," and, with that, he turned away and departed.
+
+"How foolish these solemn men are," said Toekoely to himself, "they are
+always seeking sorrow for themselves. It would require only a single
+word to make them merry, and, in spite of all I do, they will go and
+spoil a joke. Why, such a duel as this--all three against each other,
+and each one against the other two--was unknown even to the famous Round
+Table and to the Courts of Love. It will be splendid."
+
+At that moment the courier, who had brought the letters, forced his way
+right up to Toekoely, and said that he had got two important despatches
+for him.
+
+"All right, keep them for me, I'll read them to-morrow. I won't spoil
+the day with tiresome business."
+
+And so he kept it up till late at night with the merriest of the topers.
+Only after midnight did he return to his room, and ordered the soldier
+who had brought the letters to wake him as soon as he saw the red dawn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THREE MEN.
+
+
+Toekoely's servant durst not go to sleep on the off-chance of awaking at
+dawn in order to arouse his master, and so the sky had scarcely begun to
+grow grey when he routed him up. Emeric hastily dressed himself. A sort
+of ill-humour on his pale face was the sole reminder of the previous
+night's debauch.
+
+"Here are the letters, sir," said the soldier.
+
+"Leave me in peace with your letters," returned Emeric roughly, "I have
+no time now to read your scribble. Go down and saddle my horse for me,
+and tell the coachman to make haste and get the carriage ready, and have
+it waiting for me near the cross at the slope of the hill, and find out
+on your way down whether the old master of the house is up yet."
+
+The soldier pocketed the letter once more, and went down grumbling
+greatly, while Emeric buckled on his sword and threw his pelisse over
+his shoulders. Soon after the soldier returned and announced that Master
+Michael had been up long ago, because many of his guests had to depart
+before dawn, amongst them the Prince, also the Turkish gentleman; the
+bride was to follow them in the afternoon.
+
+"Good," said Emeric; "let the coachman wait for me in front of the
+Dragmuili _csarda_.[4] You had better bring with you some cold meat and
+wine, and we'll have breakfast on the way." And with that he hastened
+to the father of the bride, who, after embracing him heartily and
+repeatedly, with a great flux of tears, and kissing him again and again,
+and sending innumerable greetings through him to every eminent
+Transylvanian gentleman, took an affectionate leave of him.
+
+     [Footnote 4: An inn.]
+
+Toekoely hastened to bestride his horse on hearing that his adversaries
+had been a little beforehand with him, and, putting spurs to his horse,
+galloped rapidly away. Master Michael looked after him in amazement so
+long as he could see him racing along the steep, hilly way, till he
+disappeared among the woods. A soldier followed him at a considerable
+distance.
+
+Emeric, on reaching the cross, found his adversaries there already.
+Feriz Beg had brought with him Achmed Pasha's field-surgeon. Toekoely had
+only thought of breakfast, the Prince had thought of nothing.
+
+"Good morning," cried the Count, leaping from his horse. The Beg
+returned his salute with a solemn obeisance; the Prince turned his back
+upon him.
+
+"Let us go into the forest to find a nice clear space," said Toekoely; and
+off he set in silence, leading the way, while the soldiers followed at
+some distance, leading the horses by the bridles.
+
+After going about a hundred yards they came to a clear space, surrounded
+by some fine ash-trees. The Prince signified to the soldiers to stop
+here, and, without a word, began to take off his dolman and mantle and
+tuck up his sleeves.
+
+It was a fine sight to behold these men--all three of them were
+remarkably handsome fellows. The Prince was one of those vigorous,
+muscular shapes, whom Nature herself seems specially to have created to
+head a host. As he rolled up the flapping sleeves of his
+gold-embroidered, calf-skin shirt, he displayed muscles capable of
+holding their own single-handed against a whole brigade, and the defiant
+look of his eye testified to his confidence in the strength of his arms,
+whose every muscle stood out like a hard tumour, while his fists were
+worthy of the heavy broadsword, whose blade was broadest towards its
+point.
+
+Feriz Beg, on discarding his dolman, rolled up the sleeves of his fine
+shirt of Turkish linen to his shoulders, and drew from its sheath his
+fine Damascus scimitar, which was scarce two inches broad, and so
+flexible that you could have bent it double in every direction like a
+watch-spring. His arms did not seem to be over-encumbered with muscles,
+but at the first movement he made, as he lightly tested his blade, a
+whole array of steel springs and stone-hard sinews, or so they seemed to
+be, suddenly started up upon his arm, revealing a whole network of
+highly-developed sinews and muscles. His face was fixed and grave.
+
+Only Emeric seemed to take the whole affair as a light joke. With a
+smile he drew up his lace-embroidered shirt of holland linen, bound up
+his hair beneath his kalpag, and folded his well-rounded arms, whose
+feminine whiteness, plastic, regular symmetry, and slender proportions,
+gave no promise whatever of anything like manly strength. His sword came
+from a famous Newcastle arms manufactory, and was made of a certain
+dark, lilac-coloured steel, somewhat bent, and with a very fine point.
+
+"My friends," said Emeric, turning towards his opponents, "as there are
+three of us in this contest, and each one of the three must fight the
+other two, let us lay down some rule to regulate the encounter."
+
+"I'll fight the pair of you together," said the Prince haughtily.
+
+"I'll also fight one against two," retorted Feriz.
+
+"Then each one for himself and everybody against everybody else,"
+explained Toekoely. "That will certainly be amusing enough; in fact, a new
+sort of encounter altogether, though hardly what gentlemen are used to.
+Now, I should consider it much nobler if we fought against each other
+singly, and when one of us falls, the victor can renew the combat with
+the man in reserve."
+
+"I don't mind, only the sooner the better," said the Prince
+impatiently, and took up his position on the ground.
+
+"Stop, my friend; don't you know that we cannot commence this contest
+without Feriz?"
+
+"Pooh! I didn't come here as a spectator," cried the Prince
+passionately; "besides, I have nothing to do with the Beg."
+
+"But I have to do with you," interrupted Feriz.
+
+"Well," said Toekoely, "I myself do not know what has offended him, but he
+chose to intervene, and such challenges as his are wont to be accepted
+without asking the reason why. No doubt he has private reasons of his
+own."
+
+"You may stop there," interrupted Feriz. "Let Fate decide."
+
+"By all means," observed the Count, drawing forth three pieces of money
+impressed with the image of King Sigismund--a gold coin, a silver coin,
+and a copper coin--and handed them to the Turkish leech. "Take these
+pieces of money, my worthy fellow, and throw them into the air. The gold
+coin is the Prince, the copper coin is myself. Whichever two of the
+three coins come down on the same side, their representatives will fight
+first."
+
+The leech flung the pieces into the air, and the gold and silver pieces
+came down on the same side.
+
+The Prince beckoned angrily to Feriz.
+
+"Come, the sooner the better. Apparently I must have this little affair
+off my hands before I can get at Toekoely."
+
+Toekoely motioned to the leech to keep the pieces of money and have his
+bandages ready.
+
+"Bandages!" said the Prince ironically. "It's not first blood, but last
+blood, I'm after."
+
+And now the combatants stood face to face.
+
+For a long time they looked into each other's eyes, as if they would
+begin the contest with the darts of flashing glances, and then suddenly
+they fell to.
+
+The Prince's onset was as furious as if he would have crushed his
+opponent in the twinkling of an eye with the heavy and violent blows
+which he rained upon him with all his might. But Feriz Beg stood firmly
+on the self-same spot where he had first planted his feet, and though he
+was obliged to bend backwards a little to avoid the impact of the
+terrible blows, yet his slender Damascus scimitar, wove, as it were, a
+tent of lightning flashes all around him, defending him on every side,
+and flashing sparks now hither, now thither, whenever it encountered the
+antagonistic broadsword.
+
+The Prince's face was purple with rage. "Miserable puppy!" he thundered,
+gnashing his teeth; and, pressing still closer on his opponent, he dealt
+him two or three such terrible blows that the Beg was beaten down upon
+one knee, and, the same instant, a jet of blood leaped suddenly from
+somewhere into the face of the Prince, who thereupon staggered back and
+let fall his sword. In the heat of the duel he had not noticed that he
+had been wounded. Whilst raining down a torrent of violent blows upon
+his antagonist, he incautiously struck his own hand, so to speak, on the
+sword of Feriz Beg, just below the palm where the arteries are, and the
+wound which severed the sinews of the wrist constrained him to drop his
+sword.
+
+Toekoely at once rushed forward.
+
+"You are wounded, Prince!" he cried.
+
+The leech hastened forward with the bandages, the dark red blood spurted
+from the severed arteries like a fountain, and the Prince's face grew
+pale in an instant. But scarcely had the surgeon bound up his wounded
+right hand than his eye kindled again, and, turning to Emeric, he cried:
+"I have still a hand left, and I can fight with it. Put my sword into my
+left hand, and I'll fight to the last drop of my blood."
+
+"Don't be impatient, Prince," said Emeric courteously; "ill-luck is your
+enemy to-day, but as soon as you are cured you may command me, and I
+will be at your service."
+
+The Prince, who was already tottering, leaned heavily on his soldiers,
+who hastened towards him and conveyed him half unconscious to the
+carriage awaiting him. His wound was much worse than it had seemed at
+first, and there was no knowing whether it would not prove mortal.
+
+Only two combatants now remained in the field--Emeric and Feriz. The Beg
+was still standing in his former place, and beckoned in dumb show to
+Emeric to come on.
+
+"Pardon me, my worthy comrade," said the Count, "you are a little
+fatigued, and a combat between us would be unfair if I, who have rested,
+should fight with you now. Come, plump down on the grass for a little
+beside me. My man has brought some cold provisions for the journey; let
+us have a few mouthfuls together first, and then we can fight it out at
+our ease."
+
+This nonchalant proposal seemed to please Feriz, and, leaning his sword
+against a tree, he sat down in the grass, whilst Emeric's servant
+unpacked the cold meat and the fruit which he had brought for his
+master, together with a silver calabash-shaped flask full of wine.
+
+Emeric returned the flask to the soldier. "Look you, my son," said he,
+"you can drink the wine, and then fill the flask with spring water, for
+Feriz Beg does not drink wine, and there are no other drinking utensils;
+I, therefore, will also drink water, and so we shall be equal." Feriz
+Beg was pleased with his comrade's free and easy behaviour, took
+willingly of the food piled up before him, and not only drank out of the
+same flask, but even answered questions when they were put to him.
+
+A faint scar was visible on the forehead of the young Beg, which the
+fold of his turban did not quite conceal.
+
+"Did you get that wound from a Magyar?" inquired the Count.
+
+"No, from an Italian, on the isle of Candia."
+
+"I thought so at once. A Magyar does not cut with the point of his
+sword. I see the hand of an Italian fencing-master in it. I can even
+tell you the position you were in when you received it. The enemy was
+beside you, in front of you, on your right hand, and on your left. Now
+you employed that masterly circular stroke which you have just now
+displayed, whereby you can defend yourself on all sides at once. Then
+the foe in front of you suddenly rose in his saddle, and with a blow
+which you did not completely ward off, scarred your forehead with the
+point of his sword."
+
+"It was just like that."
+
+"It is one of the master-strokes of Basanella, and very carefully you
+have to watch it, for there is scarce any defence against it; the sword
+seems to strike up and down in the same instant, as if it were a sickle,
+and however high you may hold your own sword, the blow breaks through
+your defence. There is, indeed, only one defence against it, and that
+the simplest in the world--dodge back your head."
+
+"You are quite right," said Feriz Beg smiling, and after washing his
+hands, he again took up his sword, "let us make an end of it."
+
+"I don't mind," said Toekoely; and lightly drawing his own sword with his
+delicate white hand, just as if it were a gewgaw which he was
+disengaging from its case to present to a lady, he took up his position
+on the ground.
+
+"Just one word more," said Toekoely with friendly candour. "When you fight
+with a single opponent, do not rush forward as if you were on a
+battlefield and had to do with ten men at least, for in so doing you
+expend much force uselessly, and allow your opponent to come up closer;
+rather elongate your sword and allow only your hand to play freely."
+
+"I thank you for the advice," said Feriz smiling. Had it been anybody
+else he would probably have thrust back the advice into his face. But
+Emeric imparted it to him with such a friendly, comrade-like voice as
+if they had only come there for the fun of the thing.
+
+Then the combat began. Feriz Beg, with his usual impetuosity, pressed
+upon his adversary as if he would pay him back his amicable counsels in
+kind; while Toekoely calmly, composedly smiling, flung back the most
+violent assaults of his rival as if it were a mere sport to him, so
+lightly, so confidently did his sword turn in his hand, with so much
+finished grace did he accompany every movement--in fact, he hardly
+seemed to make any exertion. The most violent blows aimed at him by
+Feriz Beg he parried with the lightest twist of his sword, and not once
+did he counter, so that at last Feriz Beg, involuntarily overcome by
+rage, fell back and lowered his sword.
+
+"You are only playing with me. Why don't you strike back?"
+
+"Twice you might have received from me Basanella's master-stroke, so
+impetuously do you fight."
+
+In a duel nothing is so wounding as the supercilious self-restraint of
+an opponent. Feriz Beg grew quite furious at Toekoely's cold repose, and
+flung himself upon his opponent as if absolutely beside himself.
+
+"Let us see whether you are the Devil or not," he cried.
+
+At the same instant, when he had advanced a pace nearer to Toekoely, the
+latter suddenly stretched forth his sword and at the instant when he
+parried his opponent's blow, he made a scarce perceptible backward and
+upward jerk with the point of his sword, and at that same instant a
+burning red line was visible on the temples of Feriz Beg. The young Turk
+lowered his sword in surprise as his face, immediately after the
+unnoticed stroke, began to bleed. Toekoely flung away his sword and,
+tearing out his white pocket-handkerchief, rushed suddenly towards his
+opponent, stanched the wound with the liveliest sympathy, and said, in a
+voice tremulous with the most naive apprehension: "Look now! didn't I
+tell you all along to watch for that stroke?"
+
+By this time the leech had also come up with the bandages, and examining
+the wound, observed consolingly:
+
+"A soldierly affair. Only the skin is pierced. In three days you will be
+all right."
+
+Toekoely, full of joy, pressed the hand of Feriz Beg.
+
+"Henceforth we will be good friends," said he. "Before God, I protest I
+never gave you the slightest cause of offence."
+
+"I shall rejoice in your friendship," said Feriz solemnly, "but if you
+wish it to last, listen to my words: never approach a girl whom you do
+not love in order to make her love you, and if you are loved, love in
+return and make her happy."
+
+"You have my word of honour on it, Feriz," replied Toekoely. "Of all the
+girls whom I have seen since I knew you, not one of them have I loved,
+and by none of them do I want to be loved."
+
+Feriz Beg could not refrain from shaking his head and smiling.
+
+"Apparently you forget that your own bride was among them."
+
+Toekoely bit his lips in some confusion, and answered nothing; he thought
+it best to pass off this slip of the tongue as a mere jest. Then the two
+reconciled antagonists embraced and returned to the roadside cross.
+Toekoely constrained the Beg to take his coach and go on to Ibraila, while
+he himself mounted his horse, and taking leave of Feriz, took the road
+leading to the Pass of Bozza.
+
+The soldier-courier now fancied it was high time that the urgent
+letters, of which he was the bearer, should be read, and accordingly
+asked his master about it.
+
+"Well, where are your two letters?" asked the Count very languidly.
+
+"There are not two, sir, but three."
+
+"What! have they multiplied?"
+
+"Miss Flora gave me the third half an hour before she took coach to go
+home."
+
+"Then she has gone on before, eh? Well, let us see what they write
+about."
+
+Teleki's was the first letter which Emeric perused; he glanced through
+it rapidly, as if it had no very great claim upon his attention. When he
+came to that part of it where he was told to look after Flora, he paused
+for a little. "Well, I can easily overtake her," he thought, and he took
+the second letter, which was subscribed with the name of Helen. Twice he
+perused it, and then he returned to it a third time, and his face grew
+visibly redder. Involuntarily he sighed as he thrust the letter into his
+breast pocket just above his heart, and looked sadly in front of him, as
+if he were listening to the beating of his own heart.
+
+Then he broke open the third letter.
+
+It contained an engagement ring, nothing else. That was all--not a
+single accompanying word or letter.
+
+For an instant Emeric held it in his hand in blank amazement; his steed
+stopped also. For some minutes his face was pale and his head hung down.
+
+But in another instant he was again upright in his saddle, and he
+exclaimed in a voice loud enough to be heard afar:
+
+"Well, it's not coming off then, so much the better!"
+
+Then he threw away the envelope in which the ring had been, and drawing
+out the letter which he had thrust into his bosom, he put the ring into
+it and then returned it to his bosom; then, with a glowing face, he
+turned his horse's head and, in the best of humours, called to his
+soldier: "We will not go to Transylvania. Back to Mehadia!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AFFAIRS OF STATE.
+
+
+The year was a few weeks older since we saw Toekoely depart from Rumnik,
+after reading the three letters, and behold, Michael Teleki still
+lingered at Gyulafehervar, and had _not_ gone with the Transylvanian
+forces to Deva.
+
+He had been feeling ill for some days, and had not been able to leave
+his room. A slow fever tormented his limbs, his face had lost its
+colour, he was hardly able to hold himself up, and every joint ached
+whenever he moved. He had need of repose, but not a single moment could
+he have to himself, and just when he would have liked to have shown the
+door to every worry and bother, the Prince at one moment, and the
+Turkish Ambassador at another, were continually pressing their affairs
+upon him.
+
+At that moment his crony Nalaczi was with him, standing at the window,
+while Teleki sat in an arm-chair. All his members were shaken by the
+ague, his breath was burning hot, his face was as pale as wax, and he
+could scarce keep his lips together.
+
+By his chair stood his page--young Cserei--whilst huddled up in a corner
+on one side was a scarce visible figure which clung close to the wall
+with as miserable, shamefaced an expression as if it would have liked to
+crawl right into it and be hidden. What with the darkness and its own
+miserableness, we should scarce recognise this shape if Teleki did not
+chance to give it a name, railing at it, from time to time, as if it
+were a lifeless log, without even looking at it, for, in truth, his back
+was turned upon it.
+
+"I tell you, Master Szenasi, you are an infinitely useless
+blockhead----"
+
+"I humbly beg----"
+
+"Don't beg anything. Here have I, worse luck, been entrusting you with a
+small commission, in order that you might impart some wholesome
+information to the people, and instead of that you go and fool them with
+all sorts of old wives' stories."
+
+"Begging your Excellency's pardon, I thought----"
+
+"Thought? What business had you to think? You thought, perhaps, you were
+doing me a service with your nonsense, eh?"
+
+"Mr. Nalaczi said as much, your Excellency."
+
+Mr. Nalaczi seemed to be sitting on thorns all this while.
+
+"Now just see what a big fool you are," interrupted Teleki. "Mr. Nalaczi
+_may_ have told you, for what I know, that it might be well for you to
+use your influence with the common people by mentioning before them the
+wonders which have recently taken place, and thereby encouraging them to
+be loyal and friendly to each other, but I am sure he did not tell you
+to manufacture wonders on your own account, and terrify the people by
+spreading abroad rumours of coming war."
+
+"I thought----" Here he stopped short, the worthy man was quite
+incapable at that moment of completing his sentence.
+
+"Thought! You thought, I suppose, that just as I was collecting armies,
+you would do me a great service by preaching war? So far as I am
+concerned, I should like to see every sword buried in the earth."
+
+"Begging your Excellency's pardon----"
+
+"Get out of my sight. Never let me see you again. In three days you must
+leave Transylvania, or else I'll send you out, and you won't thank me
+for that."
+
+"May I humbly ask what I am to do if your Excellency withdraws your
+favour from me?" whined the fellow.
+
+"You may do as you like. Go to Szathmar and become the lacquey of Baron
+Kopp, or the scribe of Master Kaszonyi. I'm just going to write to them.
+I'll mention your name in my letter, and you can take it."
+
+"And if they won't accept me?"
+
+"Then you must tack on to someone else, anyhow you shan't starve. Only
+get out of my sight as quickly as possible."
+
+The "magister" withdrew in fear and trembling, wiping his eyes with his
+pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"Sir," said Nalaczi, when they were alone together, "this violence does
+harm."
+
+"The only way with such fellows is to bully them whatever they do, for
+they are deceivers and traitors at heart, and would otherwise do you
+mischief. Kick and beat them, chivy them from pillar to post, and make
+them feel how wretched their lot is, if you don't want them to play off
+their tricks upon you."
+
+"I don't see it in that light. This irritability will do you no good."
+
+"On the contrary it keeps me up. If I had not always given vent to my
+feelings I should have been lying on a sick-bed long ago. Take these few
+thalers, go after that good-for-nothing, and tell him that I am very
+angry with him, and therefore he must try in future to deserve my
+confidence better, in which case I shall not forget him. Tell him to
+wait in the gate for the letter I am about to write, and when once he
+has it in his hand let him get out of Transylvania as speedily as he
+can. Remind him that I don't yet know about what happened in the square
+at Klausenberg, and if I did know I would have him flogged out of the
+realm; so let him look sharp about it."
+
+Nalaczi laughed and went out.
+
+Teleki sank back exhausted on his pillows, and made his page rub the
+back of his neck violently with a piece of flannel.
+
+At that instant the Prince entered. His face was wrath, and all because
+of his sympathy. He began scolding Teleki on the very threshold.
+
+"Why don't you lie down when I command you? Does it beseem a grown-up
+man like you to be as disobedient as a capricious child? Why don't you
+send for the doctor; why don't you be blooded?"
+
+"There is nothing the matter with me, your Highness. It is only a little
+_haemorrhoidalis alteratio_. I am used to it. It always plagues me at the
+approach of the equinoxes."
+
+"Ai, ai, Michael Teleki, you don't get over me. You are very ill, I tell
+you. Your mental anxiety has brought about this physical trouble. Does
+it become a Christian man, I ask, to take on so because my little friend
+Flora cannot have one particular man out of fifteen wooers, and a fellow
+like Emeric, too--a mere dry stick of a man."
+
+"I don't give it any particular importance."
+
+"You are a bad Christian, I tell you, if you say that. You love neither
+God nor man; neither your family, nor me----"
+
+"Sir!" said Teleki, in a supplicating voice.
+
+"For if you did love us, you would spare yourself and lie down, and not
+get up again till you were quite well again."
+
+"But if I lie down----"
+
+"Yes, I know--other things will have a rest too. The bottom of the world
+isn't going to fall out, I suppose, because you keep your bed for a day
+or two. Come! look sharp! I will not go till I see you lying on your
+bed."
+
+What could Teleki do but lie down at the express command of his
+Sovereign.
+
+"And you won't get up again without my permission, mind," said the
+Prince, signalling to young Cserei, and addressing the remainder of his
+discourse to him. "And you, young man, take care that your master does
+not leave his bed, do you hear? I command it, and, till he is quite
+well, don't let him do any hard work, whether it be reading, writing, or
+dictation. You have my authorisation to prevent it, and you must
+rigorously do your duty. You will also allow nobody to enter this room,
+except the doctor and the members of the family. Now, mind what I say!
+As for you, Master Teleki, you will wrap yourself well up and get
+yourself well rubbed all over the body with a woollen cloth, clap a
+mustard poultice on your neck and keep it there as long as you can bear
+it, and towards evening have a hot bath, with salt and bran in it; and
+if you won't have a vein opened put six leeches on your temples, and the
+doctor will tell you what else to do. And in any case don't fail to take
+some of these _pilulae de cynoglosso_. Their effect is infallible."
+Whereupon the Prince pressed into Teleki's hand a box full of those
+harmless medicaments which, under the name of dog's-tongue pills, were
+then the vogue in all domestic repositories.
+
+"All will be well, your Highness."
+
+"Let us hope so! Towards evening I will come and see you again."
+
+And then the Prince withdrew with an air of satisfaction, thinking that
+he had given the fellow a good frightening.
+
+Scarce had he closed the door behind him than Teleki beckoned to Cserei
+to bring him the letters which had just arrived.
+
+The page regarded him dubiously. "The Prince forbade me to do so," he
+observed conscientiously.
+
+"The Prince loves to have his joke," returned the counsellor. "I like my
+joke, too, when I've time for it. Break open those letters and read them
+to me."
+
+"But what will the Prince say?"
+
+"It is I who command you, my son, not the Prince. Read them, I say, and
+don't mind if you hear me groan."
+
+Cserei looked at the seal of one of the letters and durst not break it
+open.
+
+"Your Excellency, that is a _secretum sigillum_."
+
+"Break it open like a man, I say. Such secrets are not dangerous to you;
+you are a child to be afraid of such things."
+
+Cserei opened the letter, and glancing at the signature, stammered in a
+scarce audible voice: "Leopoldus."[5]
+
+     [Footnote 5: _i.e._ the Emperor Leopold.]
+
+Teleki, resting on his elbows, listened attentively.
+
+      "YOUR HIGHNESS AND MY WELL-DISPOSED FRIEND--I have
+      heard from Baron Mendenzi Kopp and worthy Master
+      Kaszonyi of your Excellency's good dispositions
+      towards me and Christendom, and your readiness to help
+      in the present disturbances. All my own efforts will
+      be directed to the preservation of the rights and
+      liberties of the Christian Princes, so that there may
+      not be the slightest occasion that the Turkish War
+      should extend, and that the whole power of the Ottoman
+      Empire should be hurled on me and my dominions. But I
+      hope that the fury of these barbarians, by the
+      combination of the foreign kings and princes, shall,
+      with God's assistance, be so opposed and thwarted as
+      to make them turn back from the league of the combined
+      faithful hosts. Meanwhile, I assure your Excellency
+      and the Estates of Transylvania of my protection, so
+      long as you continue well-disposed towards me, and I
+      entrust the maintenance of this good understanding
+      between us to Messrs. the illustrious Baron Kopp and
+      the Honourable Mr. Kaszonyi. Wishing your Excellency
+      good health and all manner of good fortune, etc.,
+      etc."
+
+Cserei looked at the doors and windows in terror, for fear someone might
+be listening.
+
+"And now let us read the second letter."
+
+Cserei's top-knot regularly began to sweat when he recognised at the
+bottom of the opened letter the signature of the Grand Vizier, who thus
+wrote to the Prince:
+
+      "MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE, HEARTY LOVE AND
+      GREETING!--We would inform thee of our grace and
+      favour that we have sent a part of our army to the
+      assistance of the imprisoned heroes in our most mighty
+      master the Sultan's fortress of Nyitra, where the
+      faithless foe are besieging them. It is therefore
+      necessary that thou with thy whole host and all the
+      necessary muniments of war should hasten thither
+      without loss of time, so as to unite both in heart and
+      deed with our warriors, who are on their way against
+      the enemy. We believe that by the grace of God thou
+      wilt be ready to render useful service to the mighty
+      Sultan, and so be entitled to participate in his
+      favour and liberality. We, moreover, after the end of
+      the solemn feast days which we are wont to keep after
+      our fasts are over, will follow our advance guards
+      with our countless hosts, and thou meanwhile must
+      manfully take this business in hand, so that thy
+      loyalty may shine the more gloriously in martial
+      deeds. Peace be to those who are in the obedience of
+      God."
+
+Poor Cserei, when he had read this letter through, had a worse fit of
+ague than his master. He anxiously watched the face of the statesman,
+but the only thing visible in his features was bodily suffering. There
+was no sign of mental disturbance.
+
+The blood flew to his face, the veins were throbbing visibly in his
+temples.
+
+"Come hither, my son," he said in a scarcely audible voice; "bring me a
+glass of water, put into it as much rhubarb powder as would go on the
+edge of a knife, and give it me to drink."
+
+Cserei fancied that the sick Premier had not mastered the contents of
+the letter because of a fresh access of fever, and, having prepared the
+rhubarb water in a few moments, gave it him to drink, whereupon Teleki
+crouched down beneath his coverlet. He could have done nothing better,
+for now the ague burst forth again, so that he regularly shivered
+beneath its attack. Cserei wanted to run for a doctor.
+
+"Whither are you going?" asked Teleki. "Fetch ink and parchment, and
+write."
+
+The lad obeyed his command marvelling.
+
+"Bring hither the round table and sit down beside it. Write what I tell
+you."
+
+The pen shook in the lad's hand, and he kept dipping it into the sand
+instead of into the ink.
+
+Teleki, in a broken voice, dictated a letter as well as the fever would
+allow him.
+
+      "MOST EXALTED GRAND VIZIER AND WELL-BELOVED SIR,--We
+      learn from your Highness's dispatch that the armies of
+      the Sublime Sultan who have lately been besieging the
+      fortress of Nyitra are now endeavouring to combine
+      their forces, and though this realm has but a meagre
+      possession of the muniments of war remaining to it, we
+      shall be prepared most punctually to hold at your
+      Highness's gracious disposition as much, though it be
+      but little, forage, hay, and other necessary stores as
+      we still possess, you making allowance for all
+      inevitable defects and shortcomings. Moreover, rumour
+      has it that the hostile hosts are beginning to show
+      themselves on the borders of Transylvania, which
+      irruption, though it be no secret, is yet to be
+      confirmed, and should it be so we must meet it with
+      all our attention and energy. As to this your Highness
+      shall be informed in good time, and in the meanwhile
+      we commit you to God's gracious favour, etc., etc."
+
+Cserei sighed and thought to himself: "I wonder whence all the hay and
+oats is to come?"
+
+But Teleki knew very well that in consequence of last year's bad
+harvests and inundations the Turkish army was suffering severely from
+want of hay, so that what with him was an occasion for delay, with them
+was an occasion for hurrying--whence we may draw the reflection that the
+great events of this world are built upon haycocks!
+
+"Address the second letter," continued Teleki, "to his Excellency Baron
+Mendenzi Kopp and to the honourable Achatius Kaszonyi, commandants of
+the fortress of Szathmar," and he thus went on dictating to Cserei,
+whilst in the intervals of silence the groans which the ague forced from
+his breast were distinctly audible.
+
+      "With joy we learn of the intention of your Honours to
+      endeavour to seize one of the gates of entrance of the
+      enemy of our faith, through which he was always ready
+      to come for our destruction. May the God of mercy
+      forward the designs of your Excellencies. If, on this
+      occasion, your Excellencies could also find time to
+      make a feigned attack upon Transylvania in order to
+      give us a reasonable excuse of our inability to lend
+      the Turks the assistance they expect from us, you
+      would make matters easier for us, and render us an
+      essential service. On the other hand, if we should be
+      compelled against our wills to send our soldiers
+      against the Christian camp, in conjunction with the
+      enemies of our faith, we assure your Excellencies that
+      our host will be a purely nominal one, etc., etc.
+
+      "P.S.--The bearer of this letter can be employed by
+      your Excellencies as a courier or otherwise."
+
+Cserei looked with amazement at the man in whom mental vivacity seemed
+to rise triumphant even over the lassitude of fever.
+
+"Take a third sheet of paper, and address it to the Honourable Ladislaus
+Ebeni, Lieutenant-Governor of the fortress of Klausenburg.
+
+      "We hasten to inform your Honour that preparations are
+      being made by the Commandant of the fortress of
+      Szathmar, which leads us to conjecture that he
+      meditates making an irruption into Transylvania. It
+      may, of course, be merely a feint, but your Honour
+      would do well to be prepared and under arms, lest he
+      have designs against us, and is not merely making a
+      noise. We, meanwhile, will postpone the advance of our
+      arms into Hungary, lest, while we are attacking on one
+      side, we leave Transylvania defenceless on the other.
+      Once more we counsel your Honour to use the utmost
+      caution, etc."
+
+"And now take these letters and carry them to the Prince, that he may
+sign them."
+
+"And what if he box my ears for allowing your Excellency to dictate?"
+said the frightened lad.
+
+"Never mind it, my son, you will have suffered for your country. I, too,
+have had buffets enough in my time, not only when I was a child, but
+since I have grown up." And with that he turned his face towards the
+wall and pulled the coverlet over him.
+
+Fortunately Cserei found Apafi in the apartment of the consort, and thus
+avoided the box on the ear, got the letters signed, and dispatched them
+all in different directions, so that all three got into the proper hands
+in the shortest conceivable time. And now let us see the result.
+
+The Grand Vizier blasphemed when he had read his, and swore emphatically
+that if there were no hay in Transylvania he would make hay of their
+Excellencies.
+
+Baron Kopp and Mr. Kaszonyi chuckled together over _their_ letter. The
+Commandant murmured gruffly: "I don't care, so you needn't."
+
+Mr. Ebeni, however, on reading his letter, deposited it neatly among the
+public archives, growling angrily:
+
+"If I were to call the people to arms at every wild alarm or idle
+rumour, I should have nothing else to do all day long. It is a pity that
+Teleki hasn't something better to do than to bother me continually with
+his scribble."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE DAY OF GROSSWARDEIN.
+
+
+In order that the horizon may stand clearly before us, it must be said
+that in those days there were two important points in Hungary on the
+Transylvanian border: Grosswardein and Szathmar-Nemeti, which might be
+called the gates of Transylvania--good places of refuge if their keys
+are in the hand of the Realm, but all the more dangerous when the hands
+of strangers dispose of them.
+
+At this very time a German army was investing Szathmar and the Turks had
+sat down before Grosswardein, and the plumed helmets of the former were
+regarded as as great a menace on the frontiers of the state as the
+half-moons themselves.
+
+The inhabitants of the regions enclosed between these fortresses never
+could tell by which road they were to expect the enemy to come. For in
+such topsy-turvy days as those were, every armed man was an enemy, from
+whom corn, cattle, and pretty women had to be hidden away, and their
+friendship cost as much as their enmity, and perhaps more; for if they
+found out at Szathmar that some nice wagon-loads of corn and hay had
+been captured from local marauders without first beating their brains
+out, the magistrates would look in next day and impose a penalty; and
+again, on the other hand, if it were known at Grosswardein that the
+Szathmarians had been received hospitably at any gentleman's house, and
+the daughter of the house had spoken courteously to them, the Turks
+would wait until the Szathmarians had gone farther on and would then
+fall upon the house in question and burn it to the ground, so that the
+Szathmarians should not be able to sleep there again; and, as for the
+daughter of the house, they would carry her off to a harem, in order to
+save her from any further discoursing with the magistrates of Szathmar.
+
+And, last of all, there was a third enemy to be reckoned with, and this
+was the countless rabble of _betyars_, or freebooters, who inhabited the
+whole region from the marshes of Ecsed to the morasses of Alibuner, and
+who gave no reason at all for driving off their neighbour's herds and
+even destroying his houses.
+
+In those days a certain Feri Koekenyesdi had won renown as a robber
+chieftain, and extraordinary, marvellous tales were told in every
+village and on every _puszta_[6] of him and the twelve robbers who
+followed his banner, and who were ready at a word to commit the most
+incredible audacities. People talked of their entrenched fortresses
+among the Belabora and Alibuner marshes which were inaccessible to any
+mortal foe, and in which, even if surrounded on all sides, they could
+hold out against five regiments till the day of judgment. Then there
+were tales of storehouses concealed among the Cumanian sand-hills which
+could only be discovered by the scent of a horse; there were tales of a
+good steed who, after one watering, could gallop all the way from the
+Theiss to the Danube, who could recognise a foe two thousand paces off,
+and would neigh if his master were asleep or fondling his sweetheart in
+the tavern; there were tales of the gigantic strength of the robber
+chief who could tackle ten _pandurs_[7] at once, and who, whenever he
+was pursued, could cause a sea to burst forth between himself and his
+pursuers, so that they would be compelled to turn back.
+
+     [Footnote 6: Common.]
+
+     [Footnote 7: Police officers.]
+
+As a matter of fact, Mr. Koekenyesdi was neither a giant who turned men
+round his little finger nor a magician who threw dust in their eyes, but
+an honest-looking, undersized, meagre figure of a man and a citizen of
+Hodmezoe-Vasarhely, in which place he had a house and a couple of farms,
+on which he conscientiously paid his portion of taxes; and he had bulls
+and stallions, as to every one of which he was able to prove where he
+had bought and how much he had paid for it. Not one of them was stolen.
+
+Yet everyone knew very well that neither his farms nor his bulls nor his
+stallions had been acquired in a godly way, and that the famous robber
+chief whose rumour filled every corner of the land was none other than
+he.
+
+But who could prove it? Had anybody ever seen him steal? Had he ever
+been caught red-handed? Did he not always defend himself in the most
+brilliant manner whenever he was accused? When there was a rumour that
+Koekenyesdi was plundering the county of Marmaros from end to end, did he
+not produce five or six eye-witnesses to prove that at that very time he
+was ploughing and sowing on his farms, and was not the judge at great
+pains to discover whether these witnesses were reliable?
+
+Those who visited him at his native place of Vasarhely found him to be a
+respected, worthy, well-to-do man, who tossed his own hay till the very
+palm of his hand sweated, while those who sought for Koekenyesdi on the
+confines of the realm never saw his face at all; it was indeed a very
+tiresome business to pursue him. That man was a brave fellow indeed who
+did not feel his heart beat quicker when he followed his track through
+the pathless morasses and the crooked sand-hills of the interminable
+_puszta_. And if two or three counties united to capture him, he would
+let himself be chased to the borders of the fourth county, and when he
+had leaped across it would leisurely dismount and beneath the very eyes
+of his pursuers, loose his horse to graze and lie down beside it on his
+_bunda_[8]--for there was the Turkish frontier, and he knew very well
+that beyond Lippa they durst not pursue him, for there the Pasha of
+Temesvar held sway.
+
+     [Footnote 8: Sheepskin mantle.]
+
+Now, at this time there was among the garrison of Szathmar a captain
+named Ladislaus Rakoczy. The Rakoczy family, after Helen Zrinyi's
+husband had turned papist, for the most part were brought up at Vienna,
+and many of them held commissions in the Imperial army. Ladislaus
+Rakoczy likewise became a captain of musketeers, and as the greater part
+of his company consisted of Hungarian lads, it was not surprising if the
+Prince of Transylvania, on the other hand, kept German regiments to
+garrison his towns and accompany him whithersoever he went. It chanced
+that this Ladislaus Rakoczy, who was a very handsome, well-shaped, and
+good-hearted youth, fell in love with Christina, the daughter of Adam
+Rhedey, who dwelt at Rekas; and as the girl's father agreed to the
+match, he frequently went over from Szathmar to see his _fiancee_,
+accompanied by several of his fellow-officers, and he and his friends
+were always received by the family as welcome guests.
+
+Now, it came to the ears of the Pasha of Grosswardein that the Squire of
+Rekas was inclined to give away his daughter in marriage to a German
+officer, and perchance it was also whispered to him that the girl was
+beautiful and gracious. At any rate, one night Haly Pasha, at the head
+of his Spahis, stole away from Grosswardein and, taking the people of
+Rekas by surprise, burnt Adam Rhedey's house down, delivered it over to
+pillage, beat Rhedey himself with a whip, and tied him to the
+pump-handle, while, as for his daughter, who was half dead with fright,
+he put her up behind him on the saddle and trotted back to Grosswardein
+by the light of the burning village.
+
+Ladislaus Rakoczy, who came there next day for his own bridal feast,
+found everything wasted and ravaged, and the servants, who were hiding
+behind the hedges, peeped out and told him what had happened the night
+before, and how Haly Pasha had abducted his bride. The bridegroom was
+taciturn at the best of times, but a Hungarian is not in the habit of
+talking much when anything greatly annoys him, so, without a word to his
+comrades, he went back to the governor and asked permission to lead his
+regiment against Grosswardein.
+
+The general, perceiving that persuasion was useless, and that the youth
+would by himself try a tussle with the Turks if he couldn't do it
+otherwise, took the matter seriously and promised that he would place at
+his disposal, not only his own regiment but the whole garrison, if only
+he would persuade the neighbouring gentry to join him in the attack on
+the Turks of Grosswardein.
+
+As for the gentry, they only needed a word to fly to arms at once, for
+there was scarce one of them who had not at one time or other been
+enslaved, beaten, or at least insulted by the Turks, so that the mere
+appearance of a considerable force of regular soldiers marching against
+the Turks was sufficient to bring them out at once. The Turks, having
+once got possession of Grosswardein, had established themselves therein
+as firmly as if they meant to justify the Mussulman tradition that he
+never abandons a town that he has once occupied, or never voluntarily
+surrenders a place in which he has built a mosque, and indeed history
+rarely records a case of capitulation by the Turks--_their_ fortresses
+are generally taken by storm.
+
+From the year 1660, when Haly Pasha occupied the fortress, a quite new
+Turkish town had arisen in the vacant space between the fortress and the
+old town, and this new town was surrounded by a strong palisade, the
+only entrances into which were through very narrow gates. This new town
+was inhabited by nothing but Turkish chapmen, who bartered away the
+goods captured by the garrison, and Haly Pasha's Spahis did a roaring
+business in the oxen and slaves which they had gathered together,
+attracting purchasers all the way from Bagdad. Thus from year to year
+the market of Grosswardein became better and better known in the Turkish
+commercial world, so that one wooden house after another sprang up, and
+they built across and along the empty space just as they liked, so that
+at last there was hardly what you would call a street in the whole
+place, and people had to go through their neighbours' houses in order to
+get into their own; in a word, the whole thing took the form of a
+Turkish fair, where pomp and splendour conceals no end of filth; the
+patched up wooden shanties were covered with gorgeous oriental stuffs,
+while in the streets hordes of ownerless dogs wandered among the
+perennial offal, and if two people met together in the narrow alleys, to
+pass each other was impossible.
+
+This fenced town was not large enough to hold the herds that were swept
+towards it, there was hardly room enough for the masters of the herds;
+but on the banks of the Pecze there was a large open entrenched space
+reserved for the purpose, where the Bashkir horsemen stood on guard over
+the herds with their long spears, and had to keep their eyes pretty open
+if they didn't want Koekenyesdi to honour them with a visit, who was
+capable of stealing not only the horses but the horsemen who guarded
+them.
+
+Take but one case out of many. One day Koekenyesdi, in his _bunda_,
+turned inside out as usual, with a round spiral hat on his head and a
+large knobby stick in his hands, appeared outside the entrenchment
+within which a closely-capped Kurd was guarding Haly Pasha's favourite
+charger, Shebdiz.
+
+"What a nice charger!" said the horse-dealer to the Kurd.
+
+"Nice indeed, but not for your dog's teeth."
+
+"Yet I assure you I'll steal him this very night."
+
+"I shall be there too, my lad," thought the Kurd to himself, and with
+that he leaped upon the horse and grasped fast his three and a half
+ells long spear; "if you want the horse come for it now!"
+
+"I'm not going to fetch it at once, so don't put yourself out,"
+Koekenyesdi assured him. "You may do as you like with him till morning,"
+and with that he sat down on the edge of the ditch, wrapped himself up
+in his _bunda_, and leaned his chin on his big stick.
+
+The Kurd durst not take his eyes off him, he scarce ventured even to
+wink, lest the horse-dealer should practise magic in the meantime.
+
+He never stirred from the spot, but drew his hat deep down and regarded
+the Kurd from beneath it with his foxy eyes.
+
+Meanwhile it was drawing towards evening. The Kurd's eyes now regularly
+started out of his head in his endeavours to distinguish the form of
+Koekenyesdi through the darkness. At last he grew weary of the whole
+business.
+
+"Go away!" he said. "Do you hear me?"
+
+Koekenyesdi made no reply.
+
+The Kurd waited and gazed again. Everything seemed to him to be turning
+round, and blue and green wheels were revolving before his eyes.
+
+"Go away, I tell you, for if this ditch was not a broad one I would leap
+across and bore you through with my spear."
+
+The _bunda_ never budged.
+
+The Kurd flew into a rage, dismounted from the horse, seized his spear,
+and climbing down into the ditch, viciously plunged his spear into the
+sleeping form before him.
+
+But how great was his consternation when he discovered that what he had
+looked upon as a man in the darkness was nothing but a propped up stick,
+on which a _bunda_ and a hat were hanging! While he had been staring at
+Koekenyesdi, the latter had crept from out of the _bunda_ beneath his
+very eyes and hidden himself in the ditch.
+
+The Kurd had not yet recovered from his astonishment when he heard the
+crack of a whip behind his back, and there was Koekenyesdi sitting
+already on the back of Haly Pasha's charger, Shebdiz, and the next
+moment he had leaped the ditch above the Kurd's head, shouting back at
+him:
+
+"The trench is not broad enough for this horse, my son!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Master Szenasi was one of those who had been sent to find Koekenyesdi,
+and he now arrived at Demerser, the famous robber's most usual
+resting-place in those days, and pushing his way forward told him that
+the gentlemen of Szathmar had sent him to ask him, Koekenyesdi, to assist
+them in their expedition against the Turks.
+
+Koekenyesdi, who was carrying a sheaf on his back, looked sharply at the
+magister, who dared not meet his gaze, and when he had finished his
+little speech he roared at him:
+
+"You lie! You're a spy! I don't like the look of your mug! I'm going to
+hang you up!"
+
+Szenasi, who was unacquainted with the robber chief's peculiarities, was
+near collapsing with terror, whereupon Koekenyesdi observed with a smile:
+
+"Come, come, don't tremble so, I won't eat you up at any rate, but tell
+the gentleman that sent you here that another time he mustn't send a spy
+to me, for to tell you the truth I don't believe in such faces as yours.
+You may tell the gentleman, moreover, that if he wants to speak to me he
+must come himself. I don't care about making a move on the strength of
+idle chatter. I am easily to be found. Go to Puespoek Ladanya, walk into
+the last house on the right-hand side and ask the master where the
+Baratfa hostelry is, he'll show you the way; and now in God's name
+scuttle! and don't look back till you've got home."
+
+The magister did as he was bid, and on getting home delivered the
+message to his masters, whereupon they immediately set out; Raining
+going on the part of the military, Janos Topay on the part of the
+Hungarians, together with Ladislaus Rakoczy himself and the captain of
+the gentry of Barodsag.
+
+The gentlemen safely reached Puespoek Ladanya, where they had to wait at
+the magistrate's house till night-fall, although Raining would have much
+preferred to meet Koekenyesdi by daylight, and Rakoczy was burning to
+carry through his enterprise as soon as possible.
+
+While they waited Raining could not help asking the magistrate whether
+it was far from there to the Baratfa inn?
+
+The magistrate shook his head and maintained there was no such inn in
+the whole district, nor was there.
+
+Raining fancied that the magistrate must be a stranger there, so he
+asked two or three old men the same question, but they all gave him the
+same answer: there might be a _baratfa puszta_[9] here but there could
+be no inn on it, or if there was an inn, the _puszta_ itself did not
+exist.
+
+     [Footnote 9: Common.]
+
+"Well, if they don't know anything about it at the last house we had
+better turn back," said Raining to himself; and, when it had grown quite
+dark, he approached the house and began to talk with the master who was
+dawdling about the door.
+
+"God bless thee, countryman! where's the baratfa inn?"
+
+The man first of all measured the questioner from head to foot, and then
+he merely remarked: "God requite thee! over yonder!" and he vaguely
+indicated the direction with his head.
+
+"We want to go there; can't you show us the way?" asked Topay.
+
+The man seized the questioner's hand and pointed with it to a herdsman's
+fire in the distance.
+
+"Look; do you see the shine of its windows there?"
+
+"Which is the way to it?"
+
+"That way 'tis nearer, t'other way it's quicker."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"If you go that way you'll go astray the quicker, and if you go t'other
+way you may plump into a bog."
+
+"You lead us thither," intervened Rakoczy, at the same time pressing a
+ducat into the man's fist.
+
+He looked at it, turned it round in his palm and gave it back to Rakoczy
+with the request that he would give him copper money in exchange for it.
+He could not imagine anyone giving him gold which was not false.
+
+When this had been done he neatly led the gentlemen through the
+morass--wading in front of them, girded up to his waist--through those
+hidden places where the water-fowl were sitting on their nests, and when
+at last they emerged from among the thick reedy plantations they saw a
+hundred paces in front of them a fire of heaped up bulrushes brightly
+burning, by the light of which they saw a horseman standing behind it.
+
+Here their guide stopped and the three men trotted in single file
+towards the fire, which suddenly died out at the very moment they were
+approaching it, as if someone had cast wet rushes upon it.
+
+Topay greeted the horseman, who lifted his hat in silence and allowed
+them to draw nearer.
+
+"There are three of you gentlemen together," he observed guardedly; "but
+that doesn't matter," he continued. "It would be all the same to me if
+there were ten times as many of you, for there's a pistol in every one
+of my holsters, from which I can fire sixteen bullets in succession, and
+in each bullet is a magnet, so that even if I don't aim at my man I
+bring him down all the same."
+
+"Very good, very good indeed, Master Koekenyesdi," said Topay; "we have
+not come here for you to pepper us with your magnetic globules, but we
+have come to ask your assistance for the accomplishment of a doughty
+deed, the object of which is an attack upon our pagan foes."
+
+"Oh, my good sirs, I am ready to do that without the co-operation of
+your honours. In the courtyard of a castle in the Baborsai _puszta_
+there is a well some hundred fathoms deep and quite full of Turkish
+skulls, and I will not be satisfied till I have piled up on the top of
+it a tower just as high made of similar materials."
+
+"So I believe. But you would gain glory too?"
+
+"I have glory enough already. I am known in foreign countries as well as
+at home. The King of France has long ago only waited for a word from me
+to make me chief colonel of a long-tailed regiment, and quite recently,
+when the King of England heard how I bored through the hulls of the
+munition ships on the Theiss, he did me the honour to invite me to form
+a regiment of divers to ravage the enemy under water. And I've all the
+boys for it too."
+
+"I know, I know, Master Koekenyesdi, but there will be booty here too,
+and lots of it."
+
+"What is booty to me? If I choose to do so, I could bathe in gold and
+sleep on pearls."
+
+"Have you really as much treasure as all that?" inquired Raining with
+some curiosity.
+
+"Ah," said Koekenyesdi, "you ought to see the storehouse in the Szilicza
+cavern, where gold and silver are filled up as high as haystacks. There,
+too, are the treasures dug up from the sands of the sea, nothing but
+precious stones, diamonds, rubies, carbuncles, and real pearls. I,
+myself, do not know how many sackfuls."
+
+"And cannot you be robbed of them?"
+
+"Impossible; the entrance is so well concealed that no man living can
+find it. I myself can never tell whether I am near it; the shifting sand
+has so well covered it. Only one living animal can find it when it is
+wanted, and that is my horse. And he will never betray it, for if anyone
+but myself mounts him, not a step farther will he go."
+
+"And how did you come into possession of these enormous treasures?"
+asked Raining with astonishment.
+
+"God gave them to me," said the horse-dealer, raising his voice and his
+eyebrows at the same time.
+
+"Very edifying, no doubt, my friend," said Topay; "but tell me now,
+briefly, for how much will you join us against the Turks of
+Grosswardein?--not counting the booty, which of course will be pretty
+considerable."
+
+"Well--that is not so easily said. Of course I shall have to collect
+together my twelve companies, and it will cost something to hold them
+together and give them what they want and pay them."
+
+"At any rate you can name a good round sum for the services you are
+going to render us, can't you? Come! how much do you require?"
+
+The robber chief reflected.
+
+"Well, as it is your honours' own business I hope your honours won't say
+that I tax you too highly. Let us look at the job in this way: suppose I
+came to the attack with seventeen companies, and I charge one thousand
+thalers for each company. Let us say each company consists of one
+thousand men, that will be a thaler per head--and what is that, 'twill
+barely pay for their keep. Thus the whole round sum will come to
+seventeen thousand thalers."
+
+"That won't do at all, Master Koekenyesdi. 'Twere a shame to fatigue so
+many gallant fellows for nothing, but suppose you bring with you only a
+hundred men and the rest remain comfortably at home? In that case you
+shall receive from us seventeen hundred florins in hard cash."
+
+"Pooh!" snapped the robber, "what does your honour take me for, eh? Do
+you suppose you are dealing with a gipsy chief or a Wallachian bandit,
+who are paid in pence? Why, I wouldn't saddle my horse for such a
+trifle, I had rather sleep the whole time away."
+
+"But you have so much treasure besides," observed Raining naively.
+
+"But we may not break into it," rejoined the robber angrily.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we have agreed not to make use of till it has mounted up to a
+million florins."
+
+"And what will you do with it then?"
+
+"We shall then buy a vacant kingdom from the Tartar king, where the
+pasturage is good, and thither we will go with our men and set up an
+empire of our own. We will buy enough pretty women from the Turks for us
+all, and be our own masters."
+
+Topay smiled.
+
+"Well," said he, "this seventeen hundred florins of ours will at any
+rate purchase one of the counties in this kingdom of yours." He was
+greatly amused that Raining should take the robber's yarn so seriously,
+and he pushed the German gentleman aside. "Mr. Koekenyesdi," said he,
+"you have nothing to do with this worthy man; he is come with us only to
+see the fun, but it is we who pay the money, and I think we understand
+each other pretty well."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me so sooner?" said the robber sulkily, "then I
+shouldn't have wasted so many words. With which of you am I to bargain?"
+
+"With this young gentleman here," said Topay. "Ladislaus Rakoczy. I
+suppose you know him by report?"
+
+"Know him? I should think I did. Haven't I carried him in my arms when
+he was little? If it hadn't been so dark I should have recognised him at
+once. Well, as it is he, I don't mind doing him a good turn. I certainly
+wouldn't have taken a florin less from anyone else. I'll take from _him_
+the offer of seventeen hundred thalers."
+
+"Seventeen hundred florins, _I_ said."
+
+"I tell your honour, you said thalers--thalers was what _I_ heard, and I
+won't undertake the job for less; may my hand and leg wither if I move
+a step for less."
+
+"Oh, I'll give him his thalers," said Rakoczy, interrupting the dispute;
+whereupon the robber seized the youth's hand and shook it joyfully.
+
+"Didn't I know that your honour was the finest fellow of the three?"
+said the robber. "If, therefore, you will send these few trumpery
+thalers a week hence to the house of the worthy man who guided you
+hither, I will be at Grosswardein a week later with my seventeen hundred
+fellows."
+
+"But, suppose we pay you in advance, and you don't turn up?" said
+Raining anxiously.
+
+The robber looked at the quartermaster proudly.
+
+"Do you take me for a common swindler?" said he. Then he turned with a
+movement of confiding expansion to the other gentlemen.
+
+"We understand each other better," he remarked. "Your honours may depend
+upon me. God be with you."
+
+With that he turned his horse and galloped off into the darkness. The
+three gentlemen were conducted back to Ladany.
+
+"Marvellous fellow, this Koekenyesdi," said Raining, who had scarce
+recovered yet from his astonishment.
+
+"You mustn't believe all the yarns he chooses to tell you," said Topay.
+
+"What!" inquired Raining. "Had he then no communications with the French
+and English Courts?"
+
+"No more than his grandmother."
+
+"Then how about those treasures of which he spoke?"
+
+"He himself has never seen them, and he only talked about them to give
+you a higher opinion of him."
+
+"And his castle in the puszta, and his seventeen companies of
+freebooters?"
+
+"He invented them entirely for your honour's edification. The freebooter
+is no fool, he lives in no castle in the puszta, but in a simple
+village as modest Mr. Koekenyesdi, and his seventeen companies scarcely
+amount to more than seventeen hundred men."
+
+"Then why did he consent so easily to take only seventeen hundred
+thalers?"
+
+"Because he does not mean to give his lads a single farthing of it."
+
+Raining shook his head, and grumbled to himself all the way home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In a week's time they sent to Koekenyesdi the stipulated money. Raining,
+moreover, fearing lest the fellow might forget the fixed time, did not
+hesitate to go personally to Vasarhely, to seek him at his own door.
+There stood Master Koekenyesdi in his threshing-floor, picking his teeth
+with a straw.
+
+"Good-day," said the quartermaster.
+
+"If it's good, eat it," murmured Koekenyesdi to himself.
+
+"Don't you know me?"
+
+"Blast me if I do."
+
+"Then don't you remember what you promised at the Baratfa inn?"
+
+"I don't know where the Baratfa inn is."
+
+"Then haven't you received the seventeen hundred thalers?"
+
+"What should I receive seventeen hundred thalers for?"
+
+"Don't joke, the appointed time has come."
+
+"What appointed time?"
+
+"What appointed time? And you who have to be at Grosswardein with
+seventeen hundred men!"
+
+"Seventeen oxen and seventeen herdsmen on their backs, I suppose you
+mean."
+
+"Well, a pretty mess we are in now," said Raining to himself as he
+wrathfully trotted back to Debreczen, and as he rushed into Rakoczy's
+room exclaiming, "Well, Koekenyesdi has toasted us finely!" there stood
+Koekenyesdi before his very eyes.
+
+"What, you here?"
+
+"Yes, I am; and another time your honour will know that whenever I am at
+my own place I am not at home."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was the Friday before Whit Sunday, and the time about evening. A
+great silence rested over the whole district, only from the minarets of
+Varalja one Imam answered another, and from the tombs one shepherd dog
+answered his fellow: it was impossible to distinguish from which of the
+two the howling proceeded.
+
+A couple of turbaned gentlemen were leisurely strolling along the
+bastions. Above the palisaded gate the torso of a square-headed Tartar
+was visible, with his elbows resting on the ramparts, holding his long
+musket in his hand. The Tartar sentinel was gazing with round open eyes
+into the black night, watching lest anyone should come from the
+direction in which he was aiming with his gun, and blowing vigorously at
+the lunt to prevent its going out. While he was thus anxiously on the
+watch, it suddenly seemed to him as if he discerned the shape of a
+horseman approaching the city.
+
+In such cases the orders given to the Osmanli sentinels were of the
+simplest description: they were to shoot everyone who approached in the
+night-time without a word.
+
+The Tartar only waited until the man had come nearer, and then, placing
+his long musket on the moulding of the gate, began to take aim with it.
+
+But the approaching horseman rode his steed as oddly as only Hungarian
+_csikosok_[10] can do, for he bobbed perpetually from the right to the
+left, and dodged backwards and forwards in the most aggravating manner.
+
+     [Footnote 10: Horse-dealers.]
+
+"Allah pluck thy skin from off thee, thou drunken Giaour," murmured the
+baffled Tartar to himself, as he found all his aiming useless; for just
+as he was about to apply the lunt, the _csikos_ was no longer there, and
+the next moment he stood at the very end of his musket. "May all the
+seven-and-seventy hells have a little bit of thee! Why canst thou not
+remain still for a moment that I may fire at thee?"
+
+Meanwhile the shape had gradually come up to the very gate.
+
+"Don't come any nearer," cried the Tartar, "or I shan't be able to shoot
+thee."
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?" said the other. "Then why didn't you tell me so
+sooner? But don't hold your musket so near to me, it may go off of its
+own accord."
+
+We recognise in the _csikos_ Koekenyesdi, whose horse now began to prance
+about to such an extent that it was impossible for the Tartar to take a
+fair aim at it.
+
+"I bring a letter for Haly Pasha, from the Defterdar of Lippa," said the
+_csikos_, searching for something in the pocket of his fur pelisse, so
+far as his caracolling steed would allow him. "Catch it if you don't
+want to come through the gate for it."
+
+"Well, fling it up here," murmured the sentinel, "and then be off again,
+but ride decently that I may have a shot."
+
+"Thank you, my worthy Mr. Dog-headed Hero; but look out and catch what I
+throw to you."
+
+And with that he drew out a roll of parchment and flung it up to the top
+of the gate. The Tartar, with his eyes fixed on the missive, did not
+perceive that the _csikos_, at the same time, threw up a long piece of
+cord, and the sense of the joke did not burst upon him until the
+_csikos_ drew in the noose, and he felt it circling round his body.
+Koekenyesdi turned round suddenly, twisted the cord round the forepart of
+his horse, and clapping the spurs to its side, began galloping off.
+
+Naturally, in about a moment the Tartar had descended from the top of
+the gate without either musket or lunt, and the cord being well lassoed
+round his body, he plumped first into the moat, a moment afterwards
+reappeared on the top of the trench, and was carried with the velocity
+of lightning through bushes and briars. Being quite unused to this mode
+of progression, and vainly attempting to cling by hand or foot to the
+trees and shrubs which met him in his way, he began to bellow with all
+his might, at which terrible uproar the other sentries behind the
+ramparts were aroused, and, perceiving that some horseman or other was
+compelling one of their comrades to follow after him in this merciless
+fashion, they mounted their horses, and throwing open the gate, plunged
+after him.
+
+As for Koekenyesdi, he trotted on in front of them, drawing the Tartar
+horde farther and farther after him till he reached a willow-wood, when
+he turned aside and whistled, and instantly fifty stout fellows leaped
+forth from the thicket on swift horses with _csakanys_[11] in their
+hands, so that the pursuing Turks were fairly caught.
+
+     [Footnote 11: Long-handled hammers.]
+
+They turned tail, however, in double-quick time, having no great love of
+the _csakanys_, and never stopped till they reached the gate of the
+fortress, within the walls of which they yelled to their heart's
+content, that Koekenyesdi's robbers were at hand, had leaped the cattle
+trench at a single bound, seized a good part of the herds and were
+driving the beasts before them; whereupon, some hundreds of Spahis set
+off in pursuit of the audacious adventurers. When, however, the robbers
+had reached the River Koeroes, they halted, faced about and stood up to
+their pursuers man to man, and the encounter had scarce begun when the
+Spahis grew alive to the fact that their opponents, who at first had
+barely numbered fifty, had grown into a hundred, into two hundred, and
+at last into five or six hundred: from out of the thickets, the ridges,
+and the darkness, fresh shapes were continually galloping to the
+assistance of their comrades, while from the fortress the Turks came
+rushing out on each other's heels in tens and twenties to the help of
+the Spahis, so that by this time the greater part of the garrison had
+emerged to pounce upon Koekenyesdi's freebooters; when suddenly, the
+battle-cry resounded from every quarter and from the other side of the
+Koeroes, whence nobody expected it, the _banderium_[12] of the gentry of
+Barodsag rushed forth, and swam right across the river; while from the
+direction of Varad-Olaszi, amidst the rolling of drums, Ladislaus
+Rakoczy came marching along with the infantry of Szathmar.
+
+     [Footnote 12: Mounted troops.]
+
+"Forward!" cried the youth, holding the banner in his hand, and he was
+the first who placed his foot on the storming-ladder. The terrified
+garrison, after firing their muskets in the air, abandoned the ramparts
+and fled into the citadel.
+
+Rakoczy got into the town before the Spahis who were fighting with
+Koekenyesdi, and who now, at the sound of the uproar, would have fled
+back through the town to take refuge in the citadel, but came into
+collision with the cavalry of Topay, who reached the gates of the town
+at the same moment that they did, and both parties, crowding together
+before the gates, desperately tried to get possession of them, during
+which tussle the contending hosts for a moment were wedged together into
+a maddened mass, in which the antagonists could recognise each other
+only from their war-cries; when, all at once, from the middle of the
+town, a huge column of fire whirled up into the air, illuminating the
+faces of the combatants. The fact was that Koekenyesdi had hit upon the
+good idea of connecting a burning lunt with the tops of the houses, and
+making a general blaze, so that at least the people could see one
+another. By this hideous illumination the Spahis suddenly perceived that
+Rakoczy's infantry had broken through the ramparts in one place, and
+that a sturdy young heyduke had just hoisted the banner of the Blessed
+Virgin on the top of the eastern gate.
+
+"This is the day of death," cried the Aga of the Spahis in despair; and
+drawing his sword from its sheath, he planted himself in the gateway,
+and fought desperately till his comrades had taken refuge in the town,
+and he himself fell covered with wounds. It was over his body that the
+Hungarians rushed through the gates after the flying Spahis.
+
+At that moment a fresh cry resounded from the fortress: "Ali! Ali!" The
+Pasha himself was advancing with his picked guards, with the valiant
+Janissaries, with those good marksmen, the Szaracsies, who can pierce
+with a bullet a thaler flung into the air, and with the veteran
+Mamelukes, who can fight with sword and lance at the same time. He
+himself rode in advance of his host on his war-horse, his big red face
+aflame with rage; in front of him his standard-bearer bore the triple
+horse-tail, on each side of which strode a negro headsman with a
+broadsword.
+
+"Come hither, ye faithless dogs! Is the world too narrow for ye that ye
+come to die here? By the shadow of Allah, I swear it, ye shall all be
+sent to hell this day, and I will ravage your kingdom ten leagues round.
+Come hither, ye impure swine-eaters! Your heads shall be brought to
+market; everyone who brings in the head of a Christian shall receive a
+ducat, and he who brings in a captive shall die."
+
+Thus the Pasha roared, stormed, and yelled at the same time; while Topay
+tried to marshal once more his men who were scattering before the fire
+of the Turks, galloping from street to street, and re-forming his
+terrified squadrons to make head against the solid host of the advancing
+Turks, which was rapidly gaining ground, while Koekenyesdi's followers
+only thought of booty.
+
+"A hundred ducats to him who shoots down that son of a dog!" thundered
+the Pasha, pointing out the ubiquitous Topay, and, finding it impossible
+to get near him, roared after him: "Thou cowardly puppy! whither art
+thou running? Look me in the face, canst thou not?"
+
+Topay heard the exclamation and shouted back very briefly:
+
+"I saw _thy_ back at Banfi-Hunyad."[13]
+
+     [Footnote 13: See "'Midst the Wild Carpathians," Book
+     II., Chapter IV.]
+
+At this insult Ali Pasha's gall overflowed, and seizing his mace, he
+aimed a blow with it at Topay, when suddenly a sharp crackling
+cross-fire resounded from a neighbouring lane, and amidst the thick
+clouds of smoke, Rakoczy's musketeers appeared, sticking their daggers
+into their discharged firearms, a practise to which the bayonet owed its
+origin at a later day. The Turkish cavalry, crowded together in the
+narrow street, was in a few moments demoralised by this rapid assault.
+The improvised bayonet told terribly in the crush, swords and darts were
+powerless against it.
+
+"Allah is great!" cried Ali. "Hasten into the fortress and draw up the
+bridge, we are only perishing here. Only the fortress remains to us."
+
+His conductors, against his will, seized his bridle, and dragged him
+along with them; and when a valiant musketeer, drawing near to him, cut
+down his charger, the terrified Pasha clambered up into the saddle of
+one of his headsmen, and took refuge behind his back.
+
+A young Hungarian horseman was constantly on his track. Nobody could
+tell Ali who he was, but one could see from his face that he was the
+Pasha's fiercest enemy, and animated by something more than mere martial
+ardour. This young horseman gave no heed to the bullets or blades which
+were directed against him; he was bent only on bloodshed.
+
+It was young Rakoczy, to whom bitterness had given strength a
+hundredfold. Forcing his way through the flying hostile rabble, he was
+drawing nearer and nearer to Ali every moment, cutting down one by one
+all who barred the way between him and the Pasha, and the Turks quailed
+before his strong hands and savage looks.
+
+At length they reached the bridge, which was built upon piles, between
+deep bulwarks, and led into the fortress, the front part of whose gate
+was fortified by iron plates and huge nails, and could be drawn up to
+the gate of the tower by round chains. On the summit of the tower of the
+citadel could still be seen the equestrian statue of St. Ladislaus
+derisively turned upside down between the severed legs of two felons.
+
+The Hungarians and the Turks reached the bridge together so intermingled
+that the only thing to be seen was a confused mass of turbans and
+helmets, in the midst of a forest of swords and scimitars, with the
+banner of the Blessed Virgin cheek by jowl with the crescented
+horse-tails.
+
+At the gate of the citadel stood two long widely gaping
+eighteen-pounders commanding the bridge, filled with chain, shot, and
+ground nails; but the Komparajis dare not use their cannons, for in
+whatever direction they might aim, there were quite as many Turks as
+Hungarians. On the bridge itself the foes were fighting man to man.
+Rakoczy was at that moment fighting with the bearer of the triple
+horse-tail, striving to take the standard pole with his left hand, while
+he aimed blow after blow at his antagonist with his right.
+
+"Shoot them down, you good-for-nothings!" roared Ali Pasha, turning back
+to the inactive and contumacious Komparajis. "Reck not whether your
+bullets sweep away as many Mussulmans as Hungarians, myself included!
+Sweep the bridge clear, I say! Life is cheap, but Paradise is dear!"
+
+But the gunners still hesitated to fire amongst their comrades, when Ali
+sent two drummers to them commanding them to aim their guns aloft and
+fire into the air.
+
+The contest on the bridge was raging furiously; the Janissaries had
+placed their backs against the parapet, and there stood motionless, with
+their huge broad-swords in their naked fists, like a fence of living
+scythes, tearing into ribbons everything which came between them.
+
+Then it occurred to a regiment of German Drabants to clamber up the
+parapet of the bridge, and tear the Janissaries away from the parapet;
+some ten or twenty of these Drabants did scramble up on the bridge, when
+the parapet suddenly gave way beneath the double weight, and Janissaries
+and Drabants fell down into the deep moat beneath, throttling each other
+in the water, and whenever a turbaned head appeared above the surface,
+the Germans standing at the foot of the bridge beat out its brains with
+their halberds.
+
+Meanwhile, the two fighting heroes in the middle of the bridge were
+almost exhausted by the contest. They had already hacked each other's
+swords to pieces, had grasped the banner, the object of the struggle,
+with both hands, and were tearing away at it with ravening wrath.
+
+The Turkish standard-bearer then suddenly pressed his steed with his
+knees, making it rear up beneath him, so that the Turk stood now a head
+and shoulder higher than Rakoczy, and threatened either to oust him from
+his saddle or tear the standard from his hand.
+
+At that moment the white figure of a girl appeared on the summit of the
+rampart of the tower, her black locks streaming in the wind, her face
+aglow with enthusiasm.
+
+"Heaven help thee, Ladislaus!" cried the girl from the battlement of the
+tower; and the youth, hearing from on high what sounded like a voice
+from heaven, recognised it, looked up and saw his bride--a superhuman
+strength arose in his heart and in his arm, and when the Turkish
+standard-bearer made his charger rear, Rakoczy suddenly let the
+flag-pole go, and seizing the bridle of the snorting steed with both
+hands, with one Herculean thrust, flung back steed, rider, and banner
+through the palisade into the deep moat below.
+
+"There is no hope save with God!" cried Ali in despair, for his
+terrified people at the sight of this prodigy had dragged him along with
+them against his will.
+
+"Ladislaus! Ladislaus! My darling!" resounded from above. The youth was
+fighting with the strength of ten men; three horses had already been
+shot under him, and a third sword was flashing in his hand. Already he
+was standing on the drawbridge; his sweetheart threw down a white
+handkerchief to him, and he was already waving it above his head in
+triumph, when a well-directed bullet pierced the young hero's heart, and
+he collapsed a corpse on the very threshold of his success, in the very
+gate of the captured fortress at the feet of his beloved.
+
+At that same instant a heart-rending shriek resounded, and from the top
+of the tower a white shape fell down upon the bridge; the beautiful
+bride, from a height of thirty feet, had cast herself down on the dead
+body of her beloved, and died at the same instant as he, mingling their
+blood together; and if their arms did not, at least their souls could,
+embrace each other.
+
+This spectacle so stupefied the besiegers, that Ali Pasha had just time
+enough swiftly to raise the drawbridge and save the fortress and a
+fragment of his host. Of those who remained outside, not a single soul
+survived. Koekenyesdi massacred without mercy everything which distantly
+resembled a Turk, together with the camels and mules, sparing nothing
+but the horses, and when every house had been well plundered, he set the
+town on fire in twelve places, so that the flames in half an hour
+consumed everything, and the whole city blazed away like a gigantic
+bonfire, the rising wind whirling the smoke and flame over the ditch
+towards the fortress.
+
+"Ali Pasha may put that in his pipe and smoke it," said Koekenyesdi,
+rejoicing at the magnificent conflagration.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But the bodies of Ladislaus Rakoczy and his sweetheart they bore away,
+and buried them side by side in the family vault at Rakas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE MONK OF THE HOLY SPRING.
+
+
+About a day's journey from Klausenburg there used to be a famous
+monastery, whose ruined tower remains to this day.
+
+Formerly the ample courtyard was surrounded by a stone wall, massive and
+strong, within which crowds of pilgrims, coming from every direction,
+found a convenient resting-place. For at the foot of this monastery was
+a famous miraculous spring, which entirely disappeared throughout the
+winter and spring, but on certain days in the summer and autumn was wont
+to trickle through the crevices of the rocks, and, for a couple of weeks
+or so, to bubble forth abundantly, whereupon it gradually subsided
+again.
+
+During this season whole hosts of suffering humanity, the lame, the
+paralytic, the aged, the mentally infirm, and the childless mothers,
+would come from the most distant regions; and the Lord of Nature gave a
+wondrous virtue to the waters, and the sufferers quitted the blessed
+spring crutchless and edified, both in body and mind. There could be
+seen, hung up on the walls of the church, votive crutches which the
+cripples had left behind them; and more than one great nobleman, out of
+gratitude to the holy spring, enriched the altar with gold and silver
+plate.
+
+The larger part of the building was reserved for noble guests, the
+common people encamped in the courtyard beneath tents; and behind the
+building a splendid garden was laid out, which the worthy monks always
+magnificently maintained. Even to this day, in the grassy patches round
+about the spot, it is possible to discover the savage descendants of
+many rare and precious flowers.
+
+At the period in which our history falls, the convent of the holy well
+was represented by a single reverend father, whom the common tongue
+simply called Friar Gregory, and there was scarce a soul in Transylvania
+who did not know him well. He was a big man, six feet in height, with a
+flowing black beard, swarthy, lean, with a bony frame, and with hands so
+big that he could cover a six-pound cannon ball with each palm. A simple
+habit covered his limbs, head-dress he had none, and his broad shining
+forehead was without a wrinkle. His droning voice was so powerful that
+when he sang his psalms he made more noise than a whole congregation.
+
+At the times when the holy spring was flowing, the cellar and pantry of
+the good friar stood wide open to rich and poor alike, for whatever he
+earned in one year he never put by for the next, and whatever the
+wealthy paid to him the needy had the benefit of; and whenever any
+clerical colleague happened to come his way, whether he were Orthodox,
+Armenian, Calvinist, or Unitarian, he could not make too much of him;
+all such guests, during their stay, regularly swam in milk and butter,
+and remembered it to the very day of their death.
+
+Just at this very time the Right Reverend Ladislaus Magyari's little
+daughter, Rosy, was suffering from a complaint which gave the lie to her
+healthy name, and her father thought it just as well to take her to the
+holy spring, perchance the healing water would restore to her wan little
+face the colour of youth.
+
+Brother Gregory was beside himself with joy; the best room was prepared
+for his right reverend colleague, and brother cook, brother cellarer,
+and brother gardener were ordered to see to it that meat, drink, and
+heaps of flowers were provided for the honoured guests. No two people in
+the wide world were so suited to each other as Father Gregory and Dean
+Magyari; their hearts were equally good, and each of them had a head
+upon his shoulders. They rose up early in the morning to argue with each
+other on dogmatic questions--to wit, which faith was the best, truest,
+happiest, most blessed, and surest, and kept it up till late in the
+evening, by no means neglecting the frequent emptying of foaming beakers
+during the contest, pounding each other with citations, entangling each
+other with syllogisms, flooring each other with authorities, and
+overwhelming each other with anecdotes; and it always ended in their
+shaking hands and agreeing together that every faith was good if only a
+man were true to himself.
+
+While her father was thus manfully battling, pretty pale Rosy would be
+amusing herself in the garden or by the spring with little girls of her
+own age, and the fresh air, the scent of the flowers, and the beneficent
+water of the spring gradually restored to her face its vanished bloom;
+and Magyari joyfully thought how delighted her mother would be if she
+were able to embrace her convalescent child, and, in sheer delight at
+the idea, spun out his disputatious evenings whilst Rosy in an adjacent
+cell was sleeping the sleep of the just.
+
+The two worthy gentlemen were sitting over their cups one beautiful
+evening, when a loud knocking was heard at the outer gate. The rule was
+that at sundown the pilgrim mob was to betake itself to the courtyard of
+the cloister, and the gate should be closed. The friar who kept the gate
+came to announce that four queer-looking monks demanded admission, were
+they to be let in?
+
+"There can be no question about it," said Father Gregory. "If any desire
+admission, bring them to us, and provide refreshment for them."
+
+In a few moments the four friars in question entered. They were dressed
+in coarse black sackcloth habits, with the cowls drawn down over their
+heads. All that was to be seen of them was their eyes and shaggy beards.
+With deep obeisances, but without a word, they approached the two
+reverend gentlemen. The Father rose politely and greeted them
+respectfully in Latin: "Benedicite nomen Domini." They only kept on
+bowing and were silent.
+
+"Nomen dei sit benedictum!" repeated Gregory, fancying that his guests
+did not hear what he said, and as they did not reply to that, he asked
+with great astonishment:
+
+"Non exandistis nomen gloriosissimi Domini, fratres amantissimi?"
+
+At this the foremost of them said: "We do not understand that language,
+worthy brother."
+
+"Then what sort of monks are ye? To what confession do ye belong? Are ye
+Greeks?"
+
+"We are not Greeks."
+
+"Then are you Armenians?"
+
+"We are not Armenians."
+
+"Arians, then?"
+
+"Neither are we Arians."
+
+"Are you Patarenes?"
+
+"No, we are not."
+
+"Then _in gloriam aeterni_ to what order do you belong?"
+
+"We are robbers," thereupon exclaimed the one interrogated, throwing
+aside the fold of his cloak, beneath which could be seen a belt crammed
+with daggers and pistols. "My name is Feri Koekenyesdi," said he,
+striking his breast.
+
+Magyari thereupon leaped from his chair, which he immediately converted
+into a weapon; it at once occurred to him that he had an only daughter
+to defend, and he was ready to fight the robbers on behalf of her. But
+the father pulled him by the cassock and whispered: "Pray be quiet, your
+Reverence," and then with an infinitely placid face he turned towards
+the robbers. "So that is the order to which you belong," said he.
+"Still, if you have come as guests, sit down and eat what you desire."
+
+"But that is not sufficient. Outside this monastery there are 1700 of
+us, and all of them want to eat and drink, for it is only the ancient
+prophets who, when hungry, were content with the meat of the Word."
+
+"Let them also satisfy their desires."
+
+"However, the main thing is this: in your Reverence's chapel is a whole
+lot of very nice gold and silver saints, who certainly befriend those
+who sigh after them, and as we cannot come running to them here every
+day in order to entreat their aid, we had better take them along with
+us, that they may be helpful to us on the road."
+
+"Thou hast a pretty mother-wit, frater! Who could refuse thee anything?"
+
+"It is also no secret to us, Father Gregory, that your Reverence's
+cellar is crammed with kegs full of good money, silver and gold. May we
+be allowed to relieve your Reverence of a little of this burden?"
+
+"He is quite welcome to it," thought the father, well aware that there
+was absolutely nothing at all.
+
+"Do not imagine, your Reverence," continued the robber, "that we cannot
+extort a confession, if it should occur to your Reverence to conceal
+anything. It would be just as well, therefore, if your Reverence were to
+reveal everything before we cut up your back with sharp thongs."
+
+The brother smiled as good-humouredly as if he were listening to some
+pleasing anecdote.
+
+"Have you any other desires, my sons?"
+
+"Yes, a good many. There is a great crowd of women collected together in
+your Reverence's courtyard. We have taken no vows of celibacy, therefore
+we should like to choose from among them what would suit us."
+
+Magyari felt the hairs of his head rising heavenwards, a cold shiver ran
+through him from head to foot, and he would have risen from his place
+had not the monk pressed him down with a frightfully heavy hand.
+
+"For God's sake, my dear son, do not so wickedly. Take away the saints
+from the altar if you like, but harm not the innocent who are now
+peacefully slumbering in the shadow of God's protection."
+
+"Not another word, Brother Gregory," cried the robber, closing his fist
+on his dagger, "or I'll set the monastery on fire and burn every living
+soul in it, yourself included. A robber only recognises four sacraments:
+wine, money, wenches, and blood! You may congratulate yourself if we are
+content with the third and dispense with the last."
+
+"So it is!" observed another of the cowled and bearded robbers, tapping
+Magyari on the shoulder. "Do you recognise me, eh, your Reverence?"
+
+Magyari, with a sensation of shuddering loathing, recognised Szenasi, a
+canting charlatan whose frauds he had often exposed.
+
+"We know well enough," said the fellow with an evil chuckle, "that you
+have a fair daughter here. I am going to pay off old scores."
+
+If Magyari had not been well in the brother's grip, he would have gone
+for the wretch. Every fibre of his body was shivering with rage.
+
+Only the brother remained calm and smiling. Joining his hands together,
+he made a little mill with the aid of his two thumbs.
+
+"Wait, my dear son, cannot we come to some agreement. You know very well
+that my money is concealed in barrels, but so well hidden is it that
+none besides myself know where it is. Even if you turned this monastery
+upside down you would not find it. You may also have heard that once
+upon a time there lived a kind of men called martyrs, who let themselves
+be boiled in oil, or roasted on red-hot fires, or torn in pieces by wild
+beasts, without saying a word which might hurt their souls. Well, that
+is the sort of man _I_ am. If I make up my mind to hold my tongue, you
+might tear me to bits inch by inch with burning tweezers, and you would
+get not a word nor a penny out of me. Now 'tis for you to choose. Will
+you carry off the money and leave the poor women-folk alone, or will you
+lay your hands on the down-trodden, lame, halt, consumptive
+beggar-women, whom you will find here, and not see a farthing? Which is
+it to be?"
+
+The four robbers whispered together. No doubt they said something to
+this effect: only let the pater produce his money, and then it will be
+an easy thing for us to take back our given word and satisfy our hearts'
+desires. They signified that they would stand by the money.
+
+"Look now! you are good men," said the father, "take these two torches
+and come with me to the cellar and go through my treasures, only you
+must do none any harm."
+
+"A little less jaw, please," growled Koekenyesdi. "Two go in front with
+the torches, and Brother Gregory between you. I'll follow after; the
+magister can remain behind to look after the other parson. Whoever
+speaks a word or makes a signal, I'll bring my axe down on his
+head--forward!"
+
+And so it was. Two of the robbers went in front with torches; after them
+came the brother with Koekenyesdi at his heels with a drawn dagger in his
+hand; last of all marched Magyari, whom Master Szenasi held by the
+collar at arm's-length, threatening him at the same time with a flashing
+axe.
+
+Thus they descended to the cellar. The good father, with timid humility,
+hid his head in his hood and looked neither to the left nor to the
+right.
+
+The cellar was provided with a large, double, iron trap-door. After
+drawing out its massive bolts, the worthy brother raised one of its
+flaps, bidding them lower the torches for his convenience.
+
+As now the first robber descended and the second plunged after him, the
+father suddenly kicked out with his monstrous wooden shoe and brought
+the door down on his head, so that he rolled down to the bottom of the
+stairs; and then, quick as thought, he turned upon Koekenyesdi, seized
+his hands, and said to Magyari:
+
+"You seize the other!"
+
+Koekenyesdi, in the first moment of surprise, thrust at the brother, but
+his dagger glanced aside against the stiff hair-shirt, and there was no
+time for a second thrust, for the terrible brother had seized both his
+hands and crushed them against his breast with irresistible force with
+one hand, while with the other he dispossessed him of all the murderous
+weapons in his girdle one by one, shaking him with one hand as easily as
+a grown man shakes a child of nine; then he dragged him towards the
+cellar door, pressing it down with their double weight so that those
+below could not raise it.
+
+Mr. Magyari that self-same instant had caught the magister by the nape
+of the neck and, mindful of the wrestling trick he had learnt in his
+youth when he was a student at Nagyenyed, quickly floored, and, not
+content with that, sat down on the top of him with his whole weight, so
+that the poor meagre creature was flattened out beneath him. Magyari at
+the same time relieved his sprawling hands of their murderous weapons in
+imitation of the good priest.
+
+Koekenyesdi admitted to himself that never before had he been in such a
+hobble. In a stand-up fight he had rarely met his equal, and more than
+once he had held his own against two or three stout fellows
+single-handed; but never had he had to do with such a man as Brother
+Gregory, one of whose hands was quite sufficient to pin his two arms
+uselessly to his side, while with the other hand he explored his
+remotest pockets to their ultimate depths and denuded them of every sort
+of cutting and stabbing instrument. When the robber realized that even
+his gigantic strength was powerless to drag his antagonist away from the
+cellar door beneath which his two comrades were vainly thundering, he
+endeavoured to free himself by resorting to the desperate devices of the
+wild-beasts, lunging out with his feet and worrying the iron hand of the
+monk with his teeth; whereupon Brother Gregory also lost his temper and,
+seizing Koekenyesdi by the hair of his head, held him aloft like a young
+hare, so that he was unable to scratch or bite any more.
+
+"Do not plunge about so, dilectissime; you see it is of no use," said
+the brother, holding the robber so far away from him by his hairy poll
+with outstretched hand that at last he was obliged to capitulate.
+
+"Thou seest what unmercifulness thou dost compel us to adopt,
+amantissime!" said the brother apologetically, but still holding him
+aloft with one hand and shaking a reproving finger at him with the
+other. "Dost thou not shudder at thyself, does not thine own soul accuse
+thee for coming to plunder holy places? Or dost thou not think of the
+Kingdom of Hell to the very threshold of which evil resolves have
+misguided thy feet, and where there will be weeping, wailing, and
+gnashing of teeth?"
+
+"Let me go, you devil of a friar!" gasped the robber, hoarse with rage.
+
+"Not until thou hast come to thyself and art sorry for thy sins," said
+the brother, still holding in the air his dilectissime, whose eyes by
+this time were starting out of his head because of the tugging pressure
+on his hair; "thou must be sorry for thy sins."
+
+"I am sorry then, only let me go!"
+
+"And wilt thou turn back to the right path?"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course I will."
+
+"And thou wilt steal no more?"
+
+"Not a cockchafer."
+
+"Nor curse and swear?"
+
+"Never no more."
+
+"Very well, then, I'll let thee go. But, colleague Magyari, first of all
+tie all these daggers and axes together and fling them out of the
+window."
+
+Mr. Magyari, who had meanwhile disposed of the magister by tying his
+hands and legs so tightly that he was unable to move a muscle, effected
+the clearance confided to him, while Brother Gregory deposited on the
+ground his convert, who leaned against the wall breathing heavily.
+
+"Well, you monk of hell, give me something to eat if there's anything
+like a kitchen here."
+
+"Oh, my dear son," said the pater tenderly, stroking the face of his
+lambkin; "believe me, that there is more joy in heaven over one
+converted sinner----"
+
+"You're a devil, not a friar; for if you were a man of God you could not
+have got over Koekenyesdi so easily--Koekenyesdi, who was wont to
+overthrow whole armadas single-handed--and now to be beaten by an
+unarmed man!"
+
+"Thou didst come against me with an axe and a _fokos_,[14] but I came
+against thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, and He who permitted
+David the shepherd to pluck the raging lion by the beard and slay him,
+hath aided my arm also in order that I might be a blessing to thee."
+
+     [Footnote 14: Sledge-hammer.]
+
+"Blessing indeed!--hang me up! I deserve it for letting myself be
+collared by a parson."
+
+"Oh, my dear son, to attribute such flagrant cruelty to me! Heaven
+rejoices not in the death of a sinner."
+
+"Then let me go!"
+
+"How could I let thee go when thou art but half converted? Rather remain
+here, my son, in this holy seclusion and try and cleanse thy soul by
+holy penance and prayer."
+
+The robber foamed with rage.
+
+"Where is there a nail that I may hang myself upon it?"
+
+"That thou certainly wilt never be able to do, for a worthy pater shall
+always be by thy side to teach thee how to sing the Psalter."
+
+The robber gnashed his teeth and stamped with his feet as he cast at the
+terrible brother bloodshot glances very similar to those which a hyena
+casts upon a beast-tamer whom he would like to tear to bits and grind to
+mincemeat, but whom he durst not attack, being well aware that if he but
+lay a paw or even cast an eye upon him he will instantly be felled to
+the ground.
+
+"Besides that," continued the brother, "by way of a first trial thou
+shalt presently deliver a God-fearing discourse."
+
+"I preach a sermon!"
+
+"Not exactly a sermon, but inasmuch as thy faithful followers outside
+the walls of the monastery may be growing impatient at thy long absence,
+thou wilt stand at a window and, after assuring them of thy heart-felt
+penitence, thou wilt send the worthy fellows away that they may depart
+to their own homes."
+
+"Very well," said Koekenyesdi, thinking all the time, let me once be
+planted at the window in the sight of my bands and at a word from me
+they will break up the whole monastery, and I will leap out to them at
+the first opening.
+
+Then Brother Gregory called Magyari aside and whispered in his ear: "You
+meanwhile will get the carriage ready and take your seat in it with your
+daughter, and as soon as you perceive that the rabble has departed from
+the monastery, you will drive straight to Klausenburg and inform Mr.
+Ebeni, the commandant, that a mixed band of freebooters, together with
+the garrison of Szathmar, has invaded the realm. I detected a helmet
+beneath a cowl of one of the rascals I kicked into the cellar. Try to
+defend the capital against their attacks. God be with you!"
+
+The two priests pressed each other's hands, whereupon Brother Gregory,
+taking the robber by the arms and shoving him through a little low door,
+in order that no mischief might befall him, caught him by the nape of
+the neck and began to force him to ascend a narrow corkscrew staircase,
+two or three steps at a time.
+
+It was evening now and dark, and there was nothing about the corkscrew
+staircase to suggest to the robber whither he was being led till at last
+the brother opened a trapdoor with his head and emerged with him on to a
+light place and deposited him in front of a lofty window.
+
+The robber's first thought was that he could clear the window at a
+single bold leap, but one swift glance from the parapet made him recoil
+with terror; beneath him yawned a depth of at least fifty ells, and,
+glancing dizzily aloft, he perceived hanging above his head the bells of
+the monastery. They were in the tower.
+
+"So now, my dear son," said the brother, "stand out on this parapet and
+call in a loud voice to thy faithful ones that they may draw nigh and
+hear thee. Then thou wilt speak to them, and in case thou shouldst be at
+a loss for words, I shall be standing close by this bell-tongue to
+suggest to thee what thou shalt say. But, for God's sake, beware of
+thyself, dilectissime! Thou seest what a frightful depth is here below
+thee, and say not to thy faithful followers anything but what I shall
+suggest to thee, nor give with thy head or thy hand an unbecoming
+interpretation to thy words, for if thou doest any such thing, take my
+word for it that at that same instant thou shalt fall from this window,
+and if once thou dost stumble, thou wilt not stop till thou dost reach
+the depths of hell."
+
+The robber stood at the window with his hair erect with horror. He
+actually trembled--a thing which had never occurred to him before. His
+valour, that cold contempt for death which had always accompanied him
+hitherto, forsook him in this horrible position. He felt that at this
+giddy height neither dexterity nor audacity were of the slightest use to
+him. Beneath his feet was the gaping abyss, and behind his back was a
+man with the strength of a giant from whom a mere push--nay! the mere
+touch of a finger, or a shout a little louder than usual, were
+sufficient to plunge him down and dash him into helpless fragments on
+the rocks below. The desperate adventurer, in a fever of terror never
+felt before, crouched against one of the pillars of the window clutching
+at the wall with his hand, and it seemed to him as if the wall were
+about to give way beneath him, as if the tower were tottering beneath
+his feet; and he regarded the ground below as if it had some horrible
+power of dragging him down to it, as if some invisible force were
+inviting him to leap down from there.
+
+Meanwhile his bands, who were lying in ambush outside the monastery,
+perceived the form of their leader aloft and suddenly darted forward in
+a body with a loud yell.
+
+"Speak to them, attract their attention!" whispered the brother; "quick,
+mind what I say!"
+
+The robber indicated his readiness to comply by a nod of his swimming
+head, and repeated the words which the brother concealed behind the
+tongue of the bell whispered in his ear.
+
+"My friends" (thus he began his speech), "the priests are collecting
+their treasures; they are piling them on carts; there are sacks and
+sacks crammed with gold and silver."
+
+A hideous shout of joy from the auditors expressed thorough approval of
+this sentence.
+
+"But the worthy brethren have no wine or provisions in this monastery,
+but in their cellars at Eger there is plenty, so let two hundred of you
+go there immediately and get what you want."
+
+The freebooters approved of this sentiment also.
+
+"As for the desires that you nourish towards the womenfolk here, I am
+horrified to be obliged to tell you that for the last three days the
+black death, that most terrible of plagues, which makes the human body
+black as a coal even while alive, and infects everyone who draws near
+it, has been raging within the walls of this monastery during the last
+three days. I should not therefore advise you to break into this
+monastery, for it is full of dead and dying men, and so swift is the
+operation of this destroying angel that my three comrades succumbed to
+it even while I was ascending this tower, and only the Turkish talisman
+I wear, composed of earth seven times burnt, and the little finger of a
+baby that never saw the light of day, have preserved me from
+destruction."
+
+By the way, Father Gregory had discovered all these things while he was
+investigating the robber's pockets.
+
+At this terrifying message the horde of robbers began to scatter in all
+directions from beneath the walls of the monastery.
+
+"For the same reason neither I myself nor the treasure of the monastery
+can leave this place till all the gold and silver that has been found
+here has been purified first by fire, then by boiling, and then by cold
+water, lest the black death should infect you by means of them. And now
+before making a joint attack on Klausenburg, as we had arranged--which,
+in view of the height of its walls and the strength of its fortress,
+would scarcely be a safe job to tackle--you will do this instead: Hide
+yourselves in parties of two hundred in the forests of Magyar-Gorbo,
+Vista and Szucsag, and remain there quietly without showing yourself on
+the high road; at the same time four hundred of you will go round at
+night by the Korod road, and the rest of you will make for the Gyalu
+woods, and go round towards Szasz Fenes. Then, when the garrison of
+Klausenburg hears the rumour that you are approaching by the Korod road,
+they will come forth with great confidence; and while some of you will
+be enticing them further on continually, the rest of you can fall on the
+defenceless town and plunder it. All you have to do is to act in this
+way and never show yourselves on the high road."
+
+The robbers expressed their approval of their leader's advice with a
+loud howl; and while Koekenyesdi tottered back half senseless into the
+brother's arms, they scattered amongst the woods with a great uproar. In
+an hour's time all that could be heard of them was a cry or two from the
+darkened distance.
+
+The people assembled in the monastery had been listening to all this in
+an agony of terror; only Magyari understood the meaning of it. When the
+brother came down from the tower, Koekenyesdi was locked up with his two
+comrades, and the two reverend gentlemen embraced and magnified each
+other.
+
+"After God, we have your Reverence to thank for our deliverance," said
+Magyari with warm feeling, holding his trembling little daughter by the
+hand.
+
+"But now we must save Klausenburg," said Gregory.
+
+"I will set out this instant; my horse is saddled."
+
+"Your Reverence on horseback, eh? How about the girl?"
+
+"I will leave her here in your Reverence's fatherly care."
+
+"But think."
+
+"Could I leave her in a better place than within these walls, which
+Providence and your Reverence's fists defend so well?"
+
+"But what if this robber rabble discover our trick and return upon the
+monastery with tenfold fury?"
+
+"Then I will all the more certainly hasten to defend the walls of your
+Reverence, because my only child will be within them."
+
+With that the pastor kissed the forehead of his daughter, who at that
+moment was paler than ever, fastened his big copper sword to his side,
+seized his shaggy little horse by the bridle, opened the door for
+himself, and, with a stout heart, trotted away on the high road.
+
+But the brother summoned into the chapel the whole congregation, and
+late at night intoned a thanksgiving to the Lord of Hosts; after which
+Father Gregory got into the pulpit and preached to the faithful a
+powerful and fulminating sermon, in which he stirred them up to the
+defence of their altars, and at the end of his sacred discourse he
+seized with one hand the gigantic banner of the church--which on the
+occasion of processions three men used to support with difficulty--and
+so stirred up the enthusiastic people that if at that moment the robbers
+had been there in front of the monastery, they would have been capable
+of rushing out of the gates upon them with their crutches and sticks and
+dashing them to pieces.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE PANIC OF NAGYENYED.
+
+
+While the priests were girding swords upon their thighs, while the lame
+and the halt were flying to arms in defence of their homes and altars,
+the chief commandant of the town of Klausenburg, Mr. Ebeni, was calmly
+sleeping in his bed.
+
+The worthy man had this peculiarity that when any of his officers awoke
+him for anything and told him that this or that had happened, he would
+simply reply "Impossible!" turn over on the other side, and go on
+slumbering.
+
+Magyari was well aware of this peculiarity of the worthy man, and so
+when he arrived home, late at night, safe and sound, he wasted no time
+in talking with Mr. Ebeni, but opened the doors of the church and had
+all the bells rung in the middle of the night--a regular peal of them.
+
+The people, aroused from its sleep in terror at the sound of the
+church-bells at that unwonted hour, naturally hastened in crowds to the
+church, where the reverend gentleman stood up before them and, in the
+most impressive language, told them all that he had seen, described the
+danger which was drawing near to them beneath the wings of the night,
+and exhorted his hearers valiantly to defend themselves.
+
+The first that Mr. Ebeni heard of the approaching mischief was when ten
+or twenty men came rushing to him one after another to arouse him and
+tell him what the parson was saying. When at last he was brought to see
+that the matter was no joke, he leaped from his bed in terror, and for
+the life of him did not know what to do. The people were running up and
+down the streets bawling and squalling; the heydukes were beating the
+alarm drums; cavalry, blowing their trumpets, were galloping backwards
+and forwards--and Mr. Ebeni completely lost his head.
+
+Fortunately for him Magyari was quickly by his side.
+
+"What has happened? What's the matter? What are they doing, very
+reverend sir?" inquired the commandant, just as if Magyari were the
+leader of troops.
+
+"The mischief is not very serious, but it is close at hand," replied the
+reverend gentleman. "A band of freebooters--some seventeen companies
+under the command of a robber chief--have burst into Transylvania, and
+with them are some regular horse belonging to the garrison of Szathmar.
+At this moment they cannot be more than four leagues distant from
+Klausenburg; but they are so scattered that there are no more than four
+hundred of them together anywhere, so that, with the aid of the
+gentlemen volunteers and the Prince's German regiments, you ought to
+wipe them out in detail. The first thing to be done, however, is to warn
+the Prince of this unexpected event, for he is now taking his pleasure
+at Nagyenyed."
+
+"Your Reverence is right," said Ebeni, "we'll act at once;" and, after
+dismissing the priest to look after the armed bands and reconnoitre, he
+summoned a swift courier, and, as in his confusion he at first couldn't
+find a pen and then upset the inkstand over the letter when he _had_
+written it, he at last hurriedly instructed the courier to convey a
+verbal message to the Prince to the effect that the Szathmarians, in
+conjunction with the freebooters, had broken into Transylvania with
+seventeen companies, and were only four hours' march from Klausenburg,
+and that Klausenburg was now preparing to defend itself.
+
+Thus Ebeni gave quite another version to the parson's tidings, for while
+the parson had only mentioned a few horsemen from the Szathmar garrison
+he had put the Szathmarians at the head of the whole enterprise, and had
+reduced the distance of four leagues to a four hours' journey which, in
+view of the condition of the Transylvanian roads, made all the
+difference.
+
+The courier got out of the town as quickly as possible, and by the time
+he had reached his destination had worked up his imagination to such an
+extent that he fancied the invading host had already valiantly covered
+the four leagues; and, bursting in upon the Prince without observing
+that the Princess, then in an interesting condition, was with him,
+blurted out the following message:
+
+"The Szathmar garrison with seventeen bands of freebooters has invaded
+Transylvania and is besieging Klausenburg, but Mr. Ebeni is, no doubt,
+still defending himself."
+
+The Princess almost fainted at these words; while Apafi, leaping from
+his seat and summoning his faithful old servant Andrew, ordered him to
+get the carriage ready at once, and convey the Princess as quickly as
+possible to Gyula-Fehervar, for the Szathmar army, with seventeen
+companies of Hungarians, had attacked Klausenburg, and by this time
+eaten up Mr. Ebeni, who was not in a position to defend himself.
+
+Andrew immediately rushed off for his horses, had put them to in one
+moment, in another moment had carried down the Princess' most necessary
+travelling things, and in the third moment had the lady safely seated,
+who was terribly frightened at the impending danger.
+
+The men loafing about the courtyard, surprised at this sudden haste,
+surrounded the carriage; and one of them, an old acquaintance of
+Andrew's, spoke to him just as he had mounted the box and asked him what
+was the matter.
+
+"Alas!" replied Andrew, "the army of Szathmar has invaded Transylvania,
+has devastated Klausenburg with 17,000 men, and is now advancing on
+Nagyenyed."
+
+Well, they waited to hear no more. As soon as they perceived the
+Princess's carriage rolling rapidly towards the fortress of Fehervar,
+they scattered in every direction, and in an hour's time the whole town
+was flying along the Fehervar road. Everyone hastily took away with him
+as much as he could carry; the women held their children in their arms;
+the men had their bundles on their backs and drove their cows and oxen
+before them; carts were packed full of household goods; and everyone
+lamented, stormed, and fled for all he was worth.
+
+Just at that time there happened to be at Nagyenyed the envoy of the
+Pasha of Buda, Yffim Beg, who had been sent to the Prince to hasten his
+march into Hungary with the expected auxiliary army, and who absolutely
+refused to believe Teleki that they ought to remain where they where, as
+it was from the direction of Szathmar that an attack was to be feared.
+
+The worthy Yffim Beg was actually sitting in his bath when the
+panic-flight took place; and, alarmed at the noise, he sprang out of the
+water, and wrapping a sheet round him rushed to the window, and
+perceiving the terrified flying rabble, cried to one of the passers-by:
+"Whither are you running? What is going on here?"
+
+"Alas, sir!" panted the breathless fugitive, "the Szathmar army, 27,000
+strong, has invaded Transylvania, has taken everything in its road, and
+is now only two hours' march from Nagyenyed."
+
+This was quite enough for Yffim Beg also. Hastily tying the
+bathing-towels round his body and without his turban, he rushed to the
+stables, flung himself on a barebacked steed and galloped away from
+Nagyenyed without taking leave of anyone; and did not so much as change
+his garment till he reached Temesvar, and there reported that the
+countless armies of Szathmar had conquered the whole of Transylvania!
+
+Thus Teleki had gained his object: the Transylvanian troops had now good
+reasons for staying at home. Yet he had got much more than he wanted,
+for he had only required of Kaszonyi a feigned attack, whereas the band
+of Koekenyesdi had ravaged Transylvania as far as Klausenburg.
+
+The fact that the worthy friar and Mr. Ladislaus Magyari had captured
+the leader of the freebooters made very little difference at all, for
+the crafty adventurer had bored his way through the wall of his dungeon
+that very night, and had escaped with his three comrades.
+
+Early next morning, on perceiving that his captives had escaped, Father
+Gregory was terribly alarmed, imagining that they would now bring back
+the whole robber band against him; and, hastening immediately to collect
+the whole of the pilgrims, loaded wagons with the most necessary
+provisions and the treasures of the altar, conducted them among the
+hills, and there concealed them in the Cavern of Balina, carrying the
+sick members of his flock one by one across the mountain-streams in
+front of the cavern and depositing them in the majestic rocky chamber,
+which more than once had served the inhabitants of the surrounding
+districts as a place of refuge from the Tartars, having a large open
+roof through which the smoke could get out, while a stream flowing
+through it kept them well supplied with drinking-water. In an hour's
+time fires and ovens, made from fresh leaves and mown grass, stood ready
+in the midst of the place of refuge; and on a stone pedestal, in the
+background, always standing ready for such a purpose, an altar was
+erected.
+
+Meanwhile Koekenyesdi had hastened to overtake his bands which had
+scattered at the word of the brother in order to re-unite them before
+the people of Klausenburg could capture them in detail. Szenasi he
+dispatched to call back the wanderers who had been sent to the cellars
+of Eger and besiege the monastery.
+
+When Szenasi returned with the two hundred hungry men he only found
+empty walls, and to make them emptier still--he burnt them down to the
+ground.
+
+He then sat down, and by the light of the conflagration wrote a
+sarcastic letter to Teleki, in which he informed him with a great show
+of humility that he had made the required diversion against
+Transylvania, that he kissed his hand, that he might command him at any
+future time, and that he was his most humble servant.
+
+He had scarcely sent off the letter by a Wallachian gipsy, picked up on
+the road, when he saw a company of horsemen galloping towards the
+burning monastery, and recognised in the foremost fugitive Koekenyesdi.
+
+"It is all up with us!" cried the robber chief from afar, "we are
+surrounded. All the parsons in the world have become soldiers, and
+turned their swords against us as if they were Bibles. The Calvinist
+pastor, the Catholic friar, the Greek priest, and the Unitarian
+minister--every man jack of them has placed himself at the head of the
+faithful, and are coming against us with at least twenty thousand men:
+students, artisans and peasants, the whole swarm is rushing upon us. I
+and fifty more were set upon by the whole Guild of Shoemakers, who cut
+down twenty of my men; they were all as mad as hatters, and when the
+peasants had done with us, the gentlemen took us up: they united with
+the German dragoons, and pursued my flying army on horseback. Every bit
+of booty, every slave they have torn from us; this Calvinist Joshua is
+always close on my heels, not a single one of our infantry can be
+saved."
+
+The robber chief behaved as the leader of robber bands usually do
+behave. When he had to fight, he fought among the foremost; but when he
+had to run, then also he was well to the front. When he was beaten, he
+cared not a jot whether the others got off scot-free, he only thought of
+saving himself.
+
+When he had announced the catastrophe from horseback to the terrified
+Szenasi, he clapped spurs to his nag, and, without looking back to see
+whether anyone was following him, he galloped off, and left Szenasi in
+the lurch with the footmen.
+
+The fox is always most crafty when he falls into the snare. The
+perplexed hypocrite perceived that however quickly he might try to
+escape, the cavalry would overtake him at Grosswardein and mow him down.
+Unfortunately, he knew not how to ride, and therefore could not hope to
+save himself that way. Already the trumpets of the Transylvanian bands
+were blaring all around him; fiery beacons of pitchy pines were
+beginning to blaze out from mountain-top to mountain-top; on every road
+were visible the flying comrades of Koekenyesdi, terrifying one another
+with their shouts of alarm as they rushed through the woods and valleys,
+not daring to take refuge among the snowy Alps, where the axes of the
+enraged Wallachians flashed before their eyes; and there was not a
+single road on which they did not run the risk of being trampled down by
+the Hungarian banderia and the German dragoons.
+
+In that moment of despair Szenasi quickly flung himself into the
+garments of a peasant, climbed up to the top of a tree, and as soon as
+he perceived the first band of German horsemen approaching him, he
+called out to them.
+
+"God bless you, my noble gentlemen!"
+
+They looked up at these words and told the man to come down from the
+tree.
+
+"No doubt you also have taken refuge from the robbers, poor man!"
+
+"Ah! most precious gentlemen! they were not robbers, but German soldiers
+in Hungarian uniforms who had been sent hither from Szathmar. Take care
+how you pursue them, for if your German soldiers should meet theirs, it
+might easily happen that they would join together against you. I heard
+what they were saying as I understand their language, but I pretended
+that I did not understand; and while they made me come with them to show
+them the road, they began talking among themselves, and they said that
+they had had sure but secret information from the Klausenburg dragoons
+that they were going to attack the town. The Devil never sleeps, my
+noble gentlemen!"
+
+The good gentlemen were astounded; the intelligence was not altogether
+improbable, and as, just before, a vagabond had been captured who could
+speak nothing but German, a mad rumour spread like wild-fire among the
+Magyars that the dragoons had an understanding with the enemy and wanted
+to draw them into an ambush; and so the gentlemen told the students, and
+the students told the mechanics, and by the time it reached the ears of
+Ebeni and the parsons, there was something very like a mutiny in the
+army. The gentry suggested that the Germans should be deprived of their
+swords and horses; the students would have fought them there and then;
+but the most sensible idea came from the Guild of Cobblers, who would
+have waited till they had lain down to sleep and then bound and gagged
+them one by one.
+
+Master Szenasi meanwhile went and hunted up the dragoons, whom he found
+full of zeal for the good cause entrusted to them, and had a talk with
+them.
+
+"Gentlemen!" said he, "what a pity it is, but look now at these
+Hungarian gentlemen! Well, they are shaking their fists at you, so look
+to yourselves. Someone has told them that you are acting in concert with
+the people of Szathmar, so they won't go a step further until they have
+first massacred the whole lot of you."
+
+At this the German soldiers were greatly embittered. Here they were,
+they said, shedding their blood for Transylvania, and the only reward
+they got was to be called traitors! So they sounded the alarm,
+collected their regiments together, took up a defensive position, and
+for a whole hour the camp of Mr. Ebeni was thrown into such confusion
+that nothing was easier for Master Szenasi than to hide himself among
+the fugitives. All night long Mr. Ebeni suffered all the tortures of
+martyrdom. At one time he was besieged by a deputation from the Magyars,
+who demanded satisfaction, confirmation, and Heaven only knows what
+else; while the worthy parsons kept rushing from one end of the camp to
+the other, with great difficulty appeasing the uproar, enlightening the
+half-informed, and in particular solemnly assuring both parties that
+neither the Hungarian gentlemen wanted to hurt the Germans nor the
+Germans the Hungarians, till light began to dawn on them, and the
+reconciled parties were convinced, much to their astonishment, that the
+whole alarm was the work of a single crafty adventurer who clearly
+enough had gained time to escape from the pursuers when they had him in
+their very clutches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE SLAVE MARKET AT BUDA-PESTH.
+
+
+In the middle of the sixteenth century, Haji Baba, the most celebrated
+slave-dealer of Stambul, having been secretly informed beforehand, by
+acquaintances in the Seraglio, that a great host would assemble that
+summer beneath Pesth, hastily filled his ship with wares before his
+business colleagues had got an inkling of what was going to happen; and,
+steering his bark with its precious load through the Black Sea and up
+the Danube, reached Pesth some time before the army had concentrated
+there.
+
+Casting anchor in the Danube, he adorned his vessel with oriental
+carpets and flowers, and placing a band of black eunuchs in the prow of
+the vessel with all sorts of tinkling musical instruments, he set about
+beating drums till the sound re-echoed from the hills of Buda.
+
+The Turks immediately assembled on the bastions of the castle of Buda
+right opposite, and perceiving the bedizened ship with its flags
+streaming from the mast and sweeping the waves, thereby giving everyone
+who wanted to know what sort of wares were for sale there, got into all
+sorts of little skiffs and let themselves be rowed out thither.
+
+The loveliest damsels in the round world were there exhibited for sale.
+
+As soon as the first of the Turks had well intoxicated himself with the
+sight of the sumptuous wares, he hastened back to get his money and come
+again, telling the dozen or so of his acquaintances whom he met on the
+way what sort of a spectacle he had seen with no little enthusiasm, and
+in a very short time hundreds more were hastening to this ship which
+offered Paradise itself for sale.
+
+Hassan Pasha, the then Governor of Buda, perceiving the throng from the
+windows of his palace, and ascertaining the cause, sent his favourite
+Yffim Beg to forbid the market to the mob till he, the general, had
+chosen for himself what girls he wanted; and if there was any one of the
+slave-girls worthy of consideration, he was to buy her for his harem.
+
+Yffim Beg hastened to announce the prohibition, and when the skiffs had
+departed one by one from the ship, he got into the general's curtained
+gondola and had himself rowed over to the ship of Haji Baba.
+
+The man-seller, perceiving the state gondola on its way to him, went to
+the ship's side, and waited with a woe-begone face till it had come
+alongside, and stretched forth his long neck to Yffim Beg that he might
+clamber up it on to the deck.
+
+The Beg, with great condescension, informed the merchant that he had
+come on behalf of the Vizier of Buda, who was over all the Pashas of
+Hungary, to choose from among the wares he had for sale.
+
+Haji Baba, on hearing this, immediately cast himself to the ground and
+blessed the day which had risen on these hills, and the water and the
+oars which had brought the Beg thither, and even the mother who had made
+the slippers in which Yffim Beg had mounted his ship.
+
+Then he kissed the Beg's hand, and having, as a still greater sign of
+respect, boxed the ears of the eunuch who happened to be nearest to the
+Beg, for his impertinence in daring to stand so near at all, led Yffim
+into the most secret of his secret chambers. Heavy gold-embroidered
+hangings defended the entry to the interior of the ship; after this came
+a second curtain of dark-red silk, and through this were already audible
+sweet songs and twittering, and when this curtain was drawn aside by
+its golden tassels, a third muslin-like veil still stood in front of the
+entrance through which one could look into the room beyond without being
+seen by those inside.
+
+Fourteen damsels were sporting with one another. Some of them darting in
+and out from between the numerous Persian curtains suspended from the
+ceiling, and laughing aloud when they caught each other; one was
+strumming a mandoline; five or six were dancing a round dance to the
+music of softly sung songs; another group was swinging one another on a
+swing made from costly shawls. All of them were so young, all of them
+were of such superior loveliness, that if the heart had allowed the eye
+alone to choose for it, mere bewilderment would have made selection
+impossible.
+
+Yffim Beg gazed for a long time with the indifference of a connoisseur,
+but even his face relaxed at last, and smilingly tapping the merchant on
+the shoulder, he said to him:
+
+"You have been filching from Paradise, Haji Baba!"
+
+Haji Baba crossed his hands over his breast and shook his head humbly.
+
+"All these girls are my pupils, sir. There is not one of them who
+resembles her dear mother. From their tenderest youth they have grown up
+beneath my fostering care; I do no business with grown-up, captured
+slave-girls, for, as a rule, they only weep themselves to death, grow
+troublesome, wither away before their time, and upset all the others. I
+buy the girls while they are babies; it costs a mint of money and no end
+of trouble before such a flower expands, but at least he who plucks it
+has every reason to rejoice. Look, sir, they are all equally perfect!
+Look at that slim lily there dancing on the angora carpet! Did you ever
+see such a figure anywhere else? How she sways from side to side like
+the flowering branch of a banyan tree! That is a Georgian girl whom I
+purchased before she was born. Her father when he married had not money
+enough for the wedding-feast, so he came to me and sold for a hundred
+denarii the very first child of his that should be born. Yes, sir, not
+much money, I know, but suppose the child had never been born? And
+suppose it had been a son! And how often too, and how easily I might
+have been cheated! I am sure you could not say that five hundred ducats
+was too much for her if I named that price. Look, how she stamps down
+her embroidered slippers! Ah, what legs! I don't believe you could find
+such round, white, smooth little legs anywhere else! Her price, sir, is
+six hundred ducats."
+
+Yffim Beg listened to the trader with the air of a connoisseur.
+
+"Or, perhaps, you would prefer that melancholy virgin yonder, who has
+sought solitude and is lying beneath the shade of that rose-tree? Look,
+sir, what a lot of rose-trees I have all about the place! My girls can
+never bear to be without rose-trees, for roses go best with damsels, and
+the fragrance of the rose is the best teacher of love. That Circassian
+girl yonder was captured along with her father and mother; the husband,
+a rough fellow, slew his wife lest she should fall into our hands, but
+he had no time to kill his child, for I took her, and now I would not
+sell her for less than seven hundred ducats; there's no hurry, for she
+is still quite a child."
+
+Here Yffim Beg growled something or other.
+
+"Now that saucy damsel swinging herself to and fro on the shawl,"
+continued the dealer, "I got in China, where her parents abandoned her
+in a public place. She does not promise much at first sight, but touch
+her and you'll fancy you are in contact with warm velvet. I would let
+you have her, sir, for five hundred ducats, but I should charge anyone
+else as much again."
+
+Yffim Beg nodded approvingly.
+
+"And now do you see that fair damsel who, with a gold comb, is combing
+out tresses more precious than gold; she came to me from the northern
+islands, from a ship which the Kapudan Pasha sent to the bottom of the
+sea. I don't ask you if you ever saw such rich fair tresses before, but
+I do ask you whether you ever saw before a mortal maid with such a
+blindingly fair face? When she blushes, it is just as if the dawn were
+touching her with rosy finger-tips."
+
+"Yes, but her face is painted," said Yffim Beg suspiciously.
+
+"Painted, sir!" exclaimed Haji Baba with dignity. "Painted faces at my
+shop! Very well! come and convince yourself."
+
+And, tearing aside the muslin veil, he entered the apartment with Yffim
+Beg.
+
+At the sight of the men a couple of the charming hoydens rushed
+shrieking behind the tapestries, and only after a time poked their
+inquisitive little heads through the folds of the curtains; but the
+Georgian beauty continued to dance; the Chinese damsel went on swinging
+more provocatively than ever; the beauty from the northern islands
+allowed her golden tresses to go on playing about her shoulders; a
+fresh, tawny gipsy-girl, in a variegated, elaborately fringed dress,
+with ribbons in her curly hair, stood right in front of the approaching
+Beg, eyed him carefully from top to toe, seized part of his silken
+caftan, and rubbed it between her fingers, as if she wanted to appraise
+its value to a penny; while a tiny little negro girl with gold bracelets
+round her hands and legs, fumigated the entering guest with ambergris,
+naively smiling at him all the time with eyes like pure enamel and lips
+as red as coral.
+
+The robber-chapman was right, there was not one of these girls who felt
+ashamed. They looked at the purchaser with indifference and even
+complacency, and everyone of them tried to please him in the hope that
+he would take them where they would have lots of jewels and fine
+clothes, and slaves to wait on them.
+
+Haji Baba led the Beg to the above-mentioned beauty, and raising the
+edge of her white garment and displaying her blushing face, rubbed it
+hard, and when the main texture remained white, he turned triumphantly
+to the seller.
+
+"Well, sir! I sell painted faces, do I? Do you suppose that every
+orthodox shah, emir, and khan would have any confidence in me if I did?
+Will you not find in my garden those flowers which the Sultana Valideh
+presents to the greatest of Emperors on his birthday, and which in a
+week's time the Sultan gives in marriage to those of his favourite
+Pashas whom he delights to honour? Why, I don't keep Hindu bayaderes
+simply because they stain their teeth with betel-root and orange yellow,
+and gild their eyebrows; accursed be he who would improve upon what
+Allah created perfect! The black girl is lovely because she is black,
+the Greek because she is brown, the Pole because she is pale, and the
+Wallach because she is ruddy; there are some who like blonde, and some
+who like dark tresses; and fire dwells in blue eyes as well as in black;
+and God has created everything that man may rejoice therein."
+
+While the worthy man-filcher was thus pouring himself forth so
+enthusiastically, Yffim Beg, with a very grave face, was gazing round
+the apartment, drawing aside every curtain and gazing grimly at the
+dwellers behind them, who, clad in rich oriental garments, were
+reclining on divans, sucking sugar-plums and singing songs.
+
+Haji Baba was at his back the whole time, and had so much to say of the
+qualifications of every damsel they beheld, that the Turkish gentleman
+must have been sorely perplexed which of them to choose.
+
+He had got right to the end of the apartment, when unexpectedly peeping
+into the remotest corner, he beheld a damsel who seemed to be entirely
+different from all the rest. She was wrapped in a simple white
+wadding-like garment, only her head was visible; and when the Beg
+turned towards her, both his eyes and his mouth opened wide, and he
+stood rooted to the spot before her.
+
+It was the face of the Queen in the Kingdom of Beauty. Never had he seen
+such a look, such burning, glistening, flashing eyes as hers! The proud,
+free temples, beneath which two passionate eyebrows sparkled like
+rainbows, even without a diadem dispensed majesty. At the first glance
+she seemed as savage as Diana surprised in her bath, at the next she was
+as timorous as the flying Daphne; gradually a tender smile transformed
+her features, she looked in front of her with a dazed expression like
+betrayed Sappho gazing at the expanse of ocean in which she would fain
+extinguish her burning love.
+
+"Chapman!" cried the Beg, scarce able to contain himself for
+astonishment, "would you deceive me by hiding away from me a houri
+stolen from heaven?"
+
+"I assure you, sir," said the chapman, with a look of terror, "that it
+were better for you if you turned away and thought of her no more."
+
+"Haji Baba, beware! if perchance you would sell her to another, or even
+keep her for yourself, you run the risk of losing more than you will
+ever make up again."
+
+"I tell you, sir, by the beard of my father, look not upon that woman."
+
+"Hum! Some defect perhaps!" thought Yffim to himself, and he beckoned to
+the girl to let down her garment. She immediately complied, and,
+standing up, stripped her light mantle from her limbs.
+
+Ah! how the Beg's eyes sparkled. He half believed that what he saw was
+not human, but a vision from fairy-land. The damsel's shape was as
+perfect as a marble statue carved expressly for the altar of the Goddess
+of Love, and the silver hoop encircling her body only seemed to be there
+as a girdle in order to show how much whiter than silver was her body.
+
+"Curses on your tongue, vile chatterer!" said Yffim Beg, turning upon
+the chapman. "Here have you been wasting an hour of my time with your
+empty twaddle, and hiding the beauties of Paradise from my gaze. What's
+the price of this damsel?"
+
+"Believe me, sir, she won't do for you."
+
+"What! thou man-headed dog! Dost fancy thou hast to do with beggars who
+cannot give thee what thou askest? I come hither to buy for Hassan
+Pasha, the Governor of Buda, who is wont to give two thousand ducats to
+him who asks him for one thousand."
+
+At these words the damsel's face was illuminated by an unwonted smile,
+and at that moment her large, fiery eyes flashed so at Yffim Beg that
+_his_ eyes could not have been more blinded if he had been walking on
+the seashore and two suns had flashed simultaneously in his face, one
+from the sky and the other from the watery mirror.
+
+"It is not that," said the slave merchant, bowing himself to the ground;
+"on the contrary, I'll let you have the damsel so cheaply that you will
+see from the very price that I had reserved her for one of the lowest
+_mushirs_, in case he should take a fancy to her--you shall have her for
+a hundred dinars."
+
+"Thou blasphemer, thou! Dost thou cheapen in this fashion the
+masterpieces of Nature. Thou shouldst ask ten thousand dinars for her,
+or have a stroke on the soles of thy feet with a bamboo for every dinar
+thou askest below that price."
+
+The merchant's face grew dark.
+
+"Take her not, sir," said he; "you will be no friend to yourself or to
+your master if you would bring her into his harem."
+
+"I suppose," said the Beg, "that the damsel has a rough voice, and that
+is why she is going so cheaply?" and he ordered her to sing a song to
+him if she knew one.
+
+"Ask her not to do that, sir!" implored the chapman. But, already, he
+was too late. At the very first word the girl had laid hold of a
+mandolin, and striking the chords till they sounded like the breeze on
+an aeolian harp, she began to sing in the softest, sweetest, most ardent
+voice an Arab love-song:
+
+   "In the rose-groves of Shiraz,
+    In the pale beams of moonlight,
+    In the burning heart's slumber,
+      Love ever is born.
+
+   "'Midst the icebergs of Altai,
+    On the steps of the scaffold,
+    In the fierce flames of hatred,
+      Love never can die."
+
+The Beg felt absolutely obliged to rush forthwith upon Haji Baba and
+pummel him right and left for daring to utter a word to put him off
+buying the damsel.
+
+The slave-dealer patiently endured his kicks and cuffs, and when the
+jest was over, he said once more:
+
+"And again I have to counsel you not to take the damsel for your
+master."
+
+"What's amiss with her, then, thou big owl? Speak sense, or I'll hang
+thee up at thine own masthead."
+
+"I'll tell you, sir, if only you will listen. That damsel has not
+belonged to one master only, for I know for certain that five have had
+her. All five, sir, have perished miserably by poison, the headman's
+sword, or the silken cord. She has brought misfortune to every house she
+has visited, and she has dwelt with Tartars, Turks, and Magyars. Against
+the Iblis that dwells within her, prophets, messiahs, and idols have
+alike been powerless; ruin and destruction breathe from her lips; he who
+embraces her has his grave already dug for him, and he who looks at her
+had best have been born without the light of his eyes. Therefore I once
+more implore you, sir, to let this damsel go to some poor mushir, whose
+head may roll off without anybody much caring, and do not convey danger
+to so high a house as the palace of Hassan Pasha."
+
+The Beg shook his head.
+
+"I thought thee a sharper, and I have found thee a blockhead," said he,
+and he signified to the damsel to wrap herself in her mantle and follow
+him.
+
+"Allah is my witness that I warned you; I wash my hands of it,"
+stammered Haji Baba.
+
+"The girl will follow me; send thou for the money to my house."
+
+"The Prophet seeth my soul, sir. If you are determined to take the
+damsel, _I_ will not give her to you for money, lest so great a man may
+one day say that he bought ruin from me. Take her then as a gift to your
+master."
+
+"But I have forgotten to ask the damsel's name?"
+
+"I will tell you, but forget not every time that name passes your lips
+to say: 'Mashallah!' for that woman's name is the name of the devil, and
+doubtless she does not bear it without good cause, nor will she ever be
+false to it."
+
+"Speak, and chatter not!"
+
+"That damsel's name is Azrael ... Allah is mighty!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE AMAZON BRIGADE.
+
+
+It was three days since Azrael had come into the possession of Hassan
+Pasha, and in the evening of the third day Haji Baba was sitting in the
+prow of his ship and rejoicing in the beautiful moonlight when he saw, a
+long way off, in the direction of the Margaret island a skiff, and then
+another skiff, and then another, row across the Danube, and heard
+heart-rending shrieks which only lasted for a short time.
+
+Presently the skiffs disappeared among the trees on the river bank, the
+last hideous cry died away, and from the rose-groves of the castle came
+a romantic song which resounded over the Danube through the silent
+night. The merchant recognised the voice of the odalisk, and listened
+attentively to it for a long time, and it seemed to him as if through
+this song those shrieks were passing incessantly.
+
+The next day Yffim Beg came to see him, and the merchant hospitably
+welcomed him. He set before him a narghile and little cups of sherbet,
+and then they settled down comfortably to their pipes, but neither of
+them uttered a word.
+
+Thus a good hour passed away; then at last Haji Baba opened his mouth.
+
+"During the night I saw some skiffs row out towards the island, and I
+heard the sound of stifled shrieks."
+
+And then they both continued to pull away at their narghiles, and
+another long hour passed away.
+
+Then Yffim Beg arose, pressed the hand of Haji Baba, and said, just as
+he was moving off:
+
+"They were the favourite damsels of Hassan Pasha, who had been sewn up
+in leathern sacks and flung into the water."
+
+Haji Baba shook his head, which signifies with a Turk: I anticipated
+that.
+
+Not long afterwards the whole host began to assemble below Pesth,
+encamping on the bank of the Danube; a bridge suddenly sprang into
+sight, and across it passed army corps, heavy cannons and wagons. First
+there arrived from Belgrade the Vizier Aga, with a bodyguard of nine
+thousand men, and pitched their tents on the Rakas; after him followed
+Ismail Pasha, with sixteen thousand Janissaries, and their tents covered
+the plain. The Tartar Khan's disorderly hordes, which might be computed
+at forty thousand, extended over the environs of Vacz; and presently
+Prince Ghyka also arrived with six thousand horsemen, and along with him
+the picked troops of the Vizier of Buda; the whole army numbered about
+one hundred thousand.
+
+So Haji Baba did a roaring trade. There were numerous purchasers among
+so many Turkish gentlemen; there was something to suit everyone, for the
+prices were graduated; and Haji thought he might perhaps order up a
+fresh consignment from his agents at Belgrade, hoping to sell this off
+rapidly so long as the camp remained. But he very much wanted to know
+how long the concentration would go on, and how many more gentlemen were
+still expected to join the host, and with that object he sought out
+Yffim Beg.
+
+The Beg answered straightforwardly that nearly everyone who had a mind
+to come was there already. The Prince of Transylvania had treacherously
+absented himself from the host, and only Kucsuk Pasha and young Feriz
+Beg's brigades were still expected; without them the army would move no
+farther.
+
+At the mention of these names Haji Baba started.
+
+"You have as good as made me a dead man, sir. I must now go back to
+Stambul with my whole consignment."
+
+"Art thou mad?"
+
+"No, but I shall become bankrupt, if I wait for these gentlemen. Never,
+sir, can I live in the same part of the world, sir, with those fine
+fellows, whom may Allah long preserve for the glory of our nation! I
+have two houses on the opposite shores of the Bosphorus, so that when
+these noble gentlemen are in Europe I may be in Asia, and when they come
+to Asia I may sail over to Europe."
+
+"Thou speakest in riddles."
+
+"Then you have not heard the fame of Feriz Beg?"
+
+"I have heard him mentioned as a valiant warrior."
+
+"And how about the brigade of damsels which is wont to follow him into
+battle?"
+
+Yffim Beg burst out laughing at these words.
+
+"It is easy for you to laugh, sir, for you have never dealt in damsels
+like me. But you should know that what I tell you is no jest, and Feriz
+Beg is as great a danger to every man who trades in women as plague or
+small-pox."
+
+"I never heard of this peculiarity of his."
+
+"But I have. I tell you this Feriz Beg is a youth with magic power, in
+whose eyes is hidden a talisman, whose forehead is inscribed with magic
+letters, and from whose lips flow sorcery and magic spells, so that
+whenever he looks upon a woman, or whenever she hears his words even
+through a closed door, that woman is lost for ever. Just as he upon whom
+the moon shines when he is asleep is obliged to follow the moon from
+thenceforth, so, too, this young man draws after him with the moonbeams
+of his eyes all the women who look upon him. Ah! many is the great man
+who has cursed the hour in which Feriz Beg galloped past his windows and
+thereby turned the heads of the most beauteous damsels. Even the Grand
+Vizier himself has wept the loss of his favourite bayadere Zaida, who
+descended from his windows by a silken cord into the sea, and swam after
+the ship which bore along Feriz Beg; and one night my kinsman, Kutub
+Alnuma, who is a far greater slave merchant than I am, was, while he
+slept, tied hand and foot by his own damsels to whom he heedlessly had
+pointed out Feriz Beg, and the whole lot incontinently ran after him."
+
+"And what does the youth do with all these women?"
+
+"Oh, sir, that is the most marvellous part of the whole story. For if he
+culled all the fairest flowers of earth for the sake of love, I would
+say that he was a wise man, who tasted the joys of Paradise beforehand.
+But it is quite another thing, sir. You will be horrified when I tell
+you that he at whose feet all the beauties of earth fling themselves,
+never so much as greets one of them with a kiss."
+
+"Is he sick, then, or mad?"
+
+"He loves another damsel, a Christian girl, who is far from here, and
+for whom he has pined from the days of his childhood. At the time of his
+first battle he saw this girl for the first time, and as often as he has
+gone to war since, it is always with her name upon his lips that he
+draws his sword."
+
+"And what happens to the girls he takes away?"
+
+"When the first of these flung themselves at his feet, offering him
+their hearts and their very lives and imploring him to kill them if he
+would not requite their love, to them he replied: 'You have not been
+taught to love as I love. Your love awoke in the shadows of rose-bushes,
+mine amidst the flashing of swords; you love sweet songs, and the voice
+of the nightingale, I love the sound of the trumpet. If you would love
+me, love as I do; if you would be with me, come whither I go; and if
+Allah wills it, die where I die.' Ah, sir, there is an accursed charm on
+the lips of this young man. He destroys the hearts of the damsels with
+his words so that they forget that Allah gave them to men as playthings
+and delightful toys, and they gird swords upon their tender thighs,
+fasten cuirasses of mail round their bosoms, and expose their fair faces
+to deadly swords."
+
+"And do these women really fight, or is it all a fable?"
+
+"They do wonders, sir. No one has ever seen them fly before the foe, and
+frequently they are victorious; and if they have less strength in their
+arms than men, they have ten times more fire in their hearts. And if at
+any one point the fight is most dogged, and the enemy collecting
+together his most valiant bands has tired out the hardly-pressed spahis
+and timariots, then the youth draws his sword and plunges into the
+blackest of mortal peril. And then the wretched women all plunge blindly
+after him, and each one of them tries to get nearest to him, for they
+know that every weapon is directed against him, and they ward off with
+their bosoms the bullets which were meant for him. And so long as the
+youth remains there, or presses forward, they never leave him, the whole
+battalion perishes first. And at last, if he wins the fight and remains
+master of the field, the youth dismounts from his horse, collects the
+bodies of the slain who have fallen fighting beside him, kisses them one
+by one on their foreheads, sheds tears on their pale faces, and with his
+own hands lays them in the grave. And, believe me, sir, these bewitched,
+enchanted damsels are mad after that kiss, and their only wish is to
+gain it as soon as possible."
+
+"And is there none to put an end to this scandal? Have the generals no
+authority to abolish this abomination? Do not the outraged owners demand
+back their slave-girls?"
+
+"You must know, sir, that Feriz Beg stands high in the favour of the
+Sultan. He is never prominent anywhere but on the battlefield, but there
+he gives a good account of himself; and if anybody who came to his
+tents to try and recover his slave-girls by force, he might easily be
+sent about his business minus his nose and ears. Besides, who could say
+that these warriors of Feriz are women? Do they not dispense thrusts and
+slashes instead of kisses? Do you ever hear them sing or see them dance
+and smile so long as they are under canvas? Oh, sir, I assure you that
+you would do well if you told all those who buy slave-girls from me to
+guard the damsels from the enchanting dark eyes of this man, for there
+is a talisman concealed in them. And, in particular, forget not to tell
+your master to conceal his damsel, for you know not what might happen if
+a magician caused a female Iblis[15] to enter into her. If an enamoured
+woman is terrible, what would an enamoured she-devil be? You bought her,
+take care that she does not sell you! The day before yesterday you threw
+his favourite women into the water, the day after to-morrow you
+might----but Allah guard my tongue, I will not say what I would. Watch
+carefully, that's all I'll say. Yet to keep a watch upon women is the
+most difficult of sciences. If you want to get into a beleagured
+fortress, hide an enamoured woman in it, and she'll very soon show you
+the way in. Take heed to what I say, sir, for if you forget my words but
+for half an hour, I would not give my little finger-nail for your head."
+
+     [Footnote 15: Evil spirit.]
+
+Whereupon Yffim Beg arose without saying a word and withdrew, deeply
+pondering the words of the slave-dealer. But Haji Baba that same night
+drew up his anchors, and at dawn he had vanished from the Danube, none
+knew whither.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE MARGARET ISLAND.
+
+
+On the Margaret island, in the bosom of the blue Danube, was the
+paradise of Hassan Pasha, and to behold its treasures was death. At
+every interval of twenty yards stands a eunuch behind the groves of the
+island with a long musket, and if any man fares upon the water within
+bullet-reach, he certainly will never tell anyone what he saw.
+
+Paradise exhales every intoxicating joy, every transient delight; it is
+full of flowers, and no sooner does one flower bloom than another
+instantly fades away; and this also is the fate of those flowers which
+are called damsels, for some of these likewise fade in a day, whilst
+others are culled to adorn the table of the favourite. This, I say, is
+the fate of all the flowers, and frequently in those huge porcelain
+vases which stand before Azrael's bed, among its wreaths of roses and
+pomegranate flowers, one may see the head of an odalisk with drooping
+eyes who yesterday was as bright and merry as her comrades, the rose and
+pomegranate blossoms.
+
+Oh, that woman is a veritable dream! Since he possessed her Hassan Pasha
+is no longer a man, but a piece of wax which receives the impression of
+her ideas. He hears nothing but her voice, and sees nothing but her.
+Already they are beginning to say that Hassan Pasha no longer recognizes
+a man ten feet off, and is no longer able to distinguish between the
+sound of the drum and the sound of the trumpet. And it is true, but
+whoever said so aloud would be jeopardizing his head, for Hassan would
+conceal his failings for fear of being deprived of the command of the
+army if they became generally known.
+
+All the better does Yffim Beg see and hear, Yffim Beg who is constantly
+about Azrael; if he were not such an old and faithful favourite of
+Hassan Pasha he might almost regret that he has such good eyes and ears.
+But Azrael's penetrating mind knows well enough that Yffim Beg's head
+stands much more firmly on his shoulders than stand the heads of those
+whom Hassan Pasha sacrifices to her whims, so she flatters him, and it
+is all the worse for him that she does flatter.
+
+Hassan Pasha, scarce waiting for the day to end and dismissing all
+serious business, sat him down in his curtained pinnace, known only to
+the dwellers on the fairy island, and had himself rowed across to his
+hidden paradise, where, amidst two hundred attendant damsels, Azrael,
+the loveliest of the living, awaits him in the hall of the fairy kiosk,
+round whose golden trellis work twine the blooms of a foreign sky.
+
+Yffim Beg alone accompanies the Pasha thither.
+
+The Governor, after embracing the odalisk, strolled thoughtfully through
+the labyrinth of fragrant trees where the paths were covered by coloured
+pebbles and a whole army of domesticated birds made their nests in the
+trees. Yffim Beg follows them at a little distance, and not a movement
+escapes his keen eyes, not so much as a sigh eludes his sharp ears; he
+keeps a strict watch on all that Azrael does and says.
+
+In the midst of their walk--they hadn't gone a hundred paces--a falcon
+rose before them from among the trees and perched on a poplar close by.
+
+"Look, sir, what a beautiful falcon!" cried Yffim Beg.
+
+Azrael laughed aloud and looked back.
+
+"Oh, my good Beg, how canst thou take a wood-pigeon for a falcon? why it
+_was_ a wood-pigeon."
+
+"I took good note of it, Azrael, and there it is sitting on that
+poplar."
+
+"Why, that's better still--now he calls a nut-tree a poplar. Eh, eh!
+worthy Beg, thou must needs have been drinking a little to see so
+badly."
+
+"Well, that was what I fancied," said the Beg, much perplexed, and for
+the life of him not perceiving the point of the jest. Why should the
+odalisk make a fool of him so?
+
+"But look then, my love," said Azrael, appealing to the Pasha; "thou
+didst see that bird fly away from the tree yonder, was it not a
+wood-pigeon flying from a nut-tree?"
+
+Hassan saw neither the tree nor the bird, but he pretended he did, and
+agreed with the odalisk.
+
+"Of course it was a wood-pigeon and a nut-tree."
+
+Yffim Beg did not understand it at all.
+
+They went on further, and presently Yffim Beg again spoke.
+
+"Shall we not turn, my master, towards that beautiful arcade of
+rose-trees?"
+
+Azrael clapped her hands together in amazement.
+
+"What! an arcade of roses! Where is it?"
+
+"Turn in that direction and thou wilt see it."
+
+"These things! Why if he isn't taking some sumach trees full of berries
+for an arcade of rose-trees!"
+
+Hassan Pasha laughed. As for Yffim Beg he was lost in amazement--why did
+this damsel choose to jest with him in this fashion?
+
+At that moment a cannon shot resounded from the Pesth shore.
+
+"Ah!" said the Pasha, stopping, "a cannon shot!"
+
+"Yes, my master," said Yffim, "from the direction of Pesth."
+
+"From Pesth indeed," said Azrael, "it was from Buda; it was the signal
+for closing the gate."
+
+"I heard it plainly."
+
+"Excuse me, my good Beg, but thy hearing is as bad as thy sight. I am
+beginning to be anxious about thee. How could it be from the direction
+of Pesth when the whole camp has crossed over to Buda?"
+
+"Maybe a fresh host has arrived, which now awaits us."
+
+"Come," cried Azrael, seizing Hassan's hand, "we will find out at once
+who is right;" and she hastened with them to the shore of the island.
+
+On the further bank the camp of Feriz Beg was visible; they were just
+pitching their tents on the side of the hills. A company of cavalry was
+just going down to the water's-edge, at whose head ambled a slim young
+man whose features were immediately recognised, even at that distance,
+both by the favourite Beg and the favourite damsel.
+
+Only Hassan saw nothing; in the distance everything was to him but a
+blur of black and yellow.
+
+"Well, what did I say?" exclaimed Yffim Beg triumphantly; "that is the
+camp of Feriz Beg, and there is Feriz himself trotting in front of
+them."
+
+The words were scarce out of his mouth when the terrible thought
+occurred to him that Azrael had no business to be looking upon this
+strange man.
+
+The odalisk, laughing loudly, flung herself on Hassan's neck.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! the worthy Beg takes the water-carrying girls for an army!"
+
+Then Yffim Beg began to tremble, for he perceived now whither this woman
+wanted to carry her joke.
+
+"My master," said he, "forbid thy slave-girl to make a fool of me. The
+camp of Feriz Beg is straight in front of us, and thou wilt do well to
+prevent thy maid-servant from looking at these men with her face
+unveiled."
+
+"Allah! thou dost terrify me, good Beg!" said Azrael, feigning horror so
+admirably that Hassan himself felt the contagion of it.
+
+"Say! where dost thou see this camp?"
+
+"There, on the water-side; dost thou not see the tents on the
+hillocks?"
+
+"Surely it is the linen which these girls are bleaching."
+
+"And that blare of trumpets?"
+
+"I only hear the merry songs that the girls are singing."
+
+In his fury Yffim Beg plucked at his beard.
+
+"My master, this devilish damsel is only mocking us."
+
+"Thou art suffering from deliriums," said Azrael, with a terrible face,
+"or thou art under a spell which makes thee see before thee things which
+exist not. Contradict me not, I beg; this hath happened to thee once
+before. Dost thou not remember when thou fleddest from Transylvania how,
+then also, thou didst maintain that the enemy was everywhere close upon
+thy heels! Thou also then wert under the spell of a hideous enchantment,
+for thy eunuch horseman who remained behind at Nagyenyed, and is now a
+sentinel on this island, hath told me that there was no sign of any
+enemy for more than twenty leagues around, and he remained waiting for
+thee for ten days and fancied thou wert mad. Most assuredly some evil
+sorcery made thee fly before an imaginary enemy without thy turban or
+tunic."
+
+Yffim Beg grew pale. He felt that he must surrender unconditionally to
+this infernal woman.
+
+"Was it so, Yffim?" cried Hassan angrily.
+
+"Pardon him, my lord," said Azrael soothingly; "he was under a spell
+then, as he is now. Thou art bewitched, my good Yffim."
+
+"Really, I believe I am," he stammered involuntarily.
+
+"But I will turn away the enchantment," said the damsel; and tripping
+down to the water's-edge she moistened her hand and sprinkled the face
+of the Beg, murmuring to herself at the same time some magic spell. "Now
+look and see!"
+
+The Beg did all that he was bidden to do.
+
+"Who, then, are these walking on the bank of the Danube?"
+
+"Young girls," stammered the Beg.
+
+"And those things spread out yonder."
+
+"Wet linen."
+
+"Dost thou not hear the songs of the girls?"
+
+"Certainly I do."
+
+"Look now, my master, what wonders there are beneath the sun!" said
+Azrael, turning towards Hassan Pasha; "is it not marvellous that Yffim
+should see armies when there is nothing but pretty peasant girls?"
+
+"Miracles proceed from Allah, but methinks Yffim Beg must have very bad
+sight to mistake maidens for men of war."
+
+Yffim Beg durst not say to Hassan Pasha that he also had bad sight; he
+might just as well have pronounced his own death sentence at once.
+Hassan wanted to pretend to see all that his favourite damsel pointed
+out, and she proceeded to befool the pair of them most audaciously in
+the intimate persuasion that Hassan would not betray the fact that he
+could not see, while Yffim Beg was afraid to contradict lest he should
+be saddled with that plaguy Transylvanian business.
+
+Meanwhile, on the opposite bank, Feriz Beg in a sonorous voice was
+distributing his orders and making his tired battalions rest, galloping
+the while an Arab steed along the banks of the Danube. The odalisk
+followed every movement of the young hero with burning eyes.
+
+"I love to hear the songs of these damsels; dost not thou also, my
+master?" she inquired of Hassan.
+
+"Oh, I do," he answered hastily.
+
+"Wilt thou not sit down beside me here on the soft grass of the river
+bank?"
+
+The Pasha sat down beside the odalisk, who, lying half in his bosom,
+with her arm round his neck, followed continually the movements of Feriz
+with sparkling eyes.
+
+"Look, my master!" said she, pointing him out to Hassan; "look at that
+slim, gentle damsel, prominent among all the others, walking on the
+river's bank. Her eyes sparkle towards us like fire, her figure is
+lovelier than a slender flower. Ah! now she turns towards us! What a
+splendid, beauteous shape! Never have I seen anything so lovely. Why may
+I not embrace her--like a sister--why may I not say to her, as I say to
+thee, 'I love thee, I live and die for thee?'"
+
+And with these words the odalisk pressed Hassan to her bosom, covering
+his face with kisses at every word; and he, beside himself with rapture,
+saw everything which the girl told him of, never suspecting that those
+kisses, those embraces, were not for him but for a youth to whom his
+favourite damsel openly confessed her love beneath his very eyes!
+
+And Yffim Beg, amazed, confounded, stood behind them, and shaking his
+head, bethought him of the words of Haji Baba, "Cast forth that devil,
+and beware lest she give you away!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A STAR IN HELL.
+
+
+Let the gentle shadows of night descend which guard them that sleep from
+the eyes of evil spectres! Let the weary errant bee rest in the fragrant
+chalice of the closed flower. Everything sleeps, all is quiet, only the
+stars and burning hearts are still awake.
+
+What a gentle, mystical song resounds from among the willows, as of a
+nightingale endowed with a human voice in order to sing to the listening
+night in coherent rhymes the song of his love and his melancholy
+rapture. It is the poet Hariri whom, sword in hand, they call Feriz Beg,
+"The Lion of Combat," but who, when evening descends, and the noise and
+tumult of the camp are still, discards his coat of mail, puts on a light
+grey _burnush_, and, lute in hand, strolls through the listening groves
+and by the side of the murmuring streams and calls forth languishing
+songs from the depths of his heart and the strings of his lute,
+uninterrupted by the awakening appeals of the trumpet.
+
+Many a pale maid opens her window to the night at the sound of these
+magic songs--and becomes all the paler from listening to them.
+
+The eunuchs steal softly along the banks of the Margaret Island with
+their long muskets, and stop still and watch for any suspicious skiff
+drawing near to the island; and the most wakeful of them is old Majmun,
+who, even when he is asleep, has one eye open, and in happier times was
+the guardian of the harem. He sits down on a hillock, and even a
+carrier-pigeon with a letter under its wings could not have eluded his
+vigilance. He has only just arrived on the island, having previously
+accompanied Yffim Beg into Transylvania, and therefore has only seen
+Azrael once.
+
+His eyes roam constantly around, and his sharp ears detect even the
+flight of a moth or a beetle, yet suddenly he feels--some one tapping
+him on the shoulder.
+
+He turns terrified, and behold Azrael standing behind him.
+
+"Accursed be that singing over yonder. I was listening to it, so did not
+hear thee approach. What dost thou want? Why dost thou come hither in
+the darkness of night? How didst thou escape from the harem?"
+
+"I prythee be quiet!" said the odalisk. "This evening I went a-boating
+with my master, and a gold ring dropped from my finger into the water;
+it was a present from him, and if to-morrow he asks: 'Where is that
+ornament?' and I cannot show it him, he will slay me. Oh, let me seek
+for it here in the water."
+
+"Foolish damsel, the water here is deep; it will go over thy head, and
+thou wilt perish."
+
+"I care not; I must look for it. I must find the ring, or lose my life
+for it."
+
+And the odalisk said the words in such an agony of despair that the
+eunuch was quite touched by it.
+
+"Thou shouldst entrust the matter to another."
+
+"If only I could find someone who can dive under the water, I would give
+him three costly bracelets for it; I would give away all my treasures."
+
+"I can dive," said Majmun, seized by avarice.
+
+"Oh, descend then into the water for me," implored the damsel, falling
+on her knees before him and covering the horny hand of the slave with
+her kisses. "But art thou not afraid of being suffocated? For then in
+the eyes of the governor I should be twice guilty."
+
+"Fear not on my account. In my youth I was a pearl-fisher in the Indian
+Ocean, and I can remain under water and look about me like a fish, even
+at night, while thou dost count one hundred. Only show me the place
+where the ring fell from thy finger."
+
+Azrael drew a pearl necklace from her arm and casting it into the water,
+pointed at the place where it fell.
+
+"It was on the very spot where I have cast that; if thou dost fetch up
+both of them for me, the second one shall be thine."
+
+Majmun perceived that this was not exactly a joke, and laying aside his
+garment and his weapon, bade the damsel look after them, and quickly
+slipped beneath the water.
+
+In a few seconds the eunuch's terrified face emerged above the water and
+he struck out for the shore with a horrified expression.
+
+"This is an evil spot," said he; "at the bottom of the water is a heap
+of human heads."
+
+"I know it," said the odalisk calmly.
+
+The eunuch was puzzled. He gazed up at her, and was astounded to observe
+that in the place of the sensitive, supplicating figure so lately there,
+there now stood a haughty, awe-inspiring woman, who looked down upon him
+like a queen.
+
+"Those heads there are the heads of thy comrades," said Azrael to the
+astounded eunuch, "whom last night and the preceding nights I asked to
+do me a service, which they refused to do. Next day I accused them to
+the governor and he instantly had their heads cut off without letting
+them speak."
+
+"And what service didst thou require?"
+
+"To swim to the opposite shore and give this bunch of flowers to that
+youth yonder."
+
+"Ha! thou art a traitor."
+
+"No such thing. All I ask of thee is this: dost thou hear those songs in
+that grove yonder? Very well, swim thither and give him this posy. If
+thou dost not, thy head also will be under the water among the heap of
+the others. But if thou dost oblige me I will make thee rich for the
+remainder of thy life. It is in thine own power to choose whether thou
+wilt live happily or die miserably."
+
+"But I have a third choice, and that is to kill thee," cried the eunuch,
+gnashing his teeth.
+
+Azrael laughed.
+
+"Thou blockhead! Whilst thou wert still under the water it occurred to
+me to fill thy musket with earth and gird thy dagger to my side. Utter
+but a cry and thou wilt have no need to wait for to-morrow to lay thy
+head at thy feet."
+
+At these words the damsel squeezed the eunuch's arm so emphatically that
+he bent down before her.
+
+"What dost thou command?"
+
+"I have already told thee."
+
+"I am playing with my own head."
+
+"That is not as bad as if I were playing with it."
+
+"What dost thou want of me?"
+
+"I want thee to row me across to the opposite shore."
+
+"There is only one skiff on the island, and in that Yffim Beg is wont to
+fish."
+
+"Oh, why have I never learnt to swim!" cried Azrael, collapsing in
+despair.
+
+"What! wouldst thou swim across this broad stream?"
+
+"Yes, and I'll swim across it now, this instant."
+
+"Those are idle words. If thou art not a devil thou wilt drown in this
+river if thou canst not swim."
+
+"Thou shalt swim with me. I will put one hand on thy shoulder to keep me
+up."
+
+"Thou art mad, surely! Only just now thou didst threaten me with death,
+and now thou wouldst trust thy life to me! I need only hold thee under
+for a second or two to be rid of thee for ever. Water is a terrible
+element to him who cannot rule over it, the dwellers beneath the waves
+are merciless."
+
+"By putting my life into thy hands I show thee that I fear thee not.
+Lead me through the water!"
+
+"Thou art mad, but I still keep my senses. Go back to the Vizier's kiosk
+while he hath not noticed thy absence. I will not betray thee."
+
+"Then thou wilt not go with me?" said the odalisk darkly.
+
+"May I never see thee again if I do so," said Majmun resolutely, sitting
+down on a hillock.
+
+"Wretched slave!" cried Azrael in despair, "then I will go myself."
+
+And with that she cast herself into the water from the high bank.
+Majmun, unable to prevent her leap, plunged in after her and soon
+emerged with her again on the surface of the water, holding the woman by
+her long hair.
+
+She suddenly embraced the eunuch with both arms, turned in the water so
+as to come uppermost and raising her head from the waves, cried fiercely
+to the submerged eunuch:
+
+"Go to the opposite shore, or we'll drown together."
+
+The eunuch, after a short, desperate struggle, becoming convinced that
+he could not free himself from the arms of the damsel who held him fast
+like a gigantic serpent, with a tremendous wrench contrived to bring his
+head above the water and cried unwillingly:
+
+"I'll lead thee thither."
+
+"Hasten then!" cried Azrael, releasing him from her arms and grasping
+the woolly pate of the swimmer with one hand; "hasten!"
+
+The eunuch swam onwards. Nothing was to be seen but a white and a black
+head moving closely together in the darkness and the long tresses of the
+damsel floating on the surface of the waves.
+
+"Is the bank far?" she presently asked the slave, for she was somewhat
+behind and could not see in front of her.
+
+"Art thou afraid?"
+
+"I fear that I may not be able to see it."
+
+"We shall be at the other side directly. The stream is broad just now,
+for the Danube is in flood."
+
+A few minutes later the negro felt firm ground beneath his feet, and the
+odalisk perceived the branch of a willow drooping above her face.
+Quickly seizing it, she drew herself out of the water.
+
+Softly and tremulously she ran towards the grove of trees which
+concealed what she sought, and on perceiving the singer, whose
+enchanting tones had enticed her across the water, she stood there all
+quivering, holding back her breath, and with one hand pressed against
+her bosom.
+
+The young singer was sitting on a silver linden-tree. He had just
+finished his song, and had placed the lute by his side, and was gazing
+sadly before him with his handsome head resting against his hand as if
+he would have summoned back the spirit which had flown far far away on
+the wings of his melody.
+
+"Now thou canst speak to him," said Majmun to the damsel.
+
+Azrael stood there, leaning against a weeping willow and gazing,
+motionless, at the youth.
+
+"Hasten, I say. The night is drawing to an end and we have to get back
+again. Wherefore dost thou hesitate when thou hast come so far for this
+very thing?"
+
+The odalisk sighed softly, and leant her head against the mossy tree
+trunk.
+
+"Thou saidst thou wouldst rush to him, embrace his knees, and greet him
+with thy lips, and now thou dost stand as if rooted to the spot by
+spells."
+
+The damsel slowly sank upon her knees and hid her face in her garment.
+
+"The girl is really crazy," murmured the negro; "if thou hast come
+hither only to weep, thou couldst have done that just as well on the
+other side."
+
+At that moment the voice of a bugle horn rang out from a distance
+through the silent night, whereupon the singer, suddenly transformed
+into a warrior, sprang to his feet. It was the first _reveille_ from the
+camp of Buda to awake the sleepers, and Hariri disappeared to become
+Feriz Beg again, who, drawing his sword, quickly hastened away from
+among the willow-trees, and in his hurry forgot his lute beneath a
+silver birch.
+
+"Thou seest he has departed from thee," cried the negro malevolently,
+seizing the damsel's hand. "Hasten back with me while yet there is
+time."
+
+The girl arose--holding her breath as she gazed after the youth--and
+waited till he had disappeared among the bushes; then she drew forth the
+wreath of flowers which she had hidden in her bosom, and took a step
+forward, listening till the retreating footsteps had died away, and then
+suddenly rushed towards the abandoned lute, pressed it to her heart,
+covered it with kisses, and fell down beside it filled with agony and
+rapture.
+
+Then she took the wreath and cast it round the lute, and the wreath was
+composed of these flowers: A rose. What does a rose signify in the
+language of love?--"I love thee, I am happy." Then a pomegranate-flower,
+which signifies: "I love none but thee!" Then a pink, which signifies:
+"I wither for love of thee." Then a balsam, which signifies: "I dare not
+approach thee." And, finally, a forget-me-not, which signifies: "Let us
+live or die together."
+
+This wreath the odalisk fastened together with a lock of her own hair,
+which signifies: "I surrender my life into thy hands!" For a Turkish
+woman never allows a lock of her hair to pass into the hand of a
+stranger, believing, as she does, that whoever possesses it has the
+power to ruin or slay her, to deprive her either of her reason or her
+life.
+
+Majmun gazed at her in astonishment. Was this all she had come for
+through so many terrible dangers?
+
+"Hasten, damsel, with thine incantations," said he, "the camp is now
+aroused and the dawn is at hand."
+
+Azrael cast a burning kiss with her hand in the direction whither Feriz
+had disappeared; then returning to the slave, she said, with her usual
+commanding voice:
+
+"Remain here and count up to six hundred without looking after me, and
+by that time I shall have come back."
+
+Majmun counted up to six hundred with a loud voice.
+
+Meanwhile, Azrael ran along the dam of the river bank till she came to
+the sluice, which she raised by the exertion of her full strength. The
+liberated water began to flow through the opening with a mighty roar.
+
+Then Azrael hastened back to the negro.
+
+"And now for the island," said she.
+
+And once more they traversed the dangerous way, Azrael lying on her back
+with a hand on the negro's head. In her bosom was a poplar leaf, which
+afforded her great satisfaction.
+
+On reaching the island Azrael richly recompensed the negro, and said to
+him:
+
+"To-morrow morning, at dawn, thy master, Yffim Beg, will seek thee and
+command thee to accompany him and Hassan Pasha across the bridge to the
+other side where stands the camp of Feriz Beg. Thou wilt find no one
+there, but look at the place where we were this night, and if thou
+shouldst find there a nosegay or a wreath, bring it to me!"
+
+Majmun listened with amazement. How could Azrael have found out all
+about these things?
+
+Azrael returned to the kiosk, where Hassan Pasha was still sleeping the
+deep sleep of opium. He awoke in the arms of his favourite, and he could
+not understand why her hands were so cold and her kisses so burning.
+
+The odalisk told him she had been dreaming. She had dreamt that she swam
+across the river enticed by the singing of the Peris.
+
+Hassan smiled.
+
+"Go on sleeping, and continue thy dream," said he.
+
+The sun was high in the heaven when Hassan Pasha quitted the kiosk.
+Yffim Beg was awaiting him.
+
+"Wilt thou not ride to Pesth there to mark out the place for the camp of
+Feriz Beg, who has just arrived?"
+
+Azrael shrewdly guessed that Yffim Beg was for leading the Governor to
+the Pesth shore to satisfy him as to the peasant girls whom he was said
+to have mistaken for soldiers by some evil enchantment. She also thought
+how convenient it would be for her that they should take Majmun with
+them for the whole day.
+
+Hassan accordingly accepted Yffim's invitation, and galloped with him
+and Majmun over to the opposite shore, where Yffim was amazed to
+discover that not a soul of Feriz Beg's host was visible.
+
+In the night the suddenly released water had covered the whole ground of
+their camp, and they had been obliged to retire farther away from the
+river and seek another encampment beyond Pesth.
+
+Yffim Beg would have liked to have torn out his beard in his wrath if he
+had not been restrained by the general's presence.
+
+But Majmun, under the pretext of clearing the way, reconnoitred the
+scene of yesterday's interview, and there, in the roots of the silver
+birch, he found that a wreath had been deposited. He concealed it
+beneath his _burnush_, and carried it home to Azrael.
+
+The wreath was composed of two pieces--a branch of laurel and a spray of
+thorn.
+
+The damsel bowed her head before this answer. She knew that it
+signified: "Suffer if thou wouldst prevail!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE BATTLE OF ST. GOTHARD.
+
+
+It was a beautiful summer evening; there was a half-moon in the sky, and
+a hundred other half-moons scattered over the hillocks below. The
+Turkish host had encamped among the hills skirting the river Raab.
+
+Concerning this particular new moon, we find recorded in the prophetic
+column of the "Kaossa Almanack" for the current year that it was to be:
+
+   "To the Germans, help in need;
+    To the Turks, fortune indeed;
+    To the Magyars, power to succeed.
+    And whoever's not ill
+    Shall of health have his fill,
+    For 'tis Heaven's own will."
+
+The worthy astrologer forgot, however, to find out in heaven whether
+there are not certain quarters of the moon beneath which man may easily
+die even if they are not sick.
+
+The great Grand Vizier Kiuprile, after resting on the ruins of Zerinvar,
+turned towards the borders of Styria and united with the army of the
+Pasha of Buda, below St. Gothard.
+
+Kiuprile's host consisted for the most part of cavalry, for his infantry
+was employed in digging trenches round Zerinvar, whose commandant, in
+reply to an invitation to surrender the fortress and not attempt to
+defend it with six hundred men against thirty thousand, jestingly
+responded: "As one Hungarian florin is worth ten Turkish piasters, one
+Hungarian warrior necessarily must be worth ten Turkish warriors." And
+what is more, the worthy man made good this rate of exchange, for when
+the victors came to count up the cost, they found that for six hundred
+Hungarians they had had to pay six thousand Osmanlis into the hands of
+his Majesty King Death.
+
+Kiuprile had then pursued the armies of the Emperor, but they refused to
+stand and fight anywhere; and while their enemies were marching higher
+and higher up the banks of the Raab, they seemed to be withdrawing
+farther and farther away on the opposite shore.
+
+The army of the Pasha of Buda should have gone round at the rear of the
+imperial forces, in order to unite with the Pasha of Ersekujvar, the
+former having previously cut off every possibility of a retreat; but
+Hassan, as an independent general, did not follow the directions sent
+him, simply because they came from Kiuprile, and he also made straight
+for the Raab by forced marches, in order to wrest the opportunity of
+victory from his rival.
+
+Thus the two armies came together, on July 30th, below the romantic
+hills of St. Gothard, each army pitching its tents on the right bank of
+the river, and occupying the summits of the hills, which commanded a
+view of the whole region.
+
+And certainly the worthy gentlemen showed no bad taste when they took a
+fancy to that part of the kingdom. In every direction lay the yellow
+acres, from which the terrified peasants had not yet reaped the standing
+corn; to the right were the gay vineyard-clad hills; to the left the
+dark woods and stretch upon stretch of undulating meadow-land, bisected
+by the winding ribbon of the Raab. On a hill close by stood the gigantic
+pillared portico of the Monastery of St. Gothard, with fair
+pleasure-groves at its base. Farther away were the towers of four or
+five villages. The setting sun, as if desirous of making the district
+still more beautiful, enwrapped it in a veil of golden mist.
+
+"Thou dog!" cried Hassan Pasha to the peasant who alone received the
+terrible guests in the abandoned cloisters, "this region is far too
+beautiful for the like of you monks to dwell in. But you will not be in
+it long, my good sirs, for I mean to take it for myself. The peasant
+after all is lord here. He eats his own bread and he drinks his own
+wine, and he has a couple of good garments to draw over his head. But
+stop, things shall be very different, for I shall have a word to say
+about it."
+
+The honest peasant took off his cap. "God grant," said he, "that more
+and more of you may dwell in my domains, and that I may build your
+houses for you." The man was a grave-digger.
+
+Hassan Pasha and his suite occupied the monastery, whose vestibule was
+filled with priests and magistrates from every quarter of the kingdom,
+whose duty it was to collect and bring in provisions and taxes due to
+the Turkish Government. And what they brought in was never sufficient,
+and therefore the poor creatures had to send deputies as hostages from
+time to time, who followed their lords on foot wherever they went, and
+relieved each other from this servitude in rotation; some of them had
+been here for half a year.
+
+The Turkish army was more than 100,000 strong, and the right bank of the
+river was planted for a long distance with their tents. The monastery
+constituted the centre of the camp; there was the encampment of Hassan's
+favourite mamelukes and the selected corps of cloven-nosed, gigantic
+negroes, who used to plunge into the combat half-naked, and neither take
+nor give quarter. Alongside of them was the cavalry of Kucsuk Pasha, a
+corps accustomed to the strictest discipline. Close beside the tents of
+this division, within a quadrilateral, guarded by a ditch, you could see
+the camp of the Amazon Brigade, whose first thought when they pitch
+their tents is to entrench themselves.
+
+Close to the camp of Kucsuk lies the Moldavian army, from whose
+elaborate precautions you can gather that they have a far greater fear
+of their allies all around them than of the foe against whom they are
+marching. From beyond the monastery, right up to the vineyards of
+Nagyfalva, the ground is occupied by the noisy Janissaries of Ismail
+Pasha, who, if their military reputation lies not, are more used to
+distributing orders to their commanders than receiving orders from them.
+Beyond the vine-clad hills lies the cavalry of the Grand Vizier, Achmed
+Kiuprile, and all round about, wherever a column of smoke is to be seen
+or the sky is blood-red, there is good reason for suspecting that there
+the marauding Tartar bands are out, whom it was not the habit to attach
+to the main army. Far in the rear, along the mountain paths, on the
+slopes of the narrow forest passes, could be seen the endlessly long
+procession of wagons laden with plunder, intermingled with long round
+iron cannons and ancient stone mortars, each one drawn along by ten or
+twelve buffaloes, striving laboriously and painfully to urge their way
+forward, and if one of them stops for a moment, or falls down, all the
+others behind it must stop also.
+
+It is now evening, and from one division of the army to another the
+messengers from headquarters are hurrying. Kiuprile's messenger comes to
+inform Hassan that the army of the enemy has taken up its position on
+the opposite bank, between two forests, the French mercenaries and the
+German auxiliary troops have joined it, so that it would be well to
+attack it in the night, before it has had time properly to marshal its
+ranks.
+
+"Thy master is mad," replied Hassan; "how can I fly across the water?
+Before me is the river Raab. I should have to fling a bridge across it
+first--nay two, three bridges--which it would take me days to do, and I
+cannot even begin to do it till the old ammunition waggons have
+arrived. Go back, therefore, and tell thy master that if he wants to
+fight I'll sound the alarm."
+
+The messenger opened his eyes wide, being unaware of the fact that
+Hassan was short-sighted, and consequently only knew the river Raab from
+the map, not knowing that at the spot where he stood the river was not
+more than two yards wide, and could be bridged over in a couple of hours
+without the assistance of old ammunition wagons--so back the messenger
+went to Kiuprile.
+
+He had scarce shown a clean pair of heels, when the messenger of Kucsuk
+Pasha arrived to signify in his master's name that the battle could not
+be postponed, because no hay had arrived for the horses.
+
+Hassan turned furiously on the captive magistrates.
+
+"Why have you not sent hay?"
+
+The wisest of them, desirous to answer the question, politely rejoined:
+"It has been a dry summer, sir, the Lord has kept back the clouds of
+Heaven."
+
+"Oh, that's it, eh!" said Hassan. "Tell Kucsuk Pasha that he must give
+his horses the clouds to eat; the hay of the Magyars is there, it
+seems."
+
+This messenger had no sooner departed than a whole embassy arrived from
+the Janissaries, and the whole lot of them energetically demanded that
+they should be led into battle at once.
+
+"What?" inquired Hassan mockingly, "has your hay fallen short too,
+then?" The Janissaries are infantry, by the way.
+
+"It is glory we are running short of," said the leader of the deputation
+stolidly; "it bores us to stand staring idly into the eyes of the
+enemy."
+
+"Then don't stare idly at them any longer; away with those mutinous dogs
+and impale them, and put them on the highest hillock that the whole army
+may see them."
+
+The bodyguard, after a fierce struggle, overpowered the Janissaries, and
+pending their impalement, locked them up in the cellar of the
+cloisters.
+
+By this time Hassan Pasha was in the most horrible temper; and just at
+that unlucky moment who should arrive but Ballo, the envoy of the Prince
+of Transylvania.
+
+Hassan, who could not see very well at the best of times, and was now
+blinded with rage besides, roared at him:
+
+"Whence hast thou come? Who hath sent thee hither? What is thy errand?"
+
+"I come from Kiuprile, sir," replied Ballo blandly.
+
+"What a good-for-nothing blackguard this Kiuprile must be to send to me
+such a rogue as thou art, except in chains and fetters."
+
+"Well, of course he knows that I am the envoy of Transylvania, and
+represent the Prince."
+
+"Represent the Prince, eh? Art thou the Prince's cobbler that thou
+standest in his shoes? Hast thou brought soldiers with thee?"
+
+"Gracious sir----"
+
+"Thou hast _not_, then? Not another word! Hast thou brought money?"
+
+"Gracious sir!"
+
+"Not even money! Wherefore, then, hast thou come at all? Canst thou pay
+the allotted tribute?"
+
+"Gracious sir!"
+
+"Don't gracious sir me, but answer--yes or no!"
+
+"Well, but----"
+
+"Then why not?"
+
+"The land is poor, sir. The heavy hand of God is upon it."
+
+"Thou must settle that with God, then, and pray that it may not feel my
+heavy hand also. Wherefore, then, hast thou come?"
+
+Ballo made up his mind to swallow the bitter morsel.
+
+"I have come to implore you to remit the annual tribute."
+
+At first Hassan did not know what to say.
+
+"Hast thou become wooden, then," he said at last, "thou and thy whole
+nation? What right have ye to ask for a remission of the tribute?"
+
+"Gracious sir, the tribute is five times more than what Gabriel Bethlen
+was wont to pay."
+
+"Gabriel Bethlen was a fine fellow who paid in iron what he did not pay
+in silver; if he paid fourteen thousand thalers for the privilege of
+fighting alongside of us, ye may very well pay down eighty thousand for
+sitting comfortably at your own firesides. What, only eighty thousand
+for Transylvania, a state that is always digging up gold and silver,
+when a single sandjak[16] pays the Pasha of Thessalonica twice as much?"
+
+     [Footnote 16: Province.]
+
+At these words the national pride awoke in the breast of Ballo.
+
+"Sir, Thessalonica is a subject province, and its Pasha has unlimited
+power over his sandjaks, but Transylvania is a free state."
+
+"And who told thee that it shall not become a sandjak like the rest?"
+said Hassan grimly. "Before the moon has waxed and waned again twice,
+take my word for it that a Turkish Pasha shall sit on the throne of
+Transylvania! Dost thou hear me? By the prophet I swear it."
+
+"The Grand Seignior has also sworn that the ancient rights of
+Transylvania should never be infringed. He swore it on the Koran and by
+the Prophet."
+
+"It is beneath the dignity of the Grand Seignior, our present Sultan,"
+cried Hassan, "to remember the oath sworn by the great Suleiman; not
+what he says, but what his viziers wish, will happen. And vainly do ye
+entrust your heads to his hand, while the sword of execution remains in
+our hands! I'll humble you, ye stony-headed, most obstinate of all
+nations! Ye shall be no different from the Bosnian rajas who themselves
+pull the plough!"
+
+Ballo raised his head with a bitter look before the wrathful vizier.
+
+"Then, sir, you must find another population for Transylvania, for you
+will not find there now the men you seek. You may see no end of murdered
+Magyars there, but a degraded Magyar you will never find."
+
+At these words Hassan drew his sword, and with his own hand would have
+decapitated the presumptuous ambassador, but the mamelukes dragged him
+away, assuring the Pasha that they would impale him along with the
+Janissaries.
+
+"Place the stake in front of my window that I may speak to the insolent
+wolf while he is well spitted."
+
+The men-at-arms did indeed thrust Ballo into the cellar along with the
+Janissaries, and began to plant a long, sharp-pointed stake in front of
+the Pasha's window, when, all at once, a frightful din arose behind
+their backs, for the Janissaries, hearing that their comrades had been
+condemned to death without mercy, had revolted in a body. In a moment
+they had cut down those of their officers who remonstrated, and while
+one body rushed towards the monastery, beating their alarm-drum and
+blowing their horns, the others attacked the negro giants guarding the
+impalement stakes already planted on the top of the hill, and in a few
+moments the executioners were themselves writhing on the stakes.
+
+Meanwhile the mamelukes of Hassan, who were preparing to resist the
+insurgents, put to flight by the furious Janissaries, made for the
+courtyard of the cloister and its garden, which was surrounded by a
+stone wall, and after barricading the entrances, succeeded with great
+difficulty in shutting the iron gates in the faces of their assailants,
+and prepared vigorously to defend them.
+
+The insurgents surrounded the monastery, and bombarding its windows with
+bullets and darts, began to besiege it at long-firing distance.
+
+Hassan, distracted by rage and fear, fled into the tower of the
+monastery, leaving his guards to defend the gates till the other
+divisions of the army should come to quell the insurgents, but they did
+not stir. Hassan perceived from his tower that not a man from Kiuprile's
+army was coming to his assistance, though they very well could see his
+jeopardy and hear the din of the firing a long way off. On the other
+side the Moldavians had pitched their camp on the hills, but it never
+entered their minds to draw nearer; on the contrary, they were only too
+delighted to see Turks devour Turks in this fashion. Ismail Pasha's army
+seemed rather to be retreating than approaching, and from Kucsuk and his
+son he durst not hope for assistance, as they were his personal enemies.
+
+At that moment the insurgents caught sight of the stake planted before
+the window, and set up a howl of fury.
+
+"Ah, ha! Hassan had this planted here for himself. Let's fix up Hassan!"
+
+With a shudder the Vizier reflected on the enormous difference between
+the throne of Transylvania and the stake on which he might be planted
+instead, and cursed softly as he murmured to himself:
+
+"That rogue of a Christian must have prayed to his God that I might be
+brought to shame here;" and grasping in his terror the solitary
+bell-rope that hung there, and winding it round his neck, he stood by
+the window, so that if the rebels should burst through the gates he
+might leap out and hang himself, rather than that they should wreak
+their horrible threats upon him.
+
+The night had now set in, but the besiegers kindled pine branches, by
+whose spluttering light they streamed round the monastery; and then came
+a sudden and continuous firing of guns and beating of drums and a
+frightful braying of buffalo horns.
+
+The banner of danger had already been planted on the summit of the
+tower, but from no quarter did help arise, and from time to time the
+sound of a bell rang through the air as a chance bullet struck it.
+
+Hassan, full of terror, drew back behind the window curtains. Suddenly a
+yell still more terrible than the hitherto pervading tumult filled his
+ear--the besiegers had discovered the cellar in which their comrades had
+been confined, and, bursting in the doors, liberated them, and the
+Transylvanian deputy along with them, who speedily left this scene of
+uproar behind him.
+
+At the sight of their bound and fettered comrades, the Janissaries'
+wrath increased ten-fold. The leader of the released captives, waving an
+axe over his head with a fierce howl, and hurling himself at the iron
+gate, hammered away like the roaring of guns; whilst the rest of them,
+who hitherto had been firing at the windows from a distance, now
+attacked the entrances with unrestrainable fury, raining showers of
+blows upon the gates.
+
+But the gates were of good strong iron plates, well barricaded below
+with quadraginal paving-stones. The besiegers' arms grew weary, and the
+mamelukes on the roof flung stones and heavy beams down upon them, doing
+fearful execution among their serried ranks; whilst every mameluke who
+fell from his perch, pierced by a bullet, was instantly torn to pieces
+by the crowd, which flung back his head at the defenders.
+
+"Draw back!" cried the officer in command, who stood foremost amidst the
+storm of rafters and bullets. "Run for the guns! At the bottom of that
+hill I saw a mortar planted in the ground; draw it forth, and we'll fire
+upon the walls."
+
+In an instant the whole Janissary host had withdrawn from below the
+monastery, and the whole din died away. Yet the dumb silence was more
+threatening, more terrible, than the uproar had been. Very soon a dull
+rumbling was audible, drawing nearer and nearer every instant; it was
+the rolling of a gun-carriage full of artillery. Hundreds of them were
+pushing it together, and were rapidly advancing with the heavy,
+shapeless guns. At last they placed one in position opposite the
+monastery; it was a heavy iron four-and-twenty pound culverin, whose
+voice would be audible at the distance of four leagues. This they
+planted less than fifteen yards from the monastery, and aimed it at the
+gate.
+
+"There is no help save with God!" cried Hassan in despair; and he took
+off his turban lest they should thereby recognise his dead body.
+
+At that instant a trumpet sounded, and the cavalry of Kucsuk Pasha
+appeared in battle array, making its way through the congested masses of
+the insurgents; while Feriz Beg, at the head of his Spahis, skilfully
+surrounded them, and cut off their retreat.
+
+Kucsuk Pasha, with a drawn sword in his hand, trotted straight up to the
+gun and stood face to face with its muzzle.
+
+"Are ye faithful sons of the prophet, or fire-worshippers, giaurs, and
+idolators, that ye attack the faithful after this fashion?" he asked the
+insurgents.
+
+At these words the ringleaders of the insurgents came forward.
+
+"We are Janissaries," he said, "the flowers of the Prophet's garden, who
+are wont to pluck the weeds we find there."
+
+"I know you, but you know me; ye are good soldiers, but I am a good
+soldier too. Hath Allah put swords into the hands of good soldiers that
+they may fall upon one another? Ye would weep for me if I fell because
+of you, and I would weep for you if ye fell because of me--but where
+would be the glory of it? What! Here with the foe in front of you, ye
+would wage war among yourselves, to your own shame, and to the joy of
+the stranger? Is not that sword accursed which is not drawn against the
+foe?"
+
+"Yet accursed also is the sword which returns to its sheath unblooded."
+
+"What do ye want?"
+
+"We want to fight."
+
+"And can you only find enemies among yourselves?"
+
+"Our first enemy is cowardice, and cowardice sits in the seat of that
+general who alone is afraid when the whole camp wants to fight. We would
+first slay fear, and then we would slay the foe."
+
+"Why not slay the foe first?"
+
+"We will go alone against the whole camp of the enemy if the rest
+refuse."
+
+"Good; I will go with you."
+
+"Thou?"
+
+"I and my son with all our squadrons."
+
+At these words the mutineers passed, in an instant, from the deepest
+wrath to the sublimest joy. "To battle!" they cried. "Kucsuk also is
+coming, and Feriz will help!" These cries spread from mouth to mouth.
+And immediately the drums began to beat another reveille, the horns gave
+forth a very different sound, they turned the cannons round and dragged
+them to the river's bank, and began to build a bridge over the Raab with
+the beams and rafters that had been hurled down upon them.
+
+The hostile camp lay about four hours' march away, on the opposite bank,
+between two forests, and by an inexplicable oversight, had left that
+portion of the river's bank absolutely unguarded.
+
+The Janissaries swam to and fro in the water strengthening the posts and
+stays of the improvised bridge by tying them stoutly together, and by
+the time the night had begun to grow grey, the first bridge ever thrown
+over the Raab was ready and the infantry began to cross it.
+
+It was only then that the German-Hungarian camp perceived the design of
+the enemy, and speedily sent three regiments of musketeers against the
+Turks, who fought valiantly with the Janissaries, and drove them right
+back upon the bridge, where a bloody tussle ensued as fresh divisions
+hastened up to sustain the hardly-pressed Mussulmans.
+
+Meanwhile a second bridge had been got ready, over which Kucsuk's
+cavalry quickly galloped and fell upon the rear of the musketeers.
+
+These warriors, taken by surprise and perceiving the preponderance of
+the enemy, and obtaining no assistance from their own headquarters,
+quickly flung down their firearms and made helter-skelter for their own
+trenches.
+
+The next moment the two combating divisions were a confused struggling
+mass. Kucsuk's swift Spahis cut off the retreat of the Christian
+infantry; only for a few moments was there a definite struggle, the
+tussle being most obstinate round the standards, till at last they also
+began to totter and fall one after the other, and three thousand
+Christian souls mounted on high together, pursued by a roar of triumph
+from the Mussulmans, who, seizing the advanced trenches, planted thereon
+their half-moon streamers, and plundered the tents which remained
+defenceless before them.
+
+At that moment the Christian host was near to destruction, and if
+Kiuprile had crossed the river and Hassan Pasha had shared the fight
+with Kucsuk, he would have become famous.
+
+But the two chief commanders remained obstinately behind on the further
+shore. Kiuprile, who the evening before had himself wanted to begin the
+fight when he had received a negative answer, had now not even saddled
+his nag, and looked on with sinister _sangfroid_ while the extreme wing
+of the army was engaged. Hassan, on the other hand, would have liked
+nothing better if the Janissaries, and Kucsuk their auxiliary, had lost
+the battle thus begun without orders, and so far from hastening to their
+assistance remained sitting up in his tower. He could see nothing of the
+battle, but he heard a cry, and fancying that it was the death-yell of
+the Janissaries, took his beads from his girdle and began zealously to
+pray that the Prophet would keep open for them the gates of Paradise.
+
+"Master, master!" exclaimed Yffim Beg, "gird on thy sword and to horse!"
+
+The Pasha heard nothing. At last Yffim Beg, in despair, seized the
+bell-rope, and pulled the old bell right above Hassan's head, whereupon
+the latter rushed in terror to the window.
+
+"What is it? What dost thou want?"
+
+"Hasten, sir!" roared Yffim Beg. "Kucsuk Pasha has beaten the enemy,
+taken their trenches, and is plundering their tents. Do not allow him to
+have all the glory of scattering the Christians!"
+
+Hassan leapt from his seat. If he had heard that Kucsuk's men were being
+cut to pieces he would have gone on praying, but Kucsuk triumphed--had
+all the triumph to himself. The thought was a keen spur to his mind. Up
+everyone who could stir hand or foot! Forward Spahis and Arabs! To
+battle every true believer! Let the dervishes go up in the tower and
+sing dirges for the fallen! Let the ground shake beneath the rolling of
+the guns! Let the horns ring out for now is the day of glory!
+
+In an instant the camp was alert, and crowds of warriors rushed towards
+the bridge. Every man pressed hard on the heels of his fellow; those who
+were crowded into the water did their best to reach the opposite shore
+by swimming; whole companies swam through on horseback, and the heavy
+iron guns moved forward as rapidly as if they had wings. It was only now
+that the vast numbers of the Ottoman host became manifest, it seemed
+suddenly to spring out of the ground in every direction; the tiny little
+cramped Christian camp over against them looked like an island in an
+inundation.
+
+In the very centre of the host could be seen Hassan Pasha with a
+brilliant suite, twenty horse-tail banners fluttered around him, the
+pick of his veterans at his side. On the left was the army of Ismail
+Pasha; on the right were the hosts of the Moldavians. Their immediate
+objective was the trenches already occupied by Kucsuk Pasha.
+
+At that moment Yffim Beg was seen galloping along the front of the host
+with the Vizier's commands for Kucsuk Pasha.
+
+"Ye remain where now you are, and move no farther till a fresh command
+arrives. Feriz Beg and his battalion move forward along the outermost
+wing."
+
+Hassan could not endure that two such heroes should help each other in
+the battle, and that the son should deliver the father. Kucsuk beat the
+tattoo. Feriz Beg moved along the left wing, where he formed the
+reserve.
+
+Then the reveille sounded; a hideous yell filled the air; the Mussulman
+host, with bloodthirsty rage, rushed upon the front of the Christian
+army. No power on earth can save them! But what is this? Suddenly the
+impetus of the assailants is stayed. Along the front of the camp of the
+Christian infantry star-shaped trenches have been dug during the night
+and planted full of sharp stakes. The foremost row of the assailants
+pause terror-stricken in front of these trenches, and for an instant the
+onset is arrested. But only for an instant. The powerful impact of the
+rearward masses flings them into the deadly ditch, one after another
+they fall upon the pointed stakes, a mortal yell drowns the cry of
+battle, in a few moments the star-shaped trenches are filled with
+corpses and the rushing throng tramples over the dead bodies of their
+comrades to get to the other side of the ditch. And now the roar of the
+cannons begin. Up to that moment the guns of the Christians have
+remained inactive, concealed behind the gabions. Now their gaping
+throats face the attacking host. At a single signal the roar of eighty
+iron throats is heard, bullets and chain-shot make their whirring way
+through the serried ranks, the crackling mortars discharge sackloads of
+acorn-shaped balls, while the fire-spitting grenades terrify the
+rearmost ranks.
+
+The Mussulmans host recoils in terror, leaving their dead and wounded
+behind them. Horrible spectacle! Instead of the lately brilliant ranks
+the ground is strewn with mangled bloody limbs, writhing like worms in
+the dust. The next moment the splendid array again covers the ground;
+the corpses are no longer visible, they are hidden by the feet of the
+living. The beaten squadrons are sent to the rear; fresh battalions fill
+their places; the assault is renewed. The fire of the guns no longer
+keeps them back. They cast down their eyes, shout "Allah!" and rush
+forward. An earth-rending report resounds, a fiery mine has exploded
+beneath the feet of the assailants; fragments of human limbs
+intermingled with strips of tempest-tossed banners fly up into the air
+amidst whirling clouds of smoke. The second assault is also flung back,
+and in the meantime the Christian army has succeeded in drawing a line
+of wagons across their front. And now a third, now a fourth, assault is
+delivered, each more furious than the last. The Christians begin to
+despair; every regiment of the Turkish host is now engaged with them,
+only Kucsuk has received no order to advance. Hassan would win the
+battle without him.
+
+There he stands, together with his staff, directing the most perverse of
+battles, hurling his swarms against unassailable rocks, assaulting
+entrenched places with cavalry; at one time distributing orders to
+regiments which had ceased to exist, at another sending to consult with
+commanders who had fallen before his very eyes. Those around him
+listened to his words with astonishment, and not one of them durst say:
+"Dismount from your horse, you cannot see ten yards in front of you!"
+The din of the renewed assaults sounded in his ears like a cry of
+triumph. "Look how they waver!" he cried; "look how the Christian ranks
+waver, and how their banners are falling in the dust! Shoot them, shoot
+them down!" and none durst say to him: "These are thy hosts whose
+death-cries thou dost hear, and it is the fire from the Christian guns
+which mow down whole ranks of thy army!"
+
+The Ottoman host had begun its tenth assault, when Hassan sent a courier
+to Kiuprile on the opposite shore with this message: "Thou canst return
+to Paphlagonia! We have won the battle without thee. Tell them at home
+what thou hast seen!"
+
+Kiuprile, seriously alarmed lest he should have no part in the glory of
+the contest, immediately mounted the whole of his cavalry, flung a
+bridge over the river, and began to cross it.
+
+This happened at the very moment when Ismail Pasha was leading the
+Osmanlis to the tenth assault.
+
+The leader of the Christian host, Montecuculi, no sooner perceived
+Kiuprile's movement, than he called together his generals and gave them
+to understand that if they awaited Kiuprile where they stood they would
+be irretrievably lost.
+
+They were just then loading their guns with their last charge.
+
+Many faces grew pale at this announcement, and a deep silence followed
+Montecuculi's words. Yet his words were the words of valour. Three
+heroes had been in his army--one of them, the French general, the
+Marquis de Brianzon, had already fallen; the other two, still present,
+were the German general, Toggendorf, and the Hungarian cavalry officer,
+Petnehazy.
+
+At the commander-in-chief's announcement the faces of both remained
+unmoved, and Toggendorf, with the utmost _sang-froid_ came forward: "If
+we must choose between two deaths," said he, "why not rather choose
+death by advancing than death in flight?"
+
+"Not so, my lad," cried Petnehazy, enthusiastically grasping his
+comrade's hand; "we choose between death and glory, and he who seeks
+glory will find a triumph also."
+
+"So be it," said Montecuculi, with cool satisfaction, thrusting his
+field-glass into his pocket and drawing forth his thin blade; and, while
+he sent the two heroes to the two wings, he placed himself in front of
+the army, and commanded that the barrier of wagons should instantly be
+demolished.
+
+The last discharge thundered forth, and from amidst the dispersing
+clouds of smoke two compact army columns could be seen rapidly
+charging--they were Toggendorf's cuirassiers and Petnehazy's hussars.
+
+Petnehazy made straight for the still hesitating Moldavian army, which,
+with Prince Ghyka at its head, had as yet taken no part in the fight.
+Heaven itself gave him the inspiration. The Prince of Moldavia had been
+waiting for a long time for some one to attack him, that he might at
+once quit the field of battle to which he had been constrained to come,
+though it revolted his feelings as a Christian to do so; consequently,
+when Petnehazy was within fifty yards of his battalions, they, as if at
+a given signal, turned tail without so much as crossing swords with the
+foe, galloped off to the left bank of the Waag, and so quitted the
+field.
+
+This flight threw the whole Turkish army into disorder. A more skilful
+general would indeed have withdrawn the whole host, but, because of his
+short-sightedness, Hassan did not perceive that the Moldavians had fled,
+and nobody durst tell him so. Ismail Pasha immediately hastened to fill
+up the gap; but before he had reached the spot, Toggendorf's cuirassiers
+were upon him, and he was caught between two fires in a moment. The
+Janissaries received the full brunt of the swords of the cuirassiers and
+the hussars, and in the first onset Ismail Pasha himself fell from his
+horse. A hussar rushed upon him, and severing from his body his big
+bared head, stuck it on the point of a lance, and raised it in the air
+as a very emblem of terror to the panic-stricken Turks. The Janissaries
+were no longer able to rally, in every direction they broke through the
+hostile ranks in a desperate attempt at flight, and, which was worse
+still, the flying infantry barred the way against the cavalry which was
+hastening to their assistance.
+
+All this was taking place within two hundred yards of Hassan Pasha, and
+he saw nothing of it.
+
+"Glory be to Allah," he cried, raising his hands to heaven; "victory is
+ours! The Christian is flying and is casting down his banners in every
+direction. The best of his warriors are wallowing in the dust. The rest
+are flying without weapons and with pale----"
+
+Those about him listened, horror-stricken, to his words. The Christian
+host was at that moment cutting down the Janissaries, the flower of the
+Turkish camp!
+
+"Thou ravest, my master!" cried Yffim Beg, seizing the bridle of Hassan
+Pasha's horse. "Fly and save thyself! The best of thy army has perished,
+the Janissaries have fallen, the Moldavian army hath fled. Ismail
+Pasha's head has been hoisted on to a pike!"
+
+"Impossible!" roared Hassan, beside himself, "come with me; let us
+charge, the victory is ours."
+
+But his generals seized him, and tearing his sword from his hand, seized
+the bridle of his horse on both sides and hurried him along with them
+towards the bridge, which was now full of fugitives.
+
+The hazard of the die had changed. The pursuers had become the
+fugitives. An hour before the Christian camp ran the risk of
+annihilation; it was now the turn of the Turks.
+
+Kiuprile seeing the catastrophe, destroyed his bridges and remained on
+the opposite bank.
+
+Meanwhile on the wings, Kucsuk Pasha and Feriz Beg, with his brigade of
+Amazons, were valiantly holding their own against the cuirassiers of
+Toggendorf and the hussars of Petnehazy, till at last the melancholy
+notes of the bugle-horns gave the signal for retreat, and the combatants
+gradually separated. Only a few scattered bands, and presently, only a
+few scattered individuals, still fought together, and then they also
+wearily abandoned the contest and returned silently to their respective
+camps. Both sides felt that their strength was exhausted. The Christian
+host had four thousand, the Turkish sixteen thousand slain, and among
+them its best generals; they also lost all their heavy cannons, their
+banners, and their military renown; but none lost so much as Feriz Beg.
+The Amazon Brigade had perished. By its deliberate self-sacrifice it had
+saved the Turkish army from utter destruction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE PERSECUTED WOMAN.
+
+
+Perhaps by this time you have clean forgotten our dear acquaintance,
+pretty Mariska, the wife of the Prince of Wallachia?
+
+Ah, she is happy! Although her husband is far away, her sorrow is
+forgotten in the near approach of a new joy--the joy of motherhood.
+
+There she sits at eventide in the garden of her castle, weaving together
+dreams of a happy future, and her court ladies by her side are making
+tiny little garments adorned with bright ribbons.
+
+When the peasant women pass by her on the road with their children in
+their arms, she takes the children from them, presses them to her bosom,
+kisses, and talks to them. She is the godmother of every new-born
+infant, and what a tender godmother! Day after day she visits the
+churches, and before the altar of the Virgin-Mother prays that she also
+may have her portion of that happiness which is the greatest joy God
+gives to women.
+
+After the battle of St. Gothard it was Prince Ghyka's first thought to
+send a courier to his wife, bidding her not to be anxious about her
+husband, for he was alive and would soon be home.
+
+This was Mariska's first tidings of the lost battle, and she thanked God
+for it. What did she care that the battle was lost, that the glory of
+the Turkish Sultan was cracked beyond repair, so long as her husband
+remained to her? With him the husbands of all the other poor Wallachian
+wives were also safe. She at once hastened to tell the more remote of
+these poor women that they were not to be alarmed if they heard that the
+Turkish army had been cut down, for their husbands were free and quite
+near to them.
+
+What joy at the thought of seeing him again! How she watched for her
+husband from morn till eve, and awoke at night at the slightest noise.
+If a horse neighed in the street, if she heard a trumpet far away, she
+fancied that her husband was coming.
+
+One night she was aroused by the sound of a light tapping at her bedroom
+door, and her husband's voice replied to her question of "Who is there?"
+
+Her surprise and her joy were so great that in the first moment of
+awaking she knew not what to do, whereupon her husband impatiently
+repeated:
+
+"Mariska, open the door!"
+
+The wife hastened to embrace her husband, admitted him, fell upon his
+neck, and covered him with kisses; but, perceiving suddenly that the
+kisses her husband gave her back were quite cold, and that his arm
+trembled when he embraced her, she looked anxiously at his face--it was
+grave and full of anxiety.
+
+"My husband!" cried the unusually sensitive woman with a shaky voice.
+"Why do you embrace me--us, so coldly," her downcast eyes seemed to say.
+
+The Prince did not fail to notice the expression, and very sadly, and
+sighing slightly, he said:
+
+"So much the worse for me!"
+
+His hands, his whole frame shook so in the arms of his wife; and yet the
+Prince was a muscular as well as a brave man.
+
+"What has happened? What is the matter?" asked his wife anxiously.
+
+"Nothing," said the Prince, kissing her forehead. "Be quiet. Lie down. I
+have some business to do which must be done to-night. Then I'll come to
+you, and we'll talk about things."
+
+Mariska took him at his word, and lay down again. But she still
+trembled--why, she knew not.
+
+There must be something wrong, something very wrong with her husband, or
+else he would not have welcomed his wife so coldly at the very moment of
+his arrival.
+
+After a few moments, during which she heard her husband talking in an
+undertone with someone outside, he came in with his sword in his hand,
+and after seeming to look for something, he turned to Mariska:
+
+"Have you the keys of your treasure-box?"
+
+"Yes, they are in my secretaire."
+
+The Prince took the keys and withdrew.
+
+Mariska breathed again. "Then it is only some money trouble after all,"
+she thought. "Thank God it is no worse. They have lost something in the
+camp, I suppose, or they are screwing some more tribute out of him."
+
+In a short time the Prince again returned, and stood there for a time as
+if he couldn't make up his mind to speak. At last he said:
+
+"Mariska, have you any money?"
+
+"Yes, dear!" Mariska hastened to answer, "just ten thousand thalers. Do
+you want them?"
+
+"No, no. But have them all ready to hand, and if you collected your
+jewels together at the same time you would do well."
+
+"What for, my husband?"
+
+"Because," stammered Ghyka, "because--we may--and very speedily,
+too--have to set out on our travels."
+
+"Have to travel--in my condition?" asked Mariska, raising a pathetic
+face up to her husband.
+
+That look transfixed the very soul of Ghyka. His wife was in a condition
+nearer to death than to life.
+
+"No, I won't stir a stump," he suddenly cried, beside himself with
+agitation, striking his sword so violently on the table that it flew
+from its sheath, "if heaven itself fall on me, I won't go."
+
+"For God's sake, my husband, what is the matter?" cried Mariska in her
+astonishment; whereupon the Prince proudly raised his eyebrows,
+approached her with a smile, and pressing his wife to his bosom, said
+reassuringly:
+
+"Fear nothing. I had an idea in my head; but I have dismissed it, and
+will think of it no more. Take it that I have asked you nothing."
+
+"But your anxiety?"
+
+"It has gone already. Ask not the reason, for you would laugh at me for
+it. Sleep in peace. I also will sleep upon it."
+
+The husband caressed and kissed his wife, and his hand trembled no
+longer, his face was no longer pale, and his lips were no longer so cold
+as before.
+
+But the wife's were now. When her husband tenderly kissed her eyes and
+bade her sleep, she pretended that she was satisfied; but as soon as he
+had withdrawn from her room, she arose, put on a dressing-gown, and
+calling one of her maids, descended with her into the hall, and sent for
+a faithful old servant of her husband's, who was wont to accompany him
+everywhere, an old Moldavian courier.
+
+"Jova!" she said, "speak the truth! What's the matter with your master?
+What have you seen and heard?"
+
+"It is a great trouble, my lady. God deliver us from it! We only escaped
+destruction at the battle of St. Gothard by not standing up against the
+Magyars. But what were we to do? Christian cannot fight against
+Christian, for then should we be fighting against God. The Turkish army
+was badly beaten there. And now the Vizier of Buda, that he may wash
+himself clean, for the Sultan is very wroth, wants to cast the whole
+blame of the affair on the head of the Prince."
+
+"Great Heaven! And what will be the result?"
+
+"Well, it would not be a bad thing if your Highnesses were to withdraw
+somewhere or other for a time to give the Sultan's wrath time to cool."
+
+"To my father's, eh? in Wallachia?"
+
+"Well, a little farther than that, I should say."
+
+"True, we might go to Transylvania; we have lots of good friends there."
+
+"Even there it might not be as well to stay. You would do well to make a
+journey to Poland."
+
+"Do you suppose the danger to be so great then?"
+
+"God grant it be not so bad as I think it."
+
+"Thank you for your advice, Jova. I will tell my husband quite early in
+the morning."
+
+"My lady, you would do well not to wait till morning."
+
+The woman grew pale.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that if you would take care of yourselves, you should take
+carriage this very night, this very hour. I will go before the horses
+with a lantern, and a courier shall be sent on ahead to have fresh
+relays of horses awaiting us at every station, so that by the time it
+begins to grow grey, we shall have left the last hill of this region out
+of sight."
+
+The terrified Princess returned to her bedchamber, and quickly packed up
+her most valuable things, making all the necessary preparations for a
+long journey. But the door leading to her husband's room was locked, and
+she durst not call him, but with an indescribable sinking of heart
+awaited the endlessly distant dawn. She was unable to close her eyes the
+whole night. Wearied out in body and soul she rose as soon as she saw
+the light of dawn, sitting with her swimming head against the window,
+whence she could look down into the courtyard.
+
+Gradually the courtyard awoke to life and noise again, and the hall was
+peopled with domestics hurrying to and fro. The grooms began walking the
+horses up and down, the peasant girls with pitchers on their heads were
+returning from the distant wells, a merry voice began singing a popular
+ditty in one of the outhouses. All this seemed as strange to the
+watchful lady as the life and the movement of the outside world seems to
+one condemned to death who gazes upon it from the window of his cell.
+
+Then the door opened and her husband came out of his bedchamber and
+greeted his wife with a voice full of boisterous courage. He was dressed
+in a short stagskin jacket, which he generally wore when he went
+a-hunting, and wore big Polish boots with star-like spurs.
+
+"Going a-hunting, eh?" asked Mariska, from whose soul all her terrifying
+phantoms vanished instantly when her husband embraced her in his
+vigorous arms.
+
+"Yes, I'm going a-hunting. I feel so full of energy that if I don't
+tumble about somewhere or other I shall burst. Any boar or bear that I
+come across to-day will have good cause to remember me."
+
+"Oh! take care no ill befalls you!"
+
+"Befalls me!" cried the Prince, proudly smiting his herculean breast.
+
+The lady flung herself on her husband's neck with the confidence of a
+child, and lifting from his head his saucy bonnet with its eagle plume,
+which gave him such a brave appearance, and smoothing down his curls,
+kissed his bonny face, and forgot all her thoughts and visions of the
+bygone night.
+
+The Prince withdrew, and Mariska opened her window and looked out of it
+to see him mount his horse.
+
+While the Prince was going downstairs, a dirty Turkish cavasse in sordid
+rags entered the courtyard, from which at other times he was wont to
+fetch letters, and mingled with the ostlers and stablemen without
+seeming to attract attention.
+
+A few moments later the Prince ordered his horse to be brought in a loud
+resonant voice, whereupon the cavasse immediately came forward, and
+producing from beneath his dirty dolman a sealed and corded letter,
+pressed it to his forehead and then handed it to the Prince.
+
+The Prince broke open the letter and his face suddenly turned pale;
+taking off his cap, he bowed low before the cavasse and saluted him.
+
+O Prince of Moldavia! to doff thy eagle-plumed cap to a dirty cavasse,
+and bow thy haughty manly brow before him! Whatever can be the meaning
+of it all? Mariska's heart began to throb violently as she gazed down
+from her window.
+
+The Prince, with all imaginable deference, then indicated the door of
+his castle to the cavasse and invited him to enter first; but the Turk
+with true boorish insolence, signified that the Prince was to lead the
+way.
+
+Suddenly, in an illuminated flash, Mariska guessed the mystery. In the
+moment of peril, with rare presence of mind, she rushed to her
+secretaire, where her jewels were. Her first thought was that the
+cavasse had come for her husband; he must be bribed therefore to connive
+at his escape.
+
+Then she saw hastening through the door the old groom Jova. The face of
+the ancient servitor was full of fear, and there were tears in his eyes.
+
+"Has the cavasse come for my husband, then?" she inquired tremulously.
+
+"Yes, my lady," stammered the servant; "why don't you make haste?"
+
+"Let us give him money."
+
+"He won't take it. What is money to him? If he returns without the
+Prince his own head will be forfeit."
+
+"Merciful God! Then what shall we do?"
+
+"My master whispered a few words in my ear, and I fancy I caught their
+meaning. First of all I must take you off to Transylvania, my lady.
+Meanwhile my master will remain here with the cavasses and their
+attendants, who are now in the courtyard. My master will remain with
+them and spin out the time till he feels pretty sure that we have got
+well beyond the river Sereth in our carriage. Near there is a bridge
+over a steep rocky chasm, beneath which the river flows. That bridge we
+will break down behind us. The Prince will then bring forth his charger
+Gryllus, on whose back he is wont to take such daring leaps, and will
+set out in the same direction with the Turkish cavasses. When he
+approaches the broken-down bridge, he will put spurs to his steed and
+leap across the gap, while the Turks remain behind. And after that God
+grant him good counsel!"
+
+Mariska perceiving there was no time to be lost, hastily collected her
+treasures and, assisted by Jova, descended by way of the secret
+staircase to the chapel and stood there, for a moment, before the image
+of the Blessed Virgin to pray that her husband might succeed in
+escaping. Before the chapel door stood a carriage drawn by four muscular
+stallions. She got into it quickly, and succeeded in escaping by a
+side-gate.
+
+Meanwhile the Prince, with great self-denial, endeavoured to detain his
+unwelcome guests by all manner of pretexts. First of all he almost
+compelled them to eat and drink to bursting point, swearing by heaven
+and earth that he would never allow such precious guests as they were to
+leave his castle with empty stomachs. Then followed a distribution of
+gifts. Every individual cavasse got a sword or a beaker and every sword
+and every beaker had its own peculiar history. So-and-so had worn it,
+So-and-so had drunk out of it. It had been found here and sent there,
+and its last owner was such a one, etc., etc. And he artfully
+interlarded his speech with such sacred and sublime words as "Allah!"
+"Mahomet!" "the Sultan!" at the mention of each one of which the
+cavasses felt bound to interrupt him repeatedly with such expressions as
+"Blessed be his name!" so that despite the insistence of the Turks, it
+was fully an hour before his horse could be brought forward.
+
+At last, however, Gryllus was brought round to the courtyard. The Prince
+now also would have improved the occasion by telling them a nice
+interesting tale about this steed of his, but the chief cavasse would
+give him no peace.
+
+"Come! mount your Honour!" said he, "you can tell us the story on the
+way."
+
+The Prince mounted accordingly, and immediately began to complain how
+very much all the galloping of the last few days had taken it out of
+him, and begged his escort not to hurry on so as he could scarce sit in
+his saddle.
+
+The chief cavasse, taking him at his word, had the Prince's feet tied
+fast to his stirrups, so that he might not fall off his horse,
+sarcastically adding:
+
+"If your honour should totter in your saddle, I shall be close beside
+you, so that you may lean upon me."
+
+And indeed the chief cavasse trotted by his side with a drawn sword in
+his hand; the rest were a horse's head behind them.
+
+When they came to the path leading to the bridge the way grew so narrow
+because of the rocks on both sides that it was as much as two horsemen
+could do to ride abreast. The Prince already caught sight of the bridge,
+and though its wooden frame was quite hidden by a projecting tree, a
+white handkerchief tied to the tree informed him that his carriage with
+his consort inside it had got across and away, and that the supports had
+been also cut.
+
+At this point he made as if he felt faint and turning to the chief
+cavasse, said to him, "Come nearer, I want to lean on you!" and upon the
+cavasse leaning fatuously towards him he dealt him such a fearful blow
+with his clenched fist that the Turk fell right across his horse. And
+now: "Onward, my Gryllus!"
+
+The gallant steed with a bound forward left the escort some distance
+behind, and while they dashed after him with a savage howl, he darted
+with the fleetness of the wind towards the bridge.
+
+The Prince sat tied to his horse without either arms or spurs, but the
+noble charger, as if he felt that his master's life was now entrusted to
+his safe-keeping, galloped forward with ten-fold energy.
+
+Suddenly it became clear to the pursuers that the beams of the bridge
+had been severed and only the balustrade remained. "Stop!" they shouted
+in terror to the Prince, at the same time reining in their own horses.
+Then Ghyka turned towards them a haughty face, and leaning over his
+horse's head, pressed its flanks with his knees, and at the very moment
+when he had reached the dizzy chasm he laughed aloud as he raised his
+eagle-plumed cap in the air, and shouted to his pursuers: "Follow me, if
+you dare!"
+
+The charger the same instant lowered its head upon its breast, and, with
+a well-calculated bound, leaped the empty space between the two sides of
+the bridge as lightly as a bird. The Prince as he flew through the air
+held his eagle-plumed cap in his hand, while his black locks fluttered
+round his bold face.
+
+The terrified cavasses drew the reins of their horses tightly lest they
+should plunge after Gryllus; but one of them, carried away by his
+maddened steed, would also have made the bold leap but the fore feet of
+the horse barely grazed the opposite bank, and with a mortal yell it
+crashed down with its rider among the rocks of the stream below.
+
+The Prince meanwhile, beneath the very eyes of the cavasses, loosened
+the cords from his legs on the opposite shore and also allowed himself
+time enough to break down the remaining balustrades of the bridge, one
+by one, and pitch them into the river. Then, remounting his steed, he
+ambled leisurely off whilst the cavasses gazed after him in helpless
+fury. A rapid two hours' gallop enabled him to overtake the carriage of
+his wife, who, according to his directions, had hastened without
+stopping towards Transylvania with the sole escort of the old horseman.
+
+On overtaking the carriage he mounted the old man on his own nag, and
+sent him on before to Transylvania requesting the Prince to allow him
+and his wife to pass through Transylvania to the domains of the Kaiser.
+He himself took a seat in the carriage by the side of Mariska, who was
+quite rejoiced at her husband's deliverance, and forgot the anxieties
+still awaiting her.
+
+According to the most rigorous calculations their pursuers would either
+have to go another way, or they might throw another bridge over the
+Sereth; but, in any case they had a day's clear start of them, which
+would be quite sufficient to enable them, travelling leisurely, to reach
+the borders of Transylvania, where the Seraskier of Moldavia had no
+jurisdiction.
+
+In this hope they presently perceived the mountains of Szeklerland
+rising up before them, and the nearer they came to them the more lightly
+they felt their hearts beat, regarding the mountain range as a vast city
+of refuge stretching out before them.
+
+They had already struck into that deep-lying road which leads to the
+Pass of Porgo, which, after winding along the bare hillside, plunges
+like a serpent into the shady flowering valleys beneath, and every now
+and then a mountain stream darted along the road beside them; above them
+the dangerous road looked like a tiny notch in which a heavy wagon
+crawled slowly along, with lofty rocks apparently tottering to their
+fall above it in every direction.
+
+And here galloping straight towards them, was a horseman in whom the
+Prince instantly recognised his _avant courier_.
+
+Old Jova reached them in a state of exhaustion, and Gryllus also seemed
+ready to drop.
+
+"Go no further, sir!" cried the terrified servant, "I have come all the
+way without stopping from Szamosujvar where the Prince is staying. I
+laid your request before him. 'For God's sake!' cried the Prince,
+clasping his hands together, 'don't let your master come here, or he'll
+ruin the whole lot of us. Olaj Beg has just come hither with the
+Sultan's command that if the Prince of Moldavia comes here he is to be
+handed over.'"
+
+The Prince gazed gloomily in front of him, his lips trembled. Then he
+turned his face round and shading his eyes with his hand, gazed away
+into the distance. On the same road by which he had come a cloud of dust
+could be seen rapidly approaching.
+
+"Those are our pursuers," he moaned despairingly; "there is nothing for
+it but to die."
+
+"Nay, my master. Over yonder is a mountain path which can only be
+traversed on foot. With worthy Szeklers or Wallachs as our guides we may
+get all the way to Poland through the mountains. Why not take refuge
+there?"
+
+"And my wife?" asked the Prince, looking round savagely and biting his
+lips in his distress; "she cannot accompany me."
+
+All this time Mariska had remained, benumbed and speechless, gazing at
+her husband--her heart, her mind, stood still at these terrible tidings;
+but when she heard that her husband could be saved without her, she
+plunged out of the carriage and falling at his feet implored him,
+sobbing loudly, to fly.
+
+"Save yourself," she cried; "do not linger here on my account another
+instant."
+
+"And sacrifice you, my consort, to their fury?"
+
+"They will not hurt me, for they do not pursue an innocent woman. God
+will defend me. You go into Transylvania; there live good friends of
+mine, whose husbands and fathers are the leading men in the State; there
+is the heroic Princess, there is the gentle Beldi with her angel
+daughter, there is Teleki's daughter Flora--we swore eternal friendship
+together once--they will mediate for us; and then, too, my rich father
+will gladly spend his money to spare our blood. And if I must suffer and
+even die, it will be for you, my husband. Save yourself! In Heaven's
+name I implore you to depart from me."
+
+Ghyka reflected for a moment.
+
+"Very well, I will take refuge in order to be able to save you."
+
+And he pressed the pale face of his wife to his bosom.
+
+"Make haste," said Mariska, "I also want to hasten. If die I must--I
+would prefer to die among Christians, in the sight of my friends and
+acquaintances. But you go on in front, for if they were to slay you
+before my eyes, it would need no sword to slay me; my heart would break
+from sheer despair."
+
+"Come, sir, come!" said the old courier, seizing the hand of the Prince
+and dragging him away by force.
+
+Mariska got into the carriage again, and told the coachman to drive on
+quickly. The Prince allowed himself to be guided by the old courier
+along the narrow pass, looking back continually so long as the carriage
+was visible, and mournfully pausing whenever he caught sight of it again
+from the top of some mountain-ridge.
+
+"Come on, sir! come on!" the old servant kept insisting; "when we have
+reached that mountain summit yonder we shall be able to rest."
+
+Ghyka stumbled on as heavily as if the mountain was pressing on his
+bosom with all its weight. He allowed himself to be led unconsciously
+among the steep precipices, clinging on to projecting bushes as he went
+along. God guarded him from falling a hundred times.
+
+After half an hour's hard labour they reached the indicated summit, and
+as the courier helped his master up and they looked around them,
+Nature's magnificent tableau stood before them; and looking down upon a
+vast panorama, they saw the tiny winding road by which his wife had
+gone; and, looking still farther on, he perceived that the carriage had
+just climbed to the summit of a declivity about half a league off.
+
+Ah! that sight gave him back his soul. He followed with his eyes the
+travelling coach, and as often as the coach ascended a higher hill, it
+again appeared in sight, and it seemed to him as if all along he saw
+inside it his wife, and his face brightened as he fancied himself
+kissing away her tears.
+
+At that instant a loud uproar smote upon his ears. At the foot of the
+steep mountain, on the summit of which his wife had just come into sight
+again, he saw a troop of horsemen trotting rapidly along. These were the
+pursuers. They seemed scarcely larger than ants.
+
+Ah! how he would have liked to have trampled those ants to death.
+
+"You would pursue her, eh? Then I will stop you."
+
+And with these words seizing a large grey rock from among those which
+were heaped upon the summit, he rolled it down the side of the mountain
+just as the Turks had reached a narrow defile.
+
+With a noise like thunder the huge mass of rock plunged its way down the
+mountain-side, taking great leaps into the air whenever it encountered
+any obstacle. Ah! how the galloping rock plunged among the terrified
+horsemen--only a streak of blood remained in its track, horses and
+horsemen were equally crushed beneath it.
+
+With a second, with a third rock also he greeted them. The cavasses, at
+their wits' end, fled back, and never stopped till they had clambered up
+the opposite ridge; they did not feel safe among the plunging rocks
+below and there they could be seen deliberating how it was possible to
+reach the road behind their backs.
+
+Guessing their intention, the Prince sent his servant to fling a rock
+down upon them from the hillside beyond, which, as it came clattering
+down, made the cavasses believe that their enemies were in force, and
+they climbed higher up still.
+
+"There they will remain till evening," thought the Prince to himself;
+"so they will not overtake Mariska after all."
+
+And so it conveniently turned out. The cavasses, after consulting
+together for a long time fruitlessly as to what road they should take to
+get out of the dangerous pass, began to yell from their lofty perch at
+their invisible foes, threatening them with the highest displeasure of
+the Sultan if they did not allow them to pass through in peace; and when
+a fresh shower of rocks came down by way of reply, they unsaddled their
+horses and allowing them to graze about at will, lit a fire and squatted
+down beside it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, the hunted lady, exchanging her tired horses for four fresh
+ones in the first Transylvanian village she came to, pressed onwards
+without stopping. Travelling all night she reached Szamosujvar in the
+early morning. The Prince was no longer there. He had migrated in hot
+haste, they said, before the rising of the sun, to Klausenberg.
+
+Mariska did not descend from her carriage, but only changed her horses.
+Three days and three nights she had already been travelling, without
+rest, in sickness and despair. And again she must hasten on farther. It
+was evening when they reached Klausenberg. The coachman, when he saw the
+towers in the distance, turned round to her with the comforting
+assurance that they would now be at Klausenberg very shortly. At these
+words the lady begged the coachman not to go so quickly, and when he
+lashed up his horses still more vigorously notwithstanding, and cast a
+look behind him, she also looked through the window at the back of the
+carriage and saw a band of horsemen galloping after them along the road.
+
+So their pursuers were as near to them behind as Klausenberg was in
+front.
+
+There was not a moment's delay. The coachman whipped up the horses,
+their nostrils steamed, foam fell from their lips, they plunged wildly
+forward, the pebbles flashed sparks beneath their hoofs, the carriage
+swayed to and fro on the uneven road, the persecuted lady huddled
+herself into a corner of the carriage, and prayed to God for
+deliverance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+OLAJ BEG.
+
+
+The Prince was just then standing in the portico of his palace
+conversing with the Princess, whose face bore strong marks of the
+sufferings of the last few days. Shortly after the panic of Nagyenyed
+she had given birth to a little daughter, and the terror experienced at
+the time had had a bad effect on both mother and child.
+
+Apafi's brow was also clouded. The Prince's heart was sore, and not
+merely on his own account. Whenever there was any distress in the
+principality he also was distressed, but his own sorrow he had to share
+alone.
+
+For some days he had found no comfort in whatever direction he might
+turn. The Turks had made him feel their tyranny everywhere, and the
+foreign courts had listened to his tale of distress with selfish
+indifference; while the great men of the realm dubbed him a tyrant, the
+common folks sung lampoons upon his cowardice beneath his very windows;
+and when he took refuge in the bosom of his family he was met by a sick
+wife, who had ceased to find any joy in life ever since he had been made
+Prince.
+
+A sick wife is omnipotent as regards her husband. If Anna had insisted
+upon _her_ husband's quitting his princely palace, and returning with
+her to their quiet country house at Ebesfalu--where there was no kingdom
+but the kingdom of Heaven--perhaps he would even have done that for
+her.
+
+As the princely pair stood on the castle battlements, the din of the
+town grew deeper, and suddenly the rumble of a carriage, driven at full
+tilt, broke upon the dreamy stillness of the castle courtyard, and
+dashing into it stopped before the staircase; the door of the coach was
+quickly thrown open and out of it rushed a pale woman, who, rallying her
+last remaining strength, ran up the staircase and collapsed at the feet
+of the Prince as he hastened to meet her, exclaiming as she did so:
+
+"I am Mariska Sturdza."
+
+"For the love of God," cried the agitated Prince, "why did you come
+here? You have destroyed the state and me; you have brought ruin on
+yourself and on us."
+
+The unfortunate lady was unable to utter another word. Her energy was
+exhausted. She lay there on the marble floor, half unconscious.
+
+The Princess Apafi summoned her ladies-in-waiting, who, at her command,
+hastened to raise the lady in their arms and began to sprinkle her face
+with eau-de-Cologne.
+
+"I cannot allow her to be brought into my house," cried the terrified
+Apafi; "it would bring utter destruction on me and my family."
+
+The Princess cast a look full of dignity upon her husband.
+
+"What do you mean? Would you hand this unfortunate woman over to her
+pursuers? In her present condition, too? Suppose _I_ was obliged to fly
+in a similar plight, would you fling _me_ out upon the high road instead
+of offering me a place of refuge?"
+
+"But the wrath of the Sultan?"
+
+"Yes; and the contempt of posterity?"
+
+"Then would you have me bring ruin upon my throne and my family for the
+sake of a woman?"
+
+"Better perish for the sake of a woman than do that woman to death. If
+you shut your rooms against her, I will open mine wide to receive her,
+and then you can tell the Sultan if you like that I have taken her."
+
+Apafi felt that his wife's obstinacy was getting him into a hideous
+muddle. This audacious woman would listen to no reasons of state in any
+matter which interested her humanity.
+
+What was he to do? He pitied the persecuted lady from the bottom of his
+heart, but the emissary of the Sublime Porte, Olaj Beg, had come to
+demand her with plenipotentiary power. If he did _not_ shelter the
+persecuted lady he would pronounce himself a coward in the face of the
+whole world; if he _did_ shelter her, the Porte would annihilate him!
+
+In the midst of this dilemma, one of the gate-keepers came in hot haste
+to announce that a band of Turkish soldiers was at that moment galloping
+along the road, inquiring in a loud voice for the Princess of Wallachia.
+
+Apafi leant in dumb despair against a marble pillar whilst Anna quickly
+ordered her women to carry the unconscious lady to her innermost
+apartments and summon the doctor. She then went out on the balcony, and
+perceiving that the cavasses had just halted in front of the palace, she
+cried to the gate-keepers:
+
+"Close the gates!"
+
+Apafi would have very much liked to have countermanded the order; but
+while he was still thinking about it, the gates were snapped to under
+the very noses of the cavasses.
+
+They began angrily beating with the shafts of their lances against the
+closed gate, whereupon the Princess called down to them from the balcony
+with a sonorous, authoritative voice:
+
+"Ye good-for-nothing rascals, wherefore all that racket? This is not a
+barrack, but the residence of the Prince. Perchance ye know it not,
+because fresh human heads are wont to be nailed over the gates of your
+Princes every day as a mark of recognition? If that is what you are
+accustomed to, your error is pardonable."
+
+The cavasses were considerably startled at these words, and, looking up
+at the imperious lady, began to see that she really meant what she said.
+For a while they laid their heads together, and then turned round and
+departed.
+
+Apafi sighed deeply.
+
+"There is some hidden trick in this," said he, "but what it is God only
+knows."
+
+A few moments later a muederris appeared from Olaj Beg at the gate of the
+Prince, and, being all alone, was admitted.
+
+"Olaj Beg greets thee, and thou must come to him quickly," said he.
+
+Anna had drawn near to greet her guest, but hearing that Olaj Beg
+summoned the Prince to appear before him, she approached the messenger,
+boiling over with wrath.
+
+"Whoever heard," she said, "of a servant ordering his master about, or
+an ambassador summoning the Prince to whose Court he is accredited?"
+
+But Apafi could only take refuge in a desperate falsehood.
+
+"Poor Olaj Beg," he explained, "is very sick and cannot stir from his
+bed, and, indeed, he humbly begs me to pay him a visit. There is no
+humiliation in this--none at all, if I am graciously pleased to do it.
+He is an old man of eighty. I might be his grandson, he is wont to scold
+me as if I were his darling; I will certainly go to him, and put this
+matter right with him. You go to your sick guest and comfort her. I give
+you my word I will do everything to get her set free. For her sake I
+will humble myself."
+
+The Princess Apafi's foresight already suggested to her that this
+humiliation would be permanent, but, perceiving that her own strength of
+mind was not contagious, she allowed her husband to depart.
+
+Apafi prepared himself for his visit upon Olaj Beg. With a peculiar
+feeling of melancholy he did _not_ put on his princely dolman of green
+velvet, but only the _koentoes_ of a simple nobleman, imagining that thus
+it would not be the Prince of Transylvania but the squire of Ebesfalu
+who was paying a visit on Olaj Beg. He went on foot to the house of Olaj
+Beg, accompanied by a single soldier, who had to put on his everyday
+clothes.
+
+The dogs had been let loose in the courtyard, for the Beg was a great
+protector of animals, and used to keep open table in front of his
+dwelling for the wandering dogs of every town he came to.
+
+Making his way through them, Apafi had to cross a hall and an
+ante-chamber, brimful with praying dervishes, who, squatting down with
+legs crossed, were reading aloud from books with large clasps, only so
+far paying attention to each other as to see which could yell the
+loudest.
+
+The Prince did not address them, as it was clear that he would get no
+answer, but went straight towards the third door.
+
+The chamber beyond was also full of spiders'-webs and dervishes, but a
+red cushion had been placed in the midst of it, and on this cushion sat
+a big, pale, grey man in a roomy yellow caftan. He also was holding a
+large book in front of him and reading painfully.
+
+Apafi approached, and even ventured to address him.
+
+"Merciful Olaj Beg, my gracious master, find a full stop somewhere in
+that book of yours, turn down the leaf at the proper spot, put it down,
+and listen to me."
+
+Olaj Beg, on hearing the words of the Prince, put the book aside, and
+turning with a sweet and tender smile towards him, remarked with
+emotion:
+
+"The angels of the Prophet bear thee up in all thy ways, my dear child.
+Heaven preserve every hair of thy beard, and the Archangel Izrafil go
+before thee and sweep every stone from thy path, that thy feet may not
+strike against them!"
+
+With these words the Beg graciously extended his right hand to be
+kissed, blinking privily at the Prince; nor would Apafi have minded
+kissing it if they had been all alone, but in the presence of so many
+dervishes it would have been derogatory to his dignity; so, instead of
+doing so, he took the Beg's hand and provisionally placed it in his left
+hand and gave it a resounding thump with his right, and then shook it
+amicably as became a friend.
+
+"Don't trouble thyself, my dear son, I will not suffer thee to kiss my
+hand," cried Olaj Beg, drawing back his hand and making a show of
+opposition so that everyone might fancy that Apafi was angry with him
+for not being allowed to kiss it.
+
+"You have deigned to send for me," said Apafi, taking a step backwards;
+"tell me, I pray, what you desire, for my time is short. I am
+overwhelmed with affairs of state."
+
+These last words Apafi pronounced with as majestic an intonation as
+possible.
+
+Olaj Beg thereupon folded his hands together.
+
+"Oh, my dear son!" said he, "the princely dignity is indeed a heavy
+burden. I see that quite well, nor am I in the least surprised that thou
+wishest to be relieved of it; but be of good cheer, the blessing of
+Heaven will come upon us when we are not praying for it; when thou dost
+least expect it the Sublime Sultan will have compassion upon thee, and
+will deliver thee of the heavy load which presses upon thy shoulders."
+
+Apafi wrinkled his brows. The exordium was bad enough; he hastened
+towards the end of the business.
+
+"Perchance, you have heard, gracious Olaj Beg! that the unfortunate
+Mariska Sturdza has taken refuge with us."
+
+"It matters not," signified the Beg, with a reassuring wave of the hand.
+
+"She took refuge in my palace without my knowledge," observed Apafi
+apologetically, "and what could I do when she was all alone? I couldn't
+turn her out of my house."
+
+"There was no necessity. Thou didst as it became a merciful man to do."
+
+"If you had seen her you would yourself have felt sorry for her--sick,
+half-dead, desperate, she flung herself at my feet, imploring
+compassion, and before I could reply to her she had fainted away.
+Perhaps even now she is dead."
+
+"Oh, poor child!" cried Olaj Beg, folding both his hands and raising his
+eyes to Heaven.
+
+"Her husband had left her in great misery, and alone she plunged into
+jeopardy," continued Apafi, trying to justify the persecuted woman in
+every possible manner.
+
+"Oh, poor, unhappy child!" cried Olaj Beg, shaking his head.
+
+"And more than that," sighed Apafi, "the poor woman is big with child."
+
+"What dost thou say?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and flying day and night in all sorts of weathers from her
+pursuers in such a condition, you can imagine her wretched condition;
+she was scarce alive, she was on the very threshold of death."
+
+"Allah be gracious to her and extend over her the wings of his mercy!"
+
+Apafi began to think that he had found Olaj Beg in a charitable humour.
+
+"I knew that you would not be angry about her."
+
+"I am not angry, my son, I am not angry. My eyes overflow at her sad
+fate."
+
+"She, you know, had no share in her husband's faults."
+
+"Far from it."
+
+"And it would not be right that an innocent woman should atone for what
+her husband has committed."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Then do you think, my lord, that the Sublime Sultan will be merciful to
+this woman?"
+
+"What a question! Have no fear for her!"
+
+Apafi was not so simple as not to be struck by this exaggerated
+indulgence, the more satisfactory were the Beg's replies the keener grew
+his feeling of anxiety. At last, much perturbed, he ventured to put this
+question:
+
+"Gracious Beg! will you allow this unfortunate woman to rest in peace at
+my house, and can you assure me that the Sublime Sultan will espouse her
+cause?"
+
+"The Holy Book says: 'Be merciful to them that suffer and compassionate
+them that weep.' Therefore, behold I grant thee thy desire: let this
+poor innocent woman repose in thy house in peace, let her rest
+thoroughly from her sufferings and let her enjoy the blessedness of
+peace till such time as I must take her from thee by the command of the
+Grand Seignior."
+
+Apafi felt his brain reel, so marvellous, so terrible was this
+graciousness of the Turk towards him.
+
+"And when think you you will require this woman to be handed over?"
+
+Olaj Beg, with a reassuring look, tapped Apafi on the shoulder, and said
+with a voice full of unction:
+
+"Fret not thyself, my dear son! In no case will it be earlier than
+to-morrow morning."
+
+Apafi almost collapsed in his fright.
+
+"To-morrow morning, do you say, my lord?"
+
+"I promise thee she shall not be disturbed before."
+
+Apafi perceived that the man had been making sport with him all along.
+Rage began to seethe in his heart.
+
+"But, my lord, I said nothing about one day. One day is the period
+allowed to condemned criminals."
+
+"Days and seasons come from Allah, and none may divide them."
+
+"Damn you soft sawder!" murmured Apafi between his teeth. "My lord," he
+resumed, "would you carry away with you a sick woman whom only the most
+tender care can bring back from the shores of Death, and who, if she
+were now to set out for Buda, would never reach it, for she would die on
+the way?"
+
+Olaj Beg piously raised his hands to Heaven.
+
+"Life and death are inscribed above in the Book of Thora, and if it
+there be written in letters embellished with roses and tulips that
+Mariska Sturdza must die to-morrow, or the day after to-morrow, die she
+will most certainly, though she lay upon musk and were anointed with the
+balm of life, and neither the prayers of the saints nor the lore of the
+Sages could save her--but if it be written that she is to live, then let
+the Angels of Death come against her with every manner of weapon and
+they shall not harm her."
+
+Apafi saw that he would have to speak very plainly to this crafty old
+man.
+
+"Worthy Olaj Beg! you know that this realm has a constitution which
+enjoins that the Prince himself must not issue ordinances in the more
+weighty matters without consulting his counsellors. Now, the present
+case seems to me to be so important that I cannot inform you of my
+resolution till I have communicated it to my council."
+
+"It is well, my dear son, I have no objection. Speak with those servants
+of thine whom thou hast made thy masters; sit in thy council chamber and
+let the matter be well considered as it deserves to be; and if
+thereafter ye decide that the Princess shall accompany me, I will take
+her away and take leave of thee with great honour; but if it should so
+fall out that ye do not give her up to me, my dear son, or should allow
+her to escape from me--then will I take thee instead of her, together
+with thy brave counsellors, my sweet son."
+
+The Beg said these words in the sweetest, tenderest voice, as old
+grandfathers are wont to address their grandchildren, and descending
+from his pillows he stroked the Prince's face with both his hands, and
+kissed him on the temples with great good will, quite covering his head
+with his long white beard.
+
+Apafi felt as if the whole room were dancing around him. He did not
+speak a word, but turned on his axis and went right out. He himself did
+not know how he got through the first door, but by the time he had shut
+the second door behind him he bethought him that he was still the Prince
+of Transylvania, and by descent one of the first noblemen of the land,
+whereas Olaj Beg was only a nasty, dirty Turkish captain, who had been a
+camel-driver in the days of his youth, and yet had dared to speak to
+him, the Prince, like that! By the time he had reached the third door he
+had reflected that in the days when he was nothing but the joint-tenant
+of Ebesfalu, if Olaj Beg had dared to treat him so shamefully, he would
+have broken his bald head for him with a stout truncheon. But had he not
+just such a stout truncheon actually hanging by his side? Yes, he had!
+and he would go back and strike Olaj Beg with it, not exactly on the
+head perhaps, but, at any rate, on the back that he might remember for
+the rest of his life the _stylus curialis_ of Transylvania.
+
+And with that he turned back from the third door with very grave
+resolves.
+
+But when he had re-opened the second door he bethought him once more
+that such violence might be of great prejudice to the realm, and
+besides, there was not very much glory after all in striking an old man
+of eighty. But at any rate he would tell him like a man what it had not
+occurred to him to say in the first moment of his surprise.
+
+So when he had opened the first door and was in the presence of Olaj
+Beg, he stood there on the threshold with the door ajar, and said to him
+in a voice of thunder:
+
+"Hearken, Olaj Beg! I have come back simply to tell you----"
+
+Olaj Beg looked at him.
+
+"What dost thou say, my good son?"
+
+"This," continued Apafi in a very much lower key, "that it will take
+time to summon the council, for Beldi lives at Bodola, Teleki at
+Gernyeszeg, Csaky at Deva, and until they come together you can do what
+you think best: you may remain here or go"--and with that he turned
+back, and only when he had slammed to the door he added--"to hell!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE WOMEN'S DEFENCE.
+
+
+This incident was the occasion of great affliction to the Estates of
+Transylvania. The counsellors assembled at the appointed time at the
+residence of the Prince, who at that moment would have felt happier as a
+Tartar captive than as the ruler of Transylvania.
+
+On the day of the session everyone appeared in the council chamber with
+as gloomy a countenance as if he were about to pronounce his own
+death-warrant.
+
+They took their places in silence, and everyone took great care that his
+sword should not rattle. There were present: old John and young Michael
+Bethlen, Paul Beldi, Caspar Kornis, Ladislaus Csaky, Joshua Kapi, and
+the protonotarius, Francis Sarpataky. For the Prince, there had just
+been prepared a new canopied throne, with three steps; it was the first
+time he had sat on it. Beside it was an empty arm-chair, reserved for
+Michael Teleki.
+
+As soon as the guard of the chamber announced that the counsellors had
+assembled, the Prince at once appeared, accompanied by Michael Teleki
+and Stephen Nalaczi.
+
+It could be seen from the Prince's face that for at least two hours
+Teleki had been filling his head with talk. Nalaczi greeted everyone
+present with a courtly smile, but nobody smiled back at him. Teleki,
+with cold gravity, led the Prince to the throne. The latter on first
+looking up at the throne, stood before it as if thunderstruck, and
+seemed to be deliberating for a moment whether it ought not to be taken
+away and a simple chair put in its place. But after thinking it well out
+he mounted the steps, and, sighing deeply, took his seat upon it.
+
+Michael Teleki stood silent in his place for some time, as if he was
+collecting his thoughts. His eyes did not travel along the faces of
+those present as they generally did to watch the effect of his words,
+but were fixed on the clasp of his kalpag, and his voice was much duller
+than at other times, often sinking to tremulous depths, except when he
+pulled himself together and tried to give it a firmer tone.
+
+"Your Highness, your Excellencies,--God has reserved peculiar trials for
+our unfortunate nation. One danger has scarce passed over us when we
+plump into another; when we try to avoid the lesser perils, we find the
+greater ones directly in our path, and we end in sorrow what we began in
+joy. Scarcely have we got over the tidings of the battle of St. Gothard
+(we had our own melancholy reasons for not participating therein), and
+the consequent annihilation of the far-reaching designs of the Turkish
+Empire, by the peace contracted between the two great Powers, amidst
+whose quarrels our unhappy country is buffeted about as if between
+hammer and anvil, when we have a fresh and still greater occasion for
+apprehension. For the generals of the Turkish Sultan impute the loss of
+the battle to the premature flight of Prince Ghyka, and at the same time
+hold us partly responsible for it--and certainly, had our soldiers stood
+in the place of the Wallachian warriors, although they would not have
+liked fighting their fellow-Magyars, nevertheless, if once they had been
+in for it, they would not have ran away and so the battle would not have
+been lost--wherefore the wrath of the Sublime Sultan was so greatly
+kindled against both the neighbouring nations, that he sent his cavasses
+to seize the Prince of Moldavia and carry him in chains to Stambul with
+his whole family. As for Transylvania, but for the mercy of God and the
+goodwill of certain Turkish statesmen, we might have seen it suddenly
+converted into a sandjak or province, and a fez-wearing Pasha on the
+throne of his Highness. Now it has so happened that the Prince of
+Moldavia, wresting himself and his wife out of the hands of their
+pursuers, took the shortest road to Transylvania. We sent a message to
+them that on no account were they to try to come here, as their flight
+would cost us more than a Tartar invasion. The Prince, therefore, took
+refuge in the mountains, but let his wife continue her journey, and, in
+an evil hour for us and herself, she arrived here a few days ago with
+the knowledge and under the very eyes of the Sultan's plenipotentiary.
+The husband having escaped, the whole wrath of the Sultan is turned upon
+the wife and upon us also if we try to defend her. What, then, are we to
+do? If we had to choose between shame and death, I should know what to
+say; but here our choice is only between two kinds of shame: either to
+hand over an innocent, tender woman, who has appealed to us for
+protection, or see a Turkish Pasha sitting on the throne of the Prince!"
+
+"But there's a third course, surely," said Beldi, "by way of petition?"
+
+"I might indeed make the request," interrupted Apafi, "but I know very
+well what answer I should get."
+
+"I do not mean petitioning the envoy," returned Beldi. "Who would
+humiliate himself by petitioning the servant when he could appeal to the
+master?"
+
+At this Apafi grew dumb; he could not bring forward the fact that he had
+already petitioned the servant.
+
+"I believe that Beldi is right," said young Michael Bethlen, "and that
+is the only course we can take. I am well acquainted with the mood of an
+eastern Despot when he gets angry, and I know that at such times it is
+nothing unusual for him to level towns to the ground and decapitate
+viceroys; but fortunately for Transylvania it is situated in Europe,
+where one state has some regard for another, and it is the interest of
+all the European kingdoms to maintain a free state between themselves
+and the Ottoman Empire, even if it be only a small one like
+Transylvania. And it seems to me that if our petition be supported at
+Stambul by the French, Austrian, and Polish ambassadors, there will be
+no reason for the Sultan, especially after such a defeat as the last
+one, to send a Pasha to Transylvania. And, finally, if we show him that
+our swords have not rusted in their scabbards, and that we know how to
+draw them on occasion, he will not be disposed to do so."
+
+The youth's enthusiastic speech began to pour fresh confidence into the
+souls of those who heard him, and their very faces appeared to brighten
+because of it.
+
+Teleki shook his head slowly.
+
+"I tell your Excellencies it will be a serious business," said he. "I am
+obliged to arouse you from an agreeable dream by confronting you with a
+rigorous fact. Europe has not the smallest care for our existence; we
+only find allies when they have need of our sacrifices; let us begin to
+petition, and they know us no more. It is true that at one time I said
+something very different, but time is such a good master that it teaches
+a man more in one day than if he had gone through nine schools. In
+consequence of the battle of St. Gothard, peace has been concluded
+between the two Emperors. I have read every article of it, every point,
+and we are left out of it altogether, as if we were a nation quite
+unworthy of consideration. Yet the French, the English, and the Polish
+ministers were there, and I can say that not one of them received so
+much pay from his own court as he received from us. If they want war,
+oh! then we are a great and glorious nation; but when peace is concluded
+they do not even know that we are there. In war we may lead the van, but
+in the distribution of rewards we are left far behind. And now the
+Pasha of Buda, who is bent upon our destruction and would like to set a
+pasha over Transylvania, after the last defeat, has sent down Yffim Beg
+to us to go from village to village demanding why the arrears of taxes
+have not been paid, and then he is coming to the Prince to ask the cause
+of the remissness and threaten him with the vengeance of the Pasha of
+Buda."
+
+There was a general murmur of indignation.
+
+"Ah, gentlemen, let us confess to each other that we play at being
+masters in our own home, but in fact we are masters there no longer. We
+may trust to our efforts and rely upon our rights, but we have none to
+help us; we have no allies either on the right hand or on the left; we
+have only our masters. We may change our masters, but we shall never win
+confederates. The Power which stands above us is only awaiting an
+opportunity to carry out its designs upon us, and no one could render it
+a better service in Transylvania than by raising his head against it. We
+have all of us a great obligation laid upon us: to recognise the little
+we possess, take care to preserve it, and, if the occasion arise, insist
+upon it. It is true that while the sword is in our hands we may defend
+all Europe with it; but let our sword once be broken and our whole realm
+falls to pieces and the heathen will trample upon us in the sight of all
+the nations. We shall bleed for a half-century or so, and nobody will
+come to our assistance; the gates of our realm will be guarded by our
+enemies; and, like the scorpion in a fiery circle, we shall only turn
+the bitterness of our hearts against ourselves. Do you want reasons,
+then, why we should not defend those hunted creatures who seek a refuge
+with us? The World and Fate have settled their accounts with us; this
+realm is left entirely to its own devices. Matters standing thus, if we
+refuse to deliver up to Olaj Beg the above-mentioned Princess of
+Moldavia, the armies of the Pashas of Buda and Grosswardein will
+instantly receive orders to reduce Transylvania to the rank of a vassal
+state of the Porte. There is no room here for regret or humanity,
+self-preservation is our one remaining duty and the duty of
+self-preservation demands that where we have no choice, we should do
+voluntarily what we may be forced to do."
+
+Teleki had scarce finished these words than an attendant announced that
+the Princess of Moldavia requested admittance into the council chamber.
+
+Apafi would have replied in the negative, but Teleki signified that she
+might as well come in.
+
+A few moments later the attendant again appeared and requested
+permission for the ladies of the Princess's suite to accompany their
+mistress, as she was too weak to walk alone.
+
+Teleki consented to that also.
+
+The counsellors cast down their eyes when the door opened. But there is
+a sort of spell which forces a man to look in the very direction in
+which he would not, in which he fears to look, and lo and behold! when
+the door opened and the hunted woman entered with her suite, a cry of
+astonishment resounded from every lip. For of what did the woman's suite
+consist? It consisted of the most eminent ladies of Transylvania. The
+wives and daughters of all the counsellors present accompanied the
+unfortunate lady, foremost among them being the Princess and Dame
+Michael Teleki, on whose shoulders she leaned; and last of all came old
+Dame Bethlen, with dove-white hair. All the most respectable matrons,
+the loveliest wives, and fairest maidens of the realm were there.
+
+The unfortunate Princess, whose pale face was full of suffering,
+advanced on the arms of her supporters towards the throne of the Prince.
+Her knees tottered beneath her, her whole body trembled like a leaf, she
+opened her lips, but no sound proceeded from them.
+
+"Courage, my child," whispered Anna Bornemissza, pressing her hand;
+whereupon the tears suddenly burst from the eyes of the unfortunate
+woman, and, breaking from her escort, she flung herself at the feet of
+the Prince, embracing his knees with her convulsive arms, and raising
+towards him her tear-stained face, exclaimed with a heart-rending voice:
+"Mercy! ... Mercy!"
+
+A cold dumbness sat on every lip; it was impossible for a time to hear
+anything but the woman's deep sobbing. The Prince sat like a statue on
+his throne, the steps of which Mariska Sturdza moistened with her tears.
+The silence was painful to everyone, yet nobody dared to break it.
+
+Teleki smoothed away his forelock from his broad forehead, but he could
+not smooth away the wrinkles which had settled there. He regretted that
+he had given occasion to this scene.
+
+"Mercy!" sobbed the poor woman once more, and half unconsciously her
+hand slipped from Apafi's knees. Aranka Beldi rushed towards her and
+rested her declining head on her own pretty childlike bosom.
+
+Then Anna Bornemissza stepped forward, and after throwing a stony glance
+upon all the counsellors present, who cast down their eyes before her,
+looked Apafi straight in the face with her own bright, penetrating,
+soul-searching eyes, till her astonished husband was constrained to
+return her glance almost without knowing it.
+
+"My petition is a brief one," said Dame Apafi in a low, deep, though
+perfectly audible voice. "An unfortunate woman, whom the Lord of Destiny
+did not deem to be sufficiently chastened by a single blow, has lost in
+one day her husband, her home, and her property; she implores us now for
+bare life. You see her lying in the dust asking of you nothing more than
+leave to rest--a petition which Dzengis Khan's executioners would have
+granted her. That is all she asks, but we demand more. The destiny of
+Transylvania is in your hands, but its honour is ours also; ye are
+summoned to decide whether our children are to be happy or miserable.
+But speak freely to us and say if you wish them to be honourable men or
+cowards. And I ask you which of us women would care to bear the name of
+a Kornis, a Csaky, or an Apafi, if posterity shall say of the bearers of
+these names that they surrendered an innocent woman to her heathen
+pursuers and constrained their own sons thereby to renounce the names of
+their fathers? Look not so darkly upon me, Master Michael Teleki, for my
+soul is dark enough without that. An unhappy woman is on her knees
+before you, hoping that she will find you to be men. The women of
+Transylvania stand before you, hoping to find you patriots. We beg you
+to have compassion for the sake of the honour of our children."
+
+Teleki, upon whom the eyes of the Princess had flashed fiercely during
+the speech, as if accepting the challenge, answered in a cold, stony
+voice:
+
+"Here, madam, we dispense justice only, not mercy or honour."
+
+"Justice!" exclaimed Anna. "What! If a husband has offended, is his
+innocent wife, whose only fault is that she loves the fugitive, is she,
+I say, to suffer punishment in his stead? Where is the justice of that?"
+
+"Justice is often another name for necessity."
+
+"Then who are all ye whom I see here? Are ye the chief men of
+Transylvania or Turkish slaves? This is what I ask, and what we should
+all of us very much like to know: is this the council chamber of the
+free and constitutional state of Transylvania, or is it the ante-chamber
+of Olaj Beg?"
+
+The gentlemen present preserved a deep silence. This was a question to
+which they could not give a direct answer.
+
+"I demand an answer to my question," cried Dame Apafi in a loud voice.
+
+"And what good will the answer do you, my lady?" inquired Teleki,
+pressing his index-finger to his lips.
+
+"I shall at any rate know whether the place in which we now stand is
+worthy of us."
+
+"It is not worthy, my lady. The present is no time for the Magyars to be
+proud that they dwell in Transylvania; we are ashamed to be the
+responsible ministers of a down-trodden, deserted, and captive nation.
+This your Highness ought to know as well as any of us, for it was a
+Turkish Pasha who placed your husband on the Prince's seat. And,
+assuredly, it would be a far less grief to us to lose our heads than to
+bend them humbly beneath the derisive honour of being the leaders of a
+people lying among ruins. But, at the most, history will only be able to
+say of us that we humbly bowed before necessity, that we bore the yoke
+of the stranger without dignity, that running counter to the feelings of
+our hearts and the persuasions of our minds, we covered our faces with
+shame, and yet that that very shame and dishonour saved the life of
+Transylvania, and that poor spot of earth which remained in our hands
+saved the whole country from a bloody persecution. We are the victims of
+the times, madam; help us to conceal the blush of shame and share it
+with us. There, you have the answer to your question."
+
+Dame Apafi grew as pale as death, her head drooped, and she clasped her
+hands together.
+
+"So we have come to this at last? Formerly valour was the national
+virtue, now it is cowardice. What is our own fate likely to be if we
+reject this poor woman? What has happened to-day to a Princess Ghyka
+might easily happen to the wives of Kornis and Csaky and Beldi
+to-morrow. For their husbands' faults they may be carried away captive,
+brought to the block, if only God does not have mercy upon them, for you
+yourselves say that this would be right. Why do you look at us? You,
+Beldi, Kornis, Teleki, Csaky, Bethlen, here stand your wives and
+daughters. Draw forth your coward swords, and if you dare not slay men,
+at least slay women; kill them before it occurs to the Turkish Padishah
+to drag them by the hair into his harem."
+
+As Dame Apafi mentioned the names of the men one after another, their
+wives and daughters, loudly weeping, rushed towards them, and hiding
+their heads in their bosoms, with passionate sobs, begged for the
+unfortunate Princess, and behold the eyes of the men also filled with
+tears, and nothing could be heard in the room but the sobbing of the
+husbands mingled with the sobbing of their wives.
+
+On Teleki's breast also hung the gentle Judith Veer and his own daughter
+Flora, and the great stony-hearted counsellor stood trembling between
+them; and although his cast-iron features assumed with an effort a
+rigorous expression, nevertheless a couple of unrestrainable tears
+suddenly trickled down the furrows of his face.
+
+The Prince turned aside on his throne, and covering his face, murmured:
+"No more, Anna! No more!"
+
+"Oh, Apafi!" cried the Princess bitterly; "if perish I must it shall not
+be by your hand. Anna Bornemissza has strength enough to meet death if
+there be no choice between that and shame. Be content, if Olaj Beg
+demands my death, I shall at least be spared the unpleasantness of
+falling at your feet in supplication. And now, pronounce your decision,
+but remember that every word you say will resound throughout the
+Christian world."
+
+Teleki dried the tears from his face, made his wife and daughter
+withdraw, and said in a voice tremulous with emotion:
+
+"In vain should I deny it, my tears reveal that I have a feeling heart.
+I am a man, I am a father, and a husband. If I were nothing but Michael
+Teleki, I should know how to sacrifice myself on behalf of persecuted
+innocence; and if my colleagues around me were only companions-in-arms,
+I should say to them, gird on your swords, lie in wait, rush upon the
+Turkish escort of the Princess, and deliver her out of their hands--if
+we perish, a blessing will be upon us. But in this place, in these
+chairs, it is not ourselves who feel and speak. The life, the death of
+all Transylvania depends upon us. And my last word is that we
+incontinently deliver up Mariska Sturdza to the ambassador of the Porte.
+If my colleagues decide otherwise, I will agree to it, I will take my
+share of the responsibility, but I shall have saved my soul anyhow.
+Speak, gentlemen, and if you like, vote against me."
+
+The silence of death ensued, nobody spoke a word.
+
+"What, nobody speaks?" cried Dame Apafi in amazement. "Nobody! Ah! let
+us leave this place! There is not a man in the whole principality."
+
+And with these words the lady withdrew from the council chamber. Her
+attendants followed her sorrowfully, one by one, tearfully bidding adieu
+to the unfortunate Princess. Aranka Beldi was the last to part from her.
+During the whole of this mournful scene her eyes had remained tearless,
+but she had knelt down the whole time by Mariska's side, holding her
+closely embraced, and assuring her that God would deliver her, she must
+fear nothing.
+
+When all the ladies had withdrawn, and Dame Beldi beckoned her daughter
+to follow her, she tenderly kissed the face of her friend and whispered
+in her ear: "I have still hope, fear not, we will save you!" and smiling
+at her with her bright blue eyes like an angel of consolation, got up
+and withdrew.
+
+The Princess, tearless, speechless, then allowed herself to be conducted
+away by the officers of the council chamber.
+
+The men remained sitting upon their chairs, downcast and sorrowful.
+Every bosom was oppressed, and every heart was empty, and the thought of
+their delivered fatherland was a cold consolation for the grief they
+felt that the Government of Transylvania should fling an innocent woman
+back into the throat of the monster which was pursuing her.
+
+The silence still continued when, suddenly, the door was violently burst
+open, and shoving aside the guards right and left, Yffim Beg entered
+the room. He had been sent by Hassan Pasha to levy contributions on the
+Prince and the people.
+
+The rough Turkish captain looked round with boorish pride upon the
+silent gentlemen, who were still depressed by the preceding incident,
+and perceiving that here he had to do with the humble, without so much
+as bowing, he strode straight up to the Prince, and placing one foot on
+the footstool before the throne, and throwing his head haughtily back,
+flung these words at him:
+
+"In the name of my master, the mighty Hassan Pasha, I put this question
+to thee, thou Prince of the Giaurs, why hast thou kept back for so long
+the tribute which is due to the Porte? Who hath caused the delay--thou,
+or the farmers of the taxes, or the tax-paying people? Answer me
+directly, and take care that thou liest not!"
+
+The Prince looked around with wrinkled brows as if looking for something
+to fling at the head of the fellow. He regretted that the inkstand was
+so far off.
+
+But Teleki handed a sheet of parchment to Sarpataky, the clerk of the
+council.
+
+"Read our answer to the Pasha's letter," said he; "as for you--sir I
+will not call you--listen to what is written therein. 'Beneficent Hassan
+Pasha, we greatly regret that you bother yourself about things which are
+already settled. We do not ask you why you came so late to the battle of
+St. Gothard. Why do you ask us, then, why we are so late with the taxes?
+We will answer for ourselves at the proper time and place. Till then,
+Heaven bless you, and grant that misfortune overwhelm you not just when
+you would ruin others.' When you have written all that down, hand it to
+his Highness the Prince for signature."
+
+The gentlemen present had fallen from one surprise into another. Michael
+Teleki, who a moment before, against the inclinations of his own heart
+and mind, had tried to compel the land to submit to the demand of Olaj
+Beg, could in the next moment send such a message to the powerful Vizier
+of Buda.
+
+But Teleki knew very well that the storm which was passing over the
+country on account of the Princess of Moldavia was sure to rebound on
+the head of the Vizier of Buda. The Sultan was seeking for an object on
+which to wreak his wrath because of the lost battle, and if the Pasha of
+Buda did not succeed in making the Government of Transylvania the
+victim, he would fall a victim himself.
+
+As for Yffim Beg, he did not quite know whether a thunder-bolt had
+plunged down close beside him, or whether he was dreaming. There he
+stood like a statue, unable to utter a word, and only looked on stupidly
+while the letter was being written before his very eyes, while Apafi's
+pen scraped the parchment as he subscribed his signature, while they
+poured the sand over it, folded it up, impressed it with an enormous
+seal, and thrust it into his palm.
+
+Only then did he emerge somewhat from his stupor.
+
+"Do ye think I am mad enough to carry this letter back with me to Buda?"
+
+And with these words he seized the letter at both ends, tore it in two,
+and flung it beneath the table.
+
+"Write another!" said he, "write it nicely, for my master, the mighty
+Hassan Pasha, will strangle the whole lot of you."
+
+Teleki turned coldly towards him.
+
+"If you don't like the letter, worthy muederris, you may go back without
+any letter at all."
+
+"I am no muederris, but Yffim Beg. I would have thee know that, thou dog;
+and I won't go without a letter, and I won't let you all go till ye have
+written another."
+
+And with these words he sat down on the steps of the Prince's throne and
+crossed his legs, so that two were sitting on the throne at the same
+time, the Beg and Apafi.
+
+"Guards!" cried Apafi in a commanding voice, "seize this shameless
+fellow, tie him on to a horse's back and drive him out of the town."
+
+They needed not another word. One of the guards immediately rushed
+forward to where Yffim Beg was still sitting on a footstool with legs
+crossed, and took him under the arm, while another of them grasped him
+firmly by the collar, and raising him thus in the air, kicking and
+struggling, carried him out of the room in a moment. The Beg struck,
+bit, and scratched, but it was all of no avail. The merciless drabants
+set him on the back of a horse in the courtyard, without a saddle, tied
+his feet together beneath the horse's belly, placed the bridle of the
+steed in the hands of a stable-boy, while another stable-boy stood
+behind with a good stout whip; and so liberally did they interpret the
+commands of the chief counsellor, that they escorted the worthy
+gentleman, not only out of the town, but beyond the borders of the
+realm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A FIGHT FOR HIS OWN HEAD.
+
+
+At Buda, while Hassan Pasha was fighting with the army of the German
+Emperor, Yffim Beg was preparing the triumphal arches through which the
+victors were to pass on their return, adorning them with green branches
+and precious carpets, and leaving room for the standards to be captured
+from the Germans and Hungarians. The bridge was also repaired and
+strengthened to support the weight of the heavy gun-carriages and cannon
+which Montecuculi was to have abandoned, and at the same time a large
+space on the Rakas was railed in where all the slaves of all the
+nations, including women and children, were to be impounded.
+
+And after all these amiable preparations the terrible message reached
+the worthy Yffim Beg from Hassan Pasha that he was to place all his
+movable chattels, gold and silver, on a fugitive footing, barricade the
+fortress, cut away the bridge so that the enemy might not be able to
+cross it, and follow him with the whole harem, beyond the Raab, for who
+could tell whether they would ever see the fortress of Buda again.
+
+Yffim Beg was not particularly pleased with this message, but without
+taking long to think about it, he put the damsels of the harem into
+carriages, sent them off along the covered way adjoining the water-gate,
+in order to make as little disturbance as possible, and, as soon as they
+were on the other side of the bridge, ordered it to be destroyed and the
+garrison of the fortress to defend themselves as best they could.
+
+He reached the Turkish army to find the opposing hosts drawn up against
+each other on different sides of the river, across which they bombarded
+each other from time to time, without doing much damage.
+
+The Pasha's pavilion was well in the rear, out of cannon-shot; he was
+delighted when he saw Yffim Beg, and could not take his fill of kissing
+Azrael, who was lovelier and more gracious than ever.
+
+"Remain here," he said to his favourites, embracing the pair of them. "I
+must retire now to the interior of my pavilion to pray for an hour or so
+with the dervishes, for a great and grievous duty will devolve upon me
+in an hour's time--two great Turkish nobles, Kucsuk Pasha and his son,
+are to be condemned to death."
+
+Azrael started as violently as if a serpent had crept into her bosom.
+
+"How have they offended?" she asked, scarce able to conceal her
+agitation.
+
+"Against the precepts of the Prophet they engaged in battle on a day of
+ill-omen; they have cast dirt on the victorious half-moon, and must wash
+off the stain with their blood."
+
+Hassan withdrew; Azrael remained alone in the tent with the Beg.
+
+"I saw thee shudder," said Yffim, fixing his sharp eyes on the face of
+Azrael.
+
+"Death chooses the thirteenth; he leaped past me at this very moment."
+
+"And on whom has the fatal thirteen fallen?"
+
+"On someone who stands beside me or behind me."
+
+"Behind thee in the tent outside is Feriz Beg."
+
+"But thou art beside me."
+
+"I am too young to die yet."
+
+"And is not he also?"
+
+"He of whom Hassan saith: 'He hath sinned!' becomes old and withered on
+the spot."
+
+"And hast thou done nothing for which thou shouldst die?"
+
+"My beard will grow white because of my loyalty; life is long in the
+shadow of Hassan."
+
+"But how long will Hassan have a shadow?"
+
+"Till his night cometh--but that is still far off."
+
+"Hast thou not heard of the case of Ajas Pasha, Yffim?--of Ajas, who was
+the mightiest of all the Pashas?"
+
+"He was the Sultan's son-in-law."
+
+"The Grand Seignior gave him his own daughter to wife, and loaded him
+with every favour. One day Ajas lost a battle against the Zrinyis. It
+was not a great defeat, but the Sultan was wrath and beheaded Ajas
+Pasha."
+
+"H'm! I recollect, it was a sad story."
+
+"And dost thou remember the story of the faithful Hiassar? Ajas charged
+him to bring to him before his death his favourite wife, not his whole
+harem which thou hast brought to Hassan Pasha, but only his favourite
+wife, that he might take leave of her; and dost thou know that for doing
+this thing the Sultan had Hiassar roasted to death in a copper ox? For a
+disgraced favourite possesses nothing--all he had is the Sultan's, his
+treasures, his wives and his children; and whoever lays his hand upon
+them is robbing the Sultan. Who knows, Yffim Beg, but what at this
+moment I may not be the Sultan's slave-girl? and from slave-girl to
+favourite is but a step, and thou knowest it would be but a short step
+for me."
+
+"What accursed things thou art saying."
+
+"The wife of Ajas Beg was the Sultan's favourite at the time when
+Hiassar was burnt, and a word from her would have saved him. But she
+said it not, because she was wrath with him; methinks the woman loved
+him once, and the slave despised her love. Give me my mandoline, Yffim,
+I would sing a song."
+
+The odalisk lay back upon the bed, while Yffim anxiously paced to and
+fro like a hyena fallen into a snare. The story just related had a
+striking resemblance to his own, and it would not take very much to give
+it a similar termination.
+
+Suddenly he stood before the damsel, who nonchalantly strummed the
+strings of her instrument.
+
+"What dost thou want?"
+
+"Ask not what thou knowest."
+
+"Thou wouldst save Feriz?"
+
+"I will save him."
+
+"I swear by Allah it is not to be done. Die he must, if only to tame
+thee; for if he remain alive thou wilt destroy the lot of us sooner or
+later."
+
+Azrael collapsed at the feet of the Beg. Sobbing, she embraced his
+knees.
+
+"Oh, be merciful! Say but a word for him to the general. I love the
+youth as thou canst see and dost very well know. Do not let him perish!"
+
+Like all little souls, Yffim Beg became all the bolder at these
+supplicating words, and seizing Azrael by the arms, roughly pulled her
+to her feet, and whispered in her ear with malicious joy:
+
+"I'll make thee a present of his head."
+
+At these words the woman raised her head, her eyes like those of a
+furious she-wolf seemed to glow with green fire, her tresses curled like
+serpents round her bosom. She said not a word, but her tightly clenched
+teeth kept back a whole hell of dumb fury.
+
+At that moment the Vizier returned.
+
+Azrael at once put on a smile. Hassan could not see what was seething in
+her heart.
+
+Yffim approached the Pasha confidentially.
+
+"Does the Sultan know of thy disaster?"
+
+"He has heard it since."
+
+"It would be as well to send me with gifts to the Porte."
+
+"Ask not that honour for thyself, Yffim; learn, rather, that whomsoever
+I send to Stambul now is as good as sent to Paradise. The Sultan's wrath
+is kindled, and he can only quench it with blood."
+
+All the blood quitted Yffim's own face.
+
+"Then thou hast thy fears, my master?"
+
+"His rage demands blood, and the blood of a great man, too. Which of us?
+That is all one, but a great man must die. If I cannot sacrifice someone
+in my place I shall perish myself, but there are men of equal value to
+myself from whom I can choose. There are two especially--Kucsuk and his
+son. They began the battle; if they had not begun it, there would have
+been no battle; and if there had been no battle, there would have been
+no disaster. They are Death's sons already. The third is the Prince of
+Moldavia. He was the first to fly from the fight; he had a secret
+understanding with the Christians. He is a son of Death also. I can
+throw in the Prince of Transylvania also, because he kept away from the
+battle altogether and was late with his tribute. Had he sent it sooner,
+we should have had money; and if we had had money, we should have been
+able to have bought hay; and if we had had hay the soldiers would not
+have hastened on the battle and so lost it. He also is a son of Death,
+therefore. Go thou into Transylvania and bring him hither to me."
+
+Azrael listened to all this with great attention. Yffim Beg regarded her
+with a radiant countenance, as much as to say: "You see our heads won't
+ache yet!"
+
+The odalisk, however, trembled no longer; she pressed her lips tightly
+together, and as if she was quite certain of what she was about to do,
+she pressed her sweetly smiling face close to that of the Vizier, and
+hanging on his arms, whispered to him:
+
+"O Hassan, how my soul would rejoice if I could see flow the blood of
+thine enemies."
+
+Hassan sat the damsel on his knees, and his lips sported with her
+twining tresses.
+
+Yffim Beg was in such a mighty good humour at being commissioned by
+Hassan to go as ambassador to the Prince of Transylvania, and so blindly
+exalted by such a mark of confidence, that he fancied he could well
+afford to torment Azrael a little.
+
+"Whilst thou wert away, my master," said he, "thy damsel implored me to
+grant her a favour, which I dare not do without first asking thy
+permission."
+
+Azrael regarded the smiling Beg with sparkling eyes, anxiously awaiting
+what he would be bold enough to betray.
+
+"What was it?--speak, Yffim Beg," remarked Hassan wildly.
+
+"Thou and the other Pashas are about to condemn a youth to death--young
+Feriz Beg, I mean."
+
+"Well?" said Hassan frowning, while the odalisk whom he held embraced
+trembled all over.
+
+"Azrael would like to see the young man die."
+
+The girl grew pale at these words; her heart for a moment ceased to
+beat, and then began fiercely to throb again.
+
+"A foolish wish," said Hassan; "but if thou desire it, be it so! Be
+present at the meeting of the Pashas, stand behind the curtains by my
+side, and thou shalt hear and see everything."
+
+Azrael imprinted a long and burning kiss on Hassan's forehead with a
+face full of death, and stood behind the curtain holding the folds
+together with her hands.
+
+"If thou shouldst faint," whispered Yffim Beg sarcastically, "thou shalt
+have a vessel of musk from me."
+
+Azrael laughed so loudly that Yffim fancied she must have gone mad.
+
+"And now call the Pashas and draw the curtain of the tent," commanded
+Hassan.
+
+At the invitation of Yffim all the officers of the camp came to the
+pavilion and took their seats in a circle on cushions. Last of all came
+the Grand Vizier, Kiuprile, a big, stout, angry man, who, without
+looking at anyone, sat down on the cushion beside Hassan and turned his
+back upon him.
+
+Then the roll of drums was heard, and Kucsuk Pasha and Feriz Beg, well
+guarded, were brought in from different sides--Kucsuk on the left hand,
+and Feriz on the right.
+
+"Look!" whispered Azrael to Hassan from behind the curtain; "look how
+proud they are, the son on the right, the father on the left. They seem
+to be encouraging each other with their glances."
+
+Hassan nodded his head as if thanking his favourite for assisting his
+weak eyes, and as both figures came within the obscurity of the tent,
+where the light was not very good at the best of times, acting on the
+hint given, he turned towards the aged Kucsuk Pasha and cried:
+
+"Thou immature youth, step back till I speak to thee."
+
+Then, turning to young Feriz Beg, he said:
+
+"Step forward, thou hardened old traitor! Wherefore didst thou leave the
+armies of the Sublime Sultan in the lurch?"
+
+Feriz Beg, as if a weapon against his persecutors had suddenly been put
+into his hand, stepped boldly right up to Hassan Pasha, and exclaimed in
+a bold voice, which rang though the tent:
+
+"Thou art the traitor, not I; for thou darest to hold the office of
+general when thou art blind and canst not distinguish two paces off
+father from son, or an enemy from a friend."
+
+Hassan sprang in terror from his carpet when he heard Kucsuk's son speak
+instead of Kucsuk.
+
+"That is not true," he stammered, changing colour.
+
+"Not true!" replied Feriz stiffly; "then, if thine eyes be good, wilt
+thou tell me what regiment is now passing thy tent with martial music?"
+
+The tent be it understood was open towards the plain overlooking the
+whole camp and the river beyond.
+
+A military band was just then crossing the ground not far from the tent,
+quite alone; no regiment was coming after it.
+
+"Methinks, thou mutinous dog, 'tis no answer to my question to inquire
+what regiment is now passing by, for it maybe that I know better than
+thou why it has arrived; nor is it part of my duty to mention the
+rabble by name; suffice it that I hear the trumpets and see the
+banners."
+
+The Pashas looked at each other; there was neither regiment nor banners.
+
+"So that's it, eh?" said Kiuprile, spitting in front of him; and with
+that he rose from his place, and, without looking at Hassan, took Kucsuk
+and Feriz by the arm. "Come!" said he to the other generals--"you can go
+now!" he cried to the guards, and the whole assembly withdrew from the
+tent.
+
+Hassan fell back on his carpet. He himself had betrayed his great
+defect.
+
+Azrael rushed from her hiding-place.
+
+"Oh, my master!" she cried; "thou didst wrongly interpret my words, and
+so made everything go wrong."
+
+"I am lost," he stammered, and quite beside himself he plunged into the
+interior of the tent to pray with the dervishes.
+
+Yffim Beg stood there as if his soul had been filched from him; while
+Azrael approached him with a smile of devilish scorn and stroked his
+face down with her hand.
+
+"Dost thou fancy thou wilt require another good word for thee?"
+
+"I can betray thee."
+
+"Thou couldst if thou didst but know which of the two is to live
+longest--Hassan or I."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two hours after this scene there was a private conversation between
+Hassan Pasha and Yffim Beg, from which even Azrael was excluded. The
+interview over, Yffim Beg departed quickly from the camp. The general
+had sent him to Transylvania to go in his name from village to village
+to make a general inspection, and ask the magistrates why the common
+folks did not pay the taxes at the proper time. He was thence to go to
+the Prince and ask the cause of this delay in the transmission of
+taxes; thus either the people or the Prince would be held responsible.
+Hassan for a long time had had a scheme in his head of seizing
+Transylvania by force of arms, whereby, on the one hand, he would win
+the favour of the Porte, by adding a new subject state to Turkish
+territory, and, on the other hand, would secure for himself a good easy
+princely chair instead of a dangerously-jolting general's saddle.
+
+At the same time Olaj Beg was worrying Apafi to seize the escaped
+Princess of Moldavia and send her to Hassan Pasha, who was well aware
+that the silken cord would be constantly dangling before his eyes till
+he had found someone else whose neck he could jeopardise instead of his
+own.
+
+Kucsuk and his son had escaped from his talons, but he had just heard
+from Olaj Beg that the Moldavian Princess was with Apafi, and in an
+interesting condition, so that there was every prospect of a young
+Prince being born. Here, then, in case of necessity, was a person who
+could be handed over, and in case she escaped, the silken cord would
+remain round Apafi's neck.
+
+A few days after the departure of Yffim Beg, peace was hastily concluded
+between the Porte and the King of the Romans. In consequence thereof
+Hassan avoided a collision with the other generals, and, quitting them,
+hastened back to Buda with his army. Kiuprile marched right off to
+Belgrade, Kucsuk was dispatched to the fortress of Szekelyhid; only
+Feriz remained at Buda, for the simple reason that he was confined to
+his bed by a feverish cold in a kiosk, which was erected for him by the
+express command of Kiuprile.
+
+Just about this time Azrael had an excess of devotion, and was
+constantly plagued by terrifying dreams in which she saw Hassan Pasha
+walking up and down without his head, and every morning she got leave
+from him to pay a visit to an old dervish to pray against the apparition
+of evil spirits. Hassan was much affected by this devotion towards him
+and true Mussulman fervour, and made no opposition to his favourite
+damsel going every morning to the mosque to pray, and only returning
+from thence late every evening; but he impressed it upon her suite to
+keep a watchful eye upon the girl lest she should deceive them. They
+therefore permitted pious Azrael to visit the worthy dervish so wrapped
+up that only her eyes were visible, and soon afterwards saw her return
+with the gracious old man. The dervish had a white beard and white
+eyebrows, as if he were well frosted; his eyes were cast down, and he
+wore such a frightfully big turban that not even the tips of his ears
+were visible. He was also not very lavish of speech, dumbly he pointed
+out to the veiled damsel the great clasped book and she knelt down
+before it and began to read with edifying devotion, touching it from
+time to time with her forehead; while the dervish, raising his hand,
+blessed one by one the slaves standing outside the door, and, after
+indicating by dumb show that he must now go to the kiosk where the sick
+Feriz Beg was lying and cure him by the efficacy of his prayers, he
+hobbled away.
+
+All four slaves glued their faces to the iron lattice work of the door,
+thrust their cheeks between its ornaments, and saw how the kneeling
+damsel kept praying all the time before the large open book. She must
+have had an unconscionable fondness for prayer, for even when the
+evening grew late she had not moved from the spot till the dervish,
+leaning on his crutch, came hobbling back from Feriz Beg. Then she
+accompanied him into the interior of the mosque, and after a short hymn,
+returned to make her way back to the fortress.
+
+And thus it went on for ten days. The slaves of her escort now began to
+think that Azrael wanted to learn the Koran by heart and grew tired of
+watching her praying and bowing and genuflecting with unwearied
+devotion.
+
+Let us leave them gazing and marvelling, and seek out Feriz Beg, whom
+now, as at other times, the old dervish was tending.
+
+There sat the good old man by the bedside of the pale and handsome
+youth. Nobody else was in the room. With his hand he dried the dripping
+sweat from the youth's forehead, every hour he put red healing drops
+into his mouth with a golden spoon, he guessed what was wanted
+immediately from every sigh, from every groan of the invalid. When he
+slept he fanned fresh air upon him, when he woke and stretched forth his
+burning hands, he felt the throbbing pulse and comforted and soothed him
+with gentle and consolatory words; and if he flung about impatiently in
+the fever of delirium, he covered him up carefully, like a tender
+mother, moistened his lips with fresh citron-water; and if he perceived
+from his flushed face how he was suffering he would raise his head, and
+press his burning temples to his bosom.
+
+On the tenth day the youth's illness took a turn for the better. Early
+in the morning, when he awoke, he had a clear consciousness of his
+condition.
+
+There by the side of his bed still sat the old man with his eyes fixed
+on the youth's face.
+
+"So thou hast been my nurse, eh?" sighed the youth gratefully, and he
+extended his hand to take that of the dervish, and he respectfully
+impressed upon it a long burning kiss, closing his eyes piously as he
+did so.
+
+And when he again opened his eyes, holding continually the kissed hand
+between his own hands, behold! by his bedside no longer sat the old
+dervish, but a young and tremulous damsel, with black tresses rolling
+down her shoulders, with a blushing face and timidly smiling lips--it
+was Azrael.
+
+Feriz fancied that he was the sport of some delirious dream or
+enchantment, and only when he looked about him in his bewilderment and
+perceived the cast-off false beard and turban and the other lying
+symbols of age, did he regain his presence of mind; and immediately the
+expression of gratitude and devotion disappeared from the face of Feriz
+Beg, his features took in a rigorous expression and he withdrew his hand
+from the pressure of those other hands. Speak he could not, both mind
+and body were too much broken for that; but he pointed to the door and
+signified to the damsel in dumb show that she was to withdraw.
+
+"Thou knowest me, for thou hatest me," stammered Azrael; "if thou didst
+not know me thou wouldst not hate me, and if thou didst know me better
+thou wouldst love me."
+
+The youth shook his head.
+
+"Then--thou--lovest--another?" said the trembling girl.
+
+Feriz Beg nodded: yes.
+
+Azrael rose from her place as if some venomous spider had bitten her,
+her face was convulsed by a burning grief, she pressed her hands to her
+bosom; then slowly her form lost all its proud rigidity, and her eyes
+their savage brightness, her features softened, and collapsing before
+the bed of the youth she hid her face in his pillows and murmured in a
+scarce audible voice: "And therefore I love thee all the more."
+
+Then, resuming her disguise, she calmly piled upon herself all the
+tokens of old age till once more before the sick man stood the gentle
+honest dervish who hobbled away on his crutches, blessing everyone he
+encountered till he returned again to the mosque.
+
+After Azrael had withdrawn, Feriz at once dismissed the dervish, who, at
+the youth's command, confessed everything to him. The general's
+favourite damsel, he said, had come to the mosque to pray ten days ago
+and had changed garments with him in his hiding-place in order to tend
+the dear invalid all day long while the dervish, enwrapped in her veil,
+had prayed in the sight of the slaves.
+
+Feriz Beg threatened the dervish with death if he did not confess
+everything, and, as it became a true cavalier, richly rewarded him when
+he had revealed the secret intrigue, forbidding him at the same time to
+assist it any further.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Several days had passed by.
+
+Hassan Pasha spent his days in the mosque, and his nights behind the
+trellised gates of his harem; he scented an evil report in every new
+arrival, and avoided all intercourse with his fellows. The whole day he
+was praying, the whole night he was drunk; from morning to evening he
+was occupied with the priests and the Koran, and from the evening to the
+morning he amused himself among his damsels, listened to their songs,
+bathed in ambergris-water, drank wine mingled with poppies, and had his
+body rubbed with cotton-wool that he might sleep and be in paradise.
+
+Frequently he had bad dreams, an evil foreboding, like the pressure of a
+night-hag, lay upon his heart, and when he awoke he seemed to see it all
+vividly before his eyes and durst not sleep any more, but dressed
+himself, sought out the room of Azrael and made the damsel sit down
+beside him and amuse him with merry stories.
+
+The odalisk held unlimited sway over the mind of Hassan, and could, at
+will, tune his mind to a good or evil humour by anticipating his
+thoughts. The Pasha trusted her implicitly.
+
+It is a bad old custom with oriental potentates to go to bed fuddled and
+dream all manner of nonsense, and then incontinently to demand a clear
+interpretation of the nebulous stuff from their wise men--or wise women.
+
+This happened to be the case one morning with Hassan Pasha and Azrael
+who just then was watering with a silver watering-can a gorgeous gobaea,
+whose luxurious offshoots clambered like a living ladder to the roof of
+the greenhouse, thence casting down to the ground again tendrils as
+thick as ropes.
+
+"Last night I was dreaming of this very plant that thou dost nourish in
+yon large tub," said Hassan in a voice that sounded as if he thought it
+an extraordinary thing to be listening to his own words. "I dreamt that
+it put forth a long and flowery shoot which grew into a tall tree, and
+from the end of one of the branches of this tree hung a large yellow
+fruit. Then I thought I had some important and peculiar reason for
+breaking off the fruit, and I sent a big white-bearded ape up into the
+tree to fetch it. The ape reached the fruit, and for a long time plucked
+at it and shook it, but was unable to break it off. At last, however, he
+fell down with it at my feet, the golden fruit burst in two, and a red
+apple rolled out of it, and I picked them both up and was delighted.
+What does that signify?"
+
+Azrael kept plucking the yellow leaves off her dear plant and throwing
+them through the window, beckoned to the Pasha to sit down beside her,
+and tapping him on the shoulder, began to tick off the events on her
+pretty fingers.
+
+"The golden fruit is the Moldavian Princess, and the white ape thou
+didst send for her is none other than Olaj Beg. Thy dream signifies that
+the Beg is about to arrive with the Princess, who in the meantime has
+borne a son, and thou wilt rejoice greatly."
+
+Hassan was well content with this interpretation, when a eunuch entered
+and brought him a sealed letter on a golden salver. It was from the
+Pasha of Grosswardein.
+
+The letter was anything but pleasant. Ali Pasha begged to inform the
+Vizier that the Government of Transylvania, having delivered Mariska
+Sturdza into the hands of Olaj Beg, the Beg at once set off with her,
+and had got as far as Kiralyhago, when some persons hidden in the forest
+had suddenly rushed out upon him, massacred his suite to the last man,
+and left the Princess' carriage empty on the high road. The Princess had
+in all probability been helped to rejoin her husband in Poland.
+
+The letter fell from the hand of Hassan Pasha.
+
+"Thou hast interpreted my dream backwards," he roared, turning upon
+Azrael; "everything has turned topsy-turvy. The ape descended from the
+tree with the fruit, but knocked his brains out."
+
+At that moment the door-keeper announced: "Olaj Beg has arrived with the
+Moldavian Princess."
+
+At these words Hassan Pasha, in the joy of his heart, leaped from his
+cushions, and after kissing Azrael over and over again, rushed forward
+to meet Olaj Beg, and meeting him in the doorway, caught him round the
+neck and exclaimed, beside himself with joy:
+
+"Then my ape has not knocked his brains out, after all!"
+
+Olaj Beg smilingly endured the title and the embrace, but on looking
+around and perceiving Azrael standing in the window he began doing
+obeisance to her with the greatest respect.
+
+"Hast thou brought her? Where is she? Thou hast not lost her, eh? Thou
+hast well looked after her?" asked Hassan in one breath.
+
+By this time Olaj Beg had bowed his head down to his very knees before
+the damsel, and was saying to her in a mollified voice:
+
+"May I hope that the beautiful Princess will not find it tiresome if we
+talk of grave affairs in her presence?"
+
+Azrael at once perceived the object of all this bowing and scraping.
+Olaj Beg wished her to withdraw.
+
+"Thou mayest speak before me, worthy Olaj Beg, though what thou art
+about to say is no secret to me, for I can read the future, and my
+secrets I tell to none."
+
+And now Hassan intervened.
+
+"Thou mayest speak freely before her, worthy Olaj Beg. Azrael is the
+root of my life."
+
+Olaj Beg made another deep and long obeisance.
+
+He had heard enough of that name to need no further recommendation. He
+made up his mind on the spot to tell Hassan, who was in the power of
+this infernal woman, no more than he deserved to know.
+
+"Then thou hast brought the Princess with thee?" insisted Hassan, whose
+joy beamed upon his face in spite of himself. "Did the Transylvanian
+gentlemen make much difficulty in handing her over?"
+
+"They handed her over, but it would have been very much better if they
+had not. I should have preferred it if they had risen in her behalf,
+stirred up all Klausenberg against me and beaten me to death. At any
+rate, I should then have died gloriously. But alas! the Magyar race is
+degenerating, it has begun to be sensible. Those good old times have
+gone when they used to fire a whole village for the sake of a runaway
+female slave; and it was possible to seize a whole county in exchange
+for one burnt village; if the Hungarian gentry continue to be as wise as
+they are now the younger generation of them may strike root in our very
+Empire."
+
+"I was alarmed on thy account, for I have just received a letter from
+the Pasha of Grosswardein, in which he informed me that certain persons
+had attacked the Princess's escort at Kiralyhago and cut them down to a
+man."
+
+"I anticipated that," replied Olaj Beg slily. "When with much shedding
+of tears they handed the Princess over to me, I heard them whisper in
+her ear: 'Fear nothing!' and I well understood from that that those same
+gentlemen who in the council chamber, with wise precautions, resolved to
+deliver up the fugitive Princess, had agreed among themselves over their
+cups at dinner-time that as I left Transylvania they would lie in wait
+for, fall upon me, and liberate and take away with them the Princess
+whom, by the way, they did not deliver over immediately, giving out that
+she was sick and suffering torments. While I was awaiting her recovery,
+nobody but her ladies was allowed admittance to her, and as soon as she
+was on her legs again, I made all my preparations for the journey next
+day, marshalling all the carriages and baggage-wagons in the courtyard.
+I myself, however, got into a sorry matted conveyance with the Princess
+and her child, and set off the same night in the direction of Deva. My
+suite, with the empty carriages, was to follow next morning in the
+direction of Grosswardein. The masked men cut them down as arranged, but
+the Princess and her son were in safe hands all the time. Olaj Beg is an
+old fox, and a fox knows his way about."
+
+Hassan Pasha rubbed his hands delightedly.
+
+"Nevertheless," continued Olaj Beg, "imagine not, my good general, that
+because this woman is now in thy hands thou wilt be able to keep her.
+Sleeplessness will enter thy house as soon as thou hast admitted her
+within thy doors. If it be hard to guard any woman, it will be
+particularly hard to guard this one. The men and women of a whole
+kingdom have sworn to set her free by force or fraud, and will use every
+effort to do so. They will open thy bedroom doors with skeleton keys,
+they will dig beneath thy cellars, they will strew sleeping powder in
+thy evening potions, they will corrupt thy most faithful servants, and
+if no other poison make any impression upon thee they will pour into thy
+heart the most potent of all poisons, the tears of a supplicating woman.
+I have brought the treasure, and I deliver it into thy hands. Allah
+requites me for my pains by taking her from me. Thou art now her guard,
+conceal her as best thou canst. Thy greatest worry will be that thou
+canst not slay her, for indeed she were best hidden beneath the ground.
+But thou art to see to it that she is delivered alive into the hands of
+the Sultan's envoys, for shouldst thou kill her thyself be sure thou
+wilt soon feel the silken cord around thine own neck. Meanwhile, peace
+be with thee and to all who abide in the shadow of the Prophet!"
+
+With these words Olaj Beg stepped into the adjoining room, and leading
+in the Princess, placed her hand in the hand of Hassan; then he raised
+his eyes to Heaven.
+
+"Allah is my witness," said he, "that I have delivered her and her child
+into thy hands!"
+
+In the first moment Hassan Pasha was amazed at the woman's loveliness,
+and thought with regret that it was necessary for his own safety that
+she must die.
+
+Olaj Beg, however, had yet another piece of good advice to impart, and,
+with that object, drew nigh to him to whisper in his ear; but, as if his
+courage failed him at the last moment, he delivered his sentiments in
+the Arabic tongue.
+
+"Thou wouldst guard this woman best if thou tookest her child from her
+and locked it up separately. The mother certainly would not escape
+without the child."
+
+The Princess Ghyka did not understand these words, but she saw how the
+old fox indicated her little one with a glance and with what a greedy
+look Hassan regarded it; and she pressed the child all the closer to her
+bosom as she saw him come a step closer. The unhappy woman trembled when
+she saw Hassan smile upon the child like a hungry wolf would smile if he
+encountered it on his path. She guessed from their play of feature the
+terrible idea which the two men were discussing in a foreign tongue, and
+in her despair cast her eyes upon Azrael, as if hoping that she would
+find a response to her agony in a woman's heart.
+
+The odalisk pretended she had not observed the look, as if those present
+were not worthy of the slightest attention from her; when, however,
+Hassan gratefully embraced the Beg for this fresh piece of advice,
+Azrael intervened with a peculiar smile.
+
+"Thou dost act like one who, bending beneath the weight of a burden too
+heavy for him, would pass it on to his neighbour."
+
+Hassan looked at his favourite damsel inquiringly, while Olaj Beg, who
+was unaccustomed to hear women talk at all when men were holding
+counsel together, looked back with offended surprise over his shoulder.
+
+Azrael reclined lazily back upon her cushions, and swung one leg over
+her knee as she conversed with the two men.
+
+"Worthy Hassan," said she, "thou wouldst make two troubles out of one,
+if thou didst separate thy captives; while thou keepest thine eye on one
+of them, they will steal away the other behind thy back."
+
+Hassan cast a troubled look upon Olaj Beg, who stroked his long white
+beard and smiled.
+
+"If thou dost permit thy damsels to ask questions, thou must needs
+answer them," said he.
+
+At these words Azrael leaped from her place and boldly approached the
+two men, her flaming black eyes measured the Beg from head to foot, and
+when she spoke it was with a determined, startling voice.
+
+"Listen to me, Hassan--yes, I say, thou shouldst listen to me before all
+thy friends just because I am a woman. A man can only give advice, but a
+woman loves, and before a man thinks of danger a woman already sees it
+coming from afar, and while a man may grow into a crafty old fox, a
+woman is born crafty. Hassan knows very well that of all those who wear
+a mask of friendship for him, there is but one on whom he can absolutely
+rely, whose love all the treasures in India can as little destroy as
+they can lull her hatred asleep, who watches over him while he sleeps,
+and if she sleeps is dreaming of his destiny--that person am I."
+
+Hassan confirmed the words of the damsel by throwing his arm round her
+shoulders and drawing her towards him.
+
+"If this woman requires a sleepless, uncorruptible guardian," continued
+Azrael, "I will be that guardian. Make for us a long chain, and let one
+end of it be fastened to my arm and the other to her girdle. Thus the
+slave will be chained to the jailer, and, sleeping or waking, will be
+unable to escape from me. I shall be a good janitor. I will not let her,
+or her child, out of my hands."
+
+The damsel accompanied these words with such an infernal smile that Olaj
+Beg involuntarily edged away from her; while Hassan was enchanted by
+this noble specimen of loyalty. But Mariska's face was bright and
+resigned again, for she understood from the words of the odalisk,
+threatening as they were, that she and her child were not to be
+separated, and to all else she was indifferent.
+
+Olaj Beg drew the folds of his caftan over his lean, dry bosom, and
+after peering at the two women, remarked to Hassan:
+
+"'Tis well thou canst trust a woman to look after a woman."
+
+With that he backed out of the room, blessing all four corners of it as
+he went, and in the gateway distributed with great condescension to
+every one of the servants who had done anything for him some money
+ingeniously twisted up in pieces of paper (which, by the way, were found
+to contain a half-penny each when at last unfolded), and sitting in his
+mat-covered carriage, gave strict orders to the coachman not to look
+back till he saw the citadel of Buda.
+
+But Hassan the same hour sent for his goldsmith, and bade him prepare
+immediately a silver chain, four yards long, with golden shackles at
+each end, for Azrael and Mariska. The goldsmith took the measure of the
+hands of the two damsels, and brought in the evening a chain made of
+beaten silver, whose shackles were fastened by masterly-constructed
+padlocks, which Hassan himself fastened on the hands of the damsels,
+thrusting the key which opened the padlocks into his girdle, which he
+tapped a hundred times a day to discover whether it was still there or
+not. Then he dismissed the pair of them into Azrael's dormitory. Mariska
+endured everything--the chain, the shame, and rough words--for the
+privilege of being able to embrace her child. She lay down content on
+the carpets as far from Azrael as the chain would permit it, and folding
+her hands above the baby's innocent head, prayed with burning devotion
+to the God of mercy, and calmly went to sleep holding the child in her
+arms.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A little beyond midnight the child began softly wailing. At the first
+sound of its crying Mariska awoke, and as she moved her hand the chain
+rattled. Azrael was instantly alert.
+
+"Hast thou had evil dreams?" inquired the odalisk of Mariska; "the
+rattling of the chain aroused me."
+
+"The weeping of my child awoke me," said Mariska softly; and drawing the
+little one to her bosom, as it embraced its mother's beautiful velvet
+breast with its chubby little finger, and drank from the sweetest of all
+sources the draught of life, the young mother gazed upon it with
+unspeakable joy, smiled, laughed, caught the child's rosy little fingers
+in her mouth, and implanted resounding kisses on its rosy, chubby
+cheeks. She had no thought at that moment for chain and dungeon.
+
+Azrael felt in her heart the torments of the demons--it was that
+jealousy which those who are rocked in the lap of happiness feel at the
+sight of a luckless wretch who is happier than they are in spite of all
+his wretchedness.
+
+"Wherefore dost thou rejoice?" she asked, gazing upon the lady with the
+eyes of a serpent.
+
+"Because my child is with me."
+
+"But the whole world has abandoned thee."
+
+"It is more to me than the whole world."
+
+"More than thy husband?"
+
+Mariska reflected for a moment, and then, instead of replying, hugged
+the child still closer to her bosom and imprinted a kiss upon its
+forehead.
+
+"Wert thou ever a mother?" she asked Azrael in her turn.
+
+"Never," stammered the odalisk, and involuntarily her bosom heaved
+beneath a sigh.
+
+It was plain from the face of Mariska how much she pitied this poor
+woman. Azrael perceived the look, and it wounded her that she should be
+pitied.
+
+"Dost thou not know that both of you must die?" she asked with a
+darkened countenance.
+
+"I am ready."
+
+"And art thou not terrified at the thought? They will strangle thy child
+with a silken cord, and hang it dead upon thy breast, and then they will
+strangle thee likewise, and put you both in the grave, in the cold
+earth."
+
+"We shall see each other in a better world," said Mariska with fervent
+devotion.
+
+"Where?" inquired the astounded Azrael.
+
+Mariska, with holy confidence, raised her little one in her arms, and,
+lifting her eyes, said: "God will take us unto Himself."
+
+"And what need hath God of you?"
+
+"He is the Father of those who suffer, and in the other world He rewards
+those who suffer grief here below."
+
+"And who told thee this?"
+
+Mariska, as one inspired, placed her hand upon her heart and said: "It
+is written here!"
+
+Azrael regarded the woman abashed. Truly, many mysterious words are
+written in the heart, why cannot everyone read them? She also had
+listened to such mystic voices, but they were words shouted in a desert,
+in her savage breast there was no manner of love which could interpret
+their meaning.
+
+Mariska again put down her child on the edge of the cushion.
+
+"Place not thy child there," cried Azrael impatiently; "it might easily
+fall, place it between us!"
+
+Mariska accepted the offer, and placed the little one between herself
+and Azrael.
+
+When the first ray of dawn penetrated the large window Mariska awoke,
+and, folding her hands together above the head of the little child,
+again began to pray.
+
+Azrael looked on darkly.
+
+"Dost thou never pray?" said Mariska, turning towards her.
+
+"Why should women pray? Their destiny is not in their own hands. Their
+fate depends upon their masters; if their masters are happy, they are
+happy also; if their masters perish, they perish with them. This is
+their earthly lot--and that is all. Allah never gave them a soul--what
+have they to do with the life beyond this? In Paradise the Houris take
+their places and the Houris remain young for ever. The breath of a woman
+vanishes with the autumn mist like the fumes of a dead animal, and Allah
+has no thought for them."
+
+Mariska, with only half intelligible sorrow, looked at this woman who
+wished to seem worse than she really was.
+
+Azrael crept closer up to her.
+
+"And dost thou really believe that there is someone who listens to what
+the worms say, to what the birds twitter, and to what women pray?"
+
+"Certainly," replied the young Christian woman; "turn to Him, and thou
+wilt feel for thyself His goodness."
+
+"How can it be so? Why should He pay any attention to me?"
+
+"It is not enough I know to clasp thy hands and close thy eyes. Thy
+petition must come straight from thy heart, and thy soul must believe
+that it will gain its desire."
+
+Azrael's face flushed red. Hastily she cast herself down on her knees on
+the carpet, and pressing her folded hands to her bosom, stammered in a
+scarce audible voice:
+
+"God! grant me one moment in my life in which I can say: I am happy."
+
+Her eyes were still closed when the door of the dormitory opened, and
+Hayat, the oldest duenna of the harem, entered with an air of great
+secrecy. She was now a shrivelled up bundle of old bones, but formerly
+she had been the first favourite of Hassan Pasha, and now she was the
+slave and secret confidante of all the favourites in turn.
+
+Azrael leaned towards her, perceiving from the face of the duenna that
+she brought some message for her; whereupon the latter advanced and,
+looking around in case anyone should be lurking there, whispered some
+words in Azrael's ear.
+
+On hearing these words the odalisk leaped from her seat with a face
+flushed with joy, while unspeakably tender tears trembled in her eyes.
+Her hands were involuntarily pressed against her heaving bosom, and her
+lips seemed to murmur some voiceless prayer.
+
+Some great unusual joy had come upon her, some joy which she had always
+longed but never dared to hope for. Scarce able to restrain herself she
+turned towards her comrade, who, after listening to her, gazed
+wonderingly at her and pressed her hand, exclaiming in a voice of strong
+conviction: "Then it is true, our prayer has indeed been heard!"
+
+Azrael began merrily putting on her garments, and helped Mariska also to
+dress; then she sent the duenna with a message to Hassan. She must go
+again to the mosque of the old dervish to pray, for she had been
+dreaming of Hassan.
+
+Soon afterwards Hassan himself came to her, took from her arm the golden
+shackle which fastened the chain that bound her to Mariska, and,
+ordering her palanquin to be brought up to the door, sent her away to
+the old dervish; while, seizing the end of the Princess's chain, he led
+her, together with her child, into his own apartments and there sat down
+on his cushions, drawing his rosary from his girdle and mumbling the
+first prayers of the naama, constantly holding in his hand the end of
+the Princess's chain.
+
+The Vizier had of late been much given to prayer, for since the lost
+battle not a soul had come to visit him. The envoys of the Sultan, the
+country petitioners, the foreign ministers, the begging brotherhoods,
+all of them had avoided his threshold as if he were dead.
+
+The first day he was painfully affected by this manifestation, but on
+the second day he commanded the door-keepers to admit none to his
+presence. Thus, at any rate, he could make himself believe that if
+nobody came to visit him it was by his express command.
+
+He knew right well that a sentence of death had been written down and
+that this sentence was meant for one of two persons, either the Princess
+or himself, where their two shadows mingled a double darkness was cast,
+and Israfil, the Angel of Death, stood over them with a drawn sword.
+
+Hassan knew this right well, and he pressed in his hand convulsively the
+silver chain to which his prisoner was attached, that prisoner whom he
+regarded as the ransom for his own life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE EXTRAVAGANCES OF LOVE
+
+
+After that melancholy scene, when the ladies of Transylvania vainly drew
+tears and blushes from the faces of their husbands, a ray of hope still
+remained in one heart alone. It was pretty Aranka Beldi, who, when
+everyone else's eyes were full of tears, could whisper words of
+encouragement to her unhappy friend, and who, when everyone else
+abandoned her, embraced her last of all, and said to her with firm
+conviction: "Fear not, we will save you!"
+
+The youths of Transylvania also said: "Fear not, we will save you!" but
+Fate flung the dice blindly, the marked men in ambush captured only the
+escort, not the captive, and had all their fine trouble for nothing.
+
+Aranka Beldi, however, begged her father to let her go to Gernyeszeg to
+visit her friend Flora Teleki, and there the two noble young damsels
+agreed together to write two letters to acquaintances in Hungary. One of
+them wrote to Toekoely, the other to Feriz Beg, and when the letters were
+ready, they read to each other what they had written. Flora's letter to
+Toekoely was as follows:
+
+      "SIR,
+
+      "The fact that _I_ write these lines to you shows the
+      desperate position I am in, when I have to hide my
+      blushes and apply to him whom of all men I ought to
+      avoid. But it is a question of life and death. Do you
+      recollect the moment when, in the castle of Rumnik,
+      you saw three maids embrace each other, of whom I was
+      one? We then swore friendship and good fellowship to
+      each other. One of the three at the present moment
+      stands at the brink of death; I mean Mariska Sturdza,
+      whose misfortunes cannot be unknown to you, and this
+      is not the first mode of deliverance which we have
+      attempted--but the last. Your Excellency is a powerful
+      and magnanimous man, who has great influence with the
+      Sultan, and where one expedient fails, you can employ
+      another. I have always pictured your Excellency to
+      myself as a valiant and chivalrous cavalier, and from
+      what I know of the respect which all honourable
+      persons of my acquaintance have for your Excellency, I
+      have the utmost confidence that the unfortunate
+      Princess of Moldavia will not wait in vain for
+      deliverance. Do what you can, and may I add to the
+      esteem in which you are held the fervent blessings of
+      a heart which sincerely prays for your Excellency's
+      welfare.
+
+      "FLORA TELEKI."
+
+Flora's calculations were most just. Toekoely, in those days, stood high
+in the favour of the Sultan, was on terms of intimacy with all the
+pashas and viziers, and very frequently a casual word from him had more
+effect than other people's supplications. And Flora showed a fine
+knowledge of character when she appealed to the magnanimity of the very
+man who had so grievously offended her, feeling certain that just for
+that very reason, although Toekoely might not recognise the force of his
+former obligations, he would be magnanimous enough instantly to grant a
+favour to the lady who asked him for it, especially as the woman to be
+liberated had been the original cause of their separation.
+
+Aranka kissed her friend over and over again when she had read this
+letter, and then she suddenly grew sad.
+
+"Oh, _my_ letter is not nearly so pretty, I am ashamed to show it to
+you."
+
+Flora looked at her friend with gentle bashfulness as Aranka handed over
+her letter, and blushed like a red rose all the time she was perusing
+it.
+
+      "NOBLE-HEARTED FERIZ!
+
+      "When we were both children you maintained that you
+      loved me (here she inserted within brackets: 'like a
+      sister,' and a good thing for her that she did put
+      these three words in brackets). If you still recollect
+      what you said, now is the time to prove it. My dearest
+      friend, Mariska Sturdza, is at Buda, a prisoner in the
+      hands of Hassan Pasha. My only hope of her deliverance
+      depends on you. I have heard such splendid things of
+      you. If you see her, for whom I now implore you, with
+      a sad face and tearful eyes, think how I should look
+      if I were there, and if you give her back to me, and I
+      can embrace her again, and look into her smiling eyes,
+      then I will think of you, too.
+
+      "ARANKA BELDI."
+
+The girls entrusted these letters to faithful servants, sending the
+first letter to Temesvar, where Toekoely was then residing, and the second
+to Feriz Beg, who, as we know, lay ill at Buda.
+
+The news first reached Toekoely at supper-time. On receiving the letter
+and reading it through, he at once put down his glass, girded on his
+sword, and telling his comrades that he was about to take a little
+stroll, he mounted his horse and vanished from the town.
+
+Feriz was lying half-delirious on his carpet. His health mended but
+slowly, as is often the case with men of strong constitutions, and the
+tidings of the smallest disaster which befell the Turks threw him into
+such a state of excitement that a relapse was incessantly to be feared,
+so that at last they would not allow any messages at all to be brought
+to him, for even when they brought good news to him he always managed
+to look at them from the worst side, so that news of any kind was
+absolute poison to him. At last his Greek physician made it a rule to
+read every letter addressed to his patient beforehand; and if it
+contained the least disturbing element, he let Feriz know nothing at all
+about it. What especially annoyed Feriz were any letters from women, and
+these were simply sent back.
+
+Thus Aranka's letter might very easily have had the fate of being
+suppressed altogether had it not been entrusted to Master Gregory Biro,
+a shrewd and famous Szekler courier, whose honourable peculiarity it was
+to go wherever he was sent, and do whatsoever he was told, be the
+obstacles in the way what they might. If he had been told to give
+something to the Sultan of Turkey, he would have wormed his way to him
+somehow--all inquiries, all threats would have been in vain; he would
+have insisted on seeing and speaking to him if his head had to be cut
+off the next moment.
+
+One day, then, worthy Gregory Biro appeared before the kiosk of Feriz
+Beg and asked to be admitted.
+
+At these words a Moor popped out, and, seizing him by the collar,
+conducted him to a room where a half-dressed man was standing before a
+fire cooking black potions in all sorts of queer-shaped crooked glasses.
+The Moor presented Gregory to the doctor as another messenger.
+
+"What is your name?" he asked, venomously regarding him from over his
+shoulder, and treating him to the most terrifying grimace he could think
+of.
+
+"Gregory Biro," replied the Szekler, nodding his head twice as was his
+custom.
+
+"Gregory, Gregory, what do you want here?"
+
+"I want to see Feriz Beg."
+
+"I am he; what have you brought?"
+
+Gregory twisted his mug derisively at these words, and immediately
+reflected that the business was beginning badly, for the person before
+him did not in the least resemble Feriz Beg as described to him.
+
+"I have brought a letter--from a pretty girl."
+
+"Give it to me quickly, and be off."
+
+Gregory twisted round his short jacket that he might get at his
+knapsack; but while he was fumbling inside it he was cute enough to
+extract the contents of the letter from its cover, and only handed the
+empty envelope to the doctor.
+
+"'Tis well, Gregory, now you may go," said he gently, and without so
+much as opening the envelope he thrust it into the fire and held the
+blazing paper under a retort which he wanted to warm.
+
+"Is that the way they read letters here?" asked Gregory, scratching his
+head, and he crept to the door; but there he stopped, and while half his
+body remained outside he thrust his arm up to the elbow into the long
+pocket of his _szuere_,[17] drew from thence a diamond-clasp, and holding
+it between two fingers cried: "Look! I found this ring on the road not
+far from here, perchance Feriz Beg has lost it."
+
+     [Footnote 17: Sheepskin mantle.]
+
+The doctor took the splendid jewel, and feeling convinced that only a
+nobleman could have lost such a thing, he said he would show it to Feriz
+Beg immediately.
+
+"Ho! then you are not Feriz Beg after all!" cried the humorist.
+
+The doctor burst out laughing.
+
+"Gregory! Gregory! don't jest with me. I am the cook, and if I like you
+I will let you stay to dinner."
+
+Gregory pulled a wry face at the sight of the doctor's stews.
+
+The doctor thereupon took in the diamond-clasp to Feriz Beg, after
+bidding the Moor, whom he left behind him, not to drink anything out of
+the glasses standing there, or it would make him ill.
+
+Shortly afterwards the doctor returned in great astonishment, planted
+himself in front of Gregory with frowning eyebrows and roared at him in
+a voice which alarmed even the Szekler:
+
+"Where did you get that jewel from?"
+
+"Where did I get it from?" said Gregory, shrugging his shoulders; he was
+very pleased they wanted to frighten him.
+
+"Come, speak!--quick!"
+
+"Not now."
+
+"Why not?" snapped the doctor firmly.
+
+"Not to you, if you were to break me on the wheel."
+
+"I'll bastinado you."
+
+"Not if you impaled me, I say."
+
+"Gregory! If you anger me, I'll make you drink three pints of physic."
+
+"They are here, eh!" exclaimed Gregory, approaching the hearth, skipping
+among the flasks of the doctor, and seizing one of them, but he had the
+sense to choose alcohol, and dragging it from its case, sipped away at
+it till there was not a drop of it left.
+
+"Leave a little in it, you dog!" yelled the doctor, snatching the flask
+away from him, "don't drink it all!"
+
+"I'll drink up the whole shop, but speak I won't unless I like."
+
+The doctor perceived that he had met his match.
+
+"Then will you speak before Feriz Beg?" he asked.
+
+"I'll speak the whole truth then."
+
+So there was nothing for it but to open Feriz Beg's door before Gregory
+and shove him inside.
+
+Feriz Beg was sitting there on a couch, a feverish flush was burning
+upon his pale face; he still held the jewel in his hand, and his eyes
+were fastened upon it; just such a similar clasp he had given to Aranka
+Beldi when they were both children together.
+
+"How did you come by this jewel?" inquired Feriz in a soft, mournful
+voice.
+
+"She to whom you gave it gave it to me that you might believe she sent
+me to you."
+
+At these words Feriz Beg arose with flashing eyes.
+
+"She sent you to me! She! So she remembers me! She thinks of me
+sometimes, then."
+
+"She sent you a letter through me."
+
+Feriz Beg stretched out a tremulous hand.
+
+"Where is the letter?"
+
+"I flung it into the fire," interjected the doctor.
+
+"How dared you do that?" exclaimed Feriz angrily.
+
+But the doctor was not afraid.
+
+"I am your doctor, and every letter injures your health."
+
+"Panajot! you are an impertinent fellow!" thundered Feriz, with a face
+of inflamed purple; and he smote the table such a blow with his fist
+that all the medicine bottles tumbled off it.
+
+"Don't be angry, sir!" said Gregory, twisting his moustache at both
+ends, while Panajot coolly swept together the fragments of the broken
+bottles and boxes on the floor; "the worthy man did not burn the letter
+but only the envelope. I had gumption enough not to entrust the inside
+of it to him."
+
+And with these words he drew from his pouch a letter written on all four
+sides of the sheet and handed it to Feriz, who before reading it covered
+with kisses the lines traced by that dear hand, while Master Panajot
+looked at Gregory in amazement.
+
+"Go along, you old fox, Gregory," said he; "next time you come, I'll
+throw _you_ into the fire to boot."
+
+But Gregory, highly delighted, feasted his eyes on the youth's face all
+the time he was reading the letter.
+
+As if his soul had changed within him, as if he had passed from the
+troubles of this world to the joys of Paradise, every feature of the
+youth's face became smiling and joyful. The farther he read the brighter
+grew his eyes; and when he came to the last word he pressed the leaf to
+his heart with an expression of the keenest rapture, and held it there
+a long time, closing his eyes as if in a happy dream, as if he had shut
+them to see no other object when he conjured up her image before his
+mind.
+
+Master Panajot was alarmed, fancying some mischief had happened to the
+invalid, and turned upon Gregory with gnashing teeth:
+
+"What infernal document have you brought along with you, Gregory?"
+
+Feriz meanwhile smilingly nodded his head as if he would thank some
+invisible shape, and whispered softly:
+
+"So it shall be, so it shall be."
+
+"I'm afraid you feel bad, my master," said the doctor.
+
+Feriz looked up, and his face had grown quite round.
+
+"I?--I feel very well. Take your drugs from my table, and bring me wine
+and costly meats dear to the eyes and mouth. I would rejoice my soul and
+my palate. Call hither musicians, and open wide my gate. Pile flowers
+upon my windows, I would be drunk with the fragrance of the flowers that
+the breeze brings to me."
+
+Panajot fancied that the invalid had gone out of his mind, and yet full
+of the joy of life he rose from his couch, laid aside his warm woollen
+garment, put on instead a light silk robe, wound round his head a turban
+of the finest linen instead of the warm shaggy shawl, and he who had
+hitherto been brooding and fretting apathetically, had suddenly become
+as light as a bird, paced the room with rapid steps, with proudly
+erected face, from which the livid yellow of sickness had suddenly
+disappeared, and his eyes sparkled like fire.
+
+Panajot could not account for the change, and really believed that the
+patient had fallen into some dangerous paroxysm and in this persuasion
+bawled for all the members of the negro family. The old Egyptian
+door-keeper, a young Nubian huntsman, a Chinese cook, trampling upon
+each other in their haste, all rushed into the room at his cry.
+
+Feriz Beg, with boyish mirth, stopped them all before the doctor could
+say a word.
+
+"Thou, Ali," he said to the old door-keeper, "go to the mosque and cast
+this silver among the poor that they may give thanks to Allah for my
+recovery. And thou, O cook! prepare a dinner for twelve persons, looking
+to it that there is wine and flowers and music; and thou, my huntsman,
+bring forth the fieriest steed and put upon him the most costly
+wrappings; and ye others, take this worthy doctor and lock him up among
+his drugs that he may not get away, and call hither all my friends and
+acquaintances, and tell them we will celebrate the festival of my
+recovery."
+
+The servants with shouts of joy fulfilled the commands of Feriz. First
+of all they shoved good Panajot into his drug-brewing kitchen, and then
+they dispersed to do their master's bidding.
+
+Feriz then took the hand of the Szekler who had brought the message and
+shook it violently, saying to him in a loud firm voice:
+
+"Thou must remain with me till I have accomplished thy mistress's
+commands. For she has laid a command upon me which I must needs obey."
+
+Meanwhile, the ostlers had brought forward the good charger. It was a
+fiery white Arab, ten times as restless as usual because of its long
+rest; not an instant were its feet still. Two men caught it by the head
+and were scarce able to hold it, its pink, wide open nostrils blew forth
+jets of steam, and through its smooth white mane could be seen the ruddy
+hue of the full blood.
+
+The unfortunate Panajot poked his head through the round window of his
+laboratory, and from thence regarded with stupefaction his whilom
+invalid bestride the back of the wild charger, that same invalid who, if
+anyone knocked at his door an hour or two before, complained that his
+head was bursting.
+
+The charger pranced and caracolled and the doctor with tears in his eyes
+besought the bystanders if they had any sense of feeling at all not to
+let the Beg ride on such a winged griffin. They only laughed at him.
+Feriz flung himself into the saddle as lightly as a grasshopper. The two
+stablemen let go the reins, the steed rose up erect on his hind legs and
+bucked along as a biped for several yards. Then the Beg struck the sharp
+stirrups into its flank, and the steed, snorting loudly, bowed its head
+over its fore-quarters and galloped off like lightning.
+
+The doctor followed him with a lachrymose eye, every moment expecting
+that Feriz would fall dead from his horse; but he sat in the saddle as
+if grown to it, as he had always been wont to do. When the road
+meandered off towards the fortress he turned into it and disappeared
+from the astonished gaze of those who were looking after him.
+
+A few moments later the horseman was in the courtyard of the fortress.
+He demanded an interview with the general, and was told that he was
+receiving nobody. He applied therefore to his favourite eunuch instead.
+He arrived at the fortress with a full purse, he quitted it with an
+empty one; but he now knew everything he wanted to know, viz., that
+Hassan had entrusted the captive Princess to Azrael; that the two girls
+were tied by the hands to one chain; that he greatly feared someone
+would come and filch the Princess from him; that he got up ten times
+every night to see whether anyone had stolen into the palace; and that
+since Mariska had been placed in his hands he had drunk no wine and
+smoked no opium, and would eat of no dish save from the hands of his
+favourite damsel.
+
+Feriz Beg knew quite enough. Again he mounted his horse and galloped
+back to his kiosk, taking the neighbouring mosque on his way, on
+reaching which he called from his horse to the old dervish, who
+immediately appeared in answer to his summons.
+
+"Tell her who was wont to visit me in thy stead that I want to see and
+speak to her early to-morrow morning."
+
+And with that he threw some gold ducats to the dervish and galloped off.
+
+The dervish looked after him in astonishment, and picking up the ducats,
+instantly toddled off to the fortress, prowled about the gate all night,
+met Hajat at early dawn, and gave her the message for Azrael.
+
+This was the joyful tidings which the odalisk had received in response
+to her first prayer, and which had made her so happy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning she ordered her servants to admit none but the old dervish,
+and to close every door as soon as he had entered.
+
+Shortly afterwards, Azrael with her retinue of servants arrived at the
+mosque, and a few moments after she had disappeared behind the trellised
+railings the form of the old dervish appeared in the street, hobbling
+along with his crutch till he reached the kiosk. Feriz Beg perceived him
+through the window, and sent everyone from the room that he might remain
+alone with him.
+
+The dervish entered, closed the door behind him, let down the
+tapestries, took off his false beard and false raiment, and there before
+Feriz--tremulous, blushing, and shamefaced--stood the odalisk.
+
+"Thou hast sent for me," she stammered softly, "and behold--here I am!"
+
+"I would beg something of thee," said Feriz, half leaning on his elbow.
+
+"Demand my life!" cried the odalisk impetuously, "and I will lay it at
+thy feet!" and at these words she flung herself at the foot of the divan
+on which the youth was sitting.
+
+"I ask thee for nothing less than thy life. Once thou saidst that thou
+didst love me. Is that true now also?"
+
+"Is it not possible to love thee, and yet live?"
+
+"Say then that I might love thee if I knew thee better. Good! I wish to
+know thee."
+
+The damsel regarded the youth tremblingly, waiting to hear what he would
+say to her.
+
+The youth rose and said in a solemn, lofty voice:
+
+"In my eyes not the roses of the cheeks, or the fire of the eyes, or
+bodily charms make a woman beautiful, but the beauty of the soul, for I
+recognise a soul in woman, and she is no mere plaything for the pastime
+of men. What enchants me is noble feeling, self-sacrifice, loyalty,
+resignation. Canst thou die for him whom thou lovest?"
+
+"It would be rapture to me."
+
+"Canst thou die for her whom thou hatest in order to prove how thou dost
+love?"
+
+"I do not understand," said Azrael hesitating.
+
+"Thou wilt understand immediately. There is a captive woman in Hassan's
+castle who is entrusted to thy charge. This captive woman must be
+liberated. Wilt _thou_ liberate her?"
+
+At these words Azrael's heart began to throb feverishly. All the blood
+vanished from her face. She looked at the youth in despair, and said
+with a gasp:
+
+"Dost _thou_ love this woman?"
+
+"Suppose that I love her and thou dost free her all the same."
+
+The woman collapsed at the feet of Feriz Beg, and embracing his knees,
+said, sobbing loudly:
+
+"Oh, say that thou dost not love her, say that thou dost not know her,
+and I will release her--I will release her for thee at the risk of my
+own life."
+
+The reply of Feriz was unmercifully cold.
+
+"Believe that I love her, and in that belief sacrifice thyself for her.
+This night I will wait for her wherever thou desirest, and will take her
+away if thou wilt fetch her. It was thy desire to know me, and I would
+know thee also. Thou art free to come or go as thou choosest."
+
+The odalisk hid her tearful face in the carpets on the floor, and
+writhed convulsively to the feet of Feriz, moaning piteously.
+
+"Oh, Feriz, thou art merciless to me."
+
+"Thou wouldst not be the first who had sacrificed her life for love."
+
+"But none so painfully as I."
+
+"And art thou not proud to do so, then?"
+
+At these words the woman raised a pale face, her large eyes had a
+moonlight gleam like the eyes of a sleep-walker. She seized the hand of
+Feriz in order to help herself to rise.
+
+"Yes, I am proud to die for thee. I will show that here--within
+me--there is a heart which can feel nobly--which can break for that
+which it loves, for that which kills it--that pride shall be mine. I
+will do it."
+
+And then, as if she wished to clear away the gathering clouds from her
+thoughts, she passed her hand across her forehead and continued in a
+lower, softer voice:
+
+"This night, when the muezzin calls the hour of midnight, be in front of
+the fortress-garden on thy fleetest horse. Thou wilt not have to wait
+long; there is a tiny door there which conceals a hidden staircase which
+leads from the fortress to the trenches. I will come thither and bring
+her with me."
+
+Feriz involuntarily pressed the hand of the girl kneeling before him,
+and felt a burning pressure in his hand, and when he looked at the young
+face before him he saw the smile of a sublime rapture break forth upon
+her radiantly joyful features.
+
+Azrael parted from Feriz an altogether transformed being, another heart
+was throbbing in her breast, another blood was flowing to her heart,
+earth and heaven had a different colour to her eyes. She believed that
+the youth would love her if she died for him, and that thought made her
+happy.
+
+But Feriz summoned Gregory Biro, and having recompensed him, sent him
+back to his mistress with the message:
+
+"Thy wish hath been accomplished."
+
+So sure was he that Azrael would keep her word--if only she were alive
+to do so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hassan Pasha waited and waited for Azrael. If the odalisk was not with
+him he felt as helpless as a child who has strayed away from its nurse.
+In the days immediately following the lost battle, the shame attaching
+to him and his agonized fear for his life had quite confused his mind;
+and the drugs employed at that time, combined with restless nights, the
+prayers of the dervishes, the joys of the harem and opium, had completed
+the ruin of his nervous system. If he were left alone for an hour he
+immediately fainted, and when he awoke it was in panic terror--he gazed
+around him like one in the grip of a hideous nightmare. For some days he
+would leave off his opium, but as is generally the case when one too
+suddenly abandons one's favourite drug, the whole organism threatened to
+collapse, and the renunciation of the opium did even more mischief than
+its enjoyment.
+
+When Azrael rejoined him he was asleep, the chain by which he held the
+Princess had fallen from his hand and when he awoke there was a good
+opportunity of persuading him that Mariska had escaped from him while he
+slept.
+
+Hassan looked long and blankly at her, it seemed as if he would need
+some time wherein to rally his scattered senses sufficiently to
+recognise anyone. But Azrael was able to exercise a strange magnetic
+influence over him, and he would awake from the deepest sleep whenever
+she approached him.
+
+Azrael sat down beside the couch and embraced the Vizier, while Mariska,
+with tender bashfulness, turned her head away from them; and Hassan,
+observing it, drew Azrael's head to his lips and whispered in her ear:
+
+"I have had evil dreams again. Hamaliel, the angel of dreams, appeared
+before me, and gave me to understand that if I did not kill this woman,
+he would kill me. My life is poisoned because she is here. My mind is
+not in proper order. I often forget who I am. I fancy I am living at
+Stambul, and looking out of the window am amazed that I do not see the
+Bosphorus. This woman must die. This will cure me. I will kill her this
+very day."
+
+Mariska did not hear these words, all her attention was fixed upon the
+babbling of her child; and Azrael, with an enchanting smile, flung
+herself on the breast of the Vizier, embracing his waggling head and
+covering his face with kisses, and the smile of her large dark eyes
+illuminated his gloomy soul.
+
+Poor Hassan! He fancies that that enchanting smile, that embrace, those
+kisses are meant for him, but the shape of a handsome youth hovers
+before the mind of the odalisk, and that is why she kisses Hassan so
+tenderly, embraces him so ardently, and smiles so enchantingly. She
+fancies 'tis her ideal whom she sees and embraces.
+
+Ah, the extravagances of love!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+SPORT WITH A BLIND MAN.
+
+
+Azrael had felt afraid when Hassan said: "I must kill this woman
+to-day." A fearful spectre was haunting the mind of the Vizier; he must
+be freed from this spectre, and made to forget it.
+
+So Azrael devised an odd sport for the man on the verge of imbecility.
+
+The seven days had passed during which Hassan had forbidden that anyone
+should be admitted to his presence, and it occurred to Azrael that in
+the ante-chamber crowds of brilliant envoys, and couriers, and
+supplicants were waiting, all eagerly desirous of an audience, many of
+them with rich gifts; others came to render homage, others with joyful
+tidings from the seat of war; whilst one of them had come all the way
+from the Grand Vizier with a very important message from the Sultan
+himself.
+
+Hassan's stupid mind brightened somewhat at these words, a fatuously
+good-natured smile lit up his face.
+
+"Let them come in, let them appear before me," he said joyfully to the
+girl; "and remain thou beside me and introduce them to me one by one;
+thine shall be the glory of it."
+
+But in reality none was awaiting an audience in the ante-room, there
+were no splendid envoys there, no humble petitioners, no agas, no
+messengers, none but the Vizier's own slaves.
+
+But these Azrael dressed up one by one to look like splendid magnates,
+village magistrates, and soldiers; put sealed letters, purses, and
+banners in their hands, and placing Hassan in the reception-room on a
+lofty divan, sat down with the Princess on stools at his feet, and
+ordered the door-keepers to admit the disguised slaves one by one.
+
+The mockery was flagrant, but was there among them all any who dared to
+enlighten Hassan? Who would undertake to undeceive him when a mere nod
+from Azrael might annihilate before the Vizier could realise that they
+were making sport of him? It was a fleet-winged demon fooling a sluggish
+mammoth with strength enough to crush her but with no wings to enable it
+to get at her, and the rabble always takes the part of the mocker, not
+of the mocked, especially if the former be lucky and the latter unlucky.
+
+The loutish slaves came one by one into the room, and Hassan turned his
+face towards them, remaining in that position while Azrael told him who
+they were and what they wanted.
+
+"This is Ferhad Aga," said the odalisk, pointing at a stable-man, "who,
+hearing of thy martial prowess in all four corners of the world has come
+hither begging thee with veiled countenance to include him among thy
+armour-bearers."
+
+Hassan most graciously extended his hand to the stable-man and granted
+him his petition.
+
+Azrael next presented to Hassan a cook from a foreign court, who,
+dressed in a large round mantle of cloth of silver, might very well have
+passed for a burgomaster of Debreczen, and whose shoulders bent beneath
+the weight of two sacks of gold and silver from Hassan's own treasury.
+
+"This is the magistrate of the city of Debreczen," said the odalisk,
+"who hath brought thee a little gift in the name of the municipality,
+with the petition that when thou dost become the Pasha of Transylvania
+thou wilt not forget them."
+
+Hassan smiled at the word money, had the sacks placed before him, thrust
+his arms into them up to his very wrists with great satisfaction, had
+their contents emptied at his feet, and dismissed the envoy with a
+hearty pressure of the hand.
+
+And now followed a negro, who brought some recaptured Turkish banners
+from the bed of a river which did not exist, in which the Turks had
+drowned the whole army of Montecuculi.
+
+Hassan was now in such a weak state of mind that he no longer recognised
+his own people in their unwonted garments, and the more extraordinary
+the things reported to him the more readily he believed them.
+
+And so Azrael kept on exhibiting to him envoys, couriers, and captains
+till, at last, it came to the turn of the envoy of the Grand Vizier,
+whose part the odalisk had entrusted to a clever eunuch who had been
+instructed to present to Hassan a sealed firman, which Azrael was to
+read because Hassan could not see the letters. It was to the effect that
+Hassan was to endeavour to preserve the life of the captive Princess, as
+the Grand Vizier himself intended in a few days to take her over alive.
+
+When thus it seemed good to Azrael that the most striking scene of the
+whole game should begin she exclaimed in a loud voice to the
+door-keepers:
+
+"Admit the ambassador of the Grand Vizier with the message from the
+Sublime Padishah!"
+
+The guards drew back the curtains and in came--Olaj Beg!
+
+"Truly I must needs admit," said he turning towards the odalisk, who
+stood there petrified with fear and amazement, "truly I must admit that
+thou art blessed with the faculty of seeing through walls and reading
+fast-closed letters, for thou hast announced me before I appeared
+officially and thou hast seen the firman hidden in my bosom before I
+have had time to produce it."
+
+Azrael arose. She felt her blood throbbing in her brain for terror. At
+that moment she had that keen sensation of danger when every atom of the
+body--heart, brain, hands, and the smallest nerve--sees, hears, and
+thinks.
+
+"Thou hast brought the firman of the Sultan?" she inquired of Olaj Beg
+with wrapt attention.
+
+"Thou knowest also what is written in it, O enchantress!" said Olaj, in
+a tone of homage, "therefore ask not."
+
+There was something in the yellow face of Olaj Beg which made him most
+formidable, most menacing at the very time when he seemed to be utterly
+abject in his humility.
+
+"What doth the Sublime Sultan command?" inquired Hassan, gazing
+abstractedly in front of him.
+
+"That thou prepare a scaffold in the courtyard of thy palace by
+to-morrow morning."
+
+"For whom?" inquired Hassan in alarm. It was curious that it was he who
+trembled at this word, and not the Princess.
+
+"That is the secret of to-morrow. Thou shalt break open and read this
+firman to-morrow, in it thou wilt find who is to die to-morrow."
+
+At these words Olaj Beg looked at the faces of all who were present, as
+if he would read their innermost thoughts, but in vain. He recognised
+none of those on whom his eyes fell. Although many of them seemed to be
+great men he could not remember meeting any of them in the Empire of the
+Grand Turk; and the face of Azrael was as cold and motionless as marble,
+he could read nought from that.
+
+But Azrael had already read the sealed firman through the eyes of Olaj
+Beg.
+
+She had read it, and it said that if by to-morrow morning the Princess
+was not set free then the scaffold would be erected for her, but if she
+had escaped, then it would be raised for Hassan and for whomsoever had
+set her free.
+
+"I must hasten to set her free," she thought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE NIGHT BEFORE DEATH.
+
+
+The Angel of Death had already spread his wings over the palace of
+Hassan. It was already known that on the morning of the morrow someone
+of those who now dwelt beneath that roof would quit the world--only the
+name of the condemned mortal was not pronounced.
+
+Till late at evening the carpenters were at work in front of the palace
+gates, and every nail knocked into the fabric of the scaffold was
+audible in the rooms. When the structure was ready they covered it with
+red cloth, and placed upon it a three-legged chair and by the side of
+the chair leaned a bright round headsman's sword. A gigantic Kurd then
+mounted the scaffolding, and stamped about the floor with his big feet
+to see whether it would break down beneath him. The chair was badly
+placed, he observed it, put it right and shook his head while he did so.
+To think that people did not understand how to set a chair! Then he
+stripped his muscular arms to the shoulder, took up the sword in his
+broad palm and tested the edge of it, running his fingers along the
+blade as if it were some musical instrument and could not conceal his
+satisfaction. Then he made some sweeping blows with it, and as if
+everything was now in perfect order, he leaned it against the chair
+again and descended the ladder like a man well content with himself.
+
+The hands of Hassan Pasha trembled unusually when that evening he locked
+the golden padlocks on the hands of Azrael and Mariska. A hundred times
+he tapped the key hidden in his girdle to convince himself that it had
+not fallen out.
+
+Scarcely had he left the two women alone than he came back to them again
+to ascertain whether he had really locked their hands together, for he
+had forgotten all about it by the time he had reached the door.
+
+Then he came back a second time, looked all round the room, tapped the
+walls repeatedly, for he was afraid or had dreamt that there was another
+door somewhere which led out of the room. However, he convinced himself
+at last that there was not. Then he went to the window and looked out.
+There was a fall of fifteen feet to the bastions, and the ditch below
+was planted with sharp stakes; all round the room there was nothing
+whatever which could serve as a rope. The curtains were all of down and
+feathers; the dresses were of the lightest transparent material; the
+shawls which formed Azrael's turban and were twisted round her body were
+the finest conceivable; and the garments the odalisk actually wore were
+of silk, and so light that they stuck to the skin everywhere.
+
+Azrael saw through the mind of the Vizier.
+
+"Why dost though look at me?" she exclaimed aloud so that he trembled
+all over; "thou dost suspect me. If thou fearest this woman whom thou
+hast confided to me, take and guard her thyself."
+
+"Azrael," said Hassan meekly, "be not angry with me, at least not now."
+
+"Thou hast never suspected me, then?"
+
+"Have I not always loved thee? If even thou didst want my life would I
+not trust it with thee?"
+
+"Then wander not about the room so. Go and rest!"
+
+"Rest to-night? The Messenger of Death stands before the door."
+
+"What care I about the Messenger of Death? I know _when_ I am going to
+die! And _till_ then I will not lower my eyes before Death."
+
+"And when will Hassan die?" asked the Vizier, seizing the hand of his
+favourite and watching eagerly for her answer with parted lips.
+
+"Thou wilt survive me a day and no longer," said Azrael. There was a
+tremulousness in the intonation of her voice. She felt that what she
+said was true.
+
+The tears trickled from Hassan's face, and he covered it with his hands.
+
+Then the imbecile old man kissed the robe of the odalisk again and
+again, and folding her in his ardent embrace, actually sobbed over her.
+And he kept on babbling:
+
+"Thou wilt die before me?"
+
+"So it is written in the book of the Future," said Azrael proudly; "so
+long as thou seest me alive, have no fear of Death! But the sound of the
+horn of the Angel of Death which summons me away will also be a signal
+for thee to make ready."
+
+Hassan, having dried his tears, quitted Azrael's room, and on reaching
+his own, sank down upon a divan, and was immediately overcome by sleep.
+
+When he had gone, Mariska knelt down before the bed on which her little
+child was softly sleeping, and drawing a little ivory cross from her
+breast, began to pray.
+
+Azrael touched her hand.
+
+"Pray not now, thou wilt have time to pray later."
+
+Mariska looked at her in wonder.
+
+"I? Are not the hours of my life numbered?"
+
+"No. Listen to my words and act accordingly. I will free thee."
+
+The Princess was astonished, she fancied she was dreaming.
+
+The odalisk now drew a small fine steel file from her girdle, and,
+seizing the Princess's hand, began to file the chain from off it.
+
+After the first few rubs the sharp file bit deeply into the silver
+circlet, but suddenly it stopped, and, press it as hard as she would, it
+would bite the chain no more.
+
+"What is this? it won't go on. What is the chain made of? Even if it
+were of steel, another steel would file it."
+
+Azrael hastily filed right round the whole of the link which Hassan's
+smith had thought good to form of silver only on the outside, thinking
+that the fraud would never be discovered, and behold, the hard
+impervious substance which resisted the file was nothing but--glass.
+
+"Ah!" said Azrael, "all the better for us, the work will be quicker;"
+and seizing an iron candlestick, she broke in pieces with a single blow
+the whole of the glass chain which was only covered by a light varnish
+of silver, only the two locked golden manacles remained in their hands.
+
+"We shall be ready all the sooner," she whispered to Mariska, "now we
+must make haste and get you off."
+
+But Mariska still stood before her like one who knows not what is
+befalling her.
+
+"Hast thou thought how we are to escape?" she inquired of Azrael. "The
+guards of Hassan Pasha stand at every door, and all the doors have been
+locked by his own hand. In front of the gates of the fortress the
+sentinels have been doubled. I heard what commands he gave."
+
+"I have nought to do with doors or guards; we are going to escape
+through the window."
+
+Mariska looked at Azrael incredulously; she fancied she had gone mad.
+She could see nothing in the room by which they could descend from the
+window, and below stood the thickly planted sharp stakes.
+
+"Help me to let down this gobaea ladder!" said Azrael, and quick as a
+squirrel herself, she leaped on the edge of the great porcelain tub, and
+thrust aside the vigorous shoots of the plant from its natural ladder
+within, which grew right up to the roof and thence descended again to
+its own roots.
+
+Mariska began to see that her companion knew what she was about. She
+hastened to give her assistance, lowered the pliable trunk, and,
+looking round to see if anyone was watching, bent the branches towards
+the window.
+
+But still it was too short. The longest creepers only reached to the
+edges of the palisade, and one could not count upon the green sprouts at
+the end of the creepers. Even if the ladder which formed the flower were
+attached to it, it would still not reach to the bottom of the trench.
+
+Azrael looked around the room to see if she could find anything.
+Suddenly she had hit upon it.
+
+"Give me those scissors," she said to Mariska, and when the latter had
+returned to her, the odalisk had already let down her flowing tresses.
+Four long locks as black as night, reaching below her knee, the crown of
+a woman's beauty which make men rejoice in her, were twining there on
+the floor.
+
+"Give me the scissors!" she said to Mariska.
+
+"Wouldst thou cut off thy hair?" asked the Princess, holding back.
+
+"Yes, yes, what does it matter? It is wanted for the rope, and it will
+be quite strong enough."
+
+"Rather cut off mine!" said Mariska. With noble emulation she took from
+her head her small pearl haube, and loosened her own tresses, which, if
+not so long and so full of colour, at least rivalled those of her
+comrade in quantity.
+
+"Good; the two together will make the rope stronger," said Azrael; and
+with that the two ladies began clipping off their luxurious locks one by
+one with the little scissors. One marvellously beautiful tress after
+another flowed from the head of the odalisk. When the last had fallen, a
+tear-drop also followed it.
+
+Then she picked up the splendid tresses and began plaiting them together
+into strong knots.
+
+"Wouldst thou ever have thought," said Azrael, "that the locks of thy
+hair would be so intermingled?"
+
+Mariska gratefully pressed the hand of the odalisk.
+
+"How can I ever thank you for your goodness?"
+
+"Think not of it. Fate orders it so--and someone else," she muttered
+softly.
+
+And now the attached ladder was long enough to reach the bottom of the
+palisades. Then they pitched down all the pillows and cushions of the
+divans till they covered the sharp stakes, so that their points might
+not hurt the fugitives. Moreover, Azrael tied the tough shoots of the
+gobaea to the cross piece of the window with the wraps of her turban and
+girdle.
+
+"And now let me go first," said the odalisk, when all was ready; "if the
+branches of the creeper do not break beneath me, then thou canst come
+boldly after me, for thou and the child together are not heavier than I
+am."
+
+The sky was dark and obscured by clouds; no one saw a white shape
+descending from one of the black windows of the fortress down the wall,
+lower and lower, till at last it got to the bottom and vanished in the
+depths of the ditch.
+
+Mariska was waiting above there with a beating heart till the odalisk
+had descended; a tug at the gobaea-rope informed her that Azrael was
+already below, and Mariska could come after her.
+
+A supplicating sigh to God ascended from the anxious bosom of the
+Princess at that supreme moment of trial; then she fastened to her
+breast with the folds of her garment the little one, who, fortunately,
+was still sound asleep, and stepping from the window entrusted herself
+to the yawning abyss below.
+
+And, indeed, she had need of the most confident trust in God during this
+hazardous experiment, for if the child had awoke, the Komparajis pacing
+the bastions would have heard his tearful little wail at once, and it
+would have been all over with the fugitives.
+
+Nothing happened. Mariska reached the ditch in safety, together with her
+child. Azrael assisted her to descend, and then they began to creep
+along among the trenches on the river's bank. It was not advisable to
+clamber upon the trenches, as there they might have encountered a
+sentinel at any moment.
+
+At last they came to the end of the ditch where two bastions joined
+together, forming a little oblique opening, through which one could look
+down on the town of Pesth.
+
+Before the little opening stood a Komparaji leaning on his long lance.
+As his back was turned towards them, he did not notice the women, while
+they started back in terror when they saw him. The man stood right in
+front of the opening completely barring their way, and was gaping at
+Pesth, facing the steep declivity.
+
+Azrael quickly caught Mariska's hand and whispered in her ear:
+
+"Remain here! Sit down with the child, and see that he does not make a
+noise."
+
+And with that, quitting her companion and pressing against the wall of
+the bastion, she slowly and noiselessly began creeping along behind the
+back of the Komparaji.
+
+The sentinel remained standing there, as motionless as a statue, gazing
+at the Danube flying in front of him, when suddenly, like the panther
+leaping upon its prey, the odalisk leaped upon the Komparaji, and before
+he had time to call out, pushed him so violently that he plunged over
+into the abyss.
+
+Then quickly seizing Mariska's hand, the odalisk exclaimed:
+
+"And now forward quickly!"
+
+Like two spirits the forms of the women flitted across the bastions. In
+Azrael's hand was the key of the castle garden; in a few moments they
+reached the subterranean staircase, and when Azrael had locked the door
+behind her she turned to Mariska and said:
+
+"Now thou canst pray, for thou art saved."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The report had already spread through the two towns that early at dawn
+someone would be executed, and here and there people whispered that it
+would be the Princess of Moldavia.
+
+The population living outside the town were able to give full reins to
+their imagination, for the gates of the fortress, by Hassan Pasha's
+command, were already locked fast at six o'clock in the evening, and
+after that time nobody was allowed to enter out or in except the
+sentinels outside, and these only by the Szombat gate.
+
+The later grew the hour the more numerous became the crowd assembled in
+front of the gates thus unwontedly bolted and barred, consisting for the
+most part of people who lived inside the town of every rank, who thus
+waited patiently for the chance of reaching their houses again. Knocking
+at the gates was useless, the guards had been ordered to take no notice
+of such demonstrations.
+
+The darker grew the night, the more numerous became the throng before
+the gate, and the more closely they pressed together the plainer it
+became to them all that they would have to sleep outside.
+
+The largest concourse was in front of the Fejervar gate, for that was
+the chief entrance.
+
+It was already close upon midnight, when some dozen horsemen, in the
+uniforms of Spahis, arrived at the gate, forcing their way through the
+throng, led, apparently, by a handsome youth (it was too dark to
+distinguish very clearly), who thundered at the gate with the butt-end
+of his lance.
+
+"You may bang away at it till morning," said a cobbler of Buda, who was
+lying prone, chawing bacon at his ease, "they won't let you in."
+
+"Then why are you all here?" cried the youth in the purest Hungarian.
+
+"Because they locked us out at six o'clock in the evening, and would not
+let us in."
+
+"Why was that?"
+
+"They say that at dawn of day someone in the fortress is to be
+executed."
+
+"Who is it?" said the youth, visibly affected.
+
+"Why, the Princess of Moldavia, of course."
+
+"Oh, that cannot be in any case," exclaimed the leader of the Spahis. "I
+have just come from the Sultan, and I have brought with me his firman,
+in which he summons her to Stambul; not a hair of her head is to be
+crumpled."
+
+"Then it will be just as well, sir, if you try to get into the fortress,
+for it may be you have come with the sermon after the festival is over,
+and that letter may remain in your pocket if once they cut off her
+head."
+
+The youth seemed for a moment to be reflecting, then, turning to those
+who stood around, he said:
+
+"Through which gate do they admit the soldiers on guard?"
+
+"Through the Szombat gate."
+
+The youth immediately turned his horse's head, and beckoned to his
+comrades to follow him.
+
+But at the first words he had uttered, a figure enwrapped in a mantle
+had emerged from a corner of the gate, and when he began to talk about
+the Princess and the firman, this figure, with great adroitness, had
+crept quite close to him, and when he turned round had swiftly followed
+him till, having made its way through the throng, it overtook him, and,
+placing its hand on the horseman's knee, said in a low voice: "Toekoely!"
+
+"Hush!" hissed the horseman, with an involuntary start, and bending his
+head so that he might look into the face of his interlocutor, whereupon
+his wonder was mingled with terror, and throwing himself back in his
+saddle, he exclaimed: "Prince! can it be you?"
+
+For Prince Ghyka stood before him.
+
+"Could I be anywhere else when they want to kill my wife?" he said
+mournfully.
+
+"Do not be cast down, there will be plenty of time till to-morrow
+morning. I have plenty of confidence in my good star. When I really wish
+for a thing I generally get it even if the Devil stand in the opposite
+camp against me, and never have I wished for anything so much as to save
+Mariska."
+
+The Prince, with tears in his eyes, pressed the hand of the youth, and
+did not take it at all amiss of him that he called his wife Mariska.
+
+"Well, of course, you have brought the firman with you, and if you come
+with the suite of the Sultan----"
+
+"Firman, my friend? I have not brought a bit of a firman with me, and
+those who are with me are my good kinsfolk in Turkish costumes, worthy
+Magyar chums everyone of them, who have agreed to help me through with
+whatsoever I take it into my head to set about; but I have got something
+about me which can make firmans and athnames, and whatever else I may
+require, whether it be the key of a dungeon, or a marshal's baton, or a
+prince's sceptre--a golden knapsack, I mean."
+
+"And what are you going to get with that?"
+
+"Everything. I will corrupt the sentinels so that they will let me into
+the fortress; and once let me get in, and I'll either make Hassan Pasha
+sell Olaj Beg, or Olaj Beg sell Hassan Pasha. If a good word be of no
+avail I will use threats, and if my whole scheme falls through, Heaven
+only knows what I won't do. I'll chop Hassan Pasha and his guards into a
+dozen pieces, or I'll set the castle on fire, or I'll blow up the powder
+magazine--in a word, I won't desist till I have brought out your
+consort."
+
+"How can I thank you for your noble enthusiasm?"
+
+"You mustn't thank me, my friend; you must thank Flora Teleki, who is
+your wife's friend, and expects this of me."
+
+"Then you are re-engaged?"
+
+"No, my friend. Helen is my bride. Ah, that is the only real woman in
+the whole round world. I should be with her now if I were not engaged in
+this business, and as soon as I have finished with it, the pair of us
+will give you a wedding the like of which has never yet been seen in
+Hungary."
+
+The Prince sadly bowed his head. He means well, he thought, but there is
+a very poor chance of his succeeding. The mercurial youth seems to have
+no idea that within an hour he will be jeopardizing his head by engaging
+in a foolhardy enterprise which runs counter to the whole policy of the
+Turkish Empire. But Toekoely's mind never impeded his heart. His motto
+always was: "_Virtus nescia freni_."
+
+"Then what do you intend to do?" Toekoely casually asked Ghyka, just as if
+he considered it the most extraordinary thing in the world to find him
+there.
+
+"I also want to save Mariska, and I have hopes of doing so," said the
+Prince.
+
+"How? Tell me! Perchance we may be able to unite our efforts."
+
+"Scarcely, I think. My plan is simply to give myself up instead of my
+wife. They would execute her for my fault; it is only right that I
+should appear on the scaffold and take her place."
+
+"A bad idea!" exclaimed Toekoely, "a stupid notion. If you deliver
+yourself up, they will seize you as well as your wife and do for the
+pair of you. I know a dodge worth two of that. Take horse along with us,
+and let us make our way into the fortress sword in hand; we shall do
+much more that way than if we went hobbling in on crutches. Luck belongs
+to the audacious."
+
+"You know, Toekoely, that I do not much rely on Turkish humanity; and I am
+quite prepared, if I deliver myself up, for them to kill both me and
+her; but at least we shall die together, and that will be some
+consolation."
+
+"It is no good talking like that," cried the young Magyar impatiently.
+"Stop! A good idea occurs to me. Yes, and it will be better if you come
+with us and we all act in common. We will say openly at the gate that we
+bring with us the fugitive Prince of Moldavia as a captive. At the mere
+rumour of such a thing they will instantly admit us, not only into the
+fortress, but into the presence of Hassan likewise. The Pasha knows me
+pretty well, and if I tell him that I bring you a captive, he will
+believe me, or I'll break his head for him. He will be delighted to see
+you. But I will not give you up. I am responsible for you, and must
+mount guard over you. This will make it necessary to postpone the
+execution, for we shall have to write to Stambul that the husband has
+fallen into our hands, and inquire whether the wife is to be sacrificed,
+and we shall have time to elope ten times over before we get a reply."
+
+The Prince hesitated. If this desperate expedient had been a mere joke,
+Toekoely could not have spoken of it with greater nonchalance. The Prince
+gave him his hand upon it.
+
+"The only question now is: which is the easiest way into the fortress.
+Let us draw near the first sentinel whom we find on the bridge or in the
+garden and wait until they change guard."
+
+The horsemen thereupon surrounded the Prince as if he was their captive,
+and escorted him along the river's bank.
+
+It was late. On the black surface of the Danube rocked the shapeless
+Turkish vessels, their sails creaking in the blast of the strong south
+wind.
+
+It was scarce possible to see ahead at all, nevertheless the little band
+of adventurers, constantly pushing forward, kept looking around to see
+where the sentinels were, keeping very quiet themselves that they might
+catch the watchword.
+
+Suddenly a cry was heard, but a cry which ended abruptly, as if the
+mouth from which it proceeded had been clapped to in mid-utterance.
+
+On reaching the walls of the palace garden, however, one of them
+perceived that an armed figure was standing in the little wicket gate.
+
+"There's the sentinel!" said Toekoely.
+
+"The rascal must certainly be asleep to let us come right up to him
+without challenging us," said Toekoely; and he approached the armed man,
+who still stood motionless in the gate, and addressed him in the Turkish
+tongue:
+
+"Hie, Timariot, or whoever you are! Are you guarding this gate?"
+
+"You see that I am."
+
+"Then why don't you challenge those who approach you?"
+
+"That's none of my business."
+
+"Then what is your business?"
+
+"To stand here till I am relieved."
+
+"And when will they relieve you?"
+
+"Any time."
+
+"Does the relief watch come by this gate?"
+
+"Not by this gate."
+
+"And by which gate can one get into the fortress?"
+
+"By no gate."
+
+"You give very short answers, my friend, but we must get at Hassan Pasha
+this very night without fail."
+
+"You must learn to fly then."
+
+"Don't joke with me, sir! I have very important tidings for the Vizier;
+you may possibly find it easier to get into the fortress than we could.
+You shall receive from me a hundred ducats on the spot if you inform the
+Pasha that I, Emeric Toekoely, bring with me as a captive the fugitive
+Prince of Moldavia, and the Vizier himself will certainly reward you for
+it richly."
+
+The Count had no sooner mentioned his name, and pointed at the captive
+prince, than the Turkish sentinel quickly came forth from beneath the
+archway, and Toekoely and Ghyka, in astonishment, exclaimed with one
+voice:
+
+"Feriz Beg!"
+
+"Yes, 'tis I. Keep still. You want to save Mariska, so do I."
+
+"So it is," said Toekoely. "I promised the woman I do not love that I
+would do it, and I will keep my promise. You need have no secrets from
+us, for we shall require your assistance."
+
+"Your secrets are nought to me."
+
+The Prince listened with downcast head to the conversation of the two
+young men; then he intervened, took their hands, and said with deep
+emotion:
+
+"Feriz! Toekoely! Once upon a time we faced each other as antagonists, and
+now as self-sacrificing friends we hold each other's hands. I don't want
+to be smaller than you. A scaffold has been put up in the courtyard of
+the fortress of Buda, that scaffold awaits a victim, whoever it may be,
+for the sword which the Sultan draws in his wrath will not remain
+unsatisfied. That scaffold was prepared for my wife, you must let me
+take her place. I am well aware that whoever liberates her must be
+prepared to perish instead of her. Let me perish. You, Feriz, can easily
+get into the fortress. Tell Hassan that the scaffold shall have the
+husband instead of the wife--let him surrender the wife for the
+husband."
+
+"Leave the scaffold alone, Prince. He who deserves it most shall get to
+the scaffold."
+
+"Don't listen to the Prince!" said Toekoely to Feriz; "he has lost his
+head evidently, as he wants to make a present of it to Hassan. All I ask
+of you is to let me into the fortress; once let me get inside, and no
+harm shall be done. I was born with a caul, so good-luck goes with me."
+
+"Good. Wait here till the muezzin proclaims midnight, which will not be
+long, I fancy, as the night is already well advanced; meanwhile, keep
+your eye on those horsemen below there."
+
+The men fancied Feriz wanted to join the sentinels when the watch was
+relieved, and taking him at his word, hid themselves and their horses
+behind the lofty bank.
+
+The night was now darker than ever, only here and there a lofty star
+looked down upon them from among the wind-swept clouds.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hassan had a restless night. Horrible dreams awoke him every instant,
+and yet he never wholly awoke, one phantom constantly supplanted the
+other in his agitated brain.
+
+The raging blast broke open one of the windows and beat furiously
+against the wall, so that the coloured glasses crashed down upon the
+floor.
+
+Aroused by the uproar, and gazing but half awake at the window, he saw
+the long curtain slowly approaching him as if some Dzhin were inside and
+had come thither to terrify him.
+
+"Who is that?" cried Hassan in terror, laying his hand on his sword.
+
+It was no one. It was only the wind which had stiffened out the
+curtains, expanding them like a banner and blowing gustily into the
+room.
+
+Hassan seized the curtain, pulled it away from the window, fastened it
+up by its golden tassels, and laid him down again. The wind returned to
+torment him and again worried the curtain till it had succeeded in
+unravelling the tassels, and again blew the curtain into the room.
+
+And then the tapestries of the door and the divans began fluttering and
+flapping as if someone was tugging away at their ends, and the flame of
+the night-lamp on the tripod flickered right and left, casting galloping
+shadows on the wall.
+
+"What is that? Have the devils been let loose in this palace?" Hassan
+asked himself in amazement.
+
+The closed doors jarred in the blast as if someone was banging at them
+from the outside, and every now and then the bang of a window-shutter
+would respond to the howling of the blast.
+
+Men have curious supernatural faculties through which their minds are
+suddenly illuminated. At that moment the idea flashed through Hassan's
+brain that, in the apartments of the wing beyond, a window must needs be
+open, which was the cause of the unwonted current of air which fluttered
+the curtains of his palace and made the doors rattle, and this window
+could be none other than Azrael's, and if it were open, then the two
+women must have escaped.
+
+At this horrible idea he quickly leaped out on to the floor, seized his
+sword, which was lying at his bedside, and, bursting open the door,
+rushed like a madman through all the apartments to Azrael's dormitory.
+
+At the instant of their escape Azrael had turned over the long divan and
+placed it right across the room in such a way that one end of it was
+jammed against the door, whilst the other end pressed against the wall,
+so that when Hassan tried to open the door, he found it impossible to do
+so.
+
+Everything was now quite clear to him.
+
+He called to nobody to open the door; he knew that they had escaped. In
+the fury of despair he snatched a battle-axe from the wall and began to
+break open the hard oaken door, so that the whole palace resounded with
+the noise of the blows, and the guards and the domestics all came
+running up together.
+
+Having beaten in the door at last, Hassan rushed into the room, cast a
+glance around, and even _his_ eyes could see that his slave had flown.
+
+Howling with rage he rushed to the window, and when he saw the dependent
+branches of the gobaea, he beat his forehead with his fists and laughed
+aloud as if something had broken loose inside him.
+
+"They have run off!" he yelled; "they have escaped, they have stolen
+their lives, and they have stolen my life, too. Run after them into
+every corner of the globe, pursue them, bring them back tied together,
+tied together so that the blood may flow through their fingers. Oh,
+Azrael, Azrael! How have I deserved this of thee?"
+
+And with that the old man burst into tears, and perceiving the
+odalisk's girdle on the window-frame, to which the plant was attached,
+he took it down, kissed it hundreds of times, hid his tearful face in
+it, and collapsed senseless on the floor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Hasten, Princess, hasten!"
+
+The odalisk pressed her companion's hand, and dragged her down along the
+bushy hillside. And now they had reached the hollow forming the entrance
+to the underground passage which terminated at the gates of the garden
+on the banks of the Danube.
+
+The odalisk had succeeded in filching the keys of the door of this
+secret passage from Hassan. While she was trying which of the two it was
+that belonged to the lock of the inner door, a cry resounded through the
+stillness of the night. "Hassan!" exclaimed the two girls together. They
+had recognised the voice.
+
+"They have discovered our escape," said Azrael.
+
+"Oh, God! do not leave me!" cried Mariska, pressing her hands together.
+"My child!"
+
+Azrael quickly opened the grating door. It took a few moments, and
+during that time a commotion was audible in the town, no doubt caused by
+the cry of Hassan. Cries of alarm and consternation spread from bastion
+to bastion, the whole garrison was aroused, and there was a confused
+murmur within the fortress.
+
+"Let us hasten!" cried Azrael, quickly opening the door and dragging
+after her the Princess into the blind-black corridor.
+
+At that moment a cannon-shot thundered from the fortress as an
+alarm-signal.
+
+Mariska, at the sound of the shot, collapsed in terror at Azrael's feet,
+and lay motionless in the corridor, still holding her child fast clasped
+in her arms.
+
+"Hah! the woman has fainted," cried the odalisk in alarm; "we shall
+both perish here," she cried in her despair.
+
+The din in the fortress grew louder every instant, from every bastion
+the signal-guns thundered.
+
+"No, no, we must not perish!" exclaimed the heroine, and with a strength
+multiplied by the extremity of the danger, she caught up the moaning
+woman and child in her arms, and raising them to her bosom began making
+her way with them along the covered corridor.
+
+Pitch darkness engulfed everything around them; the odalisk groped her
+way along by the feel of the wet, sinuous walls, stumbling from time to
+time beneath the burden of the dead weight in her arms, but at every
+fresh shot she started forward again and went on without resting.
+
+Onwards, ever onwards!--till the last gasp! till the last heart-throb!
+The awakened child also began to cry.
+
+Azrael's knees tottered, her bosom heaved beneath the double load, her
+staring eyes saw nothing; and the world was as dark before her soul as
+it was before her eyes.
+
+Heavy was the load upon her shoulder; but heavier still was the thought
+in her heart that this woman whom she was saving at the risk of her own
+life was the darling of him whom she loved herself, yet save her she
+must, for she had promised to do so.
+
+At every step she felt her strength diminishing; with swimming head she
+staggered against the wall, the steps seemed to have no end; if only she
+could hold out till she reached the door with her, and then for a moment
+might see Feriz Beg and hear from his lips the words: "Well done!"--then
+Israfil, the Angel of Death might come with his flaming sword.
+
+For some time she had gathered from the hollower resonance of the steps
+in the darkness that she was approaching the door; rallying her
+remaining strength, she tottered forward a few paces with her load, and
+when the latch of the door was already in her hand, her knees gave way
+beneath her, and along with the Princess and the child, she fell in a
+heap on the threshold, being just able to shove the key into the lock
+and turn it twice.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Feriz Beg, with the Magyar nobles, plunged again beneath the shade of
+the deep arch of the gate of the fortress garden and with wrapt
+attention listened for the muezzin to proclaim midnight. It was then
+that Azrael had said she would come.
+
+It never occurred to him that the woman could not come, so deeply had he
+looked into her heart that he felt sure she would fulfil her promise.
+
+If only the muezzin would proclaim midnight from the mosque.
+
+At last a cry sounded through the stillness of the night, but it was not
+the voice of the muezzin from the mosque, but Hassan's yell of terror
+from the fortress window and the din which immediately followed it,
+proclaiming that there was danger.
+
+Feriz's heart was troubled, but he never moved from the spot. He knew
+right well what that noise meant. They had tried to help the Princess to
+escape and her escape was discovered.
+
+"What is that noise?" asked the Prince apprehensively, sticking up his
+head.
+
+Feriz did not want to alarm him.
+
+"It is nothing," he answered. "Some one has stolen away on the bastions,
+perhaps, and they are pursuing him."
+
+Then the first cannon-shot resounded.
+
+Feriz, for the first time in his life, was agitated at the sound of a
+cannon.
+
+"That is an alarm-signal," cried Toekoely, drawing his sword.
+
+"Keep quiet!" whispered Feriz, "perhaps they are shooting at the people
+who are thronging the gates."
+
+Nevertheless the shots were repeated from every bastion; the tumult,
+the uproar increased; a tattoo was beaten, the trumpets rang out and a
+whole concourse of people could be seen running along the bastions with
+torches and flashing swords in their hands.
+
+"They are pursuing someone!" cried the Prince, and unable to endure it
+any longer, he leaped upon the bank.
+
+"I know not what it is," stammered Feriz, and a cold shudder ran through
+his body.
+
+Ghyka grasped his sword, and would have rushed up the hill as if obeying
+some blind instinct.
+
+"What would you do?" whispered Feriz, grasping the hand of the Prince,
+and pulling him back by force under the gate.
+
+For a few moments they stood there in a dead silence, the tumult, the
+uproar seemed to be coming nearer and nearer--if it were to overtake
+them?
+
+"Hush!" whispered Feriz, holding his ear close to the door. He seemed to
+hear footsteps approaching from within and the plaintive wail of a
+child.
+
+A few moments afterwards there was a fumbling at the latch and a key was
+thrust into the lock and twice turned. Feriz hastened to open the door
+and the senseless forms of the two women fell at his feet.
+
+The youth quickly dragged the Prince after him, and recognising Mariska,
+who still lay in the embrace of Azrael, he placed her in her husband's
+arms together with the weeping child.
+
+"Here are your wife and child," said he, "and now hasten!"
+
+"Mariska!" exclaimed the Prince, beside himself; and embracing the child
+whom he now saw for the first time, he kissed the rosy face of the one
+and the pallid face of the other again and again.
+
+That voice, that kiss, that embrace awoke the fainting woman, and as
+soon as she opened her eyes, she quickly, passionately, flung her arms
+round her husband's neck while he held the child on his arm. No sound
+came from her lips, all her life was in her heart.
+
+"Quick! quick!" Feriz whispered to them. "Get into this skiff. When you
+get to the other side it will be time to rejoice in each other; till
+then we have cause to fear, for the whole of the Buda side of the river
+is on the alert. But I'll look after them here. On the other bank my
+servant is awaiting you with the swift horses; mention my name, and he
+will hand them over to you. On the banks of the Raab you will find
+another of my servants with fresh relays. Choose your horses, and then
+to Nograd as fast as you can. Thence it will be easy to escape into
+Poland. Do not linger. Every moment is precious. Forward!"
+
+With that he conducted the fugitives to the skiff which was ready
+waiting for them, and at the bottom of which two muscular servants of
+his were lying out of sight. These helped them in, Feriz undid the rope,
+and at a few strokes of the oars they were already some distance from
+the shore.
+
+Then only did Feriz breathe freely, as if a huge load had fallen from
+his heart.
+
+"May they not pursue them?" inquired Toekoely anxiously.
+
+"They may," returned Feriz; "but they cannot transport the horses in
+boats, as the fugitives now sit in the only boat here; the bridge, too,
+has been removed and they will hardly be able to build another in time
+on such a night as this."
+
+The fugitives had now reached the middle of the Danube, when Mariska,
+who had scarce been herself for joy and terror in her half-unconscious
+state, suddenly bethought her of her companion who had saved her with
+such incomprehensible self-sacrifice and energy, and standing up in the
+skiff waved her handkerchief as if she would thereby make up for the
+leave-taking which she had neglected in her joy and haste.
+
+"What are they doing?" cried Feriz angrily, seeing that they were
+attracting attention in consequence.
+
+Fortunately the night was dark and the people rushing down from the
+bastions could not see the skiff making its way across the Danube;
+presently its shape even began to vanish out of sight of the young eyes
+that were watching it.
+
+Feriz looked up to the sky with a transfigured face. Two stars, close
+together, looked down very brightly from amidst the fleeting clouds. Did
+he not see Aranka's eyes in that twin stellar radiance?
+
+Toekoely took the hands of the young hero and pressed them hard.
+
+"Once before we stood face to face," he said with a feeling voice, which
+came from the bottom of his heart, "then I prevailed, now you prevail.
+God be with you!"
+
+Then the young Count mounted his horse, and beckoning to his comrades,
+galloped off in the direction of Gellerthegy.
+
+Feriz stood there alone on the shore with folded arms and tried to
+distinguish once more the shape of the skiff already vanishing in the
+darkness.
+
+Nobody thought of the poor odalisk who had saved them.
+
+All at once the youth felt the contact of a burning hand upon his arm.
+Broken in mind and body, the odalisk dragged herself to his knees, and
+seizing his hand drew it to her breast and to her lips. She could not
+speak, she could only sob and weep.
+
+Feriz looked at her compassionately.
+
+"Thou hast done well," he said gently.
+
+The girl embraced the youth's knees, and it was well with her that he
+suffered her to do so.
+
+"I thank thee for keeping thy word," said Feriz; "look now! that woman
+was not my beloved. She has a husband who loves her."
+
+Indescribably sweet were these words to the damsel. In them she found
+the sweetest reward for her sufferings and self-sacrifice. Then it was
+not love after all which made Feriz save this woman through her!
+
+The uproar meanwhile was extending along the shore, the pursuers could
+see that they were on the track of the fugitives.
+
+"We must be off," said Feriz; "wouldst thou like to come with me?"
+
+"Come with him!" What a thought was that for Azrael! To be able to live
+under the same roof with him!
+
+Yet she answered: "I will not come."
+
+It occurred to her that if she were found with the dear youth he would
+perish because of her. And besides, she knew that the invitation was due
+not to love but to magnanimous gratitude.
+
+"I want to go over to the island," she said in a faint voice.
+
+"Then I'll help thee to find thy skiff," said the youth, extending his
+hand to the odalisk to raise her up.
+
+She was still kneeling on the ground before him.
+
+She fixed upon him her large eyes swimming with tears, and whispered in
+a tremulous voice:
+
+"Feriz! Thou wert wont to reward those damsels who sacrificed themselves
+for thee, who died nobly and valiantly because they loved thee. Have not
+I also won that reward?"
+
+Feriz Beg sadly lowered his head as if it afflicted him to think of the
+significance of these words; then softly, gently, he bent over the
+damsel, and drawing her lovely head towards him, pressed a warm, feeling
+kiss on her marble forehead.
+
+The odalisk trembled with rapture beneath the load of that more than
+earthly sensation of pleasure, and leaping up and stretching her arms to
+Heaven, she whispered:
+
+"I am happy!--For the first time in my life. Now I may go--and die."
+
+Feriz, tenderly embracing her, led the damsel to her skiff. Then she
+stopped suddenly, and leaning her head against the shoulder of the
+youth, murmured in his ear:
+
+"When thou reachest thy kiosk, lie not down to sleep! Sit at thy window
+and look towards the island in the direction of sunrise. The night will
+be over ere long, and the dawn will come sooner than at other times.
+When thou seest this portent think of me and say for me the prayer which
+is used before the cold dawn, and say from thy heart: 'That woman does
+penance for her sins!'"
+
+The odalisk felt two tear-drops falling upon her cheek. They fell from
+the eyes of the youth.
+
+She could never feel happier in this world than she felt now.
+
+A few minutes later the skiff was flying over the rocking waves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE VICTIM.
+
+
+The Princess was saved, but she who had saved her was doomed.
+
+Along the banks of the rivers, and on the summits of the bastions,
+alarm-beacons had been kindled announcing the flight of the fugitives.
+It was late. On the shore the swift Arab horses of the pursuers were
+racing with the wind. But the wind was not idle, but blew and raged and
+fought with the foaming waves of the Danube, and tossed and pitched
+about every little boat that lay upon it.
+
+There was only one skiff, however, that ventured to cross the Danube and
+rise and fall with its billows, which were like the waves of the sea. A
+white form stood stonily motionless in the boat, and the blast kept
+twisting its soft garments round its body. The trembling boatman called
+upon the name of Allah.
+
+"Fear not, when you carry me," Azrael said to him, and her eyes hung
+upon a star which shone above her head, shining through the tatters of
+the scurrying clouds.
+
+The skiff reached the shore of the Margaret island. The damsel got out,
+and her last bracelet dropped from her hand into the hand of the
+boatman.
+
+"Remember me, and begone."
+
+"Dost thou remain here?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Whither wilt thou go?"
+
+Azrael answered nothing, but pointed mutely to the sky.
+
+The boatman did not understand much about it; but, anyhow, he understood
+that he could not give the damsel a lift up there, so he drew back his
+canoe and departed.
+
+Azrael remained alone on the island, quite alone; for that day everyone
+had been withdrawn by command of the Vizier; the damsels, the guards,
+and the eunuchs had all migrated to the fortress, the paradise was empty
+and uninhabited.
+
+Azrael strolled the whole length of the shore of the island. The mortars
+were still thundering down from the fortress, the horsemen were still
+shouting on the river's bank, the signal fires were blazing on the
+bastions, the night was dark, the wind blew tempestuously and scattered
+the leaves of the trees--but she saw neither the beacon fires, nor the
+darkness; she heard neither the tumult of men nor the howling of the
+blast; in her soul there was the light of heaven and an angelic harmony
+with which no rumour, no shape of the outer world would intermingle.
+
+She came to the kiosk in the centre of the island. Wandering aimlessly
+she had hit upon the labyrinthine way to it unawares. The sudden view of
+the summer-house startled her, and it awoke a two-fold sensation in her
+heart, it appealed equally to her memory and her imagination. She
+bethought her of the resolve she had made on coming to the island. She
+remembered that when she parted from the youth of her heart she had
+said: "When thou comest to thy kiosk, do not lie down to sleep; sit down
+at thy window, and look towards the island in the direction of the dawn.
+This night will be soon over, and the dawn will dawn more quickly than
+at other times. When thou seest it think of me and say for me the prayer
+of direction for the departing."
+
+She reflected that the youth must now be sitting at the window, looking
+towards the island, with his fine eyes weary of staring into the
+darkness. She would not weary those fine eyes for long.
+
+She hastily opened the door with her silver key and entered the hall. A
+hanging lamp was burning in the room just as the servants had left it in
+the morning. She drew forth a wax taper, and having lit it, proceeded to
+the other rooms, which opened one out of another, and whose floors were
+covered by precious oriental carpets, whose walls were inlaid with all
+manner of woods brought from foreign countries, and covered with
+tapestries, all splendid masterpieces of eastern art; the atmosphere of
+the rooms was heavy with intoxicating perfumes.
+
+All this was frightful, abominable to her now. As she walked over the
+carpets, it was as if she were stepping on burning coals; when she
+inhaled the scented atmosphere, it was as though she were breathing the
+corruption of the pestilence; everything in these rooms awoke memories
+of sin and disgust in her heart--costly costumes, porcelain vases,
+silver bowls, all of them the playthings of loathsome moments, whose
+keenest punishment was that she was obliged to remember them.
+
+But they shall all perish. And if they all perish, if these symbols of
+sin and the hundred-fold more sinful body itself become dust, then
+surely the soul will remember them no more? Surely it will depart far,
+far away--perchance to that distant star--and will be happy like the
+others who are near to God and know nothing of sin, but are full of the
+comfort of the infinite mercy of God, who has permitted them to escape
+from hence?
+
+With the burning torch in her hand she went all through the rooms,
+tearing down the curtains and tapestries, and piling them all on the
+divan; and when she entered the last of the rooms she saw a pale white
+figure coming towards her from its dark background. The shape was as
+familiar to her as if she had seen it hundreds of times, although she
+knew not where; and its face was so gentle, so unearthly--a grief not of
+this world suffused its handsome features and the joy of heaven flashed
+from its calm, quiet eyes--its hair clung round its head in tiny curls,
+as guardian-angels are painted.
+
+The damsel gazed appalled at this apparition. She fancied Heaven had
+sent her the messenger of the forgiveness of her sins; but it was her
+own figure reflected from a mirror concealed in the dark
+background--that gentle, downcast, sorrowful face, those pure, shining
+eyes she had never seen in a mirror before; the cut-off hair increased
+the delusion.
+
+Tremblingly she sank on her knees before this apparition, and touching
+the ground with her face, lay sobbing there for some time; and when she
+again rose up, it appeared to her as if that apparition extended towards
+her its snow-white arms full of pity, full of compassion; and when she
+raised her hands to Heaven it also pointed thither, raising a face
+transformed by a sublime desire. No, she could not recognise that face
+as her own, never before had she seen it so beautiful.
+
+Azrael placed her hands devoutly across her breast and beckoned to the
+apparition to follow her, and raising the curtain she returned into that
+room where she had already raised a funeral pyre for herself.
+
+There, piled up together, lay cushions of cloth of gold, Indian
+feather-stuffs, divans filled with swansdown, light, luxurious little
+tables, harps of camphor-wood adorned with pearls, lutes with the
+silvery voices of houris, a little basin filled with fine fragrant oils
+composed from the aroma of a thousand oriental flowers; this she
+everywhere sprinkled over the heaped-up stuff, and also saturated the
+thick carpets with it, the volatile essence filled the whole atmosphere.
+
+Then she pressed her hand upon her throbbing heart, and said: "God be
+with me!"
+
+And then she fired the heaped-up materials at all four corners, and, as
+if she were ascending her bridal bed, mounted her cushions with a
+smiling, triumphant face, and lay down among them, closing her eyes with
+a happy smile.
+
+In a few moments the flames burst forth at all four corners, fed freely
+by the light dry stuff, and combining above her like a wave of fire,
+formed a flaming canopy over her head. And she smiled happily, sweetly,
+all the time. The air, filled with volatile oil, also burst into flame,
+turning into a sea of burning blue; white clouds of smoke began to
+gather above the pyre; the strings of the harp caught by the flames
+burst asunder one by one from their burning frame, emitting tremulous,
+woeful sounds as if weeping for her who was about to die. When the last
+harp-string had burnt--the odalisk was dead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night was now drawing to a close. Feriz Beg, quietly intent, was
+sitting at the window of his kiosk, as he had promised the odalisk. He
+had not understood her mysterious words, but he did as she asked, for he
+knew instinctively that it was the last wish of one about to die.
+
+Suddenly, as he gazed at the black waves of the Danube and the still
+blacker clouds in the sky, he saw a bright column of fire ascend with
+the rapidity of the wind from the midst of the opposite island, driving
+before it round white clouds of smoke. A few moments later the flames of
+the burning kiosk lit up the whole region. The startled inhabitants
+gazed at the splendid conflagration, whose flames mounted as high as a
+tower in the roaring blast. Nobody thought of saving it.
+
+"No human life is lost, at any rate," they said quietly; "the harem and
+its guards were transferred yesterday."
+
+The wind, too, greatly helped the fire. The kiosk, built entirely of the
+lightest of wood, was a heap of ashes by the morning, when Feriz,
+accompanied by the muederris in his official capacity, got into a skiff
+and were rowed across to the island. Not even a remnant of embers was to
+be found, everything had been burnt to powder. Nothing was to be seen
+but a large, black, open patch powdered with ashes. The fire had
+utterly consumed the abode of sin and vice. Nothing remained but a black
+spot. In the coming spring it will be a green meadow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the afternoon of the following day we see a familiar horseman
+trotting up to the gates of the fortress--if we mistake not, it is Yffim
+Beg.
+
+All the way from Klausenburg he had been cudgelling his brains to find
+words sufficiently dignified to soften the expression of the insulting
+message which the Estates of Transylvania had sent through him to his
+gracious master. On arriving in front of Hassan's palace he dismounted
+as usual, without asking any questions, and gave the reins to the
+familiar eunuchs that they might lead the horse to the stables.
+
+There was no trace of the scaffold that had been erected in front of the
+gate the day before. Yffim Beg entered and passed through all the rooms
+he knew so well, all the doors of which were still guarded by the
+drabants of Hassan as of yore; at last he reached Hassan's usual
+audience chamber, and there he found Olaj Beg sitting on a divan reading
+the Alkoran.
+
+Yffim Beg gazed around him, and after a brief inspection, not
+discovering what he sought, he addressed Olaj Beg:
+
+"I want to speak to Hassan Pasha," said he.
+
+Olaj Beg looked at him, rose with the utmost aplomb, and approached a
+table on which was a silver dish covered by a cloth. This cloth he
+removed, and a severed bloody head stared at Yffim Beg with stony eyes.
+
+"There he is--speak to him!" said Olaj Beg gently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+OTHER TIMES--OTHER MEN.
+
+
+Great men are the greatest of all dangers to little States. There are
+men born to be great generals who die as robber-chiefs. If Michael
+Teleki had sat at the head of a great kingdom, his name perchance would
+have ranked with that of Richelieu, and that kingdom would have been
+proud of the years during which he governed it. It was his curse that
+Transylvania was too small for his genius, but it was also the curse of
+Transylvania that he was greater than he ought to have been.
+
+The Battle of St. Gothard was a painful wound to Turkish glory, and it
+left behind it a constant longing for revenge, though a ten-years' peace
+had actually been concluded; and presently a more favourable opportunity
+than the prognostications of the Ulemas or the wisdom of the Lords of
+Transylvania anticipated presented itself, an opportunity far too
+favourable to be neglected.
+
+Treaty obligations had compelled the Kaiser to take part in the War of
+the Spanish Succession against Louis XIV., and the Kaiser's enemies at
+once saw that the time for raising their standards against him had
+arrived. The war was to begin from Transylvania, and the reward dangled
+before the Prince of Transylvania for his participation in this war was
+what his ancestors had often but vainly attempted to gain in the same
+way--the Kingdom of Hungary.
+
+It was, of course, a dangerous game to risk one kingdom in order to gain
+another, for both might be sacrificed. There was even a party in
+Transylvania itself which was indisposed to risk the little Principality
+for the sake of the larger kingdom, and though the most powerful arm of
+this party, Dionysius Banfy, had been cut off, it still had two powerful
+heads in Paul Beldi and Nicholas Bethlen.
+
+So one fine day at the Diet assembled at Fogaras, the Prince's guard
+suddenly surrounded the quarters of Paul Beldi and Nicholas Bethlen, and
+informed those gentlemen that they were State prisoners.
+
+What had they done? What crime had they committed that they should be
+arrested so unceremoniously?
+
+Good Michael Apafi believed that they were aiming at the princely
+coronet. This was a crime he was ready to believe in at a single word,
+and he urged the counsellors who had ordered the arrest at once to put
+the law into execution against the arrestants. But that is what these
+gentlemen took very good care not to do. It was much easier to kill the
+arrestants outright than to find a law which would meet their case.
+
+In those days worthy Master Cserei was the commandant of the fortress of
+Fogaras, and the castle in which the arrestants were lodged was the
+property of the Princess. As soon as Anna heard of the arrest she
+summoned Cserei, and showing him the signet-ring on her finger, said to
+him: "Look at that ring, and whatever death-warrant reaches you, if it
+bears not the impression of that seal, you will take care not to execute
+the prisoners; the castle is mine, so you have to obey my orders rather
+than the orders of the Prince."
+
+The Prince and his wife then returned together to Fejervar. On the day
+after their arrival the chief men of the realm met together in council
+at the Prince's palace, and it was Teleki's idea that only those should
+remain to dinner who were of the same views as himself. So they all
+remained at the Prince's till late in the evening, and thoroughly
+enjoyed the merry jests of the court buffoon, Gregory Biro, who knew no
+end of delightful tricks, and swallowed spoons and forks so dextrously
+that nobody could make out what had become of them.
+
+Apafi had not noticed how much he had drunk, for every time he had
+filled his beaker from the flagon standing beside him, the flagon itself
+had been replenished, so that he fancied he had drunk nothing from sheer
+forgetfulness. But his face had got more inflamed and bloodshot than
+usual, and suddenly perceiving that the chair next to his was empty, he
+exclaimed furiously: "Who else has bolted? It is Denis Banfy who has
+bolted now, I know it is. What has become of Denis Banfy, I say?"
+
+The gentlemen were all silent; only Teleki was able to reply:
+
+"Denis Banfy is dead."
+
+"Dead?" inquired Apafi, "how did he die?"
+
+"Paul Beldi formed a league against him and he was beheaded."
+
+"Beldi?" cried Apafi, rising from his seat in blind rage, "and where is
+that man?"
+
+"He is in a dungeon at present, but it will not be long before he sits
+on the throne of the Prince."
+
+"On the scaffold, you mean!" thundered Apafi, beside himself, in a
+bloodthirsty voice, "on the scaffold, not the throne. I'll show that
+crafty Szekler who I am if he raises his head against me. Call hither
+the protonotarius, the law must be enforced."
+
+"The sentences are now ready, sir," said Nalaczi, drawing from his
+pocket three documents of equal size; "only your signature is required."
+
+He was also speedily provided with ink and a pen, which they thrust into
+the trembling hand of the Prince, indicating to him at the same time the
+place on the document where he was to sign his name. The thing was done.
+
+"Is there any stranger among us?" asked Teleki, looking suspiciously
+around.
+
+"Only the fool, but he doesn't count."
+
+The fool at that moment was making a sword dance on the tip of his nose,
+and on the sword he had put a plate, and he kept calling on the
+gentlemen to look at him--he certainly had paid no attention to what was
+going on at the table.
+
+The three letters were three several commands. The first was directed to
+Cserei, telling him to put the prisoners to death at once; the second
+was to the provost-marshal, Zsigmond Boer, to the effect that if Cserei
+showed any signs of hesitation he was to be killed together with the
+gentlemen; the third was to the garrison of the fortress, impressing
+upon them in case of any hesitation on the part of the provost to make
+an end of him forthwith along with the others. All three letters, sealed
+with yellow wax, were handed over to Stephen Nalaczi, who, placing them
+in his kalpag, pressed his kalpag down upon his head and hastened
+quickly from the room. He had to pass close to the jester on his way
+out, and the fool, rushing upon him, exclaimed. "O ho! you have got on
+my kalpag; off with it, this is yours!" and before Nalaczi had recovered
+from his surprise he found a cap and bells on his head instead of a
+kalpag.
+
+The magnate considered this jest highly indecent, and seized the jester
+by the throat.
+
+"You scoundrel, you, where have you put my kalpag? Speak, or I'll
+throttle you."
+
+"Don't throttle me, sir," said the jester apologetically, "for then you
+would be the biggest fool at the court of the Prince."
+
+"My kalpag!" cried Nalaczi furiously, "where have you put it?"
+
+"I have swallowed it, sir."
+
+"You worthless rascal," roared Nalaczi, throttling the jester, "would
+you play your pranks with me!"
+
+"Truly, sir, I shall not be able to bring it up again if you press my
+throat like that."
+
+"Stop, I mean to search you," said Nalaczi; and he began to tear up the
+coat of the jester, whereupon the kalpag came tumbling out from between
+its folds. "You clumsy charlatan," laughed Nalaczi, "well, you hid it
+very well, I must say." Then he put on his kalpag again, in which were
+all three letters well sealed with yellow wax, but he now hastened
+outside as rapidly as possible in case the fool should spirit them away
+again.
+
+The same night he galloped to Fogaras, though it cost him his horse to
+get there, summoned Cserei, and giving him the letter addressed to him
+said:
+
+"You, sir, are to execute this strict command to the very letter."
+
+The commandant took the letter, broke the seal, and then looked at the
+magnate in amazement:
+
+"I know not, sir, whether you or I have been made a fool of--but there's
+not a scrap of writing in this letter."
+
+Nalaczi incredulously examined the letter. It was a perfect blank.
+Hastily he broke open the other two letters. In these also there was
+nothing but the bare paper.
+
+The fool, while the nobleman was throttling him, had substituted blanks
+for the letters sent, and sent the sentences the same evening to the
+Princess, who thereby had discovered all that the Prince and his
+councillors were doing.
+
+In the morning the Princess went to Apafi with the three sentences in
+her hand, and reproached him for wanting to murder his ministers.
+
+The worthy Prince was amazed at seeing these orders signed by himself.
+He knew nothing about it, and embracing his wife, thanked her for
+watching over him and not allowing him to send forth such orders. As for
+Nalaczi, the shame of the thing made it impossible for him to show
+himself at Court, and he could only nourish a grudge against the fool.
+
+This accident greatly upset the worthy Prince, and he immediately rushed
+to release the captives. First of all, however, they had to sign deeds
+in which they solemnly engaged not to seek to revenge themselves on
+their accusers.
+
+Paul Beldi was wounded to the heart, but he regarded this calamity as a
+just retribution for having been the first to sign the league[18]
+against Denis Banfy; it was a weapon which now recoiled upon himself.
+
+     [Footnote 18: See "'Midst the Wild Carpathians," Book
+     II., Chapter VII.]
+
+But this private grief was the least of his misfortunes, for while Paul
+Beldi and Nicholas Bethlen had been sitting in their dungeon the war
+party had had a free hand, so that when the two gentlemen were released
+they were astounded to learn from their partisans that only the sanction
+of the Divan was now necessary for a rupture of the peace.
+
+Beldi perceived that to remain silent any longer would be equivalent to
+looking on while the State rushed to its destruction. He immediately
+assembled all those who were of the same opinion as himself--Ladislaus
+Csaky, John Haller, George Kapy--and consulted with them as to the
+future of the realm.
+
+Beldi opined throughout that the Prince should be spared, but he was to
+be compelled to dismiss such councillors as Teleki, Szekely, Mikes, and
+Nalaczi, and form a new council of state. Kapy would have done more than
+this. "If we want as much as that," said he, "it would be better to
+declare ourselves openly; and if we draw the sword, we shall have no
+need to petition, but can fight, and whoever wins let him profit by it
+and become Prince."
+
+"No!" said Beldi, "I have sworn allegiance to the Prince, and though I
+love my country, and am prepared to fight for it, yet I will never break
+my oath. My proposition is that we assemble in arms at the Diet which is
+convened to meet at Nagy-Sink, together with the Szekler train-bands,
+and if we show our strength the Prince assuredly will not hesitate to
+change his counsellors, for I know him to be a good man who rather fears
+than loves them."
+
+The gentlemen present accepted Beldi's proposition.
+
+"Then here I will leave your Excellencies," said Kapy, stiffly buttoning
+his mente.[19] "I am not afraid of war, for there I see my enemy before
+me, and can fight him; but I do not like these armed appeals, for they
+are apt to twist a man's sword from his hand and turn it against his own
+neck."
+
+     [Footnote 19: Fur pelisse.]
+
+And he withdrew. The other gentlemen resolved, however, that they would
+all arm their retainers. At a word from Beldi the armed Szeklers of
+Haromszek, Csik, and Udvarhelyszek rose at once; they were ready at an
+hour's notice to rise in obedience to the command of their
+generalissimo.
+
+The news of this audacious insurrection reached Michael Teleki at
+Gernyeszeg, who was beside himself with joy, well aware that Beldi was
+not the sort of man who was likely to prevail in a civil war whilst the
+contrary case would bring about his ruin, as he had now gone too far to
+draw back again. He immediately hastened to the Prince and, arousing him
+from his bed, told him that Beldi had risen against him, and so
+terrified Apafi that he immediately got into his coach, and fled by
+torchlight to Fogaras. Gregory Bethlen, Farkas, and the other
+counsellors also took to their heels in a panic--only Teleki remained
+cool. He knew the character of Beldi too well to be afraid of him.
+
+So the spark of ambition and rage was kindled in Paul Beldi's heart, and
+for some days it looked as if he would be the master of Transylvania,
+for nothing could resist him with the Szekler bands at his side, and all
+the regular troops were scattered among the frontier fortresses.
+
+But Beldi thought it enough to show his weapons without letting them be
+felt. Instead of a declaration of war he sent a manifesto full of
+loyalty to the Prince, in which he assured his Highness that he had
+taken up arms not against his Highness but in the name of the state; all
+he demanded was that the counsellors of the Prince should be tried by
+the laws of the realm.
+
+Whilst this wild missive was on its way, Teleki had had time to call
+together the troops from the frontier fortresses, and send orders to
+those of the Szeklers who had not risen to assemble under Clement Mikes
+in defence of the Prince; and while Beldi awaited an attack, he
+proceeded to take the offensive against him at once.
+
+One day Beldi was sitting in the castle of Bodola along with Ladislaus
+Csaky, when news was brought them that Gregory Bethlen, with the army of
+the Prince, was already before Kronstadt.
+
+"War can no longer be avoided," sighed Csaky.
+
+"We can avoid it if we lay down our arms," returned Beldi.
+
+"Surely you do not think of that?" inquired Csaky in alarm.
+
+"Why should I not? I will take no part in a civil war."
+
+"Then we are lost."
+
+"Rather we shall save thousands."
+
+The same day he ordered his forces to disperse and return home.
+
+The next day Gregory Bethlen sent Michael Vay to Bodola, who brought
+with him the Prince's pardon.
+
+Csaky ground his teeth together. It occurred to him that he had got
+Denis Banfy beheaded, yet he too had received a pardon, and he inquired
+of Vay in some alarm: "Can we really rely on this letter of pardon?"
+
+Michael Vay was candid enough to reply: "Well, my dear brethren, though
+you had a hundred pardons it would be as well if you courageously
+resolved to quit Transylvania notwithstanding."
+
+Csaky gave not another moment's thought to the matter, but packed up
+his trunks, and while it was still daylight escaped through the Bozza
+Pass.
+
+Beldi decided to remain; shame prevented him from flying.
+
+Nevertheless, Michael Vay told his wife and children of his danger and
+they insisted, supplicating him on their knees, that he should hasten
+away and save himself.
+
+"And what about you?" asked Beldi, looking at his tearful family.
+
+He had two handsome sons, and his daughter Aranka had grown up a lovely
+damsel; she was the apple of her father's eye, his pride and his glory.
+
+"What about you?" he asked with a troubled voice.
+
+"You can more easily defend us at Stambul than here," said Dame Beldi;
+and Beldi saw that that was a word spoken in season.
+
+That word changed his resolve, for, indeed, by seeking a refuge at the
+Porte, he would be able to help himself and his family much more, and
+perhaps even give a better turn to the fortunes of his country. There,
+too, many of the highest viziers were his friends who had very great
+influence in affairs.
+
+He immediately had his horse saddled, and after taking leave of his
+family with the utmost confidence, he escaped through the Bozza Pass the
+same night with an escort of a few chosen servants into Wallachia, where
+he found many other fugitive colleagues, and with them he took refuge at
+the Porte--then the highest court of appeal for Transylvania.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE DIVAN.
+
+
+The gates of the seraglio were thrown wide open, the discordant,
+clanging, and ear-piercing music was put to silence by a thundering roll
+of drums, and twelve mounted cavasses with great trouble and difficulty
+began clearing a way for the corps of viziers among the thronging crowd,
+belabouring all they met in their path with stout cudgels and rhinoceros
+whips. The indolent, gaping crowd saw that it was going to be flogged,
+yet didn't stir a step to get out of the reach of the whips and
+bludgeons.
+
+The members of the Divan dismounted from their horses in the courtyard
+and ascended the steps, which were guarded by a double row of
+Janissaries with drawn scimitars, the blue and yellow curtains of the
+assembly hall of the Divan were drawn aside before them, and the
+mysterious inner chamber--the hearth and home of so much power and
+splendour, once upon a time--lay open before them.
+
+It was a large octagonal chamber without any of those adornments
+forbidden by the Koran; its marble pavement covered by oriental carpets,
+its walls to the height of a man's stature inlaid with mother-o'-pearl.
+Along the walls were placed a simple row of low sofas covered with red
+velvet and without back-rests, behind them was a pillared niche
+concealing a secret door where Amurath was wont to listen unperceived to
+the consultations of his councillors.
+
+Through the parted curtains passed the members of the Council of the
+Divan. First of all came the Grand Vizier, a tall, dry man with rounded
+projecting shoulders; his head was constantly on the move and his eyes
+peered now to the right and now to the left as if he were perpetually
+watching and examining something. His brown, mud-coloured face wore an
+expression of perpetual discontent; every glance was full of scorn,
+rage, and morbid choler; when he spoke he gnashed his black teeth
+together through which he seemed to filter his voice; and his face was
+never for an instant placid, at one moment he drew down his eyebrows
+till his eyes were scarce visible, at the next instant he raised them so
+that his whole forehead became a network of wrinkles and the whites of
+his eyes were visible; the corners of his mouth twitched, his chin
+waggled, his beard was thin and rarely combed, and the only time he ever
+smiled was when he saw fear on the face of the person whom he was
+addressing; finally, his robes hung about him so slovenly that despite
+the splendid ornaments with which they were plastered he always looked
+shabby and sordid.
+
+After the Grand Vizier came Kiuprile, a full-bodied, red-faced Pasha,
+with a beard sprawling down to his knees; the broad sword which hung by
+his side raised the suspicion that the hand that was wont to wield it
+was the hand of no weakling; his voice resembled the roar of a buffalo,
+so deep, so rumbling was it that when he spoke quietly it was difficult
+to understand him, while on the battle-field you could hear him above
+the din of the guns.
+
+Among the other members of the Divan there were three other men worthy
+of attention.
+
+The first was Kucsuk Pasha, a muscular, martial man; his sunburnt face
+was seamed with scars, his eyes were as bright and as black as an
+eagle's; his whole bearing, despite his advanced age, was valiant and
+defiant; he carried his sword in his left hand; his walk, his pose, his
+look were firm; he was slow to speak, and rapid in action.
+
+Beside him stood his son, Feriz Beg, the sharer of his father's dangers
+and glory, a tall, handsome youth in a red caftan and a white turban
+with a heron's plume.
+
+Last of all came the Sultan's Christian doctor, the court interpreter,
+Alexander Maurocordato, a tall, athletic man, in a long, ample mantle of
+many folds; his long, bright, black beard reaches almost to his girdle,
+his features have the intellectual calm of the ancient Greek type, his
+thick black hair flows down on both shoulders in thick locks.
+
+The viziers took their places; the Sultan's divan remains vacant;
+nearest to it sits the Grand Vizier; farther back sit the pashas, agas,
+and begs.
+
+"Most gracious sir," said Maurocordato, turning towards the Grand
+Vizier, "the poor Magyar gentlemen have been waiting at thy threshold
+since dawn."
+
+The Grand Vizier gazed venomously at the interpreter, protruding his
+head more than ever.
+
+"Let them wait! It is more becoming that they should wait for us than we
+for them."
+
+And with that he beckoned to the chief of the cavasses to admit the
+petitioners.
+
+The refugees were twelve in number, and the chief cavasse, drawing aside
+the curtains from the door of an adjoining room, at once admitted them.
+Foremost among them was Paul Beldi, the others entered with anxious
+faces and unsteady, hesitating footsteps; he alone was brave, noble, and
+dignified. His gentle, large blue eyes ran over the faces of those
+present, and his appearance excited general sympathy.
+
+Only the Grand Vizier regarded him with a look of truculent
+indifference--it was his usual expression, and he knew no other.
+
+"Fear not!--open your hearts freely!" signified the Grand Vizier.
+
+Beldi stepped forward, and bowed before the Grand Vizier. One of the
+Hungarians approached still nearer to the Vizier and kissed his hand;
+the others were prevented from doing the same by the intervention of
+Maurocordato, who at the same time beckoned to Beldi to speak without
+delay.
+
+"Your Excellencies!" began Beldi, "our sad fate is already well-known to
+you, as fugitives from our native land we come to you, as beggars we
+stand before you; but not as fugitives, not as beggars do we petition
+you at this moment, but as patriots. We have quitted our country not as
+traitors, not as rebels, but because we would save it. The Prince is
+rushing headlong into destruction, carrying the country along with him.
+His chief counsellor lures him on with the promise of the crown of
+Hungary in the hope that he himself will become the Palatine. Your
+excellencies are aware what would be the fate of Hungary after such a
+war. A number of the great men of the realm joined me in a protest
+against this policy. We knew what we were risking. For some years past I
+have been one of those who disapproved of an offensive war--we are the
+last of them, the rest sit in a shameful dungeon, or have died a
+shameful death. Once upon a time, as happy fathers of families, we dwelt
+by our own firesides; now our wives and children are cast into prison,
+our castles are rooted up, our escutcheons are broken; but we do not ask
+of you what we have lost personally, we ask not for the possession of
+our properties, we ask not for the embraces of our wives and children,
+we do not even ask to see our country; we are content to die as beggars
+and outcasts; we only petition for the preservation of the life of the
+fatherland which has cast us forth, and which is rushing swiftly to
+destruction--hasten ye to save it."
+
+Kucsuk Pasha, who well understood Hungarian, angrily clapped his hand
+upon his sword, half drew it and returned it to its sheath again. Feriz
+Beg involuntarily wiped away a tear from his eyes.
+
+"Gracious sirs," continued Beldi, "we do not wish you to be wrath with
+the Prince for the tears and the blood that have been shed; we only ask
+you to provide the Prince with better counsellors than those by whom he
+is now surrounded, binding them by oath to satisfy the nation and the
+Grand Seignior, for none will break such an oath lightly and with
+impunity; and these new counsellors will constrain him to be a better
+father to those who remain in the country than he was to us."
+
+When Beldi had finished, Maurocordato came forward, took his place
+between the speaker and the Grand Vizier, and began to interpret the
+words of Beldi.
+
+At the concluding words the face of the interpreter flushed brightly,
+his resonant, sonorous voice filled the room, his soul, catching the
+expression of his face, changed with his changing feelings. Where Beldi
+calmly and resignedly had described his sufferings, the voice of the
+interpreter was broken and tremulous. Where Beldi had sketched the
+future in a voice of solemn conviction, Maurocordato assumed a tone of
+prophetic inspiration; and finally, when in words of self-renunciation
+he appealed for the salvation of his country, his oratory became as
+penetrating, as bitterly ravishing, as if his speech were the original
+instead of the copy. Passion in its ancient Greek style, the style of
+Demosthenes, seemed to have arisen from the dead.
+
+The listening Pashas seemed to have caught the inspiration of his
+enthusiasm, and bent their heads approvingly. The Grand Vizier
+contracted his eyelids, puckered up his lips, and hugging his caftan to
+his breast, began to speak, at the same time gazing around abstractedly
+with prickling eyes, every moment beating down the look of whomsoever he
+addressed or glaring scornfully at them. His screeching voice, which he
+seemed to strain through his lips, produced an unpleasant impression on
+those who heard it for the first time; while his features, which seemed
+to express every instant anger, rage, and scorn in an ascending scale,
+accentuated by the restless pantomime of his withered, tremulous hand,
+could not but make those of the Magyars who were ignorant of Turkish
+imagine that the Grand Vizier was atrociously scolding them, and that
+what he said was nothing but the vilest abuse from beginning to end.
+
+Mr. Ladislaus Csaky, who was standing beside Paul Beldi, plucked his fur
+mantle and whispered in his ear with a tremulous voice:
+
+"You have ruined us. Why did you not speak more humbly? He is going to
+impale the whole lot of us."
+
+The Vizier, as usual, concluded his speech with a weary smile, drew back
+his mocking lips, and exposed his black, stumpy teeth. The heart's blood
+of the Magyars began to grow cold at that smile.
+
+Then Maurocordato came forward. A gentle smile of encouragement
+illumined his noble features, and he began to interpret the words of the
+Grand Vizier: "Worshipful Magyars, be of good cheer. I have compassion
+on your petition, your righteousness stands before us brighter than the
+noonday sun, your griefs shall have the fullest remedy. Ye did well to
+supplicate the garment of the Sublime Sultan; cling fast to the folds of
+it, and no harm shall befall you. Now depart in peace; if we should
+require you again, we will send for you."
+
+Everyone breathed more easily. Beldi thanked the Vizier in a few simple
+sentences, and they prepared to withdraw.
+
+But Ladislaus Csaky, who was much more interested in his Sova property
+than in the future of Transylvania, and to whom Beldi's petition, which
+only sought the salvation of the fatherland, and said nothing about the
+restitution of confiscated estates, appeared inadequate, scarce waited
+for his turn to speak, and, what is more, threw himself at the feet of
+the Vizier, seized one of them, which he embraced, and began to weep
+tremendously. Indeed, his words were almost unintelligible for his
+weeping, and Mr. Csaky's oratory was always difficult to understand at
+the best of times, so that it was no wonder that the Grand Vizier lost
+his usual phlegm and now began to curse and swear in real earnest; till
+the other Magyar gentlemen rushed up, tore Csaky away by force, while
+Maurocordato angrily pushed them all out, and thus put an end to the
+scandalous scene.
+
+"If you kneel before a man," said Beldi, walking beside him, "at least
+do not weep like a child."
+
+Before Beldi could reach the door he felt his hand warmly pressed by
+another hand. He looked in that direction, and there stood Feriz.
+
+"Did you say that your wife was a captive?" asked the youth with an
+uncertain voice.
+
+"And my child also."
+
+The face of Feriz flushed.
+
+"I will release them," he said impetuously. Beldi seized his hand. "Wait
+for me at the entrance."
+
+The Hungarian refugees withdrew, everyone of them weaving for himself
+fresh hopes from the assurances of the Vizier. Only Ladislaus was not
+content with the result, and going to his quarters he immediately sat
+down and wrote two letters, one to the general of the Kaiser, and the
+other to the minister of the King of France, to both of whom he promised
+everything they could desire if they would help forward his private
+affairs, thinking to himself if the Sultan does not help me the Kaiser
+will, and if both fail me I can fall back upon the French King; at any
+rate a man ought to make himself safe all round.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Scarce had the refugees quitted the Divan when an Aga entered the
+audience-chamber and announced:
+
+"The Magyar lords."
+
+"What Magyar lords?" cried the Grand Vizier.
+
+"Those whom the Prince has sent."
+
+"They're in good time!" said the Vizier, "show them in;" and he at once
+fell into a proper pose, reserving for them his most venomous
+expression.
+
+The curtains were parted, and the Prince's embassy appeared, bedizened
+courtly folks in velvet with amiable, simpering faces. Their spokesman,
+Farkas Bethlen, stood in the very place where Paul Beldi had stood an
+hour before, in a velvet mantle trimmed with swan's-down, a bejewelled
+girdle worthy of a hero, and a sword studded with turquoises, the
+magnificence of his appointments oddly contrasting with his look of
+abject humility.
+
+"Well! what do ye want? Out with it quickly!" snapped the Grand Vizier,
+with an ominous air of impatience.
+
+Farkas Bethlen bent his head to his very knees, and then he began to
+orate in the roundabout rhetoric of those days, touching upon everything
+imaginable except the case in point.
+
+"Most gracious and mighty, glorious and victorious Lords, dignified
+Grand Vizier, unconquerable Pashas, mighty Begs and Agas, most potent
+pillars of the State, lords of the three worlds, famous and widely-known
+heroes by land and sea, my peculiarly benevolent Lords!"
+
+All this was merely prefatory!
+
+Kiuprile began to perspire; Kucsuk Pasha twirled his sword upon his
+knee; Feriz Beg turned round and contemplated the fountains of the
+Seraglio through the window.
+
+"Make haste, do!" interrupted Maurocordato impatiently; whereupon Farkas
+Bethlen, imagining that he had offended the interpreter by omitting him
+from the exordium, turned towards him with a supplementary compliment:
+
+"Great and wise interpreter, most learned and extraordinarily to be
+respected court physician of the most mighty Sultan!"
+
+Kiuprile yawned so tremendously that the girdle round his big body burst
+in two.
+
+Farkas Bethlen, however, did not let himself be put out in the least,
+but continued his oration.
+
+"Our worthy Prince, his Highness Michael Apafi, has been much distressed
+to learn that those seditious rebels who have dared to raise their evil
+heads, not only against the Prince but against the Sublime Porte also,
+as represented in his person, in consequence of the frustration of their
+plans, have fled hither to damage the Prince by their falsehoods and
+insinuations. Nevertheless, although our worthy Prince is persuaded that
+the wisdom of your Excellencies must needs confute their lying words,
+your goodwill confound their devices, and your omnipotence chastise
+their audacity, nevertheless it hath also seemed good to his Highness to
+send us to your Excellencies in order that we may refute all these
+complaints and accusations whereby they would falsely, treacherously and
+abominably disturb the realm ..."
+
+Maurocordato here took advantage of a pause made by the orator to take
+breath after this exordium, and before he was able to proceed to the
+subject-matter of his address, began straightway to interpret what he
+had said so far for the benefit of the Grand Vizier, being well aware
+that the Vizier would not allow anyone to speak a second time before he
+had spoken himself.
+
+The speech of the interpreter was this time dry and monotonous. All
+Farkas Bethlen's homiletical energy was thrown away in Maurocordato's
+drawling, indifferent reproduction.
+
+The Grand Vizier replied with flashing eyes, his face was twice as
+venomous as it had been before, and his gestures plainly indicated an
+intention to show the envoys the door.
+
+Maurocordato interpreted his reply.
+
+"The Grand Vizier says that not those whom ye persecute but you
+yourselves are the rebels who have broken the oath ye made to the
+Sublime Porte, inasmuch as your ambitious projects aim at the separation
+of Transylvania from its dependence on the Porte and at the conquest of
+Hungary--both sure ways of destruction for yourselves. Wherefore the
+Grand Vizier gives you to understand that if you cannot sit still and
+live in peace with your own fellow-countrymen, he will send to you an
+intermediary, who will leave naught but tears behind him."
+
+The Hungarian gentlemen regarded each other in astonishment. Not a trace
+of simpering amiability remained on the face of Farkas Bethlen, who was
+furious at the failure of the speech he had so carefully learnt by
+heart. He bowed still deeper than before, and sacrificing with
+extraordinary self-denial the remainder of his oration, especially as he
+perceived that any further parleying would not be permitted, he had
+resort to more drastic expedients.
+
+"Oh, sir! how can such accusations affect us who have always been
+willing faithfully to fulfil your wishes? We pay tribute, we give gifts,
+and now also our worthy Prince hath not sent us to you empty-handed,
+having commanded Master Michael Teleki not to neglect to provide us with
+suitable gifts, who has, moreover, sent to your Excellencies through me
+two hundred purses of money,[20] as a token of his respect and homage,
+beseeching your Excellencies to accept this little gift from us your
+humble servants."
+
+     [Footnote 20: Equivalent to 100,000 thalers.]
+
+With these words the orator beckoned to one of the deputation, at whose
+summons, four porters appeared carrying between them, suspended on two
+poles, a large iron chest, which Farkas Bethlen opened, discharging its
+contents at the feet of the Grand Vizier.
+
+The jingling thalers fell in heaps around the Divan, and the sound of
+the rolling coins filled the room. The features of the Grand Vizier
+suddenly changed. Maurocordato stepped back. Bethlen's last words had
+needed no interpreter; the Vizier could not keep back from his face a
+hideous smile, the grin of the devil of covetousness. His eyes grew
+large and round, he no longer clenched his teeth together, he was
+rather like a wild beast eager to pounce upon his prey.
+
+Farkas Bethlen humbly withdrew among his colleagues; the Vizier could
+not resist the temptation, he descended from the Divan, rubbing his
+hands, tapping the shoulders of the last speaker, smiling at all the
+deputies, and even going so far as to extend his hand to one or two of
+them, which those fortunate beings hastened to kiss, and spoke something
+to them in Turkish, to which they felt bound to reply with profound
+obeisances.
+
+During this scene Maurocordato had quitted the Divan, and as in default
+of an interpreter the envoys were unable to understand the words of the
+Vizier, and could only bow repeatedly, Kiuprile, who had learnt
+Hungarian while he was Pasha of Eger, arose and roared at them in a
+voice which made the very ceiling shake:
+
+"The Vizier bids you go to hell, ye dogs of Giaours, and if we want you
+again we will send for you!" Whereupon he gave a vicious kick at a
+thaler which had rolled to his feet, while the deputies, after
+innumerable salutations, left the Divan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the departure of the Prince's envoys, the Grand Vizier immediately
+sent for Beldi and his comrades. When the refugees entered the Divan,
+not one of them yet knew that the envoys of the Prince had been there
+and brought the money which they saw piled up before them, though they
+could not for the life of them understand what the Grand Vizier and
+themselves had to do with all that money; and inasmuch as Maurocordato
+had also departed, and the cavasses sent after him could not find him
+anywhere, the Hungarians, in the absence of an interpreter, stood there
+for some time in the utmost doubt, striving to explain as best they
+could the signification of the peculiar signs which the Grand Vizier
+kept making to them from time to time, pointing now at the heaps of
+money and now at them, and expounding his sayings with all ten fingers.
+Every time he glanced at the money he could not restrain his disgusting,
+hyaena-like smile.
+
+"Don't you see," whispered Csaky to Beldi, "the Grand Vizier intends all
+that money for us?"
+
+Beldi could not help smiling at this artless opinion.
+
+At last, as the interpreter did not come, Kiuprile was constrained, very
+much against the grain, to arise and interpret the wishes of the Grand
+Vizier as best he could.
+
+"Worthy sirs, this is what the Grand Vizier says to you. The Prince's
+deputies have been here. They ought to have their necks broken--that's
+what _I_ say. They brought with them this sum of money, and they said
+all sorts of things which are not true, but the money which they brought
+is true enough. Having regard to which the Grand Vizier says to you that
+he recognises the justice of your cause and approves of it, but the mere
+recognition of its justice will make no difference to it, for it will
+remain just what it was before. But if you would make your righteous
+cause progress and succeed, promise him seventy more purses than those
+of the Prince's envoys, and then we will close with you. We will then
+fling _them_ into the Bosphorus sewn up in sacks, but you we will bring
+back into your own land and make you the lords of it."
+
+A bitter smile crossed the lips of Paul Beldi, he sighed sorrowfully,
+and looked back upon his comrades.
+
+"You know right well, sir," said he to Kiuprile, "that we have no money,
+nor do I know from whence to get as much as you require, and my
+colleagues are as poor as I am. We never used the property of the State
+as a means of collecting treasures for ourselves, and what little
+remained to us from our ancestors has already been divided among the
+servants of the Prince. We have no money wherewith to buy us justice,
+and if there be no other mode of saving our country, then in God's name
+dismiss us and we will throw ourselves at the feet of some foreign
+Prince, and supplicate till we find one who must listen to us. God be
+with you; money we have none."
+
+"Then I have!" cried a voice close beside Beldi; and, looking in that
+direction, they saw Kucsuk Pasha approach Paul Beldi and warmly press
+the right hand of the downcast Hungarian gentleman. "If you want two
+hundred and seventy purses I will give it; if you want as much again I
+will give it; as much as you want you shall have; bargain with them, fix
+your price; I am here. I will pay instead of you."
+
+Feriz Beg rushed towards his father, and, full of emotion, hid his face
+in his bosom. Beldi majestically clasped the hand of the old hero, and
+was scarce able to find words to express his gratitude at this offer.
+
+"I thank you, a thousand times I thank you, but I cannot accept it; that
+would be a debt I should never be able to repay, nor my descendants
+after me. Blessed are you for your good will, but you cannot help me
+that way."
+
+Kiuprile intervened impatiently.
+
+"Be sensible, Paul Beldi, and draw not upon thee my anger; weigh well
+thy words, and hearken to good counsel. To demand so much money from
+thee as a private man in exile would be a great folly, but assume that
+thou art a Prince, and that this amount, which it would be impossible to
+drag out of one pocket, could easily be distributed over a whole kingdom
+and not be felt. Do no more then than promise us the amount; it is not
+necessary that thou shouldst pay us before we have made thee Prince."
+
+Beldi shuddered, and said to Kiuprile with a quavering voice:
+
+"I do not understand you, sir, or else I have not heard properly what
+you said."
+
+"Then understand me once for all. If it be true what thou sayest--to
+wit, that the present Prince of Transylvania rules amiss, why then,
+depose him from his Principality; and if it also be true what thou
+sayest--to wit, that thou dost love thy country so much and seest what
+ought to be done--why then, defend it thyself. I will send a message to
+the frontier Pashas, and they will immediately declare war upon this
+state, seize Master Michael Apafi and all his counsellors, clap them
+into the fortress of Jedikula, and put thee and thy comrades in their
+places. Thou art only to promise the Grand Vizier two hundred and
+seventy purses, and he will engage to make thee Prince as soon as
+possible, and then thou wilt be able to pay it; which, if thou dost
+refuse, of a truth I tell thee, that I will clap thee into Jedikula in
+the place of Michael Apafi."
+
+The heart of Paul Beldi beat violently throughout this speech. His
+emotion was visible in his face, and more than once he would have
+interrupted Kiuprile if the Hungarian gentlemen had not restrained him.
+When, however, Kiuprile had finished his speech. Paul Beldi took a step
+forward, and proudly raising his head so that he seemed to be taller
+than usual, he replied in a firm, strong voice:
+
+"I thank you, gracious sir, for your offer, but I cannot accept it. A
+sacred oath binds me to the present Prince of Transylvania, and if he
+has forgotten the oath which he swore to the nation it is no answer to
+say that we should also violate ours, nay, rather should we remind him
+of his. I have raised my head to ask for justice, not to pile one
+injustice upon another. Transylvania needs not a new Prince, but its old
+liberties; and if I had only wanted to make war upon the Prince, the
+country would rise at a sign from me, the whole of the Szeklers would
+draw their swords for me, but it was I who made them sheath their swords
+again. I do not come to the Porte for vengeance, but for judgment; not
+my own fate, but the fate of my country I submit to your Excellencies. I
+do not want the office of Prince. I do not want to drive out one
+usurper only to bring in a hundred more. I will not set all Transylvania
+in a blaze for the sake of roasting Master Michael Teleki, nor for the
+sake of freeing a dozen people from a shameful dungeon will I have ten
+thousand dragged into captivity. May I suffer injustice rather than all
+Transylvania. Accursed should I be, and all my posterity with me, if I
+were to sell my oppressed nation for a few pence and bring armies
+against my native land. As to your threats--I am prepared for anything,
+for prison, for death. I came to you for justice, slay me if you will."
+
+Kiuprile, disgusted, flung himself back on his divan; he did not count
+upon such opposition, he was not prepared for such strength of mind. The
+other gentlemen who, from time to time, had fled to the Porte from
+Transylvania had been wont to beg and pray for the very favour which
+this man so nobly rejected.
+
+The Grand Vizier, perceiving from the faces of those present the
+impression made on them by Beldi's speech, turned now to the right and
+now to the left for an explanation, and dismay gradually spread over his
+pallid face as he began to understand. Beldi's colleagues, pale and
+utterly crushed, awaited the result of his alarming reply; while
+Ladislaus Csaky, unable to restrain his dismay, rushed up to Beldi,
+flung himself on his neck in his despair, and implored him by heaven and
+earth to accept the offer of the Grand Vizier.
+
+If the offer had been made to him he would most certainly have accepted
+it.
+
+"Never, never," replied Beldi, as cold as marble.
+
+The other gentlemen knelt down before him, and with clasped hands
+besought him not to make himself, his children, and themselves for ever
+miserable.
+
+"Arise, I am not God!" said Beldi, turning from his tearful colleagues.
+
+The Grand Vizier, on understanding what it was all about, leaped
+furiously from his place, and tearing off his turban, hurled it in
+uncontrollable rage to the ground, exclaiming with foaming mouth:
+"Hither, cavasses!"
+
+"Put that accursed dog in chains!" he screeched, pointing with bloodshot
+eyes at Beldi, who quietly permitted them to load him with fetters
+weighing half-a-hundredweight each, which the army of slaves always had
+in readiness.
+
+"Wouldst thou speak, puppy of a giaour?" cried the Vizier, when he was
+already chained.
+
+"What I have said I stand to," solemnly replied the patriot, raising his
+chained hand to Heaven. "God is my refuge."
+
+"To the dungeon with him!" yelled Kara Mustafa, beckoning to the
+drabants to drag Beldi away.
+
+Just as a hard stone emits sparks when it is struck, so Beldi turned
+suddenly upon the Vizier and said, shaking his chains, "Thine hour will
+also strike!"
+
+Then he suffered them to lead him away to prison.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Immediately afterwards, the Grand Vizier sent for the envoys of the
+Prince, and commending them and those who sent them, gave each of them a
+new caftan, and with the most gracious assurances sent them back to
+their native land, where nevertheless Master Farkas Bethlen had never
+been accounted a very great orator.
+
+In the gates of the Seraglio the dismissed envoys encountered Master
+Ladislaus Csaky. The worthy gentleman at once perceived from their
+self-satisfied smiles and the new caftans they were wearing that they
+had been sent away with a favourable reply; whereupon, notwithstanding
+that he had already agreed with Paul Beldi to render homage to the
+French and German Ministers, he did not consider it superfluous to pay
+his court to Master Farkas Bethlen also, and offer to surrender himself
+body and soul if the Prince would agree to pardon him and restore his
+estates.
+
+Farkas Bethlen accepted the proposal and not only promised Csaky an
+amnesty, but high office to boot if he would separate from Beldi; nay,
+he rewarded on the spot that gentleman who had thus very wisely fastened
+the threads of his fate to four several places at the same time, so that
+if one of them broke he could still hold on to the other three.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Beldi has ruined his affairs utterly," said Kucsuk Pasha to his son, as
+they retired from the Divan; "I give up every idea of saving him."
+
+"I don't," sighed Feriz. "I'll either save or perish with him."
+
+"Let us go to Maurocordato, he may perhaps advise us."
+
+After an hour's interview with Maurocordato, Feriz Beg, with fifty armed
+Albanian horsemen, took the road towards Grosswardein.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE TURKISH DEATH.
+
+
+In the gate of the Pasha of Grosswardein, amidst the gaping throng of
+armed retainers there, could be seen a pale wizened Moslem idly
+sprawling on the threshold, apparently regardless of everything, but
+sometimes looking up, cat-like, with half-shut, dreamy eyes, and at such
+times he would smile craftily to himself.
+
+Suddenly a handsome, chivalrous youth galloped out of the gate before
+whom the soldiers bowed down to the earth; this was the Pasha's
+favourite horseman, Feriz Beg, who had just arrived from Stambul.
+
+The Beg, as if he had only by accident caught sight of the sprawling
+Moslem, turned towards him, tapped him on the shoulder with his lance,
+and while the latter, feigning ignorance and astonishment, gazed up at
+him, he drew nearer to him and said:
+
+"What Zuelfikar! dost thou not recognise me?"
+
+The person so addressed bowed himself to the earth.
+
+"Allah is gracious! By the soul of the Prophet, is it thou, gracious
+sir?" and with that he got up and began walking by the side of the horse
+of the Beg, who beckoned him to follow.
+
+"I have lost a good deal of money and a good many horses over the
+dice-box at Stambul, Zuelfikar," said Feriz Beg, "so I have come into
+these parts to rehabilitate my purse a little. Where dost thou go
+a-robbing now, Zuelfikar?"
+
+"La illah, il Allah! God is gracious and Mohammed is His holy Prophet,"
+said Zuelfikar, rolling his eyes heavenwards.
+
+"A truce to this piety, Zuelfikar; ye renegades, with unendurable
+shamelessness, are always glorifying the Prophet, born Turks don't
+mention him half as much. What I ask thee is, where dost thou go
+a-plundering now of nights?"
+
+"I thank thee, gracious sir," answered Zuelfikar, making a wooden picture
+of his face, "my wife is quite well, and there is nothing amiss with me
+either."
+
+"Zuelfikar, I value in thee that peculiarity of thine which enables thee
+to become deaf whenever thou desirest it, but I possess a very good
+remedy for that evil, and if thou wilt I will cure thee of it."
+
+Zuelfikar dodged the lance which was turned in his direction, and said
+with a Pharisaical air:
+
+"What does your honour deign to inquire of me?"
+
+"Didst thou hear what I said to thee just now?"
+
+"Dost thou mean: where I went robbing? I swear by the beard of the
+Prophet that I go nowhither for such a purpose."
+
+"I know very well, thou cat, that thou goest nowhither where there is
+trouble, but thou dost ferret out where a fat booty lies hidden, and
+thou leadest our Spahis on the track of it, wherefore they give thee
+also a portion of it; so answer me at once whom thou art wont to visit
+at night, as otherwise I shall open a hole in thy head."
+
+"But, sir, betray me not; for the Spahis would tie me to a horse's tail
+and the Pasha would impale me. Thou knowest that he does not allow
+robbery, but if it happens he looks through his fingers."
+
+"So far from betraying thee I would go with thee, I only know one mode
+of getting hold of booty. While the others storm a village, I stand a
+little distance off at the farther end of the village; whoever has
+anything to save always makes for the farther end of the village, and so
+falls into my hands."
+
+The renegade began to feel in his element.
+
+"My good sir, at night the Spahis will go to Elesd. There dwell rich
+Wallachians away from the high road. They have never had blackmail
+levied on them and there's lots of gold and silver there; if we get a
+good haul, do not betray me."
+
+"But may we not fall in with the soldiers of Ladislaus Szekely?"
+
+"Nay, sir," said Zuelfikar, winking his eyes, "they are far from here. Do
+not betray thy faithful servant."
+
+Feriz Beg put spurs to his horse and galloped off. Zuelfikar sat down in
+the gate again, very sleepily blinking his eyes, and smiling
+mysteriously.
+
+Towards evening four-and-twenty Spahis crept out of the fortress and
+made off in the direction of Elesd. Feriz Beg kept an eye upon them, and
+when they had disappeared in the woods he aroused his Albanian horsemen
+and quietly went after them.
+
+It was past midnight when Feriz Beg and his company reached the hillside
+covering Elesd. The Spahis had already plundered the place as was
+evident from the distant uproar, the loud shrieks, the pealing of bells,
+and a couple of flaming haystacks which the mauraders had set on fire to
+assist their operations.
+
+Feriz Beg posted his Albanian horsemen at the mouth of a narrow pass,
+divided them into four bands and ordered them all to remain as quiet as
+possible and wait patiently till the Spahis returned.
+
+After some hours of plundering the distant tumult died away, and instead
+of it could be heard approaching a sound of loud wrangling. Presently,
+in the deep valley below, the Spahis became visible, staggering under
+the stolen goods, dispersed into twos and threes and quarrelling
+together over their booty.
+
+Feriz Beg let them come into the narrow pass and when they were quite
+unsuspiciously at the height of their dispute, he suddenly blew his horn
+and then suddenly fell upon them from all sides with his Albanian
+horsemen, surrounded and attacked the marauders, and before they had had
+time to use their weapons began to cut them down. The tussle was a
+short one. Not one of the Albanians fell, not one of the Spahis escaped.
+
+Feriz dried his sword and leaving the dead Spahis on the road, galloped
+back with his band to Grosswardein.
+
+In the Pasha's gate he again encountered Zuelfikar and, shaking his fist
+at him, dismounted from his horse.
+
+"Thou dog! thou hast betrayed us to Ladislaus Szekely; the Spahis have
+all been cut down."
+
+Zuelfikar turned yellow with fear. It is true that he usually did
+something like this: when the Spahis would only promise him a small
+portion of the booty, he would for a few ducats extra let the Hungarian
+generals know of their coming, when one or two of them would bite the
+dust and the rest return without the booty. Last night also he had told
+the captain of Klausenberg of this particular adventure, but the
+commandant had been unable to make any use of it, for it had been the
+Prince's birthday, and he had been obliged to treat the soldiers.
+
+Zuelfikar felt a lump in his throat when he heard that all twenty-four of
+the Spahis had perished, and he immediately quitted the fortress and
+made his way to Klausenberg through the woods as hard as he could pelt.
+
+Feriz Beg, however, in great wrath, paid a visit upon the Pasha.
+
+"Your Excellency," said he, assuming a very severe countenance, "this is
+the sort of allies we have. Last night I went on an excursion, taking
+four-and-twenty Spahis with me, in order to purchase horses for myself
+in the neighbourhood. We dealt honourably with the dealers. I entrusted
+the horses to the Spahis and myself galloped on in front. In a narrow
+pass the soldiers of Ladislaus Szekely laid an ambush for the Spahis,
+surrounded them and cut them off to a man. When I came to their
+assistance there they were all lying slain and the slayers had trotted
+off on my own good steeds. Most gracious sir, that is treachery, our
+own allies do us a mischief. I will not put up with it, but if thou dost
+not give me complete satisfaction, I will go myself to Klausenberg and
+put every one of them to the sword, from Master Michael Apafi down to
+Master Ladislaus Szekely."
+
+Ajas Pasha, whose special favourite Feriz Beg was, laughed loudly at
+this demonstration, patted the youth's cheek, and said in a consolatory
+voice:
+
+"Nay, my dear son, do not so, nor waste the fire of thy enthusiasm upon
+these infidels. I have a short method of doing these things--leave it to
+me."
+
+And thereupon he sent for an aga, and gave him a command in the
+following terms:
+
+"Sit on thy horse and go quickly to Klausenberg. There go to the
+commandant, Ladislaus Szekely, and speak to him thus: Ajas Pasha wishes
+thee good-day, thou unbelieving giaour, and sends thee this message:
+Inasmuch as thy dog-headed servants during the night last past have
+treacherously fallen upon the men of Feriz Beg and cut down
+four-and-twenty of them, now therefore I require of thee to search for
+and send me instantly these murderers, otherwise the whole weight of my
+wrath shall descend upon thine own head. Moreover, in the place of the
+horses stolen from him, see that thou send to me without delay just as
+many good chargers of Wallachia, and beware lest I come for them myself,
+for then thou wilt have no cause to thank me."
+
+When the aga had learnt the message by heart he withdrew, and Ajas Pasha
+turned to Feriz Beg complacently:
+
+"Trouble not thyself further," said he, "in a couple of days the
+murderers will be here."
+
+"I want the Prince to intercede for them himself," said Feriz Beg.
+
+"And dost thou not believe then that the little finger of the Sublime
+Porte is able to give thee the lives of a few giaour hirelings, when it
+sends forth thousands to perish on the battle-field?"
+
+"And I will venture to bet a hundred ducats that Master Ladislaus
+Szekely will reply that his soldiers were not out of the fortress at all
+last night."
+
+"I am sorry for thy hundred ducats, my dear son, but I will take thy bet
+all the same; and, if I lose, I will cut just as many pieces out of the
+skin of Master Ladislaus Szekely."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The terrified Zuelfikar was almost at his last gasp by the time he
+reached the courtyard of Master Ladislaus Szekely, where, greatly
+exhausted, he obtained an audience of the commandant, who was
+resplendent in a great mantle trimmed with galloon and adorned with
+rubies and emeralds. This love of display was the good old gentleman's
+weak point. He had the most beautiful collection of precious stones in
+all Transylvania; the nearest way to his heart was to present him with a
+rare and beautiful jewel.
+
+He was engaged in furbishing up a necklace of chrysoprases and jacinths
+with a hare's foot when the renegade breathlessly rushed through the
+door unable to utter a word for sheer weariness. Ladislaus Szekely
+fancied that Zuelfikar had come for the reward of his treachery, and very
+bluntly hastened to anticipate him.
+
+"I was unable to make any use of your information, Zuelfikar; it was the
+Prince's name-day, and the soldiers were not at liberty to leave the
+town."
+
+"How can your honour say so," stuttered Zuelfikar; "you had
+four-and-twenty Spahis cut down at Elesd. What fool told your honour to
+kill them? You should merely have deprived them of their booty."
+
+Ladislaus Szekely let fall his necklace in his fright and gazed at the
+renegade with big round eyes.
+
+"Don't be a fool, Zuelfikar, my son! Not a soul was outside this fortress
+to-day or yesterday."
+
+"Your honour has been well taught what to say," said the renegade, with
+the insolence of fury; "you put on as innocent a face over the business
+as a new-born lamb."
+
+"I swear to you I don't understand a word of your nonsense."
+
+"Of course, of course! Capital! Excellent! But your honour would do well
+to keep these falsehoods for the messengers of Ajas Pasha, who will be
+with your honour immediately; try and fool them if you like, but don't
+fool me."
+
+Ladislaus Szekely, well aware that every word he said was the sacred
+truth, fancied that Zuelfikar's assertion was only a rough joke which he
+wanted to play upon him, so he cast an angry look on the renegade.
+
+"Be off, my son Zuelfikar, and cease joking; or I'll beat you about the
+head with this hare's foot till I knock all the moonshine out of you."
+
+"Your honour had best keep your hare's foot to yourself, for if I draw
+my Turkish dagger I'll make you carry your own head."
+
+"Be off, be off, my son!" cried Szekely, looking around for a stick, and
+perceiving a cane in the corner with a large silver knob he seized it.
+"And now are you going, or I shall come to you?" he added.
+
+Zuelfikar had just caught sight, meanwhile, through the window of the aga
+sent by Ajas Pasha, and fearing to encounter him, hastily skipped
+through the door, which sudden flight was attributed by Master Ladislaus
+Szekely to his own threats of violence. He followed close upon the heels
+of the fugitive, and ran almost into the very arms of the aga;
+whereupon, the aga, also flying into a rage, belaboured the commandant
+with his fists, reviled his father, his mother, and his remotest
+ancestry, and only after that began to deliver the message of Ajas
+Pasha, which he enlarged and embellished with the choicest flowers of an
+angry man's rhetoric.
+
+At these words Ladislaus Szekely changed colour as often as a genuine
+opal, or as a fractured polyporus fungus. It was clear to him that
+someone or other had just slain a number of marauding Spahis, but he
+knew very well that neither he nor his men had performed this heroic
+deed, for that particular evening they had all been safe and sound at
+ten o'clock, and yet he was expected to pay the piper!
+
+"Gracious sir, unconquerable aga," he said at last, "my men the whole of
+that evening were on duty beneath the windows of the Prince, and the
+same evening I myself closed the city gates, so that no living thing
+except a bird could get out. Therefore, I pray you ask not of me the
+slayers of the Spahis, for never in my life have I killed one of them."
+
+The aga gnashed his teeth, and stared wildly about, as if seeking for
+big words worthy of the occasion.
+
+"Darest thou say such things to me, thou wine-drinking infidel?" he
+cried at last. "I know very well that thou, single-handed, hast not cut
+down four-and-twenty Spahis; rather do I believe there were two thousand
+of you that fell upon them, but these thou must give up to me, every
+man-jack of them."
+
+Large drops of perspiration began to ooze out upon the forehead of the
+commandant, and in his embarrassment it occurred to him that deeds were
+better than words, so he seized the chain covered with chrysoprases and
+jacinths, which he had just been polishing, and handed them in a
+deprecating manner to the Turk, knowing that such a line of defence was
+most likely to obtain a hearing.
+
+But the envoy gave the chain handed to him such a kick that the precious
+stones were scattered all over the deal boards, and, trampling them
+beneath his feet, he roared with a blood-red face:
+
+"I want the murderers, not your precious stones."
+
+The commandant thereupon seeing that the aga's embassy was really a
+serious matter, took him down to the soldiers, who were drawn up in the
+courtyard, in order to ask each one of them in the hearing of the
+envoy: "Where were you during the night in question?" Naturally everyone
+of them was able to prove an alibi, not one of them could be suspected.
+
+The aga very nearly had an overflow of gall. He said nothing, he only
+rolled his eyes; and when the last soldier had denied any share in the
+death of the Turks, he leaped upon his horse, and threatening them with
+his fist, growled through his gnashing teeth:
+
+"Wait, ye also shall have your St. Demetrius' day!"[21] and with that he
+galloped back to Grosswardein.
+
+     [Footnote 21: _i.e._ you shall be stoned to death.]
+
+On his arrival he found Feriz Beg with the Pasha, and at once told his
+story, exaggerating the details to the uttermost.
+
+"What did I tell thee?" said Feriz to the Pasha; "didn't I say they
+would send back the message that they had never quitted the town. I am
+sorry for your honour's hundred ducats."
+
+At these words Ajas Pasha kicked over his chibouk and his saucer of
+sherbet, and in a hoarse, scarce intelligible voice, said to the aga:
+
+"Be off this instant to Stambul as fast as thou canst. Tell the Grand
+Vizier what has happened, and say to him that if he does not give me the
+amplest satisfaction, I myself will go against these unbelieving
+devourers of unruminating beasts who have dared to send me such a
+message, and will destroy them, together with their strongholds; or else
+I will cast my sword to the ground, and tie a girdle round my loins, and
+go away and join the brotherhood of Iskender! Say that, and forget it
+not!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Very soon one firman after another reached the Prince from Stambul, each
+one of which, with steadily rising wrath, demanded the extradition of
+the assassins of the Spahis. The Prince made inquiries and searched for
+them everywhere, but nobody could be found to take upon his shoulders
+this uncommitted deed of heroism.
+
+The messages from the Porte assumed a more and more furious tone every
+day. In itself the death of four-and-twenty Spahis was no very serious
+stumbling-block, but what more than anything lashed the Turkish generals
+into a fury was the persistent refusal of the Prince to acknowledge the
+offence. Yet with the best will in the world he was unable to do
+anything else, for not a single person on whom suspicion might fall
+could he find throughout the Principality.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In those days the dungeons of Klausenburg were well filled with
+condemned robbers; in the past year alone no fewer than thirty
+incendiaries had been discovered who had resolved to fire all
+Transylvania.
+
+One day the noble Martin Pok, the provost-marshal of the place, appeared
+before the robbers, and attracted the attention of the most
+evil-disposed of these cut-throats and incendiaries by shouting at them:
+
+"You worthless gallows-dogs, which of you would like to be set free at
+any price?"
+
+"I would! I would!" cried a whole lot of them.
+
+"Bread is going to be dear, so we cannot waste it on the like of you, so
+Master Ladislaus Szekely has determined that whoever of you would like
+to become Turks are to be handed over to our gracious master, Ajas
+Pasha, who will make some of you Janissaries, and send the rest to the
+isle of Samos; so whoever will be a Turk, let him speak."
+
+Everyone of them wanted to be a Turk.
+
+"Very well, you rascals, just attend to me! I must tell you what to say
+when you stand before the Pasha, for if you answer foolishly you will
+be bastinadoed. First of all he will ask you: 'Are you Master Ladislaus
+Szekely's men?' You will answer: 'Yes, we are!' Then he will ask you:
+'Were you at Elesd on a certain day?' And you must admit that you were.
+Finally, he will ask you if you met Feriz Beg there? You will admit
+everything, and then he will instantly release you from servitude. Do
+you understand?"
+
+"Yes, yes!" roared the incendiaries; and dancing in their fetters they
+followed the provost-marshal upstairs, who turned his extraordinary
+small head back from time to time to smile at them, at the same time
+twisting the ends of his poor thin moustache with an air of crafty
+self-satisfaction.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One day two letters reached Grosswardein from Stambul. One of these
+letters was from Kucsuk Pasha to his son, the other was from the Sultan
+to Ajas Pasha.
+
+The letter to Feriz Beg was as follows:
+
+      "MY SON,--Let thy heart rejoice: Kiuprile and
+      Maurocordato have not been wasting their time. The
+      Grand Vizier is very wrath with the Prince and his
+      Court. The death of the four-and-twenty Spahis is an
+      affair of even greater importance in Stambul just now
+      than the capture of Candia. I fancy we shall very soon
+      get what we want."
+
+Feriz Beg understood the allusion, and went at once to the Pasha in the
+best of humours.
+
+"Listen to what the omnipotent Sultan writes," said the Pasha, producing
+a parchment sealed with green wax, adorned below with the official
+signature of the Sultan, the so-called Tugra, which was not unlike a
+bird's-nest made of spiders'-webs.
+
+Feriz Beg pressed the parchment to his forehead and his lips, and the
+further he read into it the more his face filled with surprise and joy.
+
+      "VALIANT AJAS PASHA MY FAITHFUL SERVANT!--I wish thee
+      always all joy and honour. Inasmuch as I learn from
+      thee that the faithless servants of the Prince, in
+      time of peace and amity, have slain four-and-twenty
+      Spahis, and that their masters not only have not
+      punished this misdeed but even presumed to deceive me
+      with lying reports thereof, thereby revealing their
+      ill-will towards me, now therefore I charge and
+      authorise thee in case the counsellors of the Prince
+      do not surrender the murderers in response to my
+      ultimatum, which even now is on its way to them, or in
+      case they make any objection whatsoever, or even if
+      they simply pass over the matter in silence; in any
+      such case I charge and authorise thee instantly to
+      invade Transylvania with all the armies at thy
+      disposal, and by the nearest route. Kucsuk Pasha also
+      will immediately be ready at hand with his bands at
+      Voeroestorony, and the Tartar King hath also our command
+      to lend thee assistance. This done, I will either
+      drive the Prince into exile or take him prisoner, when
+      I will at once strike off the chains of Master Paul
+      Beldi--who, because of his stubbornness, now sits in
+      irons at Jedekula--and whether he will or not, I will
+      place him incontinently on the throne of the Prince,
+      etc., etc."
+
+"Dost thou believe now that we shall get the murderers?" asked Ajas
+Pasha triumphantly.
+
+"Never!" said Feriz Beg, laughing aloud and beside himself with joy.
+
+"What dost thou say?" growled the astonished Ajas; "but suppose we go
+for them ourselves?"
+
+"Well!" said Feriz, perceiving that he had nearly betrayed himself, "in
+that case--yes." But he said to himself "Not then or ever; and Paul
+Beldi will be released, and Paul Beldi will become Prince, and his wife
+will be Princess Consort, and Aranka will be a Princess too, and we
+shall see each other again."
+
+At that moment an aga entered the room and announced with a look of
+satisfaction:
+
+"Master Ladislaus Szekely has now sent the murderers."
+
+Feriz Beg reeled backwards. The word "impossible" hung upon his lips,
+and he nearly let it escape. It _was_ impossible.
+
+"Let them come in!" said Ajas Pasha viciously. He would have preferred
+to carry out the Sultan's conditional command, seize the Principality,
+and conduct the campaign personally.
+
+Feriz Beg fancied he was dreaming when he saw the forty or fifty
+selected rascals who, led by Martin Pok, drew up before Ajas Pasha; the
+rogues were dressed up as soldiers but thief, criminal, was written on
+the face of each one of them.
+
+Master Martin Pok exhibited them to the Pasha and Feriz Beg, and very
+wisely stood aside from them. Feriz Beg clapped his hands together in
+astonishment. He knew better than anyone that these fellows had never
+seen the Spahis, and he waited to hear what they would say.
+
+Ajas Pasha sat on his sofa with a countenance as cold as marble, and at
+a sign from him a file of Janissaries formed behind the backs of the
+rascals, who tried to look as pleasant and smiling as possible before
+the Pasha to gain his favour.
+
+"Ye are Master Ladislaus Szekely's men, eh?" inquired the Pasha of the
+false heroes.
+
+"We are--at thy service, unconquerable Pasha," they replied with one
+voice, folding their hands across their breasts and bowing down to the
+very ground.
+
+The Pasha beckoned to the Janissaries to come softly up behind each one
+of them.
+
+"Ye were at Elesd at midnight on the day of St. Michael the Archangel,
+eh?" he asked again.
+
+"We were indeed--at thy service invincible Pasha!" they repeated
+striking their knees with their foreheads.
+
+Feriz Beg rent his clothes in his rage. He would have liked to have
+roared at them: "Ye lie, you rascals! You were not there at all!" but he
+was obliged to keep silence.
+
+Ajas beckoned again to the Janissaries, and very nicely and quietly they
+drew their swords from their sheaths, and, grasping them firmly,
+concealed them behind their backs.
+
+The Pasha put the third question to the robbers.
+
+"Ye met Feriz Beg, eh?"
+
+"Lie not!" cried Feriz furiously. "Look well at me! Have you ever seen
+me anywhere before? Did you ever meet me at Elesd?"
+
+The interrogated, bowing to the earth, replied with the utmost devotion:
+"Yes--at your service, invincible Pasha and most valiant Beg!"
+
+At that same instant the swords flashed in the hands of the Janissaries,
+and the heads of the robbers suddenly rolled at their feet.
+
+"Oh, ye false knaves!" cried Feriz Beg, striking his forehead with his
+clenched fist.
+
+Ajas Pasha turned coolly towards Martin Pok: "Greet thy master, and tell
+him from me that another time he must be quicker, and not make me
+angry.--As for thee, Feriz, my son, pay me back those hundred ducats!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE HOSTAGE.
+
+
+One evening two horsemen dressed as Turks rode into the courtyard of the
+fortress of Szamosujvar, and demanded an audience of the noble Dano
+Solymosi, the commandant. A soldier conducted to him the two Moslems,
+one of whom seemed to be a man advanced in years, whose sunburnt face
+was covered with scars; the other was a youth, whose face was half
+hidden in the folds of a large mantle, only his dark eyes were visible.
+
+"Good evening, captain," said the elder Turk, greeting the commandant,
+who at the first moment recognised the intruder and joyfully hastened
+towards him and grasped his hand.
+
+"So God has brought Kucsuk Pasha to my humble dwelling."
+
+"Then thou dost recognise me, worthy old man?" said Kucsuk, just
+touching the hand of the worthy old Magyar.
+
+"How could I help it, my good sir? Thou didst free my only daughter from
+the hands of the filthy Tartars, thou didst deliver her from grievous
+captivity, thou didst give her a place of refuge, food, and pleasant
+words in a foreign land. I should not be a man if I were to forget
+thee."
+
+"Well, for all these things I have come hither to beg something of
+thee."
+
+"Command me! My life and goods are at thy service."
+
+"Dost thou not detain here the family of Paul Beldi?"
+
+"Yes, sir; they brought the unfortunate creatures hither."
+
+"I must have Paul Beldi's consort out of this prison for a fortnight, at
+the accomplishment of which time I will bring her back again."
+
+The captain was thunderstruck.
+
+"Sir," said he, "you are playing with my head."
+
+"None will know, and in two weeks' time she will be here again."
+
+"But if they discover it?"
+
+"Have no fear of that. During that time I will leave in thy hands as a
+hostage my own son."
+
+The young cavalier approached, threw back his mantle, and the captain
+recognised Feriz Beg. He fancied he was dreaming.
+
+"Dost thou not suppose that I will bring back the woman for the sake of
+my son?"
+
+"Do what you think well," said the commandant. "I owe you a life, I will
+now pay it back to you; follow me!"
+
+The commandant led his visitors up a narrow corkscrew fortress into the
+corner tower, which was used as a dungeon for state prisoners. The
+circular windows were guarded by heavy iron bars, the heavy iron-plated
+oaken doors groaned upon their hinges, indicating thereby that they were
+very seldom opened.
+
+"Why did you put them in this lonely place?" asked Kucsuk Pasha; "is
+there not some other prison in the town?"
+
+"Don't blame me, sir; my orders were to lock the lady up securely, apart
+from her child, and in this tower are two adjacent chambers with a
+common window, and in one of them I have put the mother and in the other
+the child. I knew that they would not mind if they could speak to each
+other through the window, and press each other's hands, and even kiss
+each other through the bars."
+
+"Thou art a true man, my good old fellow," said Kucsuk Pasha, patting
+the commandant's shoulder; while Feriz Beg warmly pressed his hand.
+
+"Thou wouldst put me into just such another dungeon, eh?" he asked.
+
+"There would be no need of that, good Feriz Beg; you should dwell in my
+apartments."
+
+"But I would not have it so," said the youth, thinking with glowing
+cheeks of the fair Aranka who would thus be his next-door neighbour and
+fellow-prisoner.
+
+At last the iron door of the prison was opened, the jailor remained
+outside, and the two Osmanlis entered. By the side of a rude oak table
+was sitting a lady in deep mourning in front of the narrow window,
+reading aloud from a large Bible with silver clasps; her children at the
+window of the other dungeon were listening devoutly to the Word of God.
+
+When the men entered the woman started and looked up; the dim ray of
+light coming through the narrow window made her face appear still paler
+than it used to be; she looked up seriously, sadly--sorrow had lent a
+gentle gravity to the face that used to be so bright and gay.
+
+Kucsuk Pasha approached, and taking the lady's soft transparent hand in
+his own, briefly introduced himself.
+
+"I am Kucsuk Pasha, thy husband's most faithful friend in this world
+after thyself."
+
+"I thank you for your visit; my husband has often mentioned your name.
+Do you perchance bring me any message from him?"
+
+"He would have thee with him."
+
+"Then I am free?" cried the lady, tremulous between joy and doubt.
+
+"Rejoice not, lady; it is not in my power to give thee freedom, I only
+promise thee a brief interview with Paul Beldi, just time enough for
+thee to tell him how much thou hast suffered. He cannot come to thee, so
+thou must come to him. With me thou canst come most quickly, for the
+greatest part of the time we shall be travelling together."
+
+"Will my children come with me?"
+
+"They will remain here. But thou wilt see them again soon. Either thou
+wilt conquer Paul Beldi with thy tears, and melt his iron will, and then
+he will come back to Transylvania as Prince and every gate will be open
+before him; or else he will stand fast to his determination, and then
+thou wilt return to thy dungeon and he to his, and so you will both die
+in the dungeons of different realms. Now take leave of thy children and
+hasten. It depends upon thee whether they become princes and princesses
+or slaves for ever."
+
+"And who will defend them, who will watch over them, who will pray with
+them while I am away?"
+
+"Be not distressed. I will leave my own son here as a hostage while thou
+art away. Feriz will occupy thy dungeon, he will watch over thy
+children, and not let them be afraid. Hasten now and take leave of
+them."
+
+Dame Beldi rushed to the round window. Loudly sobbing, she called her
+children one by one, and then embraced them all as best she could. The
+cold iron bars stood between her breast and theirs. The tears of their
+weeping faces could not dissolve them.
+
+"Give this kiss to father!--And this kiss from me!--And this from me!"
+lisped the children, putting their little arms round their mother's neck
+through the bars.
+
+"My child, my good Aranka!" said Dame Beldi to the girl, who being about
+fifteen or sixteen was the eldest of them all; "look after thy little
+brothers and sisters! And you, my good little lads, comfort Aranka. God
+bless you! God defend you! One more kiss, Aranka! And one more for you,
+little David?"
+
+"Madame, time is passing, and Paul Beldi is waiting for thee to open his
+prison!" intervened Kucsuk Pasha, withdrawing Dame Beldi from the
+window of her children's prison, who thereupon turned her tear-stained
+face towards Feriz Beg, and in a passion of grief flung herself on the
+youth's neck, and said to him in a voice almost indistinguishable for
+her sobbing:
+
+"Thou noble heart! promise me that thou wilt love my children when I am
+far away!"
+
+"By Allah, I swear it!" exclaimed the youth, pressing to his bosom the
+poor woman who was half-fainting for sorrow, "I swear that I will love
+them for ever!"
+
+Ah! there was one among them whom he had already loved for a long, long
+time.
+
+"Hasten, lady!" urged the Pasha; "cast this mantle over thee, and place
+this turban on thy head that the guards may not recognise thee in the
+distance. The way is long, the time is short."
+
+"God be with you, God be with you!" sobbed Dame Beldi, casting with
+tremulous hands hundreds of kisses towards her children, who waved their
+goodbyes to her from their window and then, violently repressing her
+emotion, she rushed from the dungeon.
+
+Kucsuk Pasha pressed the hand of his son in silence, and left him in
+Dame Beldi's room.
+
+The children kept on weeping behind their window.
+
+The youth drew nearer to them.
+
+"Weep not," he said cheerfully, "your mother will soon come again and
+bring your father with her, and then you will all rejoice together."
+
+"Ah, but then they'll kill father!" sobbed one of the children timidly.
+
+"So long as Feriz Beg can use his sword none shall touch Paul Beldi,"
+cried the youth, with flashing eyes. "My sword and my father's will
+flash around him, his enemies will be my enemies. Fear not! when I get
+back my sword, I will win back his liberty with it."
+
+"I thank you, I thank you," whispered a gentle voice overcome by
+emotion.
+
+Feriz Beg recognised the silvery voice of Aranka, and the weeping blue
+eyes of the seraph face which regarded him, like Heaven after rain,
+flashed upon him a burning ray of gratitude which was to haunt him in
+his dreams and in his memory for ever.
+
+Feriz felt his heart leap with a great joy. Pressing close up to the
+prison bars that he might get as close to the girl as possible he said
+to her with a tender voice:
+
+"How happy I am now that we dwell together as neighbours in the same
+dungeon, but oh, how much happier shall we be when no doors are closed
+upon us? Let me then have a place beside thy hearth and within thy
+heart!"
+
+The fair, sad girl, with a face full of foreboding, stretched through
+the bars of the dungeon a hand whiter than a lily, whiter than snow.
+Feriz Beg solemnly raised it to his lips and falling on his knees, in an
+outburst of sublime devotion touched his lips and his forehead with that
+beloved hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE HUSBAND.
+
+
+At the very hour when Kucsuk Pasha arrived at Stambul, Master Ladislaus
+Szekely, whom Master Michael Teleki had sent with rich presents to the
+Porte, likewise dismounted from his carriage. It was his mission to win
+the favour of the infuriated Grand Vizier and the Pashas, who had again
+begun violently to urge Paul Beldi to accept the princely throne.
+
+Master Ladislaus Szekely had also brought with him Zuelfikar to be his
+guide and interpreter through the tortuous streets of Stambul.
+
+As we already know, this worthy gentleman's particular hobby was the
+collection of jewels, and the Prince had sent through him such a heap of
+precious stones that the heart of the good gentleman when he saw them
+all spread out before him died away within him at the thought that the
+whole collection was ruthlessly to be broken up and distributed among a
+lot of foreigners and Pashas.
+
+"What a shame to lose them all," he thought. "And even then who knows
+whether we shall be safe after all. It is like casting pearls before
+swine. A much quicker way would be to get Master Paul Beldi
+assassinated. That would be cutting the knot once for all, and we should
+have no further danger from that quarter. Michael Teleki wouldn't kill
+me for a trifle like that, I know. You, Zuelfikar, my son, could you
+undertake to poison someone?" he inquired, turning towards the
+renegade.
+
+"The whole town if you like."
+
+"No, only Master Paul Beldi. It is all one to him whether he dies or
+remains a prisoner for life."
+
+"I'll do it for two hundred ducats, if you pay me half in advance."
+
+"I'll pay you, Zuelfikar, but how will you get at him?"
+
+"That's my affair, all you have to do is to get the money ready."
+
+Accordingly Ladislaus Szekely gave the earnest-money to the renegade,
+and the renegade went home and wrote a letter in the name of the
+Beglerleg of the following tenour: "Be assured that our affairs are in
+the best order, and we shall shortly gain our object."
+
+He strewed over these lines a fine blue dust which was the strongest of
+poisons, calculating that whoever wanted to read the letter would first
+brush the dust off it, whereupon the fine dust would rise in the air,
+and the person reading the letter would inhale the dust and die.
+
+After attaching the letter to his turban, he began prowling round the
+dungeon of Paul Beldi, awaiting an opportunity of worming his way into
+it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Paul Beldi was sitting alone in the darkest corner of the dungeon of
+Jedikula. At his feet lay his faithful bloodhound, Koertoevely, with his
+eyes fixed sadly on his master. Whenever his master slept the dog would
+sit up, never take his eyes off him, and begin growling at the lightest
+noise.
+
+Beldi, with folded arms, was sitting on the stone bench to which he was
+chained. His face had grown terribly pale and as if turned to stone. The
+pale gleam of light which filtered through the narrow window and lit up
+his face, found there no trace of that weary longing which the dweller
+in prisons generally has for the sun's rays. The whole man, body and
+soul, was hardened into steel.
+
+Suddenly the dog lying at his feet impatiently raised its sagacious
+head, and then with a whimper of joy ran towards the door; there it
+stood for a time merrily barking, and then ran back to its master and
+stood before him wagging its tail with one foot on his shoulder, whining
+and whimpering with such lively joy that one might almost have
+understood what it wanted to say.
+
+"What's the matter? Good dog!" said Beldi, stroking the dog's head.
+"What is it? Nobody's coming to see me that can make you happy."
+
+At that moment the key turned in the door of the dungeon and a group of
+men by the light of torches descended the steps and entered Beldi's
+prison; whereupon Koertoevely quickly left his master and burrowing his
+way through the throng, began to yelp merrily over someone, and then
+rushing back to his master, planted his fore-paws on his breast and
+barked as if he would burst because he could not express more plainly
+the joy which his wonderful canine instinct had anticipated.
+
+Beldi, perceiving among those who visited him the Grand Vizier,
+Kiuprile, and Maurocordato, ordered his dog to be quiet, and standing up
+before them, saluted them with a deep bow.
+
+"Well, thou obstinate man!" said the Grand Vizier, "how long wilt thou
+torment thyself and offend the Sultan and thine own good friends? Wilt
+thou ever perceive that to sit on a stone bench in a damp dungeon is a
+very different thing to sitting on a princely throne?"
+
+"The more I suffer," said Beldi, in a strangely calm voice, "the more
+reason I have to rejoice that my country does not suffer instead of me."
+
+The Grand Vizier thereupon said something in Turkish which Maurocordato
+sadly interpreted: "The Grand Seignior informs thee that because of
+money thou hast been cast into prison, and only money can release thee;
+promise, therefore, two hundred and seventy purses, and thou shalt get
+the Principality to enable thee to pay it."
+
+"I have told you my determination," said Beldi, "and I will not depart
+from it. I will not promise money to the detriment of my country. I will
+not lead an army against it, and I will not break my oath. These were
+and will be my words from which I can never depart."
+
+"Never!" cried Kucsuk Pasha, pressing through the crowd. "Wilt thou not
+even now?"--and with that he led a pale female figure towards Beldi.
+
+"My wife!" exclaimed the captive, and he gripped fast his chains lest he
+should collapse for joy, terror, and surprise.
+
+The pale woman in mourning fell upon his bosom, her tears became his
+fetters.
+
+Paul Beldi burst into tears, he fell back upon his stone bench, his very
+soul was shattered. He remained clinging upon his wife's neck,
+speechless, unable to utter a word, and the whining dog licked now the
+hand of his master and now the lady's hand.
+
+"Let us turn aside," said Kucsuk Pasha; "let us leave them
+together"--and the Turks withdrew from the dungeon, leaving Paul Beldi
+alone with his wife.
+
+"I fancied," said Dame Beldi when she was able to utter a word amidst
+her choking sobs. "I fancied I was suffering instead of you, and oh! you
+were suffering more than I."
+
+"How did you come here?" asked Beldi, in a low stifled voice.
+
+"Kucsuk Pasha left his son as a hostage in my stead."
+
+"Worthy man! What useless sacrifices he is making for my sake. And my
+children?"
+
+"They remain in the dungeon whither also I must return, if you will not
+accept the Sultan's offer."
+
+"Have they taken away my girl Aranka also?" asked Beldi, with a heavy
+heart.
+
+"Yes, they have taken her too, and if we are released we shall have no
+whither to go. They have taken everything of ours. The Bethlen property
+has become the prey of Farkas Bethlen; the Haromszeki estate is now in
+the hands of Clement Mikes, although it is not lawful to deprive a
+Szekler of his lands, even for high-treason. Our castle at Bodola has
+been totally destroyed, our escutcheon has been torn to pieces, and your
+name has been recorded in the journals of the Diet as a traitor."
+
+"Oh, ye men!" roared Beldi, shaking his chains in the bitterness of his
+anger; "if I were not Paul Beldi the wrath of God would descend upon
+your heads. But ah!--I love my country even if worms are gnawing it. Dry
+your eyes, my good wife! you see I am not weeping. What we suffer is the
+visitation of God upon us. I remain a Christian and a patriot. I leave
+my cause to God!"
+
+"You will not accept the offer of the Sultan?" inquired Dame Beldi,
+approaching her husband with fear and despair in her eyes.
+
+"Never!" replied Beldi, in a low voice.
+
+The wife, with a loud scream, flung herself at the feet of her husband,
+and, seizing his knees in a convulsive embrace, begged and besought him:
+"You would send me back to my dungeon? You would separate me from you
+for ever? Never, never, not even in the hour of death, shall I see you
+again."
+
+"Comfort yourself with the thought that you loved me, and were worthy of
+me, if you can suffer as I do and for the same reason."
+
+"You would plunge your children into eternal captivity?"
+
+"Tell them that their father lived honourably and died honourably, and
+teach them to live and die like him."
+
+"Think of your girl, Aranka; your favourite, your dearest child."
+
+"Rather may she fade away than Transylvania be plunged in the flames of
+war."
+
+"Beldi! drive me not to despair!" cried the wife trembling violently. "I
+am afraid, horribly afraid, of my dungeon. Twice have I had fever from
+the close, damp air. There was none to care for me in my sickness; I
+was calling your name continually, and you were far from me; I saw your
+image, and was unable to embrace you. Oh, Beldi! I shall die without
+you! The most terrible form of death--despair--will kill me!"
+
+Beldi knelt down by the side of his wife and embraced and kissed her.
+The woman fainted in his arms as the Turks entered his prison. Beldi
+beckoned Kucsuk Pasha to him. A sort of leaden, death-like hue had begun
+to spread over his face; he could scarce see with whom he was
+conversing. He laid his swooning wife in the arms of the Pasha, and
+stammered with barely intelligible words: "I thank you for your good
+will. Here is my wife--take her--back to her dungeon!"
+
+The Turks, in speechless astonishment, lifted up the fainting woman, and
+left the dungeon without plaguing Beldi with any more questions.
+
+Beldi stood stonily there as they went out, with open lips and a dull
+light in his eyes. When the last Turk had gone, and he saw his wife no
+longer, his head began to nod and droop down, and suddenly he fell prone
+upon the floor.
+
+Koertoevely, the old hound, began sorrowfully, bitterly, to whine.
+
+At that moment Zuelfikar entered the dungeon with the poisoned letter.
+
+He was too late. Paul Beldi had already departed from this world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Ladislaus Szekely heard of Beldi's death he gave a magnificent
+banquet, and when the company was at its merriest Zuelfikar came rushing
+in.
+
+"Come! out with those hundred ducats!" he whispered in the ear of Master
+Ladislaus Szekely.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Szekely in a voice flushed with wine. "Paul
+Beldi had a stroke; be content with what you have had already."
+
+"Thou faithless dog of a giaour!" cried the renegade at the top of his
+voice so that everyone could hear him, "is this the way thou dost
+deceive me? Thou didst bargain with me for the death of Paul Beldi for
+two hundred ducats, and now thou wouldst beat me down by one half. Thou
+art a rogue meet for the hangman's hands. Is it thus thou dost treat an
+honest man? I'll not kill a man for thee another time until thou pay me
+in advance, thou faithless robber!"
+
+The company laughed aloud at this scene, but Master Ladislaus Szekely
+seemed very much put out by the joke. "What are you talking about, you
+crazy fellow?" said he. "Who asked you to do anything? I never saw you
+in my life before!"
+
+"What!" cried Zuelfikar. "I suppose thou wilt deny next that thou didst
+write this letter to Paul Beldi!" and with that he gave Ladislaus
+Szekely the poisoned letter. He seized it, broke the seal, brushed away
+the dust, and ran his eye over it, whereupon he flung it at the feet of
+Zuelfikar, exclaiming: "I never wrote that."
+
+Then he beckoned to the servants to seize Zuelfikar by the collar and
+pitch him into the street. But the renegade stood outside in front of
+the windows and began to curse Szekely before the assembled crowd for
+not paying him the price of the poison.
+
+Inside the house the guests laughed more heartily than ever, and at last
+Szekely himself began to look upon the matter in the light of a joke,
+and laughed like the rest; but when he returned home to Transylvania he
+felt a pain in his stomach, and did not know what was the matter. He
+became deaf, could neither eat nor drink, and his bowels began to rot.
+
+Nobody could cure him of his terrible malady, till at last he fell in
+with a German leech, who persuaded him that he could cure him with the
+dust of genuine diamonds and sapphires. Ladislaus Szekely handed to the
+charlatan his collection of precious stones. He abstracted the stones
+from their settings, but ground up common stones instead of them in his
+medical mortar, and stampeded himself with the real stones, leaving
+Ladislaus Szekely to die the terrible death by poison which he had
+intended for Paul Beldi.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Paul Beldi they buried in foreign soil; none visited his grave. Only his
+faithful dog sat beside it. For eight days it neither ate nor drank. On
+the ninth day it died on the deserted grave of its master.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE FADING OF FLOWERS.
+
+
+And now let us see what became of Aranka and Feriz.
+
+At last they were beneath one roof together--this roof was a little
+better than the roof of a tomb, but not much, for it was the roof of a
+dungeon. They could only see each other through a narrow little window,
+but even this did them good. They were able to press each other's hands
+through the iron bars, console each other, and talk of their coming joys
+and boundless happiness. The walls of the prison were so narrow, so
+damp, the narrow opening scarce admitted the light of day; but when the
+youth began to talk of his native land, Damascus, rich in roses, of
+palm-trees waving in the breeze, of warm sunny skies, where the
+housetops were planted with flowers, and the evergreens give a shade
+against the ever-burning sun, at such times the girl forgot her dungeon
+and fancied she was among the rose-groves of Damascus, and when the
+youth spoke of the future she forgot the rose-groves of Damascus and
+fancied she was in heaven.
+
+Days and days passed since the departure of Dame Beldi, and there were
+no news of her. Every day the spirits of the girl declined, every
+evening she parted more and more sadly with Feriz, and every morning he
+found it more and more difficult to comfort her. And now with great
+consternation the youth began to perceive that the girl was very pale,
+the colour of life began to fade from her round, rosy cheeks, and there
+was something new in the brightness of her eyes--it was no earthly
+light there which made him tremble as he gazed upon her. The youth durst
+not ask her: "What is the matter?" But the girl said to him:
+
+"Oh, Feriz! I am dying here; I shall never see your smiling skies."
+
+"I would rather see the sky black than thee dead."
+
+"The sky will smile again, but I never shall. I feel something within me
+which makes my heart's blood flow languidly, and at night I see my dead
+kinsfolk, and walk with them in unknown regions which I never saw
+before, and which appear before me so vividly that I could describe
+every house and every bush by itself."
+
+"That signifies that thou wilt visit unknown regions with me."
+
+"Oh, Feriz, I no longer feel any pleasure in those lands of yours, nor
+am I glad when I think of your palms, and as often as I see you darkness
+descends upon my soul, for I feel that I am going to leave you."
+
+"Speak not so, joy of my existence. Grieve not God with thy words, for
+God is afflicted when the innocent complain."
+
+"I am not complaining. I go from a bad into a good world, and there I
+shall see you in my dreams."
+
+"But if this bad world should become better, and you lived happily in
+it?"
+
+Aranka sadly shook her pretty, angelic head.
+
+"That it is not necessary for this world to grow better you can see from
+the fact that the good must die while the wicked live a long time. God
+seeks out those that love Him, and takes them unto Himself, for He will
+not let them suffer long."
+
+Feriz shuddered. What could have put these solemn, melancholy thoughts
+into the heart of this girl, this child? It was the approach of Death,
+the worm-bitten fruit ripens more quickly than the rest. Slow, creeping
+Death had seized upon the childish mind and made it speak like the
+aged--and sad it was to listen to its words.
+
+"Cheer up," said Feriz, with an effort, skimming with his lips the
+girl's white hand which she thrust out to him through the bars. "Thy
+mother will soon be here; thy father will sit on the throne of the
+Prince as he deserves; thou wilt be a Princess, and I will strive and
+struggle till I am high enough to sue for thee, and then I will lay my
+glory and renown at thy feet, and thou shalt be my bride, my queen, my
+guardian angel."
+
+The girl shook her head sorrowfully.
+
+"And we will walk along by the banks of the quiet streams in those
+ancient lands where not craft but valour rules, where the wise are only
+learned in the courses of the stars and the healing virtues of the
+plants, not in the science of the rise and fall of kingdoms. There from
+the window of my breeze-blown kiosk, which is built on the slopes of
+Lebanon, thou wilt view the whole region round about. Above, the
+shepherds kindle their fires in the blackness of the cedar forests;
+below, the mountain stream runs murmuring along, and all round about us
+the nightingale is singing, and what he singeth is the happiness of
+love. In the far distance thou seest the mirror of the great sea, and
+the white-sailed pleasure boat rocks to and fro on the transparent
+becalmed billows, and the moon looks down upon the limitless mirror, and
+a fair maiden sits in the pleasure-boat, and at her feet lies a youth,
+and both of them are silent, only a throbbing heart is speaking, and it
+speaks of the happiness of love."
+
+A couple of tears dropped from the eyes of the girl--the future was so
+seductive--and that picture, that fair country, she did not seem to be
+regarding them from the earth, it seemed to her as if she was looking
+down upon them from the sky and regretting that she was forced to
+leave--the beautiful world.
+
+Aranka adored her father. The man who was respected for his virtues by a
+whole kingdom was the highest ideal of his child. When Feriz began to
+speak of him, the girl's face brightened, and at the recital of his
+heroic deeds the tears dried up in her flashing eyes; and when the youth
+told her how the great patriot would return, glorious and powerful,
+supported by the mightiest of monarchs, and how he would throw open the
+prison doors of his children and be parted from them no more, then a
+smile would gradually transfigure the girl's face, and she would feel
+happy. And then she would steal apart into her own dungeon, and kneel
+down before her bed, and pray ardently that she might see her father
+soon, very soon.
+
+And she was to see him before very long.
+
+Paul Beldi's body was now six feet deep in the ground, and his soul a
+star farther off in the sky--to see him one must go to him.
+
+Paler and paler she became every day, her waking moments were scarcely
+different from her dreams, and her dreams from her waking moments. The
+provost-marshal now had compassion on the withered flower, and allowed
+it on the sunny afternoons to walk about on the bastions and breathe the
+fresh air. But neither moonlight nor fresh air could cure her now.
+
+Frequently she would take the hand of Feriz Beg and press it to her
+forehead. "See how it burns, just like fire! Oh, if only I might live
+till my father comes. How he would grieve for me!"
+
+Feriz Beg saw her wither from day to day, and still there was no sign of
+liberty. The youth used frequently to walk about the courtyard half a
+day at a time, like a lion in a cage, beating the walls with his
+forehead at the thought that that for which he had been striving his
+whole life long, and the possession whereof was the final goal of his
+existence, was drawing nearer and nearer to Death every hour, and no
+human power could hold it back!
+
+The wife of the provost-marshal, a good, true woman, nursed the rapidly
+declining girl. Medical science was then of very small account in
+Transylvania; the sick had resort to well-known herbs and domestic
+remedies based on the experience of the aged; they trusted for the most
+part to our blessed mother Nature and the mercy of God.
+
+The worthy woman did all she could, but her honest heart told her that
+the arrival of Aranka's father, and the sooner the better, would do more
+good than all her remedies. That would transform the invalid, and joy
+would give her back her failing vital energy.
+
+Feriz Beg had not been able to speak to Aranka for two days; the girl
+had suffered greatly during the night, and Feriz was condemned to listen
+to the moaning of his beloved, and to hear her in the delirium of fever
+through the prison windows without being able to go to her, without
+being able to wipe the sweat from her forehead, or put a glass of cold
+water to her lips, or whisper to her words of comfort, and had to be
+content with knowing that she was with those who carefully nursed her.
+
+Oh, it is not to the dying that death is most bitter.
+
+By the morning the fever left her. The rising sun was just beginning to
+shine through the narrow round window and the sick girl begged to be
+carried out into the open air and the warm morning sunshine. She was no
+longer able to walk by herself, and they carried her out on to the
+bastions in an arm-chair.
+
+It was a beautiful autumn morning, a sort of transparent light rested
+upon the whole region, giving a pale lilac blue to the sunlit scene.
+Where the road wound down from the Szekler hills a light cloud of dust
+was visible in the morning vapour; it seemed to be coming from the
+direction of Szamosujvar.
+
+"Ah! there is my mother coming!" whispered Aranka, with a smiling face.
+
+The young Turk held his hand before his face and fixed his eagle eyes in
+that direction; and when for a moment the breeze swept the dust off the
+road, and a carriage on springs drawn by five horses appeared, he
+exclaimed with a beating heart:
+
+"Yes, that is indeed the carriage in which they took away thy mother."
+
+Aranka was dumb with joy and surprise; she could not speak a word, she
+only squeezed Feriz Beg's hands and fixed her tearful eyes upon him with
+a grateful look.
+
+The carriage seemed to be rapidly approaching. "That is how people
+hasten who have something joyful to say," thought Feriz, and then he
+began to fear less boundless joy might injure the life of his darling.
+
+Soon the carriage arrived in front of the fortress and rumbled noisily
+over the drawbridge. Aranka, supported by the arm of Feriz, descended
+into the courtyard. They pressed onward to meet the carriage, and the
+smile upon her pallid face was so melancholy.
+
+The glass door of the carriage was opened, and who should come out but
+Kucsuk Pasha.
+
+There was nothing encouraging in his look; he said not a word either to
+his son or to the girl who clung to him, but the castellan was standing
+hard by, and he beckoned to him.
+
+"In the carriage," said Kucsuk, "is the prisoner for whom I left my son
+as an hostage; take her back, and look well after her, for she is very
+ill."
+
+Dame Beldi lay in the carriage unconscious, motionless.
+
+Aranka, paler than ever and trembling all over, asked:
+
+"Where is my father?"
+
+Kucsuk Pasha would have spoken, but tears came instead of words and ran
+down his manly face; silently he raised his hand, pointed upwards, and
+said, in a scarce audible voice: "In Heaven!"
+
+The gentle girl, like a plucked flower, collapsed at these words. Feriz
+Beg caught her moaning in his arms, she raised her eyes, a long sigh
+escaped her lips, then her beautiful lips drooped, her beautiful eyes
+closed, and all was over.
+
+The beloved maiden had gone to her father in Heaven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE SWORD OF GOD.
+
+
+For some time past God's marvels had been multiplied over Transylvania.
+No longer were they disquieting rumours which popular agitators invented
+for the disturbance of the public peace, but extraordinary natural
+phenomena whose rapid sequence stirred the heart of even the coldest
+sceptic.
+
+One summer morning at dawn, after a clear night, an unusually thick
+heavy mist descended upon the earth, which only dispersed in the
+afternoon, spread over the whole sky in the shape of an endless black
+cloud, and there remained like a heavy motionless curtain. Not a drop of
+water fell from it, and at noonday in the houses it was impossible to
+see anything without a candle.
+
+Towards evening every bird became silent, the flowers closed their
+calices, the leaves of the trees hung limply down. The people walking
+about outside began to complain of a stifling cough, and from that time
+forth the germs of every disease antagonistic to nature were seen in
+every herb, in every fruit; even the water of the streams was corrupted.
+The hot blood of man, the earth itself was infected by a kind of
+epidemic, so that weeds never seen before sprang up and ruined the
+richest crops, and the strongest oaks of the forest withered beneath the
+assault of grey blight and funguses, and the good black soil of the
+fruitful arable land was covered with a hideous green mould.
+
+For three whole days the sky did not clear. On the evening of the
+fourth day the stifling stillness was followed by a frightful hurricane,
+which tore off the roofs of the houses, wrenched the stars and crosses
+from the steeples of the churches, swept up the dust from the
+high-roads, caused such a darkness that it was impossible to see, and
+bursting open the willow trees, which had just begun to bloom, drove the
+red pollen before it in clouds, so that when the first big rain-drops
+began to fall they left behind them blood-red traces on the white walls
+of the houses. "It is raining blood from Heaven!" was the terrified cry.
+Not long afterwards came the cracking thunderbolts flashing and flaming
+as if they would flog the earth with a thousand fiery whips, while one
+perpendicular flash of lightning plumped right down into the middle of
+the town, shaking the earth with its cracking concussion, so that
+everyone believed the hour of judgment was at hand.
+
+Nevertheless the storm had scattered the clouds, and by eventide the sky
+had cleared, and lo! before the eyes of the gaping multitude a gigantic
+comet stood in the firmament, all the more startling as nobody had been
+aware of its proximity because for three days the sky had been blotted
+out by clouds.
+
+The nucleus of the comet stood just over the place where the sun had
+gone down, and the blood-red light of evening was not sufficient to dim
+the brightness of the lurid star; it appeared as if it had just slain
+the sun and was now bathing in its blood.
+
+The comet was so long that it seemed to stretch across two-thirds of the
+firmament, and the end of it bulged out broadly like a Turkish scimitar.
+
+"The sword of God!" whispered the people with instinctive fear.
+
+For two weeks this phenomenon stood in the sky, rising late one day and
+early the next. Sometimes it appeared with the bright sun, and in the
+solar brightness it looked like a huge streak of blue enamel in the sky
+and spread around it a sort of febrile pallor as if the atmosphere
+itself were sick: on bright afternoons the sun could be regarded with
+the naked eye.
+
+The people were in fear and terror at this extraordinary phenomenon, and
+when the blind masses are in an unconscious panic then a storm is close
+at hand, then they are capable of anything to escape from their fear.
+
+In those days the priests of every faith could give strange testimony of
+the general consternation which prevailed in Transylvania. The churches
+were kept open all day long, and the indefatigable curers of souls spoke
+words of consolation to the assembled hosts of the faithful. Magyari,
+the Prince's chaplain, preached four sermons every day in the cathedral,
+which was so crowded at such times that half the people could not get in
+at all but remained standing outside the doors.
+
+One evening the church was so filled with faithful worshippers that the
+very steps were covered with them, and all sorts of Klausenberg
+burgesses intermingled with travelling Szeklers in a group before the
+principal door, and after the hymn was finished they clapped to their
+clasped psalm-books and began to talk to each other while the sermon was
+going on inside.
+
+"We live in evil times," said an old master-tanner, shaking his big cap.
+
+"We can say a word about that too," interrupted a Szekler, who was up in
+town about a law-suit, and who seized the opportunity of saying what he
+knew because he had come from far.
+
+"Then you also have seen the sword of God?" inquired a young man.
+
+"Not only have we seen it, my little brother, but we have felt it also.
+Not a single evening do we lay down to rest without reciting the prayers
+for the dead and dying, and scarce a night passes but what we see the
+sky a fiery red colour, either on the right hand or to the left."
+
+"What would that be?"
+
+"Some village or town burning to ashes. They say the whole kingdom is
+full of destroying angels; one never knows whose roof will be fired over
+his head next."
+
+"God and all good spirits guard us from it."
+
+"We hear all sorts of evil reports," said a gingerbread baker.
+"Yesterday I was talking to a Wallachian woman whose husband was faring
+on the Jaras-water on a raft taking cheese to Yorda. He was not a day's
+journey from his home when the Jaras turned, began to flow upwards, and
+took the Wallachian back to his house from which he had started."
+
+A listening clergyman here explained the matter by saying that the
+Aranyos, into which the Jaras flows, was greatly flooded just then, and
+it was its overflow which filled up the Jaras; in fact it was Divine
+Providence which brought the Wallachian back, for if he had been able to
+go on farther, the Tartars would certainly have fallen upon him and cut
+him to pieces.
+
+"I have experienced everything in my time," said the oldest of the
+burgesses, "war, plague, flood and pestilence, but there's only one
+thing I am afraid of, and that is earthquake, for a man cannot even go
+to church to pray against that."
+
+At that moment the preacher in the church began to speak so loudly that
+those standing outside could hear his words, and, growing suddenly
+silent, they pressed nearer to the door of the church to hear what he
+was saying.
+
+The right rev. Magyari was trouncing the gentlemen present unmercifully:
+"God prepares to war against you, for ye also are preparing to war
+against Him. You have broken the peace ye swore to observe right and
+left, and ye shall have what you want, war without and war within, so
+that ye may be constrained to say: 'Enough, enough, O Lord!' and ye
+shall not see the end of what you have so foolishly begun."
+
+Magyari already knew that Teleki, at the Diet of Szamosujvar, had
+announced the impending war.
+
+Just at this very time two men of the patrician order in sable kalpags
+were seen approaching, in whom the Klausenbergers at once recognised
+Michael Teleki and Ladislaus Vajda, and so far as they were able they
+made room for them to get into the church through the crowd; but the
+Szekler did not recognise either of them, and when Ladislaus Vajda very
+haughtily shoved him aside with his elbows, he turned upon him and said:
+
+"Softly, softly, sir! This is the house of God, not the house of a great
+lord. Here I am just as good a man as you are."
+
+Those standing beside him tried to pull him aside, but it is the
+peculiarity of the Szeklers that they grow more furious than ever when
+people try to pacify them; and on perceiving that Ladislaus Vajda,
+unable to make his way through the throng, began to look about him to
+see how he best could get to his seat, the Szekler cried in front of
+him:
+
+"Cannot you let these two gentlemen get into the church? don't you see
+that the lesson is meant for them?"
+
+Teleki meanwhile had forced his way just over the threshold, and taking
+off his kalpag, exposed his bald, defenceless head in the sight of all
+the people, with his face turned in the direction indicated by the
+boisterous Szekler.
+
+Magyari continued his fulminating discourse from the pulpit.
+
+"Nobody dare speak against you now, for your words are very thunderbolts
+and strike down those with whom you are angry--nay, rather, men bow the
+knee before you and say, 'Your Excellency! Your Excellency!' but the
+judgment of the Lord shall descend upon you, the Lord will slay you, and
+then men will point the finger of scorn at you and say: 'That is the
+consort of the accursed one who betrayed his country!--these are the
+children of that godless man!' And your descendants will blush to bear
+the shameful name you have left them, for then the tongue of every man
+will wag in his mouth against you, and they will cry after your
+posterity: 'It was the father of those fellows who betrayed Transylvania
+and plunged us into slime from which we cannot now withdraw our feet'
+..."
+
+"Come away, your Excellency!" said Ladislaus Vajda to Teleki, whom the
+parson seemed to have seen, for he turned straight towards him as he
+spoke.
+
+"What are you thinking of?" Teleki whispered back; "the parson is
+speaking the truth, but it doesn't matter."
+
+"Whither would ye go, ye senseless vacillators!" continued Magyari, "who
+empowered you to make the men of Transylvania fugitives, their wives
+widows, and their children orphans? Verily I say to you, ye shall fare
+like the camel who went to Jupiter for horns and got shorn of his ears
+instead."
+
+"It may be so," said Teleki to Vajda, "but we shall pursue our course
+all the same."
+
+The parson saw that the Minister of State was paying attention to his
+discourse, so he wrinkled his forehead, and thus proceeded:
+
+"When King Louis perished on the field of Mohacs, the Turkish Emperor
+had the dead body brought before him, and recognising at the same time
+the corpse of an evil Hungarian politician lying there, he struck off
+its head with his sword, and said: 'If thou hadst not been there, thou
+dog! this honest child-king would not be lying dead here.' God grant
+that a foreign nation may not so deal with you."
+
+Teleki scratched his head, and whispered:
+
+"It may happen to me likewise, but that makes no difference."
+
+Shortly afterwards another hymn was sung, the two magnates put on their
+kalpags and withdrew, and the emerging crowd of people flowed along all
+around them, among whom the Szekler, as recently mentioned, followed
+hard upon the heels of the two gentlemen with singular persistency,
+lauding to the skies before everyone, in a loud voice, the sermon he had
+just heard, so as to insult the two gentlemen walking in front of him as
+much as possible.
+
+"That was something like a sermon," he cried, "that is just how our
+masters ought to have their heads washed--without too much soap. And
+quite right too! Why saddle the realm with war at all? Why should
+Transylvania put on a mustard plaster because Hungary has a pain in its
+stomach? What has all this coming and going of foreigners to do with us?
+Why should we poor Transylvanians suffer for the sake of the lean
+foreigners among us?"
+
+Ladislaus Vajda could put up with this no longer, and turning round,
+shouted at the Szekler:
+
+"Keep your distance, you rascal, speak like a man at any rate; don't
+bark here like some mad beast when it sees a better man than itself."
+
+At these words the Szekler thrust his neck forward, stuck his face
+beneath the very nose of the gentleman who had spoken to him, looked him
+straight in the face with bright eyes that pricked like pins, and said,
+twisting his moustaches fiercely:
+
+"Don't you try to fix any of your bastard names on me, sir, for if I go
+home for my sword I will pretty soon make you a present of a head, and
+that head shall be your own."
+
+Ladislaus Vajda would have made some reply, but Teleki pulled him by the
+arm and dragged him away.
+
+"Nothing aggravates your Excellency," said the offended gentleman.
+
+"Let him growl, he'll be all the better soldier if we do have war; never
+quarrel with a Szekler, my friend, for he always has a greater respect
+for his own head than for anyone else's."
+
+And so the two gentlemen disappeared through the gates of the Prince's
+palace.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Prince himself was present at this sermon, and it produced this much
+impression that he enjoined a fast upon his whole household and then
+went to bed. In the night, however, he awoke repeatedly, and had so many
+tormenting visions that he woke up all his pages, and it was even
+necessary at last to send for the Princess herself, and only then did he
+become a little calmer when she appeared at his bedside; in fact, he
+kept her with him till dawn of day, continually telling her all sorts of
+sad and painful things so that the Princess's cries of horror could be
+heard through the door.
+
+In the morning, after the Princess had retired to her own apartments,
+she immediately summoned to her presence Michael Teleki, who, living at
+that time at the Prince's court as if it were his own home, was not very
+long in making his appearance, and obeyed the command to be seated with
+as much cheerful alacrity as if he had been asked to sit down at a
+banquet, though well aware that a bitter cup had been prepared for him
+which he must drain to the dregs.
+
+"Sir," said the Princess, "Apafi was very ill last night."
+
+"That was owing to the fast, he isn't used to such practices. Generally,
+he has a good supper, and if he departs from his usual course of life he
+is bound to sleep badly. Bad dreams plague an empty stomach just as much
+as an overburdened one."
+
+"And how about an overburdened conscience, sir? I have spent the whole
+night at his bedside, only this instant have I quitted him; he would not
+let me leave him, he pressed my hand continually, and he talked, soberly
+and wide-awake, of things which I should have thought could only have
+been talked about in the delirium of typhus. He said that that night he
+had stood before the judgment-seat of God, before a great table--which
+was so long that he could not see the end of it--and at this table sat
+the accusing witnesses, first of all Denis Banfy, and then Beldi, Dame
+Beldi and their daughter, and eldest son, who died in prison; Kepi,
+too, was there, and young Kornis, and old John Bethlen, and the rest of
+them; all these familiar faces were before him, and as tremblingly he
+approached the throne of God they all fixed their eyes upon him and
+pointed their fingers at him. Sir, it was a terrible picture."
+
+"Does your Highness fancy that I am an interpreter of dreams?" asked
+Teleki maliciously.
+
+"Sir, this is more than a dream--it is a vision, a revelation."
+
+"It may be so; the souls of the gentlemen enumerated are, no doubt, in
+Heaven, and it is possible that countless other souls will follow them
+thither."
+
+"And will the soul that shed their blood ascend thither too?"
+
+"Will your Highness deign to speak quite plainly--I suppose you mean me?
+Of course, I am the cause of all the evils of Transylvania. Till I came
+upon the scene, none but lamb-like men inhabited this state, in whose
+veins flowed milk and honey instead of blood! King Sigismund, Bethlen,
+Bocskai, George Rakoczy, for instance! Under them only some fifty or
+sixty thousand men lost their lives in their party feuds and ambitious
+struggles! Fine fellows, every one of them of course, everyone calls
+them great patriots. But I, whose sword has never aimed at a self-sought
+crown, I, who am animated by a great and mighty thought, a sublime idea,
+I am a murderer, and responsible not only for those who have fallen in
+battle, but also for those who have died quietly in their beds, if they
+were not my good friends."
+
+"There was a time, sir, when you used every effort to prevent
+Transylvania from going to war."
+
+"That was the very time when your Highness pleaded before the Prince for
+war in the name of your exiled Hungarian kinsfolk. Other times, other
+men."
+
+"I knew not then that such a desire would lead to the ruin of so many
+great and honourable men."
+
+"You feared war, and yet you fanned it. He who resists a snow-storm is
+swept away. Not the fate of men alone, but the fate of kingdoms also is
+here in question. Apafi may console himself with the reflection that God
+regards us both as far too petty instruments to lay upon our souls what
+He Himself has decreed in the fullness of time, and what will and must
+happen in spite of us, for the weeping and mourning which we listen to
+here is also heard in Heaven. The mottoes of our escutcheons go very
+well together. Apafi's is '_Fata viam inveniunt_,' mine is '_Gutta cavat
+lapidem_.' Let us trust ourselves to our mottoes."
+
+The Princess, with folded arms, gazed out of the window and remained in
+a brown study for some time. And now, as though her thoughts were
+wandering far away, she suddenly sighed: "Ah! this Beldi family so
+unhappily ruined, and how many more must be ruined likewise!"
+
+"Your Highness!" rejoined the Minister, without moving a muscle of his
+face, "when, in time of drought, we pray for rain the whole day, does
+anybody inquire what will become of the poor travellers who may be
+caught in the downpour? Yet it may well happen that some of them may
+take a chill and die in consequence."
+
+"I don't grasp the metaphor."
+
+"Well, the whole Principality is now praying for rain--a rain of blood,
+I admit--and there is every sign that God will grant it. I do not mean
+those signs and wonders in which the common folks believe, but those
+signs of the times which rivet the attention of thinking men. Formerly
+there was a large party in Transylvania which had engaged to uphold an
+indolent peace, and which had so many ties, amongst the leading men both
+of the Kaiser and the Sultan, that Denis Banfy could at one time boldly
+tell me to my face that that Party was a hand with a hundred fingers,
+which could squeeze everything it laid hold of like a sponge. And lo!
+the fingers have all dropped off one by one. Denis Banfy has
+perished--they say I killed him. Paul Beldi has died in prison--they say
+I have poisoned him. God hath called John Bethlen also to Himself. Kapi
+has died. The boldest of my enemies, Gabriel Kornis, has also died in
+the flower of his youth--naturally they attribute his death to me
+likewise. All those, too, who opposed war in the Divan have disappeared
+one by one. Kucsuk Pasha has been shot down by a bullet at Lippa.
+Kiuprile Pasha has been stifled by his own fat; and the youngest of the
+Viziers, Feriz Beg, has gone mad.
+
+"Gone mad!" cried the Princess, covering her face with her hands; "that
+noble, worthy youth who loved Transylvania so well?"
+
+"Do you not see the hand of God in all this?" asked the Minister.
+
+"No, sir," said the Princess, rising with a face full of sadness and
+approaching the Minister so as to look him straight in the face while
+she spoke to him, "it is your hand that I see everywhere. Denis Banfy
+perished, but it was you who had him beheaded. Beldi is dead, but it was
+you who drove him to despair. It was you, too, who threw his family into
+prison, and only let them out when the foul air had poured a deadly
+sickness into their blood. And Feriz Beg has gone mad because he loved
+Beldi's daughter, and she is dead."
+
+"Very well, your Highness, let it be so," replied the imperturbable
+Minister. "To attribute to me the direction of destiny is praise indeed.
+Believe, then, that everything which happens in the council chamber of
+this realm and in the heart of its members derives from me. I'll be
+responsible. And if your Highness believes that that flaming comet,
+which they call the Sword of God, is also in my hand--why--be it so! I
+will hurl it forth, and strike the earth with it so that all its hinges
+shall be out of joint."
+
+At that very moment the palace trembled to its very foundations.
+
+The Princess leaped to her feet, shrieking.
+
+"Ah! what was that?" she asked, as pale as death.
+
+"It was an earthquake, madame," replied Teleki with amazing calmness.
+"There is nothing to be afraid of, the palace has very strong vaults;
+but if you _are_ afraid, stand just beneath the doorway, that cannot
+fall."
+
+On recovering from her first alarm the Princess quickly regained her
+presence of mind.
+
+"God preserve us! I must hasten to the Prince. Will not you come too?"
+
+"I'll remain here," replied Teleki coolly. "We are in the hands of God
+wherever we may be, and when He calls me to Him I will account to Him
+for all that I have done."
+
+The Princess ran along the winding corridor, and, finding her husband,
+took him down with her into the garden.
+
+It was terrible to see from the outside how the vast building moved and
+twisted beneath the sinuous motion of the earth; every moment one might
+fear it would fall to pieces.
+
+The Prince asked where Teleki was; the Princess said she had left him in
+her apartments.
+
+"We must go for him this instant!" cried the Prince, but amongst all the
+trembling faces around him he could find none to listen to his words,
+for a man who fears nothing else is a coward in the presence of an
+earthquake.
+
+Meanwhile the Minister was sitting quietly at a writing-table and
+writing a letter to Kara Mustafa, who had taken the place of the dead
+Kiuprile. He was a great warrior and the Sultan's right hand, who not
+long before had been invited by the Cossacks to help them against the
+Poles, which he did very thoroughly, first of all ravaging numerous
+Polish towns, and then, turning against his confederate Cossacks, he cut
+down a few hundred thousands of them and led thirty thousand more into
+captivity.
+
+To him Teleki wrote for assistance for the Hungarians.
+
+Every bit of furniture was shaking and tottering around him, the windows
+rattled noisily as if shaken by an ague, the very chair on which he sat
+rocked to and fro beneath him, and the writing-table bobbed up and down
+beneath his hand so that the pen ran away from the paper; but for all
+that he finished his letter, and when he came to the end of it he wrote
+at the bottom in firm characters:
+
+"Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae!"
+
+Mustafa puzzled his brains considerably when he came to that part of the
+letter containing the verse which had nothing to do with the text, which
+the Minister, under the influence of an iron will struggling against
+terror, had written there almost involuntarily.
+
+When the menacing peril had passed, and the pages had returned to the
+palace, he turned to them reproachfully with the sealed letter in his
+hand.
+
+"Where have you been? Not one of you can be found when you are wanted.
+Take this letter at once, with an escort of two mounted drabants, to
+Varna, for the Grand Vizier."
+
+And then he began to walk up and down the room as if nothing had
+happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE MAD MAN.
+
+
+In the most secret chamber of the Divan were assembled the Viziers for
+an important consultation. The impending war was the subject of their
+grave deliberations. For as Mohammed had said, there ought to be one God
+in Heaven and one Lord on earth, so many of the Faithful believed that
+the time for the accomplishment of this axiom had now arrived.
+
+Those wise men of the empire, those honourable counsellors, Kucsuk and
+Kiuprile, were dead. Kara Mustafa, an arrogant, self-confidant man,
+directed the mind of the Divan, and everyone followed his lead.
+
+The Sultan himself was present, a handsome man with regular features,
+but with an expression of lassitude and exhaustion. During the whole
+consultation he never uttered a word nor moved a muscle of his face; he
+sat there like a corpse.
+
+One by one the ambassadors of the Foreign Powers were admitted. The
+orator of Louis XIV. declared that the French King was about to attack
+the Kaiser with all his forces; if the Sultan would also rise up against
+him, he would be able to seize not only all Hungary but Vienna likewise.
+
+The Sultan was silent. The Grand Vizier, answering for him, replied that
+Hungary had long since belonged to the Sultan, and no doubt Vienna and
+Poland would shortly share the same fate. The Sultan could only suffer
+tributary kings on the earth.
+
+The ambassador drew a somewhat wry face at these words, reflecting that
+France also was on the earth; then he withdrew.
+
+After him came the envoys of Emeric Toekoely, offering the blood and the
+swords of the Hungarian malcontents to the Sultan if he would help them
+to win back Hungary.
+
+This time the Sultan replied instead of Mustafa.
+
+"The Grand Seignior greets his servants, and will be gracious to them if
+they will help him to win back Hungary."
+
+The envoys noticed that their words had ingeniously been twisted, but as
+they also had their own _arriere-pensees_ in regard to the Turks, they
+only looked at each other with a smile and withdrew.
+
+Then came the Transylvanian embassy--gentle, mild-looking men, whose
+orator delivered an extraordinarily florid discourse. His Highness,
+Michael Apafi, they said, and all the estates of Transylvania, were
+ready to draw their swords for the glory of the Grand Seignior and
+invade Hungary.
+
+Mustafa replied:
+
+"The Grand Seignior permits you to help your comrades in Hungary."
+
+The orator would like to have heard something different--for example,
+that the crown of Hungary was reserved for Michael Apafi, the dignity of
+Palatine for Teleki, etc., etc., and there he stood scratching his ear
+till the Grand Vizier told him he might go.
+
+Ha, ha! the Turkish policy was written in Turkish.
+
+After the foreign envoys came the messengers from the various pashas and
+commandants in Hungary, who brought terrible tidings of raids,
+incursions, and outrages on the part of the Magyar population against
+the Turks. The Grand Vizier exclaimed angrily at every fresh report,
+only the Sultan was silent. Last of all came the ulemas.
+
+On their decisions everything depended.
+
+Very solemnly they appeared before the Divan. First of all advanced the
+Chief Mufti in a long mantle reaching to his heels, and with a large
+beehive-shaped hat upon his head; his white beard reached to his girdle.
+After him came two imams, one of whom carried a large document in a
+velvet case, whose pendant seal swung to and fro beneath its long golden
+cord; the other bent beneath the weight of an enormous book--it was the
+Alkoran.
+
+The Alkoran is a very nice large book, larger than our _corpus juris_ of
+former days, and in it may be found everything which everyone requires:
+accusatory, condemnatory, and absolvatory texts for one and the same
+thing.
+
+The Mufti presented the Alkoran to the Sultan and all the Viziers in
+turn, and each one of them kissed it with deep reverence; then he
+beckoned to one of the imams to kneel down on a stool before the Divan
+and remain there resting on his hands and knees, and placing the Koran
+on his back, began to select expressly marked texts.
+
+For seventy years he had thoroughly studied the sacred volume, and could
+say that he had read it through seven hundred and ninety-three times.
+He, therefore, knew all its secrets, and could turn at once to the leaf
+on which the text he wanted to read aloud could be found.
+
+"The Alkoran saith," he read with unctuous devotion, "'the knot which
+hath been tied in the name of Allah the hand of Allah can unloose!' The
+Alkoran saith moreover: 'Wherever we may be, and whatever we may be,
+everywhere we are all of us in the hand of Allah.' Therefore this treaty
+of peace is also in the hand of Allah, and the hand of Allah can unloose
+everything. Furthermore, the Alkoran saith: 'If any among thy suffering
+father's children implore help from thee, answer him not: come to me
+to-morrow, for my vow forbids me to rise up to-day; or, if any ask an
+alms of thee answer him not: to-day it cannot be, for my vow forbids me
+to touch money; or, if anyone beg thee to slay someone, answer him not:
+to-morrow I will help thee, for my vow forbids me to draw the sword
+to-day; verily the observance of thy vow will be a greater sin to thee
+than its violation.' Moreover, thus saith the Alkoran: 'The happiness of
+the nations is the first duty of the rulers of the earth, yet the glory
+of Allah comes before it.' And finally it is written: 'Whoso formeth a
+league with the infidel bindeth himself to wage war upon Allah, yet
+vainly do the nations of the earth bind themselves together that they
+may live long, for let Allah send his breath upon them and more of them
+are destroyed in one day than in ten years of warfare: kings and
+beggars--it is all one.'"
+
+At each fresh sentence the viziers and the ulemas bowed their heads to
+the ground. Mustafa could not restrain a blood-thirsty smile, which
+distorted his face more and more at each fresh sentence, and at the last
+word, with a fanatical outburst, he threw off the mask altogether, and
+with a howl of joy kissed repeatedly the hem of the Chief Mufti's
+mantle.
+
+The Mufti then unclasped the velvet case which contained the treaty of
+peace, and drawing forth the parchment, which was folded fourfold, he
+unfolded it with great ceremony, and placing it in the hands of the
+second imam that he might hold it spread open at both ends, he exhibited
+the document to the viziers.
+
+It was a long and beautiful script. The initial letter was as big as a
+painted castle and wreathed around with a pattern of birds and flowers.
+The whole of the first line of it was in ultramarine letters, the other
+lines much smaller on a gradually diminishing scale, and whenever the
+name of Allah occurred, it was written in letters of gold. The Sultan's
+name was always in red, the Kaiser's in bright green letters. At the
+foot of it was the fantastic flourish which passed for the Sultan's
+signature, which he would never have been able to write, but which was
+always engraved on the signet ring which he wore on his finger.
+
+"Lo! here is the treaty," said the Mufti, pointing to the document,
+"from which, by the command of Allah, I will now wash off the writing."
+
+Thereupon he drew across the document a large brush which he had
+previously dipped into a large basin of water in which sundry chemicals
+had been dissolved, and suddenly the writing began to fade away, the
+Sultan's name written in red letters disappeared instantly from the
+parchment, then the lines written in black ink visibly grew dimmer. The
+Kaiser's name written in bright green letters resisted more obstinately,
+but at last these also vanished utterly, and nothing more remained on
+the white parchment but the name of God written in letters of gold--the
+corrosive acid was powerless against that.
+
+Deep silence prevailed in the Divan, every eye was fixed with pious
+attention on the bleaching script.
+
+Then, seizing a drawn sword, the Mufti raised it aloft and said:
+
+"Having wiped away the writing which cast dishonour on the name of
+Allah, I now cut this document in four pieces with the point of my
+sword."
+
+And speaking thus, and while the imam stretched the parchment out with
+both hands, the Mufti cut it into four pieces with the sword he held in
+his hand, and placing the fragments in a pan, filled it up with naptha
+from a little crystal flask.
+
+"Lo! now I burn thee before the face of Allah!"
+
+Then he passed an ignited wax taper over the pan, whereupon the naptha
+instantly burst into flame, and the fragments of the torn document were
+hidden by the blue fire and the white smoke. Presently the flame turned
+to red, the smoke subsided, and the parchment was burnt to ashes.
+
+"And now I scatter thy ashes that thou mayst be dispersed to nothing,"
+said the Mufti; and, taking the ashes, he flung them out of the palace
+window. The burnt paper rags, like black butterflies, descended gently
+through the air and were cast by the wind into the Bosphorus below.
+
+No sooner was this accomplished than the pashas and viziers all leaped
+from their seats and drew their swords, swearing with great enthusiasm
+by the beard of the Prophet that they would not return their weapons to
+their sheaths till the crescent should shine on the top of the tower of
+the Church of St. Stephen at Vienna.
+
+At that moment the door-curtains were thrust aside, and into the Divan
+rushed--Feriz Beg.
+
+The face of the youth was scarce recognisable, his turban was awry upon
+his forehead, his eyes, full of dull melancholy, stared stonily in front
+of him, his dress was untidy and dishevelled, his sword was girded to
+his side, but its handle was broken. Nobody had prevented him from
+rushing through the numerous halls into the Divan, and when he entered
+the ulemas parted before him in holy horror. When the youth reached the
+middle of the room, he stood there glancing round upon the viziers with
+folded arms, just as if he were counting how many of them there were,
+one by one they all stood up before him--nay, even the Sultan did so,
+and awaited his words tremblingly.
+
+Everyone in the East regards the insane with awe and reverence, and if a
+crazy fakir were to stop the greatest of the Caliphs in the way and say
+to him: "Dismount from thy horse, and change garments with me," he would
+not dare to offer any opposition, but would fulfil his desire, for a
+strange spirit is in the man and God has sent it.
+
+How will it be then when the terrible spirit of madness descends upon
+such a valiant warrior, such a distinguished soldier as Feriz Beg, who,
+when only six-and-twenty, had fought a hundred triumphant battles, and
+frequently put to shame the grey beards with his wisdom. And lo!
+suddenly he goes mad, and stops people in the street, and speaks such
+words of terror to them that they cannot sleep after it.
+
+The youth, with quiet, gentle eyes and a sorrowful countenance passes in
+review the faces of all who are present, and heartrending was the
+expression of deep unutterable anguish in his voice when he spoke.
+
+"Pardon me, high and mighty lords, for appearing among you without an
+invitation--I who have now no business at all in the world anywhere. The
+world in which I lived is dead, it has withdrawn to Heaven far from me;
+all those who possessed my heart are now high above my head, and now, I
+have no heart and no feeling: neither love, nor valour, nor the desire
+of fame and glory; in my veins the blood flows backwards and forwards so
+that oftentimes I rush roaring against the walls round about me and tear
+carpets and pillows which have never offended me; and now again the
+blood stands still within me, my arteries do not beat at all, so that I
+lie stiff and staring like a dead man. I beg you all, ye high and mighty
+lords, who in a brief time will go to Paradise, to take a message from
+me thither."
+
+The high lords listened horror-stricken to the calm way in which the
+youth uttered these words, and they saw each other's faces growing pale.
+
+Feriz paid no attention to their horrified expressions.
+
+"Tell to them whom I love, and with whom my heart is, to give me back my
+heart, for without it I am very poor. I perceive not the fragrance of
+the rose, wine is not sweet to my lips, neither fire nor the rays of the
+sun have any warmth, and the note of the bugle-horn and the neighing of
+my charger find no response in me. High and mighty lords, tell this to
+those who are above if I myself go not thither shortly."
+
+There were present, besides Mustafa, Rezlan Pasha, Ajas Beg, Rifat Aga,
+Kara Ogli the Kapudan Pasha, and many more who promised themselves a
+long life.
+
+The Grand Seignior had always made a particular favourite of Feriz, and
+he now addressed him in a gentle, fatherly voice.
+
+"My dear son, go back home; my viziers are preparing to subdue the
+world with unconquerable armies. Go with them, in the din of battle thou
+wilt find again thy heroic heart and be cured of thy sickness."
+
+An extraordinary smile passed across the face of Feriz, he waved aside
+the idea with his hand and bent his head forwards, which is a way the
+Turks have of expressing decided negation.
+
+"This war cannot be a triumphant war, for men are the cause thereof.
+Allah will bring it to nought. Ye draw the sword at the invitation of
+murderers, deceivers, and traitors. I have broken the hilt of my own
+sword in order that I may not draw it forth. They have killed those whom
+I love, how can I fight in that army which was formed for them who were
+the occasion of the ruin of my beloved?"
+
+At this thought the blood flew to the youth's face, the spirit of
+madness flamed up in his eyes, he rose to his full height before the
+Sultan, and he cried with a loud, audacious voice:
+
+"Thou wilt lose the war for which thou dost now prepare, for thy viziers
+are incapable, thy soldiers are cowards, thy allies are traitors, thy
+wise men are fools, thy priests are hypocrites, and thou thyself art an
+oath-breaker."
+
+Then, as if he were suddenly sorry of what he had said to the Sultan, he
+bent humbly over him and taking hold of the edge of his garment raised
+it up and kissed it--and then, regarding him with genuine sympathy,
+murmured softly:
+
+"Poor Sultan!--so young, so young--and yet thou must die."
+
+And thereupon, with hanging head, he turned away and prepared to go out.
+None stayed him.
+
+On reaching the door, he fumbled for his sword, and perceiving when he
+touched it that the hilt was missing, he suddenly turned back again, and
+exclaimed in a low whisper:
+
+"Think not that it will rust in its sheath. The time will come when I
+shall again draw it, and it will drink its fill of blood. When those
+who now urge us on to war shall turn against us, when those who now
+stand in line with us shall face us with hostile banners, then also will
+I return, though then ye will no longer be present. But ye shall look on
+from Paradise above. So it will be: ye shall look on ... Poor young
+Sultan!"
+
+Having whispered these prophetic words, the mad youth withdrew, and the
+gentlemen in the Divan were so much disturbed by his words that, with
+faces bent to the earth, they prayed Allah that He would turn aside from
+them the evil prophesy and not suffer to be broken asunder the weapons
+they had drawn for the increase of His glory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+PLEASANT SURPRISES.
+
+
+All the chief generals, all the border pashas, had received the Sultan's
+orders to gather their hosts together and lead them against the armies
+of the King of the Romans, and besiege the places which were the pretext
+of the rupture--to wit, the fortresses of Fuelek, Boeszoermeny, and Nagy
+Kalla.
+
+At the same time the Government of Transylvania also received permission
+to attack Hungary with its armies, as had already been decided at the
+Diet of Szamosujvar.
+
+Vast preparations were everywhere made. The Magyar race is very hard to
+move to war, but once in a quarrel it does not waste very much time in
+splitting straws.
+
+Teleki, too, had attained at last to the dream of his life and the
+object of all his endeavours, for which he had knowingly sacrificed his
+own peace of mind, and the lives of so many good patriots--he was the
+generalissimo of the armies of Transylvania.
+
+The Hungarian exiles in Transylvania hailed him as their deliverer, and
+he saw himself a good big step nearer to the place of Esterhazy--the
+place of Palatine of Hungary. And why not? Why should he not stand among
+the foremost statesmen of his age?
+
+All the way to the camp at Fuelek he was the object of flattery and
+congratulation; the Hungarians gathered in troops beneath his banner,
+colonels and captains belauded him. As for the worthy Prince, he did
+not show himself at all, but sat in his tent and read his books, and
+when he felt tired he took his watch to pieces and put it together
+again.
+
+At Fuelek the Transylvanian army joined the camp of Kara Mustafa.
+
+Teleki dressed up the Prince in his best robes, and trotted with him and
+his suite to the tent of the Grand Vizier with growing pride when he
+heard the guards blow their trumpets at their approach, and the Grand
+Vizier as a special favour admitted them straightway to his presence,
+allowed them to kiss his hand, made the magnates sit down, and praised
+them for their zeal and fidelity, giving each of them a new caftan; and
+when they were thus nicely tricked out, he dismissed them with an escort
+of an aga, a dragoman, and twelve cavasses to see the whole Turkish camp
+to their hearts' content.
+
+Teleki regarded this permission as a very good omen. Turkish generals
+are wont to be very sensitive on this point, and it is a great favour on
+their part when they allow foreigners to view their camps.
+
+The dragoman took the Hungarian gentlemen everywhere. He told them which
+aga was encamped on this hill and which on that, how many soldiers made
+up a squadron of horse, and how many guns, and how many lances were in
+every company. He pointed out to them the long pavilion made of deal
+boards in which the gunpowder lay in big heaps, and gigantic cannon
+balls were piled up into pyramids, and round mortars covered with pitchy
+cloths, and gigantic culverines, and siege-guns, and iron howitzers lay
+on wooden rollers. The accumulated war material would have sufficed for
+the conquest of the world.
+
+The gentlemen sightseers returned to their tents with the utmost
+satisfaction, and, overjoyed at what he had seen, the Prince gave a
+great banquet, to which all the Hungarian gentlemen in his army were
+also invited. The tables were placed beneath a quickly-improvised
+baldachin; and at the end of an excellent dinner the noble feasters
+began to make merry, everyone at length saw his long-deferred hopes on
+the point of fulfilment, and none more so than Michael Teleki.
+
+One toast followed another, and the healths of the Prince and of Teleki
+were interwoven with the healths of everyone else present, so that
+worthy Apafi began to think that it would really be a very good thing if
+he were King of Hungary, while Teleki held his head as high as if he
+were already sitting in the seat of the Palatine.
+
+Just when the revellers were at their merriest, a loud burst of martial
+music resounded from the plain outside, and a great din was audible as
+if the Turkish armies were saluting a Prince who had just arrived.
+
+The merry gentry at once leaped from their seats and hurried to the
+entrance of the tent to see the ally who was received with such
+rejoicing, and a cry of amazement and consternation burst from their
+lips at the spectacle which met their eyes.
+
+Emeric Toekoely had arrived at the head of a host of ten thousand Magyars
+from Upper Hungary. His army consisted of splendid picked warriors on
+horseback, hussars in gold-braided dolmans, wolf-skin pelisses, and
+shakos with falcon feathers. Toekoely himself rode at the head of his host
+with princely pomp; his escort consisted of the first magnates of
+Hungary, jewel-bedizened cavaliers in fur mantles trimmed with
+swansdown, among whom Toekoely himself was only conspicuous by his manly
+beauty and princely distinction.
+
+The face of Teleki darkened at the sight, while the faces of all who
+surrounded him were suddenly illuminated by an indescribable joy, and
+their enthusiasm burst forth in _eljens_ of such penetrating enthusiasm
+at the sight of the young hero that Teleki felt himself near to
+fainting.
+
+Ah! it was in a very different voice that they had recently cried
+"_Viva!_" to him, it was a very different sort of smile with which they
+had been wont to greet _him_.
+
+Meanwhile Toekoely had reached the front of the marshalled Turkish army,
+which was drawn up in two rows right up to the pavilion of the Grand
+Vizier, allowing the youth and his suite to pass through between them
+amidst a ceremonious abasement of their horse-tail banners. The young
+general had only passed half through their ranks when the Grand Vizier
+came to meet him in a state carriage drawn by six white horses.
+
+From the hill on which Teleki stood he could see everything quite
+plainly.
+
+On reaching the carriage of the Grand Vizier, Toekoely leaped quickly from
+his horse, whereupon Kara Mustafa also descended from his carriage, and,
+hastening to the young general, embraced him and kissed him repeatedly
+on the forehead, made him take a seat in the carriage beside him, and
+thus conveyed him to his tent amidst joyful acclamations.
+
+Teleki had to look on at all this! That was very different from the
+reception accorded to him and the Prince of Transylvania.
+
+He looked around him--gladness, a radiant smile shone on every face. Oh!
+those smiles were so many dagger-thrusts in his heart!
+
+In half an hour's time Toekoely emerged from the tent of the Grand Vizier.
+His head was encircled by a diamond diadem which the Sultan had sent for
+all the way to Belgrade, and in his hand was a princely sceptre. When he
+remounted and galloped away close beside the tents of the
+Transylvanians, the Hungarians in Teleki's company could restrain
+themselves no longer, but rushed towards Toekoely and covered his hands,
+his feet, his garments, with kisses, took him from his horse on to their
+shoulders, and carried him in their arms back to camp.
+
+Teleki could endure the sight no more; he fled into his tent, and,
+throwing himself on his camp-bedstead, wept like a child.
+
+The whole edifice which he had reared so industriously, so doggedly,
+amidst innumerable perils, during the arduous course of a long
+life--for which he had sacrificed relations, friends, and all the great
+and wise men of a kingdom, and pledged away the repose of his very
+soul--had suddenly collapsed at the appearance of a mere youth, whose
+only merit was the exaggerated fame of a few successful engagements! It
+was the heaviest blow he had ever staggered under. Oh! Fortune is indeed
+ingenious in her disappointments.
+
+Evening came, and still Teleki had not quitted his tent. Then the Prince
+went to see him. Teleki wanted to hear nothing, but the Prince told him
+everything.
+
+"Hearken, Mr. Michael Teleki! The Hungarian gentlemen have not come back
+to us, but remain with Toekoely. And Toekoely also, it appears, doesn't want
+to have much to do with us, for instead of encamping with us he has
+withdrawn to the furthest end of the Turkish army, and has pitched his
+tents there."
+
+Teleki groaned beneath the pain which the distilled venom of these words
+poured into his heart.
+
+"Apparently, Mr. Michael Teleki, we have been building castles in the
+air," continued Apafi with jovial frankness. "We are evidently not of
+the stuff of which Kings and Palatines of Hungary are made. I cannot but
+think of the cat in the fable, who pulled the chestnuts out of the fire
+with the claws of others."
+
+Teleki shivered as if with an ague.
+
+Apafi continued in his own peculiar vein of cynicism: "Really, my dear
+Mr. Michael Teleki, I should like it much better if we were sitting at
+home, and Denis Banfy and Paul Beldi and the other wise gentlemen were
+sitting beside me, and I were listening to what they might advise."
+
+Teleki clenched his fists and stamped his feet, as much as to say: "I
+would not allow that."
+
+Then with a bitter smile he watched the Prince as he paced up and down
+the tent, and said with a cold, metallic voice:
+
+"One swallow does not make a summer. If ten or twelve worthless fellows
+desert to Toekoely, much good may it do him! The army of the real
+Hungarian heroes will not follow their example, and when it can fight
+beneath the banner of a Prince it will not fling itself into the arms of
+a homeless adventurer."
+
+"Then it would be as well if your Excellency spoke to them at once, for
+methinks that this night the whole lot of them may turn tail."
+
+Teleki seemed impressed by these words. He immediately ordered his
+drabants to go to the captains of the army collected from Hungary who
+had joined Apafi at Fuelek, and invite them to a conference in his tent
+at once.
+
+The officers so summoned, with a good deal of humming and hahing, met
+together in Teleki's tent, and there the Minister harangued them for two
+good hours, proving to demonstration what a lot of good they might
+expect from cleaving to Apafi, and what a lot of evil if they allowed
+themselves to be deluded by Toekoely, till the poor fellows were quite
+tired out and cried: "Hurrah!" in order that he might let them go the
+sooner.
+
+But that same night they all fled to the camp of Toekoely. None remained
+with Apafi but his faithful Transylvanians.
+
+But even now Teleki could not familiarise himself with the idea of
+playing a subordinate part here, but staked everything on a last,
+desperate cast--he went to the Grand Vizier. He announced himself, and
+was admitted.
+
+The Grand Vizier was alone in his tent with his dragoman, and when he
+saw Teleki he tried to make his unpleasant face more repulsive than it
+was by nature, and inquired very viciously: "Who art thou? Who sent thee
+hither? What dost thou want?"
+
+"I, sir, am the general of the Transylvanian armies, Michael Teleki; you
+know me very well, only yesterday I was here with the Prince."
+
+Just as if the two speakers did not understand each other's language,
+the dragoman had to interpret their questions and answers.
+
+"I hope," replied the Grand Vizier, "thou dost not expect me to
+recognise at sight the names of all the petty princes and generals whom
+I have ever cast eyes on? My master, the mighty Sultan, has so many
+tributary princes in Europe, Asia, and Africa, that their numbers are
+incalculable, and all of them are superior men to thee, how canst thou
+expect me to recognise thee among so many?"
+
+Teleki swallowed the insult, and seeing that the Grand Vizier was
+anxious to pick a quarrel with him, he came straight to the point.
+
+"Gracious sir, I have something very important to say to you if you will
+grant me a private interview."
+
+The Grand Vizier pretended to fly into a rage at these words.
+
+"Art thou mad or drunk that thou wouldst have a private interview with
+me, although I don't understand Hungarian and thou dost not understand
+Turkish, or perchance thou wouldst like me to learn Hungarian to please
+thee? Ye learn Latin, I suppose, though no living being speaks it? And
+ye learn German and French and Greek, yet ye stop short at the language
+of the Turks, though the Turks are your masters and protectors! For a
+hundred and fifty years our armies have passed through your territories,
+yet how many of you have learned Turkish? 'Tis true our soldiers have
+learnt Hungarian, for thy language is as sticky as resin on a growing
+tree. Therefore, if thou art fool enough to ask me for a private
+interview--go home and learn Turkish first!"
+
+Teleki bowed low, went home and learnt Turkish--that is to say, he
+packed up a couple of thousand thalers in a sack--and, accompanied by
+two porters to carry them, returned once more to the tent of the Grand
+Vizier.
+
+And now the Grand Vizier understood everything which the magnate wished
+to say. The dragoman interpreted everything beautifully. He said the
+Sultan was building a fortress on the ice when he entrusted the fate of
+the Hungarians to such a flighty youth as Emeric Toekoely. How could a
+young man, who was such a bad manager of his own property, manage the
+affairs of a whole kingdom? And so fond was he of being his own master,
+that he suffered himself to be exiled from Transylvania with the loss of
+all his property rather than submit to the will of his lawful Prince.
+The man who had already rebelled against two rulers would certainly not
+be very loyal to a third; while Apafi, on the other hand, had all his
+life long been a most faithful vassal of the Sublime Porte, and, modest,
+humble man as he was, would be far more useful than Toekoely, whom the
+Porte would always be obliged to help with men and money, whereas the
+latter would always be able to help with men and money the Porte and its
+meritorious viziers--_uti figura docet_.
+
+Mustafa listened to the long oration, took the money, and replied that
+he would see what could be done.
+
+Teleki was not quite clear about the impression his words had made, but
+he did not remain in uncertainty for long; for scarcely had he reached
+the tent of the Prince than a defterdar with twelve cavasses came after
+him, and signified that he was commanded by the Grand Vizier immediately
+to seize Michael Teleki, fling him into irons, and bring him before a
+council of pashas.
+
+Michael Teleki turned pale at these words. The faithless dragoman had
+told everything to Toekoely, who had demanded satisfaction from the Grand
+Vizier, who, without the least scruple of conscience, was now ready to
+present to another the head of the very man from whom he had accepted
+presents only an hour before.
+
+The magnate now gave himself up for lost, but the Prince approached him,
+and tapping him on the shoulder, said:
+
+"If I were the man your Excellency is pleased to believe me and make
+other people believe too--that is to say, a coward yielding to every
+sort of compulsion--in an hour's time your Excellency would not have a
+head remaining on your shoulders. But everyone shall see that they have
+been deceived in me."
+
+Then, turning towards the defterdar, he said to him in a firm,
+determined voice:
+
+"Go back to your master, and say to him that Michael Teleki is the
+generalissimo of my armies and under my protection, and at the present
+moment I have him in my tent. Let anyone therefore who has any complaint
+against him, notify the same to me, and I will sit in judgment over him.
+But let none dare to lay a hand upon him within the walls of my tent,
+for I swear by the most Holy Trinity that I will break open the head of
+any such person with my cudgel. I would be ready to go over to the enemy
+with my whole army at once rather than permit so much as a mouse
+belonging to my household to be caught within my tent by a foreign cat,
+let alone the disgrace of handing over my generalissimo!"
+
+The defterdar duly delivered the message of the enraged Prince to the
+Grand Vizier. Emeric Toekoely was with him at the time, and the two
+gentlemen on hearing the vigorous assertion of the Prince agreed that
+after all Michael Apafi was really a very worthy man, and sending back
+the defterdar, instructed him to say with the utmost politeness and all
+due regard for the Prince that so long as Michael Teleki remained in the
+Prince's tent not a hair of his head should be crumpled; but he was to
+look to it that he did not step out of the tent, for in that case the
+cavasses who were looking out for him would pounce upon him at once and
+treat him as never a Transylvanian generalissimo was treated before; and
+now, too, he had only the Prince to thank for his life.
+
+Teleki was annihilated. Nothing could have wounded his ambitious soul so
+deeply as the consciousness that the Prince was protecting him. To
+think that this man, whom the whole kingdom regarded as cowardly and
+incapable, could be great when he himself had suddenly become so very
+small! His nimbus of wisdom, power, and valour had vanished, and he saw
+that the man whom he had only consulted for the sake of obtaining his
+signature to prearranged plans was wiser and more powerful and more
+valiant than he.
+
+Peering through the folds of the tent he could see that, faithful to the
+threatening message, the cavasses were prowling around the tent and
+telling the loutish soldiers that if Teleki stepped out they would seize
+him forthwith. The Szeklers laughed and shouted with joy thereat.
+
+Then the magnate began to reflect whether it would not be best if he
+drew his sword, and rushing out, slash away at them till he himself were
+cut to pieces.
+
+What a ridiculous ending that would be!
+
+Towards evening Emeric Toekoely paid a visit to the Prince. He approached
+the old man with the respect of a child, did obeisance, and would have
+kissed his hand, but Apafi would not permit it, but embraced him, kissed
+him on the forehead repeatedly, and made him sit down beside him on the
+bear-skin of his camp-bed.
+
+The young leader feelingly begged the old man's pardon for all the
+trouble that he had caused him and Transylvania.
+
+"It is I who ought to beg pardon of your Excellency," said Apafi in a
+submissive voice.
+
+"Not at all, your Highness and dear Father. I know that you have always
+loved me, but evil counsellors have whispered such scandalous things to
+you about me that you were bound to hate me--but God requite them for it
+if I cannot."
+
+"Be magnanimous towards them, my dear son; forgive them, for my sake."
+
+Toekoely was silent. He knew that Teleki was in the tent, he saw him, but
+he would not take any notice of him. At last, without even looking
+towards him, he said, in the most passionate, threatening voice:
+
+"Look, ye, Teleki, you have practised all sorts of devices against me,
+but if you put your nose outside the tent of the Prince you will eat his
+bread no more. You would be in my power now, and here your head would
+lie, but for his Highness whom I look upon as a father."
+
+Michael Teleki was silent, but future events were to prove that he had
+heard very well what was now spoken.
+
+After surrendering the fortress of Fuelek to the Turks, the Transylvanian
+gentlemen returned home with their army; and Michael Teleki, when he got
+home, paid a visit to the church where lay the ashes of Denis Banfy, and
+hiding his face on the tomb, he wept bitterly over the noble patriot
+whom he had sacrificed to his ambitious plans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+A MAN ABANDONED BY HIS GUARDIAN-ANGEL.
+
+
+One blow followed hard upon another.
+
+In the following year the Sultan assembled a formidable host against
+Vienna, and the Transylvanian bands also had to go. Teleki would have
+avoided the war, but his representations and pretexts fell not upon
+listening ears. They asked him why he, who had hitherto urged on the
+campaign, wanted to withdraw from it now that it was in full swing? If
+he had liked the beginning, the end also should please him.
+
+But the end was exceedingly bitter.
+
+The formidable host surrounding Vienna was scattered in a single night
+by the heroic sword of Sobieski, the gigantic military enterprise was
+ruined.
+
+The Transylvanian forces took no part in these operations. During the
+siege of Vienna they had been left at Raab, and Teleki did not let the
+opportunity pass. While the stupid Turks were fighting in the trenches,
+he entered into communication with the German commander at Raab and
+attached himself to the winning side.
+
+Everything which the insane Feriz had prophesied in the Divan was
+literally fulfilled.
+
+The Turkish armies were everywhere routed. They lost the fortresses of
+Grand Visegrad and Ersekujvar one after the other. The fortress of
+Nograd was struck by lightning, which fired the powder-magazine and blew
+up the garrison. Finally Buda was besieged and captured in the sight of
+the Grand Vizier, and after a domination of one hundred and fifty years,
+the half-moons were hauled down from the bastions and crosses
+re-occupied their places.
+
+And all those who were present at the Divan fulfilled, one by one, the
+prophecy that they should see Paradise before long.
+
+Rislan Pasha fell beneath the walls of Buda at the head of the
+Janissaries, the Vizier of Buda was throttled by order of Kara Mustafa
+after the battle was lost, Rifa Aga was drowned in the Danube among the
+fugitives, Kara Ogli fell defending the ramparts of Buda, Toekoely killed
+Ajas Pasha at the Sultan's command; and, after the fall of Buda, Olaj
+Beg brought to Kara Mustafa for his own use the silken cord and the
+purple purse. It was the last purse which Kara Mustafa ever saw, for
+after his decapitation his head was put inside it.
+
+And, finally, the people of Stambul, maddened by so many losses and
+reinforced by the rebellious Janissaries, rushed upon the Seraglio, cut
+down the counsellors of the Sultan, and threw the Sultan himself into
+the same dungeon in which he had let his own brother languish for
+thirty-nine years. The brother was now set on the throne, and the
+dethroned Sultan died in the dungeon.
+
+And this also was fulfilled that those who had stirred up the Turks to
+begin the war turned against them at the end of it. Transylvania
+deposited its oath of homage in the hands of Caraffa, and Michael
+Teleki, who became a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, opened the gates of
+the towns and fortresses to German garrisons. The Prince paid the
+victors thirteen thousand florins, which it took heavy wagons two weeks
+to convey from Fogaras to Nagyszeben. But Michael Teleki, in addition to
+his countly escutcheon, got a present of a silver table service which
+cost ten thousand florins. So Transylvania became imperial territory,
+and its alliance with the Porte was dissolved.
+
+And then it was that God called to Himself the last lovable figure in
+our history, the virtuous and magnanimous Anna Bornemissza.
+
+Only after her death did Apafi feel what his wife had been to him, his
+guardian-angel, his consoler in all his sorrows, the brightest part of
+his life, and when that light set, everything around him was doubly
+dark. Every misfortune, every trouble, now weighed doubly heavy on his
+mind and heart; he had no longer any refuge against persecuting sorrow.
+He fled from one town to another like a hunted wild beast which can find
+no refuge from the dart which transfixes it. At last he barricaded
+himself in his room, which he did not quit for six weeks; and if
+visitors came to see him he complained to them like a child:
+
+"I am starving to death. I have lost everything. It is a year since I
+got a farthing from my estates or my mines or my salt-works. If the
+farrier comes I cannot pay him his bill for my mantle, for I haven't got
+a stiver. What will become of my son when I am gone, poor little Prince?
+There's not enough to send him to school."
+
+He began to get quite crazy, and could neither eat, drink, nor sleep.
+The whole day he would stride up and down his room, and utter strange
+things in a loud voice. What troubled him most was that he must die of
+hunger.
+
+At last those about him hit upon a remedy. Every day they laid purses of
+money before him and said: "This sum Stephen Apor has sent from your
+property, and that amount Paul Inezedi has collected from your
+salt-works. Why should your Highness be anxious when there is such lots
+of money?"
+
+And the next day they presented the same purses to him over again, and
+invented some fresh story. And this simple deceit somewhat pacified the
+poor old man, but the old worries had so affected his mind, never very
+strong at any time, that he could never recover his former spirits. He
+grew duller and more stupid every day, and often when he lay down he
+would sleep a couple of days at a stretch.
+
+And at last the Almighty had mercy upon him and called him away from
+this vale of tears; and he went to that land where the Turks plunder
+not, and there is no warfare.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE NEWLY-DRAWN SWORD.
+
+
+The German armies were now in complete possession of Transylvania, the
+Turks were everywhere driven back and trampled down, the hereditary
+Prince of Bavaria took Belgrade by storm and put twelve thousand
+Janissaries to the edge of the sword. Thus the gate of the Turkish
+Empire was broken open, and the victoriously advancing host, under the
+Prince of Baden, crushed the remains of the Turkish army at Nish. Then
+Bulgaria and Albania were subjugated, the sea shore was reached, and
+only the Haemus Mountains stood between the invaders and Stambul.
+
+The deluge left nothing untouched, even little Wallachia, whose
+fortunate situation, wild mountains, and villainous roads had hitherto
+saved it from invasion, saw the approach of the conquering banners.
+
+Old S---- was still the Prince, and he now gave a brilliant example of
+the dexterity of Wallachian diplomacy, which at the same time
+illustrates the simplicity of his character.
+
+The armies invading Wallachia were entrusted to the care of General
+Heissler, who consequently wrote to Prince S---- informing him that he
+was advancing on Bucharest through the Transylvanian Alps with ten
+thousand men, therefore he was to provide winter quarters and provisions
+for his army, as he intended to winter there.
+
+At exactly the same time the Tartar Khan gave the Prince to understand
+that he intended to invade Moldavia in order that he might follow the
+movements of the Transylvanian army close at hand.
+
+The Prince liked the one proposition as little as the other, so he sent
+the Tartar Khan's letter to General Heissler bidding him beware, as a
+great force was coming against him, and he sent Heissler's letter to the
+Tartar Khan advising him in a friendly sort of way not to move too far
+as Heissler was now advancing in his rear.
+
+Consequently both armies turned aside from the Principality, and
+Wallachia had to support neither the Germans nor the Tartars.
+
+This is the diplomacy of little states.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Amidst the wildly romantic hills of Lebanon is a pleasant valley for
+which Nature herself has a peculiar preference. Amidst the gigantic
+mountains which encircle a vast hollow on every side of it, rises a
+roundish mound. On level ground it would be accounted a hill, but in the
+midst of such a range of snowy giants it emerges only like a tiny heap
+of earth, and to this day nothing grows on it but the cedar--the finest,
+darkest, most widely spreading specimens of that noble and fragrant tree
+are here to be found. A foaming mountain stream gurgles down it on both
+sides, a little wooden bridge connects the opposing banks, and in the
+midst of the bridge a rock projecting from the water clings to the
+mountain side. Far away among the blue forests shine forth the white
+roofless little houses of the city of Edena, which, built against the
+mountain side, peer forth like some card-built castle, and still farther
+away through gaps in the hills the Syrian sea is visible.
+
+Here in former days on the heights stood the romantic and poetical kiosk
+of Feriz Beg.
+
+The youth, with dogged persistence, continued to live for years in this
+sublime solitude with the din of battle all around him. The prophecy
+which he had once pronounced in the Divan was whispered abroad among
+the people, ran through the army, and as every one of his sayings was
+severally fulfilled, the more widely there spread in the hearts of the
+soldiers the superstitious belief that till he seized his sword they
+would everywhere be defeated, but when he should again appear on the
+battlefield the fortune of war would turn and become favourable once
+more to the Ottoman arms.
+
+Long ago the Divan had wished to profit by this blind belief, and
+countless embassies had been sent to the youthful hermit in his solitude
+announcing the fall of generals, the loss of battles, the pressure of
+peril.
+
+Nothing could move Feriz. To all these tidings he replied:
+
+"Thus it must come to pass! Doves do not spring from serpents' eggs.
+Your rulers are those who took it upon them to wipe out a sacred oath
+from the patient pages, who tore up and burnt and scattered to the winds
+the vow that was made before God, and now ye likewise shall be wiped
+from the page of history and your memory shall be laden with reproaches.
+Learn ye, therefore, that it is dangerous to play with the name of
+Allah, and though many of you grow so high that his head touches the
+Heavens--yet he is but a man, and the earth moves beneath his feet, and
+presently he shall fall and perish."
+
+The men perceived that these words were not so bad as they seemed to be
+at first sight, and after every fresh defeat, more and more of his old
+acquaintances came to see him and begged and prayed him to seize his
+sword once more and let himself be chosen leader of the host.
+
+He sternly rejected every offer. No allurement was capable of making him
+change his resolution.
+
+"When the time comes for me to draw my sword," he said, "I will come
+without asking. That time will come none the quicker for anyone's
+beseeching, but come it will one day and not tarry."
+
+And, indeed, the advent of that time had become a matter of necessity
+for the Ottoman Empire. The banners of the German Empire were waving in
+the very heart of Turkey; the Poles had recovered Podolia, the Venetians
+were on the Turkish islands, and at last Transylvania also broke with
+the Porte and opened her fortresses to the enemies of the Padishah.
+
+The new Sultan collected fresh armies, military enthusiasm was
+stimulated by great rewards, fresh alliances were formed, and among the
+new allies the one who enjoyed the greatest confidence was Emeric
+Toekoely, who was proclaimed Prince of Transylvania, and orders were given
+to the Tartar Khan and the Prince of Moldavia to support him with their
+forces.
+
+Toekoely, always avid of fame and glory, threw himself heart and soul into
+this new enterprise, but it was only when he saw the army with which he
+was to conquer Transylvania that he had misgivings. His soldiers were
+good for robbing and burning, they had been used to that for a long
+time, but when it came to fighting there was no power on earth capable
+of keeping them together. What could he make of soldiers whose sole
+knowledge of the art of warfare consisted in running backwards and
+forwards, whose most sensible weapon was the dart, and who, whenever
+they heard a gun go off, stuffed up their ears and bolted like so many
+mice? And with these ragamuffins he was expected to fight regular,
+highly-disciplined troops.
+
+Suddenly an idea occurred to him. He sat down and wrote a letter and
+delivered it to a swift courier, enjoining him not to rest or tarry till
+he had placed it in the proper hands.
+
+This letter was addressed to Feriz Beg. In it Toekoely informed him of the
+course of events in Transylvania, and it concluded thus:
+
+"Behold, what you prophesied has come to pass, those who began the war
+along with us now continue the war against us. Remember that you held
+out the promise of joining us when such a time came; fulfil your
+promise."
+
+Feriz Beg got this letter early in the morning, and the moment after he
+had read it he ordered his stableman instantly to saddle his
+war-charger, he chose from among his swords those which smote the
+heaviest, exchanged his grey mantle for a splendid and costly costume,
+gave a great banquet to all his retainers, and bade them make merry, for
+in an hour's time, he would be off to the wars.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The imperial army was making itself quite at home in Albania. Beautiful
+scenery and beautiful women smiled upon the victors; there was money
+also and to spare. And soon came the rumour that a gigantic Tartar host
+was approaching the Albanian mountains, in number exceeding sixty
+thousand. The imperial army was no more than nine thousand; but they
+only laughed at the rumour, they had seen far larger armies fly before
+them. The pick of the Turkish host, the Spahis, the Janissaries, had
+cast down their arms before them in thousands; while it was the talk of
+the bazaars that all that the Tartars were good for was to devastate
+conquered territory. Besides, reinforcements were expected from Hungary,
+where the Prince of Baden was encamped beneath Nandor-Fehervar with a
+numerous army.
+
+The leader of the Albanian forces was the Prince of Hanover.
+
+He was a pupil of the lately deceased Piccolomini, and though he
+inherited his valour he was scarcely his equal in wisdom.
+
+On hearing of the approach of the Tartar army he assembled his captains
+and held a council of war. The enemy was assumed to be the old mob which
+used to turn tail at the first cannon-shot, and could not be overtaken
+because of the superior swiftness of its horses. And indeed it was the
+old mob, but a new spirit now inspired it; it followed a new leader
+whom the enemy had never put to flight or beaten, and that leader was
+Feriz Beg.
+
+Toekoely's letter had speedily brought the young hero all the way from
+Syria to Stambul to offer his sword and his genius to the new Sultan,
+and the Sultan had charged him to lead the Tartar hordes against the
+imperial army.
+
+When Feriz, from the top of a hill, saw the forces of the Prince of
+Hanover all wedged together in a compact mass on the plain before him
+like a huge living machine only awaiting a propelling hand to set it in
+motion, he quickly sent the Tartars who were with him back into the
+fir-woods that they might well cover their darts with the tar and
+turpentine exuding from the trees, and this done, he sent them to gallop
+round the Prince's camp and take up their position well within range.
+
+The Prince observed the movement but left them alone; oftentimes had the
+Turks attempted a simple assault upon the German camp; oftentimes had
+their threefold superior forces surrounded the small, well-ordered camp
+and assaulted it from every side, and the Germans used always politely
+to allow them to come within range of their guns and then discharge all
+their artillery at once--and generally that was the end of the whole
+affair.
+
+Feriz, however, made no assault upon them, but got his Tartars to
+surround them, commanding them to set their darts on fire and discharge
+them into the air so that they might fall down into the German camp.
+According to this plan they could fire at the enemy at a much greater
+distance off than the enemy could fire upon them, for the dart, flying
+in a curve could reach further than the straight-going musket balls of
+those days, and wherever it fell its sharp point inflicted a wound,
+whereas the bullet was often spent before it reached its mark.
+
+Suddenly a flaming flood of darts darkened the air and the burning
+resinous bolts fell from all sides into the crowded ranks of the
+imperial army; the points of the darts fastened in the backs of the
+horses, the burning drops fell upon the faces and garments of the
+warriors, burning through the texture and inflicting grievous wounds;
+the horses began to rear violently at this unexpected attack; the
+gunners, cursing and swearing, began to discharge their guns anyhow at
+the enemy; nobody paid any attention to the orders of the general,
+discipline was quite at an end; the burning darts were destructive of
+all military tactics, for there was no refuge from them, and every dart
+struck its man.
+
+Then Feriz Beg blew with the trumpets, and suddenly the imperial troops
+were attacked from all sides. They were unable to repel the attack in
+the regular way, but intermingled with their assailants, fought man to
+man. The picked German troopers quitted themselves like men, not one of
+them departed without taking another with him to the next world, but the
+Turks outnumbered them, and just when the Prince's army was exhausted by
+the attacks of the Tartars, Feriz brought forward his well-rested
+reserves, who burned with the desire to wash out the shame of former
+defeats. The Prince of Hanover fell on the battle-field with the rest of
+his army. Not one escaped to tell the tale.
+
+This was the first victory which turned the fortunes of war once more in
+favour of the Turks after so many defeats.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE LAST DAY.
+
+
+It was well known in Transylvania that the Porte had proclaimed Toekoely
+Prince and given into his hands armies wherewith he might invade the
+Principality and conquer it, so General Heissler gave orders to the
+counties and the Szeklers to rise up in defence of the realm, which they
+accordingly did.
+
+The Hungarian forces were commanded by Balthasar Mackasi and Michael
+Teleki himself; the leader of the Germans was Heissler, with Generals
+Noscher and Magni, and Colonel Doria under him, all of them heroic
+soldiers of fortune, who, all the way from Vienna to Wallachia, had
+never seen the Turks otherwise than as corpses or fugitives.
+
+When Toekoely was approaching through Wallachia with his forces, Heissler
+quickly closed all the passes, and placed three regiments at the Iron
+Gates, while he himself took up a position in the Pass of Bozza, and
+there pitched his camp amidst the mountains.
+
+The encamped forces were merry and sprightly enough, there was lots to
+eat and drink of all sorts, and the Szeklers were quite close to their
+wives and houses, so that they did not feel a bit homesick--only Teleki
+was perpetually dissatisfied. He would have liked the forces to be
+marching continually from one pass to another and sentinels to be
+standing on guard night and day on every footpath which led into the
+kingdom.
+
+The third week after the camp had been pitched at Bozza he suddenly
+said to the general with a very anxious face:
+
+"Sir, what if Toekoely were to appear at some other gate of the kingdom
+while we are lying here?"
+
+"Every avenue is closed against him," answered Heissler.
+
+"But suppose he got in before we came here?"
+
+"The trouble then would not be how he got in but how he could get out
+again."
+
+But Teleki wanted to show that he also knew something of the science of
+warfare, so he said with the grave face of an habitual counsellor:
+
+"I do not think it expedient that we worthy soldiers should be crammed
+up into a corner of the kingdom. In my opinion it would be much safer
+if, after guarding every pass, we took up a position equi-distant
+between Toercsvar and Bozza."
+
+Now for once Teleki was right, but for that very reason Heissler was all
+the more put out. It was intolerable that a lay-general should suggest
+something to him which he could not gainsay.
+
+And the worst of it was Teleki would not leave the general alone. "I am
+participating in nothing here," said he, "make use of me, give me
+something to do, and I will do it--occupation is what I want."
+
+"I'll give it you at once," said Heissler, and putting his arm through
+Teleki's he led him to his tent, there made him sit down beside him at a
+round table, sent one of the yawning guards to summon Noscher, Magni,
+Doria and the other generals, made them sit down by the side of Teleki,
+sat down at the table himself, and drawing a pack of cards from his
+pocket, gave it to Teleki with the words:
+
+"Here's some occupation for you--you deal!"
+
+"What, sir!" burst forth Teleki, quite upset by the jest, "play at cards
+when the enemy stands before us?"
+
+"How can we be better employed when the enemy is _not_ before us? Do you
+know how to play at landsknecht?"
+
+"I do not."
+
+"Then we'll teach you."
+
+And they did teach him, for in a couple of hours they had won from him a
+couple of hundred ducats, whereupon Teleki, on the pretext that he had
+no more money, retired from the game.
+
+It was not the loss of a little money which vexed him so much as the
+scant respect paid to his counsels.
+
+The other gentlemen continued the game. Heissler suddenly by a grand
+coup won all the ready-money of the other generals, so that at last
+there was a great heap of thalers and ducats in front of him, and his
+three-cornered hat was filled to the brim with money.
+
+The losing party tried to console itself with jests.
+
+"Well, well! lucky at cards, luckless in love!"
+
+"Eh!" said Heissler, sweeping together his winnings, "I have only had
+one love in my life, and that is on a battlefield, but there I have
+always been lucky."
+
+At that moment a rapid galloping was heard, and after a brief parley
+with the guard outside, a dusty dragoon courier entered the tent and
+whispered breathlessly in Heissler's ear:
+
+"Toekoely's advance guard is before Toercsvar, it attacked and cut down the
+troops posted in the pass, only the Szeklers still hold out; if we don't
+come quickly the pass will be taken."
+
+Heissler suddenly swept the cards from the table, and snatching up his
+hat so that the money in it rolled away in every direction, he clapped
+it on his head, and drawing his sword exclaimed: "To horse, gentlemen!
+Quick! Towards Toercsvar! We shall arrive in good time, I know!"
+
+"Well! wasn't I right?" growled Teleki.
+
+"Oh, there's no harm done! Blow the trumpets, we must strike our tents;
+let the camp fires burn, and at the third sound of the trumpet let
+everyone advance towards Toercsvar. A company and a couple of mortars
+will be enough to guard the pass. All right now, Mr. Michael Teleki!"
+
+Then he also took horse. Teleki too hastened back to his levies, and
+soon the whole host was trotting on in the dark towards Toercsvar.
+
+It was the 19th August, such a silent summer night that not a leaf was
+stirring. Against the beautiful starry sky rose the majestic snowy Alps
+which encircle Transylvania within their mighty chain; everything was
+still, only now and then through the melancholy night resounded the din
+and bustle of the warriors hurrying towards Toercsvar.
+
+Here in the mountain-chasm a wide opening is visible which presently
+contracts so much that two carriages can scarce advance along it
+abreast. The road goes deep down between two rocks, and if a few hundred
+resolute and determined men planted themselves in that place, they could
+hold it against the largest armies.
+
+On the other side of Moldavia, looking downwards, could be seen the
+camp-fires of the hosts of Toekoely, who was encamped on the farther side
+of the Alps, occupying a vast extent of ground.
+
+In front all was dark. After the first surprise caused by some hundreds
+of dragoons who had penetrated into Moldavia, the Szeklers had quickly
+blocked the pass by felling trees across it, retired to the mountain
+summits, and received the advancing Tartars with such showers of stones
+that they were compelled to desist from any further advance and turn
+back again.
+
+Great commotion was observable in the Turkish camp. The Tartars were
+roasting a whole ox on a huge spit, and cut pieces off it while it was
+roasting; some jovial Wallachians, a little elated by wine, began
+dancing their national dances; on a hill the Hungarian hussars were
+blaring their _farogatos_, whose penetrating voices frequently pierced
+the most distant recess of the snowy Alps.
+
+But just because the camp had begun making merry the outposts had been
+carefully disposed. The leaders of the host were youths in age but
+veterans in military experience; they were keeping watch for everyone.
+
+They met as they were going their rounds and, without observing it,
+strayed somewhat from the camp and advanced without a word along a
+mountain path.
+
+At last Feriz broke the silence by remarking gravely to Toekoely:
+
+"Is it not desperating to see a mountain before you and not be able to
+fly?"
+
+"Especially when your desires are on the other side of that mountain."
+
+"What are your desires?" said Feriz bitterly, "in comparison with mine;
+you have only a thirst for glory, I have a thirst for blood."
+
+"But mine is a still stronger impulse," said Toekoely; "I have a wife."
+
+"Ah! I understand, and you want to see your wife? I also should like to
+see her if I am not slain. And is the lady worthy of you?"
+
+"One must have lived very far from this kingdom not to have heard of
+her," said Toekoely proudly. "My name has not given such glory to Helen as
+her name has to me. When everyone in Hungary laid down their arms, and I
+myself fled from the kingdom, she herself remained in the fortress of
+Munkacs and defended it as valiantly as any man could do. Helen stood
+like a man upon the bastions amidst the whirring of the bullets and the
+thunder of the guns, extinguished the bombs cast into the fortress with
+huge moistened buffalo-skins, fired off the cannons against the
+besiegers with her own hands, and cut down the soldiers who attempted to
+storm the walls, spiked their guns, and burnt their tents."
+
+At this Feriz grew enthusiastic.
+
+"We will save this brave woman; is she still defending herself?"
+
+"No. My chief confidant--a man whom I trusted would carry out my ideas,
+a man whom I found a beggar and made a gentleman--betrayed her, and they
+now hold her captive. Believe me, Feriz, if they gave her back to me I
+would perchance for ever forget my dream of glory and renounce the crown
+I seek, but to win her back I'll go through hell itself, and you will
+see that I shall go through this mountain chain also, for though I have
+not the strength to fly over it, I have the patience to crawl over it."
+
+Feriz Beg sighed gloomily.
+
+"Alas! I have no one for whose sake I might hasten into battle."
+
+Early next morning Toekoely came over to Feriz's quarters and told him
+that he had just received tidings that Heissler had arrived during the
+night, having galloped without stopping through Szent Peter to Toercsvar.
+Teleki, too, was with him.
+
+That name seemed to electrify the young Turk.
+
+He leapt quickly from his couch, and, seizing his sword, raised it
+towards Heaven and cried with a savage expression which had never been
+on his face before: "I thank thee, Allah, that thou hast delivered him
+into my hands!"
+
+The two young generals then consulted together in private for about an
+hour, after sending everyone out of their tent. Then they came forth and
+reviewed their forces. Feriz selected his best Janissaries and Spahis,
+Toekoely the Hungarian hussars and the swiftest of the Tartars, and with
+this little army, numbering about six thousand, they marched off without
+saying whither. The vast camp meanwhile was intrusted to the care of the
+Prince of Moldavia, who was charged to stand face to face night and day
+over against the Transylvanian army, and not move from the spot.
+
+Meanwhile the two young leaders, with their picked band, made their way
+among the hills by the dark, sylvan mountain paths, whose wilderness no
+human foot had ever yet trod. Anyone looking down upon them from the
+rocks above would have called their enterprise foolhardy. Now they had
+to crawl down precipitous slopes on their hands and knees; now gigantic
+rocks barred their way, which enclosed them within a narrow, mountainous
+gorge whence there was no exit; here and there they had to cling on to
+the roots of the stout shrubs growing out of the crevices of the rocks,
+or pull themselves up, man by man, and horse by horse, by means of ropes
+fastened to the trunks of trees. In these regions nought dwelt but
+savage birds of prey, and the startled golden eagle looked down in
+wonder from his stony lair at the panting, toiling host--what did such a
+multitude of men seek in that desolate wilderness?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Transylvanian gentlemen from the vantage-point of a lofty mountain
+ridge watched the two opposing hosts facing each other in front of the
+defiles. Now the Szeklers would burst forth from the woods on the
+straying Tartars and drive them back to their tents, and now like a
+disturbing swarm of wasps the Tartars and Wallachians would force the
+Szeklers back to the very borders of the forest. It was great fun to
+watch all this from the lofty ridge where stood Heissler, Doria, and
+Teleki observing the manly sport through long telescopes.
+
+Suddenly the sentinels brought to Heissler a Wallachian who had given
+the pickets to understand that he had brought a message from the Prince
+of Wallachia to the commander-in-chief.
+
+"No doubt it is to tell you once more not to go into Wallachia again,
+for the enemy has eaten it up," said Teleki, turning to Heissler, who
+had got to the bottom of the Prince's former craftiness. "What is your
+master's message?" he said, turning towards the Wallachian.
+
+"He sends his respects, and bids you be on your guard against Toekoely,
+for he has a large army and is very crafty; but instead of opposing him
+in the direction of Wallachia you would do better if you saw to it that
+he did not break into Transylvania, and you ought to beware of this all
+the more as only three days ago he departed from the main host along
+with his chief Sirdar, with a picked army of six thousand men, which has
+since vanished as completely as if the earth had swallowed it up."
+
+"What did I say?" remarked Heissler, with a smile to Teleki. "You may go
+back, my son, from whence you came," he said to the Szekler.
+
+But Teleki shook his head at this.
+
+"It is quite possible," said he, "that while we are halting here, Toekoely
+may issue forth somewhere behind our very backs."
+
+Heissler pointed at the snow-capped mountains.
+
+"Can anything but a bird get through those?"
+
+"If Toekoely lead the way--yes."
+
+"Your Excellency has a great respect for that gentleman."
+
+"Truly, Mr. General, I should advise you to summon hither the regiments
+left at the iron gate, and bring up some more cannons."
+
+Heissler did not even reply, but beckoned to him to be silent.
+
+At that instant a wild yell suddenly struck upon the ear of the general,
+and looking back towards Zernyest he saw a large column of smoke rising
+heavenwards, while the outposts came galloping up towards the camp.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Toekoely has got through the mountains!" was the terrifying report, "the
+Tartars have burnt Tohair and plundered the camp."
+
+"To horse, to arms, every man!" roared Heissler, and drawing his sword
+leaped upon his horse. Doria, Noscher, and Magni quickly marshalled
+their squadrons, Macskari quickly got together his squadrons, and
+descended into the plain.
+
+They had scarce got into battle array when they were joined by the boyar
+Balacsan, the refugee Moldavian nobleman, who kept on foot two regiments
+of the Hungarians and Wallachians at his own expense.
+
+The cry of the ravaging Tartars was now audible close at hand in the
+village of Tohair, which was blazing away under the very eyes of the
+Transylvanian hosts. Balacsan's soldiers, eager for the fray, begged
+leave of Heissler to drive them from the village, and rushing upon them
+with a wild yell, quickly drove the Tartars back through the burning
+streets; while Heissler, with the main body of the army, galloped
+towards Zernyest with the greatest haste. He also succeeded in occupying
+it before Toekoely had reached it.
+
+Here the soldiers rested after their tiring gallop. Heissler distributed
+wine and brandy among them, then marshalled them, and sent to the front
+the military chaplains. Two Jesuits, crucifix in hand, confessed all the
+German soldiers, and the Rev. Mr. Gernyeszeg preached a pious discourse
+to the Calvinists.
+
+Meanwhile Toekoely's army had advanced upon Zernyest. On one side of him
+were the snowy Alps, on the other a reed-grown morass, which in the hot
+days of August was quite dried up and could easily be crossed.
+
+As soon as the Szeklers saw the Turks, with their characteristic
+pigheadedness they seized their pikes and would have rushed upon them
+with their usual war-cry: "Jesus! Help, Jesus! Help!"
+
+Their leaders drove them back by beating them with their sword-blades,
+and exhausted the whole vocabulary of abuse and condemnation before they
+could prevent them prematurely from beginning the battle.
+
+Teleki meanwhile summoned to his side his trusty servant, and as he was
+dressed in a black habit--for they were still in mourning for the
+Prince--with few jewels on it, he detached his diamond aigrette and
+gold chain, and adding his signet-ring to them, gave them to the servant
+that he might take them before the battle to Gernyeszeg, and give them
+to his daughter, Dame Michael Vay.
+
+The old servant would have asked why he did this, but Teleki turned away
+from him and beckoned him to go away.
+
+Then he had his favourite charger, Kalman, brought forth, and after
+stroking its neck tenderly, trotted off to the front of his forces and
+addressed them in these words:
+
+"My brave Transylvanians, now is the time to fight together valiantly
+for glory and liberty in the service of his Imperial Majesty in order to
+deliver our country, our wives and children, from Turkish bondage and
+the tyranny of that evil ally of theirs, Toekoely, for otherwise you and
+your descendants have nought but eternal slavery to expect. Grieve not
+for me if I, your general, fall on the field of battle. Behold, I bring
+my white beard among you, and am ready to die."
+
+While he was saying these words his adjutant, Macskari, came to him and
+began to explain that the Transylvanians had been placed in the rear and
+were grumbling loudly at having been so set aside.
+
+On hearing this Teleki at once galloped up to Heissler.
+
+"Sir," said he, "you are a bad judge of the Hungarian temperament in
+warfare if you place them in the rear; the Szekler, in particular, has a
+great aptitude for the assault, but don't expect help from him if you
+keep him waiting in the rear till the front ranks are broken."
+
+Generals, on the eve of a battle are, very naturally, somewhat impatient
+of advice, especially if it be delivered by a civilian. Heissler
+therefore snubbed the minister somewhat unmercifully, whereupon Teleki
+galloped back to his men without saying another word.
+
+Meanwhile the Turkish army had slowly begun to move; on the left wing a
+regiment of Tartars stealthily entered the reeds of the morass and began
+to surround the right wing of the Transylvanians; but their experienced
+general, perceiving their approach from the undulatory movement of the
+reed-stalks, speedily ordered Doria to advance against them with six
+squadrons of dragoons, whereupon Teleki also sent thirteen regiments of
+Szeklers against them under Michael Henter, and soon the two stealthily
+crouching hosts could be seen in collision. The Szeklers, with a wild
+yell, rushed upon the Tartars, who turned tail after the first onset,
+and fled still deeper among the reeds. Doria pursued them everywhere,
+the discharge of the artillery fired the reeds in several places, and
+they began to burn over the heads of the combatants.
+
+At that moment Toekoely suddenly blew the trumpets and advanced into the
+plain with thirty-two squadrons, who rushed upon the foe with a
+sky-rending howl. There was a roll of musketry as the assailants drew
+near, and nine of the thirty-two squadrons bit the dust, hundreds of
+riders fell from their horses.
+
+But the rest did not turn back as they used to do. Feriz Beg was leading
+them, they saw his sword flashing in front of them, and felt sure of
+victory.
+
+At the moment of the firing a bullet had struck the youth in the breast;
+but he regarded it not, he only saw Teleki before him, dressed in black.
+He recognised him from afar, and galloped straight towards him.
+
+Beneath the savage assault of the Turkish horsemen the German dragoons
+gave way in a moment, their ranks were scattered; against the slim darts
+of the Spahis and the light csakanyis of the hussars the straight sword
+and the heavy cuirass were but a poor defence. The first line was cast
+back upon the second, and when General Noscher was struck down by a dart
+in the forehead, the centre also was broken.
+
+The Szeklers simply looked on at the battle from the rear.
+
+"What think you, comrades," they said to one another, "if they only
+brought us here to look on, wouldn't it be better to look on from yonder
+hill?"
+
+And with that they shouldered their pikes, and without doing the
+slightest harm to the Turks, went off in a body.
+
+The cavalry, who still had some stomach in them, on perceiving the
+flight of the infantry, also suddenly lost heart, and giving their
+horses the reins, scampered off in every direction.
+
+Heissler thus was left alone on the battle-field, and up to the last
+moment strenuously endeavoured to retrieve the fortunes of the day. All
+in vain. Balacsan fell before his very eyes on the left wing, and
+shortly afterwards, General Magni staggered towards him scarce
+recognisable, for he had a fearful slash right across his head, which
+covered his face with blood, and his left arm was pierced by a dart. It
+was not about himself that he was anxious, however, for he grasped
+Heissler's bridle and dragged him away.
+
+Heissler, full of desperation, fought against his own men, who carried
+him from the field by force. At last he reached the top of a hillock
+and, looking back, perceived one division still fighting on the
+battlefield. It was the picked division of Doria who, in its pursuit of
+the Tartars, had been cut off from the rest of the army, and seeing that
+it was isolated had hastily formed into a square and stood against the
+whole of the victorious host, fighting obstinately and refusing to
+surrender. This was too much for Heissler. He tore himself loose from
+his escort, and returned alone to the battlefield. A few stray horsemen
+followed him, and he tried to cut his way to Doria through the
+intervening hussars.
+
+A tall and handsome cavalier intercepted him.
+
+"Surrender, general, it is no shame to you. I am Emeric Toekoely."
+
+Heissler returned no answer but galloped straight at him, and, whirling
+his sword above his head, aimed a blow at the Hungarian leader.
+
+Toekoely called to those around him to stand back. Alone he fought against
+so worthy an enemy till a violent blow broke in twain the sword of the
+German general, and he was obliged to surrender.
+
+Meanwhile Doria's division was overborne by superior forces; he himself
+fell beneath his horse, which was shot under him, and was taken
+prisoner.
+
+The rest fled.
+
+Michael Teleki fled likewise, trusting in his good steed Kalman. He
+heard behind him the cries of his pursuers; there was one form in
+particular that he did not wish to have behind him, and it seemed to
+Teleki as if he were about to see this form.
+
+This was the chief sirdar, Feriz Beg. Mortally wounded though he was, he
+did not forget his mortal anger, and though his blood flowed in streams,
+he still felt strength enough in his arm to shed the blood of his enemy.
+
+Suddenly Michael directed his flight towards a field of wheat, when his
+horse stumbled and fell with him.
+
+Here Feriz Beg overtook the minister, and whirling around his sword,
+exclaimed:
+
+"That blow is from Denis Banfy!"
+
+Teleki raised his sword to defend himself, but at that name his hand
+shook and he received a slash across the face, whereupon his sword fell
+from his hand; but he still held his hand before his streaming eyes and
+only heard these words:
+
+"This blow is for Paul Beldi! This blow is for the children of Paul
+Beldi! This blow is for Transylvania!"
+
+That last blow was the heaviest of all!
+
+Teleki sank down on the ground a corpse.
+
+Feriz Beg gazed upwards with a look of transport, sighed deeply, and
+then drooped suddenly over his horse's neck. He was dead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next day when they found Teleki among the slain, and brought him to
+Toekoely, the young Prince cried:
+
+"Heh! bald head! bald head! if you had never lived in Transylvania so
+much blood would not have flowed here."
+
+Thus the prophecy of Magyari was fulfilled.
+
+Then Toekoely ordered the naked, plundered corpse to be clothed in
+garments of his own and sent to his widow at Goergency.
+
+In exchange for the captured generals, Heissler and Doria, Toekoely got
+back his wife Helen. This was his greatest gain from the war.
+
+Both of them now sleep far away from their native land in the valley of
+Nicomedia.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+_Jarrold and Sons, Limited, The Empire Press, Norwich._
+
+
+
+
+      Dr. Maurus Jokai's Novels
+
+      _The Green Book_
+      _Black Diamonds_
+      _Pretty Michal_
+      _The Lion of Janina_
+      _A Hungarian Nabob_
+      _Dr. Dumany's Wife_
+      _The Poor Plutocrats_
+      _The Nameless Castle_
+      _Debts of Honor_
+      _The Day of Wrath_
+      _Eyes Like the Sea_
+      _Halil the Pedlar (The White Rose)_
+      _'Midst the Wild Carpathians_
+      _The Slaves of the Padishah._
+
+
+
+
+      NEW & RECENT FICTION.
+
+      _Crown 8vo, 6s._
+
+
+      =The Slaves of the Padishah=, or, "The Turks in
+      Hungary." By MAURUS JOKAI.
+
+      =The Daughter of the Dawn.= By REGINALD HODDER.
+      Illustrated by HAROLD PIFFARD.
+
+      ='Neath the Hoof of the Tartar=, or, "The Scourge of
+      God." By BARON NICHOLAS JOSIKA. Translated by SELINA
+      GAYE. With Preface by R. NISBET BAIN.
+
+      =The Golden Dwarf.= By R. NORMAN SILVER.
+
+      =More Tales from Tolstoi.= Translated from the Russian
+      by R. NISBET BAIN. With Biography brought up to date.
+
+      =Distant Lamps.= By JESSIE REUSS.
+
+      =The Jest of Fate.= By PAUL LAWRENCE DUNBAR.
+
+      =Over Stony Ways:= A Romance of Tennyson-Land. By EMILY
+      M. BRYANT.
+
+      =Liege Lady.= By LILIAN S. ARNOLD.
+      FOURTH EDITION.
+
+      =Tales from Tolstoi.= Translated from the Russian by R.
+      NISBET BAIN. With Biography of COUNT LEO TOLSTOI.
+      SIXTH EDITION.
+
+      =Tales from Gorky.= Translated from the Russian of MAXIM
+      GORKY by R. NISBET BAIN.
+
+      =Halil the Pedlar.= By MAURUS JOKAI. Translated by R.
+      NISBET BAIN.
+
+      =Autumn Glory.= By RENE BAZIN. Translated by ELLEN
+      WAUGH.
+
+      LONDON: JARROLD & SONS,
+      10 & 11, Warwick Lane, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the
+original edition have been corrected.
+
+The advertisements were moved from the front of the book to the back. A
+period was added after "Distant Lamps".
+
+In Chapter I, "deposited it in front of the Divan" was changed to
+"deposited it in front of the Divan".
+
+In Chapter III, "Feriz Beg grew quiet furious at Toekoely's cold repose"
+was changed to "Feriz Beg grew quite furious at Toekoely's cold repose".
+
+In Chapter IV, a quotation mark was added after "commandants of the
+fortress of Szathmar".
+
+In Chapter V, "as to everyone of which he was able to prove" was changed
+to "as to every one of which he was able to prove", "found everthing
+wasted and ravaged" was changed to "found everything wasted and
+ravaged", and "we are have not come here for you to pepper us" was
+changed to "we have not come here for you to pepper us".
+
+In Chapter VI, "s ized his shaggy little horse" was changed to "seized
+his shaggy little horse".
+
+In Chapter VII, "he had put the Szathmarians" was changed to "he had put
+the Szathmarians", "for the Szathmar army" was changed to "for the
+Szathmar army", "he had only required of Kaszonyi" was changed to "he
+had only required of Kaszonyi", and "kept them well supplied them with
+drinking-water" was changed to "kept them well supplied with
+drinking-water".
+
+In Chapter VIII, a malformed ellipsis in "That damsel's name is Azrael
+... Allah is mighty!" was corrected.
+
+In Chapter IX, "they ward of with their bosoms" was changed to "they
+ward off with their bosoms", and "a female Ibbis" was changed to "a
+female Iblis".
+
+In Chapter X, a quotation mark was removed before "Eh, eh! worthy Beg,
+thou must needs have been drinking".
+
+In Chapter XI, a quotation mark was added before "the camp is now
+aroused".
+
+In Chapter XII, "Ersekujvar" was changed to "Ersekujvar".
+
+In Chapter XIII, "a dirty Turkish cavasse in sordid rags, entered the
+courtyard" was changed to "a dirty Turkish cavasse in sordid rags
+entered the courtyard", "without stopping from Szamosujvar" was changed
+to "without stopping from Szamosujvar", and "she reached Szamosujvar in
+the early morning" was changed to "she reached Szamosujvar in the early
+morning".
+
+In Chapter XIV, "the panic of Nagyened" was changed to "the panic of
+Nagyenyed", and "for Beldi lives at Bodola" was changed to "for Beldi
+lives at Bodola".
+
+In Chapter XV, "well aquainted with the mood of an eastern Despot" was
+changed to "well acquainted with the mood of an eastern Despot", "for
+him it to level towns to the ground" was changed to "for him to level
+towns to the ground", and a malformed ellipsis in "Mercy! ... Mercy!"
+was corrected.
+
+In Chapter XVI, "the time when Haissar was burnt" was changed to "the
+time when Hiassar was burnt", "I sware by Allah it is not to be done"
+was changed to "I swear by Allah it is not to be done", "whispered in
+her hear with malicious joy" was changed to "whispered in her ear with
+malicious joy", "in all probabilty been helped" was changed to "in all
+probability been helped", and "sorry matted coveyance" was changed to
+"sorry matted conveyance".
+
+In Chapter XIX, a period was added after the chapter number, "Rest
+to night?" was changed to "Rest to-night?", and "plunged over into the
+abss" was changed to "plunged over into the abyss".
+
+In Chapter XX, "the muderris in his official capacity" was changed to
+"the muederris in his official capacity".
+
+In Chapter XXI, a period was changed to a question mark after "where
+have you put it", and "reached Michael Teleki at Gernyizeg" was changed
+to "reached Michael Teleki at Gernyeszeg".
+
+In Chapter XXII, a period was changed to a comma after "shaking his
+chains".
+
+In Chapter XXIV, "demanded an audience of the noble Dano Solymosi" was
+changed to "demanded an audience of the noble Dano Solymosi".
+
+In Chapter XXV, "You, Zuefikar, my son" was changed to "You, Zuelfikar, my
+son", and "Koertoerely, the old hound" was changed to "Koertoevely, the old
+hound".
+
+In Chapter XXVII, "Thus Aranki's letter" was changed to "Thus Aranka's
+letter", a missing period was added after "as if nothing had happened",
+and a missing quotation mark was added after "we cannot now withdraw our
+feet".
+
+In Chapter XXX, "Ersekujvar" was changed to "Ersekujvar", and "During
+the seige of Vienna" was changed to "During the siege of Vienna".
+
+In Chapter XXXI, "always arid of fame and glory" was changed to "always
+avid of fame and glory".
+
+In Chapter XXXII, a period was added after the chapter number, and a
+period was changed to a question mark after "And is the lady worthy of
+you".
+
+The original text contained numerous inconsistencies in spelling and
+hyphenation, frequently reflecting inconsistent Anglicization of
+Hungarian names. In some cases, when the translator's preferred form was
+obvious, the spelling has been modified to reflect the dominant usage or
+to conform with the original Hungarian text; in many cases, where no
+single spelling was obviously preferred, inconsistent spellings have
+been retained.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Slaves of the Padishah, by Mor Jokai
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