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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Manasseh, by Maurus 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: Manasseh
+       A Romance of Transylvania
+
+Author: Maurus Jokai
+
+Translator: Percy Favor Bicknell
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2007 [EBook #20892]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MANASSEH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Todd Fine, Janet Blenkinship 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.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  Manasseh
+
+  A Romance of Transylvania
+
+
+  Retold from the Hungarian of
+  Dr. Maurus Jokai
+  Author of
+  "Black Diamonds," "Pretty Michal," "The
+  Baron's Sons," etc.
+
+
+  By
+  Percy Favor Bicknell
+  Translator of "The Baron's Sons"
+
+
+
+
+  Boston
+  L. C. Page & Company
+  1901
+
+  _Copyright, 1901_
+  BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
+  (INCORPORATED)
+
+  _All rights reserved_
+
+  Colonial Press
+  Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds &. Co.
+  Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                          PAGE
+
+             TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE                                    vii
+
+      I.     FELLOW-TRAVELLERS                                         1
+
+     II.     A LIFE'S HAPPINESS AT STAKE                              13
+
+    III.     AN INTRUDER EXPELLED                                     19
+
+     IV.     A BIT OF STRATEGY                                        24
+
+      V.     HOLY WEEK IN ROME                                        34
+
+     VI.     THE CONSECRATED PALM-LEAF                                52
+
+    VII.     AN AUDIENCE WITH THE POPE                                60
+
+   VIII.     AN UNWELCOME VISITOR                                     65
+
+     IX.     THE ANONYMOUS LETTER                                     79
+
+      X.     THE FOURTEENTH PARAGRAPH                                 90
+
+     XI.     THE DECISION                                            103
+
+    XII.     A GHOSTLY VISITANT                                      109
+
+   XIII.     A SUDDEN FLIGHT                                         127
+
+    XIV.     WALLACHIAN HOSPITALITY                                  137
+
+     XV.     BALYIKA CAVE                                            158
+
+    XVI.     A DESPERATE HAZARD                                      179
+
+   XVII.     IN PORLIK GROTTO                                        188
+
+  XVIII.     TOROCZKO                                                198
+
+    XIX.     A MIDNIGHT COUNCIL                                      213
+
+     XX.     MIRTH AND MOURNING                                      231
+
+    XXI.     THE SPY                                                 245
+
+   XXII.     THE HAND OF FATE                                        256
+
+  XXIII.     OLD SCORES                                              266
+
+   XXIV.     A CRUEL PARTING                                         292
+
+    XXV.     SECRETS OF THE COMMISSARIAT                             302
+
+   XXVI.     SOLFERINO                                               307
+
+  XXVII.     AN HOUR OF TRIAL                                        314
+
+ XXVIII.     A DAY OF RECKONING                                      318
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
+
+
+A few words of introduction to this striking story of life in
+Szeklerland may not be out of place.
+
+The events narrated are supposed to take place half a century ago, in
+the stirring days of '48, when the spirit of resistance to arbitrary
+rule swept over Europe, and nowhere called forth deeds of higher heroism
+than in Hungary. To understand the hostility between the Magyars and
+Szeklers on the one hand, and the Wallachians on the other,--a state of
+feud on which the plot of the story largely hinges,--let it be
+remembered that the non-Hungarian elements of the kingdom were
+exceedingly jealous of their Hungarian neighbours, and apprehensive lest
+the new liberal constitution of 1848 should chiefly benefit those whom
+they thus chose to regard as enemies. Therefore, secretly encouraged by
+the government at Vienna, they took up arms against the Hungarians. The
+Croatians and Serbs, under the lead of Ban Jellachich and other imperial
+officers, joined in the revolt. The most frightful atrocities were
+committed by the insurgents. Hundreds of families were butchered in cold
+blood, and whole villages sacked and burned. These acts of massacre and
+rapine were especially numerous on the eastern borders of Transylvania,
+among the so-called Szeklers, or "Frontiersmen," in whose country the
+scene of the present narrative is chiefly laid.
+
+The Szeklers, who also call themselves Attilans, claim descent from a
+portion of that vast invading horde of Attila the Hun, which fell back
+in defeat from the battle of Chalons, in the year 451, and has occupied
+the eastern portion of Transylvania ever since. The Magyars are of the
+same or a nearly kindred race, and speak the same language; but their
+ancestry is traced back to a later band of invaders who forced their way
+in from the East early in the tenth century. The Wallachians, or
+"Strangers," form another considerable group in the population of
+Hungary. "Rumans" they prefer to call themselves, and they claim descent
+from the ancient Dacians, and from the conquering army led against the
+latter by Trajan. Besides these, Germans, Croatians, Serbs, Ruthenians,
+Slovaks, and other races, contribute in varying proportions to the
+heterogeneous population of the country.
+
+The Hungarian title of the book is "Egy az Isten,"--"One is the
+Lord,"--the watchword of the Unitarians of Transylvania. The want of an
+adequate English equivalent of this motto has led to the adoption of
+another title. In this, as in all the author's romances, love, war, and
+adventure furnish the plot and incident and vital interest of the
+narrative.
+
+As early as 1568, three years after the introduction of Unitarianism
+into Poland, John Sigismund Szapolyai, the liberal and enlightened
+voivode of Transylvania, issued a decree, granting his people religious
+toleration in the broadest sense. The establishment of the Unitarian
+Church in Hungary, on an equal footing with the Roman Catholic, the
+Lutheran, and the Calvinist, dates from that time. Through many trials
+and persecutions, through periods of alternate prosperity and adversity,
+it has bravely maintained its existence up to the present day, and now
+numbers nearly sixty-eight thousand members. Though a comparatively
+small body, the Unitarians of Hungary "hold together well," as our
+author says, and exert an influence in education and in all that makes
+for the higher life, quite out of proportion to their numbers.
+
+As in so many of Dr. Jokai's novels that have appeared in English, it
+has been found necessary to abridge the present work in translation. Not
+until we have endowed publishing houses which can afford to disregard
+the question of sales, shall we see this author's books issued in all
+their pitiless prolixity, in any country or language but his own. It is
+to be noted, in conclusion, that the excessive wealth of incident with
+which the following story abounds is characteristic of the author's
+style. Broken threads and occasional inconsistencies are found in all
+his works, and if they are met with here, it is not because of, but in
+spite of, the abridgment which the book has undergone.
+
+
+
+
+MANASSEH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+FELLOW-TRAVELLERS.
+
+
+Our story opens in an Italian railway station, in the spring of 1848.
+From a train that had just arrived, the passengers were hastening to
+secure their places in another that stood waiting for them. A guard had
+succeeded in crowding a party of two ladies and a gentleman into one of
+these itinerant prison-cells, which already contained seven occupants,
+before the newcomers perceived that they were being imposed upon. A
+vigorous protest followed. The elder of the two ladies, seizing the
+guard by the arm, addressed him in an angry tone, first in German, then
+in French.
+
+With the calm indifference of an automaton, the uniformed official
+pointed to a placard against the wall. _Per dieci persone_ was the
+inscription it bore. Ten persons, it seemed, were expected to find
+places here.
+
+"But we have first-class tickets," protested the lady, producing a bit
+of yellow pasteboard in proof of her assertion.
+
+The guard glanced at it with as little interest as he would have
+bestowed on a scarab from the tomb of the Pharaohs. Shrugging his
+shoulders, he merely indicated, with a wave of his hand, places where
+the three passengers might, perhaps, find seats,--one in this corner, a
+second yonder, and, if its owner would kindly transfer a greasy bundle
+to his lap, a third over there.
+
+This arrangement, however, was not at all to the liking of either the
+ladies or their escort. The latter was altogether disinclined to accept
+a seat between two fat cattle-dealers, being of no meagre dimensions
+himself.
+
+"We'll see about this!" he exclaimed, and left the compartment in quest
+of the station-master.
+
+That dignitary was promenading the platform in military uniform, his
+hands behind his back. The complainant began to explain the situation to
+him and to demand that consideration to which his first-class ticket
+entitled him. But the _illustrissimo_ merely opened his eyes and
+surveyed the gentleman in silence, much as a cuttlefish might have done
+if similarly addressed.
+
+"_Partenza-a-a!_" shouted the guards, in warning.
+
+The indignant gentleman hurried back to his compartment, only to find
+that, in his absence, three additional passengers had been squeezed into
+the crowded quarters, so that he himself now raised the total to
+thirteen,--a decidedly unlucky number. The ladies were in despair, and
+their attendant had begun to express his mind vigorously in his native
+Hungarian, when he felt himself touched on the elbow from behind, and
+heard a voice accosting him, in the same tongue.
+
+"My fellow-countryman, don't heat yourself. Not eloquence, but
+backsheesh, is needed here. While you were wasting your breath I had a
+guard open for me a reserved first-class compartment. It cost me but a
+trifle, and if you and your ladies choose to share it with me, it is at
+your service."
+
+"Thank you," was the reply, "but we shall not have time to change; we
+had only two minutes here in all."
+
+"Never fear," rejoined the stranger, reassuringly. "The _due minute_ is
+a mere form with which to frighten the inexperienced. The train won't
+start for half an hour yet."
+
+The two ladies were no less grateful to their deliverer than was
+Andromeda of old to the gallant Perseus. They gladly accepted the
+comfortable seats offered them, while their escort took a third, leaving
+the fourth for their benefactor, who lingered outside to finish his
+cigar. At the second ringing of the bell, he gave his half-smoked
+Havana to a passing porter, mounted the running-board of the moving
+train, and entered his compartment.
+
+Seating himself, the young man removed his travelling-cap and revealed a
+broad, arched forehead, surmounted by a luxuriant growth of hair. Thick
+eyebrows, bright blue eyes, and a Greek nose were the striking
+characteristics of his face, which seemed to combine the peculiarities
+of so many types and races, that an observer would have been at a loss
+to classify it.
+
+The other gentleman of the party was of genuine Hungarian stock, stout
+in figure and ruddy of countenance, with a pointed moustache, which he
+constantly twirled. The younger of the two ladies was veiled, so that
+only the graceful outlines of a face, evidently classic in its
+modelling, were revealed to the eye. But the elder had thrown back her
+veil, exposing to full view an honest, round face, blond hair, lively
+eyes, and lips that manifestly found it irksome to maintain that silence
+which good breeding imposes in the presence of a stranger.
+
+The ladies' escort was a very uneasy travelling companion. First he
+complained that he could not sit with his back toward the engine, as he
+was sure to be car-sick. The young stranger accordingly changed places
+with him. Then he found fault with his new seat, because it was exposed
+to a draught which blew the cinders into his eyes. Thereupon the young
+man promptly volunteered to close the window for him; but this only made
+matters worse, for fresh air was indispensable. At this, the blond lady
+gave up her place to the gentleman, and he, at last, appeared satisfied.
+Not so, however, the lady herself; she was now seated opposite the
+stranger, to whom she and her companions were so greatly indebted, and
+the feeling of indebtedness is always somewhat irksome.
+
+Women on a journey are inclined to regard a stranger's approach with
+some suspicion, and to be ever on the alert against adventurers. A vague
+mistrust of this sort concerning the young stranger may have been
+aroused by the mere fact that, Hungarian though his language indicated
+him to be, he and the ladies' escort indulged in no interchange of
+courtesies so natural among fellow-countrymen meeting by chance in a
+foreign land. Nevertheless the blond lady strove to assume an air that,
+on her part, should signify an entire absence of interest in all things
+relating to her _vis-a-vis_. Even when the sun shone in her face and
+annoyed her, she seemed determined to adjust the window-shade without
+any help from the stranger, until he courteously prevailed on her to
+accept his aid.
+
+"Oh, what helpless creatures we women are!" she exclaimed as she sank
+back into her seat.
+
+"You have yourselves to blame for it," was the other's rejoinder.
+
+If he had simply offered some vapid compliment, protesting, for example,
+that women were by no means helpless creatures, but, on the contrary,
+the rulers of the stronger sex, and so of the world,--then she would
+have merely smiled sarcastically and relapsed into silence; but there
+was something like a challenge in his unexpected retort.
+
+"_Par exemple?_" she rejoined, with an involuntary show of interest.
+
+"For example," he continued, "a lady voluntarily surrenders the
+comfortable seat assigned to her, and exchanges with a man who occupies
+an uncomfortable one."
+
+The lady coloured slightly. "A free initiative," said she, "is seldom
+possible with a woman. She is ever subject to a stronger will."
+
+"Yet she need not be," was the reply; "with the fascination which she
+exerts over men she is in reality the stronger."
+
+"Ah, yes; but suppose that fascination is employed over a man by women
+that have no right thus to use their power?"
+
+"Then the legitimate possessor of that right is still at fault. If
+fascination is the bond by which the man can be held, why does she not
+make use of it herself? A face of statuesque beauty that knows not how
+to smile has often been the cause of untold unhappiness."
+
+At these words the younger of the two ladies threw back her veil,
+perhaps to gain a better view of the speaker, and thus revealed just
+such a face as the young man had referred to,--a face with large blue
+eyes and silent lips.
+
+"Would you, then," the elder lady continued the discussion with some
+warmth, "have a wife employ the wiles of a coquette toward her own
+husband, in order to retain his love?"
+
+"I see no reason why she should not if circumstances demand it."
+
+"Very good. But you must admit that a wife is something more than a
+sweetheart; maternal duties and cares also enter into her life, and
+when, by reason of her exalted mission as a mother, anxieties and fears
+will, in spite of her, depict themselves on her face, what then becomes
+of your pretty theory?"
+
+The attack was becoming too warm for the young stranger, and he hastened
+to capitulate with a good grace. "In that case, madam," he admitted,
+"the husband is bound to show his wife nothing but the purest devotion
+and affection. The Roman lictors were, by the consul's orders, required
+to lower their fasces before a Roman matron; she was undisputed mistress
+in her sphere. The man who refuses to render the humblest of homage to
+the mother of his children deserves to have a millstone hung about his
+neck and to be cast into the sea."
+
+The blond lady seemed softened by this unconditional surrender. "Are you
+on your way to Rome, may I ask?" she presently inquired, her question
+being apparently suggested by the other's reference to ancient Roman
+customs.
+
+"Yes, that is my destination," he replied.
+
+"You go to witness the splendid ceremonies of Holy Week, I infer."
+
+"No; they do not interest me."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the lady; "the sublimest of our Church observances,
+that which symbolises the very divinity of our Saviour, does not
+interest you?"
+
+"No; because I do not believe in his divinity," was the calm reply.
+
+The lady raised her eyebrows in involuntary token of surprise at this
+most unexpected answer. She suddenly felt a strong desire to fathom the
+mysterious stranger. "I believe the Vatican is seeking an unusually
+large loan just now," she remarked, half-interrogatively.
+
+The stranger could not suppress a smile. He read the other's surmise
+that he might be of Hebrew birth and faith. "It is not the papal loan,
+madam," he returned, "that takes me to Rome; it is a divorce case."
+
+"A divorce case?" The blond lady could not disguise her interest at
+these words, while even the statuesque beauty at the other end of the
+compartment turned her face fully upon the speaker, and her lips parted
+slightly, like the petals of an opening rosebud.
+
+"Yes," resumed the young man, "a separation from one who has denied and
+rejected me for the sake of another; one whom I must for ever shun in
+the future, and yet cannot cease to love; one whose loss can never be
+made good to me. I am going to Rome because it is a dead city and
+belongs equally to all and to none."
+
+The train halted at a station, and the young man alighted. After a few
+words to the guard he disappeared from sight.
+
+"Do you know that gentleman?" asked the blond lady of her escort.
+
+"Very well," was the reply.
+
+"And yet you two hardly exchanged a word."
+
+"Because we were neither of us so disposed."
+
+"Are you enemies?"
+
+"Not enemies, and yet in a certain sense opponents."
+
+"Is he a Jew or an atheist?"
+
+"Neither; he is a Unitarian."
+
+"And what is a Unitarian, pray tell me?"
+
+"The Unitarians form one of the recognised religious sects of Hungary,"
+explained the man. "They are Christians who believe in the unity of
+God."
+
+"It is strange I never heard of them before," said the lady.
+
+"They live chiefly in Transylvania," added the other; "but the great
+body of them, taken the world over, are found in England and America,
+where they possess considerable influence. Their numbers are not large,
+but they hold together well; and, though they are not increasing
+rapidly, they are not losing ground."
+
+The younger lady lowered her veil again and crossed herself beneath its
+folds; but her companion turned and looked out of the window with a
+curious desire to scrutinise the wicked heretic more closely. Both the
+ladies, as the reader will have conjectured, were strictly orthodox in
+their faith.
+
+The train soon started again, after the customary ringing and whistling
+and the guards' repeated warning of "_partenza!_" But the young heretic
+seemed to put as little faith in bells and whistles and verbal warnings
+as in the dogma of the Trinity; for he failed to appear as the train
+moved away from the station. The ladies who owed so much to his kindness
+could not deny a certain feeling of relief at being freed from the
+company of one who cherished such heterodox religious convictions.
+
+"You say you are well acquainted with the young man?" the blond lady
+resumed.
+
+"Yes, I know him well enough," was the answer. "His name is Manasseh
+Adorjan, he is of good old Szekler descent, and he has seven brothers
+and a twin sister. They all live at home in their ancestral castle. Some
+of the brothers have married, but all live together peacefully under one
+roof and form one household. Manasseh seems to have been recognised by
+the family as the gifted one,--his brothers are nothing more than honest
+and intelligent Szeklers,--and for his education and advancement in the
+world all worked in unison. When he was only twenty years old this young
+genius became a candidate for the council. In Transylvania it is the
+custom to make the higher government appointments from all four of the
+recognised religious sects,--Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran, and
+Unitarian. From that time dates our mutual hostility."
+
+"Then you are enemies, after all."
+
+"In politics, yes. However, I must not bore you ladies with political
+questions. Suffice it to say, then, in regard to Manasseh Adorjan, that
+a sudden change of government policy, and the defeat of his party, gave
+the young man a fall from his proud eminence and led him to turn his
+back, for a time at least, on his native land; for he scorned to seek
+the preferment that was so easily within his reach by renouncing his
+principles and joining the opposite party."
+
+"Now I understand," interposed the blond lady, "what he meant by his
+'divorce case,' and his parting with one who had denied and rejected
+him, but whom he could never cease to love. Those were his words, and
+they referred to his country."
+
+"Yes, probably," assented the other; "for the young man is unmarried."
+
+At the next station the subject of this conversation suddenly
+reappeared.
+
+"Ah, we thought you were lost," exclaimed the elder of the two ladies,
+with a not unfriendly smile.
+
+"Oh, no, not lost," returned Manasseh; "what belongs nowhere and to no
+one cannot be lost. I merely took a seat on the imperial. Come, friend
+Gabriel,"--turning to the ladies' escort,--"will you not join me there?
+The view is really fine, and we can smoke also."
+
+The one thus familiarly addressed, and whose name was Gabriel Zimandy,
+accepted the invitation after a moment's demur. The ladies were left to
+themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A LIFE'S HAPPINESS AT STAKE.
+
+
+"A splendid country this!" exclaimed Gabriel Zimandy, when he had
+lighted his meerschaum and found himself at leisure to survey the
+landscape. "Too bad the Austrians have their grip on it!"
+
+"Look here," interposed Manasseh, "suppose we steer clear of politics.
+Do you agree?"
+
+"Did I say anything about politics?" retorted Gabriel. "I merely alluded
+to the beautiful view. Well, then, we'll talk about beautiful women if
+you prefer. You little know what a tender spot you touched upon with the
+ladies. I refer to the brunette--not to the blond, with whom you were
+talking."
+
+"Ah, is the other a brunette? I did not get a good look at her."
+
+"But she got a good look at you, while you were discussing the duties of
+women toward their husbands, the subject of divorce, and Heaven knows
+what else besides."
+
+"And did I awaken any unpleasant reminiscences?" asked the young man.
+
+"Not in the bosom of your fair antagonist,--she is already a widow,--but
+in that of her companion, who sat silent and listened to all you said.
+She is on her way to Rome to petition the Pope to annul her marriage."
+
+"Is that so!" exclaimed Manasseh, in surprise. "I should have said she
+was just out of a convent where she had been placed to be educated."
+
+"What eyes you have! Even without looking at her you have guessed her
+age to a month, I'll warrant! She is my client, the unfortunate Princess
+Cagliari, _nee_ Countess Blanka Zboroy. You know the family: their
+estates are entailed, so that all but the eldest son have to shift for
+themselves as best they can. The younger sons go into the army or the
+Church, and the daughters are wedded to rich husbands, or else they take
+the veil. But it so happened that once upon a time a rich bishop
+belonging to this family made a will directing that his property be
+allowed to accumulate until it became large enough to provide a snug
+fortune of a million florins for each of his relatives; and this end was
+recently realised. But by the terms of the will, the heirs are allowed
+only the usufruct of this legacy, and, furthermore, even that is to be
+forfeited under certain circumstances, as for example, if allegiance be
+refused to the reigning dynasty, or if the legatee renounce the Roman
+Catholic faith, or, in the case of a woman, lead an unchaste life. Any
+part of the estate thus forfeited goes to the remaining legatees in an
+equal division, and so you can imagine what a sharp watch the several
+beneficiaries under this will keep over one another. A million is no
+bagatelle; the game is worth the candle. But to come back to our
+starting-point, Countess Blanka was joined in marriage with Prince
+Cagliari as soon as she left the convent. You must know the prince, at
+least by reputation; he plays no small part in the political world."
+
+"I have met him several times," replied Manasseh.
+
+"At court balls in Vienna, doubtless," said the advocate; "for, old as
+Cagliari is, he still turns night into day and burns the candle at both
+ends. When he married Countess Blanka he was very intimate with the
+Marchioness Caldariva, formerly known to lovers of the ballet as 'the
+beautiful Cyrene.' She practised the terpsichorean art with such success
+that one day she danced into favour with an Italian marquis who honoured
+her with the gift of his name and rank, after which he shot himself. The
+marchioness now owns a splendid palace in Vienna, a present from Prince
+Cagliari, who, they say, forgot to deliver up the key to her when he
+married Countess Blanka. It is even whispered that the marchioness
+herself tied the bridegroom's cravat for him on his wedding-day. Well,
+however that may be, the prince took the young lady to wife, much as a
+rich man buys a horse of rare breed, or a costly statue, or any other
+high-priced curiosity. But the poor bride could not endure her husband's
+presence. She was only a child, and, up to the day of her marriage, had
+no conception of the real meaning of matrimony. The prince has never
+enjoyed a moment's happiness with his young wife. His very first attempt
+to offer her a husband's caresses caused her to turn deadly pale and go
+into convulsions; and this occurred as often as the two were left alone.
+The prince complained of his hard lot, and sought medical advice. It was
+reported that the young wife was subject to epileptic attacks. A man of
+any delicacy would have accepted the situation and held his peace; but
+the prince took counsel of his factotum, a certain Benjamin Vajdar----"
+
+An involuntary movement, and a half-suppressed exclamation on Manasseh's
+part, made the speaker turn to him inquiringly; then, as the other said
+nothing, he resumed:
+
+"This factotum is the evil genius of the family, and the two together
+make a pair hard to match. The prince has obstinacy, sensuality,
+arrogance, and vindictiveness; and his tool has brains, cunning, and
+inventiveness, for the effective exercise of the other's evil
+tendencies. Cagliari finally went back to the beautiful Cyrene for
+consolation; but she was bent on proving her power over him, and at her
+bidding he heaped all sorts of indignities upon his innocent and
+helpless wife. At last, to crown all, he instituted divorce proceedings
+against her. This was the price he paid to regain the fair Cyrene's
+favour, but I am convinced that Benjamin Vajdar is at the bottom of it
+all. The prince bases his suit for a separation on his wife's alleged
+epileptic attacks and consequent unfitness for the wedded state. Of
+course that is all nonsense. I am not an epileptic, nor wont to bite or
+scratch people; but I can't approach this Cagliari without experiencing
+a sort of foaming at the mouth and a twitching of the muscles, as if I
+must pitch into the man, tooth and nail. My view of the case is that my
+client finds her husband's attentions so abhorrent that she even swoons
+when he offers to kiss her; and so I am going to apply for a total
+dissolution of the marriage, for if the other side win their case the
+papal edict will forbid a second marriage on the wife's part. And just
+imagine a young girl like her, in the first bloom of youth, scarcely
+twenty years old, compelled to renounce all hope of wedded happiness. We
+are now on our way to Rome to see whether my fair client's personal
+appeal may not avail somewhat with her judges. They cannot but take pity
+on her if their hearts are human. Prince Cagliari has of late lost
+favour at the Vatican, and all the conditions are in our favour; but
+there is one man whom I fear,--that cool and crafty Vajdar. I fell in
+with him in Venice, and asked him whither he was going. 'To Milan,' said
+he, but I knew he lied. He, too, is bound for Rome, and he will be there
+ahead of us, or at least overtake us. If we could only reach Rome first,
+I am confident we should win the game. But I fear he may be on this very
+train. Why, how warm you look! The perspiration stands in drops on your
+forehead. Does my pipe annoy you? No? Well, as I was saying, I suspect
+the fellow is on this train with us, and if he falls into my hands I'll
+wring his miserable neck! He thinks he's going to ruin the young life of
+my client and bury her alive, does he? We'll see about that."
+
+"He shall not do it!" exclaimed the other, with emphasis.
+
+"Good for you, my friend! And if you can propose some scheme for balking
+him, I'll take my hat off to you. Tell me, now, how can the princess
+make sure of outwitting her foes, and so escape the horrible fate of
+being buried alive?"
+
+"She can turn Protestant, and then the Church of Rome will have no claim
+whatever on her."
+
+"Very good, but how about the million florins left her as a good
+Catholic by the bishop?"
+
+Manasseh Adorjan crumbled his cigar in his fingers. "If the princess has
+a woman's heart in her bosom," he declared, "she will throw her million
+away in return for the love of a true man."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+AN INTRUDER EXPELLED.
+
+
+Meanwhile the train had reached another station, a junction where a halt
+was made for refreshments, pending the arrival of a connecting train.
+The advocate was hungry, and accordingly made his way to the
+dining-room, being first warned by his companion to use despatch, as
+otherwise, on returning to the ladies, he might find his compartment
+filled.
+
+"And what will you do meantime?" asked Gabriel.
+
+"I have my sketch-book with me," replied Manasseh, "and I am going to
+draw the view from my perch up here."
+
+"Ah, I did not know you were an artist."
+
+"Yes, I am an artist, and nothing more."
+
+Upon the arrival of the connecting train and the ensuing scramble for
+seats, the ladies of our little party felt some anxiety lest their
+privacy should be rudely broken in upon by unwelcome strangers. Princess
+Cagliari bent forward and looked down the platform, but immediately drew
+back again. Too late, however; she had been seen; and a moment
+afterward a young man, of sleek and comely appearance, immaculately
+dressed, and carrying in one hand a small cane whose peculiar head
+betrayed the fact that it concealed a rapier, sprang lightly on the
+foot-board and entered the compartment.
+
+"Ah, what an unexpected pleasure, Princess!" he exclaimed by way of
+greeting, lifting his hat and appropriating the corner seat opposite
+her.
+
+"Pardon me," said Blanka, "but that seat is engaged. The gentleman who
+is with us--"
+
+"Why, then, didn't he leave something--coat, or umbrella, or
+hand-bag--in proof of his claim to the seat?" interrupted the intruder.
+"The seat is now mine by railway usage, and I cannot deny myself the
+pleasure of sitting opposite you, my dear princess."
+
+Blanka controlled her indignation as best she could, but her companion
+felt called upon to come to her aid with an energetic remonstrance.
+
+"Mr. Vajdar," said she, severely, "you should know what is expected of a
+gentleman in his conduct toward a lady. You are well aware that the
+princess cannot endure your presence, nor are you ignorant of the
+reason."
+
+The handsome young man drew a gilt pasteboard box from his side pocket,
+removed the cover, and offered the contents to the last speaker. "Madam
+Dormandy, you are fond of sweets. Permit me to solicit your acceptance
+of these caramels. They are freshly made, and are really excellent."
+
+But Madam Dormandy turned her back disdainfully on the peace-offering
+and looked anxiously out of the window. "Where can Mr. Zimandy be all
+this time?" she murmured, impatiently.
+
+"How long will you continue to dog my steps?" asked the princess,
+addressing the intruder in a voice that trembled with passion.
+
+"Only to the grave," was the smiling reply; "there we shall
+separate--you to enter the gates of paradise, where I despair of gaining
+admission."
+
+"But what reason have you for wishing my ruin?"
+
+"Because you yourself will have it so. Have I ever made any secret of my
+designs or of my motives?"
+
+"Are you determined to make me leave this compartment?"
+
+"You would gain nothing by so doing," was Vajdar's cool retort. "I could
+not possibly forego the pleasure of your company, in whatever way you
+might choose to continue your journey."
+
+"What is your purpose in all this?" demanded Blanka.
+
+"To make you either as happy as a man can make a woman, or as wretched
+as only the devil himself can render a human being."
+
+"I defy you to do either."
+
+"Futile defiance! The game is in my hands, and I can make you as one
+buried alive."
+
+"God will never allow such an iniquity!" cried the princess.
+
+"Ah, my dear madam, you forget that we are on our way to Rome, where
+there are churches by the score, but no God."
+
+Blanka shuddered in spite of herself, and drew her shawl more closely
+about her, while her foe crossed one leg over the other and smiled
+self-complacently.
+
+The warning cry "_partenza!_" sounded along the platform, and the
+ladies' escort came running in alarm from the dining-room and sought his
+compartment.
+
+"Have I your seat, sir?" coolly inquired Benjamin Vajdar of the man who
+had so lately promised to wring his neck.
+
+"Oh, no, certainly not," mumbled the doughty advocate, in considerable
+surprise and confusion, as he caught his breath and meekly looked around
+for a vacant place.
+
+A lightning-flash from the blond beauty's eyes and a mocking smile from
+the dandy rewarded this courteous forbearance. But the mocking smile
+changed the next instant to a sudden expression of disquiet, if not of
+actual fear. Manasseh Adorjan stood in the doorway, and Blanka noted a
+swift interchange of glances between the young men, like the flashing
+of two drawn swords.
+
+"That place is already engaged, sir," said Manasseh, quietly.
+
+Benjamin Vajdar's face flushed quickly, and then as suddenly paled. In
+his eyes one could have read rage, hate, and fear, and his right hand
+clutched the head of his cane convulsively, as if about to draw the
+weapon therein concealed. But Manasseh still stood regarding him
+fixedly, and the intruder yielded without a word. Taking up his satchel,
+he left the compartment. The whole scene had occupied but a moment. What
+was it that gave one of these men such power over the other, like that
+of a lion-tamer over his charge?
+
+Manasseh himself took the vacated seat, without offering it to the
+advocate, and sat looking out of the window as long as Vajdar was in
+sight. At length the train started, and as it soon entered on a stretch
+of monotonous, waste territory, Blanka yielded to the drowsy lullaby of
+the smoothly rolling wheels, and fell asleep. Once or twice she half
+opened her eyes and was vaguely conscious that the young stranger
+opposite her was drawing something in the sketch-book that lay open on
+his knee. She pushed her veil still farther back from face and brow,
+hardly aware what she was doing, and again fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A BIT OF STRATEGY.
+
+
+A sharp whistle from the locomotive awakened the sleepers.
+
+"Where are we now?" asked Blanka.
+
+"Near Bologna," answered the artist, who alone had remained awake; "and
+there I have to leave the train, which continues on, via Imola, to
+Ancona."
+
+"You leave the train? But I thought you, too, were going to Rome," said
+the princess, in surprise.
+
+"So I am," was the reply, "but by another route. My luggage will go
+through to Ancona, and thence by diligence to Rome, while I push on over
+the Apennines to Pistoja and Florence. It is a harder road, but its
+splendid views amply repay one for an occasional climb on foot by the
+_vetturino's_ side; and then, too, I shall reach Rome one day ahead of
+you, who go by way of Ancona."
+
+Blanka listened with interest. "Couldn't we take that route also?" she
+asked. "What do you say to it, Maria? We could quietly leave the train
+at Bologna and let our trunks go on to Rome without us."
+
+"But are the mountain passes safe?" queried Madam Dormandy, turning to
+Manasseh. "Is there no danger of highwaymen?"
+
+"Bad men are to be feared everywhere," replied the young man; "but as
+for highway robbers, they are much more to be apprehended by those
+travelling with valises and trunks than by the tourist that simply
+carries a satchel slung over his shoulder, as I intend to do. In my
+student days I used to tramp over these mountains in every direction,
+and the brigands never molested me. Whenever I fell in with a band I
+used to group the men together and sketch them. Artists have nothing to
+fear from gentlemen of the road."
+
+"And besides, we are two able-bodied men, and I always carry a brace of
+pistols--don't you?" spoke up the advocate, his professional zeal
+kindling at the prospect of stealing a march on the enemy.
+
+"I carry no weapons of any kind," calmly replied the artist.
+
+"Oh, I fear no harm from bad men," exclaimed the princess; "there is but
+one bad man whom we need to dread."
+
+The others easily guessed to whom she referred; but Gabriel Zimandy was
+bent on making her meaning still plainer.
+
+"He'd better not follow us into the mountains!" he cried, "for if the
+young rogue falls into my hands he'll wish he'd never been born. Lucky
+for him he took our friend's gentle hint; had he kept his seat a moment
+longer there would have been serious trouble."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Madam Dormandy; "how surprised he will be when he
+fails to find us at Ancona and is obliged to journey on by diligence
+with our baggage, but without us!"
+
+"We shall be hurrying on ahead of him over these grand old mountains,"
+added the princess, with enthusiasm, her cheeks glowing in pleased
+anticipation. "And we have to thank you, Mr. Adorjan, for the
+suggestion." With an impulsive movement she extended her hand to the
+young artist, who scarcely ventured to touch her finger-tips in return.
+
+"Very well, then," said he, "we will try the mountain road; and let us
+take no luggage but what we can carry in our hands. When we come to a
+beautiful waterfall we will sketch it, and when we chance upon a fine
+view we will celebrate its beauties in song."
+
+"Yes, and people will take us for strolling minstrels," interposed the
+princess; "and we must drop our real names and titles. Mr. Zimandy shall
+be the impresario, and Madam Dormandy the prima-donna; they can pass for
+husband and wife. We two can be brother and sister. What is your
+sister's name?"
+
+"Anna."
+
+"Lend me her name for a little while, will you? You don't object?"
+
+Manasseh turned strangely sober. "It would be only for your sake that I
+should object," he replied. "The bearer of that name is a very
+unfortunate girl."
+
+So they agreed to leave the train at Bologna and take the mountain pass.
+It only remained to hoodwink Benjamin Vajdar, and Manasseh Adorjan
+promised to effect this. He alighted before the train had fairly
+stopped, having first directed the others to go into the waiting-room.
+"That young man will not stir from his seat, nor will he even look out
+of the window," added Manasseh, with as much confidence as if he had
+acquired a talisman which enabled him to control the other's actions.
+
+As the train rolled out of the station the artist rejoined his party,
+with the welcome assurance that their enemy was now out of their way.
+
+"Is there a mysterious relation of some sort between you two?" asked
+Blanka.
+
+"Yes--one of fear: I tremble every time I see the man."
+
+"You tremble?"
+
+"Yes; I am afraid I shall kill him some day."
+
+With that, and as if regretting that he had said so much, he hurried
+away to engage a carriage to take them to Vergato. During his absence
+the advocate explained to his client that the Unitarians have an
+especial horror of bloodshed. He declared that some of them shrank from
+taking even an animal's life and abstained entirely from the use of
+meat.
+
+Blanka shook her head incredulously. She could not conceive of a
+gentleman's being forbidden by his scruples to use arms when the
+occasion demanded. How else, she asked, could he defend his honour, his
+loved ones, the women entrusted to his charge?
+
+When the four were seated in their carriage, the gentlemen facing the
+ladies, Blanka led the conversation back to the point at which Manasseh
+had dropped it.
+
+"You said you feared you should kill that young man some day," she
+began. "Does your religion forbid you to kill a man--under any
+circumstances?"
+
+"With a single exception," he replied; "but that exception is out of the
+question in this instance."
+
+Blanka wondered what the single exception could be, but refrained from
+asking. "Are you well acquainted with Mr. Vajdar?" she inquired
+presently.
+
+"We have known each other from childhood," was the reply. "Whatever I
+possessed was shared with him. His father was my father's steward; and
+when the steward proved false to his trust and gambled away a large sum
+of money committed to his care, and then shot himself, my father adopted
+the little orphan, and always treated him exactly as he did his own
+children. He grew up to be a bright and promising young man, and never
+failed to win a stranger's favour and confidence. But woe to those that
+thus confided in him! My poor sister, my dear, good little Anna, trusted
+him, and all was ready for their wedding when he disappeared, deserting
+her at the very altar."
+
+Even the shades of approaching nightfall could not hide the expression
+of pain on the speaker's face.
+
+"When did this occur?" asked Blanka, gently.
+
+"Last year--in February."
+
+"The date of my marriage, and of my first seeing that man," was Blanka's
+silent comment. She pondered the possible connection between the two
+circumstances. Benjamin Vajdar had left his affianced bride soon after
+seeing Princess Cagliari; he had then entered Cagliari's service as
+private secretary, and, a little later, divorce proceedings had been
+begun by the prince against his young wife.
+
+"Was it Mr. Vajdar's troubled conscience that made him leave us the
+moment you appeared?" she asked, after a pause.
+
+"No," said Manasseh; "he has no conscience. When he has an object in
+view, all means are legitimate with him. He knows neither consideration
+for others nor shame for his own misdeeds."
+
+"And yet he certainly played the coward before you."
+
+"Because he knows that I possess certain information, certain
+documentary evidence, by which, if I chose, I could hurl him down in
+confusion and disgrace from any height, however lofty, which he might
+succeed in attaining."
+
+"And you refrain from using this evidence against him?"
+
+"To use it would be revenge," replied the young man, calmly.
+
+"Is revenge forbidden where you live?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Has your sister never found a balm for her wounded affections?"
+
+"Never. My people are of the kind that loves but once."
+
+"Pray tell me where it is that your people have their home," urged the
+princess. "Is it on an island in the moon?"
+
+"Indeed, princess, it is not unlike those glimpses of the moon that we
+get through a large telescope when we examine, for instance, the rocky
+island known to astronomers as 'Plutarch,' or that named 'Copernicus.'
+Everything where I live would seem to you to savour of another planet.
+On the maps the place is put down as 'Toroczko.' It is in a mountain
+gorge, entered by a narrow path along the riverside and through a cleft
+in the rocks. The northern side of this narrow ravine, being in some
+measure exposed to the southern sun, is clothed with woods; the
+southern is a great wall of bare rock rising in terraces, or giant
+steps, that might well suggest the dreariness and desolation of a
+landscape in the moon. This barren expanse of naked rock is called the
+Szekler Stone, and was formerly surmounted by the castle of a Hungarian
+vice-voivode. Its ruins are still to be seen there. The lower slopes of
+this mountainside are cultivated now, and the ploughshare is gradually
+forcing one terrace after another to yield sustenance to the farmer.
+Thus it is that by these cultivated terraces the centuries of the town's
+history can be numbered. For there is a village there, deep down in the
+rocky ravine, as if on the floor of a volcano's crater, and in that
+village live the happiest people in all the world. Do not think me
+unduly prejudiced by the fact that I am one of them. No, I am not
+prejudiced. Strangers also find no terms of praise too high for those
+happy and industrious people. Noted English and German travellers have
+visited my native valley and afterward written books about it, as other
+travellers have about Japan or Circassia. Indeed, those two countries
+have something in common with my own. My people have developed and
+perfected industries peculiar to themselves, as have the Japanese, and
+they also are proud of their handsome women, as are the
+Circassians--except that the girls of Toroczko are not for sale, nor,
+for that matter, are they to be had by foreigners, even for love. Their
+charms bloom only for their own countrymen, and by them they are
+jealously guarded. They never work in the fields, and so their fair
+faces are never tanned or freckled. The young maidens keep their rooms,
+and spin, weave, and embroider for their own adornment. When Sunday
+comes and they all go to church, they fill six benches and form a
+veritable 'book of beauties,' of various types, both blond and brunette,
+which, however, one cannot so easily distinguish, owing to the richly
+worked kerchiefs under which their hair is hidden. Their entire costume
+is snow-white, even to the fine sheepskin bodice worn by each."
+
+"Ah, your young women think of nothing but dress, I fear," remarked
+Blanka.
+
+"By no means," protested Manasseh; "on the contrary, their childhood and
+youth are largely devoted to education. The people of our little valley
+maintain a high school for boys and a seminary for girls, as well as a
+charity school for the poor."
+
+"Then your people must be rich."
+
+"No, not rich. There are no lords or ladies among them, and they have
+suffered more from the ravages of war than any other community in
+Hungary."
+
+"But how," asked Blanka, "can they afford to dress their young women in
+silks and laces, and give both boys and girls an education? They must
+have some fairy talisman for conjuring wealth out of the rocks on which
+their houses stand."
+
+"And so they have. Their talisman is industry, and out of their rocky
+soil they conjure riches in the shape of iron,--the best that can be
+found in all Transylvania. The same men that fill the church every
+Sunday, in holiday attire, dig and delve under ground the remaining six
+days of the week. Another secret of their modest wealth is their
+abstinence from strong drink. There is not a single grog-shop in
+Toroczko. But I fear I am wearying you."
+
+Blanka begged him to continue, and took occasion to ask him why he did
+not go back to the beautiful valley which he seemed to love so warmly.
+
+"Because," was the answer, "my people are now enjoying a period of
+happiness in which I have no part. If misfortune should ever overtake
+them, I should go back and strive to lighten it, or at least I would
+bear it with them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+HOLY WEEK IN ROME.
+
+
+It was evening when the travellers reached Rome. They had accomplished
+the journey in the time promised by Manasseh, and now the query was
+raised, could their enemy, by any possibility, have outstripped them?
+
+Upon the coachman's inquiring to what hotel he should take his
+passengers, Gabriel Zimandy drew out his memorandum-book and read the
+name of a house recommended to him by his landlord at Vienna. European
+innkeepers, be it observed, join together in a sort of fraternity for
+mutual aid in a business way, passing their guests along from city to
+city and from hand to hand, sometimes even providing them with letters
+of introduction.
+
+The cards of the hotel in question bore the important announcement,
+"German is spoken here;" and this was an advantage not to be despised.
+
+"You will come with us, won't you?" said the advocate, turning with a
+courteous bow to Manasseh.
+
+"Where German is spoken? No, I thank you. If I announce myself as a
+Hungarian, they will kiss my hand and then charge the kiss on the bill;
+if I say I am a German, I shall get a drubbing and be charged for that,
+too. I prefer to hunt up a modest little inn where, when I register from
+Transylvania, the good people will think it is somewhere in America,
+perhaps in the neighbourhood of Pennsylvania. The Yankees, you know, are
+highly respected in Italy."
+
+"I regret exceedingly--" began the advocate. "Among so many strangers it
+would have been very pleasant to have----"
+
+"At least one enemy within call," interrupted the young man, with a
+smile. "Well, you see, I am likely to be in Rome some time; so I shall
+look up a quiet room for myself near the Colosseum, where the sun shines
+and I can carry out certain plans of my own."
+
+The carriage turned into a brilliantly lighted street and passed a
+stately palace before which a richly sculptured fountain was sending its
+streams of sparkling water into the air.
+
+"The Palazzo Cagliari," remarked Manasseh, but without any significant
+emphasis.
+
+A natural impulse of curiosity moved Blanka to turn and look at the
+ancestral mansion of her husband's family. A moment later Manasseh
+signalled the driver to stop, and alighted from the carriage after
+shaking hands with his fellow travellers. Gabriel Zimandy said they
+should be sure to meet again soon; Madam Dormandy hoped they might all
+go sightseeing together in a few days; but Blanka said nothing as she
+bowed her farewell.
+
+Reaching their hotel, our three travellers were greeted by the landlord
+with unmistakable tokens of surprise.
+
+"And have your excellencies met with no mishap on the way?" he took
+early occasion to inquire.
+
+"Certainly not. Why?"
+
+"Your coming was announced in advance by our Vienna agent, and
+accordingly we reserved rooms for you. But at the same time another
+guest was also announced, a gentleman of high station from Hungary; and
+this afternoon word came that this gentleman and all his party had been
+captured by bandits in the ravine at the foot of Monte Rosso, and
+carried off into the mountains, where they will have to stay until their
+ransom is forthcoming. We feared your excellencies were of the party."
+
+"No," said Gabriel; "we came by way of Orvieto."
+
+"Lucky for you!" exclaimed the landlord.
+
+"What is the name of the gentleman you refer to?" asked the princess, in
+a tone that betrayed the keenness of her interest.
+
+"It's a queer name," answered the landlord, "and I can't remember it.
+But I'll find it for you in my letters of advice and send it up to your
+room."
+
+Blanka had hardly laid aside her wraps when a waiter knocked at her door
+and presented a card on a silver salver. "Conte Benjamino de Vajdar" was
+the name she read in the landlord's handwriting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the following morning, Blanka sent for the hotel-keeper and desired
+him to procure for herself and her two companions admission tickets to
+all the sacred ceremonies of the coming week. The worthy man fairly
+gasped at the coolness of this request. Tickets to the Sistine Chapel,
+to the Tenebrae, to the Benediction, and to the Glorification--and for
+three persons? Why, money couldn't buy them at that late hour, he
+declared. Admission tickets to paradise would be more easily obtainable.
+At the very utmost, places might still be procured on some balcony
+overlooking the Piazza di San Pietro, but only at extremely high prices.
+Yet the view from such a position would be a fine one; and mine host,
+without waiting to listen to any objections, hastened away to secure
+tickets, if they were still to be had.
+
+The princess made her lament to Gabriel Zimandy over her poor success in
+obtaining what she so ardently desired, and that gentleman sought to
+console her with the assurance that it was highly venturesome for
+ladies to trust themselves in the crowd that always attended the church
+ceremonies of Holy Week, and that she could read all about them much
+more comfortably in the newspapers. Blanka, however, took so much to
+heart the disappointment of her pious wishes, and came so near the point
+of tear-letting, that the advocate felt obliged to sally forth in person
+to see what he could do to console her. In less than an hour he was back
+again, breathless and exultant. He ran up-stairs with the agility of a
+much younger and less corpulent man, and hastened to the princess's
+room, regardless of the fact that she was at the moment under her
+hair-dresser's hands.
+
+"Victory!" he cried, panting for breath. "The impossible is achieved,
+and here are tickets for all three of us--to everything--to the Tenebrae,
+the washing of feet, the Last Supper, the Resurrection, the relics, the
+Benediction--"
+
+"But how did you get them?" interrupted the ladies, overcome with
+curiosity. Madam Dormandy had come hurrying out of her room at the first
+sound of his voice, and she and the princess now proceeded to pelt their
+victorious envoy with a volley of questions.
+
+"Well, you see," replied the lawyer, gradually recovering his breath,
+"it is a curious story. As I was tearing across the Corso, intent on my
+errand, I felt some one catch me by the coat-tail and heard a voice
+call to me in Hungarian, 'Haste makes waste!' I wheeled about, and there
+stood our Arian friend."
+
+"Manasseh Adorjan?"
+
+"Yes. He asked me if we had our affairs all in order, and I told him, by
+no means. I complained to him of our ill luck in securing tickets to the
+sacred ceremonies, and that it seemed impossible to get even anywhere
+near the Vatican. 'Well,' said he, with that confoundedly serious
+expression of his that you don't know whether to take as a sign of jest
+or earnest, 'let me see if I can't make it possible for you.' 'But,'
+said I, 'you don't imagine that you, a fallen statesman and an Arian
+heretic, can gain what is denied to Spanish princesses of the strictest
+orthodoxy?' 'You shall soon see,' he answered, and proceeded to lead me
+through one crooked street after another, until we found ourselves in
+front of a palace, at whose door a military watch was posted. He handed
+his card to the doorkeeper, and presently we were ushered into an
+anteroom, where Adorjan left me while he himself went with a man who
+seemed to be a private secretary, or something of the sort, into the
+next room. It wasn't long before he came out again and put three cards
+into my hand. 'There they are,' said he. 'Why, you are a regular
+magician!' I couldn't but exclaim. 'Oh, no,' he replied, 'I am no
+Cagliostro; the explanation is simple enough. This is the French
+embassy, and Monsieur Rossi is an old friend of mine. I have visited his
+family often. So when I asked him for tickets to all the ceremonies of
+Holy Week for two Hungarian ladies and their escort, he gave them to me
+at once. But now you must look sharp, for cards enough have been given
+out to fill the Sistine Chapel six times over, and there will be a
+scramble to get in.'"
+
+The princess was as pleased as a child. Her dearest wish was gratified;
+but, singularly enough, she owed this gratification to the very man whom
+she felt the necessity of avoiding and forgetting. It was, however, to
+the mysterious charm of the approaching ceremonies that she looked for
+an effective means of diverting her thoughts from forbidden channels.
+Yet the fact remained that he himself had opened the way for her to this
+earnestly desired distraction, and to Blanka it seemed as if his
+influence over her was only increased and strengthened by his absence.
+
+"What return, pray, did you make for all this kindness?" she asked.
+
+"A very ungracious one, I fear," replied Gabriel. "After receiving these
+tickets, which are worth many times their weight in gold, I told our
+benefactor that I feared they would profit us little, unless he procured
+one for himself, also, and acted as our guide."
+
+"You asked him to escort us?" exclaimed the princess, consternation in
+her tone.
+
+"I know it was a strange request," admitted the advocate, "to ask a
+heretic to witness the Passion, and the Resurrection, and the
+Glorification. It is like burning incense before his Satanic Majesty.
+Naturally enough, he refused at first point-blank, alleging that he had
+no right to thrust himself as attendant on two ladies without their
+invitation. 'Well, then,' said I, 'don't go as the ladies' escort, but
+just show me, your fellow countryman, the way about, else I shall
+certainly get lost, and find myself in the Catacombs instead of the
+Vatican.' Finally, I forced him to yield, and so he is to accompany us."
+
+In the afternoon of the same day Manasseh Adorjan called on the
+princess, and brought her a piece of good news of the utmost importance.
+Her trunks, and those of her friends, had arrived safely and promptly,
+and were at the custom-house. She had concluded that they had fallen
+into the bandits' hands, but it seemed that it was not the diligence,
+after all, that the robbers had waylaid; it was a post-carriage engaged
+by one of the travellers in the hope of reaching Rome a few hours
+earlier than the public conveyance. This one traveller only had been
+carried off into the mountains by the bandits, who had despatched a
+letter from their captive to Rome, addressed to Prince Cagliari, and
+presumably relating to the ransom. But as the prince was at present in
+Vienna, and postal communication between the two cities was at that time
+slow and uncertain, the ransom stood a good chance of being considerably
+delayed. This was a hint to the princess to make the most of the
+interim, and plead her cause at the Vatican, before her enemy could put
+in an appearance and damage her case. Manasseh, however, betrayed no
+sign of possessing any knowledge of the pending divorce suit, but
+continued to bear himself with the courteous reserve of a new
+acquaintance. Two things he sought thenceforth to avoid,--paying court
+to the beautiful young princess, and speaking lightly of things held
+sacred by her.
+
+Complying with the expressed wish of the two ladies, in the evening he
+made with them the round of the principal churches, which now all wore
+gala attire. He took his seat on the box by the coachman's side, and
+pointed out, in passing, the buildings and scenes of special interest.
+In one of the churches he showed the ladies facsimiles of the four nails
+used in the Crucifixion; of the originals, one, he explained, was
+preserved in St. Peter's, and another had been used to make the circle
+of the Iron Crown. He even bought as a souvenir one of these facsimiles,
+which a Cistercian monk was offering for sale. He obtained also
+consecrated palm-branches with gilded leaves, and bribed the custodian
+of the three sacred orange-trees planted by the Apostles to give his
+party each a tiny leaflet. He schooled his face to betray no incredulity
+when the keepers of the various holy relics recited their virtues, and
+related the miracles wrought by them. And when Blanka knelt in prayer
+before a statue of the Madonna, he withdrew respectfully to a distance.
+It was an earnest petition she offered before the blessed Virgin, a
+prayer for rescue from her enemies, and for strength to resist every
+temptation. And she knew not that her rescuer and her tempter were one
+and the same person, and that he stood there behind her at that very
+moment.
+
+Of a highly impressionable temperament, and fresh from her convent life,
+the princess was so moved by the sacred emblems about her, and by their
+holy associations, that she could not conceive of any one's viewing
+these objects with less of awe and reverence than herself. And when her
+conductor recounted the legend of the sacred lance in the chapel of St.
+Veronica,--how the Roman lictor Longinus had pierced the Saviour's side
+with this lance, and been himself struck blind the same instant, but had
+immediately recovered his sight when he rubbed his eyes with the hand on
+which four drops of the Redeemer's blood had fallen,--Blanka could not
+but ask herself whether another such miracle might not be wrought, and
+another blind man be restored to sight. She dreamed of this miracle that
+night, and made a vow to the Virgin that in case of her deliverance from
+her present difficulties, she would show her gratitude by presenting the
+Madonna with a jewel more precious than any that adorned her crown: she
+would offer this young man himself, who now refused to worship at her
+shrine. The princess felt herself rich enough to buy this jewel for her
+offering. Her heart held inexhaustible treasures, of which no man as yet
+could claim any share. She ceased to fear him against whom she had
+hitherto felt obliged to be on her guard; so much strength had she
+gained from the sacred relics that she now thought herself strong enough
+to make conquests of her own.
+
+In the morning Manasseh came early to escort the ladies and Gabriel
+Zimandy to the Sistine Chapel. Upon gaining the Piazza di San Pietro
+they found a vast throng already assembled, through which the young man
+was forced to pilot his charges. Blanka was compelled to cling fast to
+his arm, while Madam Dormandy took the advocate's, and so they made the
+best of their way forward. As if by instinct, Manasseh knew where a
+courteous request would open a path before them, where to resort to more
+energetic measures, and where a couple of _lire_ would prove most
+effectual. At length he was successful in gaining the very best
+position in the chapel, and here, unfolding a camp-stool which he had
+brought with him under his overcoat, he offered Blanka a seat, whence
+she could view the ceremonies in comfort, and without annoyance from the
+pushing and crowding multitude.
+
+Alas, poor Blanka! She only learned later from her father confessor what
+a sin she had committed in thus yielding to the weakness of the flesh,
+instead of standing through all the weary hours of that morning. A good
+Christian should not think of bodily comfort while his Saviour hangs
+bleeding on the cross. But she did not know this at the time, and
+therefore her escort's kind attention was most grateful to her.
+
+The Tenebrae is one of the most impressive of all the ceremonies of Holy
+Week in Rome. The Sistine Chapel is draped entirely in black, and only
+the soft rays of thirteen wax candles serve to lessen the darkness, out
+of whose depths, as out of the blackness of the tomb, sounds the
+antiphony of mourning and lamentation. The human forms moving to and fro
+before the cross are hardly distinguishable, but have the appearance of
+vague shadows. Then the candles are, one by one, extinguished, until
+only a single taper is left burning on the altar--that is Jesus. And in
+this darkness, symbolic of grief and mourning, an invisible choir sings
+the _Miserere_, Allegri's world-renowned composition, whose mystic
+notes bring so vividly before us that last scene on Golgotha,--the agony
+of the dying Saviour, the taunts of the lictors, the wailing of the holy
+women, the shrieks of the dead whose graves are opened, and who cry
+aloud for mercy, and finally the rending of the Temple curtain, and the
+chorus of angels in heaven. All this affects even the most hardened of
+skeptics with a power that cannot be withstood. For the time being the
+imagination is mistress of the reason.
+
+As the crowd poured out of the chapel after the ceremony was over,
+Blanka shot a glance of scrutiny from beneath her veil at the young man
+by her side. His face wore its wonted look of seriousness, the utter
+opposite of careless indifference, but at the same time wholly unlike
+the devout rapture of a believer. In fact, his expression betrayed but
+too clearly that his thoughts were little occupied with what he had just
+witnessed.
+
+"Have you heard the _Miserere_ many times before?" asked Blanka.
+
+"Twice only,--once in the Sistine Chapel, and again in St. Stephen's at
+Vienna."
+
+"But I thought its production was forbidden elsewhere than in Rome,"
+said the princess.
+
+"Formerly that was the case," replied Manasseh, "the publication of
+Allegri's work being strictly prohibited; but after Mozart had heard it
+once and written it down from memory, its reproduction could not be
+prevented. So I had a chance to hear it in Vienna, where, however, it
+was but ill received, some of the audience even being moved to
+laughter."
+
+"For what reason, pray?"
+
+"Oh, not from any frivolity or irreverence, but because the music, which
+sounds so grandly impressive here in the Sistine Chapel, strikes one as
+a mere confusion of discordant notes amid other surroundings."
+
+On the following day came the washing of the Apostles' feet. Chosen
+priests from thirteen nations of the earth gathered in the Pauline
+Chapel to receive this humble service at the hands of the Pope himself.
+The thirteenth of these chosen ones represented the angel that is said
+to have appeared with the appointed twelve in St. Gregory's time. Then
+followed the Last Supper, at which also the holy father ministered to
+the Apostles in person.
+
+The next day was Saturday, and Gabriel Zimandy declared himself
+surfeited with holy ceremonies. Madam Dormandy agreed with him and began
+to complain of a fearful headache. Then the two united in maintaining
+that the princess looked utterly worn out and in need of rest. But
+Manasseh, who, by appointment, just then came upon the scene to offer
+his escort for the day, laughed them all three to shame.
+
+"That is always the way," said he; "people tire themselves out so before
+Saturday that on that day five-sixths of the crowd stay at home to save
+up their strength for Easter, and thus miss one of the most impressive
+spectacles of the week,--the adoration of the true cross."
+
+Poor Gabriel was now given no rest: he was forced to accompany the
+others once more to the Sistine Chapel, though he declared himself
+already quite stiff and sore with so much standing.
+
+The chapel was at its best; the black hangings had been removed, the
+light from the windows was softened, candles burned on the altar, and,
+as Manasseh had predicted, so many of the sightseers had stayed at home
+that ample room was left for those who were present. The general
+multitude could find little pleasure in the ceremony of the day,--the
+worship of a piece of wood about three yards in length, and unadorned
+with gold or silver. The Pope and the cardinals, gowned with no pretence
+to magnificence or pomp, knelt before the relic as it lay on the altar.
+It was but a fragment of the original cross, broken in the strife that
+attended its rescue. This piece is said to have been saved and carried
+off by an emperor, making his way barefoot from Jerusalem to Alexandria,
+where another emperor concealed the precious relic in a statue, and
+finally the Templars bore it in triumph through pagan hordes from
+Constantinople to Rome. And now, when the head of the Church, the pastor
+of a flock of two hundred million human beings, the keeper of the keys
+of heaven, approaches this bit of wood, he strips himself of his
+splendid robes, removes the crown from his head, the shoes from his
+feet, and goes, simply clad and barefoot, with humble mien, to kneel and
+kiss the sacred emblem. The cardinals follow his example, and meanwhile
+the choir sings Palestrina's famous composition, the "Mass of Pope
+Marcellinus," a wonderful piece that must have been first sung to the
+composer by the angels themselves.
+
+When the last notes of the music had died away, the bells of St. Peter's
+began to ring, the hangings before the windows were drawn aside, and
+Michael Angelo's marvellous frescoes were fully revealed to the admiring
+gaze of all present. The swords and halberds of the guards were once
+more raised erect, and the choir, the prelates, and the pilgrims joined
+in a common "Hallelujah!"
+
+"Hallelujah!" cried Gabriel Zimandy also, rejoicing that the ceremony
+was finally ended. "Never before in all my life have I been so
+completely tired out."
+
+On his return to the hotel, he stoutly protested against attending any
+more Church functions, and argued at length the inadvisability of the
+ladies exposing themselves to the heat and fatigue of the Easter
+service. Finally, and most important of all, he added that he had been
+granted an audience with the Pope and must prepare his address, which
+was to be in Latin.
+
+"We are infinitely indebted to you, friend Manasseh," he concluded, "for
+all your kindness; but you see for yourself how the case stands with
+me."
+
+"Yes, yes, I understand," replied the young man. "The audience is fixed
+for day after to-morrow, and of course you wish to prepare for it. Let
+me suggest, too, that you pay the French ambassador, to whose house I
+took you the other day, the courtesy of a call; he knows a little Latin,
+although, to be sure, it can't equal your own."
+
+This suggestion, casual though it was meant to appear, made it evident
+to the advocate that he owed the early granting of his request to the
+powerful influence of the French minister. And Manasseh, on his part,
+was not slow to perceive that the advocate's chief concern was lest his
+fair client, at this critical time, should be seen in public in the
+company of a strange young man. It might hurt her case irremediably.
+
+With a full understanding of the situation, Manasseh took leave of the
+princess, who indeed was looking very down-hearted at the prospect of
+missing what she had so ardently desired. But she was schooled to the
+denial of her own pleasure, and so quietly shook hands with her
+caller--then went to the window to watch his retreating form.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE CONSECRATED PALM-LEAF.
+
+
+Early the next morning the cannon began to boom from the Castle of St.
+Angelo. Gabriel Zimandy sprang out of bed and dressed himself quickly.
+His first care was to tap at Madam Dormandy's door and inquire for her
+health. The patient answered in a pitiful voice that the guns were
+fairly splitting her poor head, and that she did not expect to live the
+day through. This reply seemed to be quite to the advocate's liking: of
+the lady's succumbing to her ailment he had not the slightest fear,
+while he now felt assured that it would be impossible for his client to
+go out that day. What conception had he, heartless man, of the longing
+that filled the young woman's soul for the papal blessing, to which she
+ascribed such miraculous power, but which to him was nothing more than a
+Latin phrase?
+
+Soon the bells began to ring from all the church-towers of the city, and
+a stream of people in gala attire poured toward St. Peter's. Poor Blanka
+sat at her window with eyes fixed on a certain corner, around which she
+had the day before seen Manasseh Adorjan's form disappear. The clocks
+struck twelve, thirteen, fourteen--by Italian reckoning of time; the
+crowds began to thin, and at last every one seemed to have betaken
+himself to St. Peter's. An open carriage halted in the now deserted
+street in front of the hotel, and Blanka recognised in its occupant the
+very person whose image had been so persistently before her mind's eye.
+
+"Pardon me, princess, for intruding," began Manasseh in greeting, as he
+entered the young lady's presence; "but yesterday I saw that you were
+disappointed at not being able to attend the Easter service at St.
+Peter's. I have found means to remove that disappointment, I hope."
+
+The princess felt her pulse quicken with eager delight, while at the
+same time she shrank back in nameless apprehension of what the young man
+might be going to propose.
+
+"I fear it is too late," she replied, quietly. "I am not even dressed
+for the occasion."
+
+"You have time enough," returned the other, reassuringly. "The French
+minister's wife has kindly offered to take you with her. Seats for the
+ladies of the embassy have been reserved and can be easily reached by a
+special entrance. They are very near the _loggia_ where the papal
+blessing will be pronounced. In an hour Madame Rossi will be here; that
+will give you time to get ready."
+
+"And are you going with us?"
+
+"No, that will be impossible, as the reserved seats are for ladies only;
+but I will escort Madame Rossi and her daughter to your door, and you
+will, I am sure, find them very pleasant company. For myself, I shall
+hunt up some sort of a perch where I can get a view of the day's
+festivities."
+
+So saying, the young man hurried away.
+
+Against this plan Gabriel Zimandy could raise no objections. Indeed, he
+saw the policy of making friends with the French embassy, and as long as
+Manasseh was not to accompany the party his professional schemes were in
+no wise endangered.
+
+When Manasseh returned with the French ladies he sought the lawyer.
+"Come, my friend," he urged, "if your legs have nothing to say against
+it, if your religious belief permits, and if you have studied your Latin
+speech enough for one day, I will find you a good shady spot where you
+can witness what no mortal eye has seen in all these eighteen Christian
+centuries, and is little likely to see again in eighteen centuries to
+come."
+
+"What may that be?"
+
+"A Pope of the Romish Church, pronouncing his blessing from the _loggia_
+of St. Peter's on the Roman army, preparatory to its marching forth to
+fight for freedom. Durando's troops are now marshalled in St. Peter's
+Square, awaiting the papal blessing on the swords drawn for liberty and
+country. It has, I know, been your dream to witness a sight like that,
+and now I come to invite you to its realisation."
+
+"Well, well, that is something worth while," admitted the advocate. "The
+whole Roman army, and Durando himself! Surely, I can't afford to miss
+it." The invitation had driven quite out of his head all the objections
+so strenuously urged the day before.
+
+The ladies had no difficulty in reaching the places reserved for them;
+for the gentlemen, however, it was not so easy to find even
+standing-room. But at length Manasseh guided his companion to one end of
+the scaffolding which supported the ladies' platform, and there found
+for him a V-shaped seat in the angle of two beams, while he himself
+stood on a projecting timber which afforded him room for one foot, and
+clung to the woodwork of the platform with both hands. The discomfort of
+his position was lightened for him by the fact that, only a few feet
+above, he could see Blanka's face as she sat with eyes directed toward
+the _loggia_ where the Pope was soon to appear.
+
+It was a grand spectacle. The whole army--infantry, cavalry,
+artillery--was drawn up in the immense _piazza_, each regiment carrying
+two flags--the banner of the Church, on which were depicted the keys of
+heaven, and the red, white, and green flag of Italian freedom. The
+background to this scene was furnished by the cathedral itself, a vast
+throng of spectators crowded the foreground, and the whole united to
+produce an effect of pomp and grandeur that fairly beggars description.
+
+The clocks struck eighteen--midday. The great bell sounded in the
+western turret of the cathedral, and the booming of cannon was once more
+heard from the Castle of St. Angelo. The service within the cathedral
+was at an end, the leather curtains that hung before the great bronze
+doors parted, and out poured the procession of pilgrims, until the whole
+wide expanse of the portico was filled. Mysterious music fell on the ear
+from somewhere above: a military band stationed aloft in the cupola had
+struck up a psalm of praise, and it seemed to the listeners to come from
+heaven itself. Silver trumpets--so the faithful believe--are used in
+rendering this piece.
+
+All faces were now turned toward the _loggia_, a sort of projecting
+balcony high up on the front of the cathedral. A sound like the murmur
+of the sea rose from the multitude: each spectator was shifting his
+position, and seeking a clearer view. Then the _loggia_ became suddenly
+filled with moving forms,--cardinals in their splendid robes, knights in
+mediaeval armour, pages in costly livery. The crown-bearers advanced with
+two triple tiaras, one the gift of Napoleon I., the other presented by
+the queen of Spain, and both sparkling with diamonds. A third
+crown,--the oldest of all, originally simple in form, then a double
+diadem, and finally a threefold tiara,--encircled the head of the Pope
+himself, who, seated on a golden throne, was borne forward to the stone
+breastwork, on which two crowns had been placed by their bearers. The
+pontiff rose from his seat and the sun shone full upon his venerable
+form. He wore a white robe embroidered with gold, and his appearance was
+radiant with light. The benignant smile that illumined his countenance
+outshone all the diamonds in his triple crown.
+
+How happy was Princess Blanka at that moment! and hers were the fairest
+gems in all that costly array,--two tears that glistened in her large
+dark eyes as she gazed intently on the scene before her.
+
+The two youngest cardinals took their stand on either side of the Pope,
+each holding a palm-leaf in his hand. Then, over the awed and silent
+throng before him, in a voice still strong, sonorous, and vibrant with
+feeling, the aged pontiff pronounced his blessing in words at once
+simple, sincere, and gracious.
+
+Blanka and Manasseh exchanged glances, and the young man felt a
+tear-drop fall upon his cheek. From that moment an indissoluble bond
+united the two.
+
+When the benediction was over, a stentorian voice from the multitude
+cried, "_Evviva Pio Nono!_" The shout was caught up by all the vast
+throng, and sent heavenward in a united cry of ever-swelling volume. Not
+merely Pius IX., but St. Peter himself seemed to stand before the
+jubilant multitude, opening heaven's gates with one key, and the portals
+of an earthly paradise of freedom with another. The two cardinals cast
+their palm-leaves down to the people, and as they fell, fluttering
+uncertainly, now this way, now that, all eyes followed them to see who
+should be the happy ones to secure the precious emblems of benediction
+and absolution. One leaf, after hovering in the air a moment, sank in
+ever narrowing circles until it lodged on the flag of a volunteer
+regiment, whereupon a mighty cheer burst from thousands of throats. The
+other, borne hither and thither by shifting breezes, was finally wafted
+toward the raised platform where sat the ladies of the French embassy. A
+hundred hands reached eagerly for it as it sank lower and lower; but one
+arm, extending higher than the others, secured the prize. It was
+Manasseh who from his elevated position, intercepted the coveted token
+as it fell, and he immediately turned and presented it to Princess
+Cagliari, amid a storm of applause from the onlookers.
+
+The princess was a beautiful woman, but at the moment of receiving this
+symbol of forgiveness and blessing, her face gained such a look of
+radiant happiness as can only be imagined on the countenance of an angel
+in his flight to heaven; and to her that precious leaf meant heaven
+indeed. But when she turned to thank the giver he had disappeared.
+
+"That was really grand," admitted Gabriel Zimandy, as his friend piloted
+him through the surging throng to the nearest cab. "To think of the
+Pope's giving his blessing to an army mustered in the cause of liberty!
+Such a sight was never seen before."
+
+"No," returned Manasseh; "and you must make haste to push your client's
+cause while he is in his present good humour, which may not last."
+
+"But, surely, you don't mean that his Holiness is in any way trifling
+with the people, do you?" asked the advocate.
+
+"I am fully convinced," replied the other, "that Pio Nono is a gentle,
+good-hearted, upright man, and a gracious pontiff; but I also believe
+that, at the very first engagement, the Austrians will give the pious
+Durando a most unmerciful whipping. What direction the wind will take in
+Rome after that, no mortal can tell. You will do well, however, to make
+the most of your time while that palm-leaf is still green."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+AN AUDIENCE WITH THE POPE.
+
+
+On the following day came the audience with his Holiness, Pius the
+Ninth.
+
+The Very Reverend Dean Szerenyi was first sent by the master of
+ceremonies to instruct the lawyer and his client in the details of their
+approaching interview. This envoy even took pains to indicate in what
+sort of toilet ladies were expected to appear. The gown must come up
+high about the neck and might be of any colour desired, or of black silk
+if the wearer was in mourning. Jewelry was not forbidden. A lackey in
+red livery would usher the strangers into the audience-chamber. Their
+petition must be carried in the hand. In the throne-room--where ladies
+were permitted to gaze to their hearts' content on the splendid display
+of Japanese porcelain--the major-domo would marshal the company in a
+double file, and there they would wait until his Holiness appeared.
+
+"But look here," interposed Zimandy, with a troubled look, "does the
+Pope know I am a Calvinist?"
+
+"He never asks about the religious belief of those who seek an audience
+with him. On all alike he bestows his blessing, assuming that all who
+court his favour have an equal need of his benediction."
+
+"Are there very many asking an audience at this time?"
+
+"Only eight hundred."
+
+"E-e-e! Eight hundred! How am I ever going to get a chance to deliver my
+Latin speech that I have been working on all night?"
+
+"You will not be called upon for it at all. It is not customary in a
+general audience with the Pope to make set speeches. His Holiness
+addresses whom he chooses, and they answer him. All petitions are taken
+in charge by the secretary."
+
+"Then it is lucky I put into mine everything that I intended to say.
+Well, give my respects to his Holiness, and tell him I was the one who
+made the motion in the Pest Radical Club to have his portrait hung on
+the wall in a gilt frame; and if he is a smoker, I should be happy to
+send him some superfine--"
+
+But the dean had urgent matters to attend to, and begged to take his
+leave without further delay.
+
+Our travellers, with the eager promptness characteristic of Hungarians
+on such occasions, were the first to be ushered into the antechamber at
+the Vatican. Consequently they had an opportunity to hear the names of
+all the other petitioners announced by the footman as they came in by
+ones and twos and in little parties. They seemed to be all foreign
+prelates, princes, ambassadors, and other high dignitaries; and, in
+drawing them up in line, the major-domo gave them all precedence over
+our party, much to the latter's humiliation and disgust. It is not
+pleasant to stand waiting for a whole hour, only to find at its end that
+one is no farther forward than at first.
+
+But when the antechamber was nearly full, a uniformed official entered
+by a side door and made his way to the very foot of the line where the
+Hungarians were standing.
+
+"Serenissima principessa de Cagliari! Nobilis domina vidua de Dormand!
+Egregius dominus de Zimand!"
+
+This ceremonious apostrophe was followed by a wave of the hand, which
+indicated that the persons addressed were to follow the speaker, and
+that they were granted the special favour of a private hearing before
+his Holiness. Through the long hall, past lines of waiting men and
+women, they made their way; and as they went, inquiring looks and
+suppressed whispers followed them. The princess was recognised by many
+as the fortunate recipient of the consecrated palm-leaf on the day
+before, and they whispered one to another, "Ah, _la beata!_"
+
+This sudden turn of affairs drove Gabriel Zimandy's Latin speech
+completely out of his head, so that he could not have given even the
+first word. As he hastened forward in all his court toggery, as he
+called it, he could have sworn that there were at least fifty swords
+dangling between his legs and doing their best to trip him up. After
+passing through a seemingly endless succession of splendid halls and
+stately corridors, the party was ushered into an apartment opening on
+the magnificent gardens of the Vatican. Here it was that Pio Nono was
+wont to receive the ladies whom he favoured with a private audience.
+
+The princess and her companions stood before the august head of the
+Church, the sovereign who acknowledges no earthly boundaries to his
+dominions. Blanka felt a deep joy in her heart as she looked on that
+benignant countenance, her eyes filled with tears, and she sank on her
+knees. The Pope bent and graciously raised her to her feet. He laid his
+hand on her head, and spoke to her words of comfort which she enshrined
+in the inmost sanctuary of her heart.
+
+When the audience was over and our friends had retired, Gabriel Zimandy
+could not have given any coherent account of what had passed, nor,
+indeed, was he in the least certain whether he had unburdened himself of
+his Latin speech, or stuck fast at the _beatissime pater_. Madam
+Dormandy, however, was sure to enlighten him as soon as they regained
+their hotel. He knew at least that the written petition which he had
+carried in his hand was no longer on his person; hence he must have
+accomplished his main object.
+
+Madam Dormandy alone seemed to have kept her wits about her through it
+all. She was able to tell how the Pope, while Zimandy was stammering
+some sort of gibberish,--Hebrew or Greek, for aught she knew,--had taken
+his snuff-box from a pocket behind, and smilingly helped himself to a
+pinch of snuff. Further, the snuff-box had looked like a common
+tortoise-shell affair with an enamelled cover; and after he had taken
+his pinch, he had put his hand into the pocket of his gold-embroidered
+silk gown and drawn out a coarse cotton handkerchief such as the
+Franciscans use.
+
+But these little details had entirely escaped the princess and her
+lawyer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AN UNWELCOME VISITOR.
+
+
+One day, when Blanka announced her intention of visiting the Colosseum
+for the purpose of sketching it, Gabriel Zimandy declared that he could
+not be one of the party, and the two ladies must get along without his
+escort. He said he was going to the Lateran, in his client's interest,
+and added that he had just received unwelcome news from Manasseh.
+
+"Then you have told him what brought us to Rome," said the princess.
+
+"Are you angry with me for doing so?" asked the advocate.
+
+"No, no; you were quite right. What word does he send you?"
+
+"I'll read you what he says--if I can; he writes an abominable hand.
+'While you are seeing the sights of Rome with the ladies,' he begins,
+'important events are taking place elsewhere. General Durando has had a
+taste of the Austrians at Ferrara, and found them hard nuts to crack. In
+his wrath he now proclaims a crusade against them, fastens red crosses
+on his soldiers' breasts, and is pushing forward to cross the Po. But
+this action of his is very displeasing to the Pope, who does not look
+kindly on a crusade by a Roman army against a Christian nation.
+Accordingly he has forbidden Durando to cross the Po. If now the general
+disobeys, all those whose powerful favour your client at present enjoys
+will lose their influence; and should he suffer defeat beyond the Po, as
+he well may, your client's enemies could hardly fail to gain the upper
+hand. You will do wisely, therefore, to press an issue before it is too
+late.'"
+
+"But is it possible that I should be made to suffer for a defeat on the
+battle-field?" asked Blanka.
+
+"H'm! _Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi_," returned the
+advocate, sententiously; and he hurried away without explaining that the
+quotation meant,--Whenever kings fall to quarrelling, the common people
+suffer for it. Such was the old Greek usage.
+
+Blanka was thus left to find her way to the Colosseum with Madam
+Dormandy, under the guidance of an abbot, whom they had secured as
+cicerone; and, while the reverend father entertained the young widow
+with a historical lecture, the princess seated herself at the foot of
+the cross that stands in the middle of the arena, and sought to sketch
+the view before her. But her success was poor; she was conscious of
+failure with every fresh attempt. Three times she began, and as often
+was forced to discard her work and start over again. The Colosseum will
+not suffer its likeness to be taken by every one; it is a favour that
+must be fought for.
+
+High up on the dizzy height of the third gallery sat a wee speck of a
+man with an easel before him. Even through an opera-glass the painter
+looked like an ant on a house-top. He wore a broad-brimmed straw hat,
+and behind him a large umbrella was opened against the fierce rays of
+the Italian sun. Thus protected, he sat there busily at work. Blanka
+envied him: he had mastered the mighty Colosseum and caught its
+likeness. How had he set about it? Why, naturally enough, he had climbed
+the giddy height and conquered the giant from above. She resolved to
+come again, early the next morning, and follow his example. With that
+she tore the spoiled leaves impatiently from her sketch-book, and threw
+them down among the thistles that sprang up everywhere between the
+stones of the ruin. It was getting late, and she was forced to return to
+her hotel and dress for the theatre.
+
+The way back led past the Cagliari palace, and Blanka noted with
+surprise that its iron shutters were open and the first story
+brilliantly lighted. The gate, too, was thrown back, giving a view of
+the courtyard, which wore rather the aspect of a garden. Who could have
+wrought this sudden transformation in the deserted old mansion?
+
+A still greater surprise awaited the princess when she reached her
+hotel. The proprietor himself came down the steps to open her carriage
+door, assist her to alight, and escort her to her rooms.
+
+"Thank you, sir, but pray don't trouble yourself," began Blanka. "I can
+find my way very well alone."
+
+The innkeeper persisted, however, although the double doors to which he
+led her, and which he threw open before her, were not those of her own
+apartment. The ladies found themselves in a sumptuously furnished
+anteroom, from which, through a half-opened door, they looked into a
+spacious drawing-room yet more luxuriously fitted up, with oil paintings
+on its walls and potted plants in its four corners. Leading out of this
+apartment, to right and left, were still other elaborately furnished
+rooms, which a footman in gold-braided red livery obsequiously threw
+open.
+
+"While the princess was out," explained the hotel keeper, with a bow and
+a smile, "I had this suite of rooms put in order for her reception, and
+hope they will give entire satisfaction."
+
+"No, no, my dear sir," protested Blanka, "they appear far too
+magnificent for my needs, and I prefer to remain where I was. And how
+about this footman?"
+
+"A servant of the house, but now dressed in the princess's livery," was
+the reply. "Henceforth he is to be at your sole disposal, and a liveried
+coachman in a white wig, with a closed carriage, is also ordered to
+serve you. All this is in compliance with directions from high quarters.
+A gentleman was here in your absence and expressed great displeasure
+that Princess Cagliari and her party were lodged in a suite of only four
+rooms. Where is his card, Beppo? Go and fetch it."
+
+Blanka had no need to look at the card: she knew well enough whose name
+it bore. Controlling her agitation, she turned calmly to the hotel
+proprietor. "I must beg you," said she, "not to receive orders from any
+one but my attorney. Otherwise I shall feel obliged to leave your hotel
+at once. Let my old rooms be opened for me again, and engage no special
+servants on my account." So saying, she returned to her former quarters.
+
+With no little impatience she awaited the advocate's return, and as soon
+as he appeared questioned him eagerly for news.
+
+"None at all," he answered, wearily. "I've been running around all day,
+and have accomplished absolutely nothing; couldn't find the people I
+wished to see, and those I did find pretended not to understand a word
+I said. If I only knew where that fellow Manasseh had hidden himself!"
+
+"I could tell you," thought Blanka, but did not offer to do so. "Well,"
+said she, aloud, "if you have no news, I have. Look at this card."
+
+The lawyer put on his eyeglasses and read the name,--"Benjamin Vajdar."
+
+"Prince Cagliari is in Rome also," added Blanka.
+
+The advocate looked at her. "So Vajdar has been here, has he? Did you
+see him?"
+
+"No; but he is sure to come again. I have given orders that he is to be
+referred to you. I have nothing to say to him."
+
+"Just let me get hold of him!" cried Gabriel, with menace in his looks,
+and then added: "I only wish I knew where to find Manasseh."
+
+"I know," said the princess to herself. She had learned his address by a
+curious accident. When she and the young painter went to see the Sistine
+Chapel together they were called upon, as are all visitors, to give
+their names and addresses. Thus she could not avoid hearing the street
+and number of Manasseh's temporary abode, and this street and number she
+had afterward written down in her sketch-book--foreign names are so hard
+to remember.
+
+When her lawyer had withdrawn she sought her book and turned its leaves
+in search of the address. But though she hunted through all the pages
+again and again, she could not find the memorandum which she felt sure
+she had made. Suddenly she remembered having torn out and thrown away
+two or three leaves,--those containing her futile attempts to sketch the
+Colosseum.
+
+At this point a letter was delivered to the princess. It was from Prince
+Cagliari, and asked Blanka to assign an hour at which to receive him.
+She answered the note at once, naming ten o'clock of the following
+morning.
+
+Promptly on the hour appointed the prince's equipage appeared at the
+hotel door, and he himself came up the stairs, leaning on his
+gold-headed cane. He enjoyed the full use of only one foot, although his
+gouty condition was not very apparent except when he climbed a flight of
+stairs. Ordinarily he showed admirable skill in disguising his defect.
+He was still a fine-looking man, and only the whiteness of his hair
+betrayed his age. Clean-shaven and of florid complexion, he wore a
+constant smile on his finely chiselled lips, and bore himself with a
+graceful air of self-assertion that seldom failed of its effect on the
+women whom he chose to honour with his attentions.
+
+The head waiter hurried on before him to announce his coming. Blanka met
+the prince in her antechamber. He took her offered hand and at the same
+time barred the waiter's exit with his cane.
+
+"Is the princess still lodged in these rooms?" he demanded.
+
+The servant could not find a word to say in apology, but the princess
+came to his aid.
+
+"I wished to remain here," said she, calmly.
+
+The domestic was then dismissed and the visitor ushered into the next
+room.
+
+"I greatly regret," he began, "that you chose to put aside my friendly
+intercession on your behalf. These quarters do not befit your rank.
+Furthermore, by retaining a Protestant lawyer you appear to challenge me
+to the bitterest of conflicts."
+
+"Do you so interpret my action?" asked Blanka, proud reproach in her
+tone.
+
+"No, Blanka, assuredly not. Your own noble heart moved you rather to use
+mild measures--in spite of your attorney. You generously refrained from
+pushing your advantage against me while I was detained elsewhere and
+while my secretary was also unavoidably delayed. In return for this
+generosity, Prince Cagliari comes to you now, not as your opponent in a
+suit at law, not as a husband to claim his wife, but as a father seeking
+his daughter. What say you? Will you accept me as a father?"
+
+Blanka was almost inclined to believe in the speaker's sincerity; yet he
+had caused her far too much pain in the past to admit of any sudden
+reconciliation in this theatrical fashion. She remained unmoved.
+
+"Bear in mind, my dear Blanka," proceeded the prince, "that the key to
+the situation is now in my hands. Recent important events have made me a
+_persona grata_ at the Vatican, and now the first of the conditions
+which I feel justified in imposing on you is that you acquiesce in the
+arrangements which, with all a father's forethought, I have made for
+your comfort during your sojourn in Rome. If the case between us is to
+reach a peaceful settlement, we must, above all things, avoid the
+appearance of mutual hostility; and it is a hostile demonstration on the
+part of Princess Cagliari to be seen driving about the city in a hired
+cab, and occupying, with her party, a suite of only four rooms. My duty
+demanded that I should at least offer you the use of the Cagliari
+palace, which consists of two entirely distinct wings, with separate
+entrances, stairs, and gardens; but I knew only too well that you would
+have rejected the offer."
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"Therefore nothing was left me but to order the apartments in this hotel
+commonly occupied by visiting foreign princes to be placed at your
+disposal. No burdensome obligation, however, will be incurred by you in
+acceding to this arrangement, as I shall, in the event of our
+separation, see that the expense is deducted from the allowance which I
+shall be required to make you."
+
+Blanka, who was naturally of a confiding disposition, not infrequently
+reposed her confidence where it was undeserved,--a failing not to be
+wondered at in one so young. Her husband was one of those in whom she
+thus sometimes placed too large a measure of trust, although she had
+early learned that no word from his mouth was to be accepted in its
+obvious meaning. Yet this matter of her apartments in the hotel seemed
+to her of such trifling moment that she let him have his way and
+consented to make the change which he desired, albeit at the same time
+strongly suspecting a hidden motive on his part.
+
+"I am very glad, my dear Blanka," said Cagliari, when the princess had
+indicated her willingness to comply with his request, "to find you
+disposed to meet me half-way in this matter. We will, then, leave
+further details to the hotel keeper. He will provide you with servants
+in the livery of our house. How many do you wish--two?"
+
+"One will suffice."
+
+"And if he does not suit you, dismiss him and demand another. You shall
+have no ground for suspecting me of placing a spy upon you in the guise
+of a servant."
+
+"Even if you should, it would trouble me little. A spy would find
+nothing to report to you."
+
+"My dear Blanka, no one sees his own face except in a mirror; others can
+see it at all times."
+
+"Have you anything to criticise in my conduct?"
+
+"Nothing, I assure you. I know your firmness of principle. I look at you
+now, not through the yellow glass used by a jealous husband in
+scrutinising his wife, but through the rose-coloured glass that a fond
+father holds before his eyes in regarding a beloved daughter. If you
+travelled in a stranger's company on your journey to Rome, that may very
+well have been a mere matter of chance. If you left the accustomed route
+under his escort, you may have done so to avoid suspected dangers. If
+you are seen again in Rome at this stranger's side, I see nothing in
+that but his recognition of his duty toward you,--the courtesy of a
+fellow countryman acquainted with Rome toward a lady visiting that city
+for the first time. And if you walked together arm in arm, it was
+undoubtedly because of the pressure of the crowd, which always justifies
+a lady in seeking the protection of the first man available."
+
+This speech filled Blanka with indignation and dismay. Weapons were
+being forged against her, she perceived; but she could do nothing. Had
+she offered a denial, her glowing cheeks would have testified against
+her. She held her peace, accordingly, and preserved such outward
+composure as she was able.
+
+"_N'en parlons plus!_" concluded the prince, fully aware of his triumph.
+"No one shall boast of outdoing Prince Cagliari in magnanimity,--not
+even his wife. Where you have knelt and sued for mercy, I too will
+kneel; what you have written in your petition I will subscribe to, and
+add still further: 'We are not husband and wife, we are father and
+daughter.' And you shall learn that this is no empty phrase. I do not
+seek to sever the bond between us; I exchange it for another."
+
+All this was uttered in so friendly a tone, and with such seeming warmth
+of feeling, that no one unacquainted with the speaker, and not knowing
+him for the most consummate of hypocrites and the cleverest of actors,
+could have listened to him without being moved almost to tears. But his
+hearer in this instance knew him only too well. She knew that Jerome
+Cagliari was most to be feared when he professed the noblest sentiments.
+
+Rising from his chair, he added, as if it were a matter of the most
+trifling importance:
+
+"This afternoon I will send my secretary to you."
+
+"Your secretary?" repeated Blanka, with a start. "Pray send me anybody
+but him,--a notary, a strange lawyer, an attorney's clerk, a servant. I
+will receive your instructions from any of these, but not from your
+secretary."
+
+"And why not from him?"
+
+"Because I hate him."
+
+"Then you hate the man who is your best friend in all the world,--yes,
+even a better friend than I myself. If I were to ask heaven for a son I
+could pray for no more excellent young man than he. He has my full
+confidence and esteem."
+
+"But if you knew why I hate him!" interjected Blanka, in a voice that
+trembled.
+
+"Before you bring your accusation against him," rejoined the other,
+"remember you are speaking, not to your husband, but to your father, who
+wishes not only to set you free, but also to make you happy.
+Accordingly, I will send Mr. Benjamin Vajdar to call on you to-morrow
+afternoon, to open the way for a harmonious settlement of the affair
+between us. I beg you to receive him as my confidant and
+plenipotentiary, and not to let your attorney know of his coming. For
+myself, I shall, with your permission, allow myself the pleasure of
+calling on you again."
+
+With this the prince kissed Blanka's hand, and withdrew.
+
+Scarcely had he gone, when Gabriel Zimandy presented himself to learn
+the object of Cagliari's visit. But Blanka obeyed orders, and kept back
+the chief motive of his coming, saying simply that he had asked
+permission to order a larger and finer suite of rooms for her use, and
+that in this matter she had thought best to humour him. The advocate
+acquiesced, recognising the importance of securing the prince's
+good-will under present conditions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE ANONYMOUS LETTER.
+
+
+No sooner had her lawyer left her than a letter was delivered to Blanka
+by one of the hotel servants. It was unsigned, and to the following
+effect:
+
+     "PRINCESS CAGLIARI:--Be cautious. Prince Cagliari is
+     carrying out a fiendish scheme against you. Like yourself, he is
+     bent on securing a divorce, but only that he may marry you to his
+     protege and favourite. He is even capable of selling his own wife.
+     Hitherto you have been Cagliari's wife, and the Marchioness
+     Caldariva his mistress; now he wishes to reverse these relations,
+     and make the marchioness his wife, and you his mistress. Be on your
+     guard. You are in the country of the Borgias."
+
+The princess was not a little disturbed by this communication. Monstrous
+as was the plot which it purported to disclose, she could not disbelieve
+it when ascribed to the two men in question. Certain fearful
+remembrances of the past confirmed her suspicions, and even inspired her
+in her distress with thoughts of suicide.
+
+But what if this letter were merely a trap? Who could have written it?
+Who, in that city, where so few knew even of her existence, was
+sufficiently familiar with her private affairs to be able to write it?
+Whom could she now consult, with whom share her anxious forebodings?
+Involuntarily she took up her sketch-book, and turned its leaves once
+more. In vain; the address was gone--gone with the leaves she had torn
+out and thrown away in the Colosseum.
+
+Having no further engagements for that morning, she proposed to her
+companion a second visit to the Colosseum, that she might once more
+essay the sketch which had baffled her the day before. Both Madam
+Dormandy and the advocate signified their readiness to accompany her,
+the more so as a party of German visitors was planning an inspection of
+the Colosseum's subterranean chambers and passages, and Zimandy proposed
+to join them.
+
+Blanka made it her first care, on arriving at the Colosseum, to search
+for the lost sketch-book leaves; but though she remembered exactly where
+she had dropped them, neither she nor her friend could discover the
+least trace of them. Who could have appropriated them? The artist in the
+gallery had been the only stranger present at the time of her previous
+visit.
+
+While the advocate and Madam Dormandy went with the German party to
+inspect the lower regions, Blanka remained above, on the plea that such
+subterranean excursions made her unwell. There were no robbers or wild
+beasts to molest her in the arena during the others' absence, and,
+besides, the entrances were all guarded.
+
+She sat down at the foot of the cross, but not to draw, for her mind was
+not now on her sketch. Plucking the dandelions that grew in profusion
+about her, she fashioned them into a chain and hung it around her neck.
+The thought came to her, as she was thus engaged, that of all the
+Christian martyrs torn to pieces by wild beasts in that arena, not one
+of them, when the tigers and hyenas leaped upon their prey, felt such a
+terror as hers at sight of the monsters that seemed to be closing in
+about her to rend her limb from limb.
+
+How happy the artist must be up there in the lofty gallery! For there he
+was, still at work on his picture. The artist is the only really happy
+man. He need fear no exile; every land is his home. No foreign tongue
+can confuse him; his thoughts find a medium of expression intelligible
+to all. Wars have no terror for him; he paints them, but takes no part
+in them. Storms and tempests, by land or sea, speak to him not of
+danger, but are merely the symbols of nature's ever-varying moods.
+Popular insurrections furnish his canvas with picturesque groupings of
+animated humanity. Though all Rome surge with uproar about him, he sits
+under his sun-umbrella and paints. The artist is a cold-blooded man. He
+paints a madonna, but his piety is none the greater for it. He draws a
+Venus, but his heart is still whole. He pictures God and Satan, but
+prostrates himself before neither. How independent, too, he must feel as
+he wanders through the world! He asks no help in the production of his
+creations. The priest need not pray for rain or sunshine on his account.
+He seeks no office or title from prince or potentate. He desires no
+favour, no privilege, nor does he even require the advantage of a
+recognised religious belief. With his genius he can conquer the world.
+
+Art it is, moreover, that makes woman the equal of man. The woman artist
+is something more than man's other half; she is complete in herself. She
+does not ask the world for a living, she does not beg any man to give
+her his name, she kneels before no marriage-altar for the priest's
+blessing; she goes forth and wins for herself all that she desires.
+
+An irresistible impulse drove Blanka to ascend to the painter's lofty
+perch in order to see how he was succeeding in the task which she
+herself knew not even how to begin.
+
+An artist engrossed in his work heeds not what is going on around him.
+The painter in this instance wore a simple canvas jacket, spotted with
+oil and colours here and there, and a straw hat, broad of brim and
+ventilated with abundant holes. The princess, looking over his
+shoulder, was far less interested in the painter than in his work.
+Indeed, the artist himself was so absorbed in his task that, to save
+time, he held one of his brushes crosswise between his teeth while he
+worked with the other. Yet the instinct of politeness impelled him, as
+soon as he heard the rustle of a lady's skirt behind him, to remove his
+broad-brimmed hat and place it on the floor at his side.
+
+"Manasseh!"
+
+Startled surprise and gladness spoke in that word, which slipped out ere
+the speaker's discretion could prevent it. The young man turned quickly.
+
+"Princess!" he exclaimed, "where did you drop from?"
+
+"I was not looking for you," she stammered, thus betraying that she had
+been seeking him and was rejoiced, heart and soul, at the chance that
+had led her to him.
+
+Manasseh smiled. "No, not for me, but for the painter wrestling with the
+Colosseum from this lofty roost. I saw you yesterday attempting the same
+task from below."
+
+"And you recognised me--so far off?"
+
+"I have very good eyes. I also saw that you were dissatisfied with your
+attempts, for you tore out one leaf after another from your sketch-book
+and threw them away."
+
+"Did you find them again?" asked Blanka, breathlessly.
+
+"I made it a point to do so, Princess," was the reply.
+
+"Oh, then give them back to me, please!"
+
+"Here they are."
+
+No creditor ever did his distressed debtor a greater favour in
+surrendering to him an overdue note than did Manasseh in restoring the
+lost leaves to their owner. She replaced them carefully in her
+sketch-book, assuring herself, as she did so, that the missing address
+was on the blank side of one of them. What if it had caught the young
+man's eye? How would he have explained its presence there?
+
+She sat down to rest a moment on the stone railing of the gallery, her
+back to the arena and her face toward Manasseh,--an arrangement that
+very much interfered with the artist's view of what he was painting. The
+sun shone directly in her eyes, and she had no sunshade, having left
+hers in the carriage. The arena was so shaded that she had needed none
+there. Manasseh adjusted his umbrella so as to shield the princess, and
+the rosy hue which its red fabric cast on her face reminded him of the
+_Horae_ that precede the sun-god's chariot at dawn, their forms glowing
+with purple and rose-coloured tints in the morning light.
+
+"I am very glad I happened to meet you," said Blanka, speaking more
+sedately this time. "The party I came with is down below listening to
+an archaeological lecture on the _cunei_, the _podium_, the _vomitorium_,
+and heaven knows what all, in which I am not interested. So I have time
+to discuss with you, if you will let me, a point which you raised the
+other day and which I have been puzzling over ever since. You said that
+where you used to live revenge is unknown; and that, though you were
+suffering under a grievous injury and had the means to exact full
+satisfaction, yet you would not take your revenge. I too am suffering in
+the same manner, and that is why I am now in Rome. I have pondered your
+words and have imitated your example. Possessing the means of revenge, I
+refused to use them. I loosed my enemy's hands when they were bound. Did
+I do well?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"No, I did not. I should have taken my revenge. Revenge is man's right."
+
+"Revenge is the brute's right," Manasseh corrected her. "It never
+repairs an injury that has once been done. In this I and the handful of
+my fellow-believers differ from mankind in general. In our eyes war is
+revenge, the duel is revenge, capital punishment is revenge, revolution
+is revenge. Those who profess themselves followers of Jesus too often
+forget that when he was dying on the cross he said, 'Father, forgive
+them, for they know not what they do.'"
+
+"That was said by Jesus the man; but Jesus the God has ascended into
+heaven, whence he will come to judge the quick and the dead. And that is
+revenge."
+
+"That conception of the Judgment is one that I cannot entertain,"
+returned Manasseh. "Man has made a god of the noblest of men, and has
+made him like those earlier divinities who slew Niobe's innocent
+children with their arrows."
+
+Blanka was sitting so far back on the stone railing that the artist felt
+obliged to warn her of her danger.
+
+"Oh, I am protected by guardian angels," she replied, lightly. She
+wished to learn whether one of those angels was then before her. "I
+received this morning an anonymous letter," she continued, "and as it
+contains certain facts which only you could know, my first thought was
+that you had written it."
+
+"I assure you, I have never written you a letter," declared Manasseh.
+
+"Please read it." She handed him the letter.
+
+How quickly the young man's calm face flushed and glowed with passion as
+he read! The martyrs of old could forgive their enemies for the tortures
+inflicted on them; but could they also pardon the inhumanity shown to
+their loved ones? Manasseh crumpled the paper in his hand with
+vindictive energy, as if he had held in his grasp the authors of that
+detestable plot. Yet what right had he now to take vengeance on a man
+whom he had refrained from punishing on Anna's behalf? Anna was his own
+sister, and as such a beloved being. Her life had been spoiled by this
+man, yet her brother had been able to declare, "We do not seek
+revenge"--although this revenge was easily in his power. And what was
+Blanka to him? A dream. And did this dream weigh more with him than the
+sorrow that had invaded his own family?
+
+He returned the letter to its owner. "Just like them!" he muttered
+between his teeth.
+
+"Prince Cagliari is in Rome," remarked Blanka.
+
+"I know it. I met him, and he spoke to me and thanked me for the
+attentions I had shown his wife during Holy Week."
+
+It was fortunate for the princess that she sat in the rosy light of the
+red umbrella, so that her heightened colour passed unnoticed.
+
+"He called on me this morning," said she, "and showed himself very
+gracious. His position is now stronger than it was, affairs at the
+Vatican being guided at present by those who look upon him with favour."
+
+"Yes, I know that," said Manasseh.
+
+"How do you know it, may I ask?"
+
+"Oh, I have wide-reaching connections. My landlord is a cobbler.
+'Messere Scalcagnato' lounges about the _piazza_ by the hour, is
+therefore well instructed in political matters, and keeps me duly
+informed of all that takes place at the Vatican."
+
+The princess gave a merry laugh at the thought of Manasseh's taking
+lessons in politics from the professor of shoemaking. A little feeling
+of satisfaction contributed also to her display of good humour: she was
+assured by Manasseh's words that his address was still the same that she
+had noted in her sketch-book. But her laugh was immediately followed by
+a sigh, and she folded her hands in her lap.
+
+"I wage war with nobody, Heaven knows!" she exclaimed, sadly. "I have
+merely sued for mercy, and it has been promised me."
+
+"Princess," interposed the young man, gently, "I cannot intervene
+between you and your enemies, but I can arm you with a weapon of defence
+against their assaults. If you wish to repulse the man whom you fear and
+who pursues you,--to give him such a rebuff that he will never again
+dare to approach you,--then wait until he makes the proposal which you
+dread, and give him this answer: 'Between you and me there is a
+canonical interdict which renders our union impossible; it is contained
+in the fourteenth paragraph of the Secret Instructions.' As soon as you
+say that he will vanish so completely from your presence that you will
+never set eyes on him again."
+
+"Wonderful!" cried Blanka. "That will surely be a miracle."
+
+"Such it may always remain to you," returned Manasseh, "and you may
+never know how deep a wound you have inflicted. But you must thenceforth
+look for no mercy. Sue urgently for a decision, and be prepared for a
+harsh one."
+
+"Thank you," said Blanka, simply. "_N'en parlons plus_"--repeating
+Prince Cagliari's phrase.
+
+With that she stepped lightly to the stone block which the artist had
+been using for a chair, and, seating herself on it, began to copy in
+outline his painting of the Colosseum, as if that had been the sole
+purpose of her coming. Nor did she so much as ask permission thus to
+violate the rules of professional courtesy. This sketching from a
+finished picture she found vastly easier than drawing from the object
+itself, a task which always proves elusive and baffling to the beginner.
+Manasseh took his stand behind her as she worked, but his eyes were not
+wholly occupied in following her pencil.
+
+Meanwhile the archaeological explorers had abundant time to inspect all
+the subterranean passages and chambers of the Colosseum, and it was only
+when they emerged into the arena and began to seek their lost companion,
+with loud outcries, that she started up in some alarm and made haste to
+retrace her steps.
+
+Manasseh picked up the dandelion chain that had fallen from her neck and
+put it in his bosom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE FOURTEENTH PARAGRAPH.
+
+
+Blanka was now like a boy who fears to stay at home alone, and to whom
+his father has therefore given a loaded gun as a security. The lad has a
+shuddering eagerness to encounter a burglar, that he may try his weapon
+on him, never doubting but that he can kill a giant if need be. Let the
+robbers come if they wish; he is armed and ready for them.
+
+In this confidence Blanka's entire mood underwent a change: she became
+light-hearted almost to the point of unrestrained gaiety. At the very
+door of her hotel she began to exchange pleasantries with the landlord,
+who came forward to greet her with the announcement that a gentleman, a
+count, had called upon her in her absence.
+
+"Count who?" asked the princess, whereupon she was presented with a card
+bearing the name of Benjamin Vajdar. But she read it without losing a
+particle of her serenity, and then ordered an elaborate lunch.
+
+While her dishes were preparing, she sent for a hair-dresser and for a
+maid to assist at her toilet. She wished to make herself
+beautiful--even more beautiful than usual--and, indeed, she accomplished
+her object. Her slender form, its height accentuated by a long bodice,
+looked still taller from the imposing manner in which her hair was
+dressed. Her features, until then somewhat drawn by the strain of
+constant anxiety, gained now a vivacity that was matched by the added
+colour that glowed in her cheeks. A single morning in the Italian sun
+had, it would have seemed to an observer, worked wonders in her
+appearance. But what she herself marvelled at most of all was the new
+light that shone in her eyes. What could have caused this
+transformation? The weapon which she held in her hands,--"the fourteenth
+paragraph of the Secret Instructions." What cared she that to her these
+words were utterly meaningless? It sufficed her to know that there was
+such a paragraph; _he_ had told her so.
+
+A waiter announced that her lunch was served. Ordinarily Blanka ate no
+more than a sick child; now she was conscious of an appetite like that
+of a convalescent making up for a long series of lost meals. The
+dainties which she had ordered tasted uncommonly appetising. While she
+was busy with her oysters, the head waiter informed her that the "count"
+had come a second time and begged leave to wait upon her.
+
+"Show him up," promptly replied the princess, without allowing her
+lunch to be interrupted in the least.
+
+The handsome young man already introduced to the reader was ushered in.
+The situation in which he found the princess seemed scarcely to
+harmonise with his plans. It rendered exceedingly difficult any approach
+to the sentimental.
+
+"Set a chair for the gentleman," Blanka commanded her attendant,
+speaking, as if from forgetfulness, in Hungarian, and then correcting
+herself with a great show of surprise at her own carelessness.
+"_Grazie!_ And now, sir, pray be seated. You will pardon me if I go on
+with my lunch. We can converse just the same. This man will not
+understand a word we say. We may consider our interview entirely
+private."
+
+Vajdar misinterpreted the situation: he thought the princess feared him,
+as of old, and that therefore she kept her servant in the room. This
+belief only added fuel to his evil passions. He who sees himself feared
+gains an increased sense of power.
+
+"I come bearing the olive-branch, Princess," he began, in smooth
+accents.
+
+At this Blanka turned suddenly to her attendant. "That reminds me," she
+exclaimed; "Beppo, the waiter forgot my olives."
+
+Vajdar had taken a chair and drawn up to the table. "The prince wishes,"
+he continued, "to keep his promise and to show you all the affectionate
+concern of a father toward his daughter." He produced a roll of
+manuscript from his pocket. "There are certain points in your marriage
+contract which must be discussed. Prince Cagliari made over to you, at
+the time of your union, one million silver florins. If you should gain
+your suit you would retain this sum in full; otherwise you would lose it
+all. He now offers you the following compromise. The principal is not to
+be paid into your hands, but you are to receive the interest on it, at
+six per cent., during your lifetime. And, more than that, one-half of
+the Palazzo Cagliari is placed at your disposal as a dwelling."
+
+The princess bowed, as if in assent, but expressed the hope that she
+should not be obliged to stay long in Rome.
+
+"I think you will find it advisable to remain some time, at any rate,"
+said the young man.
+
+"But I wish to return home, to Hungary, where, as you know, I have an
+estate of my own."
+
+"That will be impossible, because the Serbs have burnt your castle to
+the ground."
+
+"Burnt it to the ground? But my steward has not informed me of this."
+
+"And for a very good reason: the insurgents chopped off his head on his
+own threshold."
+
+Even this intelligence could not destroy Blanka's appetite. She ate her
+sardines with unusual relish, and Vajdar could see that she gave little
+credence to his words.
+
+"Stormy times are ahead of us," he went on, "and I assure you this is
+the only safe retreat for you,--the holy city, the home of peace."
+
+"As is proved by the iron shutters on the windows of the Cagliari
+palace," remarked Blanka. "But tell me, if I should wish to choose my
+own household and my own intimates, would that liberty be allowed me?"
+
+"Undoubtedly. Nevertheless, it would be greatly to your advantage to
+surround yourself with persons speaking the language of the country and
+familiar with its ways."
+
+"And if I should win my cause, and should take a fancy to marry again,
+could I select a husband to suit myself?"
+
+This was too much. It was like throwing raw meat to a caged tiger.
+
+"Without doubt," murmured Benjamin Vajdar between his teeth, at the same
+time casting furious glances at the servant behind his mistress's chair.
+
+Suddenly the princess changed her tactics. She wished to show her enemy
+that she dared leave her entrenchments and offer battle in the open
+field.
+
+"Caro Beppo," said she, turning to the servant, "clear the table,
+please, and then stay outside until I call you. Meantime, admit no
+one."
+
+The two were left alone, and Vajdar was free to say what he wished.
+Blanka made bold to rise and survey herself coquettishly in the mirror,
+as if to make sure of her own beauty. She was the first to speak.
+
+"All these favourable turns in my affairs are due to your kind
+intervention, I infer," she began.
+
+"Without wishing to be boastful, I must admit that they are. You know
+the prince: he has more whims and freaks than Caligula. He has moments
+when he is capable of throttling an angel from heaven, and gentle moods
+in which he is ready to do his most deadly enemy a secret kindness.
+These latter phases of his humour it was my task to lie in wait for and
+turn to your account. Whether this was a difficult task or not, you who
+know the prince can judge."
+
+"You will find me not ungrateful," said the princess. "In case the
+unpleasant affair which has called me to Rome is settled satisfactorily,
+I shall make over to you, as the one chiefly instrumental in effecting
+this settlement, the yearly allowance intended for me by the prince. For
+myself I retain nothing further, and wish nothing further, than my
+golden freedom."
+
+Vajdar's face glowed with feeling. He was a good actor and could summon
+the colour to his cheeks at will.
+
+"But even if you should give me your all, and the whole world besides,"
+he returned, "I should count it as dross in comparison with one kind
+word from your lips. I know it is the height of boldness on my part to
+strive for the object of my longing; but an ardent passion justifies
+even the rashest presumption. You remember the fable of the giants'
+piling Pelion upon Ossa in order to scale Olympus. I am capable of
+following their example. You would cease to look down on me were I of
+like rank with yourself; and this equality of station I shall yet
+attain."
+
+"I am sure I shall be the first to congratulate you."
+
+"The prince has promised to be a father to you if, as the result of a
+peaceful separation, he ceases to be your husband. A somewhat similar
+promise he has made to me also."
+
+"Does he intend to adopt you as his son?" asked Blanka.
+
+"Such is his purpose," replied Vajdar.
+
+"And what, pray, is his motive in this?"
+
+Benjamin Vajdar averted his face, as if contending with feelings of
+shame. "Do not ask me," he begged, "to betray the weakness of my poor
+mother. Hers was an unhappy lot, and I am the child of her misfortune.
+He whose duty it is to make that misfortune good is--Prince Cagliari."
+
+Blanka could hardly suppress an exclamation. "Oh, you scoundrel!" she
+was on the point of crying, "how can you dishonour your mother in her
+grave, and deny your own honest birth, merely to pass yourself off as a
+prince's bastard son?" Instead of this she clapped her hands and
+exclaimed: "How interesting! It is just like a play at the theatre. 'Is
+not the little toe of your left foot broken?' 'Yes.' 'Then you are my
+son.' Or thus: 'Haven't you a birthmark on the back of your neck?' 'I
+have.' 'Let me see it. Aha! you are my long-lost boy.' Or, again: 'Who
+gave you that half of a coin which you wear on a string around your
+neck?' 'My mother, on her death-bed.' 'Come to my arms. You have found
+your father.'"
+
+Her listener was convinced that he had to do with a credulous child
+whose ears were open to the flimsiest of fairy tales. He proceeded to
+entertain her with further interesting details of his story, after which
+the princess produced the anonymous letter she had that morning
+received. First smoothing it out on her knee,--for it had been sadly
+crumpled by a certain hand, and, indeed, even bore the impression of a
+man's thumb in oil,--she presented it to her visitor.
+
+"Please read that," said she, "and then explain it to me."
+
+Vajdar had no sooner glanced at the letter than he perceived that the
+enemy, by a feigned retreat, had been decoying him over a mine which
+threatened presently to explode. Yet his assurance did not desert him.
+
+"A stupid bit of play-acting!" he exclaimed, throwing the letter down on
+the table.
+
+"But whose interest could it have been to indulge in play-acting at my
+expense?" asked Blanka.
+
+"I can tell you, for I recognise the handwriting. The Marchioness
+Caldariva wrote you that letter."
+
+"The Marchioness Caldariva? Is she here?"
+
+"To be sure. The prince never travels without her."
+
+"But what motive had she thus to injure herself and, perhaps, prevent
+her marriage with the prince?"
+
+"Motive enough for a woman," replied Vajdar,--"jealousy."
+
+"Jealousy!" repeated Blanka, in astonishment.
+
+But one glance at the face confronting her was a sufficient explanation.
+That handsome face, smiling with triumph and self-confidence, made her
+tingle with wrath and scorn from head to foot. This man, it appeared,
+was impudent enough to play the role of suitor to his patron's wife, and
+also, at the same time, to pose as the object of a sentimental
+attachment on the part of that patron's mistress. And he smiled
+complacently the while.
+
+"Sir," resumed the princess, whom that smile so irritated that she
+resolved to use her deadly weapon without further delay, "I appreciate
+your devotion to my cause, but I cannot deceive you. I must not
+encourage hopes that would end only in disappointment. Let this matter
+not be referred to again between us."
+
+"But how if it were imposed by the prince as the indispensable condition
+of a peaceful settlement of your relations with him?"
+
+"I cannot believe that such is the case," replied Blanka, calmly. "But
+however that may be, I cannot bind myself by any promise to you, knowing
+as I do that the question of matrimony between us is one that the canons
+of the Romish Church forbid us to consider."
+
+"Ah, you have been studying ecclesiastical law, I see,--an error like
+that of the sick man that reads medical works. You undoubtedly have in
+mind the tenth paragraph, which forbids a son to marry his father's
+divorced wife; but you should have read farther, where it is declared
+that a marriage pronounced null and void by the clemency of the Pope is
+as if it never had been, and thus offers no hindrance to a subsequent
+union."
+
+"No," rejoined the princess, "I did not refer to the tenth paragraph.
+The paragraph which renders our union impossible is the fourteenth."
+
+The shot was fired, the mark was hit. Like a tiger mortally wounded the
+man sprang up and stood leaning on the back of his chair, glaring at
+his assailant with a fury that made her draw back in alarm. With what
+sort of ammunition had the gun been loaded, that it should inflict so
+deadly a wound,--that it should cause such a sudden and complete
+transformation of that complacently smiling face?
+
+"Who told you that?" demanded Vajdar so furiously that Blanka recoiled
+involuntarily. "Only one person could have been your informant, and I
+know who that person is. I shall have my revenge on both of you for
+this!"
+
+With that he was gone, hurrying out of the room and out of the hotel as
+if pursued by a legion of devils. Beppo came running to his mistress,
+and seemed surprised not to find her lying in her blood on the floor
+with half a dozen dagger-thrusts in her bosom.
+
+"Well," he exclaimed, "whoever that man may be, I shouldn't like to meet
+him on a dark night in a narrow street."
+
+Blanka told her servant that if the gentleman who had just left ever
+called again, she should not be at home to him. Then she sent her
+obedient Beppo away, as she wished to be alone. First of all, she must
+ponder the meaning of those mysterious words that had proved so potent
+in routing her enemy. She could hardly wait for her lawyer to return, so
+eager was she to question him in the matter.
+
+"Well," began the advocate on entering, "what have you accomplished?"
+
+"I have not made peace."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because it would have cost more than war. All negotiations are broken
+off. Read this letter."
+
+"A devilish plot!" cried the lawyer wrathfully. "But they are fully
+capable of carrying it out, all three of them. Did you show this to
+Vajdar?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And was that why he ran out of the hotel in such an extraordinary
+manner that the very waiters felt tempted to seize him at the door?"
+
+"They had no such thought, I'll warrant," returned Blanka. "They are all
+in his pay. To-morrow I leave this place. You must find me a private
+dwelling."
+
+"I have one for you already. The Rossis are moving out of the embassy,
+and have engaged a private house. They invite you to share their new
+quarters with them. There is ample room."
+
+"Oh, how fortunate for me!"
+
+"And yet the affair is not so altogether fortunate, after all. Rossi has
+fallen from favour, and with his fall the whole liberal party loses its
+influence at the Vatican."
+
+But what did the princess care for the liberal party at that moment? She
+was thinking of the lucky chance that had made it possible for her to
+meet Manasseh again--at the house of their common friends.
+
+"Now I must beg you," said she, changing the subject, "to press my suit
+as diligently as possible. But first let me ask you a question. You are
+thoroughly familiar with the marriage laws of the Romish Church, aren't
+you?"
+
+"I know them as I do the Lord's Prayer."
+
+"Do you remember the fourteenth paragraph?"
+
+"The fourteenth paragraph? Thank God we have nothing to do with that."
+
+"Why 'thank God'?"
+
+"Because the fourteenth paragraph has to do with state's prison
+offences; it declares null and void any marriage, if either of the
+contracting parties has committed such an offence."
+
+The mystery was clear to Blanka now.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE DECISION.
+
+
+Gabriel Zimandy came to the princess one day with a very downcast mien.
+
+"Our case makes no headway," he lamented, "and the reason is that your
+advocate is a Protestant. Now there are two ways to remedy this: either
+you must dismiss me and engage a Roman Catholic lawyer, or I must turn
+Roman Catholic myself. The latter is the shorter and simpler expedient."
+
+Blanka thought him in fun, and began to laugh. But Zimandy maintained
+his solemnity of manner.
+
+"You see, Princess," he went on, "I am ready to renounce the faith of my
+fathers and incur the world's ridicule, all to serve you. I am going
+this morning to the cardinal on whom the whole issue depends, to ask him
+to be my sponsor at the baptism."
+
+The princess pressed his hand warmly in sign of her appreciation of his
+devotion.
+
+In a few days the lawyer carried out his purpose and was received into
+the Church of Rome. The newspapers gave the matter considerable
+prominence, and it was generally expected that the godfather's present
+to the new convert would be a favourable decision in the pending divorce
+suit. And, in fact, a week later the decision was rendered. It was to
+the following effect:
+
+The husband and wife were declared divorced, but with the proviso that
+the latter should never marry again, and the former not during his
+divorced wife's lifetime. Thus the coffin-lid was closed on the young
+wife, who was, as it were, buried alive; but in falling it had caught
+and held fast the bridal veil of the Marchioness Caldariva, who could
+not now hope to be led to the altar so long as the princess remained
+alive. Had there been in this some malevolent design to wreak vengeance
+on the two women at one stroke, the purpose could not have been better
+accomplished.
+
+The further provisions of the decree of the Roman Curia were of
+secondary importance. Prince Cagliari was required to pay to Princess
+Zboroy--for Blanka retained her rank and title--an annuity of twelve
+thousand ducats, to give over for her use as a dwelling one wing of the
+Cagliari palace, and to restore her dowry and jewels. These latter terms
+were evidently to be credited to Gabriel Zimandy's generalship; for his
+client might have found herself left with neither home nor annuity. So
+the lawyer's conversion had met with its reward even in this world.
+
+But Blanka's enjoyment of house and home and yearly income was made
+dependent on a certain condition: she was never to leave Rome. The
+nature of the decree rendered this provision necessary. As she was
+forbidden to contract a second marriage, her judge found himself obliged
+to keep her under his eye, to make sure that his mandate was obeyed; and
+no more delicate and at the same time effective way to do this could
+have been devised than to offer her a palace in Rome and bid her enjoy
+its possession for the rest of her life. This was surely kinder than
+shutting her up in a convent.
+
+After the rendering of this decree Blanka lost no time in taking
+possession of that half of the Cagliari palace assigned to her, and in
+engaging a retinue of servants befitting her changed surroundings. Her
+own property yielded her an income equal to that which she received from
+the prince, and thus she was enabled to allow herself every comfort and
+even luxury that she could desire. Of the two wings of the palace,
+Blanka's faced the Tiber, while the other fronted upon the public
+square. Each wing had a separate garden, divided from its neighbour by a
+high wall of masonry, and the only connection between the two parts of
+the house was a long corridor, all passage through which was closed.
+What had once been a door, leading from the room which Blanka now chose
+for her bedchamber into the corridor, was filled in with a fireplace,
+whose back was formed by a damascened iron plate. This apartment the
+princess selected for her asylum, her hermitage, where she could be
+utterly shut out from the world.
+
+The next day after the decision was rendered, Blanka was greeted by her
+bosom friend, the fair widow Dormandy, with the announcement of her
+engagement to Gabriel Zimandy. They intended to be married in Rome, she
+said, and then return to Hungary, whither the bridegroom's business
+called him. It was clear to Blanka now why her lawyer had been so ready
+to renounce "the faith of his fathers." It was more for the sake of
+winning the hand of Madam Dormandy, who was a devout Catholic, and of
+marrying her then and there, in Rome, than on account of his client's
+interests. Here let us take leave of the worthy man and let him depart
+with God's blessing, his newly married wife by his side, and his
+honorarium from Princess Blanka in his pocket.
+
+Thus the divorced wife, who was yet hardly more than a girl, found
+herself left alone in Rome. She shut herself off entirely from the
+world, never venturing into society lest people should whisper to one
+another as she passed,--"_la condannata!_" She received no one but her
+father confessor, who came to her once a week. The sins which she had to
+confess to him were,--the doubting of providence, rebellion against
+human justice, forbidden dreams in waking hours, envy of others'
+happiness, aversion to prayer, and hatred of life--all sins for which
+she had to do penance.
+
+Meanwhile quite a different sort of life was being led in the other wing
+of the palace. She could not but hear, from time to time, sounds of
+mirth and gaiety in the adjoining garden, or even through the solid
+partition-wall of the house. Voices that she knew only too well, and
+some that she hated, penetrated to her ears and drove her from one room
+to another.
+
+In due time, however, the malarial fever of the Italian summer came to
+her as another distraction. It was an intermittent fever, and for six
+weeks she was subject to its periodical attacks, which returned every
+third day with the constancy of a devoted lover. When at length she
+began to mend, her physician prescribed a change of air. Knowing that
+his patient could not absent herself from Rome and its vicinity, he did
+not send her to Switzerland, but to Tivoli and Monte Mario; and even
+before venturing on these brief excursions she was obliged to ask
+permission at the Vatican. The convalescent was allowed to spend her
+days on Monte Mario, but required to return to Rome at nightfall. Good
+morals and good laws demanded this.
+
+Nevertheless, even this slight change--the drives to and from Monte
+Mario, and the mountain air during the fine autumn days--did the
+princess good, and eventually restored her health.
+
+Meanwhile there was more than one momentous change in the political
+world, but Blanka heeded them not. What signified to her the watchword
+of the period,--"Liberty?" What liberty had she? Even were all the world
+beside free, she was not free to love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A GHOSTLY VISITANT.
+
+
+It was the irony of fate that the mansion which had been assigned as a
+permanent dwelling-place to the woman condemned to a life of asceticism,
+had been originally fitted up as a fairy love-palace for a beautiful
+creature, possessed of an unquenchable thirst for the fleeting joys of
+this earthly existence. Over the richly carved mantelpiece in Blanka's
+sleeping-room was what looked like a splendid bas-relief in marble. It
+was in reality no bas-relief at all, but a wonderfully skilful bit of
+painting, so cleverly imitating the sculptor's chisel that even a closer
+inspection failed to detect the deception. It represented a recumbent
+Sappho playing on a nine-stringed lyre. The opening in the
+sounding-board of the instrument appeared to be a veritable hole over
+which real strings were stretched.
+
+This painting Blanka had before her eyes when she lay down to sleep at
+night, and it was the first to greet her when she awoke in the morning.
+Nor was it simply that she was forced to see it: Sappho seemed able to
+make her presence known by other means than by addressing the sight
+alone. Mysterious sounds came at times from the lyre,--sometimes simple
+chords, and again snatches of love-songs which the princess could have
+played over afterward from memory, so plainly did she seem to hear them.
+Occasionally, too, the notes of a human voice were heard; and though the
+words were muffled and indistinct, as if coming from a distance, the air
+was easily followed. These weird melodies came to Blanka's ears nearly
+every evening, but she did not venture to tell any one about them. She
+tried to persuade herself it was all imagination on her part, and feared
+to relate her experience, lest she should incur suspicion of insanity
+and be consigned to a less desirable prison than the Cagliari palace.
+
+One evening, as she was preparing to retire, and was standing for a
+moment before her mirror, the Sappho seemed to give vent to a ripple of
+laughter. The princess was so startled that she dropped the candle she
+held in her hand. Once more she heard that mysterious laugh, and then
+she beat a hasty retreat to her bed and buried herself in the pillows
+and blankets. But, peeping out at length and throwing one more glance at
+the picture, which was faintly illumined by her night-lamp, she heard
+still another repetition of the mysterious laughter, coming apparently
+from a great distance. Was this, too, an illusion, a dream, a trick of
+her imagination? If the painted Sappho was alive, why did she give these
+signs only at night, and not in the daytime as well?
+
+November came, and with it rainy days, so that Blanka was constrained to
+suspend her drives to Monte Mario and remain in the house. Every evening
+she sat before her open fire with her eyes fixed on the glowing
+phoenix with which the back of the fireplace was adorned. It was the
+work of Finiguerra, the first of his craft to discard the chisel for the
+hammer. The many-hued feathers of the flaming bird were of steel,
+copper, brass, Corinthian bronze, silver, and gold. Especially
+resplendent was the bird's head, with its gleaming red circle around the
+brightly shining eye. This eye glowed and sparkled in the flickering
+light of the crackling wood fire until it seemed fairly endowed with
+life and vision.
+
+One evening, as the princess was watching this glowing eye, it suddenly
+vanished from the bird's head and left a dark hole in its place. Then,
+as if not content with this marvellous demonstration, the phoenix next
+took flight bodily and disappeared, apparently up the chimney, with a
+rattling, rasping sound, as of the creaking of cogged wheels, leaving a
+wide opening where it had been. The coals which still glowed on the
+hearth presently died with a hissing noise, and only the soft light of
+the shaded lamp diffused itself through the room. Out of the mysterious
+depths of the fireplace stepped the white-clad form of a woman.
+
+"I am the Marchioness Caldariva," announced the unbidden guest.
+
+The suddenness and the mystery of it all, as well as the name that
+greeted her ears, might well have startled the Princess Blanka. The
+strange visitor was of tall and slender form, and suggested, in her
+closely fitting gown of soft material, a statue of one of the pagan
+goddesses. Her thick blond hair was carelessly gathered into a knot
+behind; her complexion was pale, her blue eyes were bright and
+vivacious, and her coral lips were parted in a coquettish smile. Every
+movement was fraught with grace and charm, every pose commanded
+admiration. She followed up her self-introduction with a laugh--a laugh
+that sounded familiar to her listener. It was the Sappho's tones that
+she heard. Blanka gazed in wonder at the mysterious apparition. She
+thought she must be dreaming, and that this was but another creation of
+her own fancy.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the visitor, "an original way to pay a call, isn't
+it?--without warning, right through the back wall of your fireplace, and
+in _neglige_, too! But as you wouldn't visit me, I had to come to you,
+and this is the readiest communication between our apartments. You
+didn't know anything about it, did you? The back of your fireplace is a
+secret door. If you press on the green tile here at the left, the
+phoenix flies up the chimney, and then if you bear down hard on this
+one at the right, it returns to its place again. Do you see?"
+
+As she spoke the white lady stepped on the tile last designated, and
+straightway the phoenix descended and filled the opening through which
+she had just made her entrance.
+
+"On the other side," she continued, "is a piece of mechanism which will
+only work when a secret lock has been opened, and to effect this the
+bird's eye must first be pushed aside to make room for the key. Your
+ignorance of all this became apparent to me when I found both of the two
+keys in my room. One of them belongs to you, and I have brought it to
+give you. Without it you might be broken in upon most unpleasantly by
+some unwelcome intruder. But with the key in your possession, you can
+insert it in the lock whenever you wish to guard against any such
+intrusion."
+
+With that the speaker handed over the key, and then went on:
+
+"Now you will be able to visit me, just as I do you. One thing more,
+however, is necessary. You generally have a fire in your fireplace, and
+not every woman is a Saint Euphrosyne, able to walk barefoot over
+glowing coals. Here is a little bottle of liquid with which you can
+quench the flames at pleasure. It is a chemical mixture expressly
+prepared for this purpose. And in this other bottle is another liquid
+for rekindling the fire,--no secret of chemistry, this time, but only
+naphtha. Let us try it at once, for your room is cold and I have nothing
+on but this dressing-gown."
+
+The flames were soon crackling merrily again in the fireplace. Blanka,
+much bewildered and still doubting the evidence of her senses, sank down
+on a sofa, while her unbidden guest seated herself opposite. The
+princess raised her eyes involuntarily to the Sappho over the
+mantelpiece. Again the familiar laugh fell on her ears.
+
+"You look up at the Sappho," said the marchioness. "You have heard her
+play and sing and laugh more than once, haven't you? Well, you shall
+learn the secret of it all. A jealous husband once had the passage
+constructed which connects our two apartments. You know the story of
+Dionysius's Ear. Here you see it in real life. A hollow tube runs from
+the opening in the lyre directly to my room, and through this the
+jealous husband was able to hear every sound in his wife's chamber.
+Through it, too, you have heard me sing and play and laugh, and I have
+heard tones of sadness from your room, and exclamations in an unknown
+tongue, with no cheering word to comfort you and drive away your
+sorrow. Three days ago, about midnight, you began to sing, and that time
+I could follow the words,--'_De profundis ad te clamavi, Domine.'_ Don't
+look so surprised. You are not dreaming all this, and I am really the
+Marchioness Caldariva, better known as 'the beautiful Cyrene.' I have
+intruded on you this evening, but to-morrow you will admit me of your
+own free will, and the day after you shall be my guest. We will signal
+to each other through the tube when we are alone and disengaged, and we
+shall soon be great friends."
+
+Blanka started slightly at the bare thought of friendship with this
+woman.
+
+"I am in love with you already," continued the Marchioness Caldariva.
+"For the past week we have been meeting every day. We kneel side by side
+in the same church, for I go to church regularly; but you have not
+noticed me, because you never raise your eyes from your prayer-book to
+look at your neighbours' bonnets and gowns. As for me, now, I watch you
+all the time I am praying. Daily prayers are a necessity with me. In the
+morning I pray for the sins I have committed the day before, and in the
+evening for those to be committed on the morrow. Another bond of
+sympathy between us is the similar lot to which we are both
+condemned,--a life unblessed by domestic happiness,--and we cherish
+therefore a common hatred of the world. You, however, show yours by
+leading a solitary life of mourning, I mine by amusing myself the best
+way I can. If I were strong enough to follow your example, I should do
+so, but I can't live without distraction. You are strong; I am weak. I
+admire in you your power to humble your enemies before you. You were
+told, weren't you, that I wrote that anonymous letter?"
+
+Blanka looked at the speaker with wide eyes of inquiry and wonder. She
+began at length to place confidence in her words.
+
+"And you were told the truth, too," continued the other. "Oh, those two
+men are intriguers of the deepest dye. I was accused of upsetting their
+plan. I was told how mercilessly you had repulsed one of them. Really,
+that was a master stroke on your part. The fourteenth paragraph! He
+himself confessed the secret to me,--how he forged a note, some years
+ago, in the name of a good friend of his, who now holds the
+incriminating document in his possession. With it he can at any time
+crush his false friend and deliver him over to a long imprisonment. The
+trembling culprit wished to free himself at any cost from this sword of
+Damocles suspended over his head, and he proposed to me two ways to
+effect the desired end. One was for me to seduce the young artist and
+then, as the price of my smiles, cajole him into surrendering the fatal
+note."
+
+The beautiful Cyrene threw at her listener a look full of the proud
+consciousness of her own dangerous charms. Blanka drew back in nameless
+fear under her gaze.
+
+"The other way," proceeded the marchioness, "was to have him
+assassinated if he refused to give up the forged paper."
+
+Blanka pressed her hands to her bosom to keep from crying out.
+
+"Between these two plans I was asked to choose, and I rejected them
+both,--the first because I knew the young man adored you, the second
+because I knew you reciprocated his feeling."
+
+The princess rose hastily and walked across the room, seeking to hide
+her tell-tale blushes.
+
+"Come," said the marchioness, lightly, "sit down again and let us laugh
+over the whole affair together. You see, I would have nothing to do with
+either tragedy. I prefer comedy. Both of our arch-schemers have now
+taken flight from Rome; they were seized with terror at a street riot
+the other day, and they won't come back again, you may be sure, unless
+it be in the rear of a besieging army. So now we have the Cagliari
+palace quite to ourselves, and can sit and chat together all we please.
+But I must say good night; I've gossiped enough for one while, and I'm
+sleepy, too."
+
+Once more the fire was extinguished and the phoenix made to yield a
+passage, after which Blanka found herself alone again. She shuddered at
+the thought of having lived for months with an open door leading to her
+bedroom. She debated with herself whether to stick her key in that door
+and leave it there permanently, while she herself sought another
+sleeping-room, or to yield to the charm of her unbidden guest and
+acquiesce in her plan of exchanging confidential visits. The strangeness
+and mystery of it all, and still more the hope that her neighbour might
+let fall an occasional word concerning Manasseh, at length prevailed
+over her fears and scruples, and determined her to receive the other's
+advances.
+
+On the following evening she gave her servants permission to go to the
+theatre,--the play representing the defeat of the Austrian army by the
+Italians,--while she herself, after having her samovar and other
+tea-things brought to her room, took up her mandolin and struck a few
+chords on its strings. The reclining Sappho answered her, and a few
+minutes later there came a knock on the back of the fireplace.
+
+"Come in!"
+
+The phoenix rose, and the fair Cyrene appeared, this time in full
+toilet, as for a fashionable call, her hair dressed in the English mode,
+a lace shawl falling over her pink silk gown, from beneath which one got
+an occasional glimpse of the richly embroidered underskirt and a pair
+of little feet encased in high-heeled shoes.
+
+"You were going out?" asked the princess.
+
+"I was coming to see you."
+
+"Did you know I was waiting for you?"
+
+"I told you yesterday I should come, and I knew you were expecting me
+from your sending your servants away to the theatre."
+
+"And you knew that too?"
+
+"Yes, because they took mine along with them. So here we are all alone
+by ourselves."
+
+The consciousness of being the only living creatures in a whole house
+has a delicious charm, fraught with mystery and awe, for two young
+women. Blanka took her guest's hat and shawl, and then proceeded to
+start a fire on the hearth. The fair Cyrene meanwhile caught up her
+mandolin and began to sing one of Alfred de Musset's songs, full of the
+warmth and glow of the sunny South. Presently the hostess invited her
+guest to take tea with her, and asked her at the same time her baptismal
+name.
+
+The marchioness laughed. "Haven't you heard it often enough? They call
+me 'Cyrene.'"
+
+"But that isn't your real name," objected Blanka. "You were not
+christened 'Cyrene.'"
+
+"I use it for my name, however, and no one but my father confessor calls
+me by my real name, so that now I never hear it without thinking that I
+must fall on my knees and repeat a dozen paternosters in penance.
+Besides, my name doesn't suit me at all. It is Rozina, and I am as pale
+as moonshine. You might far better be called Rozina, for you have such
+beautiful rosy cheeks, and I should have been named Blanka. I'll tell
+you, suppose we exchange names: you call me Blanka, and I'll call you
+Rozina."
+
+The suggestion seemed so funny to Blanka that she burst out laughing,
+and a woman who laughs is already more than half won over.
+
+"Now, then," continued the other, "we can chat away to our heart's
+content. There's no one to listen to us or play the spy--a good thing
+for you to know, Rozina, because all your servants are hired spies. Your
+doorkeeper and his wife keep a regular journal of who comes in and who
+goes out, what visiting-cards are left, whom you receive, where you
+drive,--which they learn from your coachman,--whom you visit, and even
+with whom you exchange a passing word. Your maid reads all your letters
+and searches all your pockets. Even your gardener keeps an account of
+all the flowers you order; for flowers, you know, have a language of
+their own. Be sure you don't buy a parrot, else it will turn spy on you,
+too."
+
+"Who can it be that is so suspicious of me?" asked the princess, in
+surprise.
+
+"Have you forgotten the strict terms of your uncle's legacy, and are you
+unaware how slight an indiscretion on your part might furnish your
+relatives with a pretext for contesting your right to a share of the
+property? Do you forget, too, how trifling an error might result in the
+cutting off of your allowance from Prince Cagliari?"
+
+"Well, let them watch me, if they wish," returned Blanka, composedly. "I
+have no secrets to hide from anybody."
+
+"A rash assertion for a woman to make," commented the other, as she
+poured herself a glass of water. "How warm this water is!" she
+exclaimed, after taking a sip.
+
+Blanka sprang up and offered to bring some ice from the dining-room.
+
+"Aren't you afraid to go for it alone?"
+
+"Certainly not; the lamps are all lighted."
+
+While the hostess was out of the room, her guest turned over Blanka's
+portfolio of drawings, and among them found her outline sketch of the
+Colosseum.
+
+"You sketch beautifully," commented the marchioness, upon the other's
+return.
+
+"It is my only diversion," replied the princess.
+
+"This view of the Colosseum reminds me of one I saw at the Rossis'."
+
+"The artist may have chosen the same point of view," returned Blanka
+with admirable composure.
+
+"I called on him at his studio lately," proceeded the marchioness. "I
+had heard one of his pictures very highly praised. It represents a young
+woman sitting on the gallery railing in the Colosseum, with the sunlight
+streaming on her through a red umbrella. The warm glow of the sunbeams
+is in striking contrast with the deep melancholy on the girl's face. I
+offered the artist two hundred scudi for the piece, but he said it was
+not for sale at any price."
+
+Blanka felt as powerless in the hands of this woman as a rabbit in the
+clutches of a lion. The beautiful Cyrene closed the portfolio and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Rozina, these men are terrible creatures! They make us women their
+slaves. But the woman's first and dominant thought must ever be to find
+some escape from her bondage."
+
+With that she jumped up and ran out of the room, as if taken suddenly
+ill. Her hostess followed to see what was the matter, and found her
+sitting in a corner of the adjoining apartment.
+
+"You are weeping?"
+
+"Not at all; never merrier in my life!"
+
+Nevertheless, two tears were shining in the fair Cyrene's eyes.
+
+Next she ran to the piano and began to rattle off "La Gitana," which
+Cerito had just made so popular throughout Europe.
+
+"Have you the score?" asked the marchioness, turning to Blanka.
+
+"No, but I can play it from memory."
+
+"Then play it to me, please."
+
+Blanka complied, and the other began to dance "La Gitana" to her
+playing. The spirit and feeling, the coquettish grace and seductive
+charm, which the dancer put into the movements of her lithe form,
+challenge description. If only a man could have seen her then! From
+sheer amazement Blanka found herself unable to control her fingers,
+which struck more than one false note.
+
+"Faster! Put more fire into it!" cried the dancer. But Blanka could not
+go on.
+
+"Ah, you don't remember it, after all."
+
+"I can't play when I look at you," was the reply; and the Marchioness
+Caldariva believed her. "You could drive a man fairly insane."
+
+"As long as the men will torment us, we must be able to pay them back."
+She took Blanka's arm and returned with her to the other room. "Woe to
+him who invades my kingdom!" she continued. "He is bound to lose his
+reason. Do you wish to wager that I can't drive all Rome crazy over me?
+If I took a notion to dance the 'Gitana' on the opera-house stage for
+the benefit of the wounded soldiers, all Rome would go wild with
+enthusiasm, and the people would half smother me with flowers."
+
+"I will make no such wager with you," returned Blanka, "because I know I
+should lose."
+
+The beautiful Cyrene changed the subject and invited the princess to
+attend one of her masked balls,--"a masquerade party," she explained,
+"of only forty guests at the most, and those the chief personages of
+Roman society. I ferret out all their secrets and can see through their
+masks; but I use no witchery about it. My guests are admitted by ticket
+only, and my major-domo, who receives these cards, writes on the back of
+each a short description of the bearer's costume. So I have only to go
+to him and consult his notes to learn my guest's identity."
+
+"But cannot your guests also procure information from the same
+source--for a consideration?"
+
+"Undoubtedly. My domestics are none of them incorruptible."
+
+Blanka laughed, and Rozina hastened to take advantage of her good
+humour.
+
+"And now just imagine among these forty masks one guest who comes
+neither through the door, nor through the major-domo's anteroom, so that
+no card, no personal description, no cab-number, no information of any
+kind, is to be had concerning her from my servants. She is acquainted
+with all the secrets of those around her, but no one can guess her
+secret, or fathom her mystery. Meanwhile a young painter has taken his
+seat in one corner behind a screen of foliage, and sketches the lively
+scene before him. He is the only one who, with beating heart, guesses
+the name of the mysterious unknown. What do you say,--will this
+bewitching guest from fairyland deign to figure as the chief personage
+on my young artist's canvas?"
+
+"Before deciding, may I see a list of those whom you have invited?"
+
+"Certainly--a very proper request." The marchioness handed over her fan,
+the ribs of which were of ivory, and served the owner as tablets. They
+were covered with a miscellaneous list of well-known names from all
+classes, and the last among them was Manasseh Adorjan's. "You can order
+a costume of black lace, spangled with silver stars," the fair Cyrene
+went on; "then, with a black velvet mask, you will be ready to appear as
+the Queen of Night."
+
+Blanka offered no objection to this plan.
+
+"I will admit you upon signal, through our secret passageway, into my
+boudoir, and from there you will pass, when the way is clear, into the
+ladies' dressing-room, and thence into the ballroom. With this fan of
+mine in your hand, you will, after some instructions from me, be able to
+puzzle and mystify all whom you address, while no one will be in a
+position even to hazard a surmise as to your identity. When you tire of
+the sport, come to me, pretend to tease me, and then turn and run away.
+I will give chase, and under cover of this diversion you will slip out
+of the room, and return to your own apartments by the same way you came,
+while I continue the hunt and summon all present to aid me in finding my
+mysterious guest."
+
+Such was the speaker's influence over Blanka, that the latter could not
+give her a refusal. Accordingly, when the two parted, it was with the
+understanding that they were soon to see each other again at the
+marchioness's masquerade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A SUDDEN FLIGHT.
+
+
+Blanka sat in her room, with closed doors, preparing her costume for the
+masked ball. Affairs in the world outside had moved rapidly during the
+past few days. In the feverish excitement of that revolutionary period,
+mob violence was threatening to gain the upper hand. Shouts of
+boisterous merriment reached the princess from the street. From the
+adjoining wing of the palace, too, other sounds, almost equally
+boisterous, fell on her ear at intervals. The fair Cyrene was
+entertaining a company of congenial spirits.
+
+Gradually the noise in the street grew louder, until it seemed as if a
+cage of wild animals had been let loose before the Cagliari palace.
+Suddenly, as Blanka stood before her fire, all her senses alert, she saw
+the glowing phoenix rise from its position, and her fair neighbour
+stood in the opening.
+
+"Put out your fire, and let me in," bade the marchioness. "I have
+emptied my extinguisher. Don't you hear the mob storming my palace
+gates? The soldiery who were summoned to restore order have made common
+cause with the rioters, and we are in frightful peril. Quick! Out with
+your fire, and let me and my guests through. We can make our escape by
+your rear door, and so gain the riverside in safety."
+
+Blanka could not refuse this appeal. She opened the way for the
+marchioness and her motley company to pass out; then she herself, first
+closing the secret passage between the two wings of the palace, followed
+the other fugitives and, gaining the street by a wide detour, engaged a
+cab to take her to the Vatican.
+
+"His Holiness receives no one this afternoon," was the announcement made
+to her at the door.
+
+Almost in despair, and bewildered by the sudden turn of events which had
+thus cast her homeless on the streets, the princess returned to her
+carriage.
+
+"Do you know where Signor Scalcagnato lives?" she asked the driver.
+
+"Scalcagnato the shoemaker, the champion of the people? To be sure I do:
+in the Piazza di Colosseo. But if the lady wishes to buy shoes of him
+she should not address him as _Signor_ Scalcagnato."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because he will ask half as much more for them than if he were called
+plain _Citizen_ Scalcagnato."
+
+After this gratuitous bit of information the coachman whipped up his
+horse and rattled away toward the Colosseum with his passenger.
+
+Arriving at the shoemaker's shop, Blanka was received by a little man of
+lively bearing and a quick, intelligent expression.
+
+"Pst! No words needed," was his greeting. "I know all about it. I am
+Citizen Scalcagnato, _il calzolajo_. Take my arm, citizeness. Cittadino
+Adorjano lives on the top floor, and the stairs are a trifle steep. He
+is out at present, but his studio is open to you."
+
+The young lady was reassured. The honest cobbler evidently did not
+suspect her of coming to meet his tenant by appointment, but took her
+for an artist friend on a professional visit, or perhaps a customer come
+to buy a picture. The shoemaker took the artist's place, in the latter's
+absence, and sold his paintings for him. Perhaps, too, the artist sold
+his landlord's shoes when that worthy was abroad.
+
+Thus it was that Blanka took the offered arm without a misgiving, and
+suffered the cobbler to lead her up the steep stairway to the little
+attic chamber that served her friend for both sleeping-room and studio.
+It was as neat as wax, and as light and airy as any painter could
+desire. A large bow-window admitted the free light of heaven and at the
+same time afforded a fine view of the Palatine Hill. Leaning for a
+moment against the window-sill, in mute admiration of the prospect
+before her, the princess thought how happy a woman might be with this
+view to greet her eyes every day, while a husband who worshipped her and
+was worshipped by her worked at her side--or, rather, not _worked_, but
+_created_. It was a picture far more alluring than any that the Cagliari
+palace had to offer.
+
+"Pst!" the cobbler interrupted her musing; "come and let me show you the
+portrait."
+
+So saying, he conducted her to an easel on which rested a veiled
+picture, which he uncovered with an air of pride and satisfaction.
+
+The feeling of rapture that took possession of Blanka at sight of her
+own portrait was owing, not to the fact that it was her
+likeness,--radiant though that likeness was with youth and beauty and
+all the charm of an ideal creation,--but to the thought that _he_ had
+painted it.
+
+"The price is thirty-three million, three hundred and thirty-three
+thousand, three hundred and thirty-three _scudi_, and not a _soldo_
+less!" announced the shoemaker, with a broad smile. Then he laid his
+fingers on his lips. "Pst! Not a word! I know all. It will be all
+right."
+
+Blanka saw now that he had recognised her the moment she entered his
+shop.
+
+"The citizen painter is not at home," continued the other, "but he will
+turn up at the proper time where he is wanted. Sun, moon, and stars may
+fall from heaven, but he will not fail you. No more words! What I have
+said, I have said. You can now return home, signorina, and need give
+yourself no further uneasiness. Whatever occurs in the streets, you need
+not worry. And finally"--they had by this time reached the ground floor
+again--"it will be well for you to take a pair of shoes with you, to
+make the coachman think you came on purpose for them. Here's a good
+stout pair, serviceable for walking or for mountain-climbing. You can
+rely on them. So take them along; you may need them sometime."
+
+"But how do you know they will fit me?" asked Blanka.
+
+"Citizeness, don't you remember the stone footprint of our Lord in the
+church of _Domine quo vadis_? And may not the footprint of an angel have
+been left in the sand of the Colosseum for a devout artist to copy in
+his sketch-book? Such a sketch is enough for the Cittadino Scalcagnato
+to make a pair of shoes from, so that they cannot fail to fit."
+
+The princess turned rosy red. "I have no money with me to pay for them,"
+she objected. "A footman usually accompanies me and pays for all my
+purchases; but to-day I left him at home, and I neglected to take my
+purse with me."
+
+"No matter; I understand. I'll charge the amount. Here, take this purse
+and pay your cab-fare out of it when you reach the square. Don't go home
+in a carriage, but on foot. You needn't fear to do so, with a pair of
+shoes in your hand. If your gold-laced lackey were with you, you might
+meet with insult and abuse; but walking alone with the shoes in your
+hand, you will not be molested, and you will find all quiet at home by
+this time. Now enough said. I know all. You can pay me back later."
+
+With that the little shoemaker escorted his guest to her carriage and
+took leave of her with a polite request--intended for the cabman's
+ear--for her further patronage.
+
+Following the mysterious little man's directions, Blanka reached home
+unharmed, and found everything there as she had left it. Whatever
+violence the rioters may have allowed themselves in storming the
+marchioness's quarters, her own wing of the palace, for some reason that
+she could only vaguely conjecture, had been spared. After assuring
+herself of this, the princess tried on her new shoes, and found that
+Citizen Scalcagnato was no less skilful as a shoemaker than eminent as a
+politician and a party-leader.
+
+The house was now still and deserted, although the sounds of riotous
+excess were faintly audible in the distance. The servants had evidently
+fled at the same time that Blanka and the marchioness left the palace.
+Looking out of her rear window, the princess noticed that her garden
+gate was open; it must have been left swinging by her domestics in their
+flight. She was hastening down-stairs to close it, when a man's form
+appeared before her in the gathering gloom, and she cried out in sudden
+terror.
+
+"Do not be alarmed, Princess." The words came in a firm, manly voice
+that thrilled the hearer; she recognised the tones. Manasseh Adorjan
+stood before her. "I could not gain admittance by the front door," he
+explained, "so I went around to the garden gate."
+
+"And how is it," asked Blanka, "that you have come to me at the very
+moment that I was seeking you?"
+
+"I wished, first, to bid you farewell. I am going home, to Transylvania,
+for my people are in trouble and I must go and help them. As long as
+they are happy I avoid them, but when misfortune comes I cannot stay
+away. War threatens to invade our peaceful valley, and I hasten
+thither."
+
+"Has the hour come, then, when you feel it right to kill your
+fellow-men?"
+
+"No, Princess; my part is to restore peace, not to foment strife."
+
+Blanka's hands were clasped in her lap. She raised them to her bosom and
+begged her fellow-countryman to take her with him.
+
+The colour mounted to his face, his breast heaved, he passed his hand
+across his brow, whereon the perspiration had started, and stammered, in
+agitated accents:
+
+"No, no, Princess, I cannot take you with me."
+
+"Why not?" asked Blanka, tremulously.
+
+"Because I am a man and but human. I could shield you against all the
+world, but not against myself. I love you! And if you came with me, how
+could you expect me to help you keep your vows? I am neither saint nor
+angel, but a mortal, and a sinful one."
+
+The poor girl sank speechless into a chair and hid her face in her
+hands.
+
+"Hear me further, Princess," continued the other, with forced calmness.
+"I have told you but one reason why I sought you here to-day. The other
+was to show you a means of escape from this place, where you cannot
+remain in safety another day. You must leave Rome this very night, and
+that will be no easy thing to accomplish now that all the gates are
+guarded. But I have a plan. Above all things, you must find a lady to
+take you under her protection, and that, I think, can be effected.
+Citizen Scalcagnato issues all the passports for those that leave the
+city by the Colosseum gate. From him I have learned that the Countess
+X---- is to leave for the south to-night. I have obtained a pass for
+you, and you have only to make yourself ready and go with me to
+the Colosseum gate, where we will wait for her carriage. She is
+a good friend of yours and cannot refuse to take you as her
+travelling-companion. Do you approve my plan?"
+
+"Yes, and I thank you."
+
+"Then a few hours hence will see you on your journey southward. I shall
+set out for the north, and soon the length of Italy will separate us. Is
+it not best so?"
+
+Blanka gave him her hand in mute assent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour later Manasseh and Blanka stood in the shelter of the gateway by
+which the countess was expected to leave Rome. They had not long to
+wait: the sound of an approaching carriage was soon heard, and when it
+halted under the gas-lamp Blanka recognised her friend's equipage. The
+gate-keeper advanced to examine the traveller's passport, and as the
+carriage door was thrown open Blanka hastened forward and made herself
+known.
+
+"What do you wish?" demanded the liveried footman.
+
+The princess turned and looked at him. Surely she had seen that face and
+form before in a different setting, but she could not recall when or
+where. So much was evident, however, that the speaker was more wont to
+give than to receive orders. Blanka turned again to the open carriage
+door and plucked at the cloak of the person sitting within.
+
+"You are fleeing from Rome, too, Countess," said she. "I beg you to take
+me with you."
+
+But the carriage door was closed in her face.
+
+"Countess, hear me!" she cried, in distress. "Have pity on me! Don't
+leave me to perish in the streets!"
+
+Her petition was unheeded. The footman drew her away and, as he turned
+to remount the vehicle, whispered three words in her ear:
+
+"_E il papa!_"
+
+It was the Pope, and he was fleeing! The spiritual ruler of the world,
+the king of kings, Heaven's viceroy upon earth, was flying for his life.
+The judge fled and left the prisoner to her fate. Blanka felt herself
+absolved from all her vows. She plucked from her bosom the consecrated
+palm-leaf, tore it to pieces, and threw the fragments scornfully after
+the retreating carriage. Then she turned once more to Manasseh.
+
+"Now take me with you whithersoever you will!" she cried, and she sank
+on his bosom and suffered him to clasp her in a warm embrace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+WALLACHIAN HOSPITALITY.
+
+
+Manasseh had not much choice of routes in making his way, with his
+companion, to Transylvania. After leaving Italy, he bent his course
+first to Dees, as the road thither seemed to offer no obstacles to
+peaceful travellers. Troops were, indeed, encountered here and there on
+the way; but they suffered Manasseh and Blanka to pass unmolested.
+Manasseh had fortunately provided a generous hamper of supplies, so that
+his companion was not once made aware that they were passing through a
+district lately overrun by a defeated army, which had so exhausted the
+resources of all the wayside inns that hardly a bite or a sup was to be
+had for love or money.
+
+The weather was unusually fine, as the sunny autumn had that year
+extended into the winter. The Transylvanian was perfectly familiar with
+the region, and entertained his fellow-traveller with legends and
+stories of the places through which they passed. In the splendid
+chestnut forests that crowned the heights of Nagy-Banya he told her the
+adventures of the bandit chief, Dionysius Tolvaj, who kept the whole
+countryside in terror, until at last the men of Nagy-Banya hunted him
+down and slew him. In his mountain cave are still to be seen his stone
+table, his fireplace, and the spring from which he drank. Manasseh also
+related the adventures of bear-hunters in these woods, and told about
+the search for gold that had long been carried on in the mountains, and
+often with success, so that many of them were now honeycombed with
+shafts and tunnels.
+
+Up from yonder valley rose the spirit of the mountains, a white and
+vapoury form, with which the sturdy mountaineers fought for the
+possession of the hidden treasure. In reality, however, it was no genie,
+but simply the fumes of sulphur and arsenic from the smelting works of
+the miners, who never drew breath without inhaling poison. And yet they
+lived and throve and were a healthy and happy people, the men strong,
+the women fair, and one and all fondly attached to their mountain home.
+
+One evening Manasseh pointed to a town in the distance, and told his
+companion that it was Kolozsvar. As they drew nearer they saw that it
+was garrisoned with a division of the national guard. Manasseh was now
+among people who knew him well, and he did not expect to be asked to
+show his passport. But he was mistaken. Suddenly a hand was laid on his
+arm and a firm voice saluted his ears.
+
+"So you thought you'd slip by me without once showing your papers, did
+you? A pretty way to act, I must say!"
+
+Manasseh turned to the speaker, who proved to be a short,
+broad-shouldered, thick-set man, in a coarse coat such as the Szeklers
+wear, high boots, and a large hat. His arms were disproportionately long
+for his short body, his beard was either very closely cut or sadly in
+need of the razor, and his legs were planted widely apart as he
+confronted the travellers in a challenging attitude. Perhaps he wished
+to invite Manasseh to a wrestling bout.
+
+Blanka looked on in surprise as she saw the two men fling their arms
+around each other. But it was not the embrace of wrestlers. They
+exchanged a hearty kiss, and then Manasseh cried, joyfully:
+
+"Aaron, my dear brother!"
+
+"Yes, it is Aaron, my good Manasseh," returned the stocky little man,
+with a laugh; and, throwing aside the jacket that hung from his neck, he
+extended his right hand to his brother. Then he turned to Blanka. "And
+this pretty lady is our future sister-in-law, isn't she? God bless you!
+Pray bend down a bit and let me give your rosy cheek a little smack of a
+kiss."
+
+Blanka complied, and brother Aaron gave her blushing cheek much more
+than "a little smack."
+
+"There," declared the honest fellow, with great apparent satisfaction,
+"I'm delighted that you didn't scream and make a fuss over my bristly
+beard. You see, I haven't had a chance to shave for four days. Three
+days and nights I've been here on the watch for my brother and his
+bride."
+
+"And what about our two brothers, Simon and David?" asked Manasseh,
+anxiously. "Are they alive and well?"
+
+"Certainly, they are alive," was the answer. "Have you forgotten our
+creed? Our life is from everlasting to everlasting. But they are really
+alive and in the flesh, and, what is more"--turning to Blanka--"they are
+sure to come to meet us and will expect to receive each a nosegay from
+their brother's sweetheart."
+
+Blanka smiled and promised not to disappoint them, for there were still
+plenty of autumn flowers in the woods and fields.
+
+"Yes," said Aaron, "you'll find posies enough on the road. We are going
+by a way that is covered with them. If you don't believe it, look at
+this bouquet in my hat; it is still quite fresh, and I picked it in the
+Torda Gap. Have you ever heard of the Torda Gap? There is nothing like
+it in all the world; you'll remember it as long as you live. It is a
+splendid garden of wild flowers, and there you will see the cave of the
+famous Balyika,--he was Francis Rakoczy's general. Thence it is only a
+step to the Szekler Stone, and we are at home. Do you like to walk in
+the woods?"
+
+"Nothing better!"
+
+Here Manasseh pulled his brother's sleeve. "Do you really mean to take
+us by the way of Torda Gap?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes," returned the other, likewise in an undertone; "there is no other
+way."
+
+A blare of trumpets interrupted this conversation, and presently a squad
+of hussars came riding down the street, every man of them a raw recruit.
+
+"Look, see how proud he is on his high horse!" interjected Aaron. "He
+never even looks at a poor foot-passenger like me. Halloa there,
+brother! What kind of a cavalryman do you call yourself, with no eyes
+for a pretty girl? Oh, you toad!"
+
+With this salutation Aaron called to his side the young lieutenant who
+rode at the head of the hussars. He bore a striking resemblance to
+Manasseh,--the same face, the same form, the same eyes. Indeed, the two
+had often been mistaken for each other. There was only a year's
+difference in their ages. The young hussar gave his hand to Manasseh,
+and while they exchanged cordial greetings they looked each other
+steadfastly in the eye.
+
+"Whither away, brother?" asked the elder.
+
+"I am going to avenge my two brothers," was the reply.
+
+"And I am going to rescue them," declared Manasseh.
+
+"I am going forth to fight for my country," was the other's rejoinder.
+
+Then the rider bent low over his horse's neck, and the two brothers
+kissed each other.
+
+"But aren't you going to ask your new sister for a kiss, you young
+scapegrace?" cried Aaron.
+
+The youthful soldier blushed like a bashful girl. "When I come
+back--when I have earned a kiss--then I will ask for it. And you will
+give me one, won't you, dear sister-in-law, even if they bring me back
+dead?"
+
+Blanka gave him her hand, while a nameless dread showed itself in her
+face.
+
+"Never fear!" cried the young man. As he gave Blanka a radiant look he
+saw tears glistening in her eyes. "I shall not die. _Egy az Isten!_"[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: See preface.]
+
+"_Egy az Isten!_" repeated the elder brother.
+
+Then the young hussar put spurs to his horse and galloped to the head of
+his little company.
+
+"Come, let us be going," said Aaron, and he led the way toward the
+farther end of the town, where the family owned a villa which they used
+whenever occasion called them from Toroczko to Kolozsvar. Adjoining the
+house lay a garden which was now rented to a market-woman, who made
+haste to prepare supper for the travellers. Blanka went into the
+kitchen and helped her, but not before the woman had been instructed in
+what was going on and warned not to breathe a word to the young mistress
+of the dangers that encompassed them all in those troublous times. It
+was Manasseh's desire to lead his bride home without giving her cause
+for one moment of disquiet on the way.
+
+"Can you sleep in a carriage?" the market-woman asked her, without
+pausing in her baking and boiling. "Now as for me, many's the time I've
+slept every night for two weeks in my cart when I was taking apples to
+market. One gets used to that sort of thing. The gentlemen propose to
+set out for Torda this very night, because to-morrow is the great
+market-day in Kolozsvar, and there'll be troops of peddlers and dealers
+of all sorts coming into town, and farmers driving their cattle and
+sheep and swine, so that you couldn't possibly make head against them if
+you should wait till morning."
+
+Blanka readily gave her consent to any plan that seemed best to her
+conductors.
+
+Aaron meanwhile had brought out three good horses from the stable and
+harnessed them to a travelling carriage. "Water behind us, fire before
+us," he remarked to Manasseh as he buckled the last strap.
+
+Wallachian troops were holding the mountain passes about Torda, and had
+even threatened Toroczko; but thus far the inhabitants had not allowed
+themselves to be frightened. Now, however, there was a report that
+General Kalliani was approaching from Hermannstadt with a brigade of
+imperial soldiery. Consequently it was to be feared that a general
+flight from Torda to Kolozsvar would soon follow; and, when once the
+stream of fugitives began, it would be impossible to make one's way in
+an opposite direction. Therefore our travellers had not a moment to
+lose.
+
+Blanka was by this time well used to travelling by night, and she
+entered cheerfully and without question into the proposed plan. A
+longing to reach "home," and perhaps a vague suspicion of the perils
+that threatened her party, made her the more willing to push forward.
+When danger braces to action, a high-bred woman's power of endurance is
+almost without limit.
+
+Aaron drove, Manasseh sat beside him, and thus the entire rear seat was
+left to Blanka, who was so swathed and muffled in wraps and furs that
+she was well-nigh hidden from view. Despite all the plausible
+explanations, she came very near guessing the well-meant deceit that was
+practised upon her.
+
+"Why, your horses are saddled!" she exclaimed to Aaron.
+
+"Yes, to be sure," calmly replied the mountaineer. "That's the custom
+in Transylvania; we put saddles on our carriage-horses just as in Styria
+they buckle a block of wood over the horse's neck."
+
+Blanka appeared satisfied with this explanation of Transylvanian usage.
+Aaron gave his good Szekler steeds a free rein. They were raised in the
+mountains and could, if need were, trot for twenty-four hours on a
+stretch without food or water; then, if they were unharnessed and
+allowed to graze a little, they were able to resume the journey with
+unslackened pace. The driver had no occasion to use reins or whip: they
+knew their duty,--to pull lustily when the road led up-hill, to hold
+back in going down-hill, to trot on a level, to overtake and pass any
+carriage in front of them, to quicken their pace when they heard one
+behind, and to halt before every inn.
+
+Aaron, turning half around on his seat, beguiled the time by telling
+stories to his fair passenger, to whom his fund of amusing anecdotes
+seemed inexhaustible. When at length, as they were ascending a long
+hill, he noticed that she ceased to laugh at his tales, but sat inert
+and with head sunk on her bosom, he put his hand into his waistcoat
+pocket and, drawing out an enamelled gold watch, pressed the stem and
+held it to his ear.
+
+"Half-past twelve," he murmured.
+
+The man himself was a gold watch encased in a rough exterior, a noble
+heart in a rude setting. His horny hands were hardened by toil, but he
+had a clever head on his shoulders; he was well endowed with mother-wit,
+quick at repartee, merciless in his satire toward the haughty and
+overbearing, cool and good-humoured in the presence of danger,--in
+short, a genuine Szekler, heart and soul.
+
+When, then, his repeater had told him the hour, Aaron turned and
+addressed his brother. "The young lady is asleep," said he, "and now you
+and I can have a little talk together. You asked me how our two brothers
+came to be captured. Let me begin at the beginning, and you shall hear
+all about it. You know when freedom is first born she is a puny infant
+and has to be suckled. That she cries for blood instead of milk is
+something we can't help. So all the young men of Toroczko enlisted in
+the militia,--every mother's son of them,--and they are now serving in
+the eleventh, the thirty-second, and the seventy-third battalions. You
+ask me, perhaps, why we mountain folk must needs take the field when
+already we are fighting for our country all our life long in the bowels
+of the earth. You say it is enough for us to dig the iron in our
+mountains without wielding it on the battle-field; else what do the
+privileges mean that were granted us by Andreas II. and Bela IV., by
+which we are exempted from military service? It's no use your talking,
+Manasseh; you've been away from home. But had you been here and seen
+and heard your brother David when he stood up in the middle of the
+marketplace, made a speech to the young men around him, and then buckled
+on his sword and mounted his horse, you would certainly have mounted and
+followed him. How can you quench the flames when every house is ablaze?
+All the young men were on fire and it was out of the question to dampen
+their ardour. Besides, this is no ordinary war; freedom itself is at
+stake, and that is a matter that concerns Toroczko. All the Wallachians
+around us, stirred up by imperial officers sent from Vienna, took up
+arms against us, and nothing was left us but to defend ourselves. The
+people took such a fancy to our brothers that there was no other way but
+to make them officers. You cry out against the good folk for letting
+their commanders be taken prisoners. But don't make such a noise about
+it." (Manasseh had thus far not once opened his mouth.) "You shall soon
+see that your brothers were no fools, and did not rush into danger
+recklessly. You know that soon after the Wallachian mass-meeting at
+Balazsfalva came the Szekler muster at Agyagfalva, and presently we
+found ourselves like an island in the midst of the sea. A Wallachian
+army ten thousand strong, under Moga's command, beset us on all sides,
+while we had but three hundred armed men all told,--just the number that
+Leonidas had at Thermopylae. Our eldest brother, Berthold, who, since he
+turned vegetarian, can't bear to see a chicken killed for dinner, and is
+dead set against all bloodshed, advised us to make peaceful terms with
+the enemy. So we drew lots to see who should go out and parley with
+them, and it fell to our brother Simon. He took a white flag and went
+into the enemy's camp; but they held him prisoner and refused to let him
+go. Then David started up and went after him, with an offer of ransom
+for his release. But they seized him, too, and so now they have them
+both. Meanwhile the Wallachs are threatening, if we don't surrender to
+them and admit them into Toroczko, to hang our two brothers before our
+eyes. We on our part, however, turn a deaf ear to the rascally knaves,
+and would perish to the last man before we would think of yielding. It's
+no use your screaming in my ears, you won't make me change my mind. I'm
+ready to treat with people that are reasonable, but when they bite me I
+bite back. I agree with you it's a hateful thing to have two of our
+brothers hanged; noblemen are not to be insulted with the halter; their
+honour should be spared and their heads taken off decently. But what can
+we do? Can we hesitate a moment between two noblemen's deaths and the
+destruction of all the peasantry? One man is as good as another now. So
+you may make as much rumpus as you please, it won't do any good. I am
+taking you to Toroczko, and as our two brothers are as good as lost to
+us, you must take the command of the Toroczko forces. You have seen the
+barricade fighting in Vienna and Rome, and you understand such things.
+So, then, not another word! I won't hear it."
+
+Manasseh had not uttered a syllable, but had permitted his brother to
+argue out the matter with himself.
+
+"I don't gainsay you, brother Aaron," he calmly rejoined, "not in the
+least. Take me to Toroczko, the sooner the better; but we shall not get
+there by this road. Do you see that great cloud of dust yonder moving
+toward us?"
+
+"Aha! What sharp eyes you have to see it, by moonlight too! I hadn't
+noticed it before. All Torda and Nagy-Enyed are coming to meet us. They
+must have set out about the same time we did, to make the most of the
+night. We can't get through this way, that's sure. But don't you worry.
+It's a sorry kind of a fox that has only one hole to hide in. Do you see
+that gorge there on our right? It leads to Olah-Fenes. The people there
+are Wallachs, it is true, but they side with us; to prove it, they have
+cut their hair short. Next we shall come to Szent-Laszlo, where Magyars
+live. So far we can drive, though it's a frightful road and one of us
+must walk beside the carriage and keep it from tipping over. We must
+wake up the young lady, too, and tell her to hold on tight, or she'll
+be thrown out. But never fear. The horses can be depended on, and the
+carriage is Toroczko work and good for the jaunt."
+
+There was a halt, and Blanka awoke of her own accord. Manasseh turned to
+her, chatted with her a moment on the brightness of the stars and the
+clearness of the sky, then kissed her hand and bade her draw it back
+again under her furs, else it would get frost-bitten. Thereupon Aaron
+reined his horses toward the mountain gorge he had pointed out, and they
+began their dangerous journey over a rough wood-road that led through
+the ravine. At one point it ran along the brink of a precipice, and as
+they paused to breathe their horses the rumble of wagons on the highway
+from Torda fell on their ears, sounding like distant thunder in the
+still night. Then, to the north and south, red lights began to glimmer
+on the mountain peaks.
+
+"How beautiful!" exclaimed Blanka, as she gazed at them. Little did she
+suspect that they were beacon-fires calling to deeds of blood and
+rapine.
+
+A turn in the road at length conducted the travellers through a gap in
+the mountain range, and they had a view of the moonlit landscape before
+them. A noisy brook went tumbling and foaming down the ravine, and over
+it led a wooden bridge, at the farther end of which could be seen a rude
+one-story house surrounded by a palisade. Five smaller houses of
+similar architecture were grouped about it. The barking of dogs greeted
+the travellers while they were still some distance off, and the crowing
+of cocks soon followed.
+
+"Do you hear Ciprianu's roosters?" Aaron asked his brother.
+
+"So you are acquainted with Ciprianu and his poultry?" returned
+Manasseh.
+
+"Yes, I know them well. Ciprianu is a Wallach, but a nobleman of Hungary
+for all that, and his poultry unique of its sort. The cocks are white,
+but in head and neck they bear a strong resemblance to turkeys, and they
+gobble like turkeys, too. They are a special breed and Ciprianu wouldn't
+part with one of them for a fortune. He guards them jealously from
+thieves, and that explains why he has so many dogs. As soon as he hears
+our carriage-wheels he'll come out on his veranda and fire off his
+gun--not at us, but into the air, to let us know he's awake and ready to
+meet friend or foe."
+
+The barking increased, the dogs sticking their noses out from between
+the stakes of the palisade and joining in a full chorus. Presently a
+shot was heard from the front porch of the house.
+
+"Oh, they are firing at us!" cried Blanka, startled.
+
+"Don't be afraid, sister-in-law," Aaron reassured her; "that shot wasn't
+aimed at us." Then he shouted, in stentorian tones: "Don't shoot,
+Ciprianu, don't shoot! There's a lady with us, and she can't bear the
+noise."
+
+At this there was heard a great commotion among the dogs, as of some one
+quieting the unruly beasts with a whip. Then the gate opened and a
+six-foot giant in a sheepskin coat, wool outward, and bearing a club,
+appeared. He exchanged greetings in Rumanian with Aaron, and the
+conversation that followed was likewise in that language, so that Blanka
+could not understand a word of it. The Wallach pointed to the
+signal-fires on the mountains, and his face assumed an expression of
+alarm. Finally he took one of the horses by the bridle, and conducted
+the carriage through the gate and into his stronghold.
+
+"Why are we stopped here?" asked Blanka.
+
+Aaron gave her a reassuring reply. "Ciprianu says it is not best for us
+to go any farther to-night, as the rains have washed out the road in
+some places, and we might get into trouble in the dark. So we must
+accept his invitation and spend the rest of the night under his roof."
+
+Aaron had explained the situation only in part. The Wallachian's
+argument for detaining them had much less to do with water than with the
+fires on the mountain tops.
+
+The dogs were kicked aside to make room for the strangers, and sundry
+villagers appeared out of the gloom to reconnoitre the new arrivals.
+The country peasantry never give themselves a regular night's sleep, but
+lie down half-dressed in order to get up occasionally and look around in
+house and stable, to make sure all is as it should be.
+
+Ciprianu had a handsome daughter, as tall as himself and with regular
+features of the old Roman cast. At her father's call she came out,
+lifted Blanka like a child from the carriage, and carried her into the
+house. It was a pleasant little abode, built of smoothly planed oak
+beams and planks. The kitchen, which served also as entrance hall, was
+as neat as wax and cheerfully adorned with brightly polished tinware.
+The fire on the hearth was still smouldering, and it needed only a
+handful of shavings to make it blaze up and crackle merrily. The wall
+which separated the great fireplace from the next room was of glazed
+tiles, and thus the adjoining apartment was heated by the same fire that
+warmed the kitchen. Both the master of the house and his daughter were
+most cordial toward their guests. The father spread the table, while the
+girl put on the kettle and brought out the best that the house had to
+offer of food and drink, pressing the refreshments upon Blanka in words
+that sounded to her not unlike Italian, but were nevertheless quite
+unintelligible.
+
+"They can both speak Hungarian," whispered Aaron, when father and
+daughter were out of the room for a moment, "but these are times when
+they choose to forget all tongues except their own."
+
+Blanka soon learned that her hostess's name was Zenobia. When they sat
+down to the table, Zenobia made as if to kiss her fair guest's hand;
+Blanka, however, would not allow it, but embraced the young woman and
+kissed her on the cheek.
+
+This act was noted by the father with no little pride and satisfaction.
+Blanka could not understand his words; she could only guess his meaning
+by the gestures and the play of countenance with which a Wallachian
+knows so well how to convey his thoughts. Thus, when Ciprianu put his
+hand first to his head, then tapped Aaron on the shoulder, kissed his
+own fingers and then stretched them heavenward, made a motion with his
+head and raised his eyebrows, bowed low, stood erect again, thumped his
+bosom, and finally extended his great, muscular hands toward Blanka as
+if to caress her, she could not but infer that the Wallachian-Hungarian
+nobleman was proud of the courtesy shown to his daughter.
+
+After this bit of eloquent pantomime, Ciprianu turned and hastened out
+of the room and into the courtyard, whence he soon reappeared amid a
+great cackling of poultry. He brought with him, tied together by the
+feet, a cock and a hen of that splendid breed that so strangely
+resembles, in head and neck, the proudest of Calcutta turkeys. This
+pair of fowls he presented to Blanka. She smiled her pleasure, and
+gladly accepted the gift, mindful of the new duties soon to be imposed
+upon her as a young housewife, and thinking that this present would be a
+welcome addition to her establishment. The generous host did not wait
+for his guest's thanks, but disappeared again from the room.
+
+"Sister-in-law," said Aaron, "you little suspect the value of the
+present you have received. Even to his bishop Ciprianu has never given a
+cock and a hen of this breed at one time. So now we can sleep soundly in
+this house, for we have a sure proof that you have won its master's
+heart. With Ciprianu's cock and hen we can make our way unchallenged
+through the whole Wallachian army. They are as good as a passport for
+us."
+
+Blanka laughed, unaware of the full significance of his words. She was
+like a saint walking over red-hot coals without once singeing the hem of
+her robe.
+
+Ciprianu's house was, as is usual among the Wallachian nobility, well
+fitted for the reception of guests. Everything savoured of the
+householder's nationality, but comfort and abundance were everywhere
+manifest. Canopied beds were provided for all, only the master of the
+house, according to established custom, lay down before the kitchen
+door, wrapped in his sheepskin, and with his double-barrelled musket by
+his side. In an adjoining room stood two beds for Blanka and Zenobia.
+Aaron and Manasseh were likewise given a chamber in common.
+
+Curiously enough, one is often most wakeful when most in need of sleep.
+All her surroundings were so strange to Blanka that she found herself
+wide awake and listening to the barking of the dogs, the occasional
+crowing of the cocks, the snoring of the master of the house, and his
+frequent mutterings as he dreamed of fighting with thieves and
+housebreakers. Then her companion began to moan and sob in her sleep,
+and to utter disjointed sentences in Hungarian, of which she had so
+studiously feigned ignorance a few hours before. "Oh, dear Jonathan,"
+she whispered, passionately, "do not leave me! Kiss me!" Then she moaned
+as if in anguish.
+
+Blanka could not compose herself to sleep. Only a wooden partition
+separated her from the room in which the two brothers slept. She could
+hear Manasseh turning restlessly on his couch and muttering in his sleep
+as if in dispute with some one.
+
+"No, I will not let you go!" she heard him exclaim. "You may plunge my
+whole country in blood, you may baptise my countrymen with a baptism of
+fire, but I will never despair of my dear fatherland. Your hand has girt
+it round about with cliffs and peopled it with a peaceful race. It is my
+last refuge, and thither I am carrying my bride. With your strong arm
+restore me to my beloved home. I will wrestle with you, fight with you;
+you cannot shake me off. I will not let you go until you have blessed
+me."
+
+The fisticuffs and elbow-thrusts that followed must have all spent
+themselves on poor Aaron's unoffending person. At length the elder
+brother wearied of this diversion and aroused his bedfellow.
+
+"With whom are you wrestling, brother?" he cried in the sleeper's ear.
+
+"With God," returned Manasseh.
+
+"Like Jacob at Peniel?"
+
+"Yes, and I will not let him go until he blesses me--like Jacob at
+Peniel."
+
+"Take care, or he will put your thigh out of joint, as he did Jacob's."
+
+"Let him, if it is his will."
+
+With that Manasseh turned his face to the wall, on the other side of
+which lay Blanka, who likewise turned her face to the wall, and so they
+both fell asleep.
+
+And the Lord blessed them and spake to them: "I am Jehovah, almighty.
+Increase and be fruitful. From your seed shall spring peoples and races;
+for you have prevailed with God, and shall prevail also with men."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+BALYIKA CAVE.
+
+
+The sun rises late in November. When Blanka awoke, every one else in the
+house was already up. Manasseh met her with the announcement that their
+journey was thenceforth to be on horseback, at which she was as pleased
+as a child. So that explained why their carriage-horses had been
+saddled.
+
+In the kitchen a plentiful breakfast stood ready,--hot milk, bacon
+spiced with paprika, snow-white mountain honey, long-necked bottles of
+spirits distilled from various fruits, cheeses rolled up in the fragrant
+bark of the fir-tree,--all of which was new to Blanka and partaken of by
+her with the keenest relish, to the great satisfaction of her host. What
+was left on the table by his guests he packed up and made them carry
+away with them, assuring them it would not come amiss.
+
+Zenobia was to guide the travellers on their way. Blanka laughed with
+delight as she mounted her horse. At first she found it strange enough
+to sit astride like a man, but when she saw the stately Wallachian
+maiden thus mounted, she overcame her scruples and even thought it great
+fun. The little mountain horses were so steady and sure-footed that it
+was like being rocked in a cradle to ride one of them.
+
+The two young women rode ahead, while the men lingered behind a moment
+to drink a stirrup-cup with their host, who would not let them go
+without observing this ceremony. Entering the forest, Blanka accosted
+her companion.
+
+"Zenobia, call me 'Blanka,' and speak Hungarian with me. You spoke it
+well enough in your sleep last night."
+
+The Wallachian girl drew rein abruptly and crossed herself. "Holy
+Virgin!" she whispered, "don't lisp a word of what you heard me say, and
+don't ask me about it, either."
+
+They rode on side by side up the slope of the mountain. Blanka was in
+high spirits. The turf was silvered with hoar frost, except here and
+there where the direct rays of the sun had melted it and exposed the
+grass beneath, which looked all the greener by contrast. A stately grove
+received the travellers. A silence as of some high-arched cathedral
+reigned, broken occasionally by the antiphony of feathered songsters in
+the trees overhead. A pair of wild peacocks started up at the riders'
+approach and alighted again at a little distance. The ascent became
+steeper. Horses bred in the lowlands must have long since succumbed to
+the strain put upon them, but Aaron's good mountain ponies showed not
+even a drop of sweat on their sleek coats.
+
+Gaining the mountain top at length, the travellers saw before them a
+wild moor threaded by a narrow path, which they were obliged to follow
+in single file, Zenobia taking the lead. The sun was high in the heavens
+when they reached the end of this tortuous path and found themselves at
+a point where their road led downward into the valley below. A venerable
+beech-tree, perhaps centuries old, marked this spot. It was the sole
+survivor of the primeval forest that had once crowned the height on
+which it stood. Held firm by its great, wide-reaching roots, which
+fastened themselves in the crannies of the rock, it had thus far defied
+the elements. Its trunk half hid a cavernous opening in the
+mountainside, before which lay a large stone basin partly filled with
+water.
+
+"Here we will rest awhile, beside the Wonder Spring," said Zenobia,
+leaping from her horse and loosening her saddle-girth. "We'll take a
+bite of lunch and let our animals graze; then later we will water them."
+
+"How can we?" asked Blanka. "There is scarcely any water here."
+
+"There will be enough before long," was the reply. "That is why we call
+it the Wonder Spring: every two hours it gushes out, and then subsides
+again."
+
+Blanka shook her head doubtfully, and, as if to make the most of the
+water still remaining in the basin, she used her hand as a ladle and
+dipped up enough to quench the thirst of her pair of fowls--for her
+valuable present had not been left behind.
+
+Meanwhile Aaron had spread the lunch on the green table-cloth provided
+by good dame Nature, and had begun to cut, with his silver-mounted
+clasp-knife, a generous portion for each traveller. But Blanka declared
+herself less hungry than thirsty.
+
+"The saints have but to wish, and their desires are fulfilled," was
+Zenobia's laughing rejoinder. "Even the barren rocks yield nectar. Hear
+that! The spring is going to flow in a moment."
+
+A gurgling sound was heard from the cavernous opening behind the
+beech-tree, and presently an abundant stream of crystal-clear water
+burst forth, flooded the basin, and then went leaping and foaming over
+the rocks and down the mountainside into the ravine below. Blanka
+clapped her hands with delight at this beautiful appearance, and
+declared that if she were rich, she would build a house there and ask
+for no other amusement than to watch the spring when it flowed. She
+laughed like a happy child, and perhaps in all Transylvania, that day,
+hers was the only happy laugh that was heard.
+
+Aaron gathered a heap of dry twigs and made a fire, at which he taught
+Blanka to toast bread and broil bacon,--accomplishments not to be
+despised on occasions like this.
+
+In half an hour the spring ceased to flow. It stopped with a succession
+of muffled, gurgling sounds from the depths of its subterranean channel,
+ending finally with gulping down the greater part of the water that had
+filled the basin. Then all was still once more.
+
+Meanwhile something had occurred to trouble Blanka's happiness. Two or
+three wasps, of that venomous kind of which half a dozen suffice to kill
+a horse, lured from their winter quarters by the smell of food, were
+buzzing about her ears in a manner that spoiled all her pleasure. Aaron
+hastened to her assistance, and suspecting that the intruders had their
+nest in the hollow beech, he made preparations to smoke them out.
+Setting fire to a bunch of dry grass, he inserted it in the hollow of
+the tree and confidently awaited results. A sound like the snort of a
+steam-engine followed, and presently flames were seen bursting from the
+top of the chimney-like trunk. The dry mould and dust of ages that had
+collected inside this shaft had now caught fire, like so much tinder,
+turning the whole tree in a twinkling into a mighty torch.
+
+"Oh, what have you done?" cried Zenobia, starting up. "Do you know that
+you have killed my father and set fire to the house that sheltered you
+last night?"
+
+Blanka at first thought the girl was joking, but when she saw Aaron's
+vexed expression and Manasseh's ruffled brow, she knew that the words
+must have a meaning that the others understood, though she did not.
+
+"Quick!" exclaimed the Wallachian maiden. "Mount and away! You have not
+a moment to lose. I hasten back to my father. You can find your way down
+the mountain by following the bed of the brook. Night must not overtake
+you in this neighbourhood. Oh, Aaron, may God forgive you for what you
+have done this day!"
+
+Out of the burning tree a pair of owls fluttered, blinded and
+panic-stricken, a family of squirrels scampered off to a place of
+safety, and a nest of serpents squirmed and wriggled away from that
+blazing horror. Yet neither owls nor squirrels nor serpents fled with
+more headlong haste than did our travellers. Zenobia galloped back the
+way she had come, while the two men took Blanka between them and
+clattered down the rocky bed of the now nearly dry mountain torrent.
+
+Of all this Blanka could understand nothing. What great harm, she
+wondered, could come from the burning of an old beech-tree?
+
+Toward evening the travellers found themselves on a height commanding a
+wide view of the surrounding country. To the north rose the cliff where
+they had lunched at noon, and where they could still see black smoke
+ascending in a column from the smouldering beech as from a factory
+chimney. To the southeast another column of smoke was visible, and
+toward the same quarter Torda Gap opened before them in the distance.
+
+Aaron said they must halt here and rest their horses, whereupon all
+three dismounted and Manasseh spread a sheepskin for Blanka to sit on;
+but she chose rather to go in quest of wild flowers.
+
+"Your Blanka is a jewel of a woman!" exclaimed Aaron to his brother.
+"From early dawn she sits in the saddle, bears all the hardships of the
+journey, and utters not a sigh of weariness or complaint. With that
+filigree body of hers, she endures fatigues that might well make a
+strong man's bones ache, and keeps up her good cheer through them all.
+Nothing daunted by danger ahead, she makes merry over it when it is
+passed. Yet once or twice I thought she was going to lose heart, but she
+looked into your face and immediately regained her courage. But the
+hardest part of the journey is still to come. Turn your field-glass
+toward Monastery Heights, yonder, where you see the smoke. Do you find
+any tents there?"
+
+"Yes, and on the edge of the woods I see the gleam of bayonets."
+
+"That is the camp of Moga's insurgents, and it lies between us and the
+Szekler Stone. Every road leading thither is now unsafe for us. But hear
+my plan. The insurgents hold Monastery Heights, and we must ride past
+them, through the Torda Gap. The millers of the two mills that stand one
+at each end of the Gap are my friends. The Hungarian miller at Peterd
+has shut off Hesdad Brook to-day, to clear out the mill-race. He does it
+once in so often, and I know he is about it now. So we shall have no
+trouble making our way up the dry bed of the stream to the farther end
+of the Gap. The miller there has promised to give a signal if the road
+through the Torda woods is clear, and unless it is blocked by the
+insurgents we can push on at once to the saw-mill on the Aranyos, where
+a four-horse team is waiting for us with twelve mounted young men from
+Bagyon as escort. But don't wrinkle your brow, we sha'n't come to
+bloodshed yet awhile. A dozen Bagyon horsemen make nothing of dashing
+through the whole Wallachian army, and not a hair of their heads will be
+touched. We shall be shot at, but from such a distance that we shall
+never know it. We will tell the young lady it is the custom in our
+country to receive bridal parties with a volley of musketry. When we
+reach the Borev Bridge we are as good as at home, and we shall be there
+before any one can overtake us, I'll warrant."
+
+"But what if the Torda woods are held by the enemy?" queried Manasseh.
+
+"Then we will take up our quarters for the present in Balyika Cave.
+Everything is provided there for our comfort, and we shall not suffer.
+We'll wait until the danger passes. Near the Balyika Gate we shall find
+a signal: a cord will be stretched from one rock to another, and a red
+rag hung on it if danger threatens, but a green twig if all is well."
+
+"And when you first proposed in Kolozsvar that we should go home by way
+of Torda Gap, did you know the perils we should have to face?"
+
+"Certainly," replied Aaron. "You can read my heart, brother, like an
+open book, and I need not try to conceal anything from you. Do you
+suppose we should ever have taken up arms unless we had been forced to
+do so, even as you will exchange the olive-branch for the sword as soon
+as you find what is dearest to you in danger? You cannot do otherwise;
+the iron hand of destiny constrains you. You have brought your
+sweetheart with you from Rome; your honour as a man obliges you to make
+her your lawful wife. Our law, our canon, compels you to make your way
+home with her, for nowhere else can your wedding be duly solemnised.
+Suppose the enemy block your way: you are given a good horse, a trusty
+sword and a brace of pistols, and then, with thirteen loyal comrades,
+including myself, you clear a path, through blood if need be, to the
+altar whither it is your duty to lead your betrothed."
+
+While the two men thus discoursed on war and bloodshed, Blanka was
+enjoying the late autumn flowers that the frost had spared. Indigo-blue
+bell-flowers and red and white tormentils were still in bloom, while in
+the clefts of the rocks she came upon the red wall-pepper and a kind of
+yellow ragwort. She had gathered a great bunch of these blossoms when
+she had the good fortune to find a clump of bear-berry vines, full of
+the ripened fruit hanging in red clusters and set off by the leathery,
+dark green leaves, which never fall. The bear-berry is the pride of the
+mountain flora, and Blanka was delighted to meet with it.
+
+"Are these berries poisonous?" she asked Aaron, with childish curiosity,
+as soon as she rejoined her companions.
+
+He put one of them into his mouth to reassure her; then she had to
+follow his example, but immediately made a wry face and declared the
+fruit to be very bitter.
+
+"But the berries will do to put in my bouquets for your two brothers who
+are coming to meet us," she said, as she seated herself on the sheepskin
+to rest a few minutes and to tie up her flowers.
+
+At these words Aaron's eyes filled, but he hastened to reply, with
+assumed cheerfulness:
+
+"In Balyika Glen we shall find a still more beautiful species of
+bear-berry. It, too, is a kind of arbutus, but of great rarity, and
+found nowhere else except in Italy and Ireland. We call it here the
+'autumn-spring flower.' The stems are coral-red, the leaves evergreen,
+and the blossoms grow in terminal umbels, white and fragrant, late in
+the fall, while the berries do not ripen until the following autumn, so
+that the beautiful plant bears flowers and fruit at one and the same
+time, and thus wears our national colours, the tricolour of Hungary."
+
+"Oh, where does it grow? Is it far from here?" exclaimed Blanka,
+eagerly, starting up from her seat. She had lost all feeling of fatigue.
+
+"It is a good distance, dear sister-in-law," replied Aaron. "To the
+Torda Gap is a full hour's ride, and thence to Balyika Glen about as
+far; and I'm afraid somebody is tired enough already, so that we had
+best stay overnight in the mill and not push on until to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"No, I am not tired," Blanka asserted. "Let us go on this evening," and
+she was ready to remount at once.
+
+"But the horses ought to graze a little longer," objected Aaron, "and
+even then we shall fare much better if we walk down the mountain; it
+will be easier for us than riding."
+
+With that he went off into the bushes and picked his hat full of
+huckleberries, returning with which he drew a clean linen handkerchief
+from his knapsack, used it as a strainer for extracting the juice of the
+fruit, and then presented the drink in a wooden goblet to Blanka. She
+left some for Manasseh, who drank after her and declared he had never
+tasted a more delightful draught. She seemed now fully rested and
+refreshed, and eager to resume their journey. Aaron put two fingers into
+his mouth and whistled, whereupon the three horses came trotting up to
+him. He called them by name, and they followed him as a dog follows his
+master, while Manasseh and Blanka brought up the rear. Thus the party
+descended the steep mountainside.
+
+The Torda Gap is one of the most marvellous volcanic formations in
+existence. It is as if a mighty mountain chain had been rent asunder
+from ridge to base, leaving the opposing sides of the gorge rugged and
+precipitous, but matching each other with a rude harmony of detail most
+curious to behold. The zigzags and windings of the giant corridor, three
+thousand feet in length, have a wonderful regularity and symmetry in
+their bounding walls. The whole forms an entrance-way or passage of
+solid rock, the most imposing gateway in the world, and a marvel to all
+geologists.
+
+The wonders of this mountain gorge, and the stories and legends that
+Aaron narrated as the travellers proceeded, made Blanka entirely
+unconscious of the difficulties of the way. After leaving the Peterd
+mill behind them, they were forced to use the bed of the stream for a
+road. Its waters were for the time being restrained, although numerous
+pools were still standing, in which numbers of small fishes darted
+hither and thither and crabs were seen in abundance. As the riders
+advanced through the rocky passageway, its walls came nearer and nearer
+together and left only a narrow strip of blue sky visible overhead, with
+a few slanting rays of the evening sunlight playing high up on one side
+of the gorge. At length the passage became so straitened that only three
+fathoms' space was left between the confining walls. When Hesdad Brook
+is at all full one can make his way through only with great difficulty
+and by boldly breasting its waters. Therefore it is that very few people
+have ever seen the gate of Torda Gap. Just above this narrow gateway is
+situated the natural excavation in the mountainside, called from its
+last defender, Balyika Cave.
+
+As the travellers approached this spot, Aaron rode on ahead, ostensibly
+to ascertain whether the water was still shallow enough to wade through,
+but in reality to look for the preconcerted signal and remove it before
+Blanka should come up. He had agreed with Manasseh, if the signal was
+favourable, to offer to show her the flower garden of Balyika Glen and
+to discourage all desire on her part to visit Balyika Cave, by alleging
+that it was the haunt of serpents; but if the signal should be
+unfavourable, he was to employ all his arts to make the young lady eager
+to inspect the cavern and pass the night there.
+
+He soon returned, and reported that it would be easy to wade their
+horses through the gateway, after which they could go and view the
+wonders of Balyika Cave.
+
+"But aren't there any snakes in the cave?" was Blanka's first and most
+natural inquiry. Every woman in her place would have put the same
+question. Ever since Mother Eve's misadventure with the serpent in
+Paradise, women have cherished a deadly enmity toward the whole reptile
+family.
+
+"Yes," was Aaron's reply, "there are snakes there."
+
+Manasseh drew a breath of relief, but this time he had mistaken his
+brother's meaning.
+
+"We need not fear them, however," the elder made haste to add. "We will
+build a fire and drive them out. Our fowls, too, will be a still better
+protection for us; with their naked necks they will be taken for
+vultures by the snakes, and we shall have no trouble whatever."
+
+Manasseh now knew that dangers surrounded them, and that they must pass
+the night in the cave. Aaron, however, put forth all his eloquence to
+depict the charms of the place, likening its cavernous depths to the
+groined arches of a cathedral, and telling how his ancestors had
+maintained themselves there for months at a time in the face of a
+besieging force. He assured Blanka that she would find it most
+delightful to camp there by a blazing fire; he and Manasseh would take
+turns watching while she slept, her head pillowed on a fragrant bundle
+of hay.
+
+They passed through the giant gateway, and clambered up to Balyika Cave,
+a spacious chamber in the side of the cliff, rudely but strongly
+fortified by a stone rampart that had been built to guard the entrance.
+A wild rosebush grew in the narrow doorway and seemed at first to refuse
+all admittance. Manasseh and Blanka waited without, while Aaron fought
+his way through the brambles, which tore at his leather coat without
+injuring it, and presently returned with three broad planks. He and
+Manasseh held the briers aside with two of them and laid the third as a
+bridge for Blanka to pass over unharmed. In a corner of the stone wall
+lay a pile of hay, and behind it a supply of pitch-pine torches, one of
+which Aaron now lighted. Then, like a lord in his own castle, he issued
+his orders to his companions. Manasseh was to lead the horses up, one at
+a time, and stable them in the rude courtyard, while Blanka was
+instructed to sit on a stone and arrange her flowers and feed her
+poultry. Meantime the master of ceremonies made everything ready for the
+other two within the cave.
+
+The cock and hen were soon picking the barley from their mistress's lap,
+while she busied her fingers with the manufacture of a red necklace of
+the hips that grew on the wild rosebush. That other necklace, the
+dandelion chain, was treasured by Manasseh among his most precious
+possessions. Soon the horses were led up, stalled and fed, and then
+their groom drew in the wooden planks, according to his brother's
+instructions, and carried them into the cave, leaving the wild rosebush
+to resume its guardianship of the doorway. After this Aaron came out and
+offered his arm, like a courteous host, to escort Blanka into the
+cavern. She was no little surprised, on entering, to find herself in a
+stately hall, clean and comfortable, and lighted and warmed by a
+cheerful fire of fagots in its centre. Near the fire stood a table,
+neatly spread with a white cloth, on which were placed glasses and a
+pitcher of fresh spring-water. Beside the table a couch, rude but
+comfortable, had been prepared for her repose.
+
+"Aaron, you are a magician!" cried the young girl. "Where did you get
+all these things?"
+
+At this question the good man nearly let the cat out of the bag by
+explaining that everything had long since been in readiness for their
+coming. But he checked himself and considered his answer a moment. To
+say that he had brought all this outfit in his knapsack would have been
+too obviously a falsehood, so he sought another way out of the
+difficulty.
+
+"I told the miller," he replied, with a jerk of his thumb over one
+shoulder, "that we should stay the night here, and he sent these things
+forward by a short cut over the mountain."
+
+Thus it was only the speaker's thumb, and not his tongue, that lied, by
+pointing backward to the mill just passed, instead of forward to the
+other mill at the upper end of Torda Gap.
+
+Aaron now offered to show the wonders of this rock palace, which, like
+the Palazzo Cagliari, consisted of two wings, from the second of which a
+low and narrow passage led upward to the mountain spring whence the
+thoughtful host had procured fresh water for their table. The previous
+occupants of this abode seemed to have been provided with not a few
+conveniences.
+
+Returning to the fireside, Blanka was easily persuaded to try the couch
+that had been spread for her. The three planks, laid on some flat stones
+and heaped with sheepskins and rugs, made a very comfortable
+resting-place even for a lady. Blanka demanded nothing further, except a
+glass of water, and then begged Aaron to tell her some more stories, to
+which she listened with her chin resting in her hand and her eyelids now
+and then drooping with drowsiness, despite the interest she took in the
+narrator's ingenious farrago of fact and fiction, of romance and
+reality.
+
+He told her how Balyika, the last lord of this castle, had held it for
+years against the imperial troops; even after Francis Rakoczy's
+surrender he had refused to lay down his arms, but had maintained his
+position with a sturdy band of a hundred mountaineers. With this little
+company he waged bitter warfare against his foes, losing his followers
+one after another in the unequal contest, until he alone was left. Even
+then he refused to yield himself, but outwitted all who strove to kill
+or capture him. Finally he met the fate of many another brave man,--he
+was betrayed by the woman he loved. He had been smitten with a passion
+for the daughter of the Torda baker, the beautiful Rosalie; but her
+affections were already bespoken by the butcher's apprentice, Marczi by
+name, a youth of courage and activity. However, she deigned to receive
+the outlawed chieftain's attentions, her sole purpose being to entrap
+him and deliver him up to his foes. One evening, when she went to keep
+an appointment with Balyika, she notified the village magistrate and the
+captain of the yeomen. These two took an armed force and surrounded the
+lovers' rendezvous, thinking thus at last to capture their man. But he
+cut his way through the soldiery, and, fleeing over the mountain, made
+straight for his cave in the Torda Gap, outstripping the pursuit of both
+horse and foot--with the single exception of the injured lover, Marczi,
+whom he could not shake off. The young man clung to his heels and chased
+him to the very entrance of his retreat, where, just as the robber chief
+was slipping through the opening of his cave, his pursuer hurled his
+hatchet with such deadly aim that it cleft the fugitive's skull, and he
+sank dead on the spot.
+
+"And that was how the last lord of the cave came to his end," concluded
+Aaron.
+
+"But what about Marczi and Rosalie?" asked Blanka.
+
+The narrator proceeded to gratify her curiosity by making the young man
+fall into the hands of the Mongols, after which he was captured by a
+troop of Cossacks; and then, when Aaron was putting him through a
+similar experience with the dog-faced Tartars, his listener succumbed at
+last to the drowsiness against which she had been struggling, and the
+story was abruptly discontinued.
+
+"I never heard that tale before, brother," said Manasseh, after assuring
+himself that Blanka was really asleep.
+
+"Nor I, either," was Aaron's candid reply; "but in a tight pinch a man
+turns romancer sometimes. I don't know, though, what fables we can
+invent to keep the young lady here over to-morrow. You think up
+something, brother; don't let me go to perdition all alone for the lot
+of yarns I've been reeling off to your sweetheart."
+
+"Very well," assented the other; "I'll set my wits to work. Now you lie
+down and rest a bit, while I stay up and tend the fire. At midnight I
+will wake you and lie down myself while you watch."
+
+Aaron lay down with a bundle of twigs under his head for a pillow, and,
+muttering a snatch of a prayer, was fast asleep in a twinkling. Manasseh
+was now left undisturbed to devise something new and surprising against
+his brother's awakening. Tearing a leaf from his sketch-book, he wrote
+as follows:
+
+     "DEAR BROTHER AARON:--I cannot close my eyes in sleep
+     while death threatens our brothers Simon and David. Nor can I
+     endure the thought of my birthplace being turned into a bloody
+     battle-field, and of the horrors of war invading the peaceful
+     valley whither I am bringing my bride, and which has ever looked
+     upon bloodshed with disapproval. It was my fond hope to give my
+     wife a glimpse of mankind in something like its original sinless
+     state, and to let her learn to know and worship the God of our
+     fathers as a God of love and gentleness. I am seeking a way by
+     which this cherished hope of mine may yet be realised. While the
+     Lord watches over your slumbers, I go in quest of the insurgent
+     leader. That which force and threats cannot effect may yet be
+     accomplished by peaceful means. I go to rescue our brothers from
+     imprisonment and death. No fears can hold me back, as no
+     inducements could prevail on me to slip stealthily by their place
+     of confinement and push forward to celebrate my wedding while they
+     perhaps were being led out to execution. I go forth alone and
+     unarmed, and I am hopeful of success. Meanwhile do you guard and
+     cherish my beloved. Above all, take her away from this place early
+     to-morrow morning. Our presence here is known to one man, and he
+     may betray us. You know the way to Porlik Grotto; few people are
+     even aware of its existence, so well is it hidden from the view of
+     travellers. Thither you must conduct our companion, and I will join
+     you there with our two brothers from Monastery Heights. I may
+     perhaps be there before you. But if it should please God not to
+     prosper my undertaking, take Blanka home with you, and, if the Lord
+     preserves our family, treat her as a sister. She is worthy of your
+     adoption. Break to her gently the news of my fate. In the
+     accompanying pocketbook is all her worldly wealth, as well as my
+     own savings. Take charge of it. My brother Jonathan resembles me in
+     appearance, and is a much better man than I. To him I leave _all_
+     that I now call mine.
+
+     "Do not betray to Blanka any anxiety on my account. If God be with
+     me, who shall prevail against me?
+
+                                "Your brother,
+                                        "MANASSEH."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A DESPERATE HAZARD.
+
+
+After finishing his letter, Manasseh took a number of banknotes out of
+his pocketbook and put them into his waistcoat pocket, and then softly
+slipped the pocketbook itself, with his letter, under Aaron's pillow. On
+Blanka's pure brow, as she lay asleep, he gently pressed a parting kiss,
+after which he heaped fresh fuel on the fire, stole out of the cave,
+saddled his horse, and rode away into the darkness.
+
+The signal-fire on Monastery Heights showed him where to find the
+Wallachian camp. No outposts challenged his progress, and he made his
+way unmolested to the ruined monastery which sheltered the insurgents.
+Fastening his horse to a tree, he turned his steps toward the belfry
+tower that marked the position of the cloister and the chapel, which, as
+the only building on the mountain with a whole roof, served the
+Wallachian leader and his staff as headquarters.
+
+Softly opening the door, Manasseh found himself in a low but spacious
+apartment. Twelve men were seated around a table on which stood a
+single tallow candle, whose feeble rays could hardly pierce the
+enveloping clouds of tobacco smoke. The company was engaged in that
+engrossing pursuit which, as is well known, claimed so much of the
+officers' time during the campaigns of the period,--they were playing
+cards.
+
+One chair in the circle was empty. Perhaps its former occupant had
+gambled away his last kreutzer and left the room. At any rate, the
+newcomer advanced without hesitation and took the vacant seat. It may be
+that the players were too absorbed in their game to notice him; or
+possibly they had so recently come together that they were not yet
+sufficiently acquainted to detect a stranger's presence; or, again, the
+feeble light and the clouds of tobacco smoke may have rendered it
+impossible to distinguish one's neighbours very clearly. Whatever the
+reason, the stranger's advent elicited no comment. A pocketful of money
+furnished him all the language he needed to speak, and the cards were
+dealt to him as a matter of course. Opposite him sat the Wallachian
+leader.
+
+The game proceeded and the stakes rose higher and higher. One after
+another the losers dropped out, until at last Manasseh and the
+Wallachian commander were left pitted against each other, a heap of
+coins and banknotes between them. Fortune declared for Manasseh, and he
+swept the accumulated stakes into his pocket. At this the others looked
+him more sharply in the face. "Who is he?" was asked by one and another.
+
+"Why, you are Manasseh Adorjan!" exclaimed the leader at length, in
+astonishment. "What do you mean by this rashness?"
+
+The faces around him assumed threatening looks, and more than one
+muttered menace fell on his ear; but the hardy intruder betrayed no sign
+of uneasiness.
+
+"I trust I am among gentlemen," he remarked, quietly, "who will not seek
+a base revenge on a player that has won their money from them."
+
+The words failed not of their effect. Honour forbade that a hand should
+be raised against the fortunate winner.
+
+"But, Adorjan," interposed the leader, in a tone of mingled wonder and
+vexation, "how did you come here and what is your purpose?"
+
+"Time enough to talk about that when we have finished playing," was the
+careless rejoinder. "First I must win the rest of your money. So have
+the goodness to resume your seats."
+
+The company began to laugh. Clenched fists relaxed, and the men clapped
+the intruder jovially on the shoulder, as they again took their places
+around the table.
+
+"Haven't you a spare pipe to lend me?" Manasseh asked his right-hand
+neighbour.
+
+"Yes, yes, to be sure," was the ready reply.
+
+Manasseh filled the proffered pipe, drew from his pocket a banknote
+which he rolled into a lighter, thrust it into the candle-flame, and so
+kindled his pipe, after which he took up his cards and began to play.
+
+A faint-hearted man, on finding his own and his brothers' lives thus at
+stake, would have sought to curry favour by allowing his opponents to
+win. But not so Manasseh. He plundered the company without mercy, as
+before, and as before he and his _vis-a-vis_ were at last left sole
+antagonists, while the others rose from their places and gathered in
+groups about these two. Manasseh still continued to win, and his
+opponent's supply of money ebbed lower and lower. The loser grew
+furious, and drank deeply to keep himself in countenance.
+
+"Give me a swallow of your brandy," said Manasseh, but he had no sooner
+tasted it than he pushed the bottle disdainfully away. "Fusel-oil!" he
+exclaimed, making a wry face. "To-morrow I will send you a cask of my
+plum brandy."
+
+"No, you won't," returned his antagonist.
+
+"Why not, pray?"
+
+"Because to-morrow you shall hang."
+
+"Oh, no," replied Manasseh, lightly, "for that would require my personal
+presence, and I am needed elsewhere."
+
+The Wallachian continued to lose. Finally, in his fury, he staked his
+last penny--"and your brothers' heads into the bargain!" he added, in
+desperation.
+
+The other took him up and staked his own head in addition to the bundle
+of notes which he threw down nonchalantly before him.
+
+They played, and again Manasseh won. A man less bold of temperament
+might have thought to gain his enemies' good-will by leaving his
+winnings on the table. But Manasseh knew better. His opponents, angered
+by their losses, called him a robber, but still respected him. Had he,
+however, been so timid as to leave the money lying there, they would
+have regarded his action as such an insult that he would have been
+compelled to fight the entire company, one after another, in single
+combat.
+
+"Now, then," said the leader, "we have time to talk. Why are you
+here--to persuade us to release your two brothers and leave Toroczko in
+peace?"
+
+"A man of your discernment can fathom my motives without asking any
+questions," replied Manasseh, with a courteous bow.
+
+"Well, let us see how you are going to work to bring this about. Your
+brother David, like the simple rustic he is, thought to talk me over
+with Bible quotations. He preached me a sermon on the love of one's
+neighbour, Christ's commandments, the almighty power of Jehovah, and a
+lot more of the same sort, until at last I grew tired of it and had him
+locked up to keep him quiet. Your brother Simon is a shrewder man; he
+has been to school at Kolozsvar. He came to me with threats in his
+mouth, delivered a long harangue on the constitution, the powers of the
+government, our past history, and kept up such a din in my ears that
+finally I had to shut him up, too. But you are the cleverest of the
+three; you have been trained as a diplomat, and have taken lessons in
+Vienna from Metternich himself. Let us hear what you have to say."
+
+"Set my brothers free," returned Manasseh, boldly, "and promise me not
+to attack Toroczko; then I will give you sixteen fat oxen and twenty
+casks of plum brandy."
+
+The Wallachian sprang to his feet and clapped his hand to his sword. "If
+you were only armed," he exclaimed wrathfully, "you should pay for your
+insolence by fighting me. Do you take me for an Armenian peddler to be
+chaffered with in that fashion?"
+
+Manasseh kept his seat on the edge of the table, swinging one foot
+carelessly to and fro. "If you were an Armenian peddler," was his cool
+retort, "you would be far more sensibly employed than at present. But
+why so angry? I offer you what you most need, food and drink; and I ask
+in return what we most desire, peace."
+
+"But what you offer us we can come and take in spite of you. You three
+brothers are now in our hands, and we have only to send word to the
+people of Toroczko that, unless they lay down their arms and surrender
+the town, we shall hang you from the turret of St. George Castle."
+
+"There are five more of us brothers at home, and, furthermore, in order
+to reach St. George Castle you must push through the Gap or make your
+way over the Szekler Stone, and you know well enough that the men of
+Toroczko have held this valley in times past against the whole invading
+army of the Tartars."
+
+"You forget that there is still another way to reach Toroczko."
+
+"No, I do not forget it. You mean the bridge over the Aranyos. But our
+iron cannon guard that bridge, and your bushrangers are hardly the
+troops to take it."
+
+"Well, then, look out of yonder window toward the west. Do you see that
+signal-fire, and do you know its meaning? It means that a division of
+regular troops, with artillery and cavalry, is on the way hither from
+Szent-Laszlo."
+
+Manasseh burst into a laugh. "It means that a merry company of
+picnickers took their lunch this noon at the Wonder Spring, at the foot
+of the great beech-tree. The wasps came out and plagued them, so they
+stuck burning grass into the hollow trunk, and consequently the whole
+tree was soon in flames. That is what you see burning now."
+
+"Manasseh, if you are lying to me!"
+
+"You know me. You know I never lie. What I say is true. When I choose
+not to tell the truth, I hold my tongue. Last night I slept at
+Ciprianu's. There are no imperial troops to be seen for miles around.
+What is more, the Hungarian forces have left Kolozsvar. Whither have
+they gone? I do not know; but it might befall you, while counting on
+meeting with help, to stumble upon an enemy. After the first three
+Adorjans, you will encounter a fourth, Jonathan, and he will give you
+something beside Bible quotations and Metternichian diplomacy."
+
+The Wallachian was visibly affected by this speech, but he sought to
+hide his concern, and cried out, in a harsh tone: "If you are trifling
+with me, Adorjan, you'll find you have trifled with your own life. If
+you have told me a lie, God in heaven shall not save you."
+
+"But as I have not told you a lie, God in heaven will save me, and I beg
+you to tell me where I may lie down and sleep, for I am very tired."
+
+"Shut him up in the bell-tower," commanded the Wallachian.
+
+"Good!" cried Manasseh, with a laugh. "At least I shall be able to ring
+you up early in the morning."
+
+"Inasmuch as you have offered us a supply of brandy and eighteen oxen,"
+were the leader's parting words, "we will have another interview in the
+morning."
+
+"Sixteen was the number," Manasseh corrected him.
+
+A bed of hay under the bell was furnished the captive, and he was locked
+up for the night, after which the company he had left held a council of
+war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+IN PORLIK GROTTO.
+
+
+Complying with his brother's instructions, Aaron broke up his quarters
+at Balyika Cave early the next morning, and, descending with Blanka to
+the bed of the stream, led her up the valley to Porlik Grotto, one of
+nature's wonders known to few and seldom visited. From the top of its
+high-arched entrance hung cornel-bushes with brown leaves and red
+berries, while luxuriant wild grape-vines, with pendant clusters of ripe
+fruit, climbed upward from below to meet them, the whole thus forming an
+almost perfect screen before the opening. Through the screen, however,
+an observant eye caught the gleam of the stalactites within; the sun's
+rays, piercing the foliage, lighted them up like so many sparkling
+chandeliers. But our two travellers' thoughts were not on the beauties
+of the place.
+
+"If Manasseh should only come out now to meet us!" they both exclaimed
+at once.
+
+"There!" cried Aaron, "we both wished the same thing, and we have a sort
+of superstition here that a wish so uttered by two at the same time is
+bound to be fulfilled."
+
+But Manasseh did not appear.
+
+"Look there," said Aaron, with forced cheerfulness, pointing out the
+wonders of the grotto; "see how the limestone pillars grow together from
+above and below, till they meet and make one solid column." And all the
+while he was thinking: "What if Manasseh should come back, not alone,
+but with our two brothers! Yet is it right to ask so much of fate? Will
+not Heaven be angry with me for cherishing such a wish? Ah, let Manasseh
+himself come, even if he must come alone and with evil tidings!"
+
+"See there, my dove," he continued aloud to his companion, "how the
+arches extend back, one behind another, with balconies along the sides,
+just like a theatre, and high up yonder a perch for the gallery gods."
+Meanwhile he was saying to himself: "Oh, that brother of mine ought to
+have been here long ago if he was coming at all." Then, aloud to Blanka:
+"Hear me play on the organ up there,--for theatres have organs
+sometimes. You notice the pipes, side by side, some longer and some
+shorter, each for a different note. But you stay here,--the rocks are
+wet and slippery,--while I go up and play you a pretty tune."
+
+With that he clambered up the side of the cavern to a series of
+stalactites that presented somewhat the appearance of organ-pipes, and
+drew the handle of his hatchet across them, assuring his listener the
+while that he was playing a beautiful melody. Blanka was expected to
+laugh at this, and had Manasseh only been there, she could have done so
+with a light heart.
+
+"Don't you think this back wall looks like a stage curtain?" Aaron went
+on. "With a little stretch of the imagination you might take it for the
+curtain in the Kolozsvar theatre, with Apollo and the muses painted on
+it. One feels almost like stamping one's feet, to make it go up and the
+play begin." But the undercurrent of the speaker's thoughts was quite
+different. "What if Manasseh shouldn't come by noon--by nightfall?" he
+was asking himself. "Then what is to become of this poor girl?" Aloud
+once more: "That lad Manasseh must have made a little mistake--just like
+these young men! He probably took the longer way, instead of following
+my advice. But just look out toward the entrance, and see how the sun
+shines in through the leaves and lights up the whole grotto like a fairy
+palace."
+
+Blanka, however, was feeling so heavy of heart and, in a vague way, so
+fearful of impending misfortune, that she was in no mood to enjoy the
+splendours around her. She crossed her hands on her bosom and, in the
+half-light of this mysterious subterranean cathedral, yielded to the
+awe-inspiring influence of the place and gave utterance, in a subdued
+chant, to these words of the psalmist:
+
+  "Hear me, O God, nor hide thy face,
+    But answer, lest I die."
+
+Aaron could control his feelings no longer. Throwing himself down on his
+face, he began to sob as only a strong man can when he is at last moved
+to tears, not by any selfish grief, but by the very burden of his love
+and anxiety for others.
+
+But at that moment the psalm was broken off, and Aaron heard himself
+called three times by name. He rose to his knees and looked toward the
+opening of the grotto, where a glad and unexpected sight met his eyes.
+Glorified by the flood of light that poured in from without, appeared
+the forms of three men, the middle one being the tallest and stateliest.
+They were Manasseh and his two brothers, David and Simon.
+
+Aaron sprang up and threw himself on them with an inarticulate cry like
+that of a lioness recovering her lost cubs. Embraces and kisses were not
+enough: he bore them to the ground and thumped them soundly on the back
+in the excess of his emotion.
+
+"You rascal, you good-for-nothing, you shameless rogue, to worry me like
+that!" he exclaimed, accosting now one, now the other of his two lost
+brothers, after which he embraced them both once more.
+
+"And am I of no account?" asked Manasseh. "Have I no share in all this?"
+
+"You are your brothers' father," Aaron made answer, "before whom they
+prostrate themselves, even as the sheaves of Joseph's brethren bowed
+before his sheaf. We are all your humble slaves." So saying, he threw
+himself at Manasseh's feet and embraced his knees. "Torda Gap is,
+indeed, a place of wonders, but the greatest wonder of all you have
+wrought in rescuing your brothers."
+
+This unrestrained outburst of joy opened Blanka's eyes and made her see
+that there was far more behind the meeting of these brothers than she
+had at first suspected. She knew now that the vague dread which had
+oppressed her, and from which she had sought relief in sacred song, had
+not been unfounded. Thus it was that she felt all the more impelled to
+take up the psalm where she had broken off, and to pour out her gladness
+in the concluding lines:
+
+  "He hears his saints, he knows their cry,
+    And by mysterious ways
+  Redeems the prisoners doomed to die,
+    And fills their tongues with praise."
+
+Much rejoicing then followed, and the two brothers, whom Manasseh now
+presented to Blanka, told her all about the preparations made for
+receiving the bridal party at the Borev Bridge. Then all five sat down
+and emptied the lunch-basket with which Ciprianu had provided his
+guests; for thenceforth they would not need to carry their supplies with
+them. Toward noon they mounted their horses, David and Simon taking
+Blanka between them, and the other two bringing up the rear.
+
+"Now tell me all about it," began the elder brother, as he rode a little
+behind with Manasseh. "You must have had the eloquence of Aaron and the
+magician's power of Moses, to prevail on Pharaoh to let your people go."
+
+"I have wrought no miracle and used no eloquence," was the reply. "But I
+showed our foes neither fear nor haughtiness. I joined their circle, but
+did not spoil their entertainment. They questioned me, and I told them
+the truth. I asked them for peace, and offered them a price that I
+thought we were able to pay."
+
+"How high a price?" asked Aaron.
+
+"Sixteen oxen and twenty casks of plum brandy," was the matter-of-fact
+reply.
+
+"If my arm were only long enough, wouldn't I box your ears!" exclaimed
+Aaron, by way of giving vent to his admiration.
+
+"They wished to do something of the sort to me up yonder, too, when they
+heard my offer," returned the other. "But then they reconsidered the
+matter, and at last came to see that it was a very fair proposal, and
+one that needed no lawyer or interpreter to make clear to them. They all
+understood it, and finally declared themselves satisfied."
+
+"But where did you get the two horses for our brothers?"
+
+"I bought them, and I gave a price, too, such as is paid only for the
+best English thoroughbreds; but half of the money was what I won from
+the sellers themselves last night."
+
+"So you have been playing cards with the Amorites, you godless man!"
+
+"They held me prisoner till morning, while they took counsel together
+what to do with me and my two brothers. Some of them were for sending
+our heads, minus our bodies, to Toroczko, with a demand to surrender the
+town, else they would storm it and not leave one stone on another. But
+the upshot was that they led me out in the morning and told me my terms
+of peace were accepted. They abandon their plans against Toroczko,
+disperse to their homes, and promise henceforth to be our good
+neighbours, as heretofore."
+
+"Did they swear to this?"
+
+"Before the altar, and a priest administered the oath."
+
+"With two candles on the altar?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then they will keep their word."
+
+"And I, as plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary, gave them a written
+and sealed pledge to restrain my people from all acts of hostility
+against them."
+
+"That will cost you a hard fight when you get home."
+
+"But I shall win. The Wallachians will respect the peace, and we shall
+avoid all contention with them. Their leader, when he handed me our
+passport, said to me: 'You now have no further cause for uneasiness so
+far as we are concerned. My comrades and I will do your countrymen no
+further harm. As to the supplies offered by you, we accept them as a
+gift, not as a ransom. One parting word I have to add, however, and I
+bid you mark it well: we cannot promise you that some day a renegade
+from your own midst may not plunge your town into war and bloodshed.'
+With that we shook hands and kissed each other; and I can assure you
+positively that from here to the Aranyos our way will be clear."
+
+"But how did you win them over so easily, I should like to know? Surely,
+the sixteen oxen and a few casks of brandy could not have done it."
+
+"I gained my end simply by telling the truth. I told them about our
+setting the beech-tree on fire. They had taken it for a signal, and the
+mistake might have cost them dear."
+
+"And did they believe you?"
+
+"No, they doubted my word and discussed the matter a long time in their
+council, one party being strongly opposed to any change in their
+preconcerted arrangements; and this faction pressed urgently for my
+immediate execution."
+
+"What, then, was it that saved you?"
+
+"A mere chance--no, it was Providence, rather. It was a heart that beat
+with warm human feeling and a will that was prompt to act. In the midst
+of their discussion a messenger came from Ciprianu and confirmed the
+truth of my words."
+
+"From Ciprianu? Then the messenger must have ridden all night."
+
+"Yes, through a trackless wilderness and over rugged mountains."
+
+"I do not see how mortal man could have accomplished it!" exclaimed
+Aaron, shaking his head.
+
+"It was not a man; it was a woman that effected the impossible. She came
+to Monastery Heights to attest the truth of my statement by assuring the
+insurgents that what they took for a signal-fire was merely the result
+of an accident. The woman who saved us three from death was Zenobia."
+
+At this point Blanka interrupted the conversation of the two brothers.
+She laughingly demanded to know what they were so earnestly discussing
+together.
+
+"We can't agree on what guests to invite to our wedding," was Manasseh's
+ready reply. "Aaron would have only the immediate family, but I am in
+favour of inviting all our friends. What are your wishes in the matter,
+my angel?"
+
+"I have no relatives or friends that I can invite to my wedding,"
+answered Blanka, gently, "but I shall feel very happy if all your family
+can be present, even to your youngest brother, whom we met in Kolozsvar.
+You must send for him to come home."
+
+"He will be there, dear heart," Aaron assured her.
+
+"And stay! I have a friend, after all,--a friend that I have made since
+coming into this country, and should much like to see at my wedding. It
+is Zenobia, Ciprianu's daughter."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At sunset they reached the Aranyos River, beyond which lay the
+longed-for home, the happy valley which, from Manasseh's description,
+had so often been the subject of Blanka's dreams. At last she was to see
+Toroczko.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+TOROCZKO.
+
+
+It was a new world to Blanka,--that busy mining community, where clouds
+of black smoke from the tall chimneys of the smelting works and iron
+foundries met the eye in every direction, and the cheerful hum of toil
+constantly saluted the ear.
+
+The Adorjan family gave the newcomer a most hearty welcome. With Anna,
+Manasseh's twin sister, the girl whom Benjamin Vajdar had so cruelly
+wronged, Blanka felt already acquainted. They embraced without waiting
+for an introduction, and when they drew back to scan each other's faces,
+they could hardly see for the tears that filled their eyes. Blanka was
+surprised, and agreeably so. She had prepared herself to see a face
+stamped with the melancholy of early disappointment, whereas she now
+beheld a fresh, rosy-cheeked countenance, golden locks, and blue eyes in
+which no tears had been able to dim the dancing light of a lively and
+cheerful temperament. Other women there were also in the
+family,--Rebecca, Berthold's wife, and Susanna, the helpmate of
+Barnabas, with a little circle of children around each.
+
+The home-coming of the long-absent brother with his betrothed was
+celebrated, in accordance with time-honoured custom, with a great dinner
+that filled the spacious family dining-room to its utmost. Blanka could
+not sufficiently admire the skill and patience with which Susanna
+directed the feast and ministered to the varied wants and the individual
+tastes of so many guests. The eldest brother and his family were
+vegetarians and would touch no meat, but indulged freely in milk and
+eggs, butter and cheese. With them sat Doctor Vernezs, who was even
+stricter in his vegetarianism; the sole contribution from the animal
+kingdom that he allowed in his diet was honey. Brother Aaron sat beside
+Blanka, and partook freely of a dish of garlic that had been provided
+especially for him. He offered some to Blanka.
+
+"I can eat this all my life," said he, with a roguish twinkle in his
+eyes, "but you only eleven weeks longer."
+
+She understood the allusion. In Szeklerland a lover and his sweetheart
+bear themselves with much decorum and mutual respect throughout the
+entire period of their engagement. Only after the wedding do they
+exchange the first kiss.
+
+Anna wished to come to her new friend's aid at this embarrassing
+juncture. "It won't be so long as that, Aaron!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Let us reckon it up, my little turtledove," returned the brother.
+"To-morrow we will tell the parson that our sister Blanka wishes to join
+our communion. The law requires her to wait two weeks after this first
+announcement and then to go and declare her purpose a second time. After
+that follow six weeks for the divorce proceedings. That makes eight
+weeks. Then the banns have to be published three successive Sundays, and
+so we make out the eleven weeks, as I said. For seventy-seven days and
+nights, then, our peach-blossom will be your companion, sister Anna."
+
+Anna and Blanka embraced each other with much affection. The latter
+showed no embarrassment at Aaron's plain speech.
+
+"I will add five days to the seventy-seven," said she, with a smile.
+
+"How so?" asked the brother and sister.
+
+"Because I shall not go to the parson to-morrow, but shall wait until
+after Sunday. I am going to your church on that day, and till then I
+can't tell whether I wish to belong to it or not."
+
+This prudent resolve met with Aaron's hearty approbation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was not long before Anna and Blanka became the warmest of friends.
+They shared the same room together, and the newcomer was allowed to look
+over all her companion's books, drawings,--for she, like her twin
+brother, was an artist,--keepsakes, and treasures of every sort. One day
+she came upon something that made her start back as if stung by an
+adder. It was a little portrait in an oval frame, a man's face, highly
+idealised by the artist, and yet strikingly true to life. Evidently the
+hand of love had depicted those lineaments. The eyes were bright, the
+lips wore a proud smile, the whole expression was one to charm the
+beholder. It was Benjamin Vajdar's likeness, and no ghost could have
+given Blanka a greater start. It was as if her most hated foe had
+pursued her into paradise itself, to spoil her pleasure there.
+
+Anna noticed her friend's involuntary movement, and she sighed deeply.
+"Did Manasseh tell you about him?" she asked.
+
+"I know him well," replied Blanka, and she could not control an accent
+of abhorrence in her voice as she spoke.
+
+Anna clasped her companion's hand in both her own. "I beg you," she
+entreated, in tones at once sad and tender, "if you know aught ill of
+him, do not tell it me."
+
+"You still love him?" asked the other, in compassion.
+
+The young girl sank down on the edge of her bed and hid her face in her
+hands. "He has killed me," she sobbed; "he has done much that a man, an
+honourable man, ought not to do; and yet I cannot hate him. We may say,
+'I loved you yesterday, to-morrow I shall hate you,' and we may act as
+if we meant it; but we cannot really _feel_ it."
+
+"My poor Anna!" was all Blanka could say.
+
+"I know he is dishonourable," admitted the girl; "there are women here
+that report everything to me, thinking thus to cure me. But what does it
+avail? A sick person is not to be made well with words. How many a woman
+has waited for the return of an absent lover who may perhaps have gone
+around the world, or to the north pole, and who yet cannot get beyond
+the reach of her love and yearning!"
+
+"If it were only the earth's diameter that lay between you!" murmured
+Blanka.
+
+"True," replied Anna, resting her head on her hand; "the wide world is
+not so effective a barrier as a bewitching face that has once thrust
+itself between two loving hearts. That is harder to circumnavigate than
+the earth itself."
+
+"If a pretty face were all that stood between you----" began the other
+once more, sitting down beside her friend and putting her arms about
+her.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," the poor girl interrupted; "the whole world and
+heaven and hell stand between us. All the laws of honour, of faith, and
+of patriotism, tear us asunder. I cannot go to him where he is, but yet
+it may be that he will come back to me--some day."
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"I believe it as I believe in one God above us. Not that I think we
+could now ever be happy together; but I am convinced that the road which
+he took on going away from here will some day bring him back again to
+our door. Broken and humbled, scorned and repulsed by all the world, he
+will then seek the one remaining asylum that stands open to him, and he
+will find one heart that still beats for him from whom all others have
+turned away."
+
+The speaker rose from her seat and stood erect, her face all aglow with
+noble emotion. Was it an angel in love with a devil?
+
+"See!" she continued, pointing to the little portrait, which was
+encircled by a wreath of immortelles, "this picture here in my room
+gives daily proof how lasting a thing love is in our family. My brothers
+all hate him with a deadly hatred, and yet they spare his likeness
+because they know that I still love him; they leave the little picture
+hanging in my room, nor offer to offend me by proposing another marriage
+for me. They know how deep is my love, and they respect my feelings. Oh,
+I beg you, if you have reason to hate this man, yet suffer his portrait
+to keep its place, and turn your eyes away from it if it causes you
+offence."
+
+But Blanka hated the man no longer.
+
+"Now I must not let you see me in tears," said Anna, briskly. "I must
+not make myself a killjoy in the family. I am naturally of a happy,
+cheerful temperament, and interested in all that goes on around me. My
+face shall never frighten people by being pale and wobegone. Just look
+in the glass! I am as rosy-cheeked as you."
+
+With that she drew Blanka to the mirror, and began to dispute with her
+as to which could boast the more colour.
+
+"You are happy," she continued, "and will be still happier. Manasseh
+will turn the earth itself into a paradise for you; just wait till you
+know him as I do, to the very bottom of his heart."
+
+Blanka could not but smile at the sister's proud claim. Yet Anna was in
+earnest.
+
+"Perhaps you don't believe me," said she. "Have you ever seen him in
+anger, with an enemy before him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How did he look?"
+
+"On his forehead were two red spots."
+
+"Yes, and further?"
+
+"His eyes glowed, his face seemed turned to stone, his bosom heaved, and
+he strove with himself until gradually he recovered his self-control;
+then his features relaxed, he smiled, and presently he spoke as coolly
+and collectedly as possible."
+
+"Then you have never seen him really aroused," affirmed the sister, "as
+I saw him once, when with one hand he seized a strong man who had
+wronged him, and threw him down with such force that all his family had
+to hasten to help him up. When he speaks in wrath he can strike terror
+into a multitude, and he is such a master of all weapons of warfare that
+no one can vie with him. Now, then, have you ever really learned to know
+him?"
+
+"Indeed, I think not," returned Blanka, in surprise.
+
+"And hear me further," Anna went on. "When our house witnessed the sad
+event that spread a widow's veil over my bridal wreath, our whole family
+was terribly wrought up. My brothers swore to kill the man wherever they
+found him,--all but Manasseh. Nor did I seek to allay their wrath,
+knowing but too well that it was justified. But I also knew that they
+would never go forth into the world to hunt him down. To the people of
+Toroczko it is an immense undertaking to go even beyond the borders of
+Transylvania, and, as a general rule, no power on earth could drag one
+of them to Vienna or Rome. But Manasseh, I knew, must meet with the
+fugitive, as the two were to be dwellers in the same city and members of
+the same social circle. Manasseh, however, said not a word, and it was
+on him that I used all my influence. Still wearing my wedding-dress, I
+went to his room, where he was preparing for his journey. It happened
+that he was just putting a brace of pistols into their case; one of them
+he still held in his hand. I went up to him, threw myself on his bosom,
+and appealed to him. 'Manasseh,' I pleaded, 'my heart's treasure, unless
+you wish to kill me too, promise not to kill that man,--not to send his
+wretched soul out of this world.' Manasseh looked at me: his eyes
+glowed, as you have described, and two red spots burned on his forehead;
+his face turned hard, like that of a statue, and while he panted and
+struggled with the demon in his bosom, the pistol-barrel bent in his
+clenched hands like a wax taper, and so remained. I was wonder-struck.
+'See!' I cried, 'you cannot shoot now any more with that pistol. So let
+him go; don't lay a finger on him.' Then my brother embraced and kissed
+me, and, lifting his hand to heaven, said, 'I promise you, sister Anna,
+that for your sake I will not kill the man, but will let him live.'"
+
+How her lover's image grew in Blanka's heart and assumed larger
+proportions as she listened to this recital! The twin sister was the
+brother's complement. It was necessary to know the nature of the one in
+order to understand that of the other. Hitherto Manasseh's self-control
+in foregoing all revenge had excited Blanka's wonder only; she had
+thought that the secret of this self-mastery was to be found in a rigid
+dogma only, but now she perceived that what really shielded the
+wretched culprit was the magic influence of a woman's faithful heart
+that could cease to love only when it ceased to beat. The pledge won
+from him by his sister Manasseh had come to regard as no less sacred
+than the articles of his faith. Thenceforth he commanded not merely the
+love of his betrothed, but her adoration.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Blanka soon found herself leading a life that differed in every respect
+from that which she had so recently quitted. In the Cagliari palace she
+had been left entirely to herself, and when she went abroad it had been
+only to witness scenes of intrigue and envy, dissipation and frivolity,
+hypocrisy and deceit, on every side. But in her new home she found a
+large family of honest souls living in loving harmony under one roof,
+all its members engaged in active work for the common good, and sharing
+at a common table the bread that they earned. Every joy, every sorrow
+was common to all, and so the newcomer was at once claimed as a sister
+by all alike, and immediately became a universal favourite. Work was
+found for her, too, every one assuming that she would far rather work
+than be idle; and, indeed, she would gladly have engaged in any toil,
+however severe, but the others would not let her overtax her strength in
+labours for which they were much better fitted than she. A task was
+found for her, however, exactly suited to her capacity,--the keeping of
+the family accounts. She received a big book, in which she entered the
+current expenses and receipts, with all the details of the family
+housekeeping that called for preservation.
+
+After the working days of the week came Sunday, the Lord's day. How
+Blanka had looked forward to that first Sunday, how often pictured to
+herself the Toroczko church and its Sabbath service! It was a simple
+structure, with four blank white walls, and a plain white ceiling
+overhead. A gallery ran across each end of the room, and in the middle
+stood the pulpit, with the communion table before it. Men and women,
+youths and maidens, entered the sacred house through special doors.
+First came the young men and took their places in the galleries, the
+students all gathering in a body on the same side as the organ. Next
+entered the married men in the order of their age, the wardens--or, as
+they were popularly known, the "big-heads"--taking their seats in the
+first pew facing the pulpit. On the left of the pulpit were seated the
+foremost families of the place, with the Adorjans at their head.
+
+For the first time Blanka now saw the people assembled in their holiday
+attire, a costume peculiar to the place, and showing a mixture of
+Hungarian and German dress. The men wore black dolmans faced with lamb's
+fleece, and further decorated with rows of carnelian and amethyst
+buttons, the setting of the stones being silver. Under the dolman was
+worn a waistcoat of fine leather embroidered with threads of silk and
+gold, and around the waist was girt a belt, as broad as one's hand, of
+red leather handsomely trimmed with strips of many-coloured skins. To
+complete this imposing outfit, there was thrown over one shoulder a
+handsome cloak richly embroidered with piping-cord, and furnished with a
+high collar made from the fur of the fox. A large silver brooch held the
+mantle together at the breast, while six rows of silver clasps adorned
+it on each side. The whole costume was luxurious in its appointments,
+and yet no one would presume to find fault with it on that score. The
+wearer had earned his adornment with the work of his hands.
+
+As soon as the men were seated, the women entered. A Parisian modiste
+would have been put to the blush by the ingenuity of design displayed by
+these countrywomen's costumes. The dazzlingly white linen, the tasteful
+combination of lace, embroidery, and furbelows, the handsome bodice and
+woven belt, the richly trimmed cloaks, the skirts hanging in many folds,
+the silk pinafores, the black lace caps set off by white veils disposed
+in picturesque puffs and creases,--all betrayed a wealth of fancy and
+nicety of taste on the wearer's part that would be hard to match.
+
+After the matrons were seated, the maidens came in through the fourth
+and last door, entering now in pairs, now singly, and sat down on the
+two sides of the house, behind the married women. Finally the children
+were admitted,--a splendid phalanx, a company of angels of the Murillo
+and Bernini type.
+
+The pride of the Toroczko church is its people. The churches of Rome
+boast many a masterpiece of early Italian art on their walls, but their
+worshippers are ragged and dirty. The walls of the Toroczko temple are
+bare, but the faces of its congregation beam with happiness. No works of
+sculpture, resplendent with gold and silver and precious stones, are to
+be seen there. The people themselves are arrayed in costly stuffs and
+furnish the adornment of the house.
+
+After a simple opening prayer, the pastor ascended the pulpit and
+addressed his flock, in words intelligible to all, on such themes as
+patriotism, man's duty to his fellow-man, the blessings of toil, the
+recompense of good deeds in the doer's own bosom, and God's infinite
+mercy toward his children. In his prayer the preacher referred to Jesus
+as the beloved Son of God, the model for mankind to follow, but he did
+not deny salvation and paradise to those that chose other leaders for
+their guidance.
+
+After the service Blanka asked Aaron and Berthold to go with her to the
+preacher as witnesses while she announced her purpose to join the
+church. After making this declaration in due form, she was reminded that
+she had two weeks in which to consider the matter carefully, at the end
+of which, if she was still of the same mind, she was to come back again
+and renew her declaration.
+
+"Two weeks longer," sighed Blanka, "and then six weeks more for the
+divorce!"
+
+Aaron heard her sigh, and hastened to say: "If we make a special effort
+we can shorten this period. Our law directs that an applicant for a
+divorce must either be a resident of, or own an estate in, Transylvania.
+Therefore, if you could acquire a piece of land here, we should only
+have to wait for the consistory to assemble and ratify the divorce
+already granted by the Roman Curia, with the added permission to marry
+again. That done, nothing further remains to hinder the marriage. So you
+must manage to buy a house-lot or something of the sort in Toroczko."
+
+"Have I money enough, do you think, to purchase an iron mine?"
+
+"What, do you really propose to buy one?"
+
+"Yes,--as my dowry to bring to Manasseh. He said he wished to begin a
+new career and turn miner."
+
+"Very well, then, we'll buy a mine and call it by your name, and it
+can't fail to turn out a diamond mine."
+
+The purchase was made on that very day, and in the evening the transfer
+of the property was solemnised with a banquet. It will be noted here
+that there is a great difference between the Hungarian Unitarians and
+the English Puritans. The strict observance of Sunday by the latter
+presents a marked contrast to the joy and freedom with which the day is
+celebrated by the former. The people of Toroczko gather in the evening
+for social intercourse, and even join in the pleasures of the dance, to
+the music of a gipsy orchestra, until the ringing of the vesper bell.
+Taverns and pot-houses are unknown in the village.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A MIDNIGHT COUNCIL.
+
+
+While blood was being shed on the banks of the Theiss, on the slopes of
+the Carpathians, and in the mountains of Transylvania, life at the
+Austrian capital went on much as usual. A grand ball given by the
+Marchioness Caldariva made its due claim on the attention of the
+fashionable world. After the last note of the orchestra had died away
+and the last guest had departed, Prince Cagliari led the fair hostess to
+her boudoir.
+
+"How did it please you?" asked the prince, referring to the evening's
+entertainment.
+
+"Not at all," replied the other, throwing her bracelets and fan down on
+the table. "Didn't you notice that not one member of the court circle
+was present? They all sent regrets."
+
+"But the court is in mourning now, you know," was Cagliari's soothing
+reminder.
+
+"And I am in mourning, too," returned Rozina, in a passion. "How long
+must I submit to this humiliation?" she demanded, compressing her lips
+and darting a wrathful look at her devoted slave.
+
+"I swear to you," replied the latter, vehemently, "as soon as I get word
+of my divorced wife's death, our engagement shall be announced."
+
+"And how long is that woman to live?" demanded the angry beauty, in a
+tone that startled the listener.
+
+"As long as God wills," was all he could say in reply.
+
+The fair Cyrene drew nearer and laid her cheek caressingly against his
+shoulder. "Do you know where your wife is now?" she asked softly, and
+when the other shook his head, she went on: "You see, I don't lose sight
+of her so easily. As for you, you could only shut her up in Rome and
+leave her there; but I knew how to go to work to rid ourselves of this
+obstruction. The dogs of Jezebel were howling under her very windows,
+when there came a man blundering on to the scene and spoiled
+everything,--a man who is a man, who is more than a prince, a man from
+top to toe, in short, who carried off the woman from Rome. I hoped they
+would take flight to some foreign land, whence we might have obtained an
+official announcement of her death. Of course it might not have been
+true, but the fugitives would have changed their names, in all
+probability, and an official certificate would have answered our
+purpose. Did you receive Blanka's letter,--the one she wrote you from
+Trieste in November?"
+
+"No," replied the prince, much astonished at what he had just heard;
+"and I recently sent to her, by Vajdar, her allowance of fifteen
+thousand scudi for the current quarter."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the marchioness, "a most affectionate and devoted
+foster-son you have there! Your letters pass through his hands and are,
+according to your directions, opened by him. As to this last letter of
+Blanka's, however, he must have forgotten to deliver it, and he counts
+himself blameless if a remittance of fifteen thousand scudi, directed to
+a person whose address cannot be found, goes astray. Really he has a
+genius for roguery. But you needn't get angry with him. The money has
+not gone out of the family: he spent it on diamonds for me. I learned
+all about that letter, too, a month ago."
+
+"And may I inquire what the princess wrote me?"
+
+"She begs leave to discontinue the enjoyment of your bounty, and
+announces her intention of marrying again; and to that end she declares
+her purpose of embracing the religion of her betrothed."
+
+"The most pleasing result of which will be the saving to me of sixty
+thousand scudi a year, which I will henceforth bestow on you." The
+speaker laid a caressing hand on the woman's shoulder.
+
+"Don't touch me, sir!" cried the marchioness, drawing back. "If one
+woman has had the spirit to say to you, 'There is your coronet and your
+gold; pick them up. I need them no longer, for I am going to marry a
+_man_, who shall be my lord and king,'--why, you may find that another
+woman can do the same."
+
+"But what would you have me do?" asked the other, helplessly; "follow
+Blanka Zboroy's example and turn Protestant with you, so that we might
+marry each other?"
+
+"Really, I have a good mind to say yes. What you propose in jest, sinful
+as it is, may be more to your liking than what I have to suggest."
+
+"You have a plan, Rozina?"
+
+"Yes. Before our loving couple can gain their end they must first reach
+Toroczko. There, high up in the mountains, lies the dove-cote where they
+hope to do their billing and cooing. But the surrounding woods are at
+present full of birds of prey, and--"
+
+"Do you dare to think of such a thing?" interrupted the prince, with a
+start. The old _roue_ had a dread of ghosts by night; he was full of all
+sorts of superstitions; he disliked to have a beautiful woman allude to
+certain unpleasant themes in his presence.
+
+"I am only letting my fancy play a little," replied the marchioness,
+"but perhaps what I have in mind may come to pass. If not, then will be
+the time for action."
+
+She fetched from her bookcase a military map of Transylvania. It gave in
+minute detail the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, towns, and villages
+of the country.
+
+"Here in this valley," she resumed, pointing with her finger, "lies
+Toroczko, and these positions that I have marked are held by the
+Wallachian insurgents. Have you heard about their doings?"
+
+"Yes, frightful accounts."
+
+"Well, then, what if our runaway couple should stumble upon the scene of
+some of these horrid deeds? Possibly your wife is even now lying in the
+bed of one of these mountain streams."
+
+"Horrible!"
+
+"Horrible only if it were really so and we had no proof of it. But I
+have guarded against that. The war office receives detailed reports of
+all that is going on in Transylvania, and a transcript of those reports
+is furnished me."
+
+She produced a roll of manuscript and read a line or two, laughing as
+she did so. She might have been reading Sanskrit, for all the prince
+could understand of it. Then she nestled softly at her listener's side
+and began to stroke his chin with one velvet finger.
+
+"If you wish to make me very happy--to make us both very happy," she
+murmured, "bring me from the war office the key to this mysterious
+manuscript. Then we will sit down and decipher it together; and if it
+contains the name I am so anxious to hear, you shall see how a lioness
+can kiss her tamer's feet."
+
+The prince listened in silence. What effect her words were producing in
+his bosom, she could only conjecture. She threw herself back on her sofa
+with a smile on her face.
+
+"What do you say?" she asked. "It is not yet too late to find some one
+at the war office to do your bidding. Indeed, the hour is well suited
+for a confidential mission of that sort. And when you come back, if you
+find me asleep, just whisper in my ear, 'News from Transylvania!'--and I
+will wake up at once. So good-bye for the present. I shall expect you
+back again soon."
+
+Prince Cagliari took leave of the enchantress and made his way to the
+carriage that awaited him below. Entering it, he gave a direction to his
+coachman, and the carriage rolled rapidly down the street.
+
+Soon after the fair Cyrene--or Rozina, to call her by her real
+name--found herself alone, the tall clock in her boudoir struck ten,
+although the hour was nearer two. She rose at once, and taking a little
+key from her bosom, unlocked and opened the door of the old-fashioned
+timepiece. But instead of hanging weights and a swinging pendulum, the
+opening revealed another open door beyond, through which stepped a
+young man,--Benjamin Vajdar.
+
+"So you've come at last?" the marchioness exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, and I have the key to the cipher despatches, too!"
+
+All smiles and caresses, the siren led her visitor to the table on which
+lay the mysterious correspondence. But before the two begin their
+clandestine work, let us say a few words concerning the relations
+between them.
+
+Months before, at a court ball to which Prince Cagliari's influence had
+procured the Marchioness Caldariva a much-coveted invitation, Benjamin
+Vajdar, who then occupied a subordinate government position, was also
+present. Struck with the beauty of the marchioness, he sought an
+introduction, and, to make a long story short, was soon enrolled among
+her willing slaves. Not long after this first meeting he threw up his
+modest position and became Prince Cagliari's private secretary. A day
+had already been set for his marriage with Anna Adorjan, but he had the
+hardihood to write and beg to be released from the engagement. He did
+not, however, think it necessary to announce in his letter that he had
+changed his religion and turned Roman Catholic.
+
+A desire to shine in society, meanwhile, and the difficulty of doing so
+on a small salary, had led him to employ dishonest and criminal means
+for replenishing his purse. He had raised money on his friend Manasseh's
+forged signature. After entering the prince's service and finding
+himself amply supplied with means, he went to his broker to redeem the
+false note, but, to his consternation, was informed by the money-lender
+that, in a moment of financial embarrassment, although the note was not
+yet due he had presented it to Manasseh, who had promptly discounted it.
+Benjamin Vajdar felt capable of murdering the broker. A noose now seemed
+placed around his neck, and the end of the rope was held by the man
+whose sister he had just wronged so shamefully.
+
+The new secretary's appearance in the prince's household served to
+hasten the impending outbreak between the recently married couple. One
+afternoon Blanka left the house and fled to a friend of hers in Hungary,
+whence her petition for a divorce soon led her, her friend, and her
+lawyer, as we have already seen, to Rome. The decree which was in due
+time issued from the Vatican, that, so long as his divorced wife lived,
+the prince might not marry again, was a serious check upon certain pet
+schemes cherished by the Marchioness Caldariva.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To return to the latter's boudoir, where she and her willing tool were
+bending over the cipher despatches, after long and fruitless search they
+came upon a name familiar to them both,--Adorjan. It appeared that a
+certain Adorjan of Toroczko had gone out to parley with the insurgent
+forces then besieging the town, and they had seized him and held him
+prisoner. A second Adorjan had followed to ransom his brother, but he
+too was detained. Finally there came a third brother,--Manasseh.
+
+"Ah, at last!" cried the marchioness, eagerly.
+
+It appeared that this third Adorjan was on his way home from Italy, and
+was accompanied by his fiancee, whom he left in care of his brother
+Aaron while he himself sought the insurgents' camp. He too was seized
+and imprisoned, and preparations were made for the execution of the
+three brothers; but in the morning, by some means or other, he succeeded
+in persuading his captors to release all three of their prisoners and to
+give the whole party, including the young lady, Princess Blanka Zboroy,
+a safe-conduct to Toroczko, while the insurgents themselves dispersed to
+their homes.
+
+"But go on!" urged Rozina; "what occurred after that in Toroczko?"
+
+"Nothing further is said about Toroczko," answered the other.
+
+"Have you no spies there?" demanded the marchioness.
+
+"No, there are no informers in Toroczko. There was one, but you have
+made him your slave."
+
+"And you can sit there so calm and cool!" cried the woman, in a passion.
+"Just think, there is a man in that town in whose hand your good name
+and your freedom lie. If he but takes a fancy, he can drag you in the
+mud. You can count on no happiness, no security, without his consent.
+Remember, too, there is a woman with him who has smitten you in the face
+and made you recoil, who is perhaps even now laughing at you, who is the
+object of my deadly hatred, and during whose lifetime the door is closed
+to me into the world I wish to enter. So long as that woman lives the
+sun does not shine for me: I can show my face only at night. And can you
+sit there while those two are happy in each other's embraces? Oh,
+coward! How long are you going to let them live?"
+
+Benjamin Vajdar did not venture to open his mouth. The marchioness drew
+a key from her bosom and held it before him. "Do you see that?" she
+whispered, while for an instant a smile lighted up her face. "This key
+belongs to the man who first brings me word of that woman's death." So
+saying, she kissed the little key and held it to the other's lips to
+kiss also. "What do you say?"
+
+"I am wont only to think and to act, not to promise," was his reply.
+
+"Very well. _Au revoir!_"
+
+The marchioness pulled her bell-cord three times for her maid,--a signal
+for her visitor to retire. He hastened to the secret door, accordingly,
+and disappeared. Calling a cab, he ordered the driver to take him to the
+Cafe de l'Europe. The head waiter told him, in answer to his inquiries,
+that Prince Cagliari was there also,--was, in fact, taking supper with
+two ladies in a private room. The secretary asked to be shown thither.
+
+"I knew you would turn up here before the night was over," cried the
+prince, with a laugh, as the young man entered. "I had a cover laid for
+you."
+
+The two young women were costumed as _fleurs animees_,--the one as a
+violet, the other as a tulip. The remains of a generous meal were on the
+table. The newcomer held out his glass to the tulip and begged her to
+pour him some champagne.
+
+"One moment!" interrupted the prince. "First let me ask a question. How
+much have you left of my wife's quarterly allowance that I sent her by
+you?"
+
+"That is exactly what I was going to speak to you about," returned the
+young man. "I have to ask you for the next quarter's allowance also."
+
+"Indeed! And must you have it immediately?"
+
+"If you please."
+
+"But haven't you already learned, from her letter which she wrote me in
+November, that she is about to change her religion and marry again, and
+that consequently she declines all further assistance from me? Didn't
+this letter come into your hands?"
+
+Benjamin Vajdar shrugged his shoulders and calmly proceeded to squeeze
+lemon-juice on his oysters. "I assumed without question," he rejoined,
+"that a man of Prince Cagliari's chivalrous nature would merely reply to
+this letter: 'It is a matter of indifference to me how the princess
+orders her life; but so long as she bears my name she must not be forced
+to go on foot and soil her shoes.'"
+
+"Bravo!" cried the prince. "And you would have me give her a dower for
+her second marriage, would you, and a quarter's allowance into the
+bargain?"
+
+"Let us not discuss that at present," returned the other, "it would only
+spoil our evening. Time enough for serious matters to-morrow."
+
+"But I wish to discuss it now."
+
+"Very well. The truth of the matter is, the beautiful Princess Blanka is
+at this moment lying dead in the mountains of Transylvania."
+
+The prince recoiled. "Young man, I forbid you to indulge in such
+ill-chosen jests."
+
+Benjamin rose and made a low bow. "Such a lack of respect as a jest of
+that sort to my master and benefactor is an utter impossibility."
+
+"Well, then, sit down, and let us have no play-acting. Where do you say
+this thing occurred?"
+
+"Somewhere on the highway between Nagy-Enyed and Felvincz. She is lying
+there in the snow, transfixed with an insurgent's lance." The speaker
+therewith proceeded to relate several episodes in the bloody drama then
+enacting in Transylvania.
+
+"But why are you so sure that the princess is one of the victims?" asked
+the listener.
+
+"The names are all recorded," was the answer. "The first thing,
+therefore, for Prince Cagliari to do is to order the recovery of his
+wife's body, that it may receive proper interment in his family vault.
+If you wish to convince yourself of the truth of my statements, I will
+give you the key to the cipher despatches. The despatches themselves you
+will find in a place that is always open to you. Go and read for
+yourself."
+
+"No, no," cried the prince, "I will not look at the papers. What you
+have said is enough for me."
+
+"Very well," rejoined the secretary, quietly. "Then I will go and make
+ready to start at once for Transylvania. I am determined to find and
+bring back to you the remains of the Princess Blanka. It is a grim task,
+and calls for a heart of iron."
+
+"And a purse of gold," added the other. "Here is my pocketbook to begin
+with, and I will open an account for you with a Czernovicz banker."
+
+What was most important of all, the smooth-tongued secretary had
+entirely omitted,--namely, that the subject of his ingenious story was
+at that moment alive and well, and waiting to see the sun rise over the
+Toroczko hills.
+
+After the prince had somewhat recovered from the effect produced upon
+him by Benjamin Vajdar's announcement, he gave himself up to the
+rapturous thought that now at last he could carry word to Rozina of his
+wife's death. He sought her presence without delay.
+
+The marchioness, cosily ensconced on her sofa, was either asleep, or
+feigned to be, when Cagliari entered and whispered in her ear:
+
+"Rozina, my wife is dead!"
+
+Her eyes opened and a quick flush of pleasure overspread her face. "How?
+When? Where?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"At Nagy-Enyed--killed by the insurgents."
+
+"Nonsense!" cried the marchioness. "Who told you so?"
+
+"My private secretary, your favourite, Benjamin Vajdar. He has just read
+it in the despatches received at the war office."
+
+The listener's eyes flashed with scorn.
+
+"I am telling you the truth," asserted the other, vehemently. "I give
+you my word of honour, it is as I say. I have this moment given Vajdar
+my purse and despatched him to Transylvania to bring the poor woman's
+body back to Vienna." The prince seated himself in an armchair opposite
+the marchioness, and continued: "I am even more eager than you to see
+her laid to rest in my family vault. My motives are deeper and stronger
+than yours. You have been longing for Blanka Zboroy's death because her
+existence meant humiliation to you. This thought has brought unrest to
+your pillow, but a legion of demons chases sleep from mine. Shall a
+Cagliari suffer any living woman to drag his name in the mire before all
+the world--to laugh to scorn the decree of the Roman Curia--to scratch
+out his name after her own and replace it with that of a Szekler
+peasant? That may be allowed to pass among common people, but the
+descendants of the Ferraras will find a way, or make one, to prevent
+such a scandal. It has become a necessity in my eyes that _she_ should
+not walk the same planet with me."
+
+The marchioness was listening by this time with wide eyes, flushed
+cheeks, and parted lips.
+
+"Of late I have suffered heavy losses," the speaker continued. "Formerly
+my income amounted to a million and a half; now it is barely half a
+million. My estates in the Romagna have been confiscated, my serfs in
+Hungary freed, and I have lost frightful sums by my investments. I know
+many a poor devil has been forced to wont himself to rags and poverty,
+but for one who has been a leader among men to debase himself and drag
+out a miserable existence in obscurity--never! Shall I, forsooth,
+suspend the erection of the votive church which I began at the seat of
+my ancestors twelve years ago? Or shall I, discarding the masterpieces
+of a Thorwaldsen, embellish the sacred edifice with the rude productions
+of a stone-cutter? Would you have me say to the woman I adore, 'My dear,
+hitherto we have lived in two palaces; henceforth we must be content
+with one'? But most impossible of all would it be to confess my
+pecuniary embarrassments to my banker and my major-domo, and to direct
+them to cut down my future expenditures by a third, to sell my
+picture-gallery, my museum, and two-thirds of my collection of diamonds.
+No, no! What I am now telling you has never passed my lips before, nor
+ever will again; for I know how to apply the remedy, and I will not
+submit to humiliation, even though it should cost human blood to prevent
+it."
+
+The speaker bent forward and went on in a more guarded tone:
+
+"Now as to the woman of whom we were speaking. When her brothers gave
+her to me in marriage, we entered into a contract which stipulated that
+the property of the one who died first should go to the survivor. She
+was young, I was old; the advantage was all on her side. Our divorce has
+not annulled this contract. If Blanka Zboroy dies, her brothers must
+deliver her property over to me."
+
+"But her fortune is only a million."
+
+"Don't you believe it. To be sure, her brothers paid her the interest on
+only a million, but her property really amounts to five times that sum.
+My part thus far has been simply to await the turn of events. In Rome,
+as it appears, this woman's fate hung by a thread; but all at once she
+took the insane notion of marrying again. However, that does not
+invalidate the contract between us, as the Roman Curia, though it
+granted her a divorce, did so on terms that will make it impossible to
+recognise her marriage with a Protestant. When death overtakes her, it
+will be as the Princess Cagliari that she leaves this world. One thing
+we must remember, however: the Protestant Church will require her to
+renounce her former faith in order to render her separation from her
+first husband valid. Yet, if she does this she will forfeit all claim to
+her property, which, by the testator's will, can descend only to Roman
+Catholic heirs."
+
+With both hands Rozina drew the prince's head down and whispered in his
+ear:
+
+"She must die before this second marriage takes place."
+
+"I shall not meddle with destiny," returned the prince, straightening up
+again. "I shall be satisfied and ask no questions if Vajdar brings back
+a leaden casket containing the unhappy woman's remains. I shall render
+her the last honours with princely pomp, and shall then give orders to
+pursue and punish the insurgents who were responsible for her death."
+
+Rozina burst out laughing. It is always too irresistibly funny to see
+the devil trying to wash himself clean. Even Cagliari himself was forced
+to smile.
+
+"Yes," said he, "that is a joke we may laugh at, if you like. But now
+hear what I have to say further. If Blanka Zboroy renounces the faith of
+her fathers and marries again, it will not suffice for her only to die.
+The man she marries must die also, the parson who joined their hands at
+the altar, the witnesses of the ceremony, the whole family that received
+her in its midst, the schoolchildren that sang the bridal hymn, the
+guests who sat around the wedding-table, the people who looked out of
+their windows and saw the bridal procession pass,--yes, the whole town
+where this marriage took place must be destroyed, and I have it in my
+power to accomplish this. Now are you satisfied?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+MIRTH AND MOURNING.
+
+
+Meanwhile preparations were going forward in Toroczko for the
+approaching nuptials. All preliminaries had been duly attended to,
+Blanka had joined the Unitarian Church, and nothing now stood in the way
+of her marriage to Manasseh.
+
+In the courtyard to the rear of the Adorjan family mansion stood a
+little house, containing two rooms and a kitchen, which Aaron secretly
+fitted up in genuine Toroczko style, with carved hard-wood furniture, a
+row of pegs running around the wall and hung with a fine array of glazed
+earthenware mugs, and an old-fashioned dresser filled with pottery and a
+dazzling display of bright new tinware. In the sleeping-room bedclothes,
+canopy, and curtain were embroidered by peasant maidens. This little
+house was not to be shown to Blanka until her wedding day.
+
+During these preparations Aaron climbed the Szekler Stone every evening
+and surveyed the horizon in search of any beacons blazing on the
+surrounding hills. "If only no mishap befalls, to spoil everything!" he
+would murmur to himself as he came down again.
+
+On the Sunday when the banns are published for the last time it is
+customary for all the friends of the young couple--and there is sure to
+be a whole army of them--to assemble at the bridegroom's house, which in
+the present instance was also the bride's. The banquet on this occasion
+is not furnished by the bridal pair: it is a farewell supper given by
+the guests of the bride and groom, each of the company contributing a
+roasted fowl and a cake. The groom merely supplies the wine, but not
+gratis, as all pay for what they drink, and the sum thus collected goes
+into the village school fund.
+
+On Monday morning the wedding festivities begin in earnest. At an early
+hour people are awakened by the firing of cannon, after which young men
+mount their horses and gallop hither and thither, and two others,
+accompanied by trumpeters, go forth to invite the village folk to the
+wedding and to bear the bridal gifts through the street. Then the
+nuptial procession moves, amid the glad ringing of bells, from the house
+of the bride to the church. The old men head the line, the young men
+come next, and the women follow, while the bridegroom with his escort,
+and the bride with her bridesmaids, are given a place in the middle of
+the procession. On coming out of the church, the newly married pair
+receive a shower of flowers from the hands of the maidens gathered at
+the door. But the ceremonies at the church by no means end the wedding
+festival. What follows is peculiarly characteristic and important. First
+the young men bearing the bridal cake run a race from the church to the
+bridegroom's house, the victor winning a silk neckerchief embroidered by
+the bride. Then comes the rhymed dialogue, in which the representatives
+of the bride and of the groom chaffer with each other over the bride,
+but always with the result that the bridegroom's deputy gets the better
+of his opponent--yet only after the bridegroom himself has promised to
+be father and brother to his young wife, and to cherish her as the apple
+of his eye. Thereupon the maidens form a ring around the bride, sing
+songs to her to conquer her bashfulness, and so induce her to yield her
+hand to the bridegroom. After this the bridesmaids escort her to her new
+home--which in this case was represented by the little house that Aaron
+had secretly furnished for her. Neither Blanka nor Manasseh had even
+suspected what he was about.
+
+Blanka found herself in the paradise of her dreams, and when her
+attendants had placed a gold-embroidered cap on her head, and she came
+forth again into the courtyard,--which was now crowded with eager
+friends,--her hand in that of the man whose wife and queen she was
+thenceforth to be, it seemed to her that the happiness of heaven itself
+was her portion.
+
+Five hundred guests partook of the wedding feast. Food and drink were
+provided in plenty, and every heart was filled to overflowing with the
+joy of the occasion. And yet, to Blanka herself, something was still
+lacking. "If Jonathan and Zenobia were only here!" she could not but say
+to herself, and her happiness was not quite complete without them.
+
+Toward evening Aaron himself began to feel uneasy at their
+non-appearance. He had nearly exhausted his ingenuity in quieting
+Blanka's anxiety. Finally he played his last card.
+
+"Now, my angel," said he, "you remember I promised you I would dance the
+Szekler dance at your wedding. Have the goodness to pay attention, and
+you will see something that is not to be seen every day."
+
+The Szekler dance resembles no other terpsichorean exercise, nor is it
+by any means easy of execution. It calls for sinews of steel and great
+suppleness of limb. To make it still more difficult, the performer is
+obliged to provide his own music by singing a merry popular ballad while
+he dances. He throws himself first on one leg, then on the other,
+bending his knee and sinking nearly to the floor, while he extends the
+other leg straight before him, raises one hand above his head, and rests
+the other on his hip. His heels must never touch the floor, nor may he,
+while bobbing thus comically up and down and trolling his lively ditty,
+suffer his face to relax from that expression of sober and dignified
+earnestness which marks the true Szekler. It is a dance and a display of
+great physical strength and endurance at the same time.
+
+While Aaron's performance was still in progress, his brother Alexander
+broke through the circle of spectators and whispered something in his
+ear, whereupon the dancer immediately ceased his exhibition with the
+cry, "They have come!"
+
+With an exclamation of joy Blanka sprang up from her seat. She wished to
+be the first to welcome the long-awaited pair.
+
+"Sister-in-law," cried Alexander, "don't go out! Don't let her go out!"
+
+But it was too late. Two horses stood before the door, and on one of
+them sat Zenobia. Blanka ran to her and took her hand.
+
+"Have you come at last?" she exclaimed. "Oh, how long we've been looking
+for you! Let me help you down."
+
+Zenobia, however, sat silent and made no move to dismount.
+
+"Where is Jonathan?" asked Blanka.
+
+"There he is." Zenobia pointed to the other horse, on whose back was
+bound a swathed form--a corpse.
+
+"Jonathan!" cried Blanka, wildly.
+
+"Your brother killed my father," Zenobia continued in a monotone, "and
+my brothers killed your brother; and so it will go on now for nobody
+knows how long."
+
+Blanka was stricken speechless with horror, but Anna, who followed her,
+broke out in lamentations, until a strong hand was laid on her from
+behind and Aaron's voice was heard saying:
+
+"Don't cry, don't make a noise! If the people inside hear you, they'll
+come out and tear Ciprianu's daughter to pieces; and she is now our
+guest."
+
+Anna buried her face in Blanka's bosom.
+
+"Alexander," said Aaron, softly, turning to his brother, "go in and tell
+the gipsy band to play a lively reel. The company must be kept amused."
+
+Meanwhile Manasseh had appeared.
+
+"Manasseh," whispered Aaron, "come and help me lift our brother down
+from the horse."
+
+These words were to Manasseh like a dagger-thrust in his heart. His
+knees trembled under him. But presently he manned himself and hastened
+to untie the ropes that held the inanimate form on the horse's back.
+
+Zenobia meanwhile went on talking in a low tone to Blanka. "In the
+skirmish at Felvincz, the Hungarians had one man killed, and he was the
+man. His horse carried him until I found him. You invited us to your
+wedding, and here we are. Now you may, if you wish, take me in and say
+to your guests, 'This is the daughter of that Ciprianu whose sons laid
+waste Sasd and Felvincz and killed Jonathan Adorjan.'"
+
+"Away, away!" stammered Blanka, waving her hand. She was terrified at
+the thought of Zenobia's being found there by the people of Toroczko,
+and perhaps suffering violence at their hands.
+
+"Go in peace," said Aaron. "My people will not pursue you. Let bygones
+be bygones between us. We owe each other nothing now."
+
+"I owe you nothing, Aaron, but I owe something to your sister and your
+sister-in-law for the very kind invitation they sent me; and that is a
+debt which I will yet repay. To you, Manasseh, I have to say, remember
+those parting words on Monastery Heights: 'We make peace with you and
+swear to keep it; but if a traitor from your own number stirs up
+dissension between us, then tremble!' Think of those words often. And
+now farewell, and God bless you!"
+
+With that she turned her horse about and rode away, breasting the wind,
+which blew the snow into her face.
+
+"Where shall we lay the body?" asked Aaron. "The house is full of
+guests."
+
+"Here, in our little cabin," said Blanka.
+
+"What, in your bridal chamber?" gasped Aaron. "Oh, Father in heaven!"
+
+But there was no other way. The two brothers bore Jonathan into the
+little house, unswathed his cold limbs, and laid him in the bridal bed
+until his coffin should be ready for him. So death entered the little
+abode and was the first guest.
+
+Blanka sat down on the edge of the bed and gazed at the dead face. The
+resemblance between Jonathan and Manasseh was striking. This lifeless
+image of her husband suddenly revealed to her all that had hitherto been
+so carefully kept from her knowledge. When she met Jonathan in Kolozsvar
+she had conceived of the war, to which so many stately cavaliers were
+turning their horses' heads, as a kind of splendid tournament. She
+remembered now the promise she had made to give the young soldier a kiss
+on his return home, and recalled how he had begged her to keep her word
+even though he came back dead. And he had come back dead, and now
+claimed the fulfilment of her promise. She bent down over him, and as
+she did so the illusion that it was Manasseh himself lying lifeless
+before her, grew stronger still. She trembled as she touched her lips to
+the dead man's marble brow, and with an outburst of sobs and tears she
+called aloud, "Manasseh!"
+
+He was at her side in a moment, bending over her and pressing her to his
+heart. So he was not dead, after all. She recovered her self-control,
+but she murmured in his ear:
+
+"Oh, do not die! Never let me see you lying like that before me!"
+
+Then she gave place to the three brothers, who likewise embraced the
+dead man. One by one the other brothers came out of the house of
+rejoicing and entered the chamber of mourning. Alexander had summoned
+them. The guests, however, found nothing strange in their disappearance,
+but merely gave themselves up the more unrestrainedly to the gaiety of
+the occasion. That the bride and groom should have vanished so suddenly
+was entirely in accord with established usage: the loving pair had, it
+was taken for granted, sought the spot where all the delights of
+paradise awaited them. How different was the reality from these
+conjectures!
+
+Blanka watched through the long hours by the dead man's couch. So passed
+her wedding night.
+
+At early dawn the tolling of bells announced to the people of Toroczko
+that death had laid his cold hand on one of their number. Those who had
+been wedding guests the day before now came as mourners to the house of
+the Adorjans.
+
+The brothers were out on the mountainside. Graves for the dead in
+Toroczko are hewn out of the solid rock, and the side of some bare cliff
+serves the people for a cemetery. Here each family has a vault, which,
+as years pass, penetrates more and more deeply into the mountainside,
+until in many cases it becomes a veritable tunnel. No name is carved
+over these vaults, and only the memory of the survivors serves to
+distinguish one tomb from another. When a man dies, his relatives take
+it on themselves to hollow out his grave in the cliff. This is an old
+and pious custom. If, however, there is no man in the family to render
+this last service, the neighbours gladly offer their help. It would be a
+grievous thing in Toroczko to have one's grave dug by a hired
+grave-digger.
+
+In the afternoon the catafalque was erected in the church, and the
+entire population assembled to pay the last honours to the deceased. The
+people sang, and the pastor delivered a funeral discourse. Then all
+accompanied the remains to the rock-hewn cemetery. Men bore the coffin
+on their shoulders, and on the coffin lay the dead man's sword, crowned
+with garlands, and his shako pierced with a bullet-hole. Leading the
+procession marched a student chorus singing a dirge, while weeping women
+brought up the rear. When the family vault was reached, the seven
+brothers of the deceased took the coffin and laid it in the niche
+prepared to receive it; then they rolled a great stone before the
+opening, came out of the vault, and kissed one another.
+
+After that a plain villager, an old and gray-haired man, mounted a stone
+pulpit and addressed the assembly, telling them who it was they were
+burying, how he had lived, how he had been loved, and in what manner he
+had come to his end. The speaker closed with the hope that the memory of
+the departed might last as long as there were dwellers in the valley to
+speak his name. The pastor then blessed the grave and pronounced a
+benediction on the company before him. Finally the student choir
+rendered a closing selection, while the women and children left the
+place in groups, and only the men remained behind.
+
+Aaron now ascended the stone pulpit and spoke. "Brothers and friends,"
+he began, "we have done our duty to the dead; now let us discharge our
+obligations to the living. Enough of funeral dirges for the present! Let
+us now to arms!"
+
+Three hundred men echoed his words. "To arms!" they cried, "to arms!"
+They were ready and eager to go in quest of the foemen at whose hands
+their fellow-townsman had met his death. "Come, let us go home and arm
+ourselves!" said they, one to another.
+
+"We will meet in the marketplace!" called out Aaron from the stone
+pulpit, when suddenly he felt a strong hand on his belt behind, and he
+was lifted down bodily from his place. He did not need to ask who dealt
+thus summarily with him; he knew that only his brother Manasseh was
+capable of such a feat of strength.
+
+"What are you thinking of?" cried Manasseh, in a voice that all could
+hear. "Have I not made peace with our neighbours and sworn in the name
+of the one living God to maintain it, and would you put me to shame?"
+
+"Have they not murdered our brother Jonathan?" demanded Aaron.
+
+"No; our brother fell in battle like a brave soldier, with his sword in
+his hand. And others of our land are fighting now for their country and
+will die for her. We shall mourn them and honour their memory, but we
+are not wild Indians to exact a bloody vengeance for those fallen on the
+battle-field."
+
+"Very well, brother Manasseh, but you need not charge us with being wild
+Indians. I do not ask that we should fall upon our neighbours and burn
+their houses over their heads, but that we should be on our guard and
+defend ourselves and our families the best we know how. Believe me,
+brother, I am as good a Christian as the next man; I go to church every
+holy day, even when I am ill; but I feel easier, when I pray for my
+soul's salvation, if I know my gun is loaded and primed."
+
+"Then you are no true believer in God," returned Manasseh, in a tone of
+reproof. "You worship that Jesus in whose name the massacre of St.
+Bartholomew was perpetrated, the burning of heretics sanctioned, and the
+crusades undertaken; but you are no true follower of that Jesus who came
+with a message of peace and good-will to mankind, and who said to Peter,
+'They that take the sword shall perish with the sword.'"
+
+"I am not so sure that he really said that," rejoined Aaron, shrewdly.
+"Matthew has it that he did, but Mark and Luke make no mention of it,
+and, according to John, Jesus simply said to Peter, after the latter had
+cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant, 'Put up thy sword
+into the sheath.' At any rate, I am not clear what I should have done
+had he said it to me; but I know one thing, if I had been there when the
+Saviour handed the sop to Judas, I should have dealt Iscariot such a
+blow on the head that he wouldn't have had wit enough left to betray his
+master. And just so I will strike down the traitor who leads a foe
+against Toroczko, if he once comes within my reach."
+
+"What traitor do you mean?"
+
+"The one that the girl spoke of yesterday when she said, 'If a traitor
+rises up from amidst your own people, then tremble!' I know whom she
+meant now: with the insurgents is a man, lately come into notice, who
+surpasses all his fellows in cruelty. He is our Iscariot."
+
+"What makes you think so?"
+
+"Because he calls himself Diurbanu. No genuine Wallachian would have
+taken the nickname of his king, Decebalus. It is as if one of us should
+call himself Attila. Now, then, Manasseh, I love you and am ready to
+follow your lead. I shall never forget how you went up to Monastery
+Heights and came back with our two brothers. You knew how to serve them
+better than I. I would have avenged their death merely, but you saved
+their lives. So, as you made peace with Moga and his people, you have a
+right to ask us to keep it. Therefore we will demand no atonement from
+them for Jonathan's death. But when we hear that Diurbanu and his men,
+who know nothing about that peace and are no parties to it, are
+advancing on Toroczko, then will be the time for us to act."
+
+"And I will take a hand with you," declared Manasseh.
+
+Therewith the two brothers clasped hands and embraced each other, after
+which the men all returned to their homes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE SPY.
+
+
+Albeit the earth reeked with blood in those days, yet the spring of 1849
+saw the flowers blooming in as great profusion as ever, as if God's
+blessing had been vying with man's curse to see which should outdo the
+other.
+
+On a beautiful afternoon in May, Blanka and Anna, with Manasseh and
+Aaron, were climbing a steep and tortuous mountain path. Manasseh had
+his portfolio and some few other implements of his craft, while Aaron
+carried the ladies' wraps and lunch-basket. With the exception of
+iron-shod alpenstocks, none of the party were armed. The two men walked
+on ahead, side by side, leaving the young women to loiter behind and
+pick mayflowers. Rhododendrons, orchids, and epigonitis rewarded their
+search in abundance. From the valley below came up the bleating of goats
+and the flute-like notes of the blackbird.
+
+"Are you really in earnest, Aaron, about defending the town from this
+position in case of an attack?" asked Manasseh.
+
+"Wasn't it from the Szekler Stone that our fathers repulsed the whole
+Mongolian horde?" was the rejoinder.
+
+"But that was in the old days, in old-fashioned warfare."
+
+"Well, the Wallachians are now no further advanced in military science
+than were the Tartars then."
+
+"Yes, but at that time the Szekler Stone was in a condition for
+defence," objected Manasseh.
+
+"And how do you know I haven't put it in such a condition again?" asked
+the other.
+
+"I should like to see how you have accomplished it."
+
+"I shall not show you, for you are not a soldier, and no civilian shall
+see my fortifications. I will show them to the two young ladies; they
+count as combatants. The other day they coaxed Alexander to lend them
+his pistols, and since then they have been practising shooting at a mark
+in the garden behind the house."
+
+"What, does my wife know how to handle a pistol?"
+
+"To be sure; and it's no elderberry popgun, either. You may depend upon
+it, she'll sell her life dear. You needn't laugh."
+
+The rocky height known as the Szekler Stone commands a view of vast
+extent. Nestled among the hills, twenty-two villages may be counted
+from its summit, with the Aranyos River winding this way and that among
+them, like a ribbon of silver, until it empties into another tortuous
+stream which carries its waters to the Maros. But on the opposite side,
+toward the northwest, in striking contrast with this picture of happy
+human industry, a boundless waste of rugged, forest-clad mountain peaks
+meets the eye, with no sign of house or hamlet.
+
+From the side toward Toroczko, which lay smiling in the valley, its
+fruit-trees in full bloom, its fields looking like so many squares of
+green carpet, and its church-spire rising conspicuous above the foliage,
+one could hear, like the throbbing of a giant's heart, the heavy beating
+of steam hammers. There the scythe and the ploughshare were being
+fashioned, and all the implements wherewith the hand of man subdued to
+his use those rugged hillsides.
+
+"If I could only paint that picture!" sighed Manasseh.
+
+"You succeeded with the Colosseum," was Blanka's encouraging rejoinder.
+
+"That was Rome, this is Toroczko. I could hit my sweetheart's likeness;
+my mother's is beyond me."
+
+Nevertheless he was determined to try his hand; so the others left him
+at work and went on to view the curiosities of the Szekler Stone.
+
+"Take good care of my wife," Manasseh called to his brother, "and don't
+let her fall over any precipice."
+
+"Never fear," Aaron shouted back. "The whole Szekler Stone shall fall
+first."
+
+"Promise not to take Blanka and Anna up Hidas Peak."
+
+"I promise."
+
+"On your honour as a Szekler and a Unitarian?"
+
+"On my honour as a Szekler and a Unitarian."
+
+With that Manasseh let them go their way. But in the midst of his
+sketching it occurred to him that Aaron had only promised not to "take"
+the ladies up Hidas Peak, which might mean that he would not carry them
+up, but was at liberty to lead them; for Aaron was full of all such
+quips and quibbles as that. Manasseh closed his portfolio, picked up his
+things, and followed the path taken by the others.
+
+Yet there was no mischievous intent in Aaron's mind. He conducted Anna
+and Blanka to the verge of the gorge that separates the so-called Hidas
+Peak of the Szekler Stone from the Louis Peak. This ravine is a deep
+cutting, down which a steep, breakneck path leads directly to Toroczko,
+but is very seldom used. On the farther side of the gorge may be seen a
+cave in the rocks, popularly known as Csegez Cave. A rude stone rampart
+guards its mouth, and, as only a very narrow path along the brink of
+the precipice leads to this cavern, it could be easily held against an
+assault.
+
+On the summit of Hidas Peak was planted a bundle of straw, which was
+visible from a considerable distance, and served as a warning not to
+ascend. Was it meant as a protection to the single fir-tree left
+standing there in lonely majesty, or to deter hay-thieves from cutting
+the grass that grew there? Perhaps it was a friendly caution to
+sightseers not to hazard the ascent, as it might cost them their lives.
+
+The two young women recognised at once the inadvisability of their
+attempting this dangerous climb, but to Aaron the ascent was mere sport.
+He had often been up there before. Promising his companions that, if
+they would be on their good behaviour, and not stir from the spot, he
+would climb the rocky height, blow a blast on his horn that should awake
+the echoes, and bring them back a twig from the solitary fir-tree, he
+left them seated on the grass and busy arranging the flowers they had
+gathered.
+
+It seemed a long time before he gained the summit, and the young women
+grew tired of sitting still in one place. Anna, true miner's daughter
+that she was, spied some scattered bits of carnelian in the rubble near
+by, and pointed them out to Blanka. Agate and chalcedony were also to be
+found among the loose stones, and often the three occurred together.
+Both Anna and her companion were soon busy gathering these treasures and
+pocketing the rarest specimens. Indeed, so intent were they on their
+work that they failed to note the approach of a strange man, until he
+stood within fifty paces of them. Whence could he have come? Had he been
+concealed behind some rock? What was his purpose in thus stealing on the
+two unprotected women? He wore the Wallachian peasant costume,--a high
+cap of white lamb's wool, from beneath which his long, black hair hung
+down over his shoulders, a leather dolman, without sleeves, a broad belt
+with buckles, under which his shirt extended half-way to his knees, and
+laced shoes. He carried a scythe over one shoulder, and stood with his
+back to the sun, so that his features could not be clearly
+distinguished.
+
+The young women seized each other by the hand, and uttered a cry of
+alarm. The sight of the strange figure seemed to work on them like a
+nightmare, or like the ghost of some one known in life, but long since
+laid to rest in the grave. At first the man appeared to be as badly
+frightened as the young ladies. He halted, gave a start as of surprise,
+opened his mouth to speak, and then stood dumb, with staring eyes. For
+several seconds he seemed undecided what to do next. Then he put himself
+in motion and advanced toward the ladies, his face at the same time
+assuming a wild, demoniac expression. He lowered his scythe from his
+shoulder, and grasped it in his right hand.
+
+At that moment there sounded from the height above the trumpet-like peal
+of Aaron's horn.
+
+"Aaron! Aaron!" cried both young women in concert and with all their
+strength.
+
+The intruder, taking fright at sound of the horn and at the name, stood
+still and threw a look behind.
+
+"Run, _frate_!"[1] shouted Aaron from above, already descrying the man.
+
+[Footnote 1: Rumanian for "brother."]
+
+But the latter, counting with safety on a considerable interval before
+Aaron could descend, started once more toward Anna and Blanka. Only
+twenty paces now intervened between him and them. His eyes glowed and
+his face was distorted with a horrid expression, more brutal than human.
+His appearance might well have made the boldest recoil. Anna planted
+herself before her companion, as if to shelter her, while Blanka felt
+only a mad desire to run and throw herself over the precipice. But
+suddenly, when the man was only a few steps from them, he halted and
+drew back as if some one had smitten him in the face, his knees
+trembled, and an inarticulate cry escaped his lips. He seemed to have
+encountered something from which he drew back in dismay, as the leopard,
+when pursuing a deer, turns tail at sight of a lion. Blanka and Anna
+gave a backward glance and then started to run. Fear now left them, and
+as they ran they called aloud, in the glad assurance of help near at
+hand, "Manasseh! Manasseh!"--until they reached him and threw themselves
+into his arms.
+
+Meanwhile the strange man, looking over his shoulder and seeing Aaron
+descending upon him with bold leaps and bounds, did not pause long to
+consider, but dropped his scythe and ran for his life, down the steep
+side of the gorge, over rubble-stones and slippery boulders.
+
+"What are you so frightened at?" asked Manasseh, taking the matter
+lightly and kissing back the roses into the ladies' pale cheeks.
+
+Panting and gasping for breath, they could hardly stammer out the cause
+of their alarm, but managed to explain that a "terrible man" had
+suddenly come upon them and chased them. Yet neither Blanka nor Anna
+went on to say of whom this strange figure had reminded her.
+
+"You little geese!" cried Manasseh, laughing, "it was only a hay-thief.
+Grass grows on Hidas Peak, and ever since the days of King Matthias the
+Szeklers on the Aranyos have quarrelled with their neighbours over the
+cutting of it. The man who is on hand first with his scythe carries it
+off. So that bugaboo of yours was merely a harmless peasant in quest of
+fodder for his cow, and he took fright at sight of us and ran away.
+Look there, will you, he has dropped his scythe in his eagerness to
+escape."
+
+The two young women, still clinging to Manasseh, went with him to
+examine the Wallachian's scythe.
+
+"A tool of our own make!" he cried, lifting it up and inspecting it. "It
+has our trade-mark. The snath is full of notches--probably the owner's
+record of work done and of his share in the harvest."
+
+The said owner was by this time far down the steep path. Aaron now
+joined his companions, much out of breath, red in the face, and without
+his hat, which he had thrown away in order to run the faster. He shouted
+to the fugitive to stop, and, going to the edge of the ravine, snatched
+up a great stone and hurled it after him.
+
+"Oh, heavens!" cried Anna, "what have you done? What if it should hit
+him?"
+
+"If it hits him it will help him along the faster," was Aaron's reply as
+he caught up a second stone, smaller than the first, and sent it to
+overtake its fellow. But the fleeing form was too far down the hill to
+serve as a good target, and Aaron's stones bounded harmlessly by.
+
+"You might have killed him!" said Anna, reproachfully.
+
+"And that would have been the best thing for all concerned," answered
+Aaron, giving his moustache a fierce pull.
+
+"But it would have been a piece of needless cruelty," remarked
+Manasseh,--"and merely on account of a little hay that has not been
+touched, after all."
+
+"He didn't come up here to steal hay; he is one of Diurbanu's spies."
+
+"But what, pray, could he spy out here?"
+
+"What could he spy out? Oh, just see how sharp my brother Manasseh is!
+My fortifications and armament are on the Szekler Stone. Yes, you may
+laugh now, but you won't laugh when you come to learn their value. I
+will show the ladies my cannon, but I won't let you see them, Manasseh."
+
+"Cannon, brother?" repeated Manasseh, laughing. "How in the world did
+you ever get them up here?"
+
+"My business is with the ladies now," was all Aaron would say. "You sit
+down on a stone and paint the beautiful view. My battery is not for you
+to see. Yes, I have a battery, all complete. If Aaron Gabor could fit
+out his Szeklers with artillery, why should not his namesake be able to
+do the same? You young women may see my big guns; I'll show them to you.
+But first promise me solemnly not to tell any mortal soul what you
+see--not even Manasseh."
+
+Blanka and Anna both pledged themselves most solemnly to secrecy,
+whereupon Aaron led them up to a height on which stood the ruins of
+Szekler-Stone Castle, one of the oldest monuments to be found in all
+Hungary.
+
+After a short interval the three rejoined Manasseh, the two ladies
+laughing and in the merriest of moods, scarcely heeding their
+conductor's solemnly raised forefinger and sober mien, which were meant
+to remind them of their promise. But they betrayed no secrets; they only
+laughed. Yet Aaron thought it betrayal enough for them even to laugh.
+
+"That's always the way," he muttered, "when you let a woman into a
+secret!"
+
+They soothed and caressed him, but only laughed the more as they did so.
+
+"I wish you to understand that this is no trifling matter," he declared,
+"and that I had good reason to send those stones after that prying spy."
+
+This allusion checked the young women's merriment at once, and a shudder
+ran over them at the remembrance of what had passed. "Did we both have
+the same thought?" whispered Blanka to Anna.
+
+"Yes," returned the latter, with a sigh.
+
+That night, before she lay down to sleep, Anna veiled the little
+portrait that hung in her room, as if to prevent her seeing it in her
+dreams.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE HAND OF FATE.
+
+
+Through the main street of Abrudbanya rode two men, one of them wearing
+an overcoat with silver buttons over his Wallachian dress, and a tuft of
+heron's feathers in his cap, while at his side hung a curved sword,
+pistols protruded from his holsters, and a rifle lay across his
+saddle-bow. His face had nothing of the Wallachian peasant in its
+features or expression. The other horseman, however, who rode at some
+paces' distance in the rear, was manifestly of the peasant class.
+
+The horses' hoofs awoke the echoes of the vacant street. Silence and
+desolation reigned supreme. Half-burned houses and smoke-blackened walls
+greeted the riders on every side. High up on the door-post of a church
+appeared the bloody imprint of a child's hand. How had it come there?
+Grass and weeds were growing in the marketplace, and a millstone covered
+the village well. Here and there a lean and hungry dog crept forth at
+the horsemen's approach, howled dismally, and then retreated among the
+ruins.
+
+After this scene of devastation was passed, the highway led the riders
+along the bank of a stream, on both sides of which smelting works had
+been erected, as this region is rich in gold-producing ore; but nothing
+except charred ruins was now left of the buildings. At intervals a
+deserted mill was passed, its wheel still turning idly under the impulse
+of the tireless stream. Leaving this mining district behind, the two
+riders came to a settlement of a different sort, which had not been
+given over entirely to destruction. Only occasionally a house showed
+windows or doors lacking, while many were wholly unharmed. Among the
+latter was one building in whose front wall a well-preserved Roman
+gravestone was set, its carving in high relief being still clearly
+outlined. Here had once been entombed the ashes of Caius Longinis, a
+centurion of the third legion. _Sit sibi terra levis!_ One of the
+door-posts had in ancient times served as a milestone, and the broad
+bench before the house was made from the lid of a sarcophagus, bearing
+an inscription which informed the archaeologist what saffron-haired Roman
+beauty had, centuries before, been laid to rest beneath it.
+
+The riders drew rein before this house, and straightway an old woman of
+extraordinary ugliness stuck her head out of the little door. Among the
+Wallachians one meets with the comeliest young women and the ugliest old
+hags. Knock at any door, and it is sure to be opened by one of these
+ancient dames.
+
+"He isn't at home," called out the old woman, without waiting to be
+addressed. "He has gone to the 'Priest's Tree.' You'll find him there."
+
+"Well, then, if you know where this 'Priest's Tree' is, go ahead and
+show us the way," commanded he of the silver buttons, unwilling even to
+halt long enough to water his horse, so pressing was his errand.
+
+The way led through a vast forest, and when the riders reached their
+destination it was late evening, the darkness being further increased by
+gathering thunder-clouds. The so-called "Priest's Tree" is a giant beech
+standing in a broad open space and fenced around with a hedge planted by
+pious hands. Under this tree have been sworn the most solemn of oaths,
+and the ground shaded by it is hallowed. Near by stands a wooden church,
+exactly like the churches to be seen in all Wallachian villages, its
+steep roof and sides covered with shingles, and a pointed turret
+surmounting the whole. The belfry has no bell, and the windows are
+unglazed, so that the breezes blow at will through the deserted
+building.
+
+Our riders found a dozen or more horses tethered at the foot of the tree
+and watched by a few Wallachian lads, who were muffled in fur coats
+against the approach of the storm. The beech furnished a good shelter:
+lightning could not strike it, as it was the "Priest's Tree."
+
+Leaving his horse in charge of his attendant, he of the silver buttons
+hastened on to the church door, where an armed sentry demanded his name.
+
+"Diurbanu," was the reply, whereupon he was admitted.
+
+The interior of the church was very dark. Two wax tapers, indeed, burned
+on the altar, but they flickered and flared so in the wind as to furnish
+a very insufficient light. The thunder-clouds without, however, were now
+rent with frequent flashes of lightning, which served to illumine the
+scene within. About a dozen men were assembled there, sitting on the
+benches that had once been occupied by worshippers, some wearing the
+costume of the country, while others were dressed in military uniform.
+Before them, with his back to the altar, sat a man of commanding
+appearance, attired in a clerical gown with long, flowing sleeves. In
+his lap he held a little fair-haired boy, covering the child with one of
+his wide sleeves, and giving it the golden crucifix that hung from his
+neck to play with. At times his long black beard completely concealed
+the child's face. The little one was playing and prattling, giving no
+heed to the talk of the men about him and betraying no alarm at the
+tumultuous approach of the storm.
+
+The newcomer advanced and addressed the group:
+
+"Gentleman and friends, glorious descendants of Decebalus and Trajan!"
+
+"Never mind ceremony now, Diurbanu," interrupted the wearer of the gown,
+in a deep, commanding voice. "What news? Let us hear your errand."
+
+"I am the bearer of instructions."
+
+"Out with them, then!"
+
+"We must prosecute the war with might and main. There is no time to
+lose. Bem regards the Transylvanian campaign as ended, and has set out
+with his whole army for the Banat, leaving only a few regulars to guard
+the passes and to prosecute the siege of Karlsburg. Our part is to check
+him in his march on Croatia."
+
+"Or, in other words," interrupted the man in the gown, "to prevent him
+from dealing Jellachich a fatal blow, we are to throw ourselves in Bem's
+way."
+
+"The victors of Abrudbanya and Brad will not shrink from the
+undertaking, I should hope," was Diurbanu's response.
+
+"Let us understand each other," said the other, setting the little boy
+on his knee and trotting him up and down as he spoke. "Is it reasonable
+to suppose that we could, without cavalry, artillery, or experienced
+commanders, attack a fully equipped force with any hope of success,
+especially after that force has driven an Austrian army corps out of
+the country and shown itself able to repulse the Russian auxiliaries?"
+
+"No one expects that of us. Our operations are to be confined to raids
+in the mountains."
+
+"But no enemy is to be found now in the mountains. Don't you know that?
+You have just come over the mountains. Did you see any sign of the
+enemy?"
+
+"We have foes enough there still. There is Toroczko." Diurbanu's face,
+as he said this, was suddenly illumined by a blinding flash of
+lightning.
+
+"And Torda!" cried a voice from the benches.
+
+"No, we have nothing against Torda," declared Diurbanu, almost angrily.
+
+"But what have we against Toroczko?" asked another voice. "The men of
+Toroczko have never done us any harm. So far we have received their iron
+only in the form of ploughs and shovels, scythes and wheel-tires."
+
+"Their sons are serving under Bem," was the rejoinder, "and it is from
+them that we have received their iron in other shapes. Yet that is not
+the main reason. Toroczko is a breeding-place of Magyar ideas and Magyar
+civilisation, an asylum open to Protestant reformers, the pride of a
+handful of people who hope to conquer the world by dint of their science
+and industry. The fall of Toroczko would spread a wholesome fear far and
+wide; it would be almost as if one should report the overthrow of Pest
+itself. Bem's men would halt on the march, panic-stricken at the news,
+and Bem himself would be forced to yield to their desires and return to
+Transylvania. And the more terrible our work of devastation, the more
+brilliant will be the military success that must follow as its result."
+
+The thunder-claps came at such frequent intervals that the speaker could
+with difficulty make himself heard. When he had ended, the deep voice of
+him who wore the clerical gown began in reply:
+
+"Listen to me, Diurbanu. You are deceived on one point. Those on whom
+you count in this bloody work are sated with slaughter. So long as they
+thirsted for revenge they were eager to shed human blood; but now they
+have slaked their thirst and are beginning to rue their deeds. I saw a
+family being cut down in the open street, and I rushed forward and
+snatched this little flaxen-haired boy from the murderers' hands and hid
+him under my cloak. At that a young man, the most furious one of the
+party, aimed such a stroke at my head with his scythe that he would
+certainly have split my skull had not my cap deadened the blow. But
+three days later this same young man came to see the child whose rescue
+had filled him with such fury that he had lifted his hand with murderous
+intent against me, his anointed priest; and because the little boy cried
+for his lost blackbird, the young man went into the woods and caught
+another for him. More than that, he would now gladly restore the boy's
+parents to him if he could. Ever since I saved the little one's life he
+has clung to me and refused to be parted from me."
+
+The priest spoke in a tongue strange to the little boy, who consequently
+understood not a word of what was said, but went on with his innocent
+prattle and laughter.
+
+"Comrades," resumed Diurbanu, addressing the group before him, "all this
+is wide of the mark. We are in the midst of war, and in war-times the
+soldier must go whither he is sent."
+
+"Very well, Diurbanu," was the reply, "our soldiers will go whither they
+are sent. The wind can direct the storm-cloud whither it shall go, but
+cannot compel it to flash lightning and hurl thunderbolts at command."
+
+"But I know one storm-cloud," rejoined Diurbanu, "that has not withheld
+its thunderbolts."
+
+"You mean Ciprianu and his men?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But Ciprianu and both his sons are now fallen."
+
+"So much the better. He left a daughter who thirsts for revenge."
+
+"Do you know her?"
+
+"She is my sweetheart."
+
+"And have you picked out the village whose destruction is to be her
+bridal gift? Which one is it?"
+
+"I have told you already,--Toroczko."
+
+"But I say it shall be Torda!" cried a determined voice.
+
+"I protest."
+
+"Let us draw lots to decide it."
+
+"Very well," assented Diurbanu, and, going to the altar on which stood
+the flickering candles, he wrote a name on each of two cards and threw
+the bits of pasteboard into his cap. "Now who will draw?" he asked; but
+no one volunteered. "It must be an innocent hand that decides the fate
+of these two towns," continued Diurbanu. "This little chap shall draw
+for us."
+
+"What, this innocent child decide which town shall be given over to fire
+and blood and pillage!" exclaimed the priest. "An infernal contrivance
+of yours, Diurbanu!"
+
+But meantime the child had reached out a tiny hand and clutched at one
+of the cards, which it handed to the priest.
+
+"Bring me one of the candles," bade the latter.
+
+But no candle was necessary, for even as he spoke a flash of lightning
+penetrated to the remotest corner of the little church. The group of men
+whose heads were bent over the bit of cardboard started and cried out
+in concert:
+
+"Toroczko!"
+
+In the peal of thunder that followed the very ground shook under their
+feet and the building rocked over their heads.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+OLD SCORES.
+
+
+The inhabitants of the doomed town were warned beforehand by a friendly
+informer what was in store for them. For two months they knew that they
+were standing over a mine which awaited only the proper moment to be
+touched off. Nevertheless, during this time they went about their usual
+tasks, digging iron out of the bowels of the earth, sowing their grain,
+planting and weeding their gardens, spinning their flax, tanning their
+hides, sending their children to school, and all betaking themselves to
+church on Sunday morning. The Sunday afternoon diversions, however, were
+suspended, and in their stead the entire male population practised
+military drill. Even the twelve-year-old boy cried if he was not allowed
+to take part. All were determined to shed their last drop of blood
+rather than let the enemy set foot inside their town. Even the women
+busied themselves sharpening axes and scythes, resolute in their purpose
+to defend their little ones or, if need were, to put them to death with
+their own hands and then slay themselves. No woman, no child, should
+fall into the enemy's clutches alive.
+
+It was the very last day of July. The fields were dotted with sheaves of
+grain, and the farmers were hastening to gather them in. They had been
+surprised by countless numbers of crows and ravens which invaded the
+valley and filled the air with their hoarse, discordant cries. Those
+experienced in war knew that these birds were the usual attendants and
+heralds of armies.
+
+More definite tidings were not long in coming. Messengers from St.
+George arrived breathless with the report that Diurbanu's troops were
+rapidly approaching. But no one was disconcerted by the news; all were
+ready for the enemy. Throwing scythes and pitchforks aside, they
+snatched up their firearms. Each battalion of the national guard had its
+assigned position. The streets were barricaded with wagons, and the road
+toward Borev was laid under water by damming the brook, to prevent a
+surprise from that direction. Aaron, with forty other men, clambered up
+the steep slope of the Szekler Stone to repulse the enemy from this
+commanding height,--forty men against as many hundred. They would have
+laughed at their own folly had they but stopped to think.
+
+Toward noon the sturdy little band of defenders was increased by the
+coming of fugitives from St. George. For these, too, there were arms
+enough in Toroczko. The effective force now in the village amounted to
+nearly four hundred.
+
+Manasseh was at home with the women of the family. They had declined
+Aaron's offer to conceal them in Csegez Cave, preferring to remain under
+the family roof and there await what God had appointed them. Manasseh
+now embraced Blanka and Anna and bade them farewell.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked Blanka, in alarm. Jonathan's pale face
+seemed at that moment to float before her vision, and she feared to part
+with her husband, lest he should not return.
+
+"I am going to the enemy's camp."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"No, not alone. I am well attended: Uriel goes before me, Raphael is on
+my right hand, Gabriel on my left, behind me Michael, and over my head
+Israel."
+
+"But you are going unarmed."
+
+"No, I am armed with the peace treaty which our foes concluded with me,
+swearing not to attack Toroczko. That is my weapon, and with it I will
+win a bloodless victory."
+
+Blanka looked sorrowfully into her husband's face, and in that look was
+expressed all that her tongue was powerless to utter,--her infinite love
+for the man and her deep despair at the thought of perhaps never again
+meeting those eyes so full of love and tenderness for her.
+
+"I tried it once before, you know," he reminded her, "and you know how
+well I succeeded then. The leader of the Wallachians is an old
+acquaintance of mine." But this last was true in a sense that the
+speaker little dreamed--as he was to learn later.
+
+Blanka pressed her husband's hand. "Very well," said she, with a brave
+effort at cheerful confidence, "do as seems best to you, and Heaven will
+care for us."
+
+Manasseh could not suppress a sigh as he kissed his wife on the
+forehead. Anna, who could read her brother's face, knew what that sigh
+meant.
+
+"You need not be anxious about us, dear brother," she said. "We are
+under God's protection, and are prepared for the worst. We decided long
+ago what we should do if we were forced to it. When all is lost that is
+dearest to us,--our loved ones, our home, our country,--we shall not
+wait tamely for the enemy to break into the house. Here are two pistols:
+each of us will take one of them and point it at the other's heart, each
+will utter the name that is last in her thoughts, and that will be the
+last word that will ever pass her lips. Now you may go on your errand
+and need not fear for us."
+
+Manasseh's feelings were too deep for utterance. Without a word he
+kissed the dear ones before him and then left the house and hastened
+away. He turned his face toward St. George. He was alone and had not
+even a stick in his hand.
+
+It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. To a good pedestrian St.
+George is only half an hour's walk from Toroczko. On the outskirts of
+the village Manasseh met scattered bodies of soldiery who surveyed him
+in much surprise; but, as he was unarmed, they offered him no injury.
+His calmness of bearing and the cool, collected look with which he met
+their scrutiny completely disarmed them. Besides, they were busy cutting
+up slaughtered cattle and cooking their supper in the open fields. As
+was usual among such irregular troops, no outposts had been set to
+challenge the approach of strangers.
+
+Manasseh accosted the first man whose face impressed him favourably, and
+asked for guidance to the commander's quarters. The man willingly gave
+him his escort. On the way he went so far as to unbosom himself to
+Manasseh, complaining that, at this busy season of the year, when all
+ought to be at home, men were forced to make so long a march. After
+showing the way to the house where the commander was to be found, he
+received a cigar from Manasseh, and acknowledged himself amply repaid
+for his trouble.
+
+Manasseh advanced to the door and announced to a group of armed men
+lounging about it that he wished to see Diurbanu.
+
+"The general is not to be seen just now," was the reply; "he is at
+dinner, and will not leave the table for some time yet."
+
+Manasseh drew a visiting-card from his pocket, and, first bending down
+one corner, sent it in to the general. The bearer of it soon returned
+with the announcement that Diurbanu bade the visitor wait awhile, and
+meantime he was to be bound and confined in the cellar. Manasseh
+assented to this peculiar reception. "Many men, many manners," said he
+to himself. It would have been easy enough for him to leap the railing
+of the porch and flee to the woods before the others could lay hands on
+him, but he had not come hither merely to run away again the next
+moment.
+
+"Very well, go ahead and bind me," said he, good-humouredly, to the
+guards. But they looked at one another in helpless inquiry who should
+undertake to manacle this large, strong man. When at length two had
+volunteered to essay the task, it appeared that there was no rope in
+readiness. "Go and get one," commanded the prisoner; and when a stout
+cord had been procured, he went on with his directions: "Now take my
+pocketbook out; you'll find some loose change in it which you may divide
+among you. There is also a folded paper in the pocketbook; deliver it
+to the general and ask him to read it. Then take a cigar out of my
+waistcoat pocket, light it and stick it in my mouth."
+
+These commands having been duly executed, two of the guards led their
+prisoner down into the cellar, which appeared to be Diurbanu's
+antechamber for such visitors as came to him with troublesome petitions.
+Not satisfied with conducting him to the main or outer cellar,
+Manasseh's escort opened the iron door leading into an inner
+compartment, pushed him through it, and closed the portal upon him,
+after bidding him take a seat and make himself comfortable.
+
+Manasseh found himself in almost total darkness. Only an air-hole over
+his door admitted a very feeble light from the dimly illumined outer
+cellar. He began to consider his situation, comforting himself with the
+reflection that at Monastery Heights he had been treated in much the
+same fashion, except that there his hands had not been bound. He had
+been kept in confinement all night, and in the morning his terms of
+peace had been accepted. This time, too, he hoped for a like issue.
+
+When a cigar is smoked in the dark it lights up the smoker's face at
+each puff. Suddenly a voice from out of the gloom called, "Manasseh!"
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"I."
+
+It was a gipsy, whose voice Manasseh recognised. "How came you here,
+Lanyi?" he asked.
+
+"Diurbanu had me locked up--the devil take him!"
+
+"What grudge had he against you?"
+
+"He ordered me to play to him while he sat at dinner," explained the
+gipsy; "but I told him I wouldn't do it."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I won't make music for my country's enemies."
+
+His country, poor fellow! What share had he in that country beyond the
+right to tramp the public highway, and make himself a mud hut for
+shelter?
+
+"Then he gave me a cuff," continued the gipsy, "had me shut up here, and
+promised to hang me. Well, he may break me on the wheel, for aught I
+care, but I won't play for him even if he smashes my fiddle for
+refusing."
+
+"Well, don't be down-hearted, my little man," said Manasseh, cheerily.
+
+"I'm not a bit down-hearted," declared the other. "I only thought I'd
+ask you not to throw away your cigar-stump when you've finished smoking.
+You can walk, your feet are free; come here when you are through with
+your cigar, and let it fall into my mouth, so that I can chew it."
+
+"But you'll find it a hot mouthful."
+
+"So much the better."
+
+This cynical gipsy phlegm exactly suited Manasseh's mood, and he exerted
+himself to cheer the poor fellow up, promising to secure his release as
+soon as he himself should gain an audience with Diurbanu.
+
+"But you won't get out of here yourself in a hurry," returned the gipsy.
+"Once in Diurbanu's hands, you might as well be in the hangman's.
+Already he has put to death seven envoys who came to treat for peace,
+and they were only St. George peasants. So what will he do to you who
+are an Adorjan and wear a seal ring? But you've a breathing-spell yet.
+The others served him as a little relish before dinner; you are to be
+kept for dessert. One drinks a glass of spirits at a gulp, but black
+coffee is to be sipped and enjoyed. I know this Diurbanu well, and
+you'll know him, too, before he's through with you. I'll bet you my
+fiddle, Manasseh, you won't live to see another day; but it serves you
+right! You could handle three such men as Diurbanu in a fair fight; yet,
+instead of meeting him on the battle-field, you walk right into his
+clutches and let him bind you fast--like Christ on the cross."
+
+"Take not that name in vain, you rogue!" commanded Manasseh, sternly,
+"or I'll let you feel the weight of my foot."
+
+"Kick me if you wish to," returned the vagrant, imperturbably; "but,
+all the same, if I had been Christ I wouldn't have chosen a miserable
+donkey to ride on, but would have sent for the best horse out of Baron
+Wesselenyi's stud; and as soon as I had the nag between my legs, I would
+have snapped my fingers at old Pontius Pilate."
+
+The gipsy's eloquence was here interrupted by the sound of a key turning
+in the outer door of the cellar.
+
+"They're coming!" cried the fiddler; "and I sha'n't get your
+cigar-stump, Manasseh. They'll take me out first."
+
+Through the hole above the iron door a reddish light could now be seen.
+Presently the iron door itself was opened, and two men, bearing
+pitch-pine torches, entered, and then stood one on each side of the
+door. Diurbanu came last, dressed in the costume of a Wallachian
+military commander, his face flushed with wine and evil passions, and
+his long hair falling over his shoulders. Despite his disguise, Manasseh
+recognised him at once. He saw that the gipsy's words had conveyed no
+idle warning. The man before him was none other than Benjamin Vajdar.
+Yet the prisoner lost nothing of his composure, but with head erect and
+unflinching gaze faced his deadly enemy.
+
+"Well, Manasseh Adorjan," began the other, "you asked to see me, and
+here I am. Do you know me now?"
+
+"You are called Diurbanu," replied Manasseh, coldly.
+
+"And don't you know another name for me? Don't I remind you of an old
+acquaintance?"
+
+"To him whom you resemble, I have nothing to say. I have come to you as
+to Diurbanu, I have placed in your hands the peace-treaty which your
+people made with my people, and I demand its observance."
+
+"To convince you that I am not merely Diurbanu, but also another, look
+here." With that he called one of the torch-bearers and held to the
+flame the paper he had received from Manasseh.
+
+The latter shrugged his shoulders and blew a cloud of cigar-smoke.
+
+"Do you understand now," continued Diurbanu, "that there is one man in
+the world who has sworn to march against Toroczko, treaty or no treaty,
+to leave not one stone on another in that town, and not one of its
+people alive to tell the story of its destruction? My day has come at
+last--and Toroczko's night." The speaker's features took on at these
+words an expression more like that of a hyena than of a human being.
+
+"Idle threats!" muttered Manasseh, scornfully, between his teeth.
+
+"Idle threats, are they?" retorted the other, striking the hilt of his
+sword and raising his head haughtily. "You think, do you, that I am
+joking, and that I will take pity on you?"
+
+"Oh, as for me, you may do what you please with me--torture me, kill me,
+if you choose. I am ready. But that will not help you to take Toroczko.
+All are in arms there and waiting for you. Go ahead with your plan.
+You'll find many an old acquaintance to receive you there. Our defences
+are abundantly able to withstand your soldiers, who, you know well
+enough, are tired of fighting and have no love for storming ramparts.
+Kill me, if you wish, but there will be only one man the less against
+you; and all the satisfaction you and your men will get from Toroczko
+will be broken heads. Not one stone will you disturb in all the town."
+
+"We'll soon make you sing another tune," returned Diurbanu, and he began
+to roll up his sleeves, like an executioner preparing to torture his
+victim. "You shall hear our plan. I will be perfectly honest with you.
+While a part of my forces conduct a feigned assault in the valley, and
+so engage the attention of your men, my main body will descend on the
+town from the direction of the Szekler Stone, and will assail it in the
+rear, where none but women and children are left to receive the attack.
+What the fate of these women and children is likely to be, you may
+conjecture from the fact that the assaulting party is led by a woman,--a
+woman whose heart is full of bitter hatred, a maiden whose father and
+two brothers have been killed before her eyes, a proud girl whom your
+brothers have driven from their door with insulting words. This woman is
+Zenobia, Ciprianu's daughter, once your brother Jonathan's sweetheart,
+but now betrothed to me--or, at least, she fancies she is. While I keep
+your armed forces busy, she will knock at the door of your house. At her
+signal the work of carnage and destruction will begin. Your whole family
+will fall into her hands."
+
+Manasseh shuddered with horror, and drew a deep breath. His head was no
+longer proudly erect, his self-confidence was gone. "God's will be
+done!" he murmured.
+
+"So I've found your tender spot, have I?" cried the other, with an
+exultant laugh. "Just think what is in store for your wife (but what am
+I saying? She is not your wife)--your mistress."
+
+At this insult to his adored Blanka, Manasseh's wrath blazed up and
+mastered him. He spit his burning cigar stump into the speaker's face.
+It was the utmost he could do. The other swallowed his rage at the
+indignity and wiped the ashes from his face, which presently broke into
+a smile--a hideous smile.
+
+"Very good, Manasseh! One more score to charge up against you. I don't
+attempt to even the account on your unfeeling body, but on your soul,
+which I know how to torture. For this last insult, as well as for a
+hundred former injuries, I shall wreak ample revenge on Blanka Zboroy,
+before your own turn comes."
+
+"Do not count too confidently on that," rejoined Manasseh. "The moment
+your ruffian crew break into our house, two women will put their pistols
+to each other's hearts, and your men will find only a couple of dead
+bodies."
+
+"Ha, ha! To deprive you of even this last consolation, I beg to assure
+you that the two women will not lay a finger on their pistols, because
+Zenobia is to gain entrance to them before the men appear. She will come
+to them in the guise of a friend and deliverer, promising to rescue them
+for Jonathan's sake. She will furnish them Wallachian peasant clothes,
+help them about their disguise, and, amidst the general confusion, bring
+them away with her, alive and unharmed, to St. George, so that you will
+have the pleasure of seeing Blanka Zboroy in my power. Further details I
+will leave to your own imagination; and to enable you to pursue these
+pleasant fancies undisturbed I will now say good night."
+
+"Manasseh!" called a voice from the darkness, when Diurbanu had gone.
+
+"Who calls? Or is it only a rat?" Manasseh had forgotten that his
+dungeon contained another prisoner beside himself.
+
+"Yes, it's a rat," answered the voice. "I heard my schoolmaster tell a
+story once about a lion that fell into a snare, and a mouse came and
+gnawed the ropes so as to set him free. If you will bend down here I'll
+untie your knots with my teeth."
+
+Manasseh complied. The gipsy had splendid teeth, and he bit and tugged
+at the knots until the prisoner's hands were free, and he felt himself
+another man altogether.
+
+"Now pull this stake out from under my knees," directed the fiddler,
+whose hands were tied together and passed over his bent knees, where
+they were held fast by a stick of wood. His legs being freed, he slipped
+the cords from his hands like a pair of gloves. He was no little elated
+over his achievements. "And now we will sell our lives dear!" he cried,
+with a glad leap into the air.
+
+The rattle of small arms in the distance began to be heard, and through
+the little opening over the iron door a ruddy light as from a fire
+became visible. At first Manasseh thought some one was coming again with
+a torch; but as the iron door did not open, and the red light grew
+constantly brighter, he finally guessed the cause of the illumination.
+Those who were now assaulting Toroczko must have set fire to St. George
+first, to furnish the people of the former place an example of what they
+were themselves to expect, and perhaps also to supply a light for the
+attacking party. The whole village was in flames. So it appeared that
+Diurbanu's words had conveyed no empty threat. The work of revenge had
+begun with St. George, and now came Toroczko's turn. That the latter
+place was offering a spirited resistance could be inferred from the
+lively firing that was to be plainly heard. But how would it be when the
+attack in the rear should begin, from the direction of the Szekler
+Stone? Could Aaron and his forty men offer any effectual opposition to
+the invaders?
+
+Night must have fallen ere this. Manasseh paced his prison cell in
+almost unbearable impatience, as he listened to the distant firing, and
+watched the red glow over the door growing gradually brighter. A heavy
+booming as of cannon was heard from the Szekler Stone. So the attack in
+that quarter had begun, and Aaron's battery was at work. Zenobia must be
+leading the enemy into the town, for surely no means at Aaron's command
+could repulse the assaulting party.
+
+Manasseh was fast losing all self-control. "I will find a way out of
+this!" he cried, in a frenzy.
+
+Running to the door, he seized its iron ring and shook the heavy portal
+in impotent fury. Then he turned back and surveyed his place of
+confinement with searching eyes. It was now fairly well lighted by the
+ruddy glare that came through the air-hole. The place had formerly been
+a wine cellar, but every cask and barrel was now gone. The support on
+which they had rested, however, remained behind. This was a massive oak
+beam which had served to keep the wine casks from the damp earthen floor
+of the cellar.
+
+"Lanyi," commanded Manasseh, in quick, energetic tones, "take hold of
+one end of this beam, and we will batter the door down."
+
+"I'm your man!" responded the gipsy, with alacrity. He was small of
+person, but every sinew in his wiry frame was of steel. He grasped the
+beam behind while Manasseh carried the forward end, and so they
+converted it into a Roman battering-ram.
+
+The booming of cannon was drowned now by the pounding on the iron door.
+The two prisoners wondered that no one in the house seemed to hear them.
+But those who might before have heard were engaged elsewhere, while to
+those outside the noises in the street drowned all tumult in the cellar.
+
+At length the lock gave way under the tremendous battering to which it
+was subjected, and soon the door flew open. The outer door was of wood,
+and yielded readily.
+
+"Hold on, stand back!" cried the gipsy, as Manasseh was about to run up
+the stairs. "Wait until I take a peep and see if the coast is clear.
+I'll mayhap find a gun that some one has thrown down."
+
+"But I can't wait," returned the other, brushing him aside. "I need no
+gun. The first man that dares get in my way shall furnish me with arms.
+I am going to seek my wife! Let him who values his life run from before
+me!"
+
+He burst through the door, and sprang up the steps. No sooner was he in
+the open air than an armed figure confronted him. But Manasseh did not
+strike down this person, for it was a woman,--Zenobia. A dirk and a
+brace of pistols were stuck in her belt.
+
+"Take care!" she cried to Manasseh, and she made as if to shield him
+from view with her cloak. "Stay where you are!"
+
+But Manasseh seized her by the wrist and shouted hoarsely in her ear:
+
+"Where are my wife and sister?"
+
+Zenobia understood his tone and the frenzy with which he grasped her
+arm. With a sad smile she made answer:
+
+"Calm yourself. They are well cared for. They are at home in their own
+house, where no one can harm them."
+
+He looked at her, in doubt as to her meaning. Zenobia handed him her
+weapons.
+
+"Here, take these," she commanded. "You may need them. I have no further
+use for them." Thus, disarmed and in Manasseh's power, she stood calmly
+before him. "Now be quiet and listen to me," she went on.
+
+The cannon thundered on the Szekler Stone in one continuous roar, while
+fiery rockets shot from Hidas Peak in a wide curve and fell into the
+valley below, hastening the mad flight of routed and panic-stricken men,
+who fled as if for their lives to Gyertyamos, Kapolna, and Bedelloe, to
+the woods, and into the mountain defiles. The burning village of St.
+George no longer offered them an asylum, and its streets were by this
+time nearly deserted.
+
+"That is over," said the Wallachian girl, calmly, and she led Manasseh
+into the empty house. "Aaron might as well stop now," she murmured to
+herself; "for there are no more to frighten." Then to Manasseh: "You
+know it takes two to get up a scare,--one to do the frightening and the
+other to be frightened. If I had but said to our men, 'Stop running
+away! Those are not the brass cannon of the national guard, but only
+Aaron Adorjan's holes in the side of the rock, where he is harmlessly
+exploding gunpowder; and that roll of drums that you hear on the Csegez
+road does not mean an approaching brigade of Hungarians, but is only the
+idle rub-a-dub of a band of school children,'--if I had said that,
+Toroczko would now lie in ashes. But I held my tongue and let the panic
+do its work. With this day's rout all is ended, and in an hour's time
+you can safely return home. When you meet your wife and sister, tell
+them you saw me this evening, and let them know that the Wallachian girl
+has forgotten nothing--do you hear me?--nothing. They wrote me a
+beautiful letter, both of them on one sheet of paper, a letter full of
+love and kindness. They called me sister and invited me to your wedding,
+promising me that Jonathan should be there, too, and making me promise
+to come. And when they had written the letter they even coaxed the
+stiff-necked Aaron, who hates us Wallachians like poison, to add his
+signature to it, though I could see in the very way he wrote his name
+how he disliked to do it. I promised to come, and I kept my word. And
+Jonathan came with me--I brought him. That night I told your wife and
+your sister that I should come to Toroczko once more, and not with empty
+hands, but should bring them something. I have come, and I bring
+them--you, Manasseh, alive and unharmed. That is how a Wallachian girl
+remembers a kindness."
+
+She turned to go, but then, as if remembering something, came back and
+drew a ring from her finger.
+
+"Here," said she, "I will give you this ring. Do you remember it?"
+
+"It belonged to my sister," answered Manasseh, in a tone of sadness. "I
+bought it for her to give to her lover as an engagement ring. Soon
+afterward he deserted her."
+
+"I know it. Her name is engraved inside the ring. The pretty fellow who
+gave it me told me all about it. He said to me: 'My pearl, my
+turtledove, my diamond, see here, I place this ring on your finger and
+swear to be true to you. But I can't marry you as long as that other
+woman lives who wears my betrothal ring, for our laws forbid it. That
+woman dwells in the big house at Toroczko. You know her name and know
+what to do to enable me to marry you.'"
+
+Manasseh trembled with suppressed passion as he listened. The girl
+handed him the ring and proceeded:
+
+"Give her back her ring; it belongs to her. And tell me, did not this
+man come to you and tell you how a shameless creature in woman's form
+was to steal into your house, and, under the pretext of rescuing your
+wife and sister, lead them away to misery and dishonour? Speak, did he
+not tell you some such story?"
+
+"Yes, he did."
+
+Zenobia laughed in hot anger and scorn. "Well, then," said she, in
+conclusion, "I have another present for you. The proverb says, 'Little
+kindnesses strengthen the bonds of friendship.' And this will be the
+smallest of gifts I could possibly make you. The handsome young man who
+gave me this ring, and is betrothed to me--or thinks he is--lies
+somewhere yonder in a ditch. His horse took fright at the tumult, and
+threw him so that he broke his ankle. His fleeing troops left him lying
+there; they stumbled over him and ran on; no one offered to help him up.
+They all hate him, and they see in his fall a punishment from Heaven.
+The Wallachian fears to lend aid to him that is thought to lie under
+God's displeasure. The fallen man's horse you will find in the church.
+Mount it and hasten back to Toroczko. As for the rider, you will do well
+to hang him to the nearest tree. You have a gipsy here to help you. And
+now farewell."
+
+She blew a little whistle that hung at her neck, and a lad appeared
+leading two mountain ponies. Zenobia mounted one, waved a final adieu to
+Manasseh, and rode away with her attendant toward Bedelloe.
+
+"Come, sir," said the gipsy, touching Manasseh's elbow, "let us set
+about what she told us to do. You go into the church and get Diurbanu's
+horse while I go and find the rider. You have two pistols and a dagger.
+What, don't you want them? Then give them to me."
+
+The fiddler was proud to find himself so well armed. He made a belt of
+the cords he had brought with him from the cellar, and stuck the weapons
+into it.
+
+"Now we must hurry," he urged, "or the people will be coming back."
+
+While Manasseh made his way to the church, his companion hastened in
+search of Diurbanu. The little man had sharp eyes and keen wits. He
+conjectured that the fallen rider, with his broken leg, would avoid the
+dry harvest-fields, over which the fire was rapidly spreading, and would
+be found in the moist ditch beside the road. Nor was he wrong in this
+surmise. He was soon saluted in a voice that he recognised.
+
+"Gipsy, come here!"
+
+"Not so fast," the fiddler replied. "How do I know you won't shoot me?"
+
+"I have nothing to shoot with. I am lying in the water, so that even if
+I had my pistols the powder would be soaked through."
+
+"But what do you want of me?"
+
+"I wish you to save my life."
+
+"And won't you have me locked up afterward?"
+
+"If you will help me get away from here I'll make you a rich man. You
+shall have a thousand florins."
+
+"If you had promised me less I should have believed you sooner."
+
+"But I will pay you the money now. Come, take me on your back and carry
+me away."
+
+"Where to?"
+
+"Into the church yonder."
+
+The gipsy laughed aloud. "First do your swearing out here, then," said
+he, "for no one may curse God in his house. But what will you do in the
+church?"
+
+"I will wait while you run to Gyertyamos and hire a carriage for me. You
+shall have a thousand florins, the driver the same, and for every hour
+before sunrise that you accomplish your errand you shall receive an
+extra hundred."
+
+"You won't see the sun rise," muttered the fiddler to himself as he
+obeyed the other's directions.
+
+The burden proved not too heavy for the little man's back; he could have
+carried him all the way to Gyertyamos, but the horse must obey his
+rider, so into the church he went with him.
+
+"There, Manasseh," he cried, in triumph, "there's our man!" And he
+dropped his burden on the stone floor.
+
+Diurbanu cried out with pain as he fell, then raised himself on one
+elbow and met Manasseh's gaze.
+
+"Kill me and be done with it," he muttered, in sullen despair.
+
+But Manasseh remained standing with folded arms before him. "No,
+Benjamin Vajdar," said he, "you shall not die by my hand. He who kills
+Cain is seven times cursed. My promise to an angel whom you would have
+destroyed is your safeguard. I shall neither kill you myself nor let any
+one else lay hands on you. You are to live many days yet and continue
+in the way you have begun, obeying the sinful impulses of your wicked
+nature, and doing evil to those that have done nothing but good to you.
+You weigh upon our house like a curse, but it is God's will thus to
+prove and try our hearts. Fulfil your destiny, plot your wicked scheme's
+against us, and then at last, broken, humbled, scorned of all the world
+beside, come back to us and sue for pity at the door of those to whom
+you have shown no pity. God's will be done!"
+
+Manasseh allowed himself to use no reproach, no word of withering scorn,
+in thus addressing his enemy. He even spoke in German, to spare the
+fallen man's shame in the gipsy's presence. He had the horse in
+readiness for its master, and bade the fiddler help him lift the injured
+rider into the saddle and tie him there with ropes to ensure him against
+a second fall, especially as one foot was now unfit for the stirrup.
+
+"Aha!" cried the little gipsy, "a good idea! We'll take him alive and
+show him off in Toroczko."
+
+The fires in the village made the spirited horse restive and hard to
+manage. Manasseh took him by the bridle and led him out of the church,
+the gipsy following at the animal's heels.
+
+"Turn to the right and begone!" whispered Manasseh to the rider, and he
+caused the horse to make a sudden spring to one side.
+
+"Oh, he's got away!" cried the gipsy, in great chagrin. "Why didn't you
+let me take the bridle? Catch me bringing you another thousand-florin
+prize, to be thrown away like that!"
+
+"Never mind, my lad. From this day on you shall find a full trencher
+always ready for you at our house. But now let us start for home."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Six weeks later Benjamin Vajdar made his reappearance in Vienna, the net
+result of his expedition to Transylvania being, first, a heavy draft on
+the bank-account of his chief, and, second, a limping gait for himself,
+which proved a sad affliction to him on the dancing-floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+A CRUEL PARTING.
+
+
+At the close of the war the young men of Toroczko who had served in the
+national guard returned home and resumed their work in the mines and
+iron foundries. The mining classes had always been exempt from military
+service in the imperial army, and so the Toroczko young men had no fear
+of being soon called away again from their peaceful industry.
+
+Out of these young artisans Manasseh set about forming a guild for the
+better working of the Toroczko mines. He wished to make intelligent and
+skilful mining engineers of them, and so enable them to avail
+themselves, more fully than they had yet done, of the mineral resources
+of their native hills. And having now had some experience of military
+discipline, these young men offered him material of no mean order for
+his experiment. They seconded his efforts with a will, reposing the
+utmost confidence in their leader, and perceiving that he knew
+thoroughly what he was undertaking.
+
+It was a great piece of good fortune for Manasseh that he had a partner
+in his enterprise who was in fullest sympathy with him, and in whom he
+could place the utmost trust. This partner kept the accounts of the
+business in which the two had invested their all, and showed the keenest
+intelligence and the most watchful vigilance in guarding their joint
+interests. This expert accountant and able manager was none other than
+Manasseh's wife. In the third year of her marriage, however, she had
+something else to engage her attention beside iron-mining: in that year
+the house of Adorjan was increased by the birth of twins,--Bela and
+Ilonka, the former a likeness in miniature of his father, and the latter
+a second Blanka. But their aunt Anna insisted on sharing the mother's
+cares, and soon she assumed almost entire charge of the little ones,
+thus enabling Blanka to resume her business duties.
+
+In this way everything was running smoothly, when one evening there came
+a government order requiring all men between certain ages to report
+within three days at Karlsburg for military service; any who refused
+would be treated as deserters. Three quarters of Manasseh's workmen came
+under the terms of this order; but they promptly obeyed and went to
+Karlsburg, where, after being found physically qualified, they were
+enrolled for six years' service,--three extra years being added to the
+usual term because they had neglected to report voluntarily.
+
+This was a hard blow to Manasseh's enterprise. He resolved to go to
+Vienna and petition for the exemption of his employees from military
+duty, claiming for them the miners' privileges which they had enjoyed
+hitherto.
+
+Well acquainted though he had been in government circles in the past,
+Manasseh now found everything changed and scarcely a familiar face left.
+Like the veriest stranger, he was forced to wait with the crowd of other
+petitioners in the war minister's anteroom until his turn should come.
+Much to his surprise, however, the great man's door suddenly opened and
+Prince Cagliari advanced to meet him with a face all smiles and words of
+honey on his lips.
+
+"Ah, my dear friend, how glad I am to see you!" began the prince. "All
+well at home? That's good. And what brings you hither, may I ask? You
+come on behalf of your countrymen who were recently drafted? Ah, yes."
+(Then in a whispered aside: "We'll soon arrange that; a word from me
+will suffice.") Again aloud: "A very difficult matter, sir, very
+difficult indeed! These recent complications in the Orient compel us to
+raise our army to its highest effective strength." (Once more in a
+whisper, with a stealthy pressure of the hand: "Pray give yourself not
+the slightest concern. I'll speak to his Excellency about it this very
+minute.")
+
+Manasseh was by no means pleased at finding himself placed under
+obligations to Prince Cagliari, but he could not well refuse such a
+gracious offer of assistance. Accordingly, when the prince returned and
+smilingly informed him that he had put the petition in the minister's
+hands, and obtained a promise that it should be speedily taken under
+favourable consideration, Manasseh forced himself to smile in return and
+to express his acknowledgments to his intercessor as he took leave of
+him.
+
+The petition was, in fact, taken under early advisement, and three days
+after Manasseh's return to Toroczko he was summoned to Karlsburg to
+learn the issue.
+
+"Your memorial has reached us from Vienna with a refusal," was the
+chilling announcement that greeted him.
+
+"Impossible!" cried Manasseh, in astonishment. "I was promised a
+favourable answer."
+
+The government official only shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
+
+"On what ground is the petition rejected?" asked Manasseh.
+
+"On the ground that those for whom you petition forfeited their
+privileges as miners by taking up arms in '48. Having taken them up
+once, they cannot refuse to do so a second time."
+
+Manasseh's bitter reflections were somewhat sweetened by the thought
+that, after all, he was not in any way indebted to Prince Cagliari. But
+he owed him more than he suspected. As he was turning to go, the
+government official detained him a moment longer.
+
+"I hope," said he, as if by way of a casual remark, "that your own
+exemption from service is a matter of no uncertainty."
+
+"My own exemption!" repeated Manasseh, in amazement. It had not once
+occurred to him that he, a former government councillor, might be
+drafted into the army. But he controlled his indignation at what seemed
+an ill-timed jest, and added, calmly: "At any rate, I cannot be charged
+with having forfeited my rights as a miner by taking up arms in 1848."
+
+"That remains to be seen," was the cool reply. Then, after some search
+among his papers, the official produced a document from which he read as
+follows: "'Mr. Manasseh Adorjan is alleged, on unquestionable authority,
+to have participated in the fight at St. George and Toroczko. In fact,
+he with his own hands took General Diurbanu prisoner and bound him with
+a rope to his horse. Only the animal's impatience of control saved the
+rider and secured him his freedom.'"
+
+After listening to this astounding accusation against him, Manasseh
+recognised that he was far more deeply in Cagliari's debt than he had
+supposed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I have accomplished my mission in brilliant style," was his report when
+he reached home. "Not only my workmen are drafted, but I also along with
+them."
+
+The women were struck with consternation, but Aaron burst out laughing.
+
+"Oh, you poor innocent!" he cried, "how can you be a soldier with one
+shoulder six inches higher than the other?"
+
+"What, am I really so misshapen as that?" asked Manasseh, in surprise.
+
+"To be sure, or at least you can make yourself so for the nonce. Don't
+you remember how our neighbour Methuselah's grandson went limping about
+with one leg longer than the other, when the recruiting officer was
+here?"
+
+"Methuselah's grandson may do that kind of thing," answered Manasseh,
+"but not an Adorjan. I can't practise any deceit of that sort."
+
+"Deceit!" cried Aaron; "we are deceiving no one--only the government."
+
+"And is the government no one?" asked his brother.
+
+"Well, it's all right to outwit the Austrians," muttered Aaron.
+
+"I don't agree with you," was all Manasseh could say. "If I am ordered
+to march I shall obey. My poor lads are obliged to exchange the pick for
+the rifle, and shall I, their master, shirk my duty?"
+
+"Manasseh is right," declared Anna. "What will do for a grandson of
+Methuselah will not do for an Adorjan. When an Adorjan's name is called
+he must answer to it like a man. Our brother will be the pride of his
+regiment, and will soon rise to be an officer; then he can obtain his
+discharge and come home."
+
+Manasseh pressed his sister's hand in gratitude for these words of
+courage and good cheer.
+
+"Yes, but suppose he has to go to war?" objected Blanka.
+
+"Never fear," returned her husband. "Even if Austria becomes involved in
+the present dispute, the Hungarian regiments are not likely to be sent
+to the front. They will be stationed in Lombardy, where all is as quiet
+as possible."
+
+"Then I will go with you," said Blanka, brightening up.
+
+"No, you must stay with us," Anna interposed. "You and the children are
+best cared for here, and, besides, if Manasseh goes away you will have
+to look after the iron works. New hands are to be engaged, and ever so
+much is to be done all over again. How can you think of leaving us in
+the lurch? There will be no one but you to manage things; you alone can
+direct the works and put bread into our poor people's mouths."
+
+"Ah, me!" sighed the distressed wife; "and must I live perhaps a whole
+year without seeing Manasseh--a whole autumn, winter, spring, and
+summer?"
+
+Anna's eyes filled with tears and a sigh escaped her lips. How many a
+season had she seen pass, without hope and without complaint! Blanka
+knew the meaning of those tears, and she hastened to kiss them away.
+
+And so it came about that the Toroczko young men, and Manasseh with
+them, were sent off to Lombardy. Thence every month came a letter to
+Toroczko, to Blanka Adorjan, from her devoted husband. The very first
+one told her how he had risen from private to corporal and then from
+corporal to sergeant. But there he stuck. On parting with his wife, he
+had consoled her with the confident assurance that in a year, at most,
+she would see him return; but the year lengthened into five. Little Bela
+no longer sent meaningless scrawls to his father, but wrote short
+letters in a round, clear hand, and even added verses on his father's
+birthday. But not a single furlough could that father obtain to go home
+and see his dear ones. Nor did he gain his long-expected promotion to a
+lieutenancy. The colonel of the regiment wrote letters with his own
+hand to Blanka, praising her husband and telling her how he was looked
+up to by all his comrades and esteemed by his officers; and yet he could
+not secure his promotion. Even the commandant at Verona had interceded
+for him in vain. He must have a powerful enemy who pursued him with
+relentless persistence.
+
+Blanka well knew who that enemy was, but she took no steps--for she felt
+that they would have been useless--to try to soften him. Her family were
+united in opposing any suggestion on her part of undertaking a journey.
+She did not even venture to visit her husband in Verona. An instinct, a
+foreboding, and also certain timely warnings, kept her safe at home.
+
+This long period of trial and suspense was not without its chastening
+effect on the young wife's character. It developed her as only stern
+experience can. On her shoulders alone rested the cares which her
+husband had formerly shared with her. The iron works were now under her
+sole management. Foresight, vigilance, and technical knowledge were
+called for, and nobly did she meet the demand.
+
+Those five years brought her many a difficult problem to solve and many
+an anxious hour. Once a hail-storm destroyed all her crops two days
+before the harvest, and she was forced to buy grain from her own purse.
+Again it happened that the crop of iron itself was ruined by something
+far worse than hail. Some one at Vienna dealt a mortal blow to all the
+iron mines in the land with a single drop of ink. He lowered the tariff,
+and native iron production thenceforth could go on only at a loss. But
+Blanka was determined not to close her mines and her foundries. She
+recognised the hand that had dealt her this severe blow, but she knew
+the harsh decree would have to be repealed before long, such an outcry
+was sure to go up against it. So she pawned her jewels, kept all her men
+at work,--they seconded her efforts nobly by volunteering to take less
+than full pay,--and wrote nothing at all about her troubles to
+Manasseh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+SECRETS OF THE COMMISSARIAT.
+
+
+The mysterious workings of the commissary department are beyond the
+understanding of ordinary mortals. Therefore let it suffice us to take
+only a passing glance at those mysteries.
+
+Benjamin Vajdar was enjoying a tete-a-tete with the Marchioness
+Caldariva after the theatre.
+
+"Well, what has my cripple to report of his day's doings?" asked Rozina.
+"Is all going well in Italy?"
+
+"We signed a contract to-day for supplying our army there with forty
+thousand cattle," was Vajdar's reply.
+
+"Ah, that will make about two hundredweight of beef to a man," returned
+the other, reckoning on her fingers.
+
+"Not an ounce of which will ever reach them," said the secretary, with a
+smile; "but we shall make a couple of millions out of the
+transaction,--a mere bagatelle for Papa Cagliari, however; not enough to
+keep him in champagne."
+
+"A very clever stroke of yours," commented the marchioness, with
+approval; "and I can tell you of another little operation the prince has
+in hand just now. Bring me the morocco pocketbook out of my
+writing-desk, please."
+
+Vajdar limped across the room and brought the pocketbook. Rozina opened
+it and drew forth an official-looking document.
+
+"Here is a contract for so and so many bushels of grain to be furnished
+to the army. You see it foots up a large sum, but the profits won't be
+so very great, after all, owing to the recent rise in prices on the corn
+exchange."
+
+"Oh, don't worry about that," interposed Benjamin, with a knowing smile.
+"Who will ever know the difference if a quarter part of the total weight
+is chaff and clay? It will all grind up into excellent flour, and when
+the soldier eats his barley bread or his rye loaf it will taste all the
+better to him. There is nearly half a million florins' clear profit in
+the transaction, at a moderate estimate."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the beautiful Cyrene. "So the soldiers must eat
+half a million florins' worth of chaff and clay to enable Papa Cagliari
+to take his morning bath in champagne."
+
+"Well, what of that? It makes, at most, only two florins' worth to a
+man, and the soldier who loves his country ought to be glad to eat two
+florins' worth of her soil. Has the prince any other contract under
+consideration?"
+
+"Yes, a very important one. He has procured an order that the troops in
+Italy shall wear for their summer uniform cotton blouses instead of
+linen, and he has the contract for furnishing the material."
+
+"But the prices named here are very low," objected Vajdar, reading from
+the paper Rozina had handed him.
+
+"Ah, but let me explain. The cotton is to be thirty inches wide, with so
+and so many threads to the warp--according to the specifications. But
+what soldier will ever think of counting the threads in his blouse, or
+know whether it was cut from goods thirty inches wide or twenty-eight?
+So, you see, with a little trimming here and a little paring there we
+can make a good hundred thousand florins out of the job."
+
+"But are our tracks well covered? Is there no risk in all this?"
+
+"Fear nothing. There are eyeglasses that blind the sharpest of eyes."
+
+"How if there are some eyes that will not be fitted with these glasses?"
+
+"Again I say, never fear. A victorious campaign covers a multitude of
+sins."
+
+"And a lost one brings everything to light."
+
+"Not at all. A slaughtered army tells no tales. But, by the way, is not
+our Toroczko friend among those who are likely enough to fall some day
+before the French and Italians?"
+
+"He is still in Lombardy," said Vajdar, with a significant nod of the
+head. "We have our eyes on him."
+
+"I am curious to know what this apostle of peace will do when he is
+ordered into battle. You know, he and his comrades are Unitarians and
+entertain scruples against shedding blood, except in defence of home and
+country. Will Manasseh Adorjan fight when he is ordered to, or throw
+down his arms?"
+
+"In either case, he will die," declared Benjamin Vajdar.
+
+"I should prefer to have him only wounded," said the marchioness. "Then
+his mate would leave her nest in the mountains and hasten to nurse him
+in the hospital; and contagious diseases are not uncommon in military
+hospitals, where both patients and nurses are often swept off by
+them--so quickly, too, that no one thinks of inquiring very closely into
+the matter."
+
+"You are impatient, marchioness," commented the secretary.
+
+"And you choose to remark upon it because I would have the prince a
+widower and a free man?"
+
+With that the fair Cyrene nestled close at her fellow-conspirator's
+side, and proceeded to caress him and to murmur soft words in his ear.
+
+And so the night sped, and the first peep of dawn overtook the two
+before they separated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+SOLFERINO.
+
+
+One of the most momentous battles in history was in progress, and the
+battalion in which Manasseh Adorjan still served as a sergeant stood
+from early morning until afternoon among the reserves, watching the
+fight.
+
+Leaning on his gun, Manasseh thoughtfully observed the transformation of
+that earthly paradise into a scene of slaughter. He thought how, in
+times of peace, the cry of a single human being in distress would call
+ready succour and excite the warmest sympathy; but now, when men were
+dying by thousands, their fellows looked on in the coldest indifference.
+He asked himself whether this fearful state of things, this deplorable
+sacrifice of a country's best and bravest sons, was a necessity, and
+must still go on for ages to come. And while he thus communed with
+himself he, too, held in his hands a weapon calculated to carry not only
+death to a valiant foe, but also sorrow and anguish to that foeman's
+wife and mother, and perhaps destitution to his family.
+
+To the north of the fortress of Solferino rose a wooded height, since
+known to the historians of that battle as Cypress Hill, and
+distinguished as the point around which the conflict raged most
+fiercely. Occupied alternately by each side, the opposing batteries
+stormed it in succession, and the squadrons, now of one army, now of the
+other, marched up to assault it. But though they marched up, Manasseh
+saw none of them return. Austrians, French, and Italians, all seemed to
+be swallowed up alike in that maelstrom of blood and fire.
+
+At four o'clock in the afternoon the battle was at its height. In the
+heat of the conflict one could see uniforms of all three armies mingled
+in inextricable confusion. The Austrian forces were at last becoming
+exhausted with toil and hunger. Whole regiments were there that had not
+tasted meat for a week--where were those forty thousand cattle?--and the
+bread dealt out to them was ill-baked, mouldy, gritty, and altogether
+unfit to eat.
+
+A final and concentrated effort was determined upon. Reserves to the
+front! Cypress Hill was to be stormed once more. A battalion of yagers,
+the pride of the Austrian army, charged up the fatal hill and succeeded
+in taking it, after which the rattle of musketry beyond announced that
+the fight was being continued on the farther side.
+
+At this point Manasseh's battalion was ordered to hold the hill while
+the yagers were pushed farther forward. The order was obeyed, and then
+Manasseh learned what the cypress-crowned height really was: it was a
+cemetery, the burial-ground of the surrounding district, and each
+cypress marked a grave. But the dead under the sod lay not more closely
+packed than the fallen soldiers with whose bodies the place was covered.
+Cypress Hill was a double graveyard, heaped with dead and dying
+Frenchmen, Italians, Austrians, Hungarians, Poles, and Croatians, their
+bodies disfigured and bleeding and heaped in chaotic confusion over the
+mounds beneath which slept the regular occupants of the place.
+
+In the soldier's march to glory each step is a human corpse. Manasseh
+took care to step over and between the prostrate forms before him.
+Gaining the summit of the hill, he had an open view of the prospect
+beyond. A large farm, since known to history as the _Madonna della
+Scoperta_, lay before him. A high terrace facing the hill had been
+converted by the enemy into a fortress, which commanded the cemetery,
+and which the yagers were now pressing forward to take. The charge was
+gallantly led, but after a fierce struggle, in which the assailants
+exhausted their ammunition, and the engagement became a hand-to-hand
+fight, the Austrians were driven back in confusion.
+
+Manasseh's battalion was then commanded to charge the terrace, from
+which the enemy's battery was dealing such deadly destruction, and to
+capture and hold the _Madonna della Scoperta_. The major gave the
+necessary orders, but it was to Manasseh that every eye was turned at
+this critical moment. Had he but shaken his head the whole battalion
+would have stood still and refused to advance a step. If he said the
+word, however, his comrades would follow him, and attempt the
+impossible.
+
+Manasseh looked up at the clouded heavens above, and breathed a sigh.
+The hour had come when he must bow before the iron will of destiny. He,
+the apostle of peace, must plunge into the midst of bloody strife. "Thy
+will be done!" he murmured, then advanced to the front of the battalion,
+and turned to address his comrades.
+
+"Forward!"
+
+They obeyed him with alacrity, singing as they advanced, "A mighty
+fortress is our God," and so began the assault.
+
+Not a shot was fired as they pushed forward at double-quick in the face
+of a murderous artillery discharge from the terrace above. Gaining the
+foot of the scarp, they planted their bayonets in the earthern wall, and
+so mounted the rampart, those behind helping up those in front. As they
+sang the last stanza of their hymn, the _Madonna della Scoperta_ was
+taken--without the firing of a single shot. The major of the battalion
+was beside himself with pride and exultation. He embraced Manasseh, and
+kissed him on both cheeks.
+
+"To-morrow will see you an officer with a medal of honour on your
+breast," was his confident prediction.
+
+Manasseh smiled sadly. He knew better than the other what to expect.
+
+Meanwhile the enemy had not given up the fight. The terrace, they
+perceived, must be retaken, and a detachment of French troops was
+advancing to storm it.
+
+"Let them come on!" cried the major, confidently. "We can handle them,
+ten to one. Give them a volley, my lads!"
+
+But this time Manasseh shook his head, whereupon the whole battalion
+grounded arms.
+
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed the major, astounded.
+
+Manasseh raised his hand to heaven. "_Egy az Isten!_" he cried, and all
+his comrades followed his example.
+
+"What do you say?" asked the bewildered officer.
+
+"We swear by the God who has said 'Thou shalt not kill!'" was Manasseh's
+reply.
+
+"But you are soldiers, and on the battle-field."
+
+"We do our duty, we go whither we are ordered, and we can die if we
+must; but we will not take human life except in defence of our homes
+and our fatherland."
+
+"But, man, the enemy will kill you."
+
+"So be it."
+
+The commander threatened, begged, wept--all in vain. The only reply was,
+"_Egy az Isten!_" The men were willing to discharge their pieces if
+necessary, but it would only be a waste of ammunition: they would fire
+into the air.
+
+Troops were now rapidly moving on the threatened position from two
+directions, one party to assault, the other to defend. Fearful slaughter
+seemed imminent, and nothing was left for those who had so gallantly
+carried the terrace but to die where they stood. Suddenly, however, a
+third power took a hand in the fray, and smote both assailants and
+defenders with equal fury. The black clouds that had been gathering over
+the battle-field opened and began such a cannonade as neither side could
+withstand. Wind, hail, lightning, and thunder, accompanied by an ominous
+darkness in which friend was indistinguishable from foe, played such
+havoc with the puny combatants and their mimic artillery, that all were
+forced to seek shelter and safety from the angry elements. Thus neither
+side was left in possession of the field, but a third and a mightier
+power than either claimed the victory in that day's fight.
+
+Manasseh and his comrades fled with the rest before the fury of the
+storm. They succeeded in gaining a sheltered position where they found
+campfires burning, and thought themselves among friends. But they were
+mistaken. They had stumbled in the darkness upon the enemy's camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+AN HOUR OF TRIAL.
+
+
+Manasseh and those with him were taken prisoners and sent to Bresci.
+What befell them there is matter of history. Adorjan was surprised one
+morning by the receipt of the following: a coffee-coloured uniform,
+trimmed with red cord and its collar adorned with gold lace; a handsome
+sword in a gold-mounted scabbard; and an official document from the
+Italian war office, appointing him major of the battalion with which he
+had been taken prisoner.
+
+The sight of these most unexpected presents could not but thrill
+Manasseh with pride and exultation. Now at last it was in his power to
+wreak vengeance on those who had so grievously wronged him,--to cut his
+way, sword in hand, back to his downtrodden fatherland, perhaps even to
+exact a rich retribution at the oppressor's hands, and to restore his
+country once more to a position of proud independence. Added to all
+this, the seductive picture of future fame, of undying renown as a
+patriot and liberator, rose before his vision. Already, as hero of the
+_Madonna della Scoperta_, he had tasted the intoxication of martial
+glory. A strength and self-denial more than human seemed necessary if he
+would turn his back coldly on the splendid prospect that opened before
+him as his country's avenger and deliverer. What words can do justice to
+the conflicting emotions which Manasseh experienced in that hour of
+trial? His comrades in arms and many of his dearest friends, he felt
+convinced, would turn upon him with mockery and reviling if he should
+now still cling to his principles and refuse to disobey the commandment
+of his God,--"Thou shalt not kill."
+
+In Italy every house has its image of the crucified Saviour. Manasseh
+stood now before one of these crucifixes, lost in troubled thought. To
+Jesus, too, the people had cried: "Be our general, lead us against the
+Romans, free your nation!" And he had answered them: "I will lead you to
+a heavenly kingdom, and will free all mankind." Then he was heaped with
+scorn and abuse, was scourged by the Roman lictors, and was finally
+dragged before Pontius Pilate and crucified. But not the scourging, not
+the crown of thorns, or the cruel nails, or the spear of Longinus,--none
+of these was the really hard thing to bear. A man may suffer the
+severest physical torture and still utter no cry. The cruelest of all
+was the scornful laughter of those to whom he had brought salvation and
+eternal life, the blame of his fellow-citizens for whom he so freely
+shed his life's blood. That was what only a man of divine nobility and
+courage could endure.
+
+"I am but mortal!" cried the tempted man, in anguish. "I cannot attain
+unto such heights." And he buckled on his gold-mounted sword.
+
+The crucified form, however, seemed to turn its eyes upon him in mild
+reproof and gentle encouragement. "I will lend you my aid," it seemed to
+say to him.
+
+But Manasseh hastened from the room and turned his steps toward the
+commandant's quarters. Perturbed in mind and hardly master of himself,
+he started at the rattle of his own sword; and when some of his comrades
+saw him pass and cheered him with loud hurrahs, he hurried by and barely
+returned their salute.
+
+The general received him in his breakfast-room, where he was engaged
+with his morning mail. Acknowledging Manasseh's greeting, he handed him
+an open letter. The Hungarian took it and read as follows:
+
+     "Villafranca. Peace has been concluded. The Hungarian battalion is
+     to be disbanded, and its members allowed to return home."
+
+This room, too, had its crucifix. It seemed to look down on Manasseh
+with the same gentle reproof, and to say, "Have I failed you in your
+hour of trial?"
+
+With the first ripening of the fruit in the Toroczko orchards, Manasseh
+and his comrades were at home. Blanka came to meet her husband as far as
+Kolozsvar, bringing her little daughter Ilonka with her. Bela could not
+come, as he had just then a school examination. At the Borev bridge a
+splendid reception awaited the home-comers. A handsome little lad headed
+the receiving party, waving a flag.
+
+"Who is that pretty boy?" Manasseh asked his wife.
+
+She laughed merrily, and rebuked him for not knowing his own son. But he
+had not seen the child for six years.
+
+His brother Aaron, too, he hardly recognised, so gray had his hair
+turned under the anxieties of the past few years. The speech of welcome
+which the elder brother was to have delivered proved a total failure,
+owing to the emotion aroused in the orator's breast at sight of the
+returned wanderer. But the most affecting part of it all to Manasseh was
+the appearance of his sister Anna. The poor girl, he could not fail to
+see, was sinking into an early grave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A DAY OF RECKONING.
+
+
+Victory had neither glossed over nor defeat buried from sight those
+dishonest army contracts. Louder and louder grew the murmurs against the
+fraud that had contributed so disastrously to the unhappy issue of the
+war, until at last a high military officer opened his mouth and
+declared, emphatically, "The parties responsible for such an outrage
+deserve to be hanged!"
+
+Soon after this bold utterance a decree went forth for an investigation
+of the scandal and the condign punishment of the guilty ones. Confusion
+and panic followed in more than one family of exalted station. A
+nobleman of proud lineage burnt all his papers and then opened the veins
+of his wrists with a penknife, and so escaped the ignominy of a trial in
+court. Another submitted to arrest, but no sooner saw his prison door
+closed upon him than he despatched himself by piercing his heart with a
+breast-pin. Two others vanished completely from sight and hearing the
+very day the edict was published, and never showed themselves afterward.
+
+Benjamin Vajdar, black with guilt as he knew himself to be, chose the
+shrewder course of remaining in Vienna and calmly going about his
+business, with all the outward confidence of spotless innocence.
+Suspicion is much like a watch-dog; it leaps upon the man who quails.
+Prince Cagliari and the Marchioness Caldariva also remained quietly in
+the city, and even went so far as to forego their wonted sojourn at the
+seashore when summer came. They seemed to have acquired a sudden
+extraordinary fondness for the Austrian capital.
+
+But one day the expected happened to Benjamin Vajdar. He was called to
+the police bureau. The official who received him was an old friend of
+his who now gave signal proof of his friendliness.
+
+"Benjamin Vajdar," said he, "you are ordered by the government to leave
+Vienna within twenty-four hours and go back to your native town, beyond
+which you are forbidden to stir."
+
+This mandate was a surprise to Vajdar, who had expected to be arrested
+and tried, and had made his preparations accordingly. However, there was
+nothing to do but submit to the inevitable. Further particulars or
+explanations were denied him, except that he would find a special police
+officer placed at his service from that moment until he reached his
+destination,--which was a polite intimation that he was thenceforth
+under government surveillance, and that any attempt at flight would be
+frustrated.
+
+He returned at once to his house, which adjoined that of the Marchioness
+Caldariva. Indeed, from his bedroom a secret passage, already referred
+to, led into Rozina's boudoir; but the clock-door had seldom opened to
+the secretary of late. Toward seven o'clock in the evening he saw a
+closed carriage drive away from the next door.
+
+"She is going to the opera," said he to himself as he watched the
+vehicle turn a corner and disappear. He donned hat and coat and
+sauntered after it, the emissary of the police always ten steps in the
+rear. Arrived at the opera-house, he purchased tickets for himself and
+his faithful attendant, and then made his way to the box of the
+marchioness.
+
+Rozina received him with apparent cordiality and listened to his
+whispered account of what had befallen him.
+
+"Have you talked this over with Prince Cagliari?" she asked.
+
+"No, and I shall not," replied Vajdar, with significant emphasis. "This
+is his doing."
+
+"What makes you think so, pray?" asked the marchioness, with an air of
+surprise. "Why should he plot the ruin of his own secretary and
+confidant?"
+
+"You yourself are the cause," was the retort.
+
+The beautiful woman bent her head still nearer to him. Even her cruel
+heart felt the compliment conveyed in this acknowledgment of her power.
+"And what do you wish of me, my poor boy?" she murmured softly in his
+ear.
+
+"I wish an interview with you after the opera--a strictly confidential
+interview."
+
+"Very well. Come to me as soon as I get home, and I will admit you."
+
+"No; you shall not turn me away so easily, with an empty promise."
+
+"What, must I swear to you, then?"
+
+"No, give me the little key, and I shall be sure of gaining admittance."
+
+"I am almost afraid to trust you with it," objected the marchioness,
+with an arch look; "but still you shall have it--there! And now guard it
+well, and be discreet."
+
+Vajdar kissed the hand extended to him and retired. The fair Cyrene
+turned again toward the stage and joined in the applause. One might have
+thought she was applauding the prima-donna; but no, she was applauding
+herself.
+
+Benjamin Vajdar returned home, left the police officer quartered in his
+antechamber, and, with his servant's aid, began packing his trunks.
+After that task was accomplished he waited impatiently for the close of
+the opera and Rozina's return. When his watch told him that he must
+have waited long enough, he passed noiselessly through the secret
+passage and opened the mysterious door in the tall clock at its farther
+end. The marchioness was not there. One hour, two hours, he waited in
+her boudoir, and still she failed to appear.
+
+"Very well; so be it," said Vajdar to himself. "You thought to outwit
+me; we shall see which will outwit the other."
+
+With that he opened the little writing-desk and took out the
+morocco-bound pocketbook which he seemed to know so well where to find.
+A single glance at its contents satisfied him that the papers he desired
+were still there. He quickly pocketed his prize and then paused to look
+around for the last time at the dainty appointments of the luxurious
+apartment.
+
+"Adieu, beautiful Cyrene, adieu, for ever!" he murmured, a smile of
+irony on his lips.
+
+Stealthily he had come, stealthily he withdrew. He did not take the
+trouble to close the writing-desk, but he was careful to leave the
+little key sticking in the clock door, where its rightful owner would be
+sure to see it.
+
+He found the police officer still awake and waiting for him. A cab was
+quickly summoned, and the two started on their journey to Transylvania.
+
+When the Marchioness Caldariva entered her boudoir a little later, her
+eyes fell at once on her open writing-desk, and she perceived that the
+morocco pocketbook was gone. She laughed, but it was not a pleasant
+laugh to hear.
+
+"Very good," said she, half aloud; "you would have it so, and I am not
+to blame."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Anna Adorjan hovered on the brink of the grave. She had heard that
+Benjamin Vajdar was charged with a penal offence, and she felt only too
+well convinced that if such a charge had been brought against him he
+must be guilty. If guilty, he would be sentenced to a term of
+imprisonment, and she would never see him return to his old home as she
+had once so confidently expected. She had nothing now to live for. Her
+dear brother Manasseh was restored to his family, and she was ready to
+die.
+
+"Brother," she gently entreated, as she lay on her bed of pain, "if he
+should by any chance ever come back to us, promise me to treat him as
+you would if I were still here. You will promise me that, won't you?"
+
+A silent nod of Manasseh's bowed head was her sufficient assurance that
+her slightest wish would be respected.
+
+"And even though he may never come back, I wish you to make my
+resting-place in the rocks large enough for two. Perhaps he will return
+sometime, when he sees his life drawing to a close, and he may be glad
+to find a place ready for him by my side. You will do as I wish in this
+matter, brother Manasseh, will you not?"
+
+Another nod of the bowed head.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The prediction uttered by Manasseh, when his enemy lay in his power in
+the desolate church at St. George, was completely fulfilled. Though he
+would have infinitely preferred banishment to Siberia, Benjamin Vajdar
+was forced to return to Toroczko, to the very house where he had been
+reared, and there take up his abode as a state prisoner. The government
+made him a pitiful allowance of three hundred florins a year, to keep
+him from starving.
+
+Thus it was, too, that Anna's words came true, and the man despised and
+rejected of all the world sought refuge in the house where he had been
+tenderly nurtured as a child. Thus did he return, vanquished in life's
+battle, to have his wounds bound by the hands of those he had so
+grievously wronged, and to beg a place in that family circle into which
+he had done his utmost to bring sorrow and despair.
+
+Manasseh met the police officer at the door, and heard his announcement
+with perfect composure.
+
+"We have no objection to raise," said he, "against the decree of the
+government. Benjamin Vajdar was formerly a member of our family, and so
+we must provide for him. The state allowance of twenty-five florins a
+month we beg leave to refuse. In our iron works there is a bookkeeper's
+position open to this man, and we shall ask him to assume its duties.
+Indeed, we shall ourselves probably be the gainers by this arrangement,
+as the keeping of our books has become too heavy a burden for my wife,
+and she will be glad to be relieved. But enough of this at present;
+to-morrow we will discuss the matter more at length. Meanwhile Mr.
+Vajdar is welcome to our house."
+
+Benjamin Vajdar's emotions can better be imagined than described. To
+find himself called upon to lighten Blanka Zboroy's duties and to live
+in constant sight of her happy home life, after all he had done in the
+vain attempt to spoil that life, was more than he had counted on. He bit
+his compressed lips till the blood ran. Opening the door of the chamber
+into which he had been ushered, he hurried out to seek the freedom of
+the open air and to set his confused thoughts in order. On his way his
+attention was caught by an unexpected sight. Through an open door he had
+a full view of a bier, on which rested a coffin, and in the latter, with
+hands folded on her bosom, lay the woman he had most cruelly wronged. In
+those clasped hands he saw a little picture wreathed in evergreen,--his
+own likeness, which the dead girl had begged her family to bury with
+her. Now, if never before, the unhappy man saw what a wealth of love he
+had cast aside, a love that, even in death caused by his base desertion,
+could forgive him his perfidy and carry his picture in a fond embrace
+down to the grave. As his guardian angel, she would bear it with her up
+to God's throne, and there plead his cause. Overcome at last by a flood
+of anguish and remorse, the guilty man cried aloud in his despair and
+fell prostrate beside the coffin, striking his head on its corner as he
+sank unconscious to the floor.
+
+Manasseh found him there and bore him back to his room. After putting
+him to bed and ministering to his wants, he went out with Aaron to
+prepare Anna's grave.
+
+"We must make it wide enough for two," said he; "it was her wish."
+
+When, after several hours of hard work, the two brothers returned home,
+Manasseh went at once to his guest's room. Before his marriage this
+chamber had been occupied by him, and he still used it occasionally for
+writing. In his absence Vajdar had risen and seated himself at the desk.
+Searching the drawer for writing-materials, he had come upon a sheet of
+paper yellow with age, and written upon in ink now much faded. The
+document proved to be a promissory note, but the signature was so
+heavily scored through and through as to be hardly legible. Benjamin
+Vajdar started violently as he took up the faded sheet and saw that the
+man whom he had so feared and hated had, by his own voluntary act,
+disarmed himself and put it out of his power to punish the fraud
+practised upon him by his false friend. As if distrusting his own
+constancy and the binding force of his promise to his sister, Manasseh
+had, with a few strokes of his pen, rendered harmless what could
+otherwise have been used as incriminating evidence against the forger.
+
+On entering the room, Manasseh detected a peculiar odour in the air.
+Benjamin Vajdar sat at the writing-desk, a morocco pocketbook open
+before him. A half-finished letter lay under the writer's hand, but his
+pen had ceased to move. His eyes met those of his host with a dull
+stare.
+
+"Don't come near me!" he cried, in warning. "Death is in this room!"
+
+But Manasseh hurried to the window, threw it open, and then, snatching
+up the pocketbook and the papers scattered over the desk, cast them all
+into the fire that was burning on the hearth. Thus all the tell-tale
+documents relating to certain fraudulent army contracts went up in
+smoke, but not before they had done their deadly work on one, at least,
+of the guilty men involved. Those papers had passed through the hands of
+a second Lucretia Borgia, and not without reason had she applauded
+herself that night at the opera when she permitted her dupe to extort
+from her the little key which she wore in her bosom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Many years of untroubled peace and happiness for the Adorjan family
+followed these events. The children and grandchildren born to Manasseh
+and Blanka grew up to call them blessed, the labours of the Toroczko
+miners and iron-workers were prospered, and Heaven still smiles on the
+humble homes of that happy valley.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Manasseh, by Maurus Jokai
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