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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Eyes Like the Sea, by Mór Jókai
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Eyes Like the Sea
+
+Author: Mór Jókai
+
+Translator: R. Nisbet Bain
+
+Release Date: March 14, 2010 [EBook #31642]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EYES LIKE THE SEA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: EYES LIKE THE SEA.]
+
+
+
+
+EYES LIKE THE SEA
+
+A NOVEL
+By MAURUS JÓKAI
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN
+BY R. NISBET BAIN
+
+NEW YORK
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+27 AND 29 WEST 23D ST
+1894
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                                PAGE
+PREFACE                                                           ix
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SEA-EYES--MONSIEUR GALIFARD--THE FIRST NEEDLE-PRICK                1
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MY FIRST DISTINCTION--MY FIRST GRIEVANCE--THE DAMENWALZER--THE
+FRIGHTFUL MONSTER--THE READJUSTED SCARF--THE SECOND NEEDLE-PRICK   7
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MY MASTERPIECE AND MY HUT                                         24
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PETÖFI WITH US--PLANS FOR THE FUTURE--THE RAPE OF THE
+BRIDES--AMATEUR THEATRICALS--MY MENSHIKOV                         40
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OLYMPIAN STRIVINGS                                                54
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+AN ODD DUEL--THE FATEFUL LETTER J.--I ALSO BECOME A
+PETER GYURICZA                                                    60
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WELTSCHMERZ CONDITIONS--"REMAIN OR FLY!"                          74
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+PETER GYURICZA'S CONSORT                                          80
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE WOMAN WHO WENT ALONG WITH ME                                 117
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+WHERE THE WORLD IS WALLED UP                                     132
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+VALENTINE BÁLVÁNYOSSI AND TIHAMÉR RENGETEGI                      140
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE MEETING AT THE PAGAN ALTAR                                   151
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT                                         190
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE DEMON'S BAIT                                                 247
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+MARVELS NOT TO BE SEEN FOR MONEY                                 266
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+SOLDIERING                                                       297
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+TEMPTATION                                                       309
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A COLD DOUCHE!                                                   321
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+ESAIAS MEDVÉSI                                                   357
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+CONFESSION                                                       379
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+MARIA NOSTRA                                                     394
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The pessimistic tone of Continental fiction, and its pronounced
+preference for minute and morbid analysis, are quite revolutionizing the
+modern novel. Fiction is ceasing to be a branch of art, and fast
+becoming, instead, a branch of science. The aim of the novelist,
+apparently, is to lecture instead of to amuse his readers. Plot,
+incident, and description are being sacrificed more and more to the
+dissection of peculiar and abnormal types of character, and the story is
+too often lost in physiological details or psychological studies. The
+wave of _Naturalism_, as it is called (though nothing could really be
+more unnatural), has spread from France all over Europe. The Spanish and
+Italian novels are but pale reflections of the French novel. The German
+Naturalists have all the qualities of the French School, minus its
+grace. In Holland, the so-called _Sensitivists_ are at great pains to
+combine a coarse materialism with a sickly sentimentality. Much more
+original, but equally depressing, is the new school of Scandinavian
+novelists represented by such names as Garborg, Strindberg, Jacobsen,
+Löffler, Hamsun, and Björnson (at least in his later works), all of whom
+are more or less under the influence of Ibsenism, which may be roughly
+defined as a radical revolt against conventionality. In point of
+thoroughness some of these Northern worthies are not a whit behind their
+fellow craftsmen in France. The novel of the year in Norway for 1891 was
+a loathsomely circumstantial account of slow starvation. There is a lady
+novelist in the same country who could give points to Zola himself; and
+nearly every work of Strindberg's has scandalized a large portion of the
+public in Sweden. Nay, even remote Finland has been reached at last by
+the wave of _Naturalism_ in fiction, and Respectability there is still
+in tears at the perversion of the most gifted of Finnish novelists,
+Juhani Aho. In the Slavonic countries also the pessimistic, analytical
+novel is paramount, though considerably chastened by Slavonic mysticism,
+and modified by peculiar political and social conditions. Though much
+nobler in sentiment, the novel in Poland, Russia, and Bohemia is quite
+as melancholy in character as the general run of fiction elsewhere. A
+minor key predominates them all. There is no room for humour in the
+mental vivisection which now passes for _Belles-lettres_. We may learn
+something, no doubt, from these _fin de siècle_ novelists, but to get a
+single healthy laugh out of any one of them is quite impossible.
+
+There is, however, one country which is a singular exception to this
+general rule. In Hungary the good old novel of incident and adventure is
+still held in high honour, and humour is of the very essence of the
+national literature. This curious isolated phenomenon is due, in great
+measure, to the immense influence of the veteran novelist, Maurus Jókai,
+who may be said to have created the modern Hungarian novel,[1] and who
+has already written more romances than any man can hope to read in a
+life-time. Jókai is a great poet. He possesses a gorgeous fancy, an
+all-embracing imagination, and a constructive skill unsurpassed in
+modern fiction; but his most delightful quality is his humour, a humour
+of the cheeriest, heartiest sort, without a single _soupçon_ of
+ill-nature about it, a quality precious in any age, and doubly so in an
+overwrought, supercivilized age like our own. Lovers of literature must
+always regret, however, that the great Hungarian romancer has been so
+prodigal of his rare gifts. He has written far too much, and his works
+vary immensely. Between such masterpieces, for instance, as "_Karpáthy
+Zoltán_" and "_Az arány ember_" on the one hand, and such pot-boilers as
+"_Nincsen Ordög_," or even "_Szerelem Bolondjai_," on the other, the
+interval is truly abysmal. But that such a difference is due not to
+exhaustion, but simply to excessive exuberance, is evident from the
+story which we now present for the first time to English readers. "_A
+tengerszemü hölgy_" is certainly the most brilliant of Jókai's later,
+and perhaps[2] the most humorous of all his works. It was justly
+crowned by the Hungarian Academy as the best Magyar novel of the year
+1890, and well sustains the long-established reputation of the master.
+Apart from the intensely dramatic incidents of the story, and the
+originality and vividness of the characterization, "_A tengerszemü
+hölgy_" is especially interesting as being, to a very great extent,
+autobiographical. It is not indeed a _professed_ record of the author's
+life-like "_Emlékeim_" (My Memoirs) for instance. It professes to be a
+novel, and a most startling novel it is. Yet in none of Jókai's other
+novels does he tell us so much about himself, his home, and his early
+struggles both as an author and a patriot; _he_ is one of the chief
+characters in his own romance. Of the heroine, Bessy, I was about to say
+that she stood alone in fiction, but there is a certain superficial
+resemblance, purely accidental of course, between her and that other
+delightful and original rogue of romance, Mrs. Desborough, in Mr. Robert
+Louis Stevenson's "More New Arabian Nights," though all who have had the
+privilege of making the acquaintance of both ladies will feel bound to
+admit that Jókai's Bessy, with her five husbands, is even more piquant,
+stimulating, and fascinating than Mr. Stevenson's charming and elusive
+heroine.
+
+R. NISBET BAIN.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: I do not forget _Kármán_, _Jósika_, and _Eötvös_, but the
+former was an imitator of Richardson, and the two latter of Walter
+Scott.]
+
+[Footnote 2: I say "perhaps," as I can only claim to have read
+twenty-five out of Jókai's one hundred and fifty novels.]
+
+
+
+
+EYES LIKE THE SEA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SEA-EYES--MONSIEUR GALIFARD--THE FIRST NEEDLE-PRICK
+
+
+Never in my life have I seen such wonderful eyes! One might construct a
+whole astronomy out of them. Every changeful mood was there reflected;
+so I have called them "Eyes like the Sea."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When first I met pretty Bessy, we were both children. She was twelve
+years old, I was a hobbledehoy of sixteen. We were learning dancing
+together. A Frenchman had taken up his quarters in our town, an
+itinerant dancing-master, who set the whole place in a whirl. His name
+was Monsieur Galifard. He had an extraordinarily large head, a bronzed
+complexion, eyebrows running into each other, and short legs; and on the
+very tip of his large aquiline nose was a big wart. Yet, for all that,
+he was really charming. Whenever he danced or spoke, he instantly
+became irresistible. All our womankind came thither on his account; all
+of them I say, from nine years old and upwards to an age that was quite
+incalculable. I recall the worthy man with the liveliest gratitude. I
+have to thank him for the waltz and the quadrille, as well as for the
+art of picking up a fallen fan without turning my back upon the lady.
+
+Bessy was the master's greatest trouble. She would never keep time; she
+would never take to the elegant "_pli_," and he could never wean her
+from her wild and frolicsome ways. Woe to the dancer who became her
+partner!
+
+I, however, considered all this perfectly natural. When any one is
+lovely, rich, and well-born, she has the right to be regarded as the
+exception to every rule. That she was lovely you could tell at the very
+first glance; that she was rich anybody could tell from the silver coach
+in which she rode; and by combining the fact that every one called her
+mother "Your Ladyship" with the fact that even the "country people"
+kissed her hand, you easily arrived at the conclusion that she must be
+well-born. Her lady-mother and her companion, a gentlewoman of a certain
+age, were present at every dancing lesson, as also was the girl's aunt,
+a major's widow in receipt of a pension. Thus Bessy was under a
+threefold inspection, the natural consequence of which was that she
+could do just as she liked, for every one of her guardians privately
+argued, "Why should I take the trouble of looking after this little girl
+when the other two are doing the same thing?" and so all three were
+always occupied with their own affairs.
+
+The mother was a lady who loved to bask on the sunny side of life; her
+widowhood pined for consolation. She had her officially recognised
+wooers, with more or less serious intentions, graduated according to
+rank and quality.
+
+The companion was the scion of a noble family. All her brothers were
+officers. Her father was a Chamberlain at Court; his _own_ chamber was
+about the last place in the world to seek him in. The young lady's
+toilets were of the richest; she also had the reputation of being a
+beauty, and was famed for her finished dancing. Still, time had already
+called her attention to the seriousness of her surroundings; for Bessy,
+the daughter of the house, had begun to shoot up in the most alarming
+manner, and four or five summers more might make a rival of her. Her
+occupation during the dancing hour was therefore of such a nature as to
+draw her somewhat aside lest people should observe with whom and in what
+manner she was diverting herself, for there is many an evil feminine eye
+that can read all sorts of things in a mere exchange of glances or a
+squeeze of the hand, and then, of course, such things are always talked
+to death.
+
+But it was the aunt most of all who sought for pretexts to vanish from
+the dancing-room. She wanted to taste every dish and pasty in the
+buffet before any one else, and well-grounded investigators said of her,
+besides, that she was addicted to the dark pleasure of taking snuff,
+which naturally demanded great secrecy. When, however, she was in the
+dancing-room, she would sit down beside some kindred gossiper, and then
+they both got so engrossed in the delight of running down all their
+acquaintances, that they had not a thought for anything else.
+
+So Bessy could do what she liked. She could dance _csárdás_[3] figures
+in the Damensolo; smack her _vis-à-vis_ on the hands in the _tour de
+mains_, and tell anecdotes in such a loud voice that they could be heard
+all over the room; and when she laughed she would press both hands
+between her knees in open defiance of Monsieur Galifard's repeated
+expostulations.
+
+[Footnote 3: The national dance of Hungary.]
+
+One evening there was a grand practice in the dancing-room. With the
+little girls came big girls, and with the big girls big lads. Such
+lubbers seem to think that they have a covenanted right to cut out
+little fellows like me. Luckily, worthy Galifard was a good-natured
+fellow, who would not allow his _protégés_ to be thrust to the wall.
+
+"Nix cache-cache spielen, Monsieur Maurice. Allons! Walzer geht an. Nur
+courage. Ne cherchez pas toujours das allerschlekteste Tänzerin! Fangen
+sie Fräulein Erzsike par la main. Valsez là."[4] And with that he
+seized my hand, led me up to Bessy, placed my hand in hers, and then
+"ein, zwei."
+
+[Footnote 4: "Don't play hide-and-seek, Master Maurice. Off you go! 'Tis
+a waltz, remember. Come, come! courage. Don't always pick out the worst
+partner. Take Miss Bessy by the hand. Waltz away!"]
+
+Now, the waltzes of those days were very different from the waltzes we
+dance now. The waltz of to-day is a mere joke; but waltzing then was a
+serious business. Both partners kept the upper parts of their bodies as
+far apart as possible, whilst their feet were planted close together.
+Then the upper parts went moving off to the same time, and the legs were
+obliged to slide as quickly as they could after the flying bodies. It
+was a dance worthy of will-o'-the-wisps.
+
+The master kept following us all the time, and never ceased his
+stimulating assurances: "Très bien, Monsieur Maurice! Ça va
+ausgezeiknet! 'Alten sie brav la demoiselle! Nix auf die Füsse schauen.
+Regardez aux yeux. Das ist riktig. Embrassiren ist besser als
+embarrasiren! Pouah! Da liegst schon alle beide!"[5]
+
+[Footnote 5: "Very good, Master Maurice! That's capital! Hold the lady
+nicely! Don't look at your feet. Look at her eyes. That's right! To
+embrace is better than to embarrass. Pooh! There, they both are
+together!"]
+
+No, not quite so bad as that! I had foreseen the inevitable tumble, and
+in order to save my partner I sacrificed myself by falling on my knees,
+_she_ scarcely touched the floor with the tip of her finger. My knee
+was not much the worse for the fall, but I split my pantaloons just
+above the knee. I was annihilated. A greater blow than that can befall
+no man.
+
+Bessy laughed at my desperate situation, but the next moment she had
+compassion upon me.
+
+"Wait a bit," said she, "and I'll sew it up with my darning-needle."
+Then she fished up a darning-needle from one of the many mysterious
+folds of her dress, and, kneeling down before me, hastily darned up the
+rent in my dove-coloured pantaloons, and in her great haste she pricked
+me to the very quick with the beneficent but dangerous implement.
+
+"I didn't prick you, did I?" she asked, looking at me with those large
+eyes of hers which seemed to speak of such goodness of heart.
+
+"No," I said; yet I felt the prick of that needle even then.
+
+Then we went on dancing. I distinguished myself marvellously. With a
+needle-prick in my knee, and another who knows where, I whirled Bessy
+three times round the room, so that when I brought her back to the
+_garde des dames_, it seemed to me as if three-and-thirty mothers,
+aunts, and companions were revolving around me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MY FIRST DISTINCTION--MY FIRST GRIEVANCE--THE DAMENWALZER--THE FRIGHTFUL
+MONSTER--THE READJUSTED SCARF--THE SECOND NEEDLE-PRICK
+
+
+I am really most grateful to Monsieur Galifard. I have to thank him for
+the first distinction I ever enjoyed in my life. This was the
+never-to-be-forgotten circumstance that when my colleagues, the young
+hopefuls of the Academy of Jurisprudence at Kecskemet, gave a lawyers'
+ball, they unanimously chose me to be the _elötánczos_.[6] To this day I
+am proud of that distinction; what must I have been then? On the heels
+of this honour speedily came a second. The very same year, the Hungarian
+Academy of Sciences, on the occasion of the competition for the Teleki
+prize, honourably mentioned my tragedy, "The Jew Boy," and there were
+even two competent judges, Vörösmarty and Bajza,[7] who considered it
+worthy of the prize.... When, therefore, I returned to my native town,
+after an absence of three years, I found that a certain _renommée_ had
+preceded me. I had also very good reasons for returning home. The legal
+curriculum in my time embraced four years. The third year was given to
+the _patveria_, the fourth year to the _jurateria_.[8] Every respectable
+man goes through the patveria in his own country, but the _jurateria_ at
+Buda-Pest.
+
+[Footnote 6: The dancer who leads off the ball.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Two of the most eminent Hungarian poets.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Different branches of Hungarian law.]
+
+And I had something else to boast of, too. In my leisure hours I painted
+portraits, miniatures in oil. So well did I hit off the Judge of Osziny
+(and he did not give me a sitting either) that every one recognised him;
+but a still greater sensation was caused by my portrait of the wife of
+the Procurator Fiscal, who passed for one of the prettiest women in the
+town.
+
+And yet, despite all this, when in the following Shrovetide the Lord
+Lieutenant gave a ball to the county (they were something like Lord
+Lieutenants in those days), I was _not_ called upon to open the ball!
+Ungrateful fatherland!
+
+And who was it, pray, who caused me this bitter slight? A dandy, who did
+not belong to our town at all; a certain Muki Bagotay, of whom the world
+only knew that he had been to Paris, and was a good match. In my rage I
+had resolved not to dance at the Lord Lieutenant's ball, although I had
+received an invitation. Moreover, my indignation was increased by the
+circumstance that rumour had already designated Bessy as the
+semi-official partner of the opener of the ball.
+
+However, Nemesis overtook the pair of them.
+
+At this ball Bessy wore a frisure _à l'Anglaise_, which did not suit her
+face at all; and I rejoiced beforehand at the misadventure I clearly
+foresaw, for I was certain that her flying dishevelled hair would catch
+in the buttons of her partner's dress-coat.
+
+As for Muki Bagotay himself, the first time we cast eyes upon him, my
+young brother and I immediately agreed that it was an absolute
+impertinence to be so handsome. Only a romance-writer has the right to
+produce such perfect figures; they have no business to exist in reality.
+I comforted myself with the reflection that such a handsome fellow
+_must_ be a blockhead. I didn't know then that dulness was fashionable.
+Why, even _gold_ has a dull ring!
+
+But I was a very inexperienced youngster in those days. I had no down on
+my face, I did not know how to smoke, I would not have drunk wine for
+worlds, and had never even looked a lady in the face.
+
+But, as I said before, Nemesis overtook them.
+
+The dance opened with a waltz. If _I_ had been master of the ceremonies,
+I should have started with a _körmagyar_.[9] Ah! that _körmagyar_. That
+is something like a dance. It requires enthusiasm to dance _that_, and
+you want eight or sixteen couples to dance it properly, and all
+thirty-two dancers must dance it with histrionic precision, and that was
+not an easy thing to do, I can tell you. But, then, Bagotay was all for
+waltzes. The "Pecsovics"![10]
+
+[Footnote 9: An old Hungarian round dance.]
+
+[Footnote 10: One who preferred foreign and especially Austrian customs
+to Hungarian.]
+
+But there's a Nemesis!
+
+It was the regular custom then for the band to play ten or twelve bars
+of each dance before it began, and then stop for a few moments so that
+the public might know whether the next dance was to be a polka,
+quadrille, or waltz. Muki Bagotay did not know this (what did he know,
+forsooth?), so when the band gave the usual signal, he took his partner
+on his arm and started off with her in a fine whirl, till the band
+suddenly stopped, and they found themselves high and dry at the other
+end of the room with no music for their feet to dance to; so they had to
+sneak back shamefacedly to the place from whence they had started. Bessy
+was furious, and Muki was full of excuses; you would have taken them for
+a married couple of six months' standing. Serve them right!
+
+I did not watch them dance any more, but sat down in a corner and
+sketched caricatures on the back of my invitation card. Then I made my
+way to the buffet to drink almond-tea, and gathered round me two or
+three _blasé_ young men, like myself weary of existence. Let the gay
+company inside there try and amuse themselves without our assistance if
+they could!
+
+Suddenly some one tapped me on the shoulder with a fan, then I
+recognised a voice; it was Bessy. "What," she said, "not content with
+flying from the dancing-room yourself, must you keep away other dancers
+also! Come back, sir! A _Damenwalzer_ is beginning."
+
+For the privilege of a _Damenwalzer_ I capitulated unconditionally of
+course. Having completed the turn round the room with my partner, I led
+Bessy back to her mother, and thanked her for the never-to-be-forgotten
+distinction. She had to be off again almost immediately, for the voice
+of the master of the ceremonies announced a cotillon. The couples flew
+round with the velocity of will-o'-the-wisp. But her mother remained
+where she was, and there was an empty chair beside her.
+
+"You are quite forgetting your old acquaintances," said she, breathing
+heavily (she was stout and suffered from asthma). "You don't trouble
+your head about us now you have become a famous man."
+
+A famous man! What! then does _she_ also know that the Academy of
+Sciences honourably mentioned my tragedy? No, no! My other fame it was
+that had reached her--my pictorial successes.
+
+"We have seen the lovely portrait that you painted. Yes, it was Madame
+Müller to the life--just as she looked fifteen years ago. Why did you
+not rather paint her daughter, she is much prettier? But you don't like
+painting girls, do you--you are afraid it is a losing game, eh?"
+
+The lady had certainly very peculiar expressions.
+
+Of course I could only reply that I was not a bit afraid, and that if
+they would let me, I should have the greatest pleasure in painting Miss
+Bessy.
+
+She was gracious enough to give her consent. The only thing was to fix
+when it should be. It could not be at once, as for some days after a
+ball young ladies do not look their best. Then they had to get ready for
+another dancing party, or were busy, and on Sundays they went to church.
+At last, however, after much calculation, a day was hunted up on which
+Bessy was free to sit to me.
+
+Then there was another question for consideration: was the portrait to
+be painted on ivory with water-colours, or on linen with oils? "Ivory is
+better," I insinuated, "because one can always wipe off a portrait in
+water-colours with a wet sponge whenever one likes."
+
+The lady remarked the self-reproach, and was gracious enough to
+neutralize it by a contradiction.
+
+"Then I declare for oils, for we wish to keep the picture for ever."
+
+I felt that I could have done anything for her.
+
+Meanwhile the cotillon had come to an end. Bessy returned to her mother,
+and the companion also resumed her place. The chair which I had
+appropriated belonged to her, and resigning it to its lawful possessor,
+I would have withdrawn, but the lady considered it her duty to present
+me to the ruling planet of the day, Muki Bagotay, who was escorting back
+his partner. She immediately acquainted him with my artistic
+qualifications, and made it generally known that I was going in a few
+days to paint her daughter's portrait.
+
+On the afternoon of the day appointed I appeared at Bessy's house. I had
+sent on beforehand my easel and my canvas by our servant. I found not a
+single soul of a lackey either in the passage or the ante-chamber. I was
+obliged to stand there and wait till some one came to announce me, and
+in the meantime I could not help overhearing the conversation in the
+adjoining room.
+
+"You are a good-for-nothing rascal yourself--a shameful, impertinent
+fellow!"
+
+I recognised the voice of the mistress of the house.
+
+In reply came a protesting shriek.
+
+"Where is there a stick?" cried the lady.
+
+And at the same instant a hoarse voice replied: "Madame, vous êtes une
+friponne!"
+
+A pretty conversation truly. I had certainly arrived at the wrong time.
+
+Meanwhile the door opened, and the flunkey came in rubbing one of his
+hands with the other; he was evidently in pain.
+
+"Have you been beaten?" cried I, in amazement; to which he angrily
+replied: "No! I have been _bitten_."
+
+What, actually bitten the footman!
+
+"Would you kindly walk in, sir; they are waiting for you."
+
+The moment I entered the room this enigmatical state of things was
+immediately plain to me. The personage to whom her ladyship was meting
+out these offensive epithets, and who was returning her such
+contemptuous replies, was a grey parrot who had just bitten the lackey
+in the finger and been chastised for this misdeed. The whole company was
+in the utmost excitement. There was a large assembly both of ladies and
+gentlemen; amongst the latter my eye immediately caught sight of Muki
+Bagotay. But the chief personage was the parrot. He was a grey-liveried,
+red-tailed, big-billed monster, and he stood in the middle of the
+tea-table in a threatening attitude. Somehow or other he had contrived
+to open the door of his bronze cage, and in a twinkling he stood in the
+midst of the tea-things on the covered table. "Oh, I only hope he won't
+get on my head!" cried a somewhat elderly lady, holding on to her
+chignon with both hands. Nobody dared to assume the offensive. The
+footman who had attempted to seize the fugitive had already been laid
+_hors de combat_ by the winged rebel, while the parlour-maid declared
+that she would not go near him if they gave her the whole house. The
+lady of the house meanwhile was making little dabs at the bird with a
+small Spanish cane, and calling it all sorts of abusive names; but the
+warlike pet always grasped the end of the cane with its strong beak,
+while he repaid with interest the injurious epithets bestowed upon him.
+
+When I joined the company I was scarcely noticed and the lady of the
+house, in reply to my salutation, "I kiss your hand," said, "You
+infamous scoundrel!" though she immediately added, "I did not mean
+you."--"You're one yourself," retorted the bird.
+
+"Come now, find a rhyme to that, Mr. Rhymster!" said Mr. Muki Bagotay.
+The wretch was apostrophizing me.--Rhymster, indeed!
+
+"Don't go near it!" cried Bessy; "he might bite your hand, and then you
+would not be able to paint me."
+
+They'd terrify me, eh? It only needed that. I instantly went straight
+for the bird. I would have done so had it been the double-headed Russian
+eagle itself. Was it divination which made me hit upon the proper word
+to say to such a human-voiced monster? "Give me your head!" said I. And
+at that word the terrible wretch bobbed down his head till he was
+actually standing on his curved beak, while I scratched his head with my
+index finger, which gratified him so much that he began to flutter his
+wings.
+
+Then I hazarded a second command.
+
+"Give me your foot!"
+
+And then, to the general amazement, the parrot raised its formidable
+three-pronged foot and clasped me tightly round the index finger with
+its claws; then it seized my thumb with its other foot, and allowed me
+to lift it from the table. Nor was that all. While I held it on my hand,
+just as the mediæval huntsmen held their falcons, the parrot bent its
+head over my hand and began to distribute kisses; but finally he went
+through every variation of the kiss till it was a perfect scandal. The
+ladies laughed. "Who ever could have taught him?"
+
+"I got the bird during the lifetime of my late lamented husband,"
+explained the lady of the house, with some confusion.
+
+Finally, the conquered sphinx affectionately confided to me his name:
+"Little Koko! Darling Koko!" But I transferred Koko from my fist to his
+cage, and put him on to the swinging ring, which he seized, and began to
+climb upwards with his beak. He was a veritable triped! On settling
+comfortably in his ring, he made me a low bow, and cried with a naïve
+inflexion of voice--"Your humble servant!"
+
+"Positively marvellous!" gasped the lady-mother; "you ought really to be
+a tamer of animals!"
+
+"I mean to be."
+
+"Indeed! And what sort of beasts will you tame?"
+
+"Men!"
+
+Not one of them understood me.
+
+"Well, Mr. Poet," joked Muki Bagotay, "the ballad was a success; now let
+us see whether the picture also will be superlative."
+
+"How do you want to see it?"
+
+"So!" and with that he stuck his eye-glass into the corner of his nose.
+
+"Then you're just mistaken!" said I, "for when I paint a portrait nobody
+is allowed in the room except myself and the sitter."
+
+The whole company was amazed. Every one fancied that it would have been
+a public exhibition, and so they had all congregated together to see how
+a person's eye, mouth and ear came out. A large round table had been
+prepared for me, in order that a whole lot of them might sit around it
+with their hands on their elbows, and give me general directions as I
+went along: That eye a bit higher! that ringlet a little lower! A little
+more red here, and a little more white there! However, I declared
+plainly that I would not paint before a crowd; it was the rule in
+painting, I said. When portraits were being painted, nobody must be in
+the atelier but the painter and his model. Barabás,[11] too, always made
+that a rule.
+
+[Footnote 11: Michael Barabás, a famous Hungarian painter, born at
+Markosfalu in 1810.]
+
+My resolution produced an imposing effect on the company. It's a very
+nice thing when a man can do something which nobody else can! They had
+to agree that Bessy and I should sit alone in a little side room, which
+had only one window, and the lower part of even this window had to be
+covered by a Spanish screen so as to get a proper light. And nobody was
+to disturb us so long as the sitting lasted.
+
+The first sitting did not last long. In oil painting, the image should
+first of all be painted _under_, that is to say, with dull neutral
+colours. In those days I had never heard of such a thing as a first
+coating; while it is in this stage the picture is not fit to be looked
+at. It is absolutely hideous, and the better the likeness, the worse it
+looks. I allowed nobody to look at it, not even Bessy. I locked up the
+first essay in my painter's knapsack; it was a miniature. At this stage
+it was quite sufficient if the _insetting_ had succeeded, with the
+figure in profile, but the countenance quite _en face_; the shadows
+piled up, but the background merely thrown out tentatively, and the
+fundamental colours of the dress just insinuated. Every one will see
+that this last part is the hardest of all.
+
+The company was very much deceived in its expectations when it was
+informed that I had nothing to show it. Every one had expected that in
+an hour and a half I should have finished the eye or the mouth at any
+rate; they now thought to themselves that nothing at all would come of
+it.
+
+"Well, but will Bessy look pretty in this dress?" asked her mother.
+
+What could I do at such a question as this but look silly? As if I knew
+whether Bessy had had a pretty dress on or not! All I knew was that I
+had had to use for it a little "English lake," some "Neapolitan yellow,"
+"Venetian white," and just a scrinch of "burnt ochre."
+
+"I can tell you that it was a very tiresome amusement," said Bessy. "The
+face a little more that way--Not so serious--Not so smiling--Don't sit
+so stiffly--Raise your finger--Don't move about so much.--And you've
+laid so much licorice-juice on my portrait that they'll fancy I'm a
+gipsy girl."
+
+I hastened to assure her that this was only laying the ground work, and
+that on the morrow it would be a much merrier business.
+
+The next day I was there again after an early dinner. In the forenoon I
+was with my chief at the office. Thus before dinner I was a lawyer, and
+after dinner I was artist, poet, and reciter.
+
+This time there was no company. The picture proceeded briskly, and the
+members of the family were allowed to come in from time to time, one by
+one, and have a peep at it.
+
+I had now begun to study the face more in detail. It was an interesting
+head. The face was almost heart-shaped, terminating below in a little
+chin which was delicately divided by a single dimple. There were
+spiral-like lips of dazzling red enamel; a slightly _retroussé_ nose,
+with vibrating nostrils; round, rosy-red cheeks, with little beauty
+spots here and there, which I christened "black stars in the ruddy
+dawning heavens!" Her densely thick hair curled naturally, and gleamed
+like golden enamel, diminishing, after the manner of Phidias' ideal
+Venus, the smoothest of foreheads, and fluttering the most roguish of
+little ringlets over the blue-veined temples. (How could I help learning
+by heart such minute details when every one of them passed beneath my
+brush?) But what my brush could not possibly reproduce was her
+marvellous pair of eyes. They drove me entirely to despair. I really
+believe that even if I had been a true artist instead of a wretched
+dilettante, I should never have been able to conjure forth their
+secrets. Just when I was thinking I had fixed them, her eyes would
+flash, and my whole work was thrown away. At last I had to be content
+with a dreamy expression, which pleased _me_, at any rate, best. The
+inspecting family trio said that they had never seen such an expression
+on Bessy's face; nevertheless they acknowledged, with one voice, that it
+was a speaking likeness.
+
+The head was now ready, the dress was to remain till to-morrow.
+
+On that day there was a _préférence_ party in town at the General's.
+Bessy's mother was an enthusiastic _préférence_ player.... Consequently
+she was not at home. The aunt alone remained as the guardian of maidens,
+and she used generally to take a nap in the afternoon, or play patience.
+I don't know who presided over Bessy's toilet on this occasion, perhaps
+nobody. That clean-cut, pale pink bodice on other days had given full
+scope to her charming figure; but on this particular day it was more
+insinuating than ever. It seemed to me as if the frill of English tulle
+had crept considerably lower down the shoulder, nay, lower still.
+
+One cannot imagine a lovelier masterpiece of a creative hand than that
+bust. And it is a painter's right, nay, his duty, not merely to look,
+but to observe. A dangerous privilege. My hand trembled, I seemed to
+freeze, and yet beads of sweat stood out upon my forehead.... She, too,
+seemed to remark my agitation. A roguish flame sparkled in her eye. She
+was now not a bit like her yesterday's portrait. She seemed to be
+flouting me. And I was putting that treacherous frill of tulle to rights
+in the picture, putting it where it _ought_ to have been. That is what I
+really call "_corriger la fortune_."
+
+At this sitting the face was completely finished, and the dress also was
+painted. I thanked the fair self-sacrificing victim, and told her that
+she might now look at the picture; it was ready. The girl rose from her
+chair and peeped over my shoulder. She looked at the picture and laughed
+in my face.
+
+"Why, you've readjusted the frill of my dress, haven't you?" said she.
+
+"So you wore it like that purposely, eh?"
+
+"Then was there something you didn't want to see?"
+
+"There was something I didn't want other people to see."
+
+"Well, now, I've been looking at you for days and days, and I've
+observed something _on you_ which is very nasty, and which I don't like
+at all."
+
+"I had no idea you gave me so much of your attention."
+
+"It is only a mere speck, no bigger than the eye of a bean."
+
+"What can it be?"
+
+"The wart on your right hand."
+
+And, indeed, on my right hand, just below the thumb, was a not very
+ornamental excrescence, which everybody could see when I was writing or
+painting.
+
+"I cannot cut it out, because it is just above the artery. I showed it
+to a doctor, and he said it would be a rather dangerous operation."
+
+"What does the doctor know about it? I'll destroy it for you; it won't
+hurt you. I learned it at school from my school-fellows. I'll destroy it
+in a moment."
+
+"By incantations, eh?"
+
+"Oh, dear no! It will smart dreadfully. But if a girl can stand it, you
+can."
+
+I consented.
+
+She lit a candle forthwith, and placed it on the table beside me. Then
+she produced a darning-needle from somewhere (I thought of the other
+darning-needle), took firm hold of it, shoved it right down to the very
+roots of the wart, held up my hand, and placed the head of the needle in
+the candle flame till it was heated to a white heat. And all the time
+her wondrous eyes were opened round and wide, and looked straight into
+my eyes with irises turned downwards. It is thus that the demons of hell
+must look upon those whom they are roasting!
+
+"Does it hurt?" she hissed between her teeth. She appeared to be in a
+state of ecstatic delight.
+
+"It hurts, but it is not the needle."
+
+"Well, now you can take your wart away with you."
+
+Two days after, the calcined wart fell from my hand, leaving behind it a
+little speck no bigger than a lentil; and that speck is there still, and
+is of a whiteness which contrasts strongly with the colour of the rest
+of the hand. And every day I set to work writing, I must needs look at
+this little white spot, and when I have looked at it long, it seems to
+me as if _her_ face were appearing before me in the midst of this tiny
+circle just as it looked then; and then that face runs through all its
+variations down to that last shape of all, which still startles me from
+my slumbers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MY MASTERPIECE AND MY HUT
+
+
+In the later stages of the painting we could converse. Indeed,
+conversation is necessary for completing one's study of one's subject,
+and prevents, besides, the constraint of sitting from becoming too
+tiresome.
+
+"Have you read the poems of Petöfi?"[12]
+
+[Footnote 12: The Burns of Hungary.]
+
+"Oh, at our house we read nothing."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because those who come to see us bring no books with them."
+
+"Then don't you get any newspaper?"
+
+"Oh, yes, the _Journal des Demoiselles_; but it's a frightful bore."
+
+"A Hungarian paper would be better, the _Pesti Divatlap_, for instance."
+
+"I'll tell my mother to order it. You write for it sometimes, don't
+you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What?"
+
+"The description of a desert island among the sedges."
+
+"Have you ever been on this desert island?"
+
+"No; I only imagine it."
+
+"What's the good of that?"
+
+"It's part of a romance I'm working at."
+
+"Ah, so you write romances! Will you put us into them?"
+
+"Oh, no! Romance writing does not consist in merely copying down all
+that one sees and hears about one."
+
+"I should like to know how you set about it?"
+
+"First of all I think out the end of the story."
+
+"What, you begin at the end?"
+
+"Yes. Then I create the characters of the story. Then I deal out to
+these characters the parts they must play, and the vicissitudes they
+must go through down to the very end of the story."
+
+"Then, according to that, none of it is true?"
+
+"It is not real, perhaps, but it may be true, for all that."
+
+"I don't understand. And how much time do you take to write a story? I
+suppose it will come out?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Ah, yes, 'tis an easy thing for you to do! You have a rich aunt at Ó
+Gyalla, and you've only got to say a word to her and she'll get your
+book printed for you. I suppose you've only got to ask her?"
+
+"I shall not tell my rich aunt a word about it."
+
+"Then you'll get your book printed at Fani Weinmüller's, I suppose. Now
+listen, that won't do at all. I knew an author who published his own
+book and went from village to village, and persuaded every landed
+proprietor to buy a copy from him. That is a rugged path."
+
+"My romance will not be one of those which the author himself has to
+carry from door to door; it will be one of those for which the publisher
+pays the author an honorarium."
+
+She absolutely laughed in my face.
+
+And after all, when you come to think about it, surely it is somewhat
+comical when a person comes forward and barefacedly says, "Here, I've
+written something in which there is not one word of truth, and
+nevertheless I insist upon people reading it, and paying me for writing
+it."
+
+"Do you fancy, Miss Bessy, that Petöfi was not paid for his poems? He
+got two hundred florins for 'Love's Pearls.'"
+
+"'Love's Pearls'! And pray what are they?"
+
+"Lovely poems to a beautiful girl."
+
+"And did he get the girl?"
+
+"No, he did not."
+
+"Well, now, that _is_ a nice thing. A fellow courts a girl, puts his
+feelings into verse, finally gets a basket[13] from her, and then
+demands that this basket should be filled for him with silver pieces."
+
+[Footnote 13: The Hungarian "Kosarat kapni," like the German "einen Korb
+bekommen" (to get a basket), is the equivalent of our "to get a flea in
+one's ear," _i.e._, "a rejection."]
+
+The same day I sent her Petöfi's "Love's Pearls," and his "Cypress
+Leaves" also.
+
+I resumed my portrait painting three days afterwards, and immediately
+asked her whether she had taken up "Love's Pearls."
+
+"Oh, yes; I took them up to dry flowers in them."
+
+"But I suppose you've just dipped into the 'Cypress Leaves'?"
+
+"I don't like such things. I always burst into tears; and then my nose
+gets quite red."
+
+I did not pursue the subject further.
+
+Miss Bessy hastened, however, to sweeten my bitter disappointment with
+the delightful intelligence that, at my suggestion, mamma had at once
+subscribed to the _Pesti Divatlap_, and for six months, too.
+
+I was there when the postman brought the first four copies of the paper.
+In those days every paper had to be sent through the post in an
+envelope, postage stamps had not yet been invented....
+
+After the solemnity of breaking open the envelope, the assembled
+womankind naturally looked to see if there were any pictures, especially
+pictures of the fashions.
+
+Was it not called "Divatlap"?[14] And a fashionable journal it really
+was. That worthy, high-souled patriot, Emericus Vahot, was labouring
+with iron determination to make fashion a national affair.
+
+[Footnote 14: Fashionable journal.]
+
+"Well, whoever wore that might exhibit herself for money!" That was the
+universal verdict of the ladies. They alluded to one of the fashion
+patterns.
+
+The illustrated supplement to the second number was Gabriel Egressy as
+Richard III., in the dream scene, surrounded by spectres; the picture
+was sketched by our countryman Valentine Kiss.
+
+Her ladyship asked me which was the head of the principal figure, and
+which the feet. And I must confess that I myself could not quite make
+out how Richard III. had got his head between his knees.
+
+With the illustrated supplement to the third number, however, they were
+quite satisfied. It was Rosa Laborfalvy[15] as Queen Gertrude, by
+Barabás, a work of real artistic merit. This interested the ladies
+greatly.
+
+[Footnote 15: Jókai's future wife, as will be seen in the sequel.]
+
+"They say she has such wonderful eyes that there's nothing like them
+anywhere," said Miss Bessy.
+
+The logical consequence of this should have been a contradiction
+accompanied by a flattering compliment on my part; but all at once it
+was as if something so squeezed my throat that I absolutely could not
+get the courtly expression out anyhow. "I have never seen her," I
+replied.
+
+At the end of the fourth number was a lithograph representing a slim,
+youthful figure, and beneath it was written the name, Alexander Petöfi.
+It was one of the best sketches of Barabás. It is the one absolutely
+faithful portrait of the immortal poet. As such he was known by all
+those who lived with him, that eye gazing forth into the far distance,
+that mouth opened prophetically, those hands crossed behind him as if he
+would hide something in them. The whole portrait seems to say, "I _will_
+be Petöfi"; all the other portraits say, "I _am_ Petöfi."
+
+This picture produced a great impression upon the ladies, for the
+appearance of a lithographed portrait in a journal was a great event. In
+those days there were none of the beneficent penny papers, whose right
+of existence is considered amply justified if the frontispiece
+represents some one battering an old woman's head in with an axe. Only
+great and famous patriots enjoyed the distinction of figuring on
+title-pages, and photography was not yet invented.... The appearance,
+then, of Petöfi's portrait in an illustrated supplement of the
+_Divatlap_ created quite a sensation.... The companion at once undertook
+to read the book of verses which had been sent to the house by me.
+Bessy, on the other hand, desired to know whether she would find
+anything of mine in the portion of the journal devoted to the
+Belles-Lettres. Immediately afterwards she actually hit upon it. It was
+a portion of my romance, which appeared there under the title of "Az
+ingovány oáza"--"The Oasis of the Fens."
+
+"Well, I mean to read this at once."
+
+I gave her plenty of time to do so, for I only appeared again after the
+lapse of several days.
+
+She really _had_ read it. It was the first thing she told me.
+
+"Now I am curious to know," she added, "what was the beginning of the
+story and what will be the end? You know, don't you?"
+
+"How can I help knowing?"
+
+"But I don't understand the title. Where does the 'oiseau'[16] come in?"
+
+[Footnote 16: The Hungarian _oáza_ (oasis) and the French _oiseau_ are
+pronounced so very much alike, that the ill-instructed Bessy, who had
+never heard of the former, not unnaturally confounded them.]
+
+I explained to her that the "_oáz_" was not a flying fowl, but a plot of
+verdure concealed in the desert.
+
+"Then why don't you write 'island'?"
+
+She was right there.
+
+"Apropos of island," she continued, "I often see you from the verandah
+of our island summer-house walking up and down in front of our garden;
+yet you never give us so much as a glance, though we make noise enough."
+
+"That is quite possible. At such times I am immersed."
+
+"Immersed in what?"
+
+"In working at my romance."
+
+"Working and walking at the same time?"
+
+"Such is my habit. I work out the whole scene in my head first of all,
+down to the smallest details, so that when I sit down it is a mere
+mechanical a-b-c sort of business."
+
+"Then according to that, when you are marching with rapid strides up and
+down that long path, you neither hear nor see anything?"
+
+"Pardon me, I see grass, trees, flowers, birds, stumps of trees, and
+huts of reeds overgrown with brambles. Amongst all these I weave my
+thoughts like the meshes of a spider's web. And I hear, too. I hear the
+piping of the yellow-hammer, the twittering of the titmouse, the notes
+of the horn from distant ships, the humming of the gnats, and they all
+have something to whisper to me, something to tell me. A buzzing wasp
+lends wings to my imagination; but if I meet a human face, the whole
+thing flies out of my thoughts, and a single 'your humble servant' will
+dissolve utterly my _fata Morgana_, until I turn back and reconstruct
+the ends of my spider's-web among the freshly-discovered reed-built
+huts, tree-trunks and trailing flowers, when the well-known voices of
+the dwellers in the wilderness bring back to me again my scattered
+ideas; then I retreat into the little wooden summer-house in our garden,
+and there, disturbed by nobody, I transfer to paper the images which
+stand before my mind."
+
+And Bessy, contrary to my expectation, didn't laugh at this
+elucidation. On the contrary, she had grown quite serious. The
+expression of her eyes now resembled the expression which I had given
+them in her portrait.
+
+"And this gives you pleasure?" she whispered. "It is just as if a man
+were to set off dreaming after taking care beforehand that all his
+dreams should turn out beautiful."
+
+"Mr. Muki Bagotay," announced the footman.
+
+I took up my hat. I could not endure that fellow. He had already enjoyed
+everything in reality which existed for me only in imagination....
+
+The little wooden hut there in the orchard on the Danubian islet
+(whether it is still there I know not) was the most splendid palace in
+which I ever dwelt. 'Twas there I wrote my first romance. It is true
+that it had to put up with a lot of criticism, that first romance. What,
+indeed, did a young mind which knew nothing of men or of the world
+understand about romance writing? And yet I loved my first work, just as
+much as a man loves his first-born, though it may be deformed by all
+sorts of physical and spiritual defects. How plainly I still see before
+me those large, wide-spreading _Reineclaude_ trees, crammed with fruit
+ripe to bursting, which covered the little hut. A little farther off was
+an apple-tree covered with blood-red fruit, and then a second with
+taffety white, and a third with velvety apples. From the open door of
+the hut one could see right along the overgrown path, which was bordered
+on both sides by bowery vines. When the warm blood-red rays of summer
+pierced through the meshes of the foliage, it seemed as if every shadow
+was of green-gold. Far away on the banks of the Danube could be heard
+the delusive echoes from the military band in the "English Garden,"
+whilst closer at hand the yellow-hammer piped, and a frog here and there
+croaked in the irrigating trenches. I was writing the hardest part of my
+romance--the love part, that most undiscoverable of all unknown worlds.
+One may write down a description of the marsh world from the
+imagination, but not a description of the world of love. If the heart
+has not already discovered it, the head can tell us nothing at all about
+it.
+
+All at once the green-gold shadows were lit up by something bright.
+_She_ was standing there in the door of my hut, dressed in a white
+frock, with a straw hat fastened to two blue ribbons hanging upon her
+arm, and her dishevelled locks floating down her shoulders. For a moment
+I fancied that the dream-shapes of my imagination had taken bodily form.
+Then her ringing peal of laughter assured me that a living person stood
+before me.
+
+"How did you come here?"
+
+"How? Why, by walking over the soft grass, of course."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Alone! Why not? Whom _should_ I have brought with me, I should like to
+know? I suppose I may come to a neighbour's garden unattended?"
+
+It was quite true that our gardens were only about a hundred feet apart,
+lying one on each side of the common path, which ran right through the
+island.
+
+"You don't seem to give me a very hearty reception," pouted she, as she
+entered my hut.
+
+My head began to swim.
+
+"On the contrary, I am overjoyed at the honour you do me, and I'll
+gather for you at once some of our princely plums."
+
+Nobody else had such plums then, and it was a good excuse, besides, for
+quitting the hut.
+
+"I did not come for the sake of your princely plums; I filch them long
+before you ever taste them. I have come now to see how you make up your
+romance."
+
+I pointed out to her that here was the paper and there the pen, and all
+a man had to do was to take up the pen, and it went on writing of its
+own accord.
+
+"Then you don't peep into any book first of all?"
+
+"You can see that I am provided with no tools of that sort."
+
+"Well, now, sit down, and I'll sit down beside you and see how you
+write."
+
+And then, not waiting for an invitation, she sat down at the end of my
+sofa, driving me into the dilemma of sitting down by the table,
+willy-nilly, likewise. I may mention that my hut was so narrow that the
+table reached from the door to the window.
+
+"I can't write a word, though, at this moment," said I.
+
+"Why? Because I'm here?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"Then read me what you have just written."
+
+"There's a lot of it."
+
+"So much the better. I can remain here all the longer."
+
+"Won't they miss you at home?"
+
+"They know that I am sure to turn up again."
+
+Vanity is the horn by which one may always catch hold of a man. It
+flattered me to read what I had written, whoever the listener might be.
+In other parts of the kingdom I had already gained applause with my
+recitations, but nobody in my own narrow little town had ever heard me
+speak. _Nemo profeta in patria._
+
+And Bessy was a very appreciative audience. You could read from her face
+the effect I produced and the interest she took. She rested her face on
+her hand, smoothed down her hair, and fixed her attention that she might
+listen the better. She seemed quite frightened at the exciting scenes,
+her eyes and lips opened wide. I do not say this to praise myself, but
+simply as a justification of the fact that in those days I could recite
+with considerable emphasis. In one place, however, my voice began to
+falter.
+
+"Well, what is it? Can't you read your own writing?"
+
+"Yes--no, I mean. I think we had better leave off here?"
+
+"Why? You've come to the most interesting part."
+
+"I don't want to read it to you."
+
+"Why? Do you mean to say you write such things as a girl ought not to
+know?"
+
+"No, no! Anybody may read it except myself--before you."
+
+The girl laughed, but there was something bitter in her laugh too.
+
+"Oh, don't be anxious on my account, pray! We read, at school, things of
+which you have no idea. It is an old institution among us that every
+girl when she marries shall write a letter to her school friends on the
+very day after her wedding. We have a whole collection of such letters."
+
+"And do you mean to tell me that _you_ have promised to increase this
+collection?" I cried, with all the indignation of my youthful mind.
+
+The girl must have guessed my anger from my face, for she cast down her
+eyes and said, in a low voice: "It depends upon whose I shall be."
+
+Immediately afterwards she laughed uproariously: "You may read your
+love-scene before me."
+
+I answered more firmly than ever: "I will not read it before you."
+
+She understood and stared at me.
+
+"You fear, perhaps, that I shall take it for a declaration? You think,
+perhaps, that I shall laugh at you in consequence?"
+
+"No! You will not laugh at me."
+
+"Then what are you afraid of?"
+
+"I do not fear, I wait."
+
+"Wait! For what?"
+
+"I am waiting till I count for something in the world; at present I am a
+mere cipher."
+
+"One who is born a man can never be a mere cipher."
+
+"Look now! This wooden booth is at present the whole of my property,
+this little pile of paper my whole claim upon the world; but in my soul
+there is a vigorous flame to which I can give no name. This flame would
+suffice to make a man a pretender to a throne, but it is not sufficient
+to make him propose to a girl."
+
+"But you know that I am rich."
+
+"And I am still richer, for I dine deliciously off a crust of bread, and
+I sleep sweetly on a bed of straw."
+
+"Well, and that pleases me too. _I_ like a crust of bread and a bed of
+straw. You do not know me. A man might make a she-devil of me, though he
+built a temple in my name straight off, enshrined me on the altar, and
+knelt down before me. But he whom I truly loved might make an angel of
+me. I could be happy anywhere: in a shepherd's hut, a strolling player's
+tent, at a soldier's bivouac, in a schoolmaster's clay cabin. I would
+dream of luxury on my bed of straw."
+
+And with that, she threw herself at full length on my bare sofa, and
+clasped her hands above her head.
+
+Oh, what distracting loveliness!
+
+Was it a blessing or a chastisement on the part of guiding Providence
+that I was able, at that moment, to see with my soul as well as with my
+eyes? This girl had in a few words unfolded before me the whole of her
+coming destiny.... I sat down at her feet by the side of the bare old
+sofa, and looked into her eyes.
+
+Very softly I said to her: "She whom I love will not be my slave, but my
+queen. I will not filch my happiness, but win it. And she to whom I
+shall dedicate my heart shall be crowned by me with an aureola of glory,
+just as the rich of this world load _their_ darlings with pearls and
+diamonds. The lady of my heart must be honoured by all the world--but
+most of all by myself."
+
+At these words the half-closed eyelids opened. The girl began to sob
+violently, leaped to her feet, threw her arms round my neck, kissed me,
+and ran away.
+
+And I looked after her like one that dreams, while the shrubs and the
+vine-leaves concealed her vanishing form. The yellow-hammer cried in my
+ear, "Silly boy, silly boy!" And immediately there occurred to my mind
+the story of the young man whose confessor gave him a bundle of hay to
+eat as a penance for a sin unachieved.
+
+And now, too, when I stand before the big silly bookcase, which is
+filled with nothing but my own works, I often think, would it not have
+been better if they had none of them been ever thought out? And instead
+of writing so much for the whole world, would it not have been better if
+I had written for my own private use, just so much as would go within
+the inside cover of a family Bible? Nowadays, a whole street in my
+native town is called after my name: would it not have been better if
+all I had there were a simple hut?
+
+But no! I willed it so, and if it were possible for me to go back to the
+diverging cross-roads of my opening life, I would tread once more in the
+self-same footprints that I have left so long behind me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PETÖFI WITH US--PLANS FOR THE FUTURE--THE RAPE OF THE BRIDES--AMATEUR
+THEATRICALS--MY MENSHIKOV
+
+
+I really imagined that I loved and was beloved. I was always a welcome
+guest at her ladyship's house, and was a regular visitor on her "at
+home" days. On such occasions I learnt to know Bessy from another point
+of view. She was a musician also. She could play the fiddle. Whether she
+played artistically I really cannot say, for I don't understand music,
+and couldn't tell the difference between Paul Racz[17] and Sarasate; but
+so much is certain, she knew all the cunning tricks and poses which I
+admired so much in the famous musicians of a later day. She could make
+arpeggios and pizzicatos like Ole Bull, _fughe di diavolo_ like Reményi,
+and pianissimos like Sarasate. She could make her fiddle weep softly
+like Milanollo and Miss Terezina Tua, and she could lash it savagely
+with her fiddle-bow like the Russian Princess Olga Korinshka, or play
+with the instrument close up to ear like a gipsy _primás_.[18] When she
+played she had the beauty of a demon; every limb was set in motion, her
+shoulders marked time, her bosom heaved, her body waved to and fro, her
+mouth smiled provocatively, her eyes sparkled; at one moment she softly
+caressed the fiddle with her bow, at another she flogged the strings
+unmercifully, and at the end of the performance she stood there with the
+pose of a triumphant Toreadrix. At such moments every one was fascinated
+by her; why, then, should I have been an exception?
+
+[Footnote 17: A famous gipsy musician.]
+
+[Footnote 18: The leader of a gipsy band.]
+
+One day I got a letter from Petöfi, in which he informed me he was going
+to call upon us the following Sunday. I naturally skipped off to town at
+once, and showed the letter to all my acquaintances. It was a great
+event in our little town. Petöfi's popularity in those days was great
+indeed; he was worshipped from one end of the kingdom to the other. His
+visit was regarded as an extraordinary distinction. On Sunday afternoon,
+therefore, half the population of the town had assembled on the island,
+where the landing-stage of the steamers now is. Bessy's family was also
+there. All the religious persuasions were represented by the presence of
+the Benedictine priests and the Calvinist and Lutheran ministers. The
+captain of the civic train bands, with two lackeys in gold liveries;
+represented the magistracy; and Muki Bagotay was there on behalf of the
+county (he held some petty office or other), and maintained that he knew
+Petöfi very well. Congratulatory speeches had been got ready, and
+lovely hands were to present handsome bouquets to the coming guest.
+Petöfi, however, when he had crossed over the steamship bridge to the
+other side, troubled himself not one bit about the congratulatory mob,
+left in the lurch the lovely ladies with their bouquets, and the
+distinguished gentlemen with their speeches, and, dressed as he was in
+his short _carbonari_ mantle, rushed straight towards me, threw his arms
+round my neck, knocked my hat from my head, and cried, "Why, Marksi! Is
+it you, you old scoundrel, Marksi!" (he never would call me by my proper
+name), and, with that, wrapping me in one-half of his mantle, he dragged
+me with him towards the town just as if he knew the way quite well (he
+had never been there before in his life). The windows of the chief
+thoroughfares of the town were adorned with flowers and with fair
+damsels, who had tricked themselves out in Petöfi's honour, which, when
+he perceived, he thrust me down a side street, and so we got at last to
+our house by roundabout by-paths, on which we met not a single soul. My
+worthy mother received our dear guest most heartily, not because he was
+such a famous poet, but because he was my good friend. I had known him
+ever since we had been students together at Pápá, when they had called
+him "Petrovics." Now, however, they added a syllable to his name, and
+called him "Petrekovics." Nothing used to put Petöfi into such a rage
+as when anybody called him by his rejected family name. But even this
+he took in good part from my mother. He never even tried to put her
+right. "Let me always remain Petrekovics in your house!" he would say to
+her, as he kissed her hand. This was by no means his usual custom, the
+only other person whose hand he used to kiss was his own mother. The
+first question after that naturally was about his favourite dish. My
+mother herself looked after the _cuisine_, and the following day the
+whole family assembled to dinner--my brother Charles, my sister Esther,
+and my brother-in-law Francis Vály included.
+
+We had scarcely risen from the table when a lackey in silver livery
+arrived from Bessy's mother with a gold-edged letter for Petöfi, in
+which her ladyship invited him to her "at home" that evening. The
+entertainment was arranged in his honour. All the beauties and the
+notabilities of the town would be there together. I had naturally
+received a similar invitation some days before.
+
+'Twas thus that Petöfi answered the messenger--his words are recorded in
+the family records: "Tell her ladyship that I am inconsolable at the
+impossibility of coming to her reception this evening; but this time I
+have come specially to visit my beloved Marksi, and will go nowhere
+else."
+
+The astonished lackey could scarcely grasp the meaning of this terrible
+reply. But my mother understood it right well, and said, "Noble young
+fellow!"
+
+But I said nothing, for I candidly confess that in those days I
+worshipped a pretty girl far, far more than any man however famous, or
+any friend however good.
+
+I tried, therefore, to explain the situation to my good friend. "I tell
+you what, though; that pretty girl is there about whom I wrote to you."
+
+"Then give _yourself_ up to that pretty girl, but don't sacrifice _me_
+to her likewise."
+
+"If you could only hear how splendidly she plays the fiddle."
+
+"Fiddle, do you say? Then don't give yourself up to her either! You know
+there are three things in this world that I hate--horse-radish with
+milk, the critics, and after that, music." (He could never be persuaded
+to listen to an opera.)
+
+"But Tony Várady also plays the fiddle!" (I should explain that this
+young lawyer shared Petöfi's room with him.)
+
+"He fiddles, it is true, but it is useful to me."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"In our neighbourhood dwells a rascally card-player, who comes home
+every night between two and three, and begins to sing. I immediately
+wake Tony and say to him, 'Rise, and fiddle away at that fellow there!'
+Then he begins to fiddle in a way that makes your hair stand on end, and
+your blood run cold, and in ten minutes our neighbour, falling upon his
+knees, sobs for mercy, and declares that he will leave off singing.
+However, from to-day I live no longer with Tony."
+
+"Have you quarrelled?"
+
+"On the contrary, we are the best of friends. But I'll tell you about
+that later on; let us now talk about serious things. What have you been
+doing since I last saw you?"
+
+I showed him the MS. of "Hétköznapok."[19] It was just ready.
+
+[Footnote 19: "Every-day Days." One of the best, if not _the_ best, of
+Jókai's earlier works.]
+
+"Why do you call it 'Hétköznapok'?"
+
+"In order that nobody may expect anything extraordinary in it."
+
+He turned over the leaves, but only read the headings of the chapters.
+
+"Well, that was an original idea of yours, I must say, to choose mottoes
+from popular ballads for your chapter headings. I'll take this with me
+to Pest, and get it published."
+
+"Nobody knows me."
+
+"You're wrong. Bajza and Vörösmarty are inquiring about you. Your
+specimen composition has been much approved. I've squeezed twelve
+florins for it out of Emericus Vahot. Frankenburg was more liberal. He
+sends you fifteen for 'The Island Nepean.'"
+
+And Petöfi counted out the twenty-seven silver florins on to the table.
+It was my first honorarium. I fancied myself a Rothschild.
+
+"This romance now shall be published by Hartleben."
+
+"Are you on good terms with him?"
+
+"I don't know the German fellow, but he's the publisher of Ignatius
+Nagy's romances, and Nagy shall recommend it to him."
+
+"But will Ignatius Nagy like to do it?"
+
+"What! When I bring him such work as yours! He is a great enemy of mine,
+I know, but he is a man of honour."
+
+And with that he thrust my manuscript into his knapsack, but without
+locking it.
+
+"And what else have you written?"
+
+I produced another heap of papers.
+
+"A play entitled _Two Guardians_."
+
+"And what do you want to do with it?"
+
+"To compete for the Academy prize."
+
+"Don't do that! I won't allow you. You competed once, and they did not
+give you the prize, and yet two Academicians were on your side; don't
+give them any more. Give your pieces to the theatre."
+
+I had nothing for it but to surrender.
+
+"Now, I'll take your piece to Szigligeti.[20] He will at once recognise
+in you a dangerous rival, and for that very reason will have your piece
+brought out instantly. That's the sort of man he is!"
+
+[Footnote 20: Pseudonym of the eminent Hungarian dramatist, Joseph
+Szathmáry.]
+
+I entrusted my piece to his care.
+
+"And try to get up to Pest as soon as possible. Don't go loafing about
+all your days in a village!"
+
+"As soon as I have got through with my _patvaria_ I'll hasten to join
+you."
+
+"Get ready to go away at once. To-morrow I'll take you with me to Gran."
+
+I was greatly astonished.
+
+"To Gran! Why, what business have we there?"
+
+"We go not to do business, but to _rob_. We must steal away Tony
+Várady's bride for him. That is why we no longer live together."
+
+But now the members of my family had also a word to say.
+
+Petöfi then related, quite calmly, that our common friend, the worthy
+lawyer, wished to take to wife the daughter of a landed proprietor at
+Gran. The girl's parents were Catholics, the bridegroom was a Calvinist,
+they therefore would not permit the marriage. But the young people
+really loved each other. So there was nothing for it but to steal the
+bride.
+
+The thing was quite clear. I could make no objection. When a man is poet
+and Protestant, girl-stealing in such a situation becomes a duty. Just
+then a great parliamentary strife was going on concerning mixed
+marriages. It was Guelph and Ghibelline over again. One had to choose
+one's party.
+
+So on the following day I really did set out with Petöfi to steal a girl
+for the benefit of a third friend. The affair succeeded beyond all
+expectation. We had no need of the darkness of midnight and scaling
+ladders, the mere appearance of Petöfi and myself at the bride's house
+was sufficient; the parents gave way, and the priest united the two
+lovers. Yet for all that we always made much of our damsel-robbing
+adventure. And, indeed, it seemed likely to turn out a dangerous
+precedent. Example is contagious.
+
+But I returned home with the guilty consciousness that I had absolutely
+spoiled the _soirée_. I expected that I should be pretty severely taken
+to task for it. How should I put things to rights again?
+
+I discovered how to make amends, but it was not without great artfulness
+that I succeeded.
+
+Our city was not only the capital of the county, but a fortress.
+Consequently one might frequently come upon vehicles in our streets
+which consisted of little more than a round chest on two wheels, crammed
+full of water-butts from the Danube, ammunition, bread, and sacks of
+meal, and between the poles of these conveyances were fastened a couple
+of human beings in garments of grey baize, with twenty-pound chains
+fastened to their legs. The creatures were called in plain
+Hungarian--slaves.[21] You could hear the rattling of their fetters
+from afar. On certain days while the self-same creatures were suffering
+the flogging with sticks, which was part of their sentence, their woful
+cries resounded through the whole town. Thus the rattling of chains and
+the howls of woe were a sort of speciality in our town. And the sight of
+those starved faces too! From my childish years upwards this slave-life
+used to disturb my dreams.
+
+[Footnote 21: They were prisoners condemned to penal servitude.]
+
+I got up an agitation among the more enthusiastic of the youths and
+maidens of our town on behalf of the poor slaves. If the affair had
+succeeded, I should of course never have bragged about it; but as I
+failed in it, I may as well make a clean breast of it.
+
+It was determined, at my suggestion, to invite Bessy's mother to be the
+president of our philanthropic society. A deputation set off at once to
+her house, and, naturally, I was its spokesman. The distinction thus
+conferred upon her quite wiped out my former offence, and I was again
+taken into favour.
+
+The first problem in any case was to establish our beneficent scheme on
+a sound, financial basis, and the simplest way of getting funds was by
+means of an amateur entertainment. Of this, too, I was the manager. With
+very great difficulty the programme was finally settled. Overture:
+_Beatrice di Tenda_.--"What's the watchword? Death, torture, ruin, to
+the betrayers of the fatherland!" rendered by the glee club of the
+College. After that a flute duet from _Lucia di Lammermoor_, piped by
+the local musical society and a young lawyer. That was to be followed by
+a humorous recitation of my own: "Gregory Sonkolyi"; then came an
+exhibition of legerdemain by Muki Bagotay; and last of all, as _pièce de
+résistance_, Bessy's fiddling.
+
+It was a terrible business to bring all this about. We had rehearsals
+every day at Bessy's house. I was very busy just then. I ought to have
+been working as an articled clerk, but I'm quite sure I never looked at
+a law-book. At last, however, it was possible to fix the day on which
+the concert would come off.
+
+Meanwhile, the time was approaching when I ought to have passed my
+_patvaria_, and gone through my _jurateria_. My elder brother Charles
+wrote to a well-known lawyer at Pest, who had a large practice, to take
+me into his office as a juratus. And as winter was also drawing nigh,
+and I was about to go far, far away into a strange world, my good and
+ever-blessed mother was busying herself about my outfit. Nowadays people
+will regard it as a fable, but say it I must, that all the linen I wore
+during the time when I was a juratus was spun by my mother's own hands.
+I verily believe that that shirt, spun by a mother's hand, and worn by
+me, was the magic web which turned aside so many of the blows of fate.
+
+A tailor and a weaver lived in some of the smaller houses we possessed;
+we had no need of the help of strangers. My mother also provided me with
+a good winter overcoat.
+
+It was really a capital overcoat, which covered me down to the very
+heels, a real Menshikov overcoat, very fashionable forty years later,
+but in those days worn by nobody but the porters of the Benedictine
+Order.
+
+When I appeared at the amateur rehearsals at Bessy's house in this
+prematurely born Menshikov, a circle was instantly formed round me, and
+every one asked me, with ironical congratulations, where I had had it
+made. Was it possible to get the fellow of it? Bessy even remarked that
+there was room for two in it, and I was not a bit offended with her.
+
+When I withdrew (a letter, just arrived from Pest, called me home), I
+scarcely had time to close the door behind me, when I heard an outburst
+of merriment inside. When, however, I had got out into the street and
+turned round to have a last look at the house I had left behind me, lo
+and behold! all the windows were filled with groups of smiling faces,
+amongst which I saw Bessy's face also. "They are all in a very good
+humour to-day," I thought to myself.
+
+Hastening home, I found there the letter from the Pest lawyer, in which
+he informed me, with official brevity, that there was a vacant place for
+a juratus in his office, which I might occupy. If, however, I did not
+come and claim it within three days, the vacant place would be given to
+some one else. The amateur entertainment had been fixed for Sunday, and
+it was now Tuesday. If I am not there by Friday, another will sit in my
+place. But what will become of the concert? Ought I to leave Bessy in
+the lurch--so faithlessly?
+
+And how about the poor slaves?
+
+Perhaps the lawyer at Pest would make a bargain with me and give me a
+couple of days' grace? I sat down to reply to him: "Worshipful Mr.
+Advocate--I feel in duty bound to say, in reply to your honourable
+communication----" Yes, but what? I must tell him some lie or other.
+Nay, not a lie, only a freak of fancy. A sudden illness? No, that's no
+joke. An uncompleted piece of law business, which I must finish for my
+old chief? The Pest lawyer will never believe that. What pretext could I
+hit upon to steal a little more time?
+
+While I was still biting my pen, my mother came into the room, and said
+to me: "Where have you been, my dear son?"
+
+I said I had been at Bessy's house.
+
+Then she said: "Now, tell me, my darling, why do you run after these
+great people? Don't you see that they are only making fun of you?"
+
+Something like a cold ague fit ran down my back.
+
+Hadn't I myself seen and heard them laugh at me, and didn't know it? and
+here was my mother who had neither seen nor heard it, and yet _she_ knew
+it!
+
+Not another word did I say, but I went on with my letter ... "that I
+will come to Pest at once to-morrow morning, and take the place of
+juratus offered by you."
+
+I then showed my mother both letters, whereupon she rewarded me with
+that blessed smile of hers which has made her face so unforgettable to
+me.
+
+She immediately packed up my belongings and placed in my hand what
+little money she had put by, so that I might not want for anything in
+the expensive capital. I wanted to write to Bessy with an apology for my
+sudden departure.
+
+"Don't go scribbling to them," said my mother; "I'll go myself to-morrow
+to her ladyship and tell her what has happened."
+
+The following afternoon I was sitting on the steamer, and in three days
+I arrived at Pest.... And for this sudden change of fortune I had to
+thank my Menshikov alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V[22]
+
+OLYMPIAN STRIVINGS
+
+
+[Footnote 22: This chapter is somewhat condensed.]
+
+It was Petöfi who introduced me to my associates of the "Table of Public
+Opinion" (as the long table close to the counter in the Café Pillwax was
+called), and who got me a place there. "This is a true Frenchman!" said
+Petöfi, as he presented me to his young army of _literati_ who were
+assembled there. In those days this was the highest conceivable praise.
+The face of every liberty-loving nation was turned towards France, and
+from thence we expected the dawn of the new era. We read nothing but
+French books. Lamartine's "History of the Girondists" and Tocqueville's
+"Democracy" were our bibles. Petöfi worshipped Beranger, I had found my
+ideal in Victor Hugo.... This school might easily have become dangerous
+to us had not its influence fortunately coincided with the opening up of
+a new and hitherto unexplored field--popular literature. Hitherto it had
+been the endeavour of Hungarian writers to write in a style which was
+distinct from the language of ordinary life. Our group, on the other
+hand, started the idea that it was just those very constructions,
+expressions, and modes of thought employed in every-day life that
+Hungarian writers ought to take as the fundamental principle of their
+writing; nay, that they should even develop the ideally beautiful,
+poetry itself, from the life of the common people.... As belonging to
+this camp of ours I must also reckon Sigismund Czakó, who acclimatized
+the modern drama to our stage with marked success; and finally Anthony
+Csengery, the editor of the _Pesti Hirlap_, who wrote nothing in the way
+of _belles lettres_ himself, but whose immense erudition and thorough
+knowledge of literature enabled him to exercise a most beneficial
+influence over the whole of our group. Amongst our older writers also,
+Vörösmarty and Bajza watched over us with stimulating encouragement; but
+it was Ignatius Nagy in particular who befriended us, and of him I have
+the most pleasant recollections.... At this time he was a cripple. He
+was rarely to be seen in the street, and then only on his wife's arm. He
+stopped at home all day at his writing-table, writing those life-like
+sketches of the little world of Buda-Pest which testify to such a serene
+good-humour. The first time I saw him was when I went to speak to him
+about my novel, "Hétköznapok." He had a most embarrassing face covered
+with dark-red spots right up to his astonishingly lofty forehead, whose
+shiny baldness was half cut in two, as it were, by a bright black
+peruke. He had also an inconceivably big red nose, at which, however,
+you had no time to be amazed, so instantly were you spell-bound by a
+couple of squinting eyes, one of which glared as fixedly at you as if it
+were made wholly of stone. His voice, on the other hand, was as the
+voice of a sick child. And within this repulsive frame dwelt the noblest
+of souls, in this crippled body the most energetic of characters. From
+no strange face did I ever get a kinder glance than I got from those
+stiff fishy eyes, and that sick voice announced to me my first great
+piece of good news. Upon his recommendation, the publisher Hartleben
+agreed to publish my first romance, and gave me for it 360 silver
+florins. In those days that was an immense fortune to me. I had no
+further need to go scribbling all day long in a lawyer's office at six
+florins a month. And his fatherly solicitude for me went still further.
+He introduced me to Frankenburg as a dramatic critic. The editor of the
+_Eletképek_ had just parted with his dramatic critic (he had been a
+little too unmerciful to the artistes), and was looking out for a new
+colleague. By way of honorarium he offered me a free seat at the
+theatre, and ten florins a month. But my year of office came to an end
+the very first week. To make amends for the sins of my predecessor, I
+lauded every artist to the skies, according to the dictates of my
+youthful enthusiasm. And I can honestly say that I wrote it all from my
+very heart. It was then that I saw a ballet for the first time in my
+life. It was my solemn conviction that I was bound by a debt of
+gratitude to the excellent damsel who exhibited her natural charms to
+the public eye with such magnanimous frankness. And a pretty lecture
+Frankenburg read me for it too! "Delightful Sylphid indeed! A clumsy
+stork, I should say!" Still, _that_ might have passed. But it was my
+magnifying of Lilla Szilágyi who took the part of Smike in the _Beggars
+of London_ which did the business for me. I said of her that she was "a
+lovely sapling!" and promised her a brilliant future in her dramatic
+career. "Leave her where you found her! She has got no heart that's
+certain!" said the editor. "Then she'll get one!" said I. "But you'll
+never get to be a critic," said he.
+
+And so, for Lilla Szilágyi's sake, I laid down my _rôle_ of critic, and
+yet I was right after all, for, as Madame Bulyovszky, she really did
+become a great artiste. Now, however, I bless my fate that things fell
+out as they did. Terrible thought: fancy if I now only had the
+reputation of a famous--critic!
+
+A few days after that, a new career suddenly opened before me. Paul
+Királyi invited me to join his newspaper, the _Jelenkor_, as a
+correspondent. He offered me a salary of thirty-five florins a month. Of
+course I jumped at it. Newspaper writing was a very grateful task in
+those days. The paper appeared thrice a week. That was quite sufficient
+to give us all the news. It is different now. Nowadays more murders,
+suicides, and burglaries occur in the twenty-four hours than occurred in
+a whole twelvemonth then.
+
+And a newspaper contributor was then a personage of some importance. Let
+me give an example:--
+
+I lived with the dramatist, Szigligeti. In the summer we occupied a
+whole flat in a brand-new house in Pipe Street, and there I had a room
+of my own, with an exit opening on the staircase. The other flats were
+empty. The Szigligetis flitted during the summer to the suburbs of Buda.
+Thus I had the whole of the first floor of the new house at my disposal,
+to my great satisfaction, for I could work away quite undisturbed. In
+the autumn, however, the Szigligetis returned, and the adjoining flats
+at the same time got new tenants. The very next night I discovered, to
+my horror, with whom I was living under the same roof. It was the wife
+of the possessor of a flower-garden, who also kept a dancing academy.
+What afternoons, what nights I passed!
+
+At last I could stand it no longer, and I implored Szigligeti to appeal
+most energetically to the authorities against the nuisance. Szigligeti
+fully shared my indignation himself, so he posted off at once to the
+Town Captain to lay his complaint.
+
+"Sir," said he, "the proprietress of a flower-garden has settled down in
+my immediate neighbourhood."
+
+"But flowers must bloom somewhere, I suppose?"
+
+"But the people dance the livelong night."
+
+"That doesn't injure any one, surely?"
+
+"But after dancing they sit down to rest."
+
+"That is very natural."
+
+"But they take their rest and recreation very noisily."
+
+The Town Captain shrugged his shoulders, he could do nothing in the
+matter; it was a ticklish business to interfere in; it did not fall
+within his jurisdiction, etc., etc.
+
+But when, finally, Szigligeti said: "My lodger, the correspondent of the
+_Jelenkor_, cannot sleep all night because of them," then, indeed, the
+Town Captain suddenly leaped from his chair, set all his myrmidons in
+motion, and by the next day the whole flower-garden and dancing academy
+was transferred to another forcing bed. Such in those days was the
+authority of a newspaper correspondent.... I was therefore no longer a
+mere cipher. I was a something now. And, more than that, I was a
+somebody also. For it was in those days that I passed my legal
+examination, and became a certificated lawyer in the ordinary and
+commercial courts. My diploma, indeed, was not _præclarus_, but at any
+rate it was _laudibilis_. The oral _rigorosum_ I passed through
+brilliantly, but in the _scripturistik_ (there's a fine dog Latin word
+for you!) my _Hungarian style_ was not considered satisfactory.
+
+The publication of my legal diploma in the county court was a
+sufficiently dignified excuse for a visit to my native town. With head
+erect I could now enter the presence of the fairy damsel with the
+sparkling "eyes like the sea."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AN ODD DUEL--THE FATEFUL LETTER J.--I ALSO BECOME A PETER GYURICZA
+
+
+Emericus Vahot had discovered a youthful humorist whom he attached to
+the staff of his newspaper. Ultimately he became a most eminent writer,
+but at first he was quite a savage genius. He knew no languages but
+Hungarian and Latin. He was really after all a very worthy young fellow.
+He, too, took his place amongst us at the "Table of Public Opinion,"
+and even brought a pair of friends with him. One of the friends was a
+wry-shouldered critic, who judged the stage from a philological point of
+view, but the other was Muki Bagotay. He was not a writer, but a mere
+figure head. As, however, he drank with us, he considered himself as one
+of us.
+
+One afternoon the humorist and Muki fell out. Muki had thought good to
+boast of a certain conquest of his, the humorist had made a joke of it;
+a squabble ensued, and from words they came to blows. I was not there,
+but I heard all about it from those who were. There could not be a doubt
+that the end of it would be a duel. Late in the evening, just as I was
+preparing to go to bed, the wry-shouldered critic rushed into my room.
+His face was even more portentous than usual.
+
+"I have to communicate a secret to you, but you must give me your word
+as a gentleman not to let the matter go any further."
+
+"I give you my word upon it."
+
+"Our friend is going to fight Muki Bagotay to-morrow, I am his second."
+
+"That's all right."
+
+"Would you be so good as to lend us the weapons?"
+
+"My friend, I only possess one pistol, and that is a double-barrelled
+one."
+
+"That will just do!"
+
+"What the deuce? I suppose one of them will fire with it first, and if
+he does not hit his man he'll hand it over to the other, and he'll fire
+back with it?"
+
+"Precisely!"
+
+The crooked critic said this with such a solemn face that it was
+impossible not to believe him. This was quite a novel mode of duelling,
+and not a bad idea either.
+
+Early next morning, before I had got up, the second again appeared
+before me. He brought back the fatal pistol.
+
+"It is over," said he, with mournful dignity.
+
+"What was the result?"
+
+"Our poor friend was hit!"
+
+"Dangerously?"
+
+"The bullet penetrated his arm. But it has been taken out now."
+
+The news excited all my sympathy.
+
+I threw on my clothes and made my way to the Pillwax coffee-house. I
+found my good friends already at the "Table of Public Opinion," and
+every one of them shared my compassion. The critic related the mournful
+details to us.
+
+All at once two of our comrades, Degré and Lauka, rushed excitedly into
+the coffee-house. "The whole duel was a swindle!" they cried. "There was
+no harm done to any one. He was not even wounded. He is lying in bed
+with his arm tied up, and a bloody shirt; they are giving him ice
+cataplasms--the whole thing is a pure farce!"
+
+The second, however, solemnly maintained that his principal had been
+wounded.
+
+"We will convince ourselves of the fact."
+
+"Surely you would not want them to tear the bandages from the gaping
+wound?" This I also resolutely opposed, and, taking the part of my
+colleague, devised another expedient.
+
+"Who was the doctor who bound up the wound?"
+
+The critic mentioned the doctor's name.
+
+"We'll go to the doctor, then."
+
+Dr. K----y was a worthy, honest, high-spirited fellow, who well deserved
+the public respect.
+
+We rushed upon him in a body.
+
+"Tell us, now," we said, "is there a wound on the arm of the humorist?"
+
+"There is," replied the doctor.
+
+"Is it true that you took a bullet out of it?"
+
+"It is true."
+
+"On your professional reputation?"
+
+"On my professional reputation."
+
+With that my friends were bound to be satisfied. No further inquiries
+could be made.
+
+When, however, my two friends had withdrawn, I remained behind with the
+doctor, and I said to him, "My dear doctor, you have answered the
+question, did you take a bullet out of our friend's arm? but now answer
+me this question, who put that bullet in?"
+
+"Egad! egad! egad!" growled the doctor, "you imaginative people are
+really sad scamps!"
+
+The fact was that our humorist and Muki Bagotay had fought an American
+duel: whoever drew the black ball had--well, not to die, but to get Dr.
+K----y to make a wound in his arm. The doctor, with his lancet, made an
+incision about two centimètres in length and four millemètres in depth,
+in the epidermis just below the biceps; into this wound he insinuated a
+bullet, then took it out, sewed up the wound, and so wounded honour was
+amply satisfied. And I'll not say a single word against this being the
+most correct mode of procedure imaginable.
+
+Then I went home to my native town, ostensibly to advertise my legal
+diploma, but really to look once more upon her from whom I had been so
+long absent.
+
+I was very well received in the bosom of my family; the whole clan came
+together for dinner at my mother's, and for supper at the house of my
+brother-in-law, Francis Vály. The two Calvinist ministers were also
+invited, and one of them toasted me as "the ward of one guardian and the
+guardian of two wards" (an allusion to my father's profession and my new
+drama, _The Two Wards_); it was the first toast that made me blush.
+
+The next day was the meeting of the county board, at the end of which,
+with open doors, my diploma was promulgated. On that self-same day my
+dear mother gave me my father's silver-mounted sword, and the cornelian
+signet-ring, with the old family crest engraved upon it, which he used
+to wear. Democrat as I am, I frankly confess that to me there was a
+soul-steeling thought in the reflection that with this sword my worthy
+ancestors, who were much better men than myself, had defended their
+nation, country, laws, and constitution of yore, and that this
+signet-ring had put the seal upon their covenanted rights for all time.
+According to ancient custom, the sword and signet-ring of the father
+belonged of right to the _younger_ son; my father had given my elder
+brother a ring and sword of his own when he brought home _his_ diploma.
+
+After that, I had to pay visits of ceremony to the county and municipal
+authorities; I called upon my principal also, and a pretty little girl
+was there whose features I had perpetuated in a portrait; she still went
+to the convent school. This little girl, I may add, never had her
+romance; she died young, and thus found her true bliss.
+
+It was only in the afternoon that I was able to get to Bessy's.
+
+Among all earthly joys, is there one that can be compared with that
+heart-throbbing which a young man feels when he again approaches, after
+a long absence, the woman whom he idolises, with the thought that she
+also has been dreaming of him all the time? It is true that our parting
+had been somewhat abrupt, and a hill of thorns had risen up between us
+perhaps in consequence; but, on the other hand, my absence had had a
+definite, deliberate aim--I went to win for myself name and fame, and a
+worldly position. And lo! but six months had passed and all this was
+already accomplished. I was an author. I had the right to speak of
+myself in the plural "we," like a king; nay, I had even a _better_
+right, for the king can only lay the peasantry under contribution, but I
+could make the gentry pay up as well, and that right was also "_Dei
+gratia_." I fancied the whole world was mine, and that triumphs would go
+before and follow after me whithersoever I went.
+
+I was dressed according to the latest fashion. The famous firm of
+tailors, "Martinek and Korsinek," had performed a masterpiece upon me:
+my feet were shod with varnished dress-shoes, I had a whale-bone cane
+with a gold-headed handle, I wore Jaquemar gloves. I no longer singed my
+hair with heated hair-tongs as in the days when I was a patvarist, but a
+hairdresser had twisted it into ringlets; and now, too, I had a sprucely
+twisted moustache and a beard.
+
+I really must make the most of all these glories to emphasize the
+dramatic climax.
+
+I found Bessy's mother and her aunt in the well-known reception room;
+the companion was on a visit to her relations. After the ceremonial
+kissing of hands, my first question was, "And Miss Bessy?"
+
+"She is in her own room, yonder."
+
+"May I go there?"
+
+"Oh, by all means!"
+
+It was that memorable room in which I had painted her portrait.
+
+The girl was alone, seated by her little table, and was bending over her
+embroidery frame. She really must have been very much absorbed in her
+work, as otherwise she must certainly have seen through the window that
+I was coming to her. It was a sort of pearl embroidery that she was busy
+over, meant apparently for the cover of a portfolio. On perceiving me
+enter, she hastily covered it with her handkerchief, but for all that,
+my eyes caught a momentary glimpse of a large letter "J." on the
+embroidery. What else could it be but the initial letter of my surname?
+I was confirmed in this belief by the circumstance that on the same
+little table stood my portrait of her on a gorgeous stand.
+
+She greeted me kindly, but I could detect a certain hostile sentiment in
+her smile. It is only in the eyes that one can read such things, and
+practised swordsmen always can tell from the expression of their
+opponents' eyes how they are going to lunge.
+
+She questioned me about everything, and I replied with great precision;
+but these questions and answers were mere feints: the points of the
+swords were so far only twirling around each other.
+
+All at once she lunged straight at my head with her sword.
+
+"And pray what is the _amiable little sapling_ doing?"
+
+In my first amazement I absolutely did not know what she was alluding
+to.
+
+"What sapling?"
+
+"Why, that darling little stage fairy, of course, who kindled you to
+such enthusiasm."
+
+So it turned up again now! Even here they cast it in my teeth! Was it
+not enough to have smarted once in my life for pretty Lilla's sake? In
+vain did I assure her that never in my life had I seen the young artiste
+except on the stage; that there indeed she had earned my admiration, but
+that I had never felt any tender sentiment either for her or for any
+other mortal maiden in the whole of Buda-Pest.
+
+"Let that go, then!" said Bessy mockingly. "We are well informed of
+everything that goes on. How about your landlord's three pretty
+daughters?"
+
+"Pardon me, but the eldest of them is only nine years old."
+
+"And your gay neighbours, the flower-garden ladies?"
+
+Well, this was simply appalling. How could I tell her the whole story?
+And yet I was the very person who had got them removed.
+
+"Whom the Town Captain was forced to interfere with? Oh, we know all
+about it! My little finger has whispered it to me."
+
+I was quite confused. Who could have been tittle-tattling about me so?
+
+And all the time her eyes were flashing sparks at me!
+
+But I was not to remain in doubt long. A new visitor arrived, his voice
+was already heard in the ante-chamber. It was Muki Bagotay.
+
+It was plain to me now that it was he who had whispered all these things
+to Bessy.
+
+Into the room he rushed. He certainly was infamously handsome. My head
+of curls was quite dwarfed by his. His dress was much more fashionable
+than mine. And what a cocksure air he had! I dared not so much as press
+Bessy's hand, while he knelt down before her and laid his hat--together
+with his heart--at her feet.
+
+"Go away with you--don't be silly!" said Bessy, by way of correction,
+pointing at me.
+
+"Your servant, comrade," cried Muki, becoming aware of my presence.
+
+Then he occupied himself with me no more, but turned towards Bessy and
+tried to remove the handkerchief from the embroidery, which attempt
+Bessy resisted with all her might.
+
+"It's mine, after all, you know," insisted Muki.
+
+"Then wait your turn, and you shall have it on your birthday."
+
+His birthday! A thought flashed through my brain. Muki's name was János.
+That initial letter was _his_, not mine.
+
+A dramatic climax. How instantly Muki became the sensible fellow and I
+the blockhead! At that moment I must have cut a somewhat queer figure
+the very type of gaping confusion.
+
+By way of explanation Muki seized Bessy's hand and raised it to his
+lips, and said to me as a matter of form, "Bessy is my betrothed."
+
+And it was for this, then, that all these Sardanapalian accusations had
+been piled upon my head. The sapling of the stage, the flower-garden,
+and my landlord's young ladies were the golden bridge for a retreat.
+
+It was only then that I hit upon more sensible ideas and hastened to
+congratulate them.
+
+And now I made it a point to remain where I was. They shall see that the
+whole matter is of the utmost indifference to me.
+
+"You know, I suppose," said Muki, "what was the cause of my last duel?"
+
+"That famous duel of yours, eh?"
+
+"Yes, it was pretty famous, I think. That poor young fellow whom I shot
+was a worthy comrade, but had he been my born brother I would have shot
+him for his disrespectful allusions to my bride."
+
+"Go along with you, you bloodthirsty man!" cried Bessy, with coquettish
+self-satisfaction.
+
+And he had the cheek to say all this before me who knew the whole
+history of the duel! How ridiculous I could have made him look, if I had
+told how it had happened! But do it I wouldn't, because I felt that they
+were a worthy pair. I merely said: "I must admit, friend Muki, that in
+the way of imagination you are much greater than I."
+
+"And greater in other things also," said Muki, half drawing his sword.
+
+"We'll see about that one of these days in the fencing-school."
+
+"What! That swindling fencing! Wrestling is the thing to test a man's
+mettle. That fashionable gymnastic rubbish is a mere farce. I should
+like to see a fellow do what I can do when I go out on my _puszta_.[23]
+I have a stout _gulgásy_[24] there, Peter Gyuricza, with whom I am wont
+to wrestle. A stalwart fellow, hard as a stone; he can keep the upper
+hand over a hundred steers. Twice out of three bouts have I floored
+Peter Gyuricza, and Peter Gyuricza has only floored me once."
+
+[Footnote 23: The Hungarian steppe or great plain.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Neat-herd, peculiar to Hungary.]
+
+"A pretty pastime, certainly."
+
+"It is not to be learnt by pen-scribbling or brush-daubing, anyhow."
+
+That I had to let pass, for there's no getting over the truth. It is not
+only true that I was no Samson, but it is also true that, compared with
+a hundred oxen, my poor Pegasus was but a sorry beast of draught. But
+Muki Bagotay was not even content with this triumph, he wanted to
+absolutely trample me beneath his feet; and as if he had only just
+observed for the first time the picture of Bessy painted by me, he chose
+to make _that_ the bone of contention.
+
+"Meanwhile, till I possess the original, I appropriate this picture."
+
+Bessy protested. "No, no, I will not part with that."
+
+But Muki thereupon took the picture from the table and held it aloft, so
+that Bessy could not get it out of his hand. She begged, implored,
+raved, but Muki only laughed and said he meant to stick to the picture.
+
+It was then that my ill-humour got the better of me.
+
+"Sir," said I, laying my hand on his shoulder, "put down that portrait!
+I did not paint it for you."
+
+How scornfully he looked at me over his shoulder! "_You_ would needs try
+conclusions with me--_you_, a mere poet!"
+
+And he flung himself upon me with the pious resolve of forcing me out of
+Bessy's boudoir into the ante-chamber. When he saw that I resisted, he
+threw both his arms round my body. I also hugged him, and to work we
+went straightway.
+
+Muki was furious because I would not allow my frame to be smashed so
+easily. Bessy began shrieking, and took refuge in the bow window.
+Suddenly I rallied all my strength and pitched Muki on to the sofa with
+such violence that the back of it cracked and came off.
+
+"I also am a Peter Gyuricza!" I cried.
+
+I would not have exchanged that triumph for all the glory in the world.
+
+At the noise of this great scuffle, the mother and the aunt rushed into
+the room, and great was their indignation when they saw me kneeling on
+Muki's breast.
+
+"Let me get up, fellow!" said my antagonist.
+
+All that I wanted to do was to take the portrait from the hands of its
+unlawful possessor. Meanwhile the poor portrait had got terribly mauled.
+During the struggle it had fallen to the ground, and the pair of us had
+left the impression of our heels upon it. Bessy burst into tears when
+she saw the wreckage of her own portrait, but her mother lamented over
+the broken sofa.
+
+I comforted Bessy with the assurance that I would make the damaged
+portrait all right again--there were special colours for that.
+
+"But she must not sit again," hastily intervened her mother. She was
+afraid I should begin coming to the house again and spoil the good
+match.
+
+"And I haven't got that dress either," said Bessy.
+
+It certainly was a pretty dress. Would that she had never had it!
+
+I assured them, however, that I would be able to put the picture to
+rights at home, all by myself. And with that I put it in my pocket. I
+never went back there again.
+
+The mother and the aunt ostentatiously occupied themselves with Muki,
+expressing all the time their regretful sympathy, at which he was beside
+himself for fury.
+
+I beat a retreat without any attempt to say good-bye. But Bessy ran
+after me, and, overtaking me in the doorway, seized my hand, and
+whispered in an ardent voice, "You'll put _me_ to rights, won't you?"
+
+"The _portrait_? oh yes!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour afterwards I was sitting on the steamer and gazing at the
+lingering smoke which hid my native town from my eyes. It was just as if
+I were returning from a funeral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WELTSCHMERZ CONDITIONS[25]--"REMAIN OR FLY!"
+
+
+[Footnote 25: _Világ fájdalmas_ állapotok. There is no English
+equivalent of _Világ fájdalmas_.]
+
+When I got back to Pest, I found two letters awaiting me on my
+writing-table, one from Tony Várady, inviting me to stand godfather to
+his new-born son, and the other from Petöfi, informing me that he had
+just been married to Julia Szendrey, and that they were having very
+happy days at Teleky's Castle, Koltó. Both of these friends were poor
+fellows, like myself; and the ladies who had chosen to be their
+companions through life were girls belonging to wealthy, eminent
+families, accustomed to luxury and splendour, surrounded by obsequious
+wooers, and their mothers loved them as the apples of their eyes. Their
+families opposed the marriages, and the enamoured young ladies,
+handicapped as they were by the weight of their parents' refusal,
+followed their beloveds notwithstanding.
+
+Then true love is no dream after all, but pure gold. And yet when I seek
+this pure gold they call me a crazy alchemist!
+
+And now Petöfi begged me by letter to seek out a convenient lodging for
+him, where they and I could live together. That a newly-married
+bridegroom should invite his faithful bachelor comrade to be a
+fellow-lodger with him is a fact which belongs to the realm of fairy
+tales.
+
+I immediately hunted up in Tobacco Street a nice
+first-floor-apartment,[26] consisting of three chambers and their
+domestic offices; the first room was for the Petöfis, the second for me,
+while the intermediate one was to be a common dining-room, and there
+were separate entrances for each of us.
+
+[Footnote 26: Used here in the French sense of a suite of rooms.]
+
+The young couple came in during the autumn; they kept one maid, and I
+had an old servant. We had both very primitive furniture. Mrs. Petöfi
+had left her father's house without a dowry; she had not so much as a
+fashionable hat to bless herself with; she had sewed herself together a
+sort of head-dress of her own invention, which she never wore. Her hair
+was cut short, so that she looked like a little boy. They had nothing,
+and yet they were very happy! Julia's sole amusement was to learn
+English from Petöfi, and afterwards, at dinner (which was sent in from
+"The Eagle"), we spoke English, and laughed at each other's blunders.
+And I had to be a witness of their bliss every day!
+
+It was just as if one were to season hell with piquant pepper.
+
+Just about this time there appeared in _Eletképek_ some very ordinary
+verses entitled "Word-Echoes," by one "Aggteleki,"[27] ostensibly
+addressed to a certain actress. I am now able to confess that _I_ was
+the author of those verses. But for all that (though the verses were not
+so bad) I solemnly forbid any one at any time to include these verses
+among my works, for even now, forty years after the event, I am not such
+an old, decrepit, suicidally inclined fellow as Aggteleki was.
+
+[Footnote 27: Aged Teleki.]
+
+But, indeed, every one of the works that I wrote at that period breathe
+the same bitter tone. The paroxysms of a crushed spirit, the dreamy
+phantoms of a diseased imagination, self-contempt, a moon-sick view of
+the world in general, characterise all my tales belonging to that
+period. And yet they pleased people then. I even had imitators. I turned
+Petöfi himself away from the right path. He himself confessed that his
+novel entitled "Hóhér Kötele"[28] was written under the influence of my
+"Nyomarék naplója,"[29] a literary abortion.
+
+[Footnote 28: "The Hangman's Rope." It certainly is a wretched
+performance.--TR.]
+
+[Footnote 29: "The Cripple's Diary."]
+
+Who knows whither I should have got to with my tower of Babel, had not a
+healthy earthquake brought it to the ground?
+
+One day Petöfi caught me in the act of touching up Bessy's portrait. He
+saw from my eyes that I had been weeping. I tried to hide it, for I was
+a bit ashamed.
+
+"_It is well that it is so, my son_," said he on that occasion; "_it is
+men who are unhappy that the world wants now._"
+
+A memorable saying!
+
+It was in those days that he wrote "I dream, I dream of bloody days,"
+and "My Songs," with this final strophe, all blood and fire:--
+
+    "Wherefore doth this race of thralls endure it?
+    Wherefore rise not? Rend your chains and cure it!
+    Do ye wait, forsooth! till God's good pleasure
+    Rusts them off, and makes them drop at leisure?"
+
+And then he would lead me into his room. On the walls there, in handsome
+frames, hung the portraits of the chiefs of the French Revolution--this
+was his only luxury--Danton, Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins,
+Saint-Juste, Madame Roland. There, too, the parts we were to play were
+distributed; Saint-Juste was designed for me, Madame Roland for Julia.
+And then we spoke of "the bloody days." They were to be no mere dream,
+we were to see them with our eyes wide open. And we were to be among the
+first to feel them.
+
+A healthy-minded man would have been ready after such words as these to
+have left the house by jumping out of the window; but they had a charm
+for me. It suited my peculiar frame of mind just then to set on fire the
+Dejanira robe that was about me, and then rush out among the people and
+set them on fire also.
+
+"Man's fate is woman!"
+
+Had that young lady the last time I held her hand in mine said "Stay!" I
+should certainly have remained. I should have crept into my little nook
+of bliss and never have gazed after the moonshine of fame. In that case
+I should now perhaps have been one of the judicial assessors at the
+Royal Courts, and have joined heartily in the laugh when one or other of
+my colleagues at the end of a friendly banquet might take it into his
+head to quote some monstrous sentences out of my earliest romance, an
+imperfect copy of which turns up now and then as a literary curiosity
+among other antiquarian rubbish.
+
+This is what would have happened if the young lady had said "Stay!"
+
+But if that young lady had said "Fly!" then I should have flown like the
+rest after the falling stars. And, indeed, of those who stood with me on
+the 11th March[30] before the mob on the balcony of the town-hall to
+announce "This is the day of national liberty!" of those my
+youthful-visaged, warm-hearted comrades, three have perished in defence
+of that word "Liberty" then pronounced: those three names are
+"Petöfi,"[31] "Vasváry," "Bozzai." And certainly, in that case, the
+four ounces of lead, or the cossack's lance, or the grenade splinter
+which killed them, might have sufficed for me also--that is, of course,
+if that young lady had said "Fly!" Fate, in fact, confronted me with
+this paradox--"Either live and be forgotten, or be remembered as one who
+died young!"
+
+[Footnote 30: When the Hungarian revolution of 1848 began.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Petöfi was most probably killed at the battle of Segesvár
+in July, 1849; at any rate he was never seen or heard of afterwards. He
+was only twenty-seven, and in him the world lost one of its great lyric
+poets.]
+
+"Stay!" or "Fly!"
+
+Then a voice said to me: "Go! but let us go together!"
+
+But it was not the voice of the lady with the eyes like the sea.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One morning Petöfi rushed into my room roaring with laughter.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Do you want to laugh? Just catch hold of that _Honderü_."
+And into my hands he thrust the latest number of the opposition paper.
+
+I immediately caught sight of what had made him laugh so much. There was
+a magnificent description from my native town of the wedding which had
+taken place between Mr. János Nepomuk Bagotay and the world-renowned
+beauty--I didn't trouble to look at the name. "The happy pair will spend
+their honeymoon at Paris!"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! ha!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PETER GYURICZA'S CONSORT
+
+
+After the March days, I quitted the Petöfis and went into another
+lodging. I had got on so well that I could maintain a bachelor's
+establishment, consisting of two rooms, which I furnished myself.
+Properly speaking, it only became a bachelor's establishment when I
+entered, for before I took it it was occupied by a little old woman who
+kept a registry office for providing respectable families with servants.
+Every one knew "Mámi," as she was called.... I was very well satisfied
+with my lodging, which quite answered all my requirements. It had this
+one drawback, however, that a whole mob of cooks, parlour-maids, and
+nursery-maids were constantly opening my door under the persuasion that
+I could provide them with places, and they disturbed my work terribly.
+Besides, this constant flow of petticoats towards my door was sufficient
+of itself to bring a young man into disrepute. From the apartments at
+the opposite end of the corridor it was possible to catch a glimpse of
+my door, and it was just in these very apartments that Rosa Laborfalvy
+lived. I was afraid that _some one_ might think ill of me.
+
+It was no longer the _Weltschmerz_, but a _Privatschmerz_,[32] that
+afflicted me.
+
+[Footnote 32: _Privát fájdalmas_--private anxiety.]
+
+Again I had applied myself to portrait-painting. A tall, slender girl in
+a white atlas dress, with large black eyes, and coal-black ringlets _à
+l'Anglaise_ rolling down to her shoulders, was standing on my easel; I
+was just giving it the finishing-touch, I had no need for the original
+to be my model. I have the portrait to this day.
+
+All at once there came a knocking at my door "Come in!" The door opened,
+and in came a stylish young peasant girl. I thought as much; here we
+have another nursery-maid in search of a place.
+
+"No, no; go away! The registry-office lady does not live here!" said I
+viciously, for I was busy with my portrait; and perceiving that the
+intruder did not retire even now, I bawled out, not over gently: "In
+Heaven's name, be off, my dear!"
+
+At this the peasant girl began to laugh. Had I not heard that laughing
+voice somewhere before? I turned round and looked at her, and the more I
+looked, the more astonished I felt. It was Bessy!
+
+She wore a bright red gown trimmed with yellowish-green flowers, over
+that a dark blue, double-bordered damask apron, and a black silk bodice
+with puff sleeves. Above the bodice was a bib with beautifully
+embroidered palm flowers; on her head sat a cockscomb like Haube,
+frilled with starched thread-lace; on her arm she carried a covered
+basket by the handle.
+
+Her face was ruddy and bronzed from exposure to the sun, and a sort of
+waggish little imp was nestling provocatively in her smiling features. I
+couldn't believe my own eyes.
+
+"What! don't you know me?" she cried, with a merry laugh. "I'm Bessy!"
+
+I saw that, but for the life of me I could not conceive what her object
+was in coming masquerading like this through the streets of Buda in
+broad daylight. And to hit upon _my_ lodgings of all places in the
+world!
+
+"Madame de Bagotay?" I stammered in my confusion.
+
+"Oh, I am no longer Madame Bagotay, but Madame Peter Gyuricza!"
+
+"What on earth do you mean? Mrs. Gyuricza! The wife of a herdsman?"
+
+My amazement was so genuine that Bessy clapped her hands together with
+glee.
+
+"Then you actually don't know about it? They haven't written to you from
+home?"
+
+"It is a long time since I received a letter from home."
+
+"But this was a scandal which set seven counties in an uproar; there has
+been nothing like it since the French Revolution--and you call yourself
+the editor of a newspaper!"
+
+"My paper does not meddle with purely family matters."
+
+Bessy's face was flushed, and she began smoothing it with the palms of
+both hands; she thought, perhaps, that she would brush the tell-tale
+blush away.
+
+"I have heated myself a little on that steep staircase of yours," she
+said.
+
+She blamed the staircase for that flaming face of hers.
+
+It then occurred to me that it would only be polite to ask my fair
+visitor to take a seat. I offered her the sofa.
+
+"Oh, dear, no! That's only for ladies! This will do quite well enough
+for me." And with that she sat down on my trunk, and put down her basket
+beside it. "I really am quite tired. I have travelled by the corn-boat
+as far as Vácz,[33] and thence I have walked all the way to Pest."
+
+[Footnote 33: Waitzen.]
+
+"But you could have gone by steamer?"
+
+"But my master[34] could not give me steamboat fare. We are poor people.
+Look! this is my whole provision for the journey."
+
+[Footnote 34: _i.e._, husband.]
+
+And with that she lifted the lid of the basket, and showed me what was
+inside it: a piece of black bread, and something wrapped up in greasy
+paper--a piece of cheese possibly, and a garlic-seasoned sausage.
+
+"I must keep this for my return journey."
+
+The cynicism of the proceeding revolted me.
+
+"But now, if you please, I should very much like to know what's the
+meaning of it all. Is it a practical joke you are playing upon me?"
+
+"Oh, no! certainly not! Pray don't suppose that I have dressed up on
+your account. I am now a real peasant woman, and such I mean to remain.
+It is a serious thing for me, I can tell you, and I've come to you, not
+that you may write about it in your paper, but that you may give me
+advice."
+
+"_I_ give _you_ advice?"
+
+"Certainly! Whom else should I ask? The whole world condemns and
+tramples upon me, and yet I have offended nobody, not even in thought.
+You are the only one I have injured, bitterly injured, so it is from you
+that I must seek protection."
+
+Woman's logic with a vengeance! I stood up in front of her, leaning on
+the edge of the table. I was contriving all the time to prevent her from
+seeing the portrait I was painting.
+
+"I'll begin from the very beginning," continued the lady, lowering her
+long eyelashes. "I was married. So much you know. We gave a splendid
+banquet. The whole town, half the county was there. I fancy they
+described it in the newspapers; and why shouldn't they, when the
+richest, best-known, and most handsome girl in the town was married to
+the ideal cavalier? The lady brought a dowry of 100,000 florins, and the
+gentleman conveyed his bride to his ancestral castle in a carriage drawn
+by four fiery horses. The universal envy was a more piquant grace to the
+meal than the benediction of the priest. The gentlemen envied the
+bridegroom, and the ladies envied the bride, and every one was forced to
+say: 'A couple made for each other.' Alas! the only joy which remained
+in my heart when I came out of church and looked among the crowd was the
+thought, 'Ah! you all envy me, I know!'
+
+"We went straight from church to my husband's castle," continued Bessy.
+"Thirty carriages escorted us. I counted them. A splendid banquet
+followed. That day I changed my dress four times. The fifth time I put
+on a lace _négligé_, and the bridesmaids led me to the bridal chamber.
+This room was a veritable masterpiece of upholstery. A Vienna furnisher
+had decorated it most elaborately. I couldn't sleep all night. The voice
+of the bass viol and the clarionet resounded in my ears from the
+banqueting-room, and the noise and uproar of the guests also. I did not
+see my husband till the morning. Then the guests began to disperse. Only
+now and then did a cracked and piping voice mingle with the frantic
+music of the gipsies. Then it was that my husband appeared before me,
+and a pitiable object he looked. He called me his darling little sister,
+and asked me if I could tell him where he lived. Then he undressed
+himself on the sofa and talked such nonsense that at last I couldn't
+help laughing. 'Well,' said I to myself, 'I suppose this is always the
+way when they take leave of their bachelordom.' Then sleep overcame me
+and I dreamed the silliest stuff. _You_ were continually in my dreams.
+But why mention such things now?"
+
+With that she readjusted the kerchief which was tied around her
+head-dress and proceeded:--
+
+"It was afternoon when I awoke. I must have wept a great deal in my
+dreams, for the pillow on which my head lay was quite wet. My husband
+was no longer reposing on the sofa, but sprawling on the floor like a
+stuffed frog. It cost me a great deal of trouble to shake him into life
+again. It was a still greater effort to make him understand in what part
+of the world he was, and in what relations we stood to each other here
+below. After that he insisted upon my crawling with him under the sofa,
+and when I wouldn't hear of it, he began to cry like a child, and
+demanded a pistol from me that he might blow his brains out. Then I
+brought a washing-basin and washed his face for him, and ducked it once
+or twice in cold water. He roared like a baby who is being tubbed, but
+finally recovered his spirits, and allowed himself to be raised from the
+ground. Then he drank out of the water-jug, and his eyes opened, but
+they were as tiny as a mole's, and I now perceived for the first time
+that they were a little crooked."
+
+During this narration Bessy laughed and laughed again.
+
+"What a sight the fellow did look! his hair all rumpled, his moustache
+all askew, his clothes soiled and tousled. He had to be dressed all over
+again. I began to scold him a little, 'A pretty condition of things, I
+must say!' To which he replied that I ought to have seen his comrades,
+Nusi, and Lenezi, and Blekus, and how _they_ had been settled. They had
+all fallen under the table, and he had remained the victor. And he
+yawned so much as he told me this, that I had to beg him not to swallow
+me. At last I got him to sit down on a chair while I did his hair for
+him, and he meanwhile howled and swore continually that every single
+hair pained him as much as if devils were tweaking him with iron
+pincers."
+
+Again the lady stopped to laugh.
+
+"That's quite a novel state of things to you, eh? A person who becomes
+the bride of an out-and-out dandy must expect to see something
+extraordinary. But perhaps there was nothing extraordinary in it after
+all. And now the banquet was resumed, commencing with a pick-me-up. I
+presided at the table with a turban on my head. All our guests were
+still drunk. I had to listen to very peculiar anecdotes. At such times
+the best man is he who can pay the new bride the compliment which will
+make her blush the most. The lady guests had all departed in the
+morning, and had come to bid me good-bye one by one. They all wept over
+me--it is the usual thing. I was the only lady left, and glad was I when
+I managed to get away from the gentlemen. I think that they had been
+awaiting my withdrawal; they could then continue their interrupted
+pastime. Again I could not sleep; my head was throbbing. For the first
+time in my life I recognised the existence of the headache, that
+frightful curse of feminine nerves which I had hitherto always put down
+to affectation or imagination. How good it would have been for me if
+some one had laid a cool, refreshing hand upon my temples! Perhaps a
+single word of comfort would have relieved my pangs! I waited for it in
+vain. I sent a message. He never came to me. Suddenly, while an
+oppressive dream was benumbing my pain, a hellish uproar awoke me. I
+fancied that Pandemonium had been let loose. It was only my husband, but
+he had brought with him the whole of his drunken crew. I saw before me a
+whole legion of them, with guffawing, sardonic, lascivious, distorted
+faces, and amongst them my husband, with the grin of a satyr on his
+idiotic face. I rose in terror from my bed, cast my counterpane around
+me, fled into my waiting-maid's room, and barricaded myself behind the
+door. There he thumped and thundered for some time. I threatened to
+throw myself out of the window if he broke in by force. Thereupon some
+of his comrades, in whom a little human feeling still remained,
+contrived to drag him away, though not without difficulty. Then followed
+a little sulky squabble on both sides. I wouldn't leave my room for
+four-and-twenty hours; he wouldn't come to me. The noise that he made
+over head was sufficient evidence to me that he hadn't committed
+suicide in the meantime. The third day was passed by the bridal guests
+in a more profitable occupation. They played at cards. The table,
+vigorously punched by their fists, proclaimed their handiwork aloud. It
+was like blacksmiths' apprentices pounding iron on the anvil with
+sledgehammers. Only in the morning did 'my lord and master' turn up
+while I was still only half-dressed. He was sober then, and, what is
+more, ill-tempered. His loss at cards was mirrored in his face like a
+guilty conscience. He frankly told me all about it. He had been peppered
+finely, and his comrades were vile curs.... Such was my wedding."
+
+Bessy covered her face with both her hands. Was she laughing? Was she
+weeping? I cannot say.
+
+All at once she asked me, "Did you ever play at cards?"
+
+"Yes, but only for copper coins."
+
+"It's all one. You ought not to waste your time with it."
+
+"Well, really, I only spend that time on it which I do not know how to
+employ otherwise, the time when I am tired of work, and want a rest from
+thinking. Cards are very good things at such times."
+
+"Then what a pity girls also do not learn the science of card-playing at
+school, just as they learn to find out towns on maps, or gather the
+properties of exotic plants and animals from zoological albums; then at
+least a newly-married bride would understand why it is necessary to
+subtract so much from her heritage to sacrifice it to such mythological
+deities as _skiz_ and _pagát_.[35] ..."
+
+[Footnote 35: Terms used in Tarok.]
+
+Meanwhile I didn't interrupt her, but remained standing and looking at
+her with my hands resting on the table. This seemed to put her out.
+
+"Why don't you smoke a cigar? Don't mind me."
+
+"I would only remind you that you used always to make fun of me because
+I didn't smoke."
+
+"True. Smoking becomes a man. A cigar or a pipe makes his face so
+cosy-looking. Just look at any man who hasn't a pipe stuck into his
+mouth, and tell me if he doesn't look like a judge pronouncing judgment,
+or a priest shriving a penitent? Believe me, that one of the reasons why
+I was faithless to you was that you didn't smoke. Well, at any rate, I
+have got my reward for it.
+
+"Now, Muki used to suck Havannahs all day. Yes, nothing but Havannahs;
+but Gyuricza smokes the coarsest tobacco, and even chews pigtail."
+
+I burst out laughing; I couldn't help it. In what ways are a woman's
+graces gained! No, I wouldn't chew pigtail if the favour of the Goddess
+Melpomene herself depended on it.
+
+"I will not weary you with our diversions at Paris. There, I perceived,
+it is the common practice for husband and wife to take their pleasures
+apart. My husband did no more than what other husbands do. It is not
+good form to ask a husband who returns home at dawn where he has been.
+Besides, Muki, with perfect candour, informed me all about these places
+of public entertainment and the joys of _les petits soupers_; once he
+took me with him to these delights--I didn't ask to go again.... I was
+very glad when the season was over and we returned to our village, and
+after all the bustling diversions, flirtations, visitings and boredom, I
+could once more be alone and fill my straw hat with forget-me-nots on
+the banks of the river, as of old on the island. You remember my visit
+to your rustic hut, don't you? You remember the golden thrushes who used
+to speak to you? To you they said, 'Silly boy! silly boy!' to me they
+cried, 'What's the good! what's the good!' On returning to his estates
+my husband became quite another man: you would have said that he was a
+changeling. The dainty dandy became an enthusiastic agriculturist. He
+was up early, on horseback all day, went from one _puszta_ to another,
+and brought home ears of barley in his hat. The only things he talked
+about at home were sheepshearing and the diseases of horned cattle. He
+had a stud and a neat-herd, and of the latter he appeared to be
+particularly proud. Sometimes he drove me all over his demesne in a
+light gig. A fine demesne it was. You might drive about it the whole day
+and not see the whole of it. He showed me his herds. He told me that
+herds like them were not to be had in the whole kingdom. I didn't
+understand it. All that I could see was that the oxen had very large
+horns. But the form of the herdsman really did surprise me. He was a
+veritable ancient-hero sort of a man, such as we imagine the primeval
+Magyars to have been who wandered hither out of Asia. His bronzed face
+beamed with health, his thick black hair whipped his shoulders with its
+greasy curls, and add to that his sun-defying glance, his stately
+bearing, his long mantle embroidered with tulips and cast lightly across
+his shoulder. His white linen garment fluttered in the breeze, and when
+he raised his arm to take off his cap, the loose fluttering short
+sleeves fell right back and revealed an arm like the arm of the figure
+of an athlete cast in bronze. 'Why, Peter,' said I, 'is it with you that
+your master is wont to wrestle?' The Hercules, thus addressed, timidly
+cast down his eyes and said: 'Yes!' 'But how on earth is your master
+ever able to throw you?' At this question, Peter Gyuricza shifted his
+mantle from one shoulder to the other, and twisting his moustache,
+replied: 'As often as his Excellency throws me I get five florins.' So
+that was the secret of Muki's acrobatic triumphs. After that, the
+herdsman conducted us to the great summer farm, which was a good
+distance from the hut where the calves are put to rest at midday. There,
+a savoury luncheon, prepared by the wife of the herdsman, awaited us.
+She was a buxom, smart young woman, with roguish eyes and radiating
+eyebrows, all life and freshness, a true blossom of the _puszta_.[36] I
+caught myself looking repeatedly in the mirror, and making comparisons
+between her face and my own. After luncheon we went all round the farm,
+and the herdsman's wife guided us from stable to stable. A thorn got
+into my foot through my slipper. The herdsman's wife bobbed down and
+drew the thorn out. 'You don't feel the thorn now, do you?' she asked,
+flashing a look upon me. 'I do not feel it in my foot,' I replied."
+
+[Footnote 36: _i.e._, a true heath-flower.]
+
+Bessy paused for a moment, and smoothed her brows with both hands as if
+to refresh her memory.
+
+"I took another sort of thorn away with me. I began to be suspicious of
+the grand economical zeal of my husband. Such assiduity was not natural.
+Early one morning he again took horse, called to his greyhounds, and
+told me not to wait for him to dinner, he would not be home till
+evening. A certain instinct would not let me rest. I went out into the
+garden, right to the boundary fence and into the stubble beyond, and
+then I went on foot into the _puszta_, through the turnip fields and the
+Indian corn. Nobody saw me. The vesper-bell was ringing in the village
+when I entered the courtyard of the herdsman. In the stubble I saw the
+two dogs hunting a hare on their own account. Truly, a Cockney sportsman
+who allows his dogs to win their own meat like that! I whistled to them,
+they recognised me and came leaping around me. 'Where's your master?'
+The dogs understood me. They began yelping and barking, and darted on
+before me helter-skelter, with their heads between their legs as if to
+give me to understand that they would lead me to the spot if I followed
+them. They made straight for the hut. No doubt they fancied they were
+doing something very knowing. When I marched in at the door the little
+servant exclaimed, 'Good gracious!' and let fall the wooden trencher in
+which she was kneading some dough with a large pot-ladle, and when I
+advanced towards the dwelling-room door, she stood in my way, and said,
+'Please don't go in now!' I boxed her ears for her, first on the right
+side and then on the left, pushed her into a cupboard and locked the
+door upon her. Then I opened the door of the dwelling-room. There was
+nobody there. But the door of a little side room, which in peasants'
+houses is, as a rule, always open, was closed. On the table, however, I
+perceived my lord's hat and his riding-whip. I made no disturbance. The
+clothes of the herdsman's wife lay in a heap on a bench. I took off my
+clothes and put on hers carefully, one by one. I was just as you see me
+now."
+
+She stood up before me and turned herself round that I might have a
+better look at her.
+
+"Then I went into the outer hut again, and picked the ladle from the
+floor which the maid had let fall in her terror. It was a mess of bacon
+dumplings that she had been engaged upon. I kneaded the dough for the
+dumplings, I made twelve beautiful little round ones out of it, boiled
+them, beat up a nice garlic sauce with them, and poured the whole lot of
+it into a varnished jug, first tasting to see that it was not over
+salted. Then I tied up the jar in my kerchief, and set off with it
+towards the pasturage. But another idea also occurred to me. I concealed
+behind my apron my husband's riding whip that was reposing on the table,
+and took it away with me.
+
+"The pasturage is pretty far from the hut. It was somewhat late when I
+arrived there. The herdsman was quite impatient, and had climbed up a
+'look-out' tree, and when he saw my striped dress and bright red
+kerchief, he began to bawl out, 'Hillo! Come along, can't you! I'll give
+you what for! I'll teach you something, you cursed blockhead! What have
+you done with my dinner? A pretty time when they're already ringing
+vespers in the village. I suppose you've been carrying on with his
+honour again? Let me catch you at it, that's all, and I'll tickle your
+hide for you with my whip.' When I got up to him and lifted the kerchief
+from my head, he stopped short with his mouth open. 'Well, I never! if
+it isn't her ladyship!'--'True, Peter!' said I. 'I've cooked your dinner
+for you, and now you see I've brought it to you. Your wife cannot come.
+She's learning French from my husband. I've also brought with me my
+husband's whip. I found it on your table. You may flog with it whomever
+you like, either me or your wife.'"
+
+Here she stopped short. She evidently meant me to find out the rest of
+the story for myself.
+
+"Poor woman!" I murmured. I was sorry and embarrassed.
+
+She burst out laughing.
+
+"Don't pity me, pray! I am perfectly happy. Gyuricza did not strike me
+with his whip. I am now mistress in the herdsman's hut."
+
+And she seemed quite proud of it all!
+
+Then she began to tell me of her new hero with real enthusiasm. He was
+what man was meant to be when first created, all strength and truth;
+there was nothing artificial, nothing false, nothing effeminate about
+him. "When he comes home at night he goes to the fireplace to smoke his
+pipe; then he empties a can of buttermilk to the very dregs. Wine is
+only put upon the table on Sundays. Then he asks, 'Have you any good
+dumpling soup, sweetheart?' 'Of course I have, and cured bacon and groat
+pottage as well.' As soon as it is ready we turn it out and sit down to
+it. We eat with tin spoons out of a large common dish. No invitation is
+needed there. The lady herself fetches the water from the spring. The
+master drinks one half of it and offers the other half to his wife: 'You
+drink too!' And after that they don't go in for much stargazing, nor do
+they care a fig for the world and all its thousand troubles. They sleep
+with open doors, and the four sheep-dogs guard the house.
+
+"At three o'clock in the morning Bessy gets up and goes into the stable
+to milk the cows; by dawn it must be all done. The little milking-stool
+is now her throne. She pours the fresh foaming milk into the pails and
+takes them into the cellar with the help of the serving maid. When the
+boy sounds his horn the cows must be driven out; they must be pastured
+apart from the brood-cows. And all this time the master is eating his
+breakfast: peppered bacon and green leeks with good _papramorgó_,[37]
+and then he follows his herds out into the pastures. The reason why he
+cracks his whip so loudly is because he knows that some one is standing
+there in the little door and looking after him. Then _she_ has to skim
+the cream from the standing milk, churn the milk, and take the butter to
+market. Then she has to buckle to bread-baking. The maid is sent to heat
+the oven; meanwhile she herself is kneading the dough, then she shovels
+out the burning embers with the oven scoop, and wipes down the inside of
+the oven with a wet kitchen-clout; then the loaves are shot in by means
+of the long baking-shovel (first of all, however, are baked the
+'fire-cakes,' which 'my soul'[38] loves so much), finally the 'lock-up'
+stone is smeared with clay and placed in front of the oven, and one must
+be ready to an instant to pull the stone from the mouth of the oven
+again and take out the loaves. Meanwhile, she has had time to prepare
+upon the hearth a pottage of millet and smoked bacon, and carry it
+quickly, pot and all, to the pasturage, so that when the mid-day bell
+rings, the master may have his victuals ready laid on his outspread fur
+pelisse. After dinner, beneath the shadow of the big wild nut-tree, she
+may take a nap with an apron thrown over her face. On returning home she
+gets out her bruised flax and heckles it, so that when the husband
+returns home he finds wife and family sitting by the distaff and singing
+together the spinning songs of the country folk, till the pigs come
+running home with a great grunting and demand their slush.--Oh, such a
+life as that is pure enjoyment!"
+
+[Footnote 37: A sort of _eau-de-vie_.]
+
+[Footnote 38: _Lelkem_, _i.e._, "My darling."]
+
+I shook my head dubiously.
+
+"It will bore you one day."
+
+"Bore me! Don't you recollect when I was in your lath hut I painted this
+very life to you as my ideal?--A hut of rushes and a bed of straw. You
+spoke to me of fame and glory. The lowing of kine, the tinkling of
+sheep-bells, the cracking of whips is my delight. It was so even then.
+Since that time I have learnt to know the great world, but it hasn't
+altered me. I am full of disgust with everything that is to be found in
+palaces. Those demi-men, those Sunday husbands--those refined and
+exquisitely polite she-sinners, those model sticklers for virtue who sin
+through the whole ten commandments day after day, and vie even with the
+ladies of the ballet, with this difference, however, that the
+ballet-dancers are much more modest in private than these great ladies
+are in public--I am sick and weary of the whole lot of them. I would
+rather have a man who never washes his mouth after he has eaten garlic,
+than a man who returns home from an orgie and pretends he has been to a
+political conference. The famous Hamilton bed, which costs you a hundred
+ducats if you sleep in it for a single night, is wretchedness itself
+compared to the bed of fresh straw on which I sleep. Believe me when I
+tell you that I am perfectly happy."
+
+"I'll believe anything you like, but there's one circumstance I cannot
+understand. How is it that nobody disturbs this sweet idyll of yours? Is
+the one man who is so confoundedly nearly interested in your happiness,
+is that man still alive? Does Muki Bagotay still exist anywhere in the
+wide world?"
+
+"I fancy so."
+
+"Well, if he does, I'll only say that what flows through his veins is
+milk, not blood. Is he content to carry the horns of his hundred oxen? A
+rich and powerful landlord, a county magnate, and the master of your
+ideal peasant!--A thousand lightnings! if I were only in his place!"
+
+Bessy, with a sarcastic smile, folded her hands together above her
+knees.
+
+"Well, come now! If you were in dear Muki's place what would _you_ do?"
+
+"I'll tell you. I wouldn't call Peter Gyuricza out, but one fine day I
+would put my democratic principles on the shelf, and collecting my
+heydukes and my rustics, I'd give chase to the herdsman, trounce him
+according to his deserts, and kick him out of my employment. I would get
+another herdsman; but as for my wife, I'd tie her to the pummel of my
+saddle, and drag her like that to my castle. That's what _I_ would do,
+were I the husband of Muki Bagotay's wife!"
+
+I had certainly got a little heated. It was only afterwards that I
+reflected, "What's Hecuba to me? Why should I bother my head about Peter
+Gyuricza?"
+
+Bessy, however, laughed most heartily.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! You'd have done that to me, would you? You'd have tied me
+to your horse's tail and whipped me home, eh? How sorry I am then that I
+did not choose you! What a fine thing it would have been if I could have
+boasted of bearing the impression of your blows on my body! Tell me now,
+have you ever struck any one who was unable to hit you back?"
+
+At this I was fairly put to silence.
+
+"But let that be! You could not be so good a Muki Bagotay as Muki
+Bagotay himself would have been if he could. He actually _did_ try the
+very recipe which you now recommend. The very next day he sent his
+bailiff with the verbal message to Peter Gyuricza to pack himself off
+forthwith, but me the bailiff was to bring straight home. The bailiff
+gave himself airs, and would have used force, so I gave him a sound box
+on the ears, which he'll not forget in a hurry; whereupon Peter Gyuricza
+threw him out of the house.
+
+"Next day the wounded honour of the offended husband resorted to still
+stronger measures: six _pandurs_[39] appeared upon the scene with swords
+and pistols. Peter and I were outside in the pastures. Thither they came
+after us. But Peter was not a bit put out. He hastily called together
+his young shepherds; there were four of them; they caught up their
+cudgels, and the four sheep dogs took the same side. The six _pandurs_
+never dreamt we should tackle them. The corporal of the _pandurs_
+threatened to fire if we offered the least resistance. I immediately
+rushed forward in front of Peter, and said to them, 'Very well! there
+you are! Fire!' There was a pretty rumpus, the dogs began to bark, and
+at last even the stolid steers got mad, and the big old bull rushed out
+of the herd and charged straight at the _pandurs_, who were thronging
+round the herdsman. They took to their heels straightway, and those who
+did not leave their shakos behind them might think themselves lucky."
+
+[Footnote 39: County police.]
+
+"Why, that was quite an epic poem!"
+
+"Wasn't it! But you haven't heard the end of it yet. After the repulse
+of the second assault, Muki began to carry on the war in grim earnest.
+One evening, our maid, who had been sent out as a spy, came back with
+the terrifying news that his honour had sent out orders that on the
+following day all his tenants were to assemble in the courtyard of the
+castle armed with cudgels, flails, and pitchforks; to his huntsmen and
+heydukes also he had distributed guns and ammunition. The whole of this
+host was to advance upon us in battle array on the morrow. It would have
+been well, perhaps, to have fled before them while there was yet time.
+But we did not fly."
+
+"Then what was the end of it all?"
+
+"A very droll ending indeed. When the danger was greatest, good luck
+sent a deliverer, a good friend, just as usually happens in
+happily-constructed dramas, who intervened with a mighty hand and
+diverted the stroke from our heads."
+
+"And who was this good friend?"
+
+"Why, who else but the bearer of this fine blonde beard!" cried she,
+with an ironical smile, caressing my chin.
+
+"I? Why, I was not in that part of the country at all."
+
+"Ah! but poets have long arms, you know. At the very moment when Muki
+was placing firearms in the hands of his peasants, freedom was
+proclaimed at Pest. The rumour spread throughout the kingdom like
+wildfire--the Revolution had broken out. They say in Pressburg that
+Petöfi and you were on the Rákos[40] at the head of 40,000 peasants,
+and that a new Dózsa[41] war had begun. The retainers of Muki also
+thronged up to his castle, not to carry me off by force, but to demand
+their liberties. 'We'll work no more!' they cried; 'we'll pay no more
+tithes, and no more hearth-money.'[42] Freedom had broken out with a
+vengeance! Muki was thereupon so terrified that he fled incontinently
+through the back door in the clothes of his lackey, and never stopped
+till he was safely out of the kingdom. I have heard nothing of him
+since. So you see your mighty hand turned aside the danger that was
+hovering over our heads. We drank your health afterwards in big
+bumpers."
+
+[Footnote 40: A plain to the east of Pest, where, from the earliest
+times, elective assemblies were held.]
+
+[Footnote 41: George Dózsa, the leader of the Hungarian _jacquerie_ of
+1514, who was finally captured and executed after truly infernal
+torments.]
+
+[Footnote 42: _Füstpenz_--lit., smoke money, so much on each chimney.]
+
+I certainly had never calculated upon success of this sort.
+
+"Well," said I, "you have certainly disposed of Mr. János Nepomuk
+Bagotay for a time (though I would call your attention to the fact that
+he will not be very long in perceiving that there is no Dózsa war in
+Hungary, and will then return with reinforcements), but may I ask what
+her ladyship your mother says to all this?"
+
+"I should have come to that, even if you had not asked me. In fact, this
+is the very thing which brings me to you. One fine evening when I was
+returning home from the maize fields, with my kerchief full of pods, I
+found an official notification nailed on the door of our hut. The
+lawyer's clerk who brought it, delighted to find nobody at home, had
+fastened the document to the door-post and decamped. It gave me to
+understand that Muki was bringing an action against me for adultery. A
+term was fixed, however, within which, according to custom, we might
+appear before the priest at any place we liked and be reconciled if
+possible. After the lapse of six weeks the priest would make another
+attempt to bring about a reconciliation; if this did not succeed, he
+would bid us go to the ----! and we should have to appear before the
+judge instead!"
+
+I now began to see to what I was indebted for the pleasure of her visit.
+I should very much have liked to have banged the door in her face with
+the words: "I am not a lawyer, though I have served my terms!" But I let
+her go on.
+
+"I immediately took down the notification from the door," she resumed,
+"and sent my little maid with it to town to my mother's. By way of
+explanation I wrote her a letter, a task not unattended with difficulty,
+as Peter Gyuricza's hut was singularly ill-provided with writing
+materials. First of all I had to manufacture ink from wild juniper
+berries, then I carved a pen from a goose-quill; in place of paper I
+made use of beautifully smooth maize leaves."
+
+"Just as the Egyptians used papyrus?"
+
+"Yes, and if papyrus was good enough for the daughters of the Pharaohs,
+why shouldn't maize-membranes be good enough for me? I wrote and told
+her everything that had happened. I entirely justified my proceedings.
+If there was but one drop of justice in her composition she would be
+bound to acknowledge that my line of action was as clear as the day.
+Muki had made off with the herdsman's wife; I, following the _lex
+talionis_--an eye for eye--had made off with Gyuricza. He had brought an
+action against me; Gyuricza would bring an action against his own wife.
+The pair of us stood on exactly the same legal footing. If the two
+divorces were carried out, I meant to make the man of my choice my
+lawful husband, and would become in name what I already was in fact, the
+wife of Peter Gyuricza. I referred to you also in my letter."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"Yes. I argued that there was now no difference between peasants and
+gentlemen, and pointed out that since the 15th March you had omitted the
+privileged '_y_'[43] from the end of your name, and had substituted for
+it a simple '_i_,' and you were a 'glorious patriot,' as every one knew.
+Nobody therefore had any reason to be ashamed of Peter Gyuricza.
+Besides, I did not mean that he should remain a herdsman any longer;
+but as soon as my mother handed over to me my patrimony (so much of it I
+mean as Muki had not already squandered away), I meant to purchase a
+farm, and Gyuricza and I would settle down upon it as independent
+proprietors."
+
+[Footnote 43: The "_y_" at the end of Hungarian personal names has much
+the same value as the French _de_ or the German _von_--TR.]
+
+The matter now really began to amuse me. I could imagine to myself the
+Hogarthian group when the trio of ladies began spelling out syllable by
+syllable the letter that had been written on a maize-leaf.
+
+"Well! and what answer did you get?"
+
+"The answer you may easily have anticipated. My mother replied that she
+repudiated me entirely, that I should not get a farthing from her, and
+that I was never again to presume to show my face in a family which I
+had so utterly disgraced."
+
+"And did Peter know all about this?"
+
+"I was obliged to tell him, for my mother had nearly frightened to death
+the bearer of my letter, our little serving maid. She told her that if
+she ever dared to come to town again she would have her seized and tied
+to the pillory (though there wasn't one), and well flogged into the
+bargain; so that neither by cuffs nor entreaties was the wench to be
+persuaded to go to town again. She said as much to Peter. She said she
+would rather lose her place. And yet she ought to have gone every
+market-day to the town with cheese and butter, for these wares were
+Peter's chief means of livelihood. What was I to do now? I did this. I
+resolved to take the butter and cheese to market myself."
+
+"You? But how?"
+
+"Not in a glass carriage, you may be sure. The market is a good two
+hours' journey from our hut, and the direction is marked by the church
+tower. The peasant women, when they pack with wares the baskets which
+they put on their heads, make, first of all, a sort of wreath of rags,
+which they place below the baskets to lighten the pressure and maintain
+the equilibrium."
+
+"And you did the same?"
+
+"Naturally! It is no greater hardship for me, surely, than for the other
+poor girls who do it. And remember, besides, that this marketing is just
+as great an amusement to the peasant women as a promenade concert is to
+fine ladies. There was only one little nuisance connected with it. Just
+at this time all the irrigation waters had overflowed, and all the
+fields and meadows between our hut and the market town were turned into
+a lake, through which we had to wade."
+
+"What! you waded through the flooded fields?"
+
+"Oh, the water did not really come above my knees. It was only here and
+there, by the side of the streams, that we had to truss up our
+petticoats pretty high, and then we took off our boots and carried them
+tied on to the handles of our baskets. That is how all the women go."
+
+"And you picked your way along like that too?"
+
+"Again and again! I might, indeed, have gone along by the dykes, but
+then I should have had to turn into the village and make a circuit of
+four miles with the mud up to my knees. Along the even marshes, on the
+other hand, it is pleasant going, the soft soil does not hurt your
+heels, and there are no leeches."
+
+"But did no one see you?"
+
+"What did I care? I quite enjoyed my aquatic promenade. It was every bit
+as good as bathing at Trouville, and there I had by no means so ample a
+toilet. On arriving in town, I at once readjusted my clothes, put on my
+boots, and went to sell butter and cheese right in front of my mother's
+house. It was really a capital position that I chose; a corner-house
+between two thoroughfares, opening out upon the market-place."
+
+"And nobody recognised you?"
+
+"Why shouldn't they? Every one recognised me, even the money-collector
+who hires out the standing-rooms. He allowed me my standing-room gratis,
+because I 'belonged to the place.' I was surrounded by quite a crowd of
+my former cavaliers, who bought up all my butter, and I sold my cheese
+by the ounce, at fancy prices; there was quite a run upon it. Never had
+Peter Gyuricza seen so much money as I brought home to him from the sale
+of his butter and cheese."
+
+"And your worthy mother?"
+
+"Alas! all that the poor thing could do was to pull down all the blinds
+in broad daylight. I, however, purchased with the proceeds of the butter
+and cheese as much salt and tobacco as we required, packed them all up
+in the basket, and, placing it on my head, returned through the floods
+the same way by which I came."
+
+"And did you do this often?"
+
+"Every market day. Sometimes it was rainy. Then the peasant woman is
+wont to throw her upper garment over her head, that is her umbrella. I
+had to get accustomed to that too. Once, a couple of my former young
+gentlemen acquaintances took it into their heads to play me a practical
+joke. They paddled a canoe out of the Danube into the submerged plain,
+and when I began my wading tour they paddled after me. That did _me_ no
+harm, but it turned out badly for them, for the peasant girls who went
+with me charged upon them like the host of Sisera, wrested the paddles
+from their hands, and left them rocking helplessly to and fro in the
+midst of the waters."
+
+"But hasn't the water all dried up now?" I asked impatiently.
+
+"Oh, how he snaps at me! Of course! Now we can go dry-shod. Only when we
+come to a ditch do we take off our shoes. But, dear heart! how I do go
+on gabbling without ever coming to the point. I must explain why I have
+come all the way hither to you, my dear Mr. Advocate. As I will not
+appear before the priest to further the reconciliation project, and my
+husband (my first, I mean) will do so neither, I must, of course, appear
+before the judge! and as, moreover, my mother must be admonished to hand
+over my little property, if you would take my case up for me I should be
+exceedingly obliged to you."
+
+I told her that I did not practise as an advocate, and that I had no
+experience whatever of divorce proceedings, not having been taught the
+subject in the schools.
+
+Then she began to speak in a very solemn voice. She said she had never
+expected me to take up her case, but had sought me out because she had
+been informed that the advocates with whom I had served my articles were
+very eminent practitioners; she would like to entrust her double suit to
+them. As, however, she feared that they would neither receive her nor
+believe her if she appeared before them in her present costume, she
+earnestly begged that I would give her a letter of introduction to the
+firm of Molnár & Vérchovszky for friendship's sake--or for any other
+price.
+
+"Well, I can do that for you--for nothing."
+
+To write this letter I had to sit down at my writing-table.
+
+"May I peep and see what you write about me?"
+
+"If you like."
+
+I could not take offence at her curiosity.
+
+"I'll help you!" said she, with naïve archness, and went and stood
+behind my back.
+
+I must say that she had a very odd notion of helping me. She leant right
+over me so that I could feel her burning breath on my face, and the
+throbbing of her heart against my shoulder. I spoiled the first sheet of
+paper by writing last year's date at the top of it. Then I could not
+call to mind the name of my client, and I thought one thing and wrote
+another. Add to that that I made a mess of the simplest sentences, and
+wrote in a style worthy of a pedantic grammarian. Finally I got
+hopelessly involved in the maze of a long-winded phrase which I began
+but could not finish. That's what happens to a man when he has to listen
+to the beating of two hearts!
+
+It was on this self-same table that the picture stood which I have
+already mentioned. I had no time to conceal it in my drawer. And why
+should I have tried to hide it? Was I bound to make a mystery of it
+before her?
+
+Right opposite to my writing-table was a mirror on the wall. On one
+occasion, when I was pursuing an elusive word, I raised my head from my
+writing-desk and saw in the mirror the figure of the woman who was
+standing behind my back. Oh, what a face was that! She was not looking
+into my letter, but at the portrait. The eyes were turned sideways, so
+that the upper parts of the whites were visible; the lips were drawn
+aside, and the teeth clenched.
+
+I saw this from the mirror. And this mirror, too had the property of
+making things look green. Viewed in this magic light, the fair lady
+standing behind me appeared like the Iblis of the _Thousand-and-one
+Nights_, who sucks the blood of her lovers and leads the dances of the
+dead.
+
+I finished the letter to my old chiefs.
+
+Then I dried it with a piece of blotting-paper. Sand I have always
+hated. I also felt, in this respect, like Stephen Szechenyi,[44] who,
+whenever he received a sanded-letter, used to give it first of all to
+his lackey to be taken out in the hall and dusted. Before enclosing the
+letter, however, I turned round and handed it to her.
+
+[Footnote 44: Count Stephen Szechenyi, "the greatest of the Magyars,"
+was born in 1791. He brilliantly distinguished himself at the battle of
+Leipsic, and at Tolentino, in 1815, at the head of his Hussars,
+annihilated Murat's cavalry. After the war, he devoted himself to
+domestic politics with a tact, courage, and noble liberality which
+speedily made him the most popular man in Hungary. The Hungarian Academy
+and the Hungarian National Theatre were founded at his initiative and
+mainly at his expense. The breach with Austria in 1848 so preyed upon
+his mind that he went mad, and was confined in an asylum, where he
+destroyed himself in 1860.--TR.]
+
+"Would you read it, please?"
+
+The menacing spectre was no longer there. Iblis had changed into a
+smiling young bride.
+
+"And how do you know that I haven't read the letter?" she asked, in her
+astonishment.
+
+"My little finger whispered it to me!"
+
+At this she burst out laughing, and pushed the letter away.
+
+"I don't mean to read it! I know that you have written no end of good
+things about me."
+
+I folded up my letter, sealed it and wrote the address--"Joseph Molnár
+and Alexander Vérchovszky, Advocates." Then I handed it to her.
+
+Still she kept standing there in front of my writing-table, twirling the
+letter round and round in her hands, and gazing continually at the
+portrait. Her face had become quite solemn. In her deeply downcast eyes
+there was a suspicious brightness testifying to restrained tear-drops.
+
+She heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"But this is mere folly!" She thrust my letter beneath her bodice, and
+in a voice of real warmth and sincerity, she stammered: "I thank you
+most kindly." Then she added, in a voice half grave, half gay: "But come
+now! You won't write my story in the newspapers, will you?"
+
+"I assure you it is not my practice."
+
+"And you won't put my stupid story into a novel or a romance, eh? At
+least not while I'm alive?"
+
+"Never! Put your mind at rest on that point."
+
+"No; don't say never. Let it be only as long as I'm alive. But when I
+die, wherever it may be, you shall receive a letter from me, which I
+will write to you at my last hour, authorizing you to write all that you
+know of me."
+
+"My dear friend, death is written much more plainly on my brow than on
+yours."
+
+She shuddered. Twice she shuddered. Then she threw her basket over her
+arm, and took her leave. I would have escorted her to the door of the
+ante-chamber, but she held me back.
+
+"Stay where you are. I do not wish any one to see you paying attention
+to a country wench."
+
+When I was by myself again and thinking over the whole scene, it seemed
+to me as if a golden thrush were piping derisively in my ear again--
+
+"Foolish fellow! Foolish fellow!"
+
+For the second time I had let slip the opportunity of pilfering
+Paradise, conceded to me by a special and peculiar favour of the gods. I
+candidly confess that I am no saint.... I am a true son of Adam, of real
+flesh and blood. No vow binds me to an ascetic life. Let temptation come
+to me again in the shape of that pretty woman to-day and she shall see
+what I am made of!... All day long these feverish imaginings haunted me.
+In the drawer of my writing-table was the portrait which I once wrested
+in knightly tourney from her bridegroom, and which she herself had given
+me to put to rights. I went again and again to my writing-table in order
+to take out that portrait and have another look at it. But that other
+portrait lay there on my table and would not allow it. It was much
+better to leave the house. I occupied the whole day in strolling about
+the town. Perhaps I may meet her somewhere in the street.
+
+Late in the evening I returned home.
+
+I was alone. My lackey only came to me in the morning.
+
+I had scarcely lighted my lamp when I heard a knocking at my door. I
+certainly had forgotten to shut the door of my ante-chamber, and so my
+visitor had managed to penetrate so far. Who could it be at such a late
+hour? "Come in!"
+
+The blood flew to my head when the door opened.
+
+_She_ had come back!
+
+Then she was here again!
+
+She did not come in, however, but stood with the door-latch in her hand,
+as if she were afraid of me.
+
+"It is not nice of me, I know," she stammered, with a faltering voice,
+"to come here so late. I have been here three times, but you were out. I
+must tell you what I've heard. Don't be angry."
+
+I begged her to come in, and took her by the hand. My heart beat
+feverishly.
+
+"The lawyers received me very well. They were both at home. They took up
+my case and assured me that it was bound to result in my favour, and
+that they would pay the preliminary expenses. They behaved like
+gentlemen. Then the conversation turned upon you. They asked how long we
+had been acquainted. I told them as much as was necessary, and wound up
+by saying that you were the one thoroughly disinterested friend that I
+possessed. Then one of the advocates, the tall dry one I mean, said,
+with perfect good-nature: 'Well, if you are kindly disposed towards our
+young friend, just tell him that _the path along which he is now rushing
+so impetuously leads straight to the gallows_,' whereupon the blonde,
+ruddy-faced man added, '_or else to suicide._' I felt I must tell you
+that."
+
+And with these words she stepped back from the door.
+
+An icy shudder would have run down the shoulders of any other man at
+these words, but the message regularly set _me_ on fire. It was my pet
+idea they wanted me to give up, the idea which I adored even more than
+my lady-love, the idea of my youth--the idea of liberty. If any one
+offends my lady-love I will shed his blood, but let not even my
+lady-love interfere with my principles, as for them I am ready to pour
+out my own blood to the last drop.
+
+"Be it so!" I cried passionately; "that has nothing to do with you;" and
+I shut the door in her face. Every fibre of my body quivered with rage.
+
+They threaten me with the gallows, or with the suicidal dagger of a
+Cato! I fear them not.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My poor chiefs! Half a year later they were rushing along the self-same
+path, at the end of which so many monsters were lurking. I only lost my
+hair in the hands of these monsters, but they lost their heads. Their
+own prophecy was fulfilled on them both.
+
+From that day forth I was very wrath with the lady with the eyes like
+the sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE WOMAN WHO WENT ALONG WITH ME
+
+
+And now we'll go back to the day which forms so remarkable a
+turning-point in the life of the Hungarian nation, the 15th March, 1848.
+
+It did not come without due preparation. The emancipation of the people,
+a free press and a free soil, equality of taxation and equality before
+the law--all these splendid ideas had been fought for during the last
+ten years by those great minds which towered above their fellows. The
+time had now arrived, the process had been decided, the judgment lived
+in the heart of every honest patriot. The great sacrifices which the
+metamorphosis required were not demanded, but volunteered. We debated
+about them in the Diet, party against party, with all the fervour of
+conviction.
+
+A melancholy example was before us, which, like that _fata Morgana_ of
+the ocean, the phantom galley overturned, warns the seaman of the danger
+that is hovering over his head. I allude to the events in Galicia the
+year before.
+
+The Polish gentry of Galicia demanded their liberties, and emphasized
+their demands by force of arms. There was no need on the part of the
+authorities to set in motion an army corps against this new confederacy,
+the peasantry did the work for them instead. The Galician peasants[45]
+crushed the Polish gentry. The censorship had prevented the Hungarian
+newspapers from making known the details of this rebellion, but when the
+Diet met, it was impossible to prevent the fiery deputy for Comorn, the
+youthful Denis Pazmandy, from raising his mighty voice on behalf of the
+Poles, and making known the shocking particulars of the bloody massacre
+to the Hungarian nation. There are many sad pages in the history of the
+Polish nation, but none so sad as this. And the hand which wrote that
+page could easily glide over to the next page also, and that next page
+was the history of the Hungarian nation. Here half a million of gentry
+stand face to face with fifteen millions of serfs which serve, suffer,
+pay, carry arms, and are silent. Then the Paris Revolution broke out.
+The French nation overthrew the throne. (By the way, a tatter from the
+canopy over the French throne was brought home by one of our young
+writers, Louis Dóbsa, as a present for Petöfi. Dóbsa fought on the
+February barricades.) Serious debates were held in the Hungarian Diet.
+But Pressburg[46] was much too cold a field for such things. They wanted
+assistance from Pest. We didn't say Buda-Pest then, Buda[47] was not
+ours.... Meanwhile the Vienna Revolution broke out. The streets of
+Vienna resounded with the watchword "Freedom," and were painted with the
+blood of the heroes that had fallen for it.
+
+[Footnote 45: They were mostly Ruthenians, and racial and religious
+differences had much to do with their antagonism. This inveigling of the
+peasantry against the gentry, generally attributed to Metternich, is one
+of the darkest blots in Austrian history.--TR.]
+
+[Footnote 46: The old coronation city of Hungary, but more of a German
+than a Magyar city then.--TR.]
+
+[Footnote 47: It was an Austrian fortress.--TR.]
+
+"_So these Vienna people whom we blackguard so much show that they know
+how to shed their blood for freedom while we glorious Magyars sit at our
+firesides!_" cried Petöfi bitterly. "Let us send no more petitions to
+the Diet," he added, "it is deaf! Let us appeal to the nation: it will
+hear!"
+
+Then he wrote his "Talpra Magyar!"[48]
+
+[Footnote 48: "Up! Magyar, up!"]
+
+Early in the morning we assembled in my room by lamplight. There were
+four of us--Petöfi, Paul Vasváry, Julius Bulyovszky, and myself. My
+companions entrusted me with the drawing up of the Pest Articles in a
+short popular form intelligible to everybody. While I was thus occupied,
+they were disputing about what should happen next. The most violent of
+them was Paul Vasváry, who had the figure of a mighty young athlete. In
+his hand was a sword-stick with a horn handle, which he was flourishing
+about in a martial manner, when, all at once, the jolted stiletto flew
+from its case, and turning a somersault, flew through the air over my
+head and struck the wall.
+
+"A lucky omen!" cried Petöfi.
+
+The proclamation was ready. We hastened into the street. We said nothing
+to Madame Petöfi. Every one of us had arms of some sort. I pocketed the
+famous duplex pistol already mentioned.
+
+Every one knows _ad nauseam_ what followed--how the human avalanche
+began to move, how it grew, and what speeches we made in the great
+square. But speech-making was not sufficient, we wanted to _do_
+something. The first thing to be done was to give practical application
+to the doctrine of a free press. We resolved to print the Twelve
+Articles of Pest, the Proclamation, and the "Talpra Magyar" without the
+consent of the censor.
+
+The printing press of Landerer and Heckenast was honoured with this
+compulsory distinction. The printers were naturally not justified in
+printing anything without permission from the authorities, so we turned
+up our sleeves and worked away at the hand-presses ourselves. The name
+of the typesetter who set up the first word of freedom was _Potemkin_.
+
+While Irinyi and other young authors were working away at the press, it
+was my duty to harangue the mob that thronged the whole length of
+Hatváni Street. I had no idea how to set about it, but it came of its
+own accord.
+
+My worthy and loyal contemporary, Paul Szontagh, occasionally quotes to
+me, even now, some of the heaven-storming phrases which he heard me say
+on that occasion; _e.g._, "... No! fellow-citizens; he is not the true
+hero who can _die_ for his country; he who can _slay_ for his country,
+he is the true hero!"
+
+That was the sort of oratory I used to practise in those days!
+
+Meanwhile the rain began to fall, and rain is the most reactionary
+opponent of every revolution. But my people were not to be dispersed by
+the rain, and all at once the whole street was filled with expanded
+umbrellas.
+
+"What! gentlemen," thundered I from the corner of the street, "if you
+stick up your umbrellas now against mere rain-drops, what will you stick
+up against the bullets which will presently begin to fall?"
+
+It was only then that I noticed that there were not only gentlemen
+around me but ladies also. A pair of them had insinuated themselves
+close to my side. In one of them I recognised "Queen Gertrude."[49] On
+her head she wore a plumed cap, and was wrapped up in a Persian shawl
+embroidered with palm-tree flowers. Both cap and shawl were dripping
+with rain. I had met the lady once or twice at the Szigligetis'. I
+exhorted the ladies to go home; here they would get dripping-wet, I
+said, and some other accident might befall them.
+
+[Footnote 49: _i.e._, the actress who took that part.]
+
+"We are no worse off here than you are," was the reply.
+
+They were determined to wait till the printed broad-sides were ready.
+
+Not very long afterwards Irinyi appeared at the window of the
+printing-office, for to get out of the door was a sheer impossibility.
+He held in his hands the first printed sheets from the free press.
+
+Ah, that scene! when the very first free sheets were distributed from
+hand to hand! I cannot describe it. "Freedom, freedom!" It was the first
+ray of a new and better era!... A free press! the first-fruit of the
+universal tree of knowledge of Paradise. What a tumult arose when they
+actually clutched that forbidden fruit in their hands.... Hail to thee,
+O Freedom of the Press! Thou seven-headed dragon, how many times hast
+thou not bitten me since then! Yet I bless the hour when I first saw
+thee creep out of thy egg and gave thee what little help I could!
+
+Young authors, clerks, advocates, all hot-headed young people, crowded
+around the invisible banner.
+
+A young county official was now seen forcing his way through the dense
+crowd right to the very door of the printing-office, and from thence he
+addressed me. The influential Vice-Lieutenant of the County, Paul Nyáry,
+sent word to me that I was to go to him to the town hall.
+
+"Why _should_ I go?" cried I from my point of vantage. "I'll be shot
+down with cannon-balls rather! If the Vice-Lieutenant of the County
+wants to speak to us, let him come here. We are the 'mountain' now."
+
+And Mohammed really did come to the "mountain," and with him came a
+group of grave-faced men, the veteran leaders of the camp of freedom.
+
+Amongst them was a dwarfish little oddity of a man, the assistant editor
+of the _Eletképek_, the gallant little Sükey, who, despite a chronic
+asthma, fought through the whole campaign, musket in hand. Besides being
+a cripple, he was a really extraordinary stammerer. When he saw the
+grave-visaged men making their way to us through the crowd, he scrambled
+along beside them, and with all the force of his lungs bellowed out this
+notable declaration: "D-d-d-don't li-li-li-listen to those
+wi-wi-wi-wiseacres!"
+
+But the wiseacres hadn't come to convert us to wisdom. On the contrary,
+Nyáry had come to approve of what we had done hitherto, and then to go
+together with us to the town hall, that they might there, together with
+the town councillors, ratify the Articles of the liberal programme.
+
+It was a fine scene. The town hall was crammed to suffocation. Those who
+were called upon to speak stood upon the green table, and remained there
+afterwards, so that at last the whole magistracy of the county, and I
+and all my colleagues were standing on the top of the table. The flames
+spread! The burgomaster, the worthy Rotterbiller, announced from the
+balcony of the town hall, that the town of Pest had adopted the Twelve
+Articles as its own; and with that the avalanche carried the whole of
+the burgesses along with it. But the matter did not end even there. In
+the evening crowds of workmen inundated the streets. They had got from
+somewhere or other a banner, inscribed with the three sacred words,
+"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!"
+
+... Such a great day must needs have a brilliant close, so the town was
+illuminated in the evening, and a free performance was given at the
+theatre, _Bánk-bán_[50] being the piece selected. But the mob, which by
+this time was in a state of ecstasy, had no longer the patience to
+listen to the pious declamations of Ban Peter. It called for "Talpra
+Magyar."
+
+[Footnote 50: Joseph Katona's celebrated tragedy.]
+
+What was to be done? The brilliant court of King Andrew II., with the
+Queen and Bánk-bán to boot, had to stand aside and form a group round
+Gabriel Egressy, who, in a simple attila, with a sword by his side,
+stood in the middle of the stage and declaimed with magnificent emphasis
+Petöfi's inspiring poem.
+
+That was all very well, but it was not enough.
+
+Then the whole company sang the "Szózato," and the people in the pit and
+the galleries joined in.
+
+That also was soon over.
+
+What shall we give next?
+
+The band struck up the Rákóczy[51] march. That kindled the excitement,
+instead of extinguishing it. And it was high time that something should
+be done to quench it, for the excited populace was drunk with triumph.
+
+[Footnote 51: Prohibited in Hungary at this time as being of
+revolutionary tendency.]
+
+Then a voice from the gallery cried: "Long live Táncsis!"[52]
+
+[Footnote 52: Michal Táncsis, a prisoner who had been released from the
+citadel of Buda the same morning by the mob.]
+
+And with that the whole populace suddenly roared with one voice: "Let us
+see Táncsis!"
+
+A frightful tumult arose. Táncsis was not at hand. He lived some way out
+in the suburb of Ferenczváros. But even had he been near, it would have
+been a cruel thing to have dragged on the stage a worn-out invalid, that
+he might merely bow to the public like a celebrated musician.
+
+But what was to be done?
+
+"Well, my sons," said Nyáry, with whom I was standing in the same box,
+"you have awakened this great monster, now see if you can put him to
+sleep again!"
+
+My young friends attempted to address the people one after the other,
+Petöfi from the Academy box, Irinyi from the balcony of the Casino club,
+but their voices were drowned in the howling of the mob. The curtain was
+let down, but then the tumult was worse than ever; the gallery stamped
+like mad; it was a perfect pandemonium.
+
+Then a thought occurred to me. I could get on to the stage from Nyáry's
+box; I rushed in through the side wings.
+
+I cut a pretty figure I must say. I was splashed up to the knees with
+mud from scouring the streets all day. I wore huge, dirty overshoes, my
+tall hat was drenched, so that I could easily have made a crush-hat of
+it and carried it under my arm.
+
+I looked around me and perceived Egressy. I told him to draw up the
+curtain, I wanted to harangue the people from the stage.
+
+Then "Queen Gertrude" came towards me. She smiled upon me with truly
+majestic grace, greeted me and pressed my hand. No sign of fear was to
+be seen in her face. She was wearing the tricoloured cockade[53] on her
+bosom, and, of her own accord, she took it off and pinned it on my
+breast. Then the curtain was raised.
+
+[Footnote 53: Red, white, and green, the Hungarian colours.]
+
+When the mob beheld my drenched and muddy figure, it began to shout
+afresh, and the uproar gradually became a call for every one to hear me.
+When at last I was able to make my voice heard, I came out with the
+following oratorical masterpiece: "Brother citizens! our friend Táncsis
+is not here. He is at home in the bosom of his family. Allow the poor
+blind man to taste the joy of _seeing_ his family once more!"
+
+It was only then that I felt I was talking nonsense. How could a
+"_blind_ man" _see_ his family? If the mob began to laugh I should be
+done for!
+
+It was the tricoloured ribbon that saved me.
+
+"Do you see," I cried, "this tricoloured cockade on my breast? Let it be
+the badge of this glorious day! Let every man who is Freedom's warrior
+wear it; it will distinguish us from the hireling host of slavery! These
+three colours represent the three sacred words: Liberty, Equality,
+Fraternity! Let every one in whom Hungarian blood and a free spirit
+burns wear them on his breast."
+
+And so the thing was done.
+
+The tricoloured cockade preserved order. Whoever wished to pin on the
+tricoloured cockade had to hurry home first. Ten minutes later the
+theatre was empty, and next day the tricoloured cockade was to be seen
+on every breast, from the paletots of the members of the Casino[54] to
+the buckram of the populace, and those who went about with mantles on
+wore the cockade in their hats.
+
+[Footnote 54: The Nobles' club.]
+
+In the intoxication of my triumph I hastened after Rosa Laborfalvy as
+soon as this scene was over, and pressed her hand.
+
+With that pressure of our hands our engagement began.
+
+I have recorded the whole of this episode in order to explain how it was
+that _that_ portrait found its way to my table, which was able to
+convert in an instant the smiling face of the lady with the eyes like
+the sea into the hideous features of Iblis. Four months had passed away
+since then.
+
+And the honeymoon was in keeping with the engagement. The roar of cannon
+and the clash of swords was the music that played at my wedding.
+
+Oh what a marriage night was that!
+
+At the very moment when the happy bridegroom asks his bride, "Dost thou
+love me as I love thee?" at that very moment there is the roll of drums
+in the streets, and the cry goes forth, "To arms, citizens!" An Italian
+regiment had revolted against the Hungarian Government. Without waiting
+for a kiss or an embrace, I had to snatch up my musket and hurry off to
+the place of meeting, and thence to go straight into fire among the
+flying bullets. We had to storm the Károly Barracks. By dawn the
+mutinous regiment had to lay down its weapons, and the bridegroom, with
+his face sooty with smoke, returned home, and again put the question to
+his bride, "Dost thou love me as I love thee?"
+
+And the answer? Ah! the heart alone can feel it, the lips cannot express
+it.
+
+That was our honeymoon. With the shame of lost battles in our hearts,
+and despairing even of divine justice, those who can love under such
+circumstances must love dearly indeed!
+
+And then out into the desolate world, in the midst of a Siberian winter,
+with everything crackling with cold in a night lit only by the blaze of
+artillery, forcing one's way along through the snowy deserts of the
+Alföld[55] with the retreating Honved[56] army! Passing the night in an
+inhospitable hut where the closed door had frozen to the ground by
+morning, and the roll of drums and the blare of trumpets aroused us to
+toil on still farther! Those who can love under such circumstances must
+love indeed!
+
+[Footnote 55: The low-land. The name given to the great Hungarian
+plain.]
+
+[Footnote 56: Defending the country. The title of the Hungarian national
+forces.]
+
+My wife went everywhere with me.
+
+She quitted a comfortable home, sacrificed a fortune, a brilliant
+career, to endure hunger, cold, and hardship with me. And I never heard
+her utter one word of complaint. When I was downhearted, she comforted
+me. And when all _my_ hopes were stifled, she shared _her_ hopes with
+me. At the new seat of the Hungarian Government, Debreczin, we were
+huddled together in a tiny little room, compared with which the hut of
+Peter Gyuricza was a palace from the _Thousand-and-one Nights_. And my
+queen worked like a slave, like the wife of a Siberian convict. She
+worked not for a joke, not in sheer defiance; she did not _play the
+part_ of a peasant girl, she was a serving-woman in grim earnest.
+
+The hazard of the die of war changed. We advanced. We marched in triumph
+from one battle-field to another. I was present at the storming of the
+citadel of Buda. Even in those awful days she never left me, when every
+night the sky seemed about to plunge down upon our heads.
+
+The brilliant days of triumph were again succeeded by misfortune. The
+Northern ogre[57] threw all his legions upon us. Again we had to fly, to
+leave our happy hut, and continue our marriage tour through desolate
+wildernesses, where savage hordes had devastated whole villages. Our
+night's lodging was four bare sooty walls, our couch a bundle of charred
+straw. Hated by strangers, feared by acquaintances, we were a terror to
+the people from whom we begged a shelter.
+
+[Footnote 57: Pastliewich, by command of the Tzar, invaded Hungary in
+1849, with 100,000 men.]
+
+The chaos of war finally parted us. I insisted that she should remain
+away from me. I could not endure to see her suffering any longer. It was
+not right that I should accept such sacrifices. I bade her leave me to
+meet my fate alone.
+
+After the catastrophe of Vilagós[58] my life was ended. That mighty
+giant, the famous Hungary of our dreams, collapsed into atoms: her great
+men became grains of dust.
+
+[Footnote 58: When the Hungarian Commander-in-chief finally capitulated
+to the Russians.]
+
+I also became a nameless, weightless, aimless grain of dust.
+
+The end of all things had arrived. The prophecy of the lady with the
+eyes like the sea lay literally fulfilled before me. Either the gibbet
+or suicide was to be my fate. I was twenty-four years of age, and a dead
+man. My former chief, the brave Catonian, Joseph Molnar, the president
+of the national court martial, had set me the example. He lay before me
+on the sward of Vilagós, slain by his own hand. The last hussar breaking
+his sword was a spectacle he could not bear to survive. Then it was that
+a burning hand seized my hand. It was hers, the hand of the woman who
+loved me. When all was lost, her love was not lost. She came after me.
+She took me with her. She set me free. When all Hungary was already
+subdued, there was still one corner in our native land where the hand of
+authority never came. She discovered that corner, and led me thither
+with her through every hostile camp.
+
+That was "the woman who went along with me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+WHERE THE WORLD IS WALLED UP
+
+
+It required quite a strategical combination to transport me from the
+town of Vilagós to where the world is boarded up.
+
+This place was selected for me by my wife while she was already in Pest,
+whence on the approach of the catastrophe she set out from home on a
+peasant's car to seek me up and down the kingdom. For a time she
+travelled with the wife of Alexander Körösy, who set her on my track. At
+the storming of Szegedin we were all within an ace of being blown into
+the air by the explosion of a powder magazine.
+
+It was a little village called Tordona, deep in the beech forests of
+Borsod, the name of which was not even to be found on the chart of
+Francis Karacs.[59] Here the celebrated comedian and scene-painter of
+the National Theatre, Telepi, had built a house with the intention of
+seeking an asylum there with his family in troublous times. When the
+Russians came, he sent thither his wife and his son Charles, who was
+then a young artist student. Telepi gave my wife this sage piece of
+advice. "When the bottom of the world falls out, take your husband
+where nobody will find him." Tordona had taken no part in the
+Revolution.... The journey was quite an Odyssey. In a small covered
+peasant's car a lady conveys water-melons to market; the coachman and
+the footman sit in front together. The footman is myself, the coachman
+János Rákóczy, who only the day before was Kossuth's secretary. The
+price of water-melons was a silver _tizes_[60] a-piece. Our heads were
+not worth so much as that. The way from Vilagós to Bekes-Gyula is long,
+and the whole way we were going straight towards the advancing Russian
+host. Cossacks, lancers, infantry, artillery, gun-carriages, met us at
+every step, and yet nobody asked us the price of those melons or the
+price of those heads. It was only the two splendid horses in front of
+our car which might have raised suspicions that we were not itinerant
+market-gardeners, although Rákóczy wore the genuine blue livery of a
+coachman. When we got into the domain of swamp and rushes, a mounted
+_betyár_[61] took us under his protection, and guarded us along paths
+where a carriage had never yet gone, where our horses repeatedly waded
+up to their breasts in water, till we fought our way through into the
+endless plain. He would take nothing from us but a "God bless you!"
+
+[Footnote 59: The first Hungarian engraver (1769-1838). His celebrated
+map of Hungary was first published in 1813.]
+
+[Footnote 60: The tenth of a florin.]
+
+[Footnote 61: A peasant drover.]
+
+Our dear friend János Rákóczy, as an old country gentleman, was a
+capital coachman so long as he had only to guide the horses, but that
+part of the stableman's science which deals with harnessing and
+unharnessing he had never learnt. So when we came to a place in the
+sweltering heat of the dog-days after a long drive through the vast
+plain, the very first thing he did was to let the unharnessed horses
+immediately drink their fill at the spring, and then tie them up in the
+stable, in consequence of which the shaft horse caught inflammation of
+the lungs, and expired an hour afterwards. The saddle horse survived as
+by a miracle. Instead of the deceased horse, therefore, we had to
+harness another nag, which we picked up on the road for 100 florins.
+This new horse was a hand and a half smaller than the steed that still
+remained with us. With this slap-dash team nobody would have taken us
+any longer for gentry.
+
+We had still to pass through Miskolcz, where the Russians were
+encamping. Here dwelt my wife's father, the wise and worthy professor
+Benke Laborfalvy. He pointed out to us the road which led into Tordona.
+Five hours long we penetrated through dense forests: not a human
+dwelling place, not a beaten tract was to be seen. A stream cut through
+the winding valley and along its bank, shifting now to the right hand
+and now to the left, a sort of path wound its way naturally, without
+anything like a bridge; for the convenience of foot passengers, huge
+stones at irregular intervals had been cast into the bed of the racing
+stream. There, in a deeply hidden, delightful valley, lay the little
+spot which is walled off from the world.
+
+My wife and I descended at the Telepi's house and were heartily welcomed
+by our worthy hostess. Rákóczy, with his equipage, had to be lodged in
+another house. Madame Telepi's brother, my tenderly remembered good
+friend, the worthy Béni Csányi, dwelt in a house a little farther off.
+It was he who stabled the horses. Later on I joined him.
+
+He was really a model of a "small country gentleman," such as they ought
+to be nowadays. An accomplished, intelligent man, speaking, besides his
+own language, Latin and German, with a thorough knowledge of the law,
+for which he had been trained, and who, for all that, now went out and
+ploughed his own land with the aid of a man-servant. He ate his
+home-made bread, drank his home-brewed wine, welcomed guests with all
+his heart, and slew a sheep or a pig in their honour. His wife baked and
+brewed, led the way at the spindle, and sewed her children's clothes
+with her own hand. They had three sons, and the little money that flowed
+into the domestic coffers was spent in the schooling of the children.
+Csányi never borrows, and owes no man anything. His work-room is a
+joiner and wheelwright's shed; when anything breaks in the wagon he
+mends it himself: it is his pet pastime. He has a library also, full of
+such books as Sir Walter Scott's historical work on the French
+Revolutionary Wars. Newspapers he never reads. If, again, a poem
+pleases him, he learns it by heart, and passes it on further by word of
+mouth. He never goes to law with his neighbour, and when two fall out he
+makes peace between them. But when the cry goes forth, "The fatherland
+is in danger! Let us make sacrifices for the commonweal!" then he cuts
+the large silver buttons off his mantle, and lays them on the altar of
+his country.
+
+I owe it for the most part to this worthy man that I did not lose my
+reason altogether in these hard times.
+
+Thus we arrived hither. I was saved. I was no longer a dead man. I
+lived.
+
+But what sort of a life was it? It was the sort of life which belongs to
+a new-born babe: absolute inability to help one's self. Rákóczy quitted
+us on the following day. He was off to the Carpathians. There he took
+service as coachman (naturally under an assumed name) in the family of a
+wealthy territorial Count. They were more than contented with him, for
+he was an excellent and honest coachman. But one day a strange
+misadventure befell him. He was taking the Count and his brother-in-law
+out for a drive, when the gentleman began talking of the era of Louis
+XIV., and one of them could not call to mind the name of a celebrated
+statesman of those days. Then the coachman could not help turning round
+towards them, and saying, "Colbert!" The Counts immediately dismounted
+from the coach and went home on foot. The learned coachman, however,
+was discharged. It is not good to sleep under the same roof with a
+coachman who knows so much.
+
+My wife and I agreed that _she_ should return to Pest and resume her
+engagement at the National Theatre there till I should get back my
+patrimony. Then we would purchase a little property in the depths of the
+beech forest, close to Béni Csányi, and plough and sow to the end of our
+days. What else _could_ we do? Our country, our nation, our liberty were
+now no more. Our souls had no wings. We stuck fast in the mire.
+
+On the very anniversary of our wedding, which was my wife's birthday as
+well, we parted. Our wedding tour had lasted exactly a year. I wish
+nobody such another, but I would not exchange all the joys in the world
+for the recollection of it.
+
+I remained behind in a vast primeval forest, entombed, forgotten.
+
+The latest rumours I got from worthy Béni Csányi, who had taken my wife
+to Pest, driving his four horses himself all the way from his stable
+door to the capital. They were evil times there. Haynau had appropriated
+even the National Theatre for the German players. But the director,
+worthy János Simoncsics, formerly a Conservative celebrity, protested
+against the proceedings of the high-handed tyrant, and when Haynau began
+to haggle with the stiff-necked old magistrate as to how many days a
+week he would allow the German players to act in the Hungarian National
+Theatre, brave old Simoncsics replied in his own peculiar Buda-German:
+"Wen i reden _musz_, so sag i: amol; wen i reden _darf_, so sag i:
+komol."[62] And "komol"[63] it remained.
+
+[Footnote 62: If I _must_ speak: once; if I _may_ speak: not at all.]
+
+[Footnote 63: Not once.]
+
+My wife counselled me not to write to her through the post-office, as
+the whole town was full of spies. When she wrote to me she would send
+the letter to her father at Miskolcz, directed to Judith Benke.
+
+Even now I often draw out those _love-letters_ which were written to me
+and began "My dear Juczi."[64] Even now they light up that endless
+darkness which I call the _cancelled_ portion of my life.
+
+[Footnote 64: Contraction for Judith.]
+
+From August to the middle of October I knew absolutely nothing of what
+was going on in the world.
+
+It was a corner of the earth where no visitor ever came, and where the
+inhabitants themselves went nowhere. Now that winter was approaching,
+there would be a sledge drive, and communications would be opened up
+between Tordona and Miskolcz. Then one would be able to convey timber
+into the town. Of timber there was no lack. Csányi had four hundred
+acres of virgin forest to forty acres of arable land.
+
+Day after day I rambled up and down these forests that had never heard
+the voice of man. Never did I meet a fellow creature. However many
+heights I might ascend, I saw from thence nothing but the smoking
+chimneys of Tordona. I discovered the source of the stream that sped
+through the valley. "Linden-spring" was the name they gave it. It was
+entirely circled by lindens. I hit upon the childish sport of cutting a
+water-mill out of elder-tree wood, piecing it together, and placing it
+across the little stream. Thus I amused myself.
+
+One day I received a box of water-colours from my wife. I was immensely
+delighted. I now had something to occupy myself with all day. I filled a
+whole album with my landscapes. Then I painted that journey through the
+plain with a horse and a half in the covered car. I painted my own
+portrait on a piece of paper no bigger than a finger-nail, which could
+be inserted in a medallion. I sent it to my wife. Béni Csányi's wife
+asked me to paint her a portrait of her "old man" also. She wanted it
+about the size of a kidney bean; she had a medallion just as large as
+that. This was my only work in that terrible year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+VALENTINE BÁLVÁNYOSSI AND TIHAMÉR RENGETEGI
+
+
+When the beech-mast began to fall from the trees in the beginning of
+October, unexpected guests came to us at Tordona--two country gentlemen
+from the beechwood district. They were kinsmen keeping house together,
+whose whole estate consisted of forest, and whose whole economy was an
+enormous herd of swine. They were both jolly thick-set men, with fur
+pelisses of nicely embroidered sheepskins, and boots of red Russian
+leather. They had come to rent the beech-mast district in the Tordona
+forests. Pig just then was an article not quoted in the market.
+Hungarian money there was none. It had all been destroyed. German money
+had not yet been introduced. Pig-rearers were therefore obliged to let
+their herds go into winter quarters. The pigs in question were really
+fine fellows of the good old Szalonta breed, with legs as long as
+stags', red bristles and pointed ears; they were half-savage beasts,
+too, who faced the wolf instead of fleeing from him. They develop but
+slowly, however; only after two years' time do they become as large as
+the Mangalicza swine. But they more than atone for this fault by the
+good quality of wanting neither stall nor sty; winter and summer alike
+they camp out in the woods and seek their own food, thus costing their
+masters no more than two florins a head, and three pints of
+_palinka_,[65] which is the perquisite of the swine-herd. Each of these
+kinsmen had a thousand of such pigs.
+
+[Footnote 65: Hungarian brandy.]
+
+And a thousand pigs give a man a lot to think about.
+
+They were good, genial fellows. In fact, they knew not what melancholy
+meant. It was now the season when the new wine was beginning to ferment.
+The two kinsmen used to drink it in that state, and I joined them. It
+went very well with well-peppered swine stew.
+
+They brought a new song with them also, and I learnt it.
+
+    "The milk-pail stood behind the door,
+    The Gendarme came, flopped in and swore!
+      Dárum-madárum, dárum-madárum!"
+
+From this song I gathered that there was now a being in the world called
+Gendarme,[66] and also that the Magyars had no very great affection for
+him.
+
+[Footnote 66: _Zsandar._ The name as well as the thing was quite new to
+Hungary.--TR.]
+
+It was only after supper that the guests began to give me to understand
+that they did not yet know "whom they had the honour of addressing."
+
+My worthy host constrained his honest features, and introduced me under
+the pseudonym by which I was known in the village, "Mr. Albert Benke."
+
+"Surely not the actress Rosa Laborfalvy's younger brother, Bebus?"
+
+"Yes, Bebus! the very same."
+
+(That might pass very well. Poor Bebus! he had perished in some
+out-of-the-way corner during the war.)
+
+"Why, I knew him quite well! I have a lively recollection of his
+features. Why, 'tis Bebus, of course! And how's your sister? Is it true
+that she's married?"
+
+"So I have heard."
+
+"To a certain Maurus Jókai, eh? Do you know him?"
+
+"I have never spoken to him."
+
+(And this was quite true.)
+
+"You were one of those theatre-fellows, too, I understand?"
+
+"Yes, I was an actor, certainly."
+
+"I saw you once at Miskolcz. What were you playing then?"
+
+"Claude Frolló in the _Tower of Notre Dame_."
+
+"And won't you join some other company now?"
+
+"I don't know whether there is one to be found."
+
+"What! There is a troupe all ready at Miskolcz at the present moment.
+They mean to play at the new theatre during the coming winter, and then
+they are going to Kassa. Bálványossi wants to put new blood into his
+company. You know the director, Valentine Bálványossi, don't you?"
+
+I was just on the point of blurting out that he was from the same
+birthplace as myself. He was, in fact, the person who had coached Bessy
+in the _rôle_ which she had to play with me in our second dramatic
+entertainment. All I _did_ say, however, was that I knew him by report.
+
+"Anyhow, he knows you very well. He asks frequently about you. If he
+only knew that you were loafing about here he would certainly come and
+see you."
+
+It only needed that!
+
+"I was not aware that he was able to collect together another troupe."
+
+"Oh dear, yes! Why, he's got a prima donna now. She is his wife also.
+Such a bonny little bride! She'll turn the heads of all the young
+fellows, I know. But you're in hiding here, are you not?"
+
+"In hiding?"
+
+"Yes, and I tell you what--_entre nous_, of course--Bálványossi also has
+reason to make himself scarce."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why, because he played such a great part in the Revolution."
+
+"_I_ never heard anything about it."
+
+"Ah! but he might have been a famous man without _your_ hearing anything
+about it. You also were a comedian during the Revolution, weren't you?"
+
+I allowed him to suppose so.
+
+Then the second kinsman took up his parable. He was better informed than
+the first one.
+
+"Let me make things clear to you, _amice_! During the Revolution, the
+theatre director, Valentine Bálványossi, acted under the name of Tihamér
+Rengetegi."
+
+"Ah! yes, of course, I remember the name."
+
+"Many a nut has he cracked beneath the very noses of the Germans."
+
+The other kinsman confirmed the statement.
+
+"If they can only catch him they'll make the wind cool his heels for
+him."
+
+"But that theatre director is really a most knowing rogue," explained
+the younger kinsman, with a laugh. "During the Revolution, he entered
+the service of the Hungarian Government and rose to be major. They say
+he performed prodigies. But at the same time he took the precaution to
+completely alter his personal appearance. During the Revolution he dyed
+his beautiful fair hair a deep black, and carefully fostered a gigantic
+moustache with whiskers to correspond; in that guise he looked exactly
+like Don Cæsar de Bazan. When, however, things began to go wrong, he
+speedily had his hair shaved off and his beard also, and is now waiting
+in retirement till his original fair hair has grown again. Then he will
+once more come before the world as Valentine Bálványossi; and who will
+dare to say that there was ever such a person as Tihamér Rengetegi?"
+
+One really must admit that it was a stroke of genius to serve the
+Revolution with a black-dyed head of hair!
+
+"When he hears that you are strolling about here he will most certainly
+come and engage you."
+
+It was necessary to put a stop to this forthwith.
+
+"I regret that I shall not remain here very long," I said; "I, too, have
+to go up to Pest."
+
+"And what is your business at Pest?"
+
+"I want to look out for some appointment."
+
+At this, both the pig-Crœsuses pulled a very wry face. Whoever went to
+Pest in those days to seek an appointment was looked upon with
+suspicion. It was as well to have as little as possible to do with such
+a person.[67]
+
+[Footnote 67: It was a point of honour with every loyal Hungarian to
+starve rather than to accept any appointment whatsoever from the
+Austrian Government.--TR.]
+
+Henceforth the pair of them treated me very superciliously.
+
+I, however, continued to go about and paint landscapes in the vast beech
+forests. I have those pictures by me still. What splendid _motives_ I
+had; if only the hand of a true artist had been there to seize them! In
+the midst of the gloomy virgin forest lay the ruin of a Paulinian
+cloister--gigantic Gothic walls of grey granite; on the friezes of the
+pillars winged angel-heads; the pointed arches terminated in flowers,
+and these stone-flowers were supplemented by the living stone-rose,
+which grew luxuriantly between the mouldings. Behind the vast
+blue-shadowed ruin lay the dark beech forest; in front was a spring,
+which, in wondrous wise, bubbled forth from the roots of a huge
+prostrate linden. From the summit of the ruin depended a large and ample
+hazel-nut tree, the foliage of which was now a reddish-brown from the
+autumn frost, while from the windows the dark-green chaplets of the
+wild-rose tree hung down in the midst of cornel-shrubs and
+spindle-plants variegated with scarlet, pink, and vermilion berries. And
+the floor of the ruin is covered with a tangled carpet of brownish-green
+angelica. And there is but one single living figure in this vast and
+silent tableau. From the gloom of the ancient church porch a timidly
+glancing stag peeps forth like the mythical guiding-star of the
+Hunnic-Magyar pagan legends. Alas! thou white-antlered hind of our
+ancient leader Almos, whither hast thou led us? Would that thou hadst
+left us in Asia! There, at any rate, we should not have been obliged to
+learn German!
+
+And then that other picture, the mighty stone of the Holy Ghost. This
+was a rock as large as a tower, which rose from the edge of the
+table-land. Close beside it were two gigantic beech-trees, whose summits
+just reached up to the middle of this rock, and Autumn, that great
+decorative artist, had touched the leaves of one with reddish-brown, and
+the other with golden-yellow. On the very top of this rock are three
+trees rich with verdure: how did they ever get up there?
+
+It is possible to scramble up at the risk of one's neck, and from thence
+one can see fresh pictures to paint. From the dizzy height of the rock
+a view into a deep valley opens out. The two lines of hill opposite are
+closed up by a curved and undulating range of other hills. The setting
+sun lights up the hillside, and bathes the whole scene in transparent
+lilac mist, while the forest fringe of the summits projects in sharply
+defined golden lines. Down below, the valley winds along like a
+dark-green ribbon, and on the spot where it is lost in the evening mist
+is to be seen a little hut whose kitchen fire twinkles from the depths
+like a blood-red star. Can any human creature be living there?
+
+But the most magnificent landscape-motive (in which I was happily
+immersed) was the panorama which presented itself from the "Precipice
+Stone." This "Precipice Stone" was the highest point of the beech
+mountain-district. Viewed from Tordona, it was like a projecting
+mountain-spar, but one could get to the top of it by making a long
+circuit. This rock was generally the goal of my wanderings. It took half
+a day to get there and half a day to get back, and at midday I used to
+kindle a fire of twigs and make a princely banquet of toasted bread and
+bacon; and then, sitting down on the dizzy edge of the rock, I would
+tackle the impossible artistic problem--at least it was impossible to
+me. Beneath my feet, in the foreground, was a dark spot formed by a
+crown of beech-trees, and where this ended there was a smiling little
+nook, and in the midst of it tiny, smoky, stony Tordona, with its
+scattered cottages, surrounded by their yellow dice-like vineyards, and
+their hills striped with green corn, above which the still darker green
+beech hills show their heads. Above these crowds the group of the Gömöri
+Hills, whose shadows are now deepening into lilac; but these again are
+dominated by the chain of the Trencséni and Turoczi Hills. These hills
+are of a clouded blue, and above them rises, like a _fata Morgana_, the
+princely range of the fair Carpathians, as blue as heaven itself, and
+only to be distinguished from it by the dividing line of their
+diamond-like snowy peaks. My skill was, naturally, not equal to such a
+task. If I succumbed when I struggled with it, that was not my fault.
+
+With a mighty lead-loaded oaken staff in my hand, and a sharp
+kitchen-knife in my roomy jack-boots, I deemed myself sufficient to cope
+with any wolf I might meet on the way. As for a musket, those who had
+them took good care to keep them well hidden. Rumour said that to be
+found with a musket was as much as a man's life was worth.
+
+The middle of October had come.
+
+Another guest now arrived at Tordona. This time it was a heartily
+welcome guest, the merry-minded Telepi. He had come to fetch his little
+Charlie that he might take him abroad for his education. He was the
+favourite comic actor of the National Theatre.... He had a round face, a
+round figure, and was all vivacity, with sparkling eyes, pointed
+eyebrows, and tiny pointed moustache; it was just as if he had four
+eyebrows and four moustaches: he was Hungarian humour personified.
+
+'Twas he who brought me my first news from the outside world: the
+horrible events of the October days, the inconceivable deeds of horror
+done by a madman,[68] who was not even sufficiently punished by being
+burned alive twice.
+
+[Footnote 68: Haynau.--An allusion to the massacre of Hungarian
+prisoners and the brutalities inflicted on their wives.--TR.]
+
+Fortunately, I heard these things from a joking, smiling,
+devil-may-care, comic mouth! For Telepi knew how to season the tidings
+with so many happy anecdotes and comforting assurances that he quite
+turned the edge off the murderous knife. And then he was so full of
+optimism. "Our time is coming," he would say. "England and France are
+hastening to our assistance. The Turks are arming, the Americans are
+showing their fists." And when I shook my head at all this, he comforted
+me with the assurance that an amnesty was at hand.
+
+But when we were quite alone, and nobody else was listening, then he
+told me everything frankly, and without embellishment.
+
+My wife would have come herself, but she had been ailing; in fact she
+had been very ill. She was better now. As soon as she could leave her
+bed she would hasten to me at Tordona. I might expect her this very
+month. My wife had a plan whereby she hoped to free me completely, so
+that I should not be exposed to persecution any more. What it was,
+however, she could not tell me. She only begged _one_ thing of me, but
+_that_ she begged most earnestly, and it was this: until she came to me
+I was to show myself nowhere, hold no communication with anybody, let
+nothing be known of my whereabouts. I was not even to write a letter,
+for they might recognise my handwriting, and then all would be over. So
+I had to solemnly promise that I would go nowhere, and speak to nobody
+whatever but the good and honest men of Tordona. I gave my word upon it.
+
+My wife sent me at the same time a warm winter overcoat, a large fur
+cap, and a pair of double-soled Russia-leather boots. Winter was
+approaching, and I should have to spend it here among the forests.
+Telepi also brought me a little silver money from my wife, for
+bank-notes were of no use here. She also sent me some coffee. That, too,
+was not to be had here, and I am fond of it in the morning. In the
+course of the conversation, Telepi inadvertently let out that my wife
+had sold her emeralds, had gone into pokey lodgings, and was living very
+sparingly. "But what's the good of fretting?" he added. "The God of the
+Magyars is still alive!" I shall never forget that jocose, smiling face,
+when, in the midst of his magnanimous assurances, a tear suddenly rolled
+down his round, red countenance!
+
+Then I gave all the pictures I had painted hitherto to Telepi, that he
+might take them home to my wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE MEETING AT THE PAGAN ALTAR
+
+
+After Telepi had gone back, a deep melancholy took possession of me.
+
+My wife was ill, and I had never even dreamt of the possibility of such
+a thing. What if she were to die without being able to exchange a last
+adieu? She wants to set me free, she says; but how? She cannot tell me.
+She cannot tell anybody. Why should she have any secrets from me? Ah!
+that green-eyed monster is a bad guide to the imagination. A celebrated
+actress can so readily find protectors. Perhaps they are men in
+authority, who hold life and death in their hands. Oh, eternal darkness,
+do not deprive me of the light of my reason! Suppose I were to gain
+readmittance into the world at such a price as that! This condition of
+mind was becoming absolutely unendurable.
+
+Sometimes the desire seized me to rush out of the forest, knock at the
+door of the first Commandant I came to, and give up my name: "I am that
+notorious rebel--take my head, I'll pay the price!"
+
+But my given word, my word of honour, held me back. Ah! a man's word of
+honour must be kept, even though it be only given to his wife.
+
+I had promised to go nowhere. But surely the forest is nowhere, and that
+Precipice Stone is, indeed, the most out-of-the-way nowhere in the whole
+world. Thither no man ever goes. Thither at least I am free to go.
+
+My first, not very successful, picture of the great panorama I had sent
+to my wife. I would now have another try at it.
+
+One fine autumn morning I again took up my lead-loaded stick, and said
+to my dear good hostess that she was not to expect me home to dinner
+that day, as I was going to scramble up to the Pagan Altar and sketch
+there.
+
+The gentry call this rocky pinnacle the Pagan Altar; the peasants call
+it the Precipice Stone.
+
+"But don't stay long," said Mrs. Csányi; "suppose your dearest were to
+arrive in the meantime?"
+
+My dearest! As if she thought of seeking me out! They only put me off
+with promises, just as they tell a sick child that he shall have a
+rocking-horse when he gets well. It was exactly seven weeks since she
+had left me. What an endless time!
+
+I made my way at once towards the linden spring, and thence up the
+forest hill-side by the often-trodden familiar path. The nuts came
+showering down; the frost had already tweaked the Cornelian cherries. I
+crammed my knapsack full of both: I shall have a luxurious banquet
+to-day. I also found a large coral-coloured mushroom; roasted in embers,
+it would make a tit-bit worthy of a gourmet.
+
+It was about ten o'clock when I got up to the Pagan Altar.
+
+When I went out upon the rocky ledge, a truly wondrous scene spread
+itself out before me; it was quite certain that _I_ should never be able
+to paint it. The whole kingdom was under the sea! The autumn mist, like
+a snow-cloud, covered the whole landscape to the very horizon, from
+which towered vast snowy peaks and snowy cupolas; in other places the
+misty mantle resembled frozen waves, out of which here and there rose
+round, blackish islands, the peaks of the higher mountains. It was a
+faithful image of reality: nothingness. There was nothing left now.
+
+I could calculate pretty surely on the mist descending at midday, and
+painting field and forest with frost; but till then I could sketch
+nothing.
+
+So I lay down upon the rocky ledge, and marvelled at this motionless,
+huge, white winding-sheet which covered a whole realm. I had no thought
+of eating now. I hung up my knapsack with my bread and bacon on a
+spruce-fir tree, and when I had looked my fill of wonder at the sea of
+mist, I watched the itinerant ants who, following their regular road,
+crept right over my body, never troubling themselves very much about the
+circumstance that a giant, like a mountain range, lay right across their
+path.
+
+At this height not even the thrush's whistle broke the stillness.
+
+The sun shone down. Not a breeze was stirring. My head was resting on a
+large green mossy stone; I felt like dropping off to sleep.
+
+All at once, as if I really were dreaming, from somewhere not very far
+off a song rang out:--
+
+    "Lo! on the mountain top
+      A valiant man doth stand,
+    And on his trusty weapon rests
+      His stalwart good right hand."
+
+It was a man's voice, and I seemed to recognise it.
+
+My first feeling was joy. I was about to meet some old acquaintance in
+that vast wilderness. It only occurred to me afterwards that this would
+be contrary to my compact. I was to meet no man who could possibly
+recognise me.
+
+But it was too late to avoid him now. Only one single path led up to the
+summit of the Precipice Stone, whether one came from Tordona or from
+Malyinka, and my songster was evidently coming from the latter place.
+
+The next verse of the song sounded very much nearer:--
+
+    "Lo! on his _kalpag_[69] see
+      A blood-red nodding plume;
+    A mantle black surrounds his neck,
+      His wild eye lowers with gloom."
+
+    [Footnote 69: The tall fur hat, generally plumed, which
+    forms part of the Hungarian national costume.]
+
+And now I heard a woman's voice also.
+
+Some one was telling the singer not to sing while climbing.
+
+So there was a pair of them!
+
+And as the singer gradually mounted higher and higher, his figure also
+became visible from behind the rocky ledge.
+
+    "Presumptuous mortal, quake and fear
+    When thou his awful name dost hear:
+        Diavolo, Diavolo, Diavolo!"
+
+Yet nobody quaked so much as Fra Diavolo himself, when he perceived a
+human shape stretched before him on the ground as he scaled the very
+summit of the rocky ledge.
+
+And certainly I was not a very reassuring spectacle, as, with my
+sheepskin cap pressed closely to my head, and a large cudgel in my fist,
+I slowly rose from my knees.
+
+I recognised him before he recognised me.
+
+"Your servant, Bálványossi! Why, how did you manage to get here, where
+not even the bird that flies can come?"
+
+Then his terror was turned into joy.
+
+"Ah, ha! my poet-friend! What a divine encounter here in Heaven above!"
+With that he hastened up to me and we embraced.
+
+By this time his lady companion had also got the better of the rocky
+zig-zag which led up to the mountain ledge.
+
+It was now the turn of my own heart to stop beating. That female shape
+was Bessy--the sea-eyed beauty!
+
+How came they two to be together? How came they to be both here at the
+same time?
+
+But it was no vision. The fair lady recognised me instantly. Her face,
+red already from her mountain scramble, could be no redder at the sight
+of me, nor could her bosom heave more than it was heaving now; but on
+her face there was a sort of holding-back expression.
+
+Friend Valentine perceived the look of amazed inquiry on my face, and
+turning with true histrionic humour towards his lady-companion,
+introduced her to me with the words, "My grandmother!"
+
+At this witticism the lady laughed, and I had sufficient self-control
+not to reply to this introduction with a single word.
+
+"Then come to my bosom, my son, for I am thy grandfather."
+
+"It is very strange we should meet here," I put in.
+
+But my friend's features suddenly darkened as if he were obeying a stage
+direction like, "here he suddenly assumes a grave face."
+
+"First of all, my dear friend," said he, "I demand your word of honour
+not to reveal to any one in the created world that you have seen me. You
+know that I am now Tihamér Rengetegi till the old blonde hair grow again
+(what I'm wearing now is a wig); for a heavy price is fixed upon my
+head. A word, and I am lost. Your _parole_ that you'll say nothing about
+me?"
+
+"The promise must be mutual, then," I replied. "I just as solemnly
+require you to say not a word to anybody about me, for I also am in
+hiding here."
+
+At this he began to laugh. It was a stage laugh, for he placed his hand
+on his stomach, crooked his back, and turned upon his heel, choking with
+laughter.
+
+"And you also are hiding away here from the Germans! Well, that _is_ a
+joke!"
+
+I inquired somewhat brusquely what there was to laugh at.
+
+"Why, at your hiding--hiding away from the Imperialists. You, of all
+people! Why, don't you know, then, that very many deputies defended
+themselves before the court-martials by declaring themselves former
+contributors to your _Esti Lap_?[70] Why, every one knows that you were
+the organ of the peace party at Debreczin. Every one is well aware that
+you were the ally of the Imperialists."
+
+[Footnote 70: _Evening News_.]
+
+At this I at once flew into a rage.
+
+"Have you ever seen the _Esti Lap_?"
+
+"No, I've not actually _seen_ it, but it was the general opinion among
+us soldiers that you were higgling with the Imperialists."
+
+At this Bessy intervened by giving a good tug at her friend's collar.
+
+"Rubbish! Such rumours are only circulated by pot-house heroes like
+yourself. He certainly was no traitor! Would that all who open their
+mouths so loudly were as good patriots?"
+
+My friend, with sheepish obsequiousness, hastened to readjust his
+opinion to the satisfaction of his "grandmother."
+
+"Good, good! I never believed a word of it myself--why should I?" said
+he.
+
+"The best proof that I am not what calumny would make me is the fact of
+my meeting you here at the Pagan Altar; and again I beg of you to tell
+nobody that we have met."
+
+Here Bessy again intervened.
+
+"I'll answer for that. I shall now be constantly at the side of this
+honest gentleman, and if his tongue begins to wag, my hand will be ready
+to stop it for him."
+
+Mr. Valentine laughed.
+
+"What a woman it is! She really has a most rapid hand. Not a day passes
+but she lets me feel the weight of her palm."
+
+At this I made a very critical face. My good friend could read very well
+from it that I wished to know by what right his cheeks were allowed to
+feel the force of Bessy's rosy palms day by day.
+
+"We met together in camp, and the field-chaplain blessed our union to
+the roaring of guns and the beating of drums."
+
+That was right enough, surely!
+
+Bessy's eyes were raised towards me as if she could add a great deal to
+this short history. Friend Valentine thought it good to become loudly
+enthusiastic.
+
+"What a woman, my friend! A heroine! A perfect Jeanne d'Arc! We were
+bound together by a whole chain of wonders and exploits. She was not my
+consort--nay! she was much more, my companion in arms. I'll tell you the
+whole thing one of these days."
+
+"That will do...."
+
+"What? That will do? Are you, then, so poor-spirited? _I_ am ready to
+meet the spectres of the darkness face to face. I'll set in motion the
+avalanche which shall wrench the world from its hinges."
+
+I left him to set his avalanche in motion while I went to gather dry
+twigs and leaves and make a heap of them. Meanwhile Valentine declaimed
+to the clouds.
+
+"What a spectacle! The whole realm a sea! We stand alone, like the
+co-operating Demiurges at the creation, in the face of chaos."
+
+"Have you got your troupe together?" I inquired, thus bringing him down
+at once from his pedestal.
+
+"My troupe? That's just what I am going about now. Brutus must play the
+fool until his day has come. But when once the hour of retribution
+arrives, we will rise as one man and win back our outraged liberties."
+
+"With my bludgeon, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, not with that sort of thing," said friend Valentine, with haughty
+condescension. "I have no secret to hide from you. An American hero of
+freedom has invented a weapon which, placed in the hand of a simple
+citizen, will give him an irresistible advantage over the hireling
+soldiery. Its English name is 'revolver.' I have one by me. Thanks to my
+acquaintances beyond the ocean, I have managed to provide myself with
+it. Look here!"
+
+With that he produced from his side pocket a pistol, the like of which I
+had never seen before. It was the Colt revolver, for discharging five
+shots. You loaded it in front, and with this object in view, you had to
+shove out the cartridge cylinder and sprinkle powder out of the
+powder-flask in every loop-hole; at the end of the bullet was a nail,
+which had to be made firm with a cork-stopper, then the bullet had to be
+driven into the barrel by means of a hammer and ramrod, then the
+cartridge cylinder had to be fastened down again into its place, and
+pyramids of priming powder piled on the top of it--while the enemy was
+supposed to be looking on all the time and watching good-naturedly to
+see what would come of it all.
+
+Friend Valentine had immense confidence in his wondrous firearm.
+
+"You can see that I am prepared for every conceivable emergency. My
+faith, I will sell my life dearly! I may tell _you_, for you will not
+betray me. Beneath this Pagan Altar is a cave, the existence of which is
+known only to the initiated. I have selected it for my hiding-place.
+When the chase against me begins, and a whole brigade of gendarmes
+marches out to seize me, I will creep into this cave; victuals and
+brandy for a whole week are already there for me; let them riot round me
+then as they like."
+
+I could not help laughing at these wise precautions. But friend
+Valentine's explanations became still more fiery.
+
+"My friend! a single narrow little path leads to this cave. The bears
+used possibly to resort thither in the days when bears camped in the
+beech districts. If they attempt to storm me there, I can defend myself
+with this revolver against a whole host."
+
+All this time I had been employed in piling up a nice little heap of dry
+twigs and leaves, which I now set on fire with my flint and steel.
+
+Friend Valentine caught me nervously by the hand.
+
+"What are you doing, my friend?"
+
+"Lighting a fire, my friend."
+
+"Why, my friend?"
+
+"To cook bacon with, my friend."
+
+"They will see the blaze of our fire from below."
+
+"How _can_ they see when the mist is so thick there?"
+
+He admitted that I was right, and allowed me to ignite my heap, which
+immediately began to crackle merrily.
+
+Meanwhile, friend Valentine went and stood on the edge of the Precipice
+Stone to watch the mist, and from time to time informed me of the
+changes of scene that were going on: now the mists were beginning to
+break, now they were rising, the houses would be visible almost
+immediately.
+
+And all the time I was toasting slices of bread by the fire, and after
+that slices of bacon, allowing the bacon fat to drip gradually down and
+soak through the toast with a deftness that would have done honour to a
+professional cook.
+
+Bessy took it into her head to follow my example.
+
+"Give me the bread and bacon out of the knapsack," said she to
+Valentine.
+
+"But what necessity for it is there now?"
+
+"I must have it at once."
+
+And with that she went up to him and began rummaging in the knapsack.
+
+"Why, what a prosaic nature is yours!" said Valentine reproachfully to
+the lady. "At such a sublime moment, too, in the presence of such a
+glorious spectacle! Just look at that magnificent scene! The whole of
+the cloud of mist is rising like a stage curtain. The gigantic theatre
+appears like magic from behind the hanging cloudy tapestries. Behold the
+sunlit heights, the white shimmering houses. And now a fresh
+mountain-chain emerges crowned with dim forests. Just as if they were of
+massive gold...."
+
+"Give me the bacon, I say."
+
+"My heart, my blood is thine, but ask me not for bacon! Look how the
+earth rises up before us; nothing but mountains, mountains, mountains!
+Still nothing to be seen of the dome of Heaven! And that deep divine
+calm around us! Only from the distant forge resounds the measured thud
+of the sledge hammer, as though one heard the throbbing of the heart of
+the universe! And does not thine own heart beat faster in this sublime
+place?"
+
+"It throbs, it throbs! Right sorely does it throb! But we'll look at the
+august spectacle a little later."
+
+"What! Not look when an instant like this is worth a world?"
+
+The natural phenomenon before us really was very fine, as the whole
+misty cloud rose swiftly from the mountains, covering with a deep shadow
+the sky that up to that moment had been shining bright and blue before
+us, and at the same time unfolding before us the muffled panorama of
+hill behind hill beneath our feet; the solar rays, like the broad
+diverging spokes of a huge wheel, shot down from the cloudy rifts with a
+milky sort of glare. It would really have been a majestic scene but for
+the false, disturbing pathos of friend Valentine.
+
+"Nay, nay! I cannot view it standing on my feet! Here one should go down
+upon one's knees. Here the gods themselves walk abroad!"
+
+Valentine plumped down upon his knees, and because Bessy would not
+follow his example, he wound his arm around her and clasped her to his
+breast. She, however, was impatient at his insipid vapourings.
+
+"You are just like that professor," said she, "who held up his oil-lamp
+against the moon that his guests might see her better."
+
+"Elizabeth!" sighed the Celadon bitterly (Bessy was a name which could
+not be emphasized with sighs so well as Elizabeth), "dost thou not
+remember that solemn moment when we said to one another, 'How sweet it
+would be to die together this instant'? Has not our common friend said
+(here he looked at me), 'A good death is better than a bad life'? Come,
+let us verify that saying: wrapped in each other's embrace, heart
+throbbing responsive to heart, a dizziness, a plunge forward from this
+rock, and then a delicious flight whose goal will be the stars!"
+
+"Go away with you! Don't make a fool of yourself! I have no wish to
+plunge into Heaven!"
+
+"But I'll bear thee thither with me like a Valkyrian. And thou, my
+friend, wilt immortalize our final catastrophe in a heroic ballad."
+
+And with that he seized the lady by the arm, and rushed with her upon
+the steep rocky ledge.
+
+"Hast thou said thy prayers to-day, Desdemona?"
+
+Bessy looked towards me with a timid look. I pretended to observe
+nothing. What had I to do with these amorous passages? I was frizzling
+bacon.
+
+"Dost thou doubt me capable of dying with thee at this moment?" cried
+Valentine Bálványossi, with his wig awry over his eyes.
+
+Then the lady cried with a supplicating voice: "Nay; but help me, dear
+Maurice!"
+
+"Very well, I _will_ help you," thought I; "I did it once before, so you
+say. Poets have long arms."
+
+"Friend Valentine," said I, without rising from my squatting position
+beside the frizzling bacon, "don't you see those two men with muskets
+coming up this way along the mountain path?"
+
+"Wha-a-at, two m-m-men with mus-us-kets?" said the hero, his rumbling
+bass-baritone voice suddenly dwindling into a piping treble. "Where are
+they?" All his longing for death had instantly vanished, and he
+immediately released his victim from his embrace.
+
+I indicated the approaching strangers with my toasting-fork. "There!"
+
+Then he also saw them.
+
+"Br-r-rother, those are gend-end-end-armes!"
+
+"Possibly they _are_ gend-end-armes, for there are two of them."
+
+"Put out the fire at once!"
+
+"I would if I could, but I can't now. And if I did, what good would that
+do? They have seen it already."
+
+"I told you not to make a fire here."
+
+But now Bessy turned furiously upon him.
+
+"It is your stagey spouting that has saddled us with them. What business
+had you to go declaiming on the mountain tops? The people fancy you are
+murdering some one."
+
+"They are coming straight towards us," gasped friend Valentine. "If they
+get hold of me, I am lost."
+
+I tried to reassure him: "Come, come! recollect there are two of us;
+with my loaded cudgel and your revolver we shall offer a stubborn
+resistance."
+
+"Br-r-other, they have guns which hit at four hundred yards, while my
+revolver has only a range of thirty, and it doesn't always hit the mark
+even then. We cannot risk so much. It is quite another thing when I am
+in the dark cave, and they are out in the light, for then I can see
+them, but they can't see me."
+
+"Then you'll hide away in your cave, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, not for my own life's sake, but for the sake of my country, whose
+fate I carry in my bosom. The heels of my boots are full of secret
+despatches from England and Turkey. I am not free to stake everything so
+lightly."
+
+"Well, go and hide yourself, by all means!"
+
+But then Bessy put in a word: "'Tis all very well, but what's to become
+of me. I cannot crawl on all fours into your big bear-garden."
+
+"Nor would I allow it. Is not our common friend here? He will remain
+here. _You_ will not run away, will you? I am sure they don't know you.
+Your portrait has appeared nowhere, but mine has gone from hand to hand.
+A full description of my personal appearance flutters at every street
+corner. If they come, say that it was you who kicked up that row; say
+that she is your wife."
+
+"I won't say that."
+
+"Then do what you like. I rely upon you, mind!"
+
+"That's all very well," cried Bessy peevishly, "but what will happen
+afterwards? If you remain in your hole, and our good friend goes home,
+what am I to do all alone here by myself on the top of a rock? I shall
+never find my way home through this wood."
+
+Then my friend, with cheap generosity, made this magnanimous offer:--
+
+"Dear friend, take her home with you."
+
+So that was to be the _dénouement_ of this odd drama!
+
+"No, my magnanimous friend. Not so! You go and reserve yourself for
+posterity. We two will remain here. One of two things is bound to
+happen. If those two men, armed with muskets, find me painting pictures
+in my album, they will believe either that I am a simple painter (they
+know that Károly Telepi is wandering about on a sketching tour here, and
+they'll take me for him, and Bessy for--my sister); or they'll not
+believe anything of the kind, and in that case they'll escort us both to
+Miskolcz. In the latter case you need have no fear of turning back. If,
+on the other hand, after the lapse of a few hours, you creep out of your
+cave and see me sitting as before, on the rocky ledge, and peaceably
+continuing my sketching, then you will know that the armed invasion has
+passed on further, and you can come back again to the Lady Elizabeth.
+Then I'll give you my blessing, and we'll return from whence we
+came--you to the east, I to the west."
+
+With this he was satisfied.
+
+"But don't betray me!" he murmured, casting a terrified look upon us;
+"even though they hale you off to the block, don't say where I am."
+
+I gave him my word of honour that not even the Spanish boot should
+extort his secret from me, whereupon he went gingerly down upon all
+fours, scrambled up the rocky summit by the corkscrew path, and vanished
+among the bushes.
+
+"Ugh! I only wish he hadn't taken the bread and bacon along with him!"
+lamented the girl he left behind him.
+
+"I'll share mine with you; there's enough for two."
+
+And with that I seized my crooked clasp-knife, cut the slice of bread in
+two, minced the bacon into little bits, and sprinkled it with salt and
+pepper.
+
+Nor was that all. I rubbed both sides of the toasted bacon with a knob
+of garlic. It was a sort of Oriental language of flowers. I meant to
+remind her that her ideal of a man was one who did not rinse his mouth
+after eating garlic.
+
+Thus we were alone on the summit of the Pagan Altar, crouching together
+beside a fire of burning embers, and dividing a piece of toast and a
+slice of bacon--I and the former mistress of my heart.
+
+That "former" was not so very long ago. It was scarcely three years
+since the golden thrushes mingled their songs with our chats. The
+idyllic contemplation of the matter, however, was considerably disturbed
+by the concrete circumstance that, during these three years, a third
+masterpiece of creation had found in my former paragon the rib that had
+been subtracted from him while he slept. Her first venture was a
+fashionable fop, her second an Antinous of the wilderness, her third was
+now a stage Othello.
+
+And our feelings were still further subdued by the disagreeable tension
+occasioned by the approach towards us of two armed men, who kept on
+popping up before us in the clearings of the forest, now here, now
+there, but continually drawing nearer to the Pagan Altar. There could
+not now be a doubt that they were making towards us.
+
+"It would be as well if I set to work and sketched something in my album
+while they are approaching," said I, "in case they inquire what I am
+doing here."
+
+With that, I sat down on the steep rocky ledge, placed my sketch-book on
+my knee, and designed the contours of my picture on a grand scale.
+
+The lady sat down close beside me, and observed how I looked now on the
+hills and now on my paper--but never into her fine eyes.
+
+We did not exchange a word with each other, not a single word.
+
+At last, however, I grew impatient of the silence, and without looking
+up from my sketch, I said to her: "I really thought that by this time
+you and Peter Gyuricza had filled the whole world full of butter and
+cheese."
+
+But then, with both her hands, she seized my sketching hand, so that I
+had to leave off my work, and said, with a mournful voice:
+
+"You have the most sovereign contempt for me now, eh? But if I were to
+tell you what frightful calamities I have gone through since last we
+met, then I am sure you would have compassion on me."
+
+I told her that if she liked to speak, I could now listen, as I had
+plenty of time.
+
+"You remember when last we met, don't you? When you banged the door in
+my face, I mean--though, God knows, I only meant to do you good then. I
+never meant to make you so angry, and immediately made the best of my
+way home to the hut of Peter Gyuricza. Ah! how sorry I then was that I
+had not pleaded my cause with you better. I had another reason for going
+to you. When the lawyers took up my case, the fair-haired partner
+offered me a little money, which I might repay him, he said, when I
+gained my suit. But I chose to ride the high horse, and rejected the
+proffered money, although I had really nothing about me but three
+_huszases_,[71] which I had saved from the proceeds of the butter. That
+was not even enough for the steam-boat. A couple of florins or so would
+have done. But, of course, when you drove me out of your room I had to
+do without."
+
+[Footnote 71: The _husza_--20 kreutzers.]
+
+"I am very sorry that I did not guess your need."
+
+"Still more sorry was I. I was obliged, in my straits, to climb into the
+cart of a poulterer who was going to Vienna, and who, for two of my
+_huszases_, found a place for me among the hen-coops. I still had a few
+_garashes_[72] for my journey, which were sufficient to pay for the
+straw on which I slept at the inns where we descended. On the third day
+I arrived safely at Uj-Szöny, and by that time I had eaten the last bit
+of bread and cheese in my basket. In front of the inn stood a lame and
+paralysed beggar, who begged alms of me in God's name. I had only two
+kreutzers still left. I kept back one kreutzer from the beggar, for I
+knew that I should have to pay a toll on the bridge. Now, that was your
+fault, look you. You might have inserted a paragraph in the Twelve
+Articles of Pest abolishing the tolls."
+
+[Footnote 72: A _garash_--3 kreutzers.]
+
+I was furious. I had to erase half my drawing. Bessy laughed at my
+misfortune, and at her own also. Then she proceeded:--
+
+"From thence I had to make my way home on foot. I could go right along
+by the banks of the Danube without entering the town. I did not meet a
+single acquaintance. In front of me I saw a large group of National
+Guards in blue attilas, hastening rapidly towards the fortress amidst
+the beating of drums. It must have been a serious business which
+prevented them from looking at a pretty woman. Then I went nicely and
+quietly along the well-known way. Like the egg-selling woman in the
+fairy-tale, I began to consider what I would do when I got back my
+patrimony. I would go with my Gyuricza right away into Transylvania,
+there I would buy him a property, where he might rear as many cattle as
+he liked. I myself would learn to spin like the Pákular[73] women: my
+husband should wear clothes of my own weaving. I would adorn my
+bedchamber with embroidered napkins, hang varnished vases all round, and
+there should be rows of pewter dishes on every shelf. We should have our
+plum-orchard too, and from the plums I would make _palinka_. I would
+keep bees, and make mead, and bake honey-cakes, which Peter loves so
+much when he can get them at the fair. All this time I had never noticed
+that I was getting quite close to the hut. It was drawing towards
+evening, and smoke was coming from the chimney. No doubt the little
+serving-maid was cooking supper according to my directions. How
+surprised Peter would be when I brought his flesh-pot out to him in the
+pastures! When I entered the hut I found by the hearth--nobody. I went
+into the room. What do I see? My Peter Gyuricza sitting at the
+table--with his wife; and they were supping sweetly together out of the
+same dish, like two turtle-doves!"
+
+[Footnote 73: A village in Transylvania, chiefly inhabited by
+Wallachs.--TR.]
+
+("Aha!" I murmured, "poetic justice with a vengeance; I myself could not
+have devised a happier _dénouement_.")
+
+"Everything became green and blue before my eyes. My throat contracted.
+I was incapable of uttering a word. But the tongue of the little peasant
+woman wagged all the brisker. No sooner did she see me than she bounced
+from her place, cocked her _haube_ on the side of her head, stuck her
+arms akimbo, and fell foul of me.
+
+"'Ah, ha! my dear precious lady! I suppose 'tis Carnival time, since you
+come masquerading hither like that! Perhaps you've come because you've
+lost something here, eh? A shawl, perhaps? A very pretty little
+ladyship, that I _will_ say! Haven't you got a nice enough lord and
+master of your own at home? Must you befool the poor peasant also? Or if
+your lawful husband is not enough for you, can't you go and choose
+another from among the cavaliers of your own rank? You hanker after
+laying your little stuck-up noddle on my patch-pillow, eh? You ought to
+be ashamed of yourself!'
+
+"I was dumbfoundered. This face of a fury, with the eyes sticking out of
+its head, robbed me of all my pluck. In my despair and doubt I looked at
+Peter.
+
+"He all this time was sitting with his elbows on the table and
+swallowing one dumpling after another.
+
+"'Is this justice, Peter?' stammered I, half-sobbing; 'will you let me
+be treated like this?'
+
+"At this he struck the table with his fist a mighty blow and roared at
+his wife: 'Woman! Shut up! Hold your tongue! Sit down at that table and
+fill your stomach! I'll speak now.'
+
+"The woman sulked in silence, but, even while her husband was speaking,
+she could not forbear putting in a word or two here and there, such as:
+'She has worn out my dress, too!--I didn't steal that! My lovely chintz
+dress! How she has rumpled it! Just as if she had been tumbling it about
+in every pot-house!'
+
+"But Peter spoke very sagely.
+
+"'My lady, I beg pardon! I know what honour is. I was once a soldier. I
+know my duty. What won't match can't match. A horse and an ox won't draw
+together. A peasant woman's meet for a peasant, a lady's meet for a
+gentleman. Now did I ever so much as raise my little finger to your
+ladyship? You know I didn't. And yet how many times haven't you ruined
+the butter? You never moistened the maize. The pigs wouldn't eat it
+because it set their teeth on edge, for you threw them hard raw grain.
+This won't do, you know! When the cows calve, who'll be there to see to
+them? And who is there to clean out the furnace? The mice have gnawed
+away the sleeves of my jacket, it's all in rags. Besides that, I have
+got into the way of saying, "Hie, you Jutka! d'ye hear?" and then she
+knows very well what her duty is; and when I strike her she makes no
+bones about it, either. I couldn't live without thrashing her
+occasionally; it does my back good, which would else grow double; and
+she always knows how to come round me again.'"
+
+I threw my sketch-book and my palette out of my hand, and flung myself
+down on my back, I laughed so much. How could I help laughing? Bessy
+laughed too.
+
+"I can laugh mightily at it now, but situated as I was then, his words
+were so many lashes. At last I flew into a rage and attacked Peter.
+
+"'Can't you say straight out that Muki Bagotay has bribed you to take
+back your wife, whom you drove away on his account?'
+
+"'Oh, I humbly beg your pardon, you must not say that I am bribed. I am
+an upright man. His honour, my lord Bagotay, gave me ten head of oxen as
+a gift, but he didn't bribe me.'
+
+"My heart was ready to break at these words.
+
+"Ten head of oxen indeed! For the sake of this peasant I had sacrificed
+my whole existence, the world in which I had hitherto lived, the respect
+of my acquaintances, my ease and comfort. I had made the earnest resolve
+to become a peasant woman for his sake, to work, do without things,
+suffer penury, and when once I had recovered my property, to give it all
+to him, make him a gentleman according to _his_ notion of a gentleman,
+and the wretched creature had bartered me for ten oxen!"
+
+I hastened to explain to Bessy that this was really the legally
+appointed fine for adultery in case the affair came to be settled.
+Verböczy[74] says: "_Raptor solvat decem juvencos._"--"The seducer must
+pay ten oxen."
+
+[Footnote 74: The great Hungarian jurist (1460-1541), and one of the
+most eminent statesmen of his day. His _opus magnum_, entitled
+"Tripartitum opus juris consultudinarii inclyti regni Hungariæ," was
+first published in 1517.--TR.]
+
+Bessy then proceeded:--
+
+"Peter next began to give me counsels worthy of a patriarch.
+
+"'My lady, I've only one thing to say. Go back to his lordship. God's my
+witness that nothing will befall you. Say now, Jutka--come, on your soul
+be honest--have I so much as touched you with my little finger since you
+came back? His lordship, too, knows all about it. He will close one eye.
+Let's look upon the matter as if he and I had been wrestling together,
+and first one had had a fall and then the other. One box on the ears
+deserves another. So it is among men of honour!'"
+
+"Oh, don't make me laugh so, or I cannot go on sketching!" said I to
+Bessy, with the tears in my eyes.
+
+"I don't know what you can find to laugh at, I could cry for vexation
+even now."
+
+"Why, that of itself is enough to make one laugh!"
+
+Bessy continued:--
+
+"But then the woman began talking nicely to me, which was ever so much
+worse. 'Come, come, my dear, good, pretty lady, have respect for your
+nice, handsome, lawful lord. Why, what a fine gentleman it is! Why, if I
+hadn't my Peter ...'
+
+"'You manage to forget that, though, pretty often!' intervened Peter.
+
+"The long and short of it all was that I had to resume the clothes I had
+left behind me, and restore to Jutka the draggle-tail rags which she had
+charged me with spoiling. But what objection could I make? What belongs
+to another is his, so I began to strip off my frock and neckerchief
+before the pair of them straightaway.
+
+"The other woman then got a bit ashamed on my account. 'Let us go into
+the inner room,' said she; and drew me into the little chamber, and took
+out of her wardrobe the lordly raiment I had left there, and then helped
+me to dress. And all the time she was so mild, so friendly, and quite
+lost herself in rustic caresses and flatteries: 'Why, what a nice slim
+waist! What a shame that a mere clown should clasp it round! What lovely
+white shoulders! What a sin to ruin them by carrying about heavy loads!
+And how swollen the little feet are from much walking! Why, they'll
+scarcely go into the old dress-boot, I do declare! Why fly into such
+tantrums about such trifles! Good gracious me! suppose every lady who
+caught her lord with a little milkmaid were to carry on with the first
+clown that fell in her way! Things like that should not be taken so
+seriously. A man is but a man, especially if he is a gentleman! Why,
+I've seen _countesses_ even, whose husbands went on the loose. You
+expect too much, my dear! Chocolate is the nicest dish in the whole
+world; but if one were to give one's husband nothing but chocolate every
+day, he would soon loathe the very sight of it. Come, come! go home,
+dear heart, my darling ladykin, to your dear good lord and master, and
+you'll see how heartily he'll receive you!'
+
+"I replied that I would never go back to him again. I wept for shame.
+The woman guessed the cause of my tears.
+
+"'Come, come, good heart! Why, my lady, we'll all of us agree to deny
+that this little holiday ever happened. We were talking about it just
+now. We'll lie the thing away, and say that your ladyship only wanted to
+frighten the good gentleman, and that you were hiding the whole time at
+the house of the local magistrate.'
+
+"And how about the flower-selling in the market-place, and the promenade
+through the waters?'
+
+"'We'll say that that was only done out of spite. How should a dirty
+clown like my husband presume to cast his eyes on such a precious
+treasure as your ladyship? Why, anybody who could believe such a thing
+would be called a downright fool. We'll put it all to rights finely.'
+
+"'But a separation suit is already going on?'
+
+"'Your ladyship needn't trouble your head about that. His honour has
+withdrawn his complaint. Yes, I declare he has. He told me he was in
+great embarrassment. He had been deprived of his tithes and land tax,
+and did not know whither to turn for money. The gentlemen up at Pest had
+reintroduced the _morgatorium_, or whatever the plaguy thing is called,
+which as good as said that all the old debts were not to be paid, but
+that no new debts were to be made. Now, if he is divorced from your
+ladyship, he will have to pay you back your 100,000 florins, and then
+he'll be ruined. That's a fact.'
+
+"A light began to dawn upon me. This garrulous little peasant woman had
+let out the secret why my idyll had terminated so abruptly. A very
+pretty twice-two certainly! They receive me back like a pupil returning
+to school after the vacation. For that very reason I resolved I would
+_not_ go back.
+
+"When I was dressed again in my old clothes, she opened the little door
+and readmitted me into the larger apartment. Peter was now tricked out
+in his grandest array. He had donned his Sunday mantle, drawn on his new
+boots, and stood before me hat in hand. He was as humble as a lackey. He
+kissed my hand, and I noticed now for the first time how very bristly
+his chin was. When he spoke it sounded like the whining voice of a
+burnt-out beggar-man who stands at the stable-door and begs an alms.
+
+"'I kiss your gracious hands, my lady. I humbly beg pardon if I have
+offended you in any way. I didn't mean to do it. Forgive me my fault,
+and I'll never do it again.'
+
+"At this I knew not whether to laugh or to cry.
+
+"Then he got quite touched, and wiped his eyes with the flapping sleeves
+of his shirt.
+
+"Behind the door stood a stout willow-wood stick, which he laid hold of.
+I wondered what he was going to do with it. Would he give it to me as a
+staff for my pilgrimage?
+
+"'Permit me, your ladyship, to accompany you as far as the castle. Some
+evil might befall you on the way. There are bad men about. The dogs
+might bark at you, and the bull is quite savage.'
+
+"'But I am not going to the castle,' I said.
+
+"He gaped at me. 'Whither away, then?'
+
+"'That's my business! The road goes up, and the road goes down. I'll go
+whichever way the wind blows.'
+
+"Then he rallied all the wisdom he possessed, and preached a sermon to
+me with all the unction of an Old Testament patriarch.
+
+"'Don't do that, my dear good lady! Don't grieve your good and loving
+lord! There's not a better man in the world. Allow me to accompany you
+home. I'll keep well behind--twenty yards if you like.'
+
+"I stamped my foot impatiently, and bawled at him to come away from the
+door and let me go my way.
+
+"Then it was that Peter showed his true colours.
+
+"'My lady, this cannot be! The good and worthy squire, when he gave me
+the ten oxen to take back my wife, said this to me: "Well! Peter
+Gyuricza, if you bring my wife home also, ten young calves shan't stand
+between us."'
+
+(The rocks and woods re-echoed with my laughter. I couldn't keep it
+back.)
+
+"Then my fury boiled over. You know that when I fly into a rage I am a
+perfect lioness, don't you? I snatched the stick from Peter Gyuricza's
+hand. 'Lubber, lout! I'll give you your ten young calves! There you are,
+take them!' I don't know whether I gave him exactly ten blows. I didn't
+count them. And the big lout of a man turned tail, rushed into the room,
+dodged round the table, and roared like a hippopotamus, while I broke
+the stick over his shoulders. His consort thought it best not to
+interfere, but leaped upon the bench and looked on. It was a real luxury
+for her to meet with some one who could thoroughly trounce her tyrant.
+
+"I only wish my previous journey had not fatigued me so much.
+
+"I began to recover a little when I found myself out in the fields, and
+the breeze blew the heat out of my head. My idyll had come to a pretty
+end. What was I to do now? One thing was certain, I could not return to
+Muki Bagotay.
+
+"But whither was I to go, then?
+
+"Before me lay the beautiful Danube. The road by the dam ran all the way
+along it. From time to time I leaned against an old willow-tree and
+looked at the great living-water. Now and then a fish would leap up into
+the air with a loud splash. I was not afraid of the water, but of the
+fishes I was afraid. I could not kill myself. I should have rejoiced, if
+that had been true with which they used to frighten us in our childish
+days when we leaned over the bank and looked into the water: Beware of
+the devil who lurks behind you and will push you in! But he didn't push
+me in. The devil can do nothing now. He cannot compete at all with the
+sons of men. But was it really worth while to kill myself for the sake
+of two such men as Muki Bagotay and Peter Gyuricza? No, my death would
+then have been as ridiculous as my life!
+
+"I thought I would go home to my mother. She couldn't exactly turn me
+out of doors. Let her punish me as she will--I'll humble myself; I'll
+bow down before her; I'll endure her wrath. After all, is she not my
+mother, and am I not her only child? She cannot but love her little one.
+From any one else I could not expect to find pity or love. Why, I even
+hated myself!
+
+"With these thoughts I set off towards the town.
+
+"It was baking hot. A strong south wind was blowing, as dry and burning
+as if it had come out of a stove. Clouds of sand covered the whole
+region, and whenever a gust came, I had to take refuge under a
+willow-tree, lest I should be hurled into the dam. I can't say what time
+of the day it was, but I know that it was the forenoon to me, for I had
+eaten nothing yet that day. The Gyuriczas had forgotten to invite me to
+sit down to their dumplings.... To quench my thirst, I descended once or
+twice to the Danube and drank some water out of the palm of my hand. On
+the road-side I found a flower which I thought was a cheese-poppy. I
+tasted it, but it was very nasty. Weary as I was, I must hasten to get
+to the town as soon as possible. I should have been glad even of such a
+piece of bread as I used to distribute to the beggars at home on Friday.
+
+"I was hastening on towards the town, when suddenly a kind of darkness
+rose up before me in the sky, and on looking at it more attentively, I
+was horrified to observe that in the town a fire had broken out, the
+black smoke of which was rolling up into the dust-clouded sky.
+
+"The burning simoon blew back the black smoke upon the town. Great
+Heaven! the whole town will be reduced to ashes.
+
+"And now I began to run. I forgot that I was weary, I forgot that I was
+hungry. Fear lent me fresh strength. The nearer I got to the town the
+higher the smoke rolled up. Now, however, it was not black, but red.
+Millions of sparks shot flashing upwards, and huge fragments of flaming
+roofs were to be seen flying in the midst of them. When a tiled house
+caught fire, the burning tiles shivered like fiery rockets in every
+direction. A whole street was already in flames when I reached the town.
+Howling heaps of men, carts and carriages in full career, wailing women,
+children half crushed and suffocated, and in the midst of them all
+lowing kine and oxen wildly struggling back into their dark stables at
+the sight of the conflagration--the whole mass was rushing backwards and
+forwards in aimless confusion. I forced my way into a side street, lest
+I should be crushed to death, with the intention of getting home that
+way. Everywhere I encountered lamenting crowds attempting to drag along
+the streets the things they had saved from their houses. Nobody thought
+of extinguishing the flames. The burning embers fell in torrents. When I
+got to my mother's house I found it already wrapped in flames. It was
+the highest house in the street. A handful of Honveds were attempting to
+extinguish the flames. Others had mounted on the roof, and were throwing
+the furniture out of the windows. I saw a gold-framed picture flying
+through the air--it was the portrait of my poor father. Oh! he indeed
+used to love me. If he had only lived, I should not be what I am now.
+There were none but strange faces around me. In vain I asked them where
+my mother was. They had not heard of her. All at once a white-collared
+officer, some major or other I suppose, came up and cried to the
+fire-extinguishing Honveds, 'Why are you putting out that fire? It
+doesn't deserve it. It was there that the colonel lodged who set the
+town on fire! Leave the cursed hole alone, and go and protect the
+hospital!' I knew not whether I had gone mad or not. Why did they curse
+our house? The Honveds began execrating the name of a colonel who had
+often come to our _soirées_. If they recognise me, I thought, perhaps
+they'll pitch me into the fire also. One heavy cart after another
+rattled over my poor father's portrait. I couldn't even save that. I was
+aroused from my benumbing stupor by a frightful yell, the shout of
+thousands and thousands of men: 'Saint Andrew's Church is burning!' One
+of the slender towers of that vast cathedral was already in flames,
+while in the other the alarm-bells were ringing furiously. The mob
+carried me with it. Every one hastened along to save the church. But it
+was already too late. The other tower had also caught fire, the bells
+were silenced, the roof of the church was also ablaze. The beautiful
+church banners, which the guildsmen used to carry all round the town
+with great pomp on Corpus Christi day, were dragged out half charred
+amidst the falling firebrands. The heat was so terrible that one could
+not remain in the market-place. 'The whole town's done for!' cried the
+men. 'Let us fly to the island!' And with that the human flood poured
+through the narrow streets towards the Danube. The thought occurred to
+me that _there_ was a little villa which belonged to us. Happy thought!
+Perhaps I might find my mother there: she might have fled there for
+refuge. So I went along with the human torrent. By the time we got to
+the island drawbridge, it was impossible to get any farther through the
+densely packed crowd. Why were they coming back? Because the drawbridge
+was also burning. It was a terrible spectacle. The whole Danube shore
+was in flames, and the drawbridge leading to the island carried the
+conflagration still farther. The Danube was hissing with falling red-hot
+beams. Corn-ships, windmills, swam blazing along, and dashed against the
+ice-breakers. A band of armed Honveds posted by the custom-house kept
+the people back from rushing upon the burning bridge. They told us what
+had happened. There was a greater danger even than fire. An Imperial
+regiment had tried to creep quietly into the town. They were already at
+Tatá. The citizens, however, had found it out, and raised the drawbridge
+against them. The troops, enraged at the failure of their stratagem, had
+set the town on fire. What a cursing there was! I heard one particular
+name branded again and again, the name of the colonel who was to have
+married my mother if the revolution had not intervened."
+
+I could not go on with my drawing. The mist no longer lay upon the
+landscape, but upon my eyes.
+
+The young lady continued circumstantially the history of those
+horrors:--
+
+"Then three cannon-shots thundered from the fortress. No doubt it was
+only a signal which the troops often give in times of fire. But at this
+roaring of guns the fear of the people became still greater. 'The enemy
+is storming the town!' At this the whole crowd, which had hitherto
+entirely covered the Danube's bank, immediately rushed back again into
+the burning town, through the flaming streets and the burning rafters.
+'To the Waag, to the Waag!'[75] everybody cried. In that direction there
+was a hope of deliverance. I am only amazed that I was not crushed to
+death. In my terror I seized hold of a boatman's arm, and the worthy
+man, whom I had never seen before, allowed me to cling on to him like
+grim death; assured me that he would take care I was not left behind,
+and dragged me along with him over the backs of the struggling mob."
+
+[Footnote 75: A confluent of the Danube.]
+
+Here she had to pause. The recollections of these horrors stopped her
+breath. Pearls of sweat stood upon her forehead. It was only after a
+very long pause that she was able to resume.
+
+"I shall never forget that day. The alarm-bells were still pealing from
+a single tower, the tower of the Calvinist church. All the other church
+towers were in ashes, this one alone remained. The wind was blowing in a
+contrary direction. The fire had not yet extended to that part of the
+town. Every one hastened in the direction of the Calvinist church tower.
+The streets in the vicinity of the fortress were barred against the
+flying crowd by the Honved regiments; the only street by which it was
+possible to get to the Waag was Sunday Street. This also was half in
+flames, but from where Great St. Michael Street cuts across it, it still
+remained untouched. Your house was the border building beyond which the
+fire had not yet extended, but the inn at the opposite corner was burned
+to the ground. Oh, that dear familiar house, with those cool corridors,
+and those red marble columns, on the iron cross-bars of which you, as a
+boy, so often used to show off your acrobatic feats before me! The
+thought occurred to me of seeking sanctuary there in my great extremity.
+At one time I was wont to be heartily welcomed there. It is true that I
+had sinned grievously against that house, and the lady had reproached me
+with it to my face. I _had laughed at her son_, and that laughter had
+driven him out into the world. But in seasons of great calamity wrath is
+forgotten. I would seek a refuge there with your mother. Such were my
+thoughts when I saw your mother's house. That sight I shall never
+forget. There stood the good old lady on the threshold of her house, in
+that very brown dress, that very frilled turban in which you painted her
+portrait. Whenever she recognised anybody among the flying crowd, she
+stopped him, and asked, 'Have you not seen my son?' and when he
+replied, 'I have not!' she would wring her hands and sob bitterly, 'Oh,
+Holy Father! why is not my son here?'"
+
+Alas! what was the matter with my eyes? They suddenly filled with
+something.
+
+The young lady continued her story:--
+
+"When I heard your mother saying these words, I was possessed with fresh
+horror. It never occurred to me that you had an elder brother who was
+the guardian of the orphan wards of the town, and that his proper place
+then was in the Town Hall, with the roof blazing over his head, trying
+to save the property of the orphans. I dared not go along that side of
+the street; I crossed over to the other side. Suppose she were to seize
+me also and ask: 'What have you done with my son? But for those
+accursed, colour-shifting eyes of yours, he would now be beside me, he
+would never have left me all alone!' I dared not, I dared not meet her
+eye. I would rather endure the sight of my own mother's angry face than
+the tearful look of your mother. I hid my face in my hands, and hurried
+past."
+
+She could say no more. She let her face fall on my breast, and sobbed
+aloud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT
+
+
+When she again lifted up her face, her eyes were like a somnambulist's
+gazing fixedly in the moonlight. They appeared absolutely dark-blue, so
+much were the irises distended. Her voice was quite low.
+
+"The whole picture is still vividly before my eyes. The greater part of
+the town was in flames. It must have been evening. The sound of the
+clock in the Calvinist church tower mingled with the peal of the
+alarm-bells. The clock struck eight, the alarm-bells five. The people
+counted the strokes: exactly thirteen. The sun shone no longer, but the
+whole vault of heaven was alight; the fiery reflection of the thick
+clouds of smoke made a hellish daylight, and in the midst of this
+terrible illumination, like some dread idol, rose the tower of the
+Calvinist church, with its large copper roof, and its spire with the
+great gold ball and star. Star and ball glowed like phantoms from the
+world beyond the grave. The crackling of the fire roared down the
+howling of the beasts and the cries of ten thousand terrified men. In
+that part of the town where the carters dwelt, carts, horses and oxen,
+and their owners were all huddled together in one dense mass. To move
+was an impossibility. Then upon this howling, cursing, blaspheming
+multitude came pouring that mass of men which had fought its way from
+the banks of the Danube through the burning town, with the terrifying
+cry, 'The enemy has attacked the town!' By this time the alarming rumour
+had gained such proportions that there were those who said they had
+actually seen the enemy's soldiers entering the town. 'They are burning,
+they are plundering--fly! fly!' Some even exclaimed, 'They are about to
+bombard the captured town from the fortress!' All at once the whole
+street, as far as the Waag bridge, was filled with flying vehicles. In
+my terror I had clutched hold of the mud-splasher of one of these
+vehicles as it came tearing along, and ran along after it till there was
+scarcely a breath left in my body. My light buskins were completely worn
+off my feet and full of gravel. I had no time to stop and empty them.
+This particular carriage had excellent horses in it, and the coachman
+did not spare his whip. Two women, dressed in peasants' hoods, were
+sitting in this carriage. I was astonished that they should wrap
+themselves up so closely in their hoods, and cover their heads with big
+kerchiefs, when such an infernal heat was blazing all around us, from
+the earth, from the sky, and from every side of us.
+
+"The coachman reached the Waag bridge safely before the other fugitive
+carriages had blocked up the way. At the entrance they had to stop, for
+there the custom-house officers demanded the bridge-tolls. That the
+whole town was in flames mattered not a button to them, all they wanted
+was their tolls. One of the women handed them an Austrian bank-note for
+100 florins. The toll-collector could not give change. A queer sort of
+peasant woman, truly, who had no smaller change than a bank-note for 100
+florins! While they were haggling about it, it occurred to me that I was
+now wearing my genteel clothes, and that in the pockets there was sure
+to be a silver _tizes_[76] for any beggar I might chance to meet on my
+way. So I went up and said to the peasant women: 'I've got a _tizes_
+which I'll give to the toll-collector; all that I ask is that you will
+take me in your carriage--there's room for me beside the coachman. I
+don't mind where you take me.' At this, one of the women called to the
+coachman: 'Don't let that girl get up, we won't have her.' Then they
+told the toll-collector that he might keep the 100-florin note if he
+couldn't give them change, if only he would let their coachman go on. I
+was horrified at such inhumanity. What a heartless woman it must be who,
+in such a time of peril, could refuse a fugitive girl a place in her
+carriage, and who, rather than do so, preferred to sacrifice a bank-note
+for 100 florins, peasant though she was! In my indignation I tore the
+big muffling clout from the head of the peasant woman and discovered her
+face. And now my blood froze to ice. I recognised my own mother!
+'Mother, dear mother!' I cried, 'don't you know me? I am your own little
+girl, Bessy!' Then my mother, pulling up the collar of her mantle over
+her face, said, in a simulated peasant voice: 'Be off! Don't bother us!
+I don't know the girl. I'm not your mother. Let go my kerchief!'
+
+[Footnote 76: The tenth part of a florin.]
+
+"I thought I was going mad. My own mother wouldn't know me! She wouldn't
+let me get into her carriage. Like lightning the thought flashed through
+my mind that she it was whom the people were cursing so. No doubt they
+were cursing her unjustly, but in such times as these that mattered
+little. Whomsoever the popular fury points out is condemned already. I
+could not betray my own mother. I hastily threw my silver coin to the
+toll-collector that they might let the carriage go on. I thought that if
+once we got beyond the bridge, and my mother had no further fear of
+pursuit, she would take me into the carriage. So catching hold of the
+back part of the vehicle, I ran on beside the carriage till we had got
+beyond the trenches of the fortress and out upon the highway. Then I
+again began to supplicate, so far as my gasping voice would allow me:
+'Mother, dear, good mother! take me into the carriage; I am dropping. I
+can go no farther.' They would not hear me. They only cursed and
+scolded: 'Be off! Decamp!' And when I still persisted in clinging on,
+they at last seized my fingers, which were still clutching the splasher,
+violently wrenched them off, and gave me a rough push so that I fell at
+full length into the highway. Then the carriage rolled on farther.
+
+"I had held out till then, but now my strength failed me. I trembled so
+that I could no longer stand upon my legs. Utterly crushed in mind and
+body by the sufferings of that terrible day, I dragged myself on my
+knees to the edge of the wayside ditch. My instinctive fear of death
+told me that I must avoid the middle of the road if I didn't want to be
+trampled to death. There then I lay clinging to a roadside poplar,
+gazing apathetically at the dreadful scene. The fugitive vehicles dashed
+madly along the highway in threes and fours, colliding every moment. The
+cursing and swearing were something awful. Every now and then one
+conveyance overturned another into the ditch, and the women who were
+sitting in them screamed and cried most piteously. One coachman hit upon
+the foolhardy idea of forcing his way through the ditch into the open
+field, and others followed his example. They came so close to me as to
+all but run over me, and I had not sufficient strength left to draw up
+my legs out of reach of their revolving wheels.
+
+"Then the blast of trumpets mingled with the hurly-burly. A regiment of
+Hussars was trying to cut its way through the fugitive carriages with a
+convoy of hay-waggons, which, as was explained to me later on, the
+Commandant of the fortress was transferring from the burning town to the
+village of Izsa across the Waag. The commanding officer was cursing and
+swearing, and striking all the coachmen he met with the flat of his
+sword for stopping his soldiers' way. 'Damned rascals! instead of
+putting out the fire, you all take to your heels. What the devil is the
+matter with you? There's no enemy behind you! Would that the souls of
+your ancestors could revivify you!'
+
+"The voice seemed familiar to me, but the face I had never seen before.
+A spiral moustache, a French beard, a Hussar uniform, and a plumed
+hat--I had never seen _that_ figure before.
+
+"Thus he appeared before me like the dragon-slaying hero of a fairy
+tale.
+
+"Hitherto, of all those who scurried past me, not one had noticed the
+wretched creature lying in the ditch. Some girl or other quite past
+help, they thought, perhaps. Nobody took any notice of me.
+
+"This officer _did_ notice me. In the midst of the greatest turmoil he
+perceived a woman lying beneath his horse's feet. He hastily reined in
+his charger, and called me by my name. 'My lady Elizabeth! how ever did
+you come here? In Heaven's name, what has befallen you?'
+
+"I recognised him by his mode of addressing me. There was only one man
+who used to address me in this way, the man who taught me my _rôle_ at
+those famous amateur theatricals that you remember.
+
+"'Mr. Bálványossi! Mr. Director!' I stammered, in my joy.
+
+"'No, no! Captain Rengetegi is my name. Why, where is your mother? Run
+away? She did well. Get up, my lady, into my carriage, and I'll take you
+now to a place of safety.'
+
+"'I cannot get up.'
+
+"Then he hastily dismounted from his horse, gave his bridle to his
+orderly, went up to me, raised me in his arms, carried me to his
+carriage, and laid me down there among sweet-smelling hay.
+
+"I felt just as if I had been placed in Paradise.
+
+"Then he threw his mantle over me. It was cold outside now, and a strong
+wind was blowing.
+
+"But his care for me went even further than that.
+
+"'There is food in my knapsack, lady Elizabeth. I suppose you have had
+no supper to-day? Take whatever you find there. There's some drink, too,
+in my flask. It will do you good. You have nothing more to fear. The
+finger-pointing virgin still stands there on the bastions of our
+fortress.'
+
+"Then he mounted his horse again, and continued commanding his men
+loudly and authoritatively to force their way through the crush of carts
+and carriages with their convoy of hay. I fancied that I saw before me
+an archangel.
+
+"I didn't wait to be asked twice. As soon as I was able to get hold of
+the knapsack of victuals, I stuffed myself indiscriminately with all it
+contained--ham, cake, rolls. I gorged like a wild beast broken loose
+from a menagerie. I verily believe that if my bliss in Heaven had
+depended upon it, I would have renounced it for that couch of soft straw
+and those greedily devoured delicacies.
+
+"When I had satisfied my appetite as I had never done before, I
+unscrewed the top of the flask and put it to my mouth. I didn't taste
+what was in it, but I gulped and gulped so long as I had any breath in
+my body, as much as my thirst craved. I fancy it must have been brandy.
+When I couldn't drink any more I looked all about me. The burning town
+was a grand illumination; in the midst of it was the Calvinist church
+tower--only it was now not one tower, but three. The silly thing was
+dancing a _pas seul_, and wagging its head now to the right, and now to
+the left, and all the people, and the horses, and the coachmen, and the
+hay-carts were leaping and dancing, like wedding-guests considerably the
+worse for liquor.
+
+"When next day I awoke out of a twenty-hours' sleep, I found myself in
+the room of a peasant's house. Two men were holding a consultation over
+me--the camp-surgeon and 'he.' 'How do you find yourself, lady
+Elizabeth? You are in my little room.'
+
+"So ever since then I have been the lady Elizabeth."
+
+With these words Bessy rushed to the edge of the steep rock, crossed
+her two hands over her breast, and looked over her shoulder at me.
+
+"I have now told you everything, and you must judge me. You have no need
+to push me. Give but a signal with your finger and I'll put an end to
+myself!"
+
+Horrified, I grasped her hand, and snatched her away from the dizzying
+rocky ledge.
+
+"Do not tempt God! Be reasonable!" And, not without some little force, I
+made her sit down by the hot embers.
+
+"But do you call this _life_?"
+
+"Come, come, calm yourself! Look, these armed men are close upon us!"
+
+They were not gendarmes. They were two worthy foresters belonging to the
+domain of the Forests of Diosgyör--a grey-bearded old man with a
+youthful assistant.
+
+No hostile intentions had brought them thither. They could see, too,
+that our picnic beside the fire was a very innocent diversion. In the
+album left upon the rock was my unfinished landscape.
+
+They greeted us cordially, and I returned their greeting in like manner.
+I asked the elder man whether I was injuring any one's proprietorial
+rights by making a fire with other people's wood. If so, I said, I would
+make good the trespass. To which the old man replied that he had no
+quarrel with me on that score. The stuff was there for the poor man to
+gather, and he cited the classical German ballad in which the
+evil-minded forester robbed the peasant of his bundle of faggots. He
+must needs be a lover of letters, then!
+
+Then he told us why they had come.
+
+"We perceived the smoke from below, and knew, therefore, that there were
+visitors on the Precipice Stone. We thought it our duty to come up.
+Wolves are about in the forest. We wished to tell you so."
+
+"I thank you for your great kindness; but, from what I am told, wolves
+will not attack a man."
+
+"But they've become very aggressive since they discovered that the
+Government has confiscated all muskets, leaving only a pair or two with
+us. They avoid men in the day time, I know; but at dark or in a
+snowstorm they are very impudent."
+
+"We do not intend to remain here till evening. I only wanted to finish
+the drawing, for the sake of which I scrambled up hither."
+
+"But I would call your attention, sir, to the fact that we shall have a
+fall of snow here before night. I know the signs of the weather. When
+such a vast mist lies over the country in the morning, and then rises
+suddenly, and is quickly followed by darkness, then we may expect a
+snowstorm the same day. That is an old experience of mine."
+
+"We will hasten home."
+
+"Do you live at Tordona, or at Malyinka?"
+
+"I live at Tordona."
+
+"God bless you, sir. I know every one there."
+
+He didn't ask who I was. We shook hands, and with that the pair of them
+went on their way.
+
+"Was it worth while creeping into the cave for this?" said Bessy, when
+the foresters had withdrawn.
+
+"There are men who can face a great danger and hide away from a little
+one."
+
+"And you think, then, that our friend there is a fire-eater?--I thought
+so too for a long time. It was no unexampled thing in those
+extraordinary times for men to become suddenly transformed. Those who
+were looked upon as mere carpet knights became veritable heroes; lawyers
+became colonels: war has an ennobling influence on so many types of
+character. I really believed that Rengetegi had changed his whole nature
+with his name. When others had to be aroused, there was no such orator
+as he. I was absolutely proud that we belonged to each other. When the
+Austrian troops invested the fortress, and hurled the first bomb into
+the market-place, the whole of our social life was suddenly turned
+upside down. There was now no such thing as etiquette. The families of
+great magnates left their houses (those, that is, whose houses were not
+burnt down already), pitched their tents in the Gipsy-field and dwelt
+there. The guns of the Monostor batteries did not carry so far as that.
+In the barracks, moral law disappeared. An officer was a great personage
+then, and to walk about the streets leaning on his arm was a
+much-coveted glory. Whether the lady on his arm was his wife was not
+the question--he was a fine fellow, a gallant fellow. That was the main
+thing. And if I met an acquaintance I introduced Rengetegi as my future
+husband. Every one knew that I had begun a suit against Muki Bagotay.
+But where were the courts, the advocates, the judges?--every one was
+either wearing a sword or serving a gun. When people asked me where I
+lived, I said 'in the fortress!' To dwell in the fortress was an
+enviable position. The rooms there were fire-proof. I really think that
+there were more who envied than pitied my fate. I also got familiar with
+the ways of a soldier's life. They gave concerts, and I fiddled while
+Rengetegi declaimed. When the enemy was hurling away his bombs at the
+fortress, we took our band out on the ramparts, and there, with a great
+flourish of trumpets, we danced _csárdáses_. How that did aggravate the
+Germans! I had a great reputation as a _rakétás_[77] dancer."
+
+[Footnote 77: Rocket-dance.]
+
+I must frankly admit that I was not much edified by this turn in the
+conversation.
+
+Bessy perceived that I was not well pleased with her doings in camp.
+
+"Ah, my dear friend!" she said, "don't fancy by any means that this
+episode of my life consisted entirely of rioting and revelry, there was
+a little intermezzo in it also. You know, of course, that, during the
+winter, things at Comorn were very bad indeed. The Commandant had not
+the capacity for the problem before him, which included the defence of
+such an important fortress. The garrison was lazy and mutinous. Whispers
+of treachery arose, and the chief of the artillery was deprived of his
+post. It was necessary to inform the Hungarian Government at Debreczin
+of the dangerous state of things at Comorn, and to beg for a new
+Commandant who should be a distinguished officer. But how was it
+possible to carry a message from Comorn to Debreczin? Who would
+undertake the risky enterprise of carrying the despatch from Comorn,
+through so many hostile armies, and bringing back the reply to it again?
+They had sent one messenger already, but he had been unable to get back.
+It was a joke which might cost a man his head.
+
+"One evening, Rengetegi came to my little room in the barracks, and
+said: 'Elizabeth, the hour has come for us to part!'
+
+"I immediately thought that he was tipsy.
+
+"'You haven't played me away at cards, I hope?'
+
+"'It is not you, but my own head that I have lost. I have accepted the
+mission to Debreczin. I've run my head against a wall, I know. It's neck
+or nothing now. And they've pressed a thousand florins into my hand to
+make the way before me quite secure.'
+
+"'And you have lost it all at cards this evening?'
+
+"'How did you find that out?'
+
+"'I have made it my study. I know well those Hippocratic countenances.
+Well, and what are you going to do now?'
+
+"'Save my honour! I'll go on my way without money.'
+
+"'Listen to me! I believe that you would be very glad to get out of this
+bombarded fortress--but I've no very ardent belief that you'll ever come
+back again. I tell you what: give me the official despatch which has to
+be taken, and I'll take care that it reaches the hands of the
+Government.'
+
+"'But how?' inquired Rengetegi, immensely delighted.
+
+"'That I shall not tell you. I've been turning the matter over for some
+time. You have only a passive part to play here. You hide yourself in
+the village of Izsa, which the enemy has not occupied, because it lies
+within the range of the guns of the fortress, and wait for me there till
+I return from Debreczin with the answer of the Government.'"
+
+"And Rengetegi actually accepted the proposal?" I inquired. I now began
+to admire this woman.
+
+"He jumped at it. He gave me soul-stirring examples of the heroic women
+of history, who had gone to the wars along with their husbands.... He
+vowed that if I ever returned in safety from my mission he would
+henceforth call me 'Queen Zenobia.'
+
+"By the evening of the same day I was ready for the enterprise. I made
+Rengetegi dye his hair, moustache, and beard black, so that it was
+almost impossible to recognise him."
+
+"So that was your idea!" I cried.
+
+"Then I stowed him away in a peasant's hut at Hetény, with strict
+instructions not to emerge from his prison till I tapped at the door.
+Next I set to work to thoroughly disguise my own person. I was to be the
+leader of a gipsy band. Ah! if you could only have painted my portrait!
+Then, indeed, I really was lovely! I smeared my face with the juice of
+green walnut-shells till it was so black that I could pass for a gipsy
+among the gipsies themselves; I clipped my hair till it only reached
+down to my shoulders; I put on a jacket which some gentleman or other
+had worn threadbare before giving it away; hose that certainly were
+never intended for me, and a shirt that had never been washed: and so I
+transformed myself into as filthy a shape as ever led a wandering gipsy
+band."
+
+Here I could not forbear from pressing her hand. What sacrifices will
+not a woman make for her country and for her lover!
+
+"But all this was a mere joke to what followed. I now had to get
+together a band. If they catch a gipsy alone they arrest him as a spy;
+but if he be one of a quartet he may go on his way rejoicing. I provided
+myself with a violoncellist, a clarinet-player, and a contra-bass. It
+was easy to persuade them to quit the bombarded town, into which the
+gentry who had robbed them of their poor hovels had forced them to go.
+Bread and meat were getting dearer and dearer, and there was nothing to
+be earned. Who had the heart to pay for music amidst such a frightful
+carnival?
+
+"Thus, with my little band of three, I set out upon my long and
+uncertain journey on foot. Gipsies only ride in sledges when a magnate
+sends for them, and there was no such magnate in the whole district. If
+on our way we fell in with a cart laden with dried reeds taken out of
+the swamps for firewood, we would ask for a lift in it. But our legs
+nearly froze there, and we were glad to get down again and walk.
+
+"In the very first village we came to, O-Gyalla, we fell in with a
+division of the Austrian investing army, German cuirassiers. The patrol
+brought us to the major in command. He was indeed a merciless personage.
+He roared at us, and asked us how we dared to leave the town. We
+naturally did not understand a word of German, and all four of us, in
+true gipsy fashion, began to raise objections at the same time: we could
+not remain in the town, the Honveds posted us right in front of the
+bombs, and made us play music at the very top of the bastions; all the
+cannons had fired at us, and that was a thing that gipsies couldn't
+stand. '_Was sagen die Spitzbuben?_' inquired the major of his auditor.
+The auditor understood Hungarian, and expounded unto him: 'Nix da, you
+rascals! You are spies, and must be searched. Come! you must undress.'
+I was not a little alarmed, I can tell you. Not on account of the
+despatches I had with me, I had put them in a place where they couldn't
+be found; but they would discover that I was a woman, and that while my
+face and hands were gipsy, the rest of me was European--and then I
+should be lost. I hastily said something to the gipsies, and in an
+instant they out with their instruments and rattled off _con fuoco_ the
+fine hymn '_Gott erhalte!_' At this the frosty face of the old martinet
+thawed somewhat. 'Well, well, you rascals,' said he, 'as you know what's
+proper and decent, I won't have you flogged this time, but be off at
+once and don't remain in the village here. You mustn't play here for
+anybody. Whoever has an itch for dancing just let him tell me, and I'll
+give him dancing enough. There's the whipping-post!' Now the
+clarinet-player was a merry wag, and could not hide his light. 'Devil
+bless your honour,' said he, 'you pay with big bank-notes.' '_Was sagt
+der Karl?_' asked the major. He says, 'Gott soll segnen den grossen
+Herren, der zahlt mit grossen _Bank_[78]-noten!' At this his honour also
+laughed. 'But for all that you must pack yourselves off at once. You
+mustn't stop till you reach Ersekuvar, but there you may play as long as
+you like.' We kissed his hands and feet, and asked him to let us stay
+the night there. We were half frozen, we said. We had not a morsel in
+our stomachs: for a whole week we had only eaten ice and drunk water.
+But he knew no pity. They blindfolded us, packed us into a sledge, and a
+patrol of horse escorted us out of the village. Now, of course, it was
+my very dearest desire to get as soon as possible beyond the iron girdle
+by which the besieged fortress was girt about. If only he can get out
+into the wide world, the gipsy has no fear of going astray. He can
+fiddle his way through the whole of Europe if only he gives his mind to
+it. And so we made our way along the Danube, from one town to the other,
+and enjoyed to the full all the romantic adventures of a wandering
+gipsy's life which abound in winter especially."
+
+[Footnote 78: "God bless the great gentleman, he pays with big
+_bang_-notes!"--a poor jest.]
+
+"But," interrupted I, "didn't you come across Görgey's Hungarian army,
+under whose protection you might have continued your journey?"
+
+"Of course I did, but my instructions were to deliver my despatches to
+the head of the Hungarian Government, and nobody else, not even to a
+general. It is true that I might have gone on farther with the gallant
+Magyar army, where gipsy-music is always heartily welcomed. The Honveds,
+too, never lose their good humour; but, on the other hand, the main
+Magyar army was going towards Slavonia, whereas it was my object to get
+to Debreczin as soon as possible. So there was nothing for it but to go
+straight through the enemy's lines till we reached the banks of the
+Theiss, when we could be once more in a friendly world."
+
+"But where did you conceal the despatches?" I asked.
+
+"I stuck them inside the belly of my fiddle. Who would break the fiddle
+of a poor gipsy with which he earns his daily bread? The money we earned
+in one town was sufficient to hire a sledge to convey us to the next.
+Gipsies dwell on the skirts of every town. We made ourselves at home
+there, and they never asked us whence we came; but if we were
+cross-examined at any place, then we lied to such a degree that the
+difficulty was to find anybody to believe us. You recollect what a
+terrible winter it was last year?"
+
+"I remember it very well. I was out all through it with my wife," I
+said.
+
+"How fine it would have been had we run across each other unexpectedly.
+I would have played a nocturne beneath your window. Ha, ha, ha!--The
+bitterest stage of the journey was from Kecskemet to the Theiss. There
+lay Jellachich,[79] with all his army, occupying the towns of the great
+Hungarian plain one after the other. Here we had to creep through as
+best we could. As for me, I had the good fortune to play every evening
+before his Excellency the valiant Ban. He was very pleased with me. With
+my little band I managed to play the famous Croatian march, '_Szláva,
+szláva, mu, mu, mu, Jelacsicsu nas omu_,' in quite a superior manner. I
+also knew the tune of the fine 'Kolo' dance, and absolutely won his
+Excellency's heart with the melodious 'Fanny Schneider' polka. I might
+say that I was really quite spoiled. There was plenty of money and wine,
+and, despite my black face and my predominating odour of garlic, the
+enthusiasm rose so high that all the officers kissed me one after the
+other."
+
+[Footnote 79: The Ban of Croatia, who sided with the Austrians against
+Hungary.--TR.]
+
+Bessy had no sooner uttered these words than she buried her face in her
+hands. Again I came to her rescue.
+
+"Those kisses don't count; you were a man then."
+
+"It was quite a gipsy paradise, but the mischief was we did not know how
+to escape from it. The chivalrous Ban told us not to try to run away,
+for in that case he would court-martial and shoot the lot of us. At
+night, when our duties were done, he locked us up in a little out-house,
+and placed an armed sentry before the door.
+
+"One night we escaped up the chimney and over the roof of the
+neighbouring house; that is to say, three of us managed to get away, I
+and the clarinet-player and the contra-bass. The violoncello, however,
+could not be got out of the chimney, and the violoncellist declared that
+he would rather be stretched on the rack than leave his instrument in
+the lurch. So there we left him--to pay the piper. Besides, I had now
+not much need of my band; the Theiss was only a four hours' journey
+off.
+
+"I had heard from the officers that in the willow woods of the Theiss,
+in the neighbourhood of the 'Szikra' inn, some Hungarian guerillas were
+encamping. If only we could get among them!
+
+"It was a good thing for us that sentinel duty was very laxly ordered in
+the camp of the Ban of Croatia. At the end of the town was a _putri_, or
+semi-subterranean clay hut of the kind in which field-labourers pass the
+night during the summer. The soldiers who had been sent out on forepost
+duty were sitting in this hut, and their muskets were all leaning
+against the door. One of the gipsies said: 'Let us steal the muskets!'
+The other said: 'Steal your grandfather; I play with clarinets, not with
+muskets.' I urged them to press forward. We were near to the sand-hills.
+Before us lay a savage, rugged plain, where one sand-hill followed hard
+upon another. Some of these hills were half hollowed out by the wind,
+and the hollows between them sparsely dotted with dwarf fir-trees. A
+ghostly region. The sides of these sand-hills were white, and the
+snow-fall on the top of them was still whiter; and every tree-trunk
+there is also white with its pendant branches[80] bending down beneath
+the hoar-frost. We dodged up and down among these sand-hills, turning
+aside from the regular high road so that we might crouch down in case
+we were pursued. Along the whole length of the plain the broom of the
+wind swept our footprints over with snow.
+
+[Footnote 80: To-day this former waste of shifting sand-hills has been
+converted into a splendid vineyard, which the Hungarian Government has
+planted with vines from America proof against the _Phylloxera_.--JÓKAI.]
+
+"'If only we don't come across wolves!' said the contra-bass, with
+chattering teeth.
+
+"'How can they be here when so many soldiers are about?' said I, by way
+of encouragement.
+
+"'Nay, but they like to prowl about camps, because carrion is always to
+be found there.'
+
+"Where the sand-hills ended, a far-extending flat began, and in the
+distance was a direful-looking object, resembling a ruin. A light mist
+covered the whole district, in which mist every object seemed as large
+again; the full moon shone wanly, like a huge broad halo in the misty
+heavens."
+
+Here I explained to Bessy that this district was the famous plain of
+Alpar, where the ancient Magyars fought the decisive battle against
+Zalán, which gave them possession of the land; the ruin was the wall of
+the desert church of St. Laurence.
+
+"Indeed! and I may add that this desert is memorable to me also. While
+we were waddling along as fast as we could, with our short mantles
+turned against the wind, the contra-bass, who was going on leisurely in
+front, exclaimed:
+
+"'Devil take all these crows! Why don't they all go to sleep in the
+tower of the Calvinist church?'
+
+"I inquired why the crows ought to go to sleep on the top of the
+Calvinist church of all places in the world.
+
+"'Let the Calvinist crow stick to the top of the Calvinist church, and
+the Papist crow to the top of the Papist church, as is meet and right,'
+he explained.
+
+"I did not understand this sectarian distinction among crows, but the
+gipsy made it quite plain to me.
+
+"'One sort of crow is ashen grey, another sort black. The grey sort eats
+no flesh, but only grain; that is the Papist crow. The black sort lives
+on flesh, whether it be earthworms or fallen horse; that is the
+Calvinist crow, for it keeps no fast-days.'
+
+"Then he called my attention to the fact that on the hill there straight
+before us, a whole army of crows was making a great commotion. At one
+moment they rose high into the air with loud croakings, at another they
+descended upon the self-same spot from which they had risen. 'There must
+be carrion,' he said.
+
+"When we got to the top of the hill, we saw, to our great consternation,
+that the evil foreboding of the gipsy was correct.
+
+"On the highway below, by the side of the ditch, lay a big black mass,
+the carcase of a fallen horse, and fighting over what remained of it was
+a whole army of crows and ravens and five large _wolves_.
+
+"We were about five hundred paces from the terrible beasts.
+
+"They immediately perceived us, and, leaving the carcase, forthwith
+began scudding towards us, spurring each other on with their nasty short
+sharp yelps.
+
+"'Alas, alas! It is all up with us now!' wailed the contra-bass. 'The
+wolves will eat us up.'
+
+"Even in that hour of mortal peril the clarinetist was true to his gipsy
+humour. 'Then we shall have a very queer shape at the resurrection,'
+said he.
+
+"I bade them leave off wailing, and hasten to clamber up into a
+willow-tree, whither the monsters could not follow us.
+
+"It was an old pollard willow, the branches of which were cut off every
+year, so that only the crown of it remained, surrounded by young shoots.
+I, who had never learnt the art of tree-climbing, was hoisted up by the
+gipsies first of all, and then they hastily scrambled up after me.
+
+"When we had got to the top of the tree we discovered that in the middle
+of it was a large hole--the whole inside of the tree was hollow, and
+could contain a man.
+
+"'Leader,' said the contra-bass, 'your loss would be most serious, creep
+down into that hole.' I took him at his word, and glided down from the
+crown of the tree into the deep hollow trunk. First of all, however, I
+tied my long cotton neckerchief to a little branch, that I might be able
+to hoist myself up again in case of need, for the hole in the willow
+went right down to its very roots. At the side of the tree, too, close
+to an old branch, there was an orifice as large as one's fist, through
+which one could look as through an attic window.
+
+"The five wolves were not long in arriving.
+
+"They did not come quite near at first, but reconnoitred. Whenever one
+of them sneaked up a little nearer, the clarinet-player aimed at it with
+his instrument, which the wolf took for a musket. Then the beast would
+back a little and scratch up the snow with his hind legs. They say the
+creature is wont to do this when he sees a man stand on the defensive;
+he tries to blind him with snow.
+
+"When, however, the wolves at last discovered that we had no fire-arms,
+they sent up the ugliest howls, and began the siege of the willow. They
+took tremendous leaps in the air to reach the crown of the tree, but it
+was too high for them.
+
+"Then it occurred to the gipsies that they had often heard that wolves
+had a strong penchant for music, and they began giving them a clarinet
+and fiddle concert.
+
+"It is true that the nasty brutes left off the siege, sat round the
+willow, and began to howl in concert with the music, at the same time
+raising their horrid jaws towards the moon, and lashing their sides with
+their ragged brush-like tails; and for a short time I was quite amused
+at the scene. But suddenly our double danger occurred to my mind.
+
+"'Hey! gipsies. Stop, I say! Is the devil in you? Your music will bring
+the pickets of the Croats upon us, and they will flay us alive.'
+
+"At this they stopped their music.
+
+"This appeared to make the wolves still more savage, and now they tried
+a fresh stratagem.
+
+"They had found out that the willow leaned a little to one side, and
+rushing at it from a little distance, they attempted to scale the
+sloping side of the tree. This manœuvre was likely to have succeeded. It
+was then that I saw what a powerful beast the wolf really is, and how
+much more cunning than any species of dog. Scrambling up at full tilt,
+they managed to reach the crown of the willow, but there the brave
+contra-bass was awaiting them, and gave them such a kick on the snout
+with his iron-heeled boots that the attacking beasts fell head over
+heels backwards.
+
+"This they repeated ten or twelve times.
+
+"And there was this remarkable circumstance about it, that every time an
+attacking wolf was prostrated by a kick from the gipsy, the others
+rushed upon him as he fell, and worried him as if to punish him for his
+failure.
+
+"Suddenly they left off, and went and sat down in a heap just in front
+of my window. Their tongues lolled out of their panting mouths; their
+hot, bestial breath rose into the cold air before me. They appeared to
+be taking counsel together. The biggest of them seemed to be their
+leader. If one of the younger ones yelped too much, he would snap at his
+neck as if to say 'shut up!'
+
+"At last they appeared to have hatched their stratagem. The whole lot
+of them got up and shuffled farther off, squinting over their shoulders
+all the time towards the willow-tree.
+
+"My gipsies fancied they were saved.
+
+"'You shall have no roast gipsy this time!' bawled the clarinet-player
+after them derisively from his sure stronghold, as he fancied it.
+
+"All at once the wolves returned and stormed onwards like race-horses,
+each one being about a wolf's tail ahead of the other.
+
+"The first of them rushed straight up the tree, and while the
+contra-bass was kicking him in the head, the second wolf leaped across
+the first wolf's back and seized the man's leg.
+
+"I heard a despairing shriek:
+
+"'Don't let me go, comrade!'
+
+"The second musician tried to free his down-falling friend from the jaws
+of the wild beast, and in doing so lost his balance, and the pair of
+them fell down from the tree.
+
+"What happened after that is more than I can tell you. It is enough that
+I should have had to live through that mortal struggle of the two
+luckless victims with those filthy brutes. How many times have I not
+dreamt it all over again! I believe that even if I had committed all the
+seven deadly sins, I should have more than expiated them all in that
+awful hour. I hid my face in the crumbling rottenness of the hollow
+tree, that I might hear and see nothing. It seemed an eternity to me
+while the bestial howling lasted which the wolves made as they shared
+together their accursed banquet in my very presence.
+
+"I dared not stir, lest they might find out that I also was there. Great
+Heaven! What horrors I had to endure!
+
+"Suddenly a sort of growling and snarling began close beside me. The old
+wolf was running sniffing round the hollow tree. He had discovered that
+there was still booty inside it.
+
+"He began to scrape the earth at the root of the tree. He evidently
+meant to dig a hole beneath the tree through which he might get at me.
+Fortunately for me, it was not sandy soil, but stony, hard-frozen turf.
+He could not succeed that way.
+
+"Then he caught sight of the hole in the side of the tree. At one time,
+perhaps, a branch had been sawed off at this spot, and the bark had
+rotted away. The wolf began to enlarge this opening, tore it with his
+claws, and gnawed and worried the rotten wood with his grinders. He had
+soon so far enlarged the hole as to be able to stick his head into it. I
+saw the green glare of his fiery eyes; I felt his stinking breath; I
+heard the gnashing of his teeth. Then despair made me foolhardy. I drew
+my crooked knife out of the leg of my boot, with the other hand I seized
+the wolf by the ear, and cut it off at a single twirl.
+
+"At this the beast, with a furious howl, drew back his head from the
+hole, and began to howl and run away like a whipped cur. The others
+followed after him. With the wolf's ear remaining in my hand as a
+trophy, I sank back against the hollow trunk; I could not sink right
+down, because the hollow space was too narrow."
+
+I felt a cold shudder run all over me at this ghastly narrative. Bessy
+herself was quite exhausted.
+
+"Alas! I am quite worn out. I tremble at the very thought of it. You are
+the second person to whom I have told it. But how pale you are all at
+once!"
+
+I suppose I _had_ turned very pallid. It had suddenly flashed through my
+brain that just at that very time my wife was on her journey through an
+uninhabited valley, and the foresters told me that wolves strayed about
+there.
+
+Bessy sighed deeply, raised her drooping head, and then continued her
+story:--
+
+"Thus I had freed myself from the wolves; but I was not left very long
+in the belief that shame at my depriving their leader of one of his ears
+was the cause of it. No! Wolves are not so shamefaced as all that. A
+troop of horsemen was approaching from behind the sand-hills. There were
+six men on horseback and one man on assback.
+
+"One terror had been supplanted by another.
+
+"Peering through the hole in the tree, I recognised the uniforms of the
+horsemen by the light of the moon--they were Jellachich's hussars. And
+that there might be no doubt about their coming after us, I recognised
+as they came near the face of the ass-rider. It was my bass-viol
+player, whom I had left behind me.
+
+"It was very easy to see what had happened. The gipsy, to save his own
+skin, or, perhaps, at the flogging-post itself, had confessed that the
+band had come from Comorn, and was hired by me to go as far as
+Debreczin. Hence it was not very difficult to conclude that I was only a
+false gipsy, who was carrying despatches from the beleaguered fortress
+to the Hungarian Government.
+
+"The horsemen had brought the gipsy with them that he might put them on
+my track. Once discovered, and I was lost.
+
+"On the snow field, lit up by the moonlight, the scene of the hideous
+struggle was plain to the newcomers. The long lines of blood, fragments
+of torn garments, a foot sticking out of a boot in the snow--Ugh! May I
+never see such a sight again!
+
+"The horsemen galloped quickly up over the crackling snow.
+
+"The violoncellist had to dismount from his ass.
+
+"The good creature howled and groaned from the bottom of his throat,
+bewailing his comrades in the gipsy tongue, and cursing the monsters who
+had devoured them.
+
+"The leader of the patrol was a sergeant. He ordered the gipsy about in
+Croatian, and the gipsy has the peculiar virtue of understanding what is
+said to him in a language of which he is perfectly ignorant. He replied
+in Hungarian.
+
+"'Oh, woe, woe! Those accursed wolves have devoured our leader! There's
+his boot! They've only left his boot. I recognise it well. He bought it
+only last week at Czegled. He gave six florins for it. A brand-new boot!
+And this is his foot.'
+
+"It was plain to me that the gipsy had guessed that I was hidden
+somewhere, and there was enough of the gipsy in him, even amidst the
+greatest horrors, to induce him to make fools of my pursuers. He
+betrayed me first of all because he couldn't help it; he saved me
+finally because he _could_. He knew very well that I had given my new
+boots to the contra-bass. My boots were of Russian leather.
+
+"'Look there!' cried the sergeant, and he pointed with his finger.
+'_Jeden, dwa! Jak sza tri?_'[81]
+
+[Footnote 81: Croatian--"One, two! Where's the third?"]
+
+"The gipsy swore by all that was holy that that was the third.
+
+"'Then where's the first?'
+
+"'That's the first, of course!'
+
+"There was no dinning into his head the arithmetical truism that if you
+take two from three one remains.
+
+"The sergeant thereupon ordered one of the hussars to dismount from his
+horse, at the same time pointing at the willow-tree with his sword,
+whence I concluded that he was about to examine the tree to see if
+anybody was hidden in its hollow trunk.
+
+"I now veritably believed that the time had come for me to turn my
+crooked knife against my own throat.
+
+"All at once a crackle of musketry resounded from the brushwood, and a
+company of guerilla horse dashed out, crying, 'Forward, Magyars!' The
+Jellachich hussars didn't see the joke of this at all, hastily turned
+their horses' heads and galloped off in the direction of the town. The
+violoncellist also mounted his long-eared beast, and ambled gently off
+in a third direction midway between the two belligerents. He had no
+desire to take any part in the struggle.
+
+"The guerillas, who were numerous, sent a few volleys after the enemy,
+but from such a distance that the bullets couldn't possibly hit the
+fugitives, and then returned in triumph. Then I, hearing them speak
+Hungarian, quickly hoisted myself up out of the hole into the top of the
+tree, and began so far as my hoarse voice would allow me, to give them
+indications of my existence.
+
+"The gallant warriors immediately hastened to the willow-tree and helped
+me down from my dangerous perch. Their leader, a handsome,
+chivalrous-looking young man, with a true Hungarian face, began to
+cross-question me, and asked me whence I came and whither I was going.
+Perceiving that I was among Hungarian soldiers, I frankly told them that
+I had come from Comorn, and had been sent to Debreczin with despatches
+for the Hungarian Government.
+
+"The guerilla captain was a suspicious man.
+
+"'Oho! I daresay! That's easily said, but difficult to believe. What!
+confide such a mission to a gipsy! A likely tale!'
+
+"I told him that I was no gipsy, though my face was painted so, but that
+I lived at Comorn and belonged to the place.
+
+"'Then, if you are an inhabitant, tell me if you know one Maurus Jókai
+there--and what you know of him?'
+
+"I was very pleased to answer such a question. 'I know him very well,' I
+said, 'and I can tell you this much about him, that he went to the High
+School at Kecskemet, where he completed his legal studies--or rather
+learnt how to paint in oils from a worthy comrade of his there.'
+
+"Without more ado he clapped his hand in mine: 'That worthy comrade of
+his was no other than myself.'
+
+"So you see," she said, turning towards me, "you were of assistance to
+me, even here."
+
+"Wasn't that old schoolfellow of mine called Jansci?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, that's what they called him. With him was another young man, with
+quite a girlish face, and him they called Józsi; he inquired about you
+most particularly. When you gave your artistic representations at
+Kecskemet, he used to play the girl's parts."
+
+"Quite true," I said, "so it was."
+
+"So you see I must have been there or I should have known nothing about
+these things. The guerillas told me all about it as they took me with
+them. They were very attentive. One of them gave me his mantle, another
+let me mount his nag, and so they took me to the 'Szikra' inn, where
+they made me drink punch with them, regaled me with veal, and then made
+me a bed on the straw with their mantles that I might sleep off my
+exhaustion. The Jellachich hussars gave us no trouble. They could not
+come back till morning, when the whole regiment would doubtless turn out
+to capture the guerillas, who would, by that time, be on the other side
+of the Theiss. The sledges were all ready to start, and would scour back
+across the frozen river at the first signal to Czibakhaza, where were
+the foreposts of the Hungarian army under Damjanich.
+
+"But for a long time I could not sleep. Constantly before my eyes
+flitted the horrible death-struggle between the two unhappy men and the
+wild beasts, and amidst the howling and shrieking resounded the gay song
+of the guerillas:
+
+    'The hut's ablaze, the rush-roof crackles,
+    Press thy brown maid to thy breast!'
+
+In my dream this tune was mingled with the howling of the wolves, and at
+one moment the wolves were singing, 'The hut's ablaze,' and at another
+the Croats were howling at the gipsies sitting on the branch. Towards
+morning I was awakened by two cannon-shots. I rejoiced to be delivered
+from my spectres. The lieutenant of the guerillas hurried me into the
+sledge, as a regiment of hostile horse was approaching from Kecskemet.
+
+"It took us ten minutes to dash across the frozen Theiss. On the
+opposite bank the foreposts of the Honveds were encamping. The business
+of the guerillas was to harass the enemy, capture their forage waggons,
+and then bring word of their movements to the main army.
+
+"They took me straight to General Damjanich.[82]
+
+[Footnote 82: Made Commander-in-chief of the 3rd Hungarian Army Corps in
+consequence of his brilliant exploits at Alibunar and Lagerdorf; he
+annihilated Karger's brigade at the great battle of Szolnok, and was
+elected to represent that town in the Hungarian Diet. After fresh
+exploits he was made War Minister, and, after the war, was
+court-marshalled at Arad by the Austrians and shot. He had not the
+military genius of Görgey perhaps, but as a general of division was
+admirable.--TR.]
+
+"I was now no longer obliged to keep my despatch hidden, so I split up
+my fiddle, took out of it the documents that were gummed to it, and
+their production was my best credentials.
+
+"The approving, smiling glance of the powerful, heroic-looking General I
+shall never forget. At the sight of him I quite forgot that I was
+personating a man, and would have liked to have fallen down before him
+and kissed his hand. Indeed, I was so agitated that I could not utter a
+word.
+
+"The General filled a little glass full of _szilvorium_.[83] 'Drink, my
+son!' said he, 'it will loosen your throat.'
+
+[Footnote 83: A spirit made from plums.]
+
+"My throat was hoarse; I had a voice as deep as a man's. I told him I
+had come from Comorn, and I was sent to Lazar Mészáros, the War
+Minister.
+
+"'You will seek old Kóficz[84] in vain at Debreczin, my son, he commands
+there no more. So you Comorn folks don't know what's going on outside,
+eh? Another is at the head of the War Department now. I will give you a
+letter of introduction to him.'
+
+[Footnote 84: This Hungarian War Minister had said in one of his reports
+that the motions of the Opposition in the Diet would turn to nothing but
+_Kóficz_ (_i.e._, water-gruel). The name stuck to him ever
+after.--JÓKAI.]
+
+"Then he sat down and wrote me a couple of lines to a General with a
+German name, which is expressed in Hungarian by the word _Bacsi_.[85]
+
+[Footnote 85: Cousin.--Vetter was the General in question.]
+
+"He said, while he was writing this letter, that this General with a
+German name was the life and soul of our military organization.
+
+"Then, by the General's command, I received a nice clean Honved uniform
+(I had to retain my brown countenance for some time longer), and besides
+that I had an open passport enjoining upon all to give me every facility
+to reach Debreczin as quickly as possible.
+
+"On the evening of the following day I arrived at Debreczin, and on
+descending from my sledge, proceeded at once to the General's. He was a
+mild, soft-featured gentleman, with a close-clipped beard and
+moustache. He didn't even wear a General's uniform. Nobody would have
+guessed his rank from the look of him. After reading through my letter
+of introduction, he looked me straight and sharply in the face.
+
+"'You are Captain Tihamér Rengetegi, eh?'
+
+"If I had only been intent on my own interest, I might have told him
+quite frankly that I had no right either to the name or the uniform of a
+soldier; but how could I betray my faithful consort who was smuggled
+away in the hovel at Hetény?
+
+"'Yes, General, I am.'
+
+"'Who made you captain?'
+
+"'The War Minister.'
+
+"'For deeds of valour?'
+
+"'During the siege of Vienna I twice carried despatches through the
+besieging camp from the Hungarian Government to General Bem.'"
+
+Here I intervened: "That is not true; I know very well through whom the
+Hungarian Government got those despatches."
+
+"Anyhow, my friend boasted of it as his own deed," said Bessy; after
+which she resumed her narration.
+
+"'Good!' said the General; 'now give me the despatch.'
+
+"The information was written in a secret cipher.
+
+"'I must decipher this first. There will be a meeting to-night of the
+Committee of National Defence. Early to-morrow morning you will appear
+before me. Now go to the "White Horse." Speak to nobody. Keep your
+room!'
+
+"Nevertheless, an hour afterwards he sent for me.
+
+"He led me into his inner room, for he allowed himself the luxury of a
+double-roomed apartment at Debreczin. Two other ministers, Paul Nyáry
+and Joseph Patay, were not so fortunate. They had to be content with a
+double room between them.
+
+"The General was now very gentle with me. He made me sit down at table,
+and poured me out some tea. He offered me a cigar too, and although I
+ought not to have done so, I lighted it. It nipped my tongue a good
+deal, but I had to show them that I was a man.
+
+"Then he made me tell them how I had got out of the fortress, and how I
+had forced my way through the hostile camp. My relation made a great
+impression. When I was dismissed, they pressed my hand and assured me
+that my good and boldly executed service should be rewarded. They
+further commanded me to come to them early the next day.
+
+"I appeared next day at his headquarters in full parade, and they
+admitted me before any one else.
+
+"Again they made me sit down in the inner apartment, and drew the bolt
+before the door of the outer room.
+
+"Stretched out on the table was a large military map which embraced
+Upper Hungary and Galicia. 'You have brought very important information
+with you from Comorn,' said he, in a low voice. 'Considering the time
+when you set out, you have arrived here with astonishing rapidity. You
+must now take the reply back, which will contain the directions of the
+Council of War and the appointment of the new Commandant, who will be
+gazetted to-night. Can you make your way back to the fortress with this
+despatch?'
+
+"'I'll try.'
+
+"'You must get back without fail. What's your plan?'
+
+"'To go back by the same road in the same manner and the same disguise
+is impossible. The wolves tore two of my comrades to pieces, the Croats
+captured the third, and as he may have confessed everything, they would
+recognise me at once if I appeared before their eyes as I am now.
+Besides, there is no conceivable reason why gipsies should wish to leave
+the open plain in order to get into a bombarded town. This despatch can
+only be conveyed to Comorn by a woman who is _obliged_ to go there on
+some unimpeachable business, and is provided with an Austrian
+safe-conduct.'
+
+"The General clapped his hands together in amazement.
+
+"'And do you know of any woman who would undertake such a thing?'
+
+"'Certainly I do.'
+
+"'Where? What's her name?'
+
+"'That's my secret, General. The difficulty of getting into the fortress
+is also very much increased by the fact that the appointment of Richard
+Guyon as the new Commandant has already become generally known.'
+
+"The General leaped furiously from his seat.
+
+"'Who, then, has made this public?'
+
+"'It is here in the official gazette,' I replied, drawing out of my
+pocket that morning's issue of the _Közlöny_.
+
+"The General tugged his short moustache still shorter.
+
+"'Well, well! I see that we Magyars have yet to learn the art of keeping
+a secret. The enemy knows it now, but the Comorn folks do _not_ know
+it.'
+
+"'I have already hit upon a good idea of enabling the mandate of the
+Council of War to reach their hands.'
+
+"'By a carrier-pigeon or a balloon, I suppose?'
+
+"'A foreign passport is necessary for my plan.'
+
+"'That you shall have--an English passport _viséd_ by the Embassy. In
+whose name?'
+
+"'In the lady's.'
+
+"'Then you must give us the lady's name.'
+
+"Then I gave him my real name as the lawful wife of Muki Bagotay.
+
+"'And you? Will you get into the fortress?'
+
+"'Possibly, as that lady's coachman--possibly not at all; but the
+despatch will get in, anyhow.'
+
+"'And how will this lady of yours manage to hide the despatch? I can
+tell you beforehand, that even if your lady were provided with a
+safe-conduct from the Princess Windischgrätz[86] herself, and so got
+right through the hostile camp into the invested fortress, the Austrians
+would indeed welcome her most courteously; but they would at the same
+time say to her: "Would your little ladyship be so good as to step into
+that side-chamber; there you will find a complete set of lady's clothes,
+would you be so kind as to put them on--if they are a little more
+abundant than your own, that doesn't matter? The toilet you have brought
+with you may remain here, down even to the shoes and stockings; whenever
+you like to come back again, you can re-exchange your clothes." For they
+know that it is possible to write on chemises with invisible ink and
+reproduce the writing by means of chemical re-agents. It is also
+possible for the heels of your boots to have secret openings, in which a
+letter written on straw-paper might be inserted. They might also retain
+the comb with which you fasten up your hair, for a valuable message
+might be written thereupon in microscopic letters.'
+
+[Footnote 86: The wife of the Austrian Commander-in-chief.--TR.]
+
+"'All this they may do if they like, and yet this lady of mine will
+convey the despatch into the fortress.'
+
+"'I should like to know her secret.'
+
+"''Tis a very simple one. She will learn the whole despatch by heart
+from beginning to end.'
+
+"The General began to laugh.
+
+"'Oho ho! My dear friend, you don't suppose that we would entrust our
+couriers with a despatch in good Hungarian for the enemy to snap it up
+on the way, and thus learn all about our military operations. It may
+also be deliberately betrayed. In the times in which we now live men are
+quick enough to discover excuses for _changing their saddles_. This
+despatch contains all our secrets: where we are strong, where we are
+weak, where we want to assume the offensive, where we are obliged to
+stand on the defensive. Such a despatch would be worth 200,000 florins
+to the enemy at the very least.'
+
+"'I can assure you, General, that neither I nor this lady will betray
+it.'
+
+"'You couldn't if you would, for the whole despatch is in cipher. Take
+it, and look at it. Do you understand a word of it? Can any one possibly
+learn it by heart?'
+
+"The writing which he placed in my hand was composed of a jumble of
+letters grouped into words--characters whose contents could scarcely be
+called language at all. I nevertheless assured the General that this
+lady of mine would learn the despatch off by heart all the same.
+
+"''Tis impossible.'
+
+"'Nothing is impossible. Once, when we were actors ...'
+
+"'Then you were actors? And this lady was an actress too, eh?'
+
+"'Yes. Once our whole company went to Eszek, and there we acted a whole
+piece in the Croatian tongue without understanding a word of its
+meaning. A man is like a starling. If he repeats a thing a hundred times
+it remains in his head although he does not understand it.'
+
+"'Look here, then! Read but two lines of this despatch a hundred times
+over, half an hour will do, and see if it remains in your head.'
+
+"I consented. A quarter of an hour had not yet elapsed when I said that
+I was ready. I gave the General the despatch back again, and asked for
+ink and paper. And then slowly, meditatively, I wrote down the contents
+of those two lines letter by letter.
+
+"'You've got a marvellous headpiece,' said the General, in amazement.
+'And has that lady of yours just such a marvellously retentive capacity
+as you have?'
+
+"'Just the same.'
+
+"'Then I consider the stratagem as feasible.'"
+
+Here I could not help leaping to my feet. "What!" cried I, "you actually
+undertook to learn by heart a whole despatch written in cipher?"
+
+"No, my sweet friend! I won't deceive you as I deceived that other man.
+The whole thing was a delusion. The cryptograms which reached the
+Commandant of the fortress were entrusted to Rengetegi, that he might
+unpod them with a secret key. He communicated this key to me. One had
+only to know a single word whose consecutive letters repeat all the
+characters of the alphabet in different series. The whole thing only
+required a little calculation; there was no need to rack one's brains
+about it. With the assistance of the secret key I first of all
+deciphered the cipher, and then I retransferred it into its original
+rigmarole."
+
+"But are you aware," I interrupted, "that if the General had found you
+out, he would have had you shot on the spot?"
+
+"I suspected as much. But he suspected nothing. He was really a good,
+worthy man. He said that things being as they were, he could safely
+confide the despatch to my hands.
+
+"After that he pointed out to me on the military map the route I ought
+to take through Galicia, by which I should possibly avoid falling in
+with the enemy's squadrons. My passport in the name of Madame János
+Bagotay he filled up with his own hand. I begged him to leave a blank
+space for the personal description of my travelling companion.
+
+"When this was ready he gave me a portfolio full of Austrian bank-notes,
+besides a hundred louis d'ors and a handful of silver money.
+
+"Then he pressed my hand, and said: 'The last line of this despatch
+announces the promotion of Captain Rengetegi to the rank of major.'"
+
+At this both Bessy and I laughed heartily, and then she merrily resumed
+her story as follows:--
+
+"My return journey was in a much more lordly fashion. Everywhere relays
+were waiting for me. In a couple of days I reached Vienna. While still
+in Comorn, I had learnt that my mother had gone there for refuge, and
+still kept up her intimacy with a certain high official in the Imperial
+army. He was in the service of the War Minister there. It was not
+difficult to find him. I will leave you to picture to yourself the scene
+of our meeting. My mother loves acting, but she is a bad player, she
+never knows her part. She would have liked to have cried and fainted
+when I came rushing in, but she got no further than sobbing. I was all
+the better able to play my part. I hastened to excuse her for her
+behaviour at our last meeting. I took all the blame on myself. I ought
+to have remembered, I said, that it was not the proper thing to cling on
+to my mother's carriage when the infuriated populace was seeking her
+life. Then I went on to the motive of my coming there. The Hungarian
+Governmental Commission at Comorn had ordered that every Austrian
+bank-note which could be laid hands upon was to be burnt in the middle
+of the market-place. My mother had 40,000 florins in bank-notes, which
+the Orphanage Fund had retained from my patrimony. This amount had been
+lent out to various persons at interest. These persons, as soon as they
+heard of the order of the Governmental Commission, had hastened to
+deposit their German bank-notes--not in the fortress, but in the town
+bank, that they might at least get back their securities; and thus it
+was _our_ money that would be burnt. That was why I had come at such a
+break-neck pace, I said. If my mother would give me a power of attorney
+for the purpose, I would immediately return, and as I had great
+influence with the Commandant, I would so manage that our money instead
+of being burnt should be handed over to me. After that I would settle
+with my mother. She also had money locked up there which I would get
+handed over to me.
+
+"This proposition made an impression.
+
+"I had already informed my mother by letter of all this when
+communications were freer than now, but she, as all nervous people do
+with their letters, the moment she recognised my handwriting in the
+address, put it away without opening it. She fancied it was full of
+maudlin penitence. Now, however, when I called her attention to this
+letter, she took it out and opened it, and almost fainted with terror
+when she saw the annexed official communication of the Governmental
+Commission, and learnt therefrom that the term fixed for the bonfire of
+the Austrian bank-notes would be reached in three days.
+
+"Then there was such a scampering to her good friend the high official,
+and to all sorts of high commanding officers, in order to procure for me
+a safe-conduct; then she got me a power of attorney neatly written out,
+by means of which I could reclaim her money, and then she said: 'Now,
+don't wait a moment, my darling girl, but jump into a fiacre and gallop
+off to Comorn.'
+
+"I found my journey back much freer from obstacles than my coming away.
+The self-same major of cuirassiers who would have had me flogged as a
+gipsy leader was now full of courtesy towards me. After reading my
+letter of introduction, in which the object of my journey was mentioned,
+he could not have the slightest doubt that I was about purely private
+business which was very pressing. He did not even have me searched. I
+could have smuggled into the fortress anything I liked.
+
+"When I had passed through the besieging lines, I turned off from the
+highway in the direction of Hetény, that I might seek out my captive.
+
+"After the first delights of meeting each other again were over, I told
+him the whole story which I have just been telling you. I must say that
+I had a much more appreciative audience than you are. At the sensational
+scenes, he flung himself on the ground ... and with folded, uplifted
+hands implored the wolves not to devour me. He swore that if he caught
+the Ban of Croatia he would dance the life out of him for making me
+fiddle so unmercifully. When I dictated to him the despatch I had learnt
+by heart, by means of the secret key, the last lines of which contained
+his promotion to the rank of major, he exclaimed, with an irresistible
+burst of grateful emotion: 'My Queen! my Zenobia!' I had made him a
+major; he made me a queen. We were quits.
+
+"'And now let us hasten to the fortress,' I said, 'for I have urgent
+business there. I want to save my property. Our house has been burnt
+already; if our money is burnt too, we shall be beggars.' This made him
+hasten.
+
+"'I must, however,' said he, 'devise something to round off my
+expedition, something of the quality of a heroic deed.'
+
+"And by the time we reached the fortress he _had_ devised something.
+
+"The return of the courier with the despatch of the Hungarian
+Commander-in-chief created an extraordinary sensation in the fortress
+and spread even to the town. The Commandant immediately proclaimed that
+Captain Tihamér Rengetegi had been promoted to the rank of Major by the
+Hungarian War Minister for extraordinary services.
+
+"A banquet in honour of the returning hero followed. All the officers
+were present. The ladies also took part in it. I was there too. Never
+had I seen Bálványossi (I beg his pardon, Rengetegi) play his part in so
+masterly a manner as on that evening. He was the gipsy leader who, with
+three others, fiddled his way right through every hostile camp. And what
+amusing adventures befell him on the road! I believe he laid under
+contribution every book of gipsy anecdote that was ever published. And
+when he came to that ghastly scene with the wolves--that was indeed a
+drastic description. The reality was nothing like so horrible as his
+account of it. The ladies swooned, the men were horror-stricken, only I
+was inclined to laugh. And when the guerillas turned up, how valiant my
+Rengetegi became all at once! He took horse and started off in pursuit
+of the cuirassiers. (To him they were cuirassiers!) It would have been
+beneath his dignity to have chased mere hussars.... By way of climax
+came the splendid description of how he cut his way through the
+besieging host. In the dark night, amidst a blinding blackness of
+midnight snow-storm, he cut his way on horseback through the Austrian
+foreposts, leaping over trenches and earth-works, with the bullets
+skimming about his ears right and left. His horse was shot dead beneath
+him, but ever equal to the occasion, he hastily fastened on his skates,
+and skated with the rapidity of lightning over the frozen Zsitva and the
+Csiliz, and two other rivers the names of which I never heard of before.
+Thus at last he reached the fortress. Every one was enchanted with the
+narration. The ladies rose _en masse_ and kissed him, and improvised a
+laurel-wreath for his brows out of muscatel leaves.
+
+"To save appearances, I also went up to him that I might condole with
+and congratulate him upon all the exploits and sufferings he had gone
+through, when all at once my friend turned quite stiff and rigid, gave
+me a cold bow, pursed his lips, and turned up the whites of his eyes.
+
+"'Madame!' said he, 'I have a word or two to say to you also. Where
+were you, may I ask, while I was jeopardizing my life a hundred times
+every day for my country? Can you tell me how you were occupying your
+days all this while?'
+
+"I was confounded. Language died away on my lips. The blood rushed to my
+face. I felt that every one was now looking at me. Naturally nobody in
+Comorn had seen me all this time.
+
+"'If what the world whispers turns out to be true, and you have in the
+meantime been to Vienna--but no! I will not believe it.'
+
+"His magnanimity offended me even more than his indictment.
+
+"'What is it to you whence I come or whither I go?' I replied, turning
+my back upon him and beginning to talk to the young officers, like one
+who has nothing to be ashamed of.
+
+"Shortly afterwards I quitted the banqueting-room. I hadn't reached the
+end of the long pavilion corridor in the fortress when Rengetegi came
+running after me.
+
+"'What on earth possessed you to calumniate and accuse me before the
+whole company,' I said to him, 'just as if I were a traitor, or I don't
+know what?'
+
+"'Tsitt! Zenobia, my Queen. Let us understand each other. It was in your
+own interest that I had to feign jealousy and rage. Let us go into my
+room and I'll explain everything.'
+
+"When we were alone together he locked the door and then explained
+things nicely.
+
+"'It concerns your money.'
+
+"'Aha!'
+
+"'Amidst all this laudation, appreciation, and ovation, and all the
+other flummery, I did not lose sight of the _main chance_. I told the
+Governor privately that if he wished to reward me in any way, he might
+do me the favour not to give to the flames the property deposited in the
+bank to the credit of the damsel who was so near to my heart, but allow
+me to bring it back to her. The austere patriot was as inexorable as
+Brutus. "Never!" said he. "We will burn what we have laid hands upon,
+even though it were the property of my own father. We can make no
+exception. What would those poor devils say whose paltry ten or twenty
+florins we surrender to the flames of the _auto-da-fé_ if we allowed the
+forty or fifty thousand florins of the rich to fly away? Burn they
+shall!" This he said with a very wrathful voice. Then he added in a
+milder tone: "However, I'll confide the burning of them to you."'
+
+"Now I began to understand.
+
+"'A quarrel between us therefore has become an absolute necessity. We
+must fly into a rage with each other. The _auto-da-fé_ will take place
+in a couple of days. The bonfire will be in the centre of the public
+square. I shall throw the bundles of bank-notes one by one among the
+spluttering faggots. You must be close by the booths of the
+bread-sellers, and break out into curses. You remember the cursing
+scene from _Deborah_? Very well, it may be useful. After the
+_auto-da-fé_ there must be a lively scene between us. We must cast our
+mutual souvenirs at each other's feet. I'll throw at you the embroidered
+cushion which you worked for my birthday, and inside it will be the
+money belonging to you and your mamma which I have rescued. Then be off
+as quick as you can to Vienna.'
+
+"'But how about the packet that you have to burn?'
+
+"'Leave that to me; a few copies of the _Comorn News_ will give every
+bit as brisk a flame.'
+
+"Everything happened according to his instructions. I saved our
+property, and you must admit that my friend and I displayed considerable
+prudence on this occasion. We did nobody any wrong: I only recovered
+what was my own.
+
+"Then we fell out together publicly, as preconcerted. My friend
+Rengetegi played Othello in a masterly manner. Then as our acquaintances
+could not succeed in reconciling us, we solemnly separated and I went
+back to Vienna.
+
+"On the way back I again fell in with the Austrian major. I showed him
+the money I brought with me, naturally without letting him know how I
+came by it. He became so friendly as even to entrust me with a letter to
+an old acquaintance of his in Vienna, who was none other than my
+mother's colonel....
+
+"You may imagine the friendly reception which awaited me when I
+returned to Vienna and gave my mother her money. She folded me in her
+arms, covered me with kisses, bedewed me with tears, and called me her
+darling child. What still remained to me of my patrimony, about 40,000
+florins, I placed in the Vienna savings-bank. The rest of my dower was
+in the hands of Muki Bagotay, with the exception of what we spent while
+we lived together. This also I contrived to get back again--but how?
+
+"In the spring, when the fortune of the war changed, Comorn was
+relieved, and I hastened off home again. I told my mother that I was
+urgently bent upon building up again our burnt house--only the roof had
+been burnt off, the walls remained standing. She approved of my
+resolution, and was very proud of having such a sensible and
+enterprising daughter. I immediately set about rebuilding our house,
+taking advantage of the time which elapsed from the raising of the first
+to the beginning of the second siege. During my stay at Vienna I moved
+continually in military circles, and I saw quite plainly what was
+coming. But why reopen my wounds? All my illusions were over. I had
+learnt to know my hero at close quarters, behind the scenes, I might
+say. This 'lord of creation' used to whine before his tailor for a
+respite with his account till next pay-day, and immediately afterwards
+would ascend his triumphal car drawn by captive kings and declaim to the
+populace of conquered Constantinople. But in one particular thing Major
+Rengetegi really extorted my admiration, I mean by his strategical
+science."
+
+"Ah!" cried I.
+
+"You may well say 'ah!' I have read the campaigns of Napoleon I., I have
+read the campaigns of Charles XII., but in none of them could I discover
+so many ruses of war as my hero invented in order to triumphantly solve
+the problem--how a man in his capacity of superior officer may
+constantly be taking part in the most ticklish skirmishes without
+allowing his person to get into the way of any wandering bullet. He
+always knew how to hit upon some mission whereby he might manage to
+skedaddle out of danger. And if I now and then fluttered the red rag of
+_self-esteem_ before his eyes, he would reply: 'I have duties towards
+art; if they shoot away half my leg, how shall I be able to act on the
+stage again?' Yet, when the battle was over, who so great a hero as he!
+Others only mowed down the enemy, he thrashed them afterwards with a
+flail. 'Tis a dreadful thing when a woman discovers that her hero is a
+habitual liar, lying with the fiery burning conviction that no man will
+dare to doubt him, so that she has to make him swear to the truth of
+every word he utters.
+
+"Meanwhile, I continued my house-building. Every sort of building
+material was very dear, and there was plenty of money too. Whence did
+all this money come? I'll tell you. The Russian hosts had already
+invaded the kingdom. The speculator-species perceived that the national
+cause was declining. The Hungarian armies were everywhere falling back.
+Then Klapka, by a brilliant victory, raised the second siege of Comorn
+and was within an ace of capturing the besieging host. The region was
+instantly alive with people, and a whole series of triumphs followed one
+after another. And now there flocked to Comorn from every part of the
+kingdom quite a tribe of panic-stricken speculators and jobbers, with
+bags full of Hungarian bank-notes, and bought everything that was for
+sale, at whatever price the sellers liked to ask. My Muki also took
+advantage of this lucky period to regulate his finances. He sold his
+herds at four times their real value, and paid the price, in Hungarian
+bank-notes, into the deposit bank at Comorn. It was my dowry paid back,
+he said. The bank hastened to place the amount in my hands; and I
+hastened to satisfy therewith my architects and builders, who did not
+let the money stick to their hands.
+
+"Doesn't this remind you of the round game we used to play as children,
+when we lit a straw, and, sitting in a circle, passed it round from hand
+to hand; whoever was the last to hold it till the fire burned his hands,
+him we used to thump unmercifully--that was the forfeit? Just such a
+burning straw was the dowry paid back to me by my husband. The roof of
+my father's house was the straw end which remained in my hands. The
+amount which I deposited in the Vienna bank is all I have left in the
+world--except Tihamér Rengetegi. But not even he has remained mine, for
+he has changed into Bálványossi. And now here we are together. The
+playing of a common part unites us. From morn to eve every word we say
+to one another is a lie. It is not even true that any one is pursuing
+Rengetegi, for at the capitulation of Comorn he received his
+safe-conduct which guarantees his life and liberty. That is not what
+distresses him. But he wishes to deny the whole part he played during
+the Revolution, that as Bálványossi, the theatre-director, he may get
+the necessary concession. He is continually urging me to go to Miskolcz
+to the Government Commissioner and settle the business for him."
+
+"I understand."
+
+"No, you don't. It is none of those interventions which we see in
+romances and dramas, when a pretty woman goes to move a mighty tyrant
+with her tears, and sacrifice her charms to him as the price of the life
+and liberty of her persecuted husband. Oh no! my hero is no plagiarist!
+His ideas are all original. He wants me to go to the mighty gentleman
+and tell him that the Debreczin expedition, which has given rise to the
+whole of this heroic poem, is not his '_crime_,' but mine. I was the
+gipsy leader who played before the Ban Jellachich, and then escaped. It
+was I who carried the despatch to the Hungarian Government. In a word: I
+am to sacrifice myself on his account!"
+
+"Fie! fie! And still you love this man!"
+
+"What am I to do? I have nobody but him in the wide world; and besides,
+he is such a droll, amusing character. All day long we are either
+fighting or frolicking, and it is this variation which makes life so
+charming."
+
+But for all that, she flung herself on the ground and hid her face in
+the green moss. She was in such a good humour!
+
+"Sha'n't we give our friend a signal to come out of his hole?"
+
+"He is quite comfortable--don't disturb him."
+
+"I wonder you don't hit upon the very obvious idea of putting an end to
+this pantomimic game of hide and seek. You have a foreign passport. You
+could enter your friend in it under some such description as major-domo
+or travelling companion. You could take him with you to Naples or to
+Paris, and you could live without care on the interest of the fund
+deposited at the Vienna bank."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"Then why not do it?"
+
+"Because I don't choose."
+
+And as she said this she looked strangely at me with her enigmatically
+mysterious eyes, in which heaven and hell were blended together like
+starlight in darkness!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE DEMON'S BAIT
+
+
+I said in the last chapter that the lady was looking straight into my
+eyes with the glance of Circe. Then she shrugged her shoulders, flung
+herself down beside the fire-ashes, and began to blow the cinders so as
+to entice a flame from the smouldering embers.
+
+"It's useless to give advice to me, for I always do exactly the
+contrary. Let us rather have a chat together. What is your fate, now?"
+
+"The fate of the grub when it is in its chrysalis."
+
+"Then it was not without cause that I went to you that evening when you
+shut your door in my face? And yet I only said what I did because I
+feared that either the gibbet or suicide awaited you on the path you
+chose to take."
+
+Here her voice trembled, her chin, her lips twitched convulsively, and
+her eyes filled with tears.
+
+A lady in tears is dangerous!
+
+I did _not_ hasten to dry her tears. On the contrary, I replied with
+cool cynicism:
+
+"Every career has its own peculiar _maleficium_--drowning awaits the
+sailor, shooting the soldier; the doctor may fall a victim to an
+epidemic; the glass-maker suffers from caries; choke-damp kills the
+miner; and he who meddles with politics runs a chance of being hanged or
+guillotined."
+
+"No, no! They shall not do it!" she cried hoarsely, seizing my hand in
+both her own.
+
+"I do not want them to do it," I said, "and that is why I am hiding
+myself here at the back of beyond."
+
+"But how long is this to go on? What future do you see before you?"
+
+"For the present I am like the convalescent beggar whose promenading
+does not go beyond the house-door. I thought of beginning a little
+farming in this valley and forgetting all my dreams of glory. I shall
+become an agriculturist."
+
+"Very nice! And your wife?"
+
+"She will join me."
+
+"And you seriously think so? You think she'll come and settle down with
+you in a hut with a clay floor and a straw roof, like the one you are
+living in now."
+
+"It's a palace compared with what we lived in in our Debreczin days.
+When my wife did the cooking--for we had no servant--we loved each other
+better than ever. In a little house loving hearts are nearer to each
+other than in a large palace."
+
+"It was possible then, no doubt. I have experienced the same thing. But
+this is quite different. When a man has such brilliant hopes, want is no
+affliction. It will be over soon, he thinks. But to enter upon misery
+with the knowledge that it will last till death, is beyond the power of
+resignation. And particularly with a woman! Believe me, I know my own
+sex. Your wife, who now stands at the summit of her artistic fame,
+cannot quit her brilliant career. No! If you were an angel she could
+not."
+
+I could not defend my point of view against her. Stern reality was on
+her side; on my side were only faith and imagination.
+
+"I believe in my wife's promise to deliver me out of my difficult
+position."
+
+"I can't imagine how. She cannot do what I can do for Bálványossi--in
+other words, accuse herself and say: 'It was not he who proclaimed
+freedom on March 15th. It was not he who wrote those heart-stirring
+articles to the nation. It was not he who edited those newspapers; not
+he who went to battle with the armies; not he who inspired the Honveds
+at the siege of Buda: but I.' Your wife cannot take your fault on her
+shoulders."
+
+I couldn't help laughing.
+
+"I would not let her."
+
+"But let us suppose that a great _artiste_, a renowned beauty, might
+perhaps manage by some means or other to procure an amnesty for her
+hidden husband" (and as she said this she discharged murderous,
+envenomed darts at me from the corners of her eyes), "what will be your
+subsequent lot when you return to Pest as a rebel amnestied at the
+intercession of his wife? The earth and the sky which you used to adore
+have vanished. No poet, no newspaper, no publisher: what will you do?
+Will you enter a lawyer's office again to copy deeds, issue summonses,
+and serve writs at so much a day? Or will you translate comedies (under
+official protection) at fifty florins each for the National Theatre; or
+paint fashionable portraits of butchers' wives at five florins apiece?
+Or, perhaps, you'll do nothing at all, but live simply under the wing of
+your wife as 'the actress's husband,' and see a woman bending beneath
+the load of sustaining a household--accomplishing the most exhausting
+work; coming home after her day's acting is over, tired to death,
+excited, unstrung. See her, poorly though she be, hurry from one
+provincial town to another, acting uncongenial parts, so as to scrape
+together a little money wherewith to satisfy the Jews with whom she has
+to haggle for the material for her costumes. And the husband must look
+on at all this with his arms folded, or, if he does anything at all, may
+perhaps paint the flowers for her costumes, which she herself will then
+sew on with her own hands."
+
+"It will not last for ever--other times will come."
+
+"Other times! You think other times will come, eh? Now, that is what I
+fear most of all. I know you well. You are not the sort of man who can
+content himself with the thought--what is past is over! You will never
+forget what you used to be, still less what you meant to be. The glory
+of fame is not forgotten as easily as a pawned jewel. You will again
+fall into those straits from which you have been set free."
+
+And the woman saw right into my soul. My face is so maladroit that it
+never could keep a secret. You can read my features like an open book.
+When I am frightened, it is vain for me to pretend that I am plucky.
+When I'm in a rage, it is useless for me to affect calmness--nobody is
+taken in by it. I cannot even haggle over a bargain properly, people can
+read from my face what I have to give. This woman could see where my
+soul was wandering in secret, far, far away, in a gloriously arisen
+Hungary of the future. And she regarded this talk of turning farmer as
+little more than the incoherent delirium of a fevered visionary.
+
+"Let it be as you say," I said.... "If I live I will build a tower out
+of the ruins of my country's glory; if I die, my grave will become an
+altar. Vainly does this coward flesh of mine tremble in every nerve. I
+am neither a hero nor a giant. The report of a gun makes me tremble; I
+grow pale in the presence of death; grief draws tears from me--but I
+will not depart from my set path. If I cannot write under my own name, I
+will write under the name of my landlord's dog. I will be 'Sajó.'[87]
+We'll bark if we can't speak, but we'll not be silent."
+
+[Footnote 87: My works "_Forradalmi és csatakepek_," "_Bujdosó naplója_"
+were written under the pseudonym _Sajó_.--JÓKAI.]
+
+The lady, in terror, seized me by both arms.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, take care! A step backwards, and you'll fall over
+the rock."
+
+"But I don't mean to take a step backwards."
+
+"Listen to me quietly. Don't fly into a rage. Sit down beside me. You
+need have no great fear of me. I am not a luring demon. I have not a
+word to say against what you've said. Do whatever your soul bids you. I
+ask for nothing more. Don't you believe that I've a good heart also?"
+
+"I believe that you've a little too much heart."
+
+"Perhaps all that my heart led me to do was sinful. I was mad. I was
+blind. Passion got hold of me; but the feeling I had for you would not
+have been out of place in heaven itself. When I am alone, I am always
+with you; and when I think of anything I think of you. I wish you to go
+onwards and upwards along the rugged path that you have entered upon;
+but can you do it here, with a leaden weight on your feet, a padlock on
+your mouth, and a strait jacket on your body?"
+
+"'Tis because it _is_ heavy that I must needs carry my burden."
+
+"But how much more brilliant would be the success of your struggle if
+you could continue it on a foreign soil--in free France, for instance!
+Just think! If you were now to appear in Paris, the leaders of the
+French literature would receive you with open arms. The French public
+would enrol you among its great writers, and then you might write of
+the glory, the sufferings, and the heroic struggles of Hungary, and of
+the amiable qualities of its people; you might write all this with
+perfect freedom, from the very bottom of your heart, and millions and
+millions, the whole round world, would read your writings, and not
+merely a handful of people, as here at home. There you would be a rich
+man, here you are only a day-labourer. Here you might sing like a
+Tyrtæus, and the world outside would hear nothing of it; but if you
+raised your voice abroad in the midst of a great nation and a
+cosmopolitan capital, your voice would be like the horns of Joshua
+before the walls of Jericho."
+
+Ah! how luring was the panorama.... To become a great French writer! To
+be raised aloft on the shoulders of the most glorious of nations! What
+here at home was but the crack of a whip in my hands, would there be a
+thunderbolt!
+
+"But it is impossible," I objected. "How could I possibly force my way
+to the frontiers of France from the depths of Tordona, through my own
+country, through Austria, through Germany, without a passport, without
+money, in a semi-Asiatic garb? Just as well might I cast myself down
+from the mountain-top in the belief that I could fly."
+
+"Well, come now, I have a very good plan to suggest to you. I've got an
+English passport. Have I not told you exactly how I got it? None
+besides yourself knows that I have it, except, of course, the officials
+who have _viséd_ it on the way. In this passport the blank for my
+travelling companion has not yet been filled up. You asked me just now
+why I did not insert the name and description of Bálványossi. Now, I'll
+tell you. Nobody is pursuing him. I always intended to fill up that
+blank with your name. You won't have to sacrifice much beyond that
+little moustache and beard of yours, and resigning yourself to speak
+nothing abroad but French and German. I appoint you my secretary. I
+myself am an English lady. We mustn't go _viâ_ Vienna. But the way is
+clear in the direction of Breslau. I have quite enough money for us
+both. I still retain the hundred ducats which I received at Debreczin.
+We shall do sumptuously with this till we get to Paris. My capital in
+the Vienna bank I can leave where it is, or I may have it sent after me,
+and the interest from it will suffice for your modest needs at the
+beginning of your residence at Paris, so that you will not have to
+resort to the emigrants' fund. When once you have won a position for
+yourself in Continental literature you will need no further assistance
+from anybody. You will be able to refund to me what I advanced to you as
+a loan. Only as a loan remember, not as a gift; still less do I expect
+anything in exchange, not even a warm pressure of the hand. I am simply
+your proselyte whose mission it is to make straight the way of the
+prophet."
+
+It was a seductive picture, and still more seductive was she who
+presented it to me.
+
+To be free! To be able to pronounce my name boldly in the face of every
+one who met me! Not to tremble at the pattering of every footstep at my
+door! To fight for great ideas in the company of great and noble minds!
+
+And how her _eyes_ sparkled as she said these words, like the parhelia
+in the glowing girdle of a solar halo! And her face was as open as a
+child's. I could have sworn that she was an artless virgin opening her
+heart for the first time to a true sentiment. Her hands were folded as
+if in prayer.
+
+Had I wavered but a hair's-breadth, I must have plunged down into the
+abyss.
+
+Ah! what a different man I should have become. Had I fled with her, I
+should now be the grand master of the Realists, for there is as much
+erotic flame, satiric vein, and luxurious fancy in me as in them; but I
+have not used these qualities, because I write for a Hungarian public.
+Had I flown with her, millions would have read my works, and fathers and
+mothers would have cursed me as the corrupter of their children. And I
+should have laughed at them, and tapped the fat paunch, which as an
+idealistic writer I have never been able to acquire.
+
+And whither would this reinless, bridleless passion have hurried me had
+I been swayed by such a fascinating Calypso, whose every movement was a
+charm, whose every word was a snare, who was herself the personified
+joy of a Mohammedan paradise? For, remember, I was then only
+four-and-twenty!
+
+Fortunately, a sober thought still remained in my head.
+
+"I mean to remain in my own land," I said abruptly.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I will not forsake those who arose at my word. If they lie on the
+earth, I also will lie down beside them. I will take my share of the
+suffering of which I was the cause."
+
+"You won't remain out in the cold for ever, of course. Haven't you,
+then, the hope that those who have sought refuge abroad will one day
+return in triumph? Then you also will return home at the head of the
+reprieved."
+
+Even this weapon she managed to turn against me! Oh, what a weak coat of
+mail it was that defended me--only a single word!
+
+"I have given my word that I'll not depart from hence," I said softly.
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"To her who gave me her word that she would come and seek me here."
+
+"Your wife?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And if she seeks you, what then?"
+
+"She will bring me liberty."
+
+"How? In what way?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You don't know, and yet you believe?"
+
+"I believe with my whole heart."
+
+"And you never think what may be the price of such freedom?"
+
+"I spurn such a thought as often as it arises."
+
+"You believe in a woman's loyalty, a woman's virtue?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then you are a very happy man!"
+
+During this conversation I continued my drawing, and she called my
+attention to several objects in the landscape which had escaped me.
+Shortly after that she began a very ordinary conversation about the
+weather.
+
+"Look! the prophecy of the old forester is well-nigh fulfilled. The sky
+is quite overcast. The snowstorm will surprise us here."
+
+"Then, perhaps, it may be as well to call our friend out of his
+hiding-place?"
+
+"Oh, that will be very easy! I need only give him one signal. He himself
+selected it from the romance 'Ivanhoe'--the note of the hero's
+horn--'Wasa hóa!' At this signal he will appear immediately."
+
+"Well, I can scarcely see to sketch any more, it is so dark."
+
+"Then you are determined to go to that little village down there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"No news from the world will ever penetrate thither."
+
+"That will be all the better for me."
+
+"You have heard nothing of what is going on outside all this time, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Nothing pleasant."
+
+"It is a dreadful world. How would the women manage to live if they
+couldn't chatter?"
+
+"They could sew their children's clothes."
+
+"Perhaps you haven't heard that Petöfi's widow has married again?"
+
+Ah, that was indeed a murderous thrust! A calculated, well-aimed,
+poisonous dart where there was a weak joint in my coat of mail.
+
+"What do you say?" cried I, in a perfect passion.
+
+"It is a fact known to everybody."
+
+"Petöfi's wife! Then what has become of Petöfi?"
+
+"He fell at the battle of Segesvár."
+
+"Who saw him fall?"
+
+"A Honved officer who testified to the fact. This was quite enough for
+his widow. She immediately went to the altar with another young writer,
+who was not perhaps such a knightly hero as your friend, but who is a
+pleasant young man in a good official position, moving in the best
+society, and who is able to assure his wife a comfortable existence."
+
+Every one of this woman's words went right through my heart.
+
+Now, indeed, after years have elapsed, I can say that poor Julia did
+well to confide her fate to a good and worthy man. She had a child, and
+had duties towards that child. But at that moment a heavier blow could
+not have descended upon my head. The death of our martyrs, let it be
+never so cruel, was not nearly such terrible news to me as the news that
+the martyrs had been forgotten.
+
+That any woman could ever forget Petöfi! The woman whom the poet had
+encompassed with the rays of his soul of flame! That the poet should be
+able to make himself immortal to the whole world and not to her whom he
+had worshipped!
+
+No doubt the widow was right, she will be blessed in the next world, and
+there Petöfi himself will justify her--the righteous are always just;
+but to me this news seemed to open the very gates of hell. If the grass
+can grow so quickly over my overthrown idol, what am I, I should like to
+know? A frog enclosed in a tree, whose calling it is to live for a
+hundred years--beneath the bark!
+
+"I won't believe it! I won't believe it! I won't believe it!"
+
+She laughed at me. "Now wriggle away!" she seemed to say.
+
+From the crown of my head to the heel of my foot I was full of
+bitterness. If such a thing as this could happen, why shouldn't that
+other thing happen, too? Why shouldn't another fallen writer forget the
+promise he had made to his wife, seize the hand of his former ideal, and
+fly away with her out into the world? That would be tit for tat.
+
+Her two eyes flamed as she looked at me and laughed. It was just as if
+she knew she had wounded me and would fain stir me up to vengeance.
+
+She had destroyed my idol: belief in a woman's heart.
+
+Women were all alike!
+
+"No, no, no! My wife is not like other women."
+
+I sat down on the edge of the precipitous rock, made a speaking-trumpet
+of the palms of both hands, and called loudly down into the valley "Wasa
+hóa!"
+
+The echo repeated my words. And not long afterwards could be heard from
+below the proud refrain:--
+
+    "Whom he meets upon his way
+    Him he cruelly doth slay;
+    But if a pretty girl draw near,
+    Ah, then what gayer cavalier!
+    Tremble and quake ye tongues that lie,
+    And speak his name all whisp'ringly:
+        Diavolo, diavolo, diavolo!"
+
+As the song drew nearer, I packed up my traps and clasped my stick all
+ready to say good-bye.
+
+"Forget what we have been speaking about!"
+
+I said this.
+
+"Have we been speaking about anything, then? I didn't know!" replied the
+lady with the eyes like the sea.
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+I was quite persuaded that we should never meet again.
+
+I did not wait till my friend had climbed up again out of his hole. They
+would easily find one another. The snow had already begun to fall in
+thick flakes. I set off homewards.
+
+The snowstorm drove full against me as I proceeded. I had very nearly
+lost myself in the forest. The evening had fallen early; by the time I
+had descended from the hill it was quite dark.
+
+But still darker was what I carried with me in my brain--the black
+thought that there was now no such thing as love or loving remembrance
+in the world. Where we fall, there we lie, and none cares. Some of us
+die, and there is none to mourn us; the rest of us remain alive, and
+mourn over ourselves.
+
+How fair is the fate of a fallen tree. There it lies, and the ground-ivy
+covers it.
+
+If the wild beasts were to tear me to pieces now, nobody would know
+where I had perished.
+
+At last I stumbled upon the linden spring.
+
+This was a good guide. The stream flows right along beside the house of
+the Csányis; one can get home by keeping near its banks, even in the
+dark.
+
+My soul blamed me for having passed so much time by the Pagan Altar with
+that "other" woman.
+
+The snow now completely covered the fields, and through it in serpentine
+flight darted the threefold stream. The autumn leaves were still on the
+trees, their crowns bent down beneath loads of snow. The whole landscape
+was sombre, but it was not more sombre than my soul.
+
+Suddenly, like a ray of hope, the window-light of the little house in
+which I was lodging flashed out before me. It stood at the end of the
+village, and was the last house of all.
+
+I was utterly wearied both in body and soul when I arrived at last at
+the little dwelling.
+
+It had neither courtyard nor enclosure. It stood right out upon the
+road. The carts and ploughs stood there beneath a shed. There are no
+thieves here.
+
+The door of the house is never bolted, and it opens out upon a little
+passage. On the right-hand side of this passage lie kitchen and
+store-room; on the left the living-rooms, and a side chamber, which
+served me as a bedroom, and the rest of the family as a sort of
+withdrawing-room. It is the only room in the house which has a deal
+floor, all the other floors are of clay.
+
+The kitchen door was also open, and a large fire was blazing on the open
+hearth. My hostess with her serving-maid was busy baking and boiling.
+
+When I bade her good evening, she glanced at me with a roguish smile.
+
+"Ei, ei! A nice time to come home, I must say! But go into the
+room--supper will be ready presently."
+
+I went into the room.
+
+By the lighted stove sat my wife!
+
+Rapturous joy drove every other thought out of my soul.
+
+I don't know what I said. I wouldn't believe she was there till I had
+caught her in my arms and embraced her tightly.
+
+'Tis true, 'tis true, 'tis true--loyalty, love, sweet remembrance still
+belong to this world!
+
+She told me afterwards--very briefly--how ill she had been. She had
+wanted to come before, but couldn't; as it was, she had left Pest by
+stealth, and had come with a passport made out under a false name. She
+had suffered much on the way. She had gone astray in the snowstorm in
+the beech woods, and it had been as much as she could do to find her way
+again. She had been terrified by the wolves, whose howls even now
+resounded from the woods.
+
+And all the while I suffered the mental torture of a man who hears the
+person who _is_ talking to him and the person who _has been_ talking to
+him at the same time. I saw the one figure and I saw the other also.
+
+Our good host, worthy Beno Csányi, as he sat by the table, kept on
+mumbling in his beard: "That's something like a woman--that _is_ a wife,
+if you like!"
+
+Well, now that we are both together again, what does it all matter?
+
+Yes, but how long shall we be together again?
+
+My wife must go back the day after to-morrow. Only grudgingly had the
+director of the theatre allowed her a four days' leave. On the fifth day
+she must play.
+
+But my captivity was soon to draw to a close.
+
+My wife took a carefully concealed piece of paper from her breast; it
+was a tiny little grey schedule, but that little schedule was in those
+days a great treasure. It was the guarantee of my liberation--a Comorn
+passport.
+
+It was a very simple method of deliverance, as simple as the egg of
+Columbus.
+
+When the fortress of Comorn capitulated, each of the officers of the
+garrison there received a passport which guaranteed his life and
+liberty, and also dispensed him from enrolment in the Austrian army. My
+wife managed to procure me such a passport in the simplest way in the
+world. There was a brother of Szigligeti's in the Comorn garrison,
+Vincent Szathmary (Szathmary was their family name), who wrote my name
+down in the list of the capitulating officers as a Honved lieutenant,
+and handed the passport bearing my name to my wife.
+
+This was the reason why I was obliged to remain in concealment in the
+meantime.
+
+Thus my dove had brought me two leaves of the olive-branch, namely, life
+and liberty; but how about the third? I had still to wait for that. I
+was not free to come forth till I got it. I should have to wait till she
+came back for me a second time. I no longer ran any risk of being
+condemned, but I might still run the risk of being interned at my native
+place, Comorn, and that would have been a fresh torment for me.
+
+Then my wife asked me: "Have you been thinking of me also all this
+time?"
+
+And if I had not been able to answer, "Always of thee!" and if, while
+saying this, I had not been able to look her honestly in the face, she
+would have been amply justified in tearing the passport to pieces and
+flinging the fragments in my face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MARVELS NOT TO BE SEEN FOR MONEY
+
+
+It was now four years since I had made friends with the beech woods. For
+two years I was "Sajó," but after that I was again able to practise the
+art of letters in my own name.
+
+My wife and I saw nobody, and nobody came to see us. We had both of us
+quite enough to do without paying visits. My wife was an actress, and I
+an author. And let nobody suppose that actresses and authors live in the
+land of Cockaigne.[88] Both have very hard work to do, and rest is their
+dearest recreation.
+
+[Footnote 88: Lit., a sky full of fiddles.]
+
+Unfortunately I was engaged in publishing and editing. Nominally,
+indeed, the director of the National Theatre was the responsible editor
+and publisher of the belle-lettristic and artistic journal _Délibab_,
+for my name was still under police supervision; but, in reality, I wrote
+and edited the whole paper, corrected the proofs, and folded up,
+directed, and despatched the copies of it to the subscribers--and got
+into trouble for it besides.
+
+My only assistant was a worthy, semi-rustic, very pronounced Hungarian
+lad, called Coloman Iglódi, who had served as lieutenant under the
+banner of the red-capped Honveds in our Utopian days.[89] At the battle
+of Tarczal he had received three bullets, one in the face, the second in
+the arm, and the third in the leg, and these wounds he had to thank for
+his dismissal as a genuine invalid. So he joined me as messenger,
+secretary, and door-keeper, and a worthy, honest fellow he was.
+
+[Footnote 89: _i.e._, during the war.]
+
+One afternoon "clerk Coloman" (that was his familiar epithet) opened the
+door of my working-room. "I beg pardon, sir," said he, "but a cuirassier
+is here."
+
+"What sort of a cuirassier?"
+
+"A senior lieutenant."
+
+"What does he want with me, I wonder?"
+
+In the fifties the visit of an officer was tantamount to a challenge.
+Those were the days of the famous political duels in which Coloman
+Tisza,[90] Julius Szapary,[91] and Francis Beniczky fought with the
+delegated officers.
+
+[Footnote 90: The late Prime Minister of Hungary and leader of the
+Liberal party there.]
+
+[Footnote 91: The present Prime Minister.--Since this note was written,
+Szapary has given way to Weckerle.]
+
+"Admit him!"
+
+"Call me, please, if necessary," said clerk Coloman confidentially,
+making at the same time a significant movement with the paper-knife.
+
+Then the visitor entered.
+
+In figure he was half a head taller than me at the very least. He was a
+strong, broad-shouldered fellow. His bony face wore quite a stony
+expression by reason of a powerful eagle nose and a broad double chin.
+On the other hand this sternness was somewhat contradicted by a pair of
+honest, bright-blue eyes, a little mouth, and offensively light hair,
+though his eyebrows, moustache, and whiskers were even lighter.
+
+My visitor, as he advanced from my door to my writing-table, took those
+three short mazurka steps which, with men, are generally the
+preliminaries to a military salute; he held, close pressed to his thigh,
+his beautiful helmet, with the golden lions and the black-yellow plumes;
+and when he stood in front of me, he clashed his spurs together and
+introduced himself in Hungarian.
+
+"I am Wenceslaus Kvatopil, senior lieutenant of dragoons."
+
+He had the peculiar habit of accompanying every word with an explanatory
+movement of his hand, so that a stone-deaf person could have understood
+perfectly what he meant. The deprecatory movement of his hand
+meant--Wenceslaus Kvatopil; the indication of the twin stars on his
+collar meant that he was a lieutenant; the slight elevation of his
+helmet signified that he was a dragoon, and the simultaneous sweep of
+the hand towards his breast gave me to understand that he was _not_ a
+cuirassier.
+
+"I am glad to see you," I said; "how can I be of service?"
+
+"I should like to have a long conversation with you, sir, if you will
+let me."
+
+At this I would have offered him a chair, but on no account in the world
+would he suffer me to do so, but helped himself to one, and then once
+more apologised for the trouble he was giving before he sat down
+opposite to me.
+
+I begged him to address me in German, as I was quite capable of making
+myself understood in that tongue.
+
+"No! no! En _akarom_ magyariul beszélni"[92]--and at the same time he
+made as though he were ducking the head of a refractory urchin in a
+basin of soapsuds.
+
+[Footnote 92: "I want to talk in Hungarian."]
+
+"_Akarok_," I good-humouredly corrected him.
+
+"No! no! _Akarok_ is the _indefinite_ mood, _akarom the definite_ mood;
+and I want to speak Hungarian _definitely_."
+
+I was forced to acknowledge to myself that his logic was stronger than
+his grammar.
+
+"I was born in Leutomischl"[93]--here he let his head fall regretfully
+on his breast.
+
+[Footnote 93: A Bohemian town. He meant by this that he belonged to
+Czech officials who had been forced upon Hungary.--TR.]
+
+I with corresponding pantomime replied that that need not make any
+difference between us.
+
+"My father was"--here with both hands he took aim with an imaginary gun.
+
+It now occurred to me _why_ he made all these gestures. Such is often
+the way with those who have taught themselves a foreign language without
+a master, and cannot find quickly enough the word they want. I hastened
+to his assistance.
+
+"A forester?"
+
+"Yes, a forester. He had sons"--he lifted up both hands, and then one
+finger.
+
+"Eleven?"
+
+"Yes, eleven. I myself was"--he held the palm of his hand quite low down
+towards the floor.
+
+"The youngest?"
+
+"Yes, the youngest."
+
+"My father gave me"--here followed a very suggestive gesture.
+
+"Yes, a _very rigorous_ education."
+
+"But it was all"--he lightly tapped the hollow of his hand, as much as
+to say "No good!"
+
+"He wanted me to be"--he laid the palms of his hands together as if in
+prayer.
+
+"A priest?"
+
+"Quite right! I wouldn't"--a snap of the fingers, and then a lizard-like
+dart into the palm of the hand.
+
+"You mean to say you took French leave of the Seminary?"
+
+At this we both laughed. The gesture next following--a smack on the palm
+of the hand illustrated by a little equitation on the back of a
+chair--gave me to understand that my visitor had then become a soldier.
+
+"At four-and-twenty I was a lieutenant. I lay at Cracow for two years. I
+served in the Hungarian war from beginning to end. I am now thirty-four
+years old. And still I am only a lieutenant. Curious, isn't it?"
+
+I agreed with him that it was certainly most surprising.
+
+"My other comrades--no, not _comrades_, that's a French word."
+
+"_Bajtarsai?_"[94] I suggested.
+
+[Footnote 94: "Your comrades"--the Hungarian equivalent.]
+
+"Yes, of course! my other _bajtarsai_ all became captains and majors,
+and have got decorations. I've nothing! Nothing, I tell you! And I'm
+pretty plucky too. I'm a good horseman--I've never given offence--I
+understand my duties. What do you think the cause is?"
+
+I really was curious myself to know the cause of this misadventure.
+
+"All through the war I was interned at Temesvar with my squadron. No
+occasion for displaying valour. Cavalry behind trenches. My comrades all
+on the battle-field"--he made a swift motion with his hand.
+
+"And fought bravely?" said I, completing the sentence.
+
+"Yes, they fought bravely, whilst we horsemen besieged in the fortress
+might"--here he put the tips of his thumbs between his teeth and puffed
+out his cheeks.
+
+"Smoke your pipes?" I suggested.
+
+"Yes, we smoked our pipes."
+
+Here we both gave way to merriment once more. Again I urged upon my
+visitor to speak in German, and we could then perhaps get along more
+easily, but he only replied, "_Muszaj!_"[95] Well, if he knows even that
+_Hungarian_ word, I thought, he _must_ have his own way, that's all.
+
+[Footnote 95: A corruption of the German _mussen_, but as used in
+Hungarian it expresses the most emphatic necessity. When all other
+arguments fail, the word _muszaj_ is supposed to carry everything before
+it.--TR.]
+
+"Yes, I _must_ speak Hungarian, by command of the highest authority."
+
+"The highest?"
+
+With that he seized the lappets of my coat with both hands.
+
+"Come, now! Do you know who is the greatest tyrant in the whole world?"
+
+"Dionysius of Syracuse."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Young blood! 'Tis this!"--and with his index finger he
+tapped himself between his fourth and fifth ribs on the left-hand side.
+
+"The heart, eh?"
+
+"You're right. The heart. 'Tis the greatest tyrant. _It_ commands me to
+speak Hungarian."
+
+"Then you are in love, eh?"
+
+A gesture with the palm of his hand right up to the chin was the answer.
+
+"Up to the neck, eh?"
+
+"No, over head and ears."
+
+"With a lovely Hungarian damsel?"
+
+He raised his three fingers closely pressed together to his lips, which
+were pointed as if to receive a kiss, thereby explaining that she was
+_very_ lovely.
+
+Then he passed his extended palms softly over his face, then, joining
+them together beneath his chin, affirmed, so far as I understood him,
+that she was also young and charming.
+
+Then he pressed his waist with both hands, which meant "slim as a lily
+stalk."
+
+After that he cracked his fingers right in front of his eyes, which
+meant "What eyes!"
+
+Finally he crossed his arms, and immediately afterwards disengaged them
+again.
+
+"In a word, a ravishing beauty," said I. "I congratulate you!"
+
+"I think you may."
+
+"Your tender sentiment is naturally reciprocated?"
+
+"Oho!" and he caught hold of the flat of his sword.
+
+"I did not mean to insinuate the contrary," I said.
+
+"Naturally."
+
+Then he was silent, and began to fumble about his stiff cravat. I saw
+that he wanted me to ask him some more questions.
+
+"A maiden lady?"
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"Then a widow lady?"
+
+"Ah, no!"
+
+"Then it can't be a lady at all?"
+
+"No, no! What are you thinking of?"
+
+"Then what is she?"
+
+"A lady who has a husband, but yet is not a married lady."
+
+"Aha! A _divorcée_?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then the relations between you are quite legitimate."
+
+At this, my lieutenant of dragoons rose from his chair and stood before
+me in quite a magisterial position. I also stood up.
+
+"The lady desires you to be her ..."--here the word he wanted would not
+occur to him. He raised the three first fingers of his right hand above
+his head, like one who is taking an oath. I guessed his meaning.
+
+"A witness to her marriage?"
+
+"No, not that. She used another word."
+
+"Oh, she meant I was to give her away?"
+
+"Yes, that is it. How I do forget!"
+
+"Then is the chosen of your heart an acquaintance of mine?"
+
+"Naturally. If I were only to mention her first name you would remember
+at once. Bessy!"
+
+"Ah, Bessy!"
+
+"How red you've got! You were in love with her once yourself. I know!
+She told me. Well, will you give her away?"
+
+"With pleasure."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"With all my heart."
+
+Then he caught hold of my hand with both his hands; squeezed my hand
+violently, and his eyes grew quite tiny with sheer rapture. I believed
+he would have liked to kiss me; but he had a big nose, and I had a big
+nose, too, so we could not very well have managed it.
+
+"Then will you allow me to bring in my bride?"
+
+"Whence?"
+
+"She is waiting outside."
+
+"Not on the staircase?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. On the staircase. She won't come in till she's quite sure
+you'll give her away. She's a bit shy."
+
+I immediately hastened to open the door for my hesitating visitor.
+
+It really was Bessy.
+
+It was winter time just then, and she had all sorts of furry garments
+upon her, and a furred cap on her head; she looked just like a fair
+Muscovite.
+
+There really seemed to be some sort of coquettish bashfulness in her
+face.
+
+I couldn't imagine why. I had seen her face before under many similar
+circumstances, and after Muki Bagotay, Peter Gyuricza, and Tihamér
+Rengetegi, Wenceslaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement.
+
+The bridegroom remained in the room while I admitted the lady. Then he
+first craved permission to kiss her hand, and then begged her pardon for
+kissing it. After that there was absolutely no getting him to take a
+seat, but he persisted in standing on one spot, leaning over the back of
+the arm-chair in which his lady sat.
+
+"Have you grasped what my hero has told you?" inquired Bessy, when she
+had got over her first embarrassment. "Just fancy! he has given me his
+word as a gentleman that henceforth he'll never address a word to any
+Hungarian except in the Hungarian language. And he tortures his
+Hungarian orderly to death with it to begin with."
+
+"A most laudable resolve," I was obliged to answer.
+
+"But now, first of all, let me explain to you why I ask you to put
+yourself to the inconvenience of giving me away."
+
+I assured her that to give her away was not an inconvenience, but a
+pleasure.
+
+"After our last meeting you never anticipated, perhaps, that we should
+meet again in this life?"
+
+I lifted my head and looked at her with amazement.
+
+"Oh! we can say anything before _him_" (here she pointed at her
+bridegroom). "He's as nice and good a boy as ever lived. I could twist
+him round my little finger if I liked. You can say anything before him.
+You know my story, I think, up to the time when I had to go into hiding
+with Bálványossi after the Revolution. I shouldn't like you to imagine
+that I quitted that man from pure lightness of heart. Just fancy! he had
+the impudence to commit that act of baseness which I mentioned to you:
+he told the Imperial Commissioner the whole story of the conveying of
+those despatches, cleared himself from the accusation of that heroic
+deed, and at the same time denounced me. He justified himself to me on
+the ground that it was necessary to '_purify_ himself,' in order that he
+might obtain a theatrical licence, and that they would not _impute_ this
+little joke to me because I was a woman. But they _did_ impute it! They
+arrested me, they imprisoned me, and they severely cross-examined me.
+And I have to thank this worthy young fellow alone for getting off
+scot-free. He took my part. But for him I should have had to pay most
+dearly for my heroic exploit. Shouldn't I, Wenzy?"
+
+The lieutenant hinted, with a deprecatory wave of his hand, that no more
+need be said about the matter.
+
+"Hence our acquaintance began," continued the lady, "and this, perhaps,
+will justify me in your eyes for selecting a foreigner, a foreign
+officer, as my _fiancé_. I had very strong reasons, you must admit, for
+growing cold towards my former hero."
+
+The fair lady did not appear to be satisfied with the impression that
+her eyes had made upon me; at least, I had some reason to believe that
+the following commentary was intended not so much for the delight of her
+bridegroom as for my own edification.
+
+"Believe me (I am perfectly serious about it), I am not merely grateful
+to Kvatopil because he has rescued me from my great difficulties, and,
+what is more, from any further improprieties on the part of that
+Barabbas Bálványossi;--no, I also esteem him as a noble nature worthy of
+all respect; from the crown of his head to the tip of his toe he is full
+of the love of truth, not even in jest would he tell a lie. He is
+valiant and strong-minded, and at the same time affectionate and
+tender-hearted. A man of his word, in fact, who does not lightly give
+his word either. A really model man."
+
+A pencil was in my hand, and before me was a blank sheet of paper, and I
+involuntarily scribbled on this piece of paper "Number 4."
+
+The lady grasped the import of my hieroglyphic and shook her head, but
+she smiled a little too.
+
+"But he is not like the others," she insisted; "he is the direct
+opposite of what _ladies' men_ think a man should be. It will sound
+incredible, I know, but it is the simple fact that he has been my
+visitor these three years. He has come to see me nearly every day during
+that period, and never has he permitted himself a single bold advance or
+a single unbecoming expression. Every day I have to tell him, just as if
+it were the first time, to take a seat, put down his helmet, and place
+his sword in the corner, and our conversation has never gone beyond the
+criticism of Schiller's verses."
+
+I was bound to admit that this was really an extraordinary case.
+
+"I couldn't help rallying him about it," continued the lady; "you know
+that I am not accustomed to a wooer who imitates the statue of Memnon;
+and then Kvatopil confessed, with perfect simplicity, that he was
+_afraid_ of me. 'If I were as timid on the battle-field,' said he, 'as I
+am in your presence, His Majesty would only give me my deserts by
+dismissing me from his service.'"
+
+The lieutenant signified by a nod of his head that his words had been
+correctly reported.
+
+"Finally," continued Bessy, "I had to ask for his hand--hadn't I, my
+friend?"
+
+The bridegroom replied that such had indeed been the case.
+
+"Even then he was quite coy. He pleaded his humble rank. He begged time
+for consideration. Now, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, I did."
+
+"I had to remove his scruples one by one, till at last I brought him to
+a definite declaration, and he said he would take me to wife. Never have
+I met with such an officer before."
+
+Bessy read from my face the expression, "Why bother me with all this?" I
+never asked about it, and I didn't care a fig about her affairs.
+
+"Look now," continued she, in an almost supplicating voice, "I don't
+tell you all these things to amuse you, but because I have an earnest
+request to make of you."
+
+"So the lieutenant informed me."
+
+"I don't mean about giving me away--that is _not_ a serious request. You
+would do that to oblige any servant of yours. I have a much greater
+request than that to make. I wish to ask you to be my guardian, my
+foster-father."
+
+"I? Your _foster-father_?"
+
+"Don't put so much emphasis on the word _father_. You are four years
+older than I am, remember."
+
+"What does a married woman want with a guardian?"
+
+"I assume the case of a married woman who mismanages her property."
+
+"And do you believe, then, that _I_ am such a great financier?"
+
+"I believe that you are my sincere friend, anyhow. You are my only real
+friend in the round world who neither asks nor expects anything for his
+kindness to me. I know it from experience. You have heard, no doubt (and
+if you haven't heard, you might easily have guessed it), that my
+relations have shaken me off. They deny that they ever knew me. My
+mother has married again and removed to Prague. Every one in whom I
+would confide tries to get something out of me--either money, or what is
+more precious than money. Whosoever would attach himself to me is either
+a swindler, or a seducer, or a parasite. As for myself, I am a stupid,
+credulous creature, who will never have any brains to bless herself
+with. I need a strong hand over me, some one to look after my material
+interests and save me from bankruptcy, some one in whose good-will I may
+confide. I know very well I might find a more _experienced_ guardian
+than you, even if I went no further than the civic magistrates; but I
+could endure dictation from nobody--but you. Your dictation I could put
+up with. For Heaven's sake do not let me perish!"
+
+I could not help being sorry for her. I perceived also that she forbore
+to take my hand. Still, it is a rather ticklish position to become the
+guardian of a pretty woman, especially a pretty woman of this kind.
+
+"Very well, I don't mind. But let us consider the whole business
+seriously. I suppose the lieutenant agrees to it?"
+
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil assured me that he had no will of his own in the
+matter.
+
+"Well, now, let us consider the merits of the case. Have you still got
+the money which you deposited in the Vienna savings bank?"
+
+"Yes, and as soon as you are my guardian, I mean to draw it out and
+deposit it in the bank at Pest."
+
+"So much the better, it will be more convenient for the quarterly
+payments of interest. And then, too, you will have to pay out of this
+amount the usual caution-money required of every officer about to
+marry."
+
+"Yes, I know. Six thousand florins."
+
+"Of course, you might also mortgage your father's house to this
+amount."
+
+"Whichever you think best."
+
+"I think the latter way will be best, for I foresee that you will get
+very little profit from your houses, and I want to save as much of your
+ready money as possible."
+
+"_Save_, do you say?" cried Bessy, opening her eyes very wide at this
+word.
+
+I scratched my head all over (I had lots of hair to scratch in those
+days). It was my duty as guardian to express my views with perfect
+candour. At last I found the requisite formula.
+
+"Look now, my sweet ward Bessy, and you also, respected lieutenant, I
+have seen all sorts of wonders in my lifetime. I have seen a one-legged
+ballet-dancer who could turn the most difficult pirouettes; I have seen
+a painter without hands who painted masterly pictures with his feet; I
+have seen a blind actor who played Hamlet right to the very end. But
+what I never have seen yet is a cavalry officer without debts."
+
+At this, the pair of them burst into a loud ha! ha! ha!
+
+"No, no!" cried the bridegroom, "I am not such a wonder as that!"
+
+I now begged him, since we had become so confidential, to be so good as
+to draw his chair close to the table and put down his beautiful helmet
+with the black and yellow plumes and go into figures.
+
+"How much do your debts amount to?"
+
+And a very pretty little amount he made of it.
+
+The bridegroom could read from my face that I thought the amount a
+trifle extravagant for a lieutenant; for that amount Bessy could have
+got a major at least. He hastened to explain matters.
+
+"I did not incur this large debt myself, the culprit was another
+lieutenant, a friend of mine, a rich and distinguished young fellow. He
+got me to write my name to a bill as guarantor of the amount. He was
+still a minor. I wrote my name, of course--what did I know about it?
+Suddenly, when my young friend got over head and ears in difficulties,
+he blew his brains out. His father refused to pay the bill, and so I
+inherited it from his creditors. Since then I have been paying and
+paying, but the debt, instead of diminishing, increases, and the
+terrible _boa conscriptor_ winds itself tighter and tighter round my
+body."
+
+A boa conscriptor indeed, was this gigantic conscriptor[96] serpent!
+
+[Footnote 96: A translation of the Hungarian word _Osszeiro_, which
+means a conscript or schedule of anything, _here_ a schedule of debts.]
+
+At this we all three laughed again, which was rather odd, for there was
+nothing at all to laugh at.
+
+The long and the short of it all was that after discharging her lover's
+debts, and depositing the caution-money, my ward Bessy still had
+twenty-five thousand florins left.
+
+"All right," said she, "that's just why I asked you to be my guardian,
+for if the money remains in my hands, every bit of it will vanish by
+the end of the year."
+
+"I wonder you've kept it so long."
+
+"The wonder is owing to the fact that my mother inhibited the payment of
+the amount to me, and this embargo can only be removed when I am married
+to a man of rank and honour."
+
+"You'll have to be very economical in your housekeeping," I said, "not
+to exceed your income."
+
+"There's Kvatopil's pay, too, and as a cavalry officer he is entitled to
+free unfurnished quarters."
+
+"And you'll be able to put up with an officer's free quarters?" I said.
+
+"You know very well that to such things" ... (I saw that she meant to
+say, "I am used to such things," and I pulled a wry face. She rightly
+understood from my pantomime that it would be scarcely _proper_ to
+mention the events of "Anno Rengetegi" in the presence of her Royal and
+Imperial[97] bridegroom, so, with theatrical _savoir-faire_, she passed
+in an instant from the impudent nonchalance of a _vivandière_ to the
+tender cooing of a turtle-dove) ... "true love is always ready to
+sacrifice itself." And with an enchanting smile she extended her hand to
+her bridegroom, who raised it with tender enthusiasm to his lips. They
+were just like turtle-doves.
+
+[Footnote 97: Royal as belonging to the service of the King of Hungary,
+Imperial as serving the Emperor of Austria.]
+
+"Eh, Wenzy?"
+
+"Yes, Eliza!"
+
+I felt no particular pleasure in this version of Romeo and Juliet,
+indeed I was half-inclined to hiss the performers.
+
+"Before giving you my paternal blessing, my dear children," said I, "I
+have one question to ask you. Most honoured Mr. Lieutenant, as I
+understand that you were originally intended for a priest, I presume
+that you are a Catholic?"
+
+"A Roman Catholic, yes."
+
+"During the time you spent in the Seminary, then, have you not so much
+as learnt that a Catholic is not free to marry a Calvinist woman whom
+the civil tribunals have divorced from her husband; for, according to
+Catholic dogma, marriage is a sacrament which the secular power cannot
+dissolve?"
+
+At this the bridegroom looked very much amazed.
+
+"Neither of us thought of this certainly."
+
+Bessy suddenly cast a basilisk look at me. Huh! what lightnings flashed
+in those sea-like eyes!
+
+"Then how are we to get over that?" inquired the bridegroom of me, with
+childlike helplessness.
+
+"Why, by your becoming a Calvinist, I suppose."
+
+"A _Calvi_ ..." he was already outside the door when he said the ...
+"_nist_!" He caught up his helmet and bolted without saying good-bye to
+any one. Clerk Coloman told me afterwards he had never seen a dragoon in
+such a hurry.
+
+Bessy he left behind on my hands.
+
+The young lady was in a terrible rage.
+
+"It was pure malice on your part," cried she, "to do me out of my
+bridegroom like that! What do you mean by it? To serve me such a nasty
+trick as that!"
+
+I justified myself as best I could.
+
+"He would have had to know it sooner or later. The priest would have
+refused to unite you."
+
+"You should have left that to me. If once I had paid his debts, his
+honour as a gentleman would have bound him to make this sacrifice for
+me; he could not have got out of it then."
+
+I was forced to admit that I had acted very clumsily. I humbly begged
+her pardon. I would never do it again. Her next bridegroom might be a
+Mohammedan, for all that I cared.
+
+"You never could speak sensibly to me. No matter! I'll bring Wenceslaus
+Kvatopil back here one of these days."
+
+And off she went in a huff.
+
+This interruption had annoyed me. I had lots to do. I had to write the
+addresses of our subscribers on the covers of the neatly folded
+newspapers. This was not an ideal occupation, especially when one had to
+paste on the wrappers as well, which it was also _my_ business to do.
+Some proof-sheets were also awaiting me with a lot of printers' errors.
+It was a realization of the proverb, "When the church is poor, the
+parson tolls the bell himself." In my leisure hours, however--my time of
+repose--I went on with my romance, "A Hungarian Nabob"; the idea of the
+principal character I had borrowed from a story of my wife's.
+
+A couple of weeks elapsed. One evening, when I was hesitating whether I
+should go and see about my oil-lamp myself, or wait till clerk Coloman
+returned home from the post, or the chamber-maid from the theatre,
+whither she had gone to carry my consort her costume in a basket, a
+violent ringing began outside. I had to go and open the door myself.
+
+To my great surprise, I saw Bessy before me with her lieutenant on her
+arm.
+
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil was bubbling over with affability.
+
+"Here I am again, sir. They have arrested me, and put me in chains. I
+must surrender."
+
+Yes, I thought, when the starving garrison is reduced to horse-flesh.
+
+"The siege was vigorous. Such batteries. Look! Those eyes! Congreve
+rockets are nothing in comparison. The star battery is already taken."
+
+"The firing must have been terrible indeed."
+
+"And now I must ask you once more to be my witness."
+
+"You mean your bride's witness?"
+
+"No, mine. First you must come with me to the priest to inform him that
+I have renounced the Catholic faith."
+
+"What, already?"
+
+"Yes, and from conviction."
+
+"Would you take a chair, please?"
+
+"From absolute conviction."
+
+"Bessy is a more clever arguer than any missionary; an energetic
+propagandist."
+
+"And if I were to be damned on the spot, if I were to lose my hope of
+eternal salvation, I should be ready to sacrifice that also for those
+dear, lovely eyes."
+
+"Come, come, Mr. Lieutenant," I said, "pray don't talk so wildly."
+
+"But I mean what I say--I am ready to become a Mohammedan for her sake."
+
+"I can quite believe it."
+
+"Then you will be my witness at the priest's?"
+
+"Pardon me. 'Tis a serious matter. I honour my own religion as much as
+other sects honour theirs, yet I am no proselytizer. Do you wish to
+become a Calvinist from sincere conviction?"
+
+At this word he leaped furiously from his seat.
+
+"A Calvinist? Certainly not! Heaven forbid!"
+
+"Then what do you want to be?"
+
+"I want to be a Lutheran."
+
+"'Tis all one."
+
+"The devil it is! We at Leutomischl hold the Calvinists to be infidels."
+
+"Your bride might have told you, I think, that this is not true."
+
+At this, Bessy again intervened. She implored me prettily not to deny
+her this little kindness. Kvatopil had only consented to be converted
+because they have crosses in the Lutheran churches and believe in the
+sacraments, so that by joining them a man does not risk losing his
+heavenly hopes so much, and the Commander-in-chief would not be down
+upon him so fiercely as if he were to go over to the Calvinist
+Kuruczes.[98] The end of it all was that I, a Calvinist presbyter, had
+to introduce a newly-converted soul into the Lutheran Church.
+
+[Footnote 98: _Kurucz_, a name originally given to the Transylvanian
+insurgents under Francis Rákóczy; they were mostly Protestants.--TR.]
+
+I really must have been a very good sort of fellow formerly, that is to
+say, before my heart was hardened.
+
+At last every obstacle was overcome. I consented to give away my ward,
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil's bride. Bessy received from her excellent mother
+(who was now a general's wife) intimation that she had withdrawn her
+sequestration from the money in the Vienna bank; the caution-money was
+deposited, the boa conscriptors were satisfied, and nothing hindered us
+from going to church.
+
+The marriage party, besides the bride and bridegroom, consisted of two
+witnesses; the bridegroom's witness was a battalion commander, a major
+who brought his wife with him.
+
+And here, perhaps, every one will ask me why the wife of the _other_
+witness was not there also?
+
+It is an awkward question.
+
+I might, I know, summarily dispose of the whole matter by saying that my
+wife had just gone, by special invitation, to act at Szabadka; she had
+been invited, but could not come. But this answer, I know, is
+unsatisfactory.
+
+I would, however, first of all, lay down this axiom: "An honourable
+husband should give his wife _no occasion_ for jealousy; but neither
+ought he to make her jealous _without occasion_."
+
+The sacred truth is that I had never mentioned Bessy's name in my wife's
+hearing. ("Slipper-hero!") Did she know of her? I don't know. She was
+much too proud to have ever shown it if she did.
+
+I had Bessy's portrait, and it was in the drawer of my writing-table. It
+was there even when I got married. And if it had found its way into any
+one's hands, I could not have said that it was the portrait of my
+grandmother. But this is what did happen. When the Russian armies broke
+into the kingdom, I, foreseeing the end of the unequal struggle,
+shouldered my musket, tied on my sword, fastened my knapsack round my
+neck, took leave of my wife, and went forth to seek the camp of
+Görgey--on foot. On my way I met Paul Nyáry. "Whither away so armed to
+the teeth, brother Maurice?" said he. "I am going to die for my
+country," I replied, with tragic pathos. "And what have you got in your
+knapsack?" "A ham." "Well, before dying for your country, let us have a
+bit of that ham of yours together." With that he helped me up into his
+car, and in the car beside him was already sitting Joseph Patay--two
+members of the Hungary Government at Debreczin, in fact. I was curious
+enough to inquire whither we were going, whereupon Nyáry replied:
+
+    "The dog that bolts to Szeged town
+    T'wards Buda lets his tail hang down."[99]
+
+    [Footnote 99: Buda and Szeged being in diametrically
+    opposite directions.]
+
+Even with the danger of instant death hanging over his head, his bitter
+irony never forsook him. So I went on with Nyáry to Szeged. A week
+afterwards my wife followed me. Our house she had entrusted to poor old
+Dame Kovacs. The clever comic actress had no need to fear the Cossacks.
+When, however, the Russians occupied Buda-Pest, and the rigorous order
+was issued that all arms, uniforms, and Hungarian bank-notes were to be
+given up, whilst every one in possession of a prohibited object or a
+revolutionary proclamation was to be tried by court-martial and shot,
+then indeed the good old dame ransacked all the drawers of my
+writing-table, and crumpling up into a heap all she found there,
+including Petöfi's correspondence, a letter of Klapka's, the whole of my
+diary which I had written during the Revolution, with innumerable and
+invaluable data, pitched the whole behind the fire, and so they
+disappeared. In this great _auto-da-fé_ Bessy's portrait was also
+reduced to ashes. I therefore have my suspicions that something was
+known about it, but nothing was ever said to me on the subject.
+
+So that, you see, was why _only I_ was present at Bessy's wedding.
+
+The rendezvous took place in her apartments. Here I had the opportunity
+of making the acquaintance of my fellow-witness, the major of dragoons,
+and a very genial man he was. He was a good copy of a genuine Hungarian
+lord-lieutenant of a county. Nothing but cordial hilarity and jovial
+merriment, you would never have taken him for a soldier, least of all
+for an Austrian soldier. He blackguarded the "Bach[100]-hussars," but
+had nothing but praise for the Hungarians. He had not been shut up in
+Temesvar like the lieutenant, but had been fighting in Italy, and had
+only just come hither. He had the habit of seasoning his discourse with
+Hungarian proverbs and pithy aphorisms. He introduced his wife to me
+also. "My domestic dragon," he said; he could not dispense with his
+jesting even then. The lady, however, clearly did not belong to the
+dragon species. On the contrary, she was a remarkably pleasant woman, in
+the prime of life, with really handsome features. One thing I will say
+of her: when once she began to talk she never knew when to leave off.
+Her conversation knew neither rest nor pause. In my eyes, however, this
+is an advantage, for it is my invariable practice to entertain my lady
+friends by letting them talk to their hearts' content, while I listen.
+
+[Footnote 100: The reactionary Austrian Minister who was mainly
+responsible for the attempted denationalization of Hungary.--TR.]
+
+When the bride was still in her boudoir, the major's lady made me
+thoroughly acquainted with the family affairs of all the officers' wives
+in the regiment. When the bride appeared in all her bridal glory,
+accompanied by the bridegroom, who held his helmet in one hand and a
+gigantic bouquet of camellias in the other, the exchange of notes
+between the witness of the bridegroom and the witness of the bride took
+place with all the usual formalities.
+
+Towards me the major acted with the studied courtesy of a high
+Government official, but towards the lieutenant he acted the part of a
+senior officer from beginning to end. He ordered him about as if he were
+sitting on horseback and on the point of setting out for scout duty. And
+the lieutenant obeyed him like a machine. In fact, the bridegroom quite
+gave me the impression of a man sitting in his saddle at the head of his
+squadron. The small arms were beginning to fire, the musket balls were
+piping about his ears, the hissing grenades strike the ground in front
+of him, and he cannot so much as move his head aside till the liberating
+command sounds: "Forward! March! Draw your swords! On 'em! Cut, slash!"
+Stop! What am I saying? Here was no question of cutting and slashing!
+No; press her to your breast, rather! Is she not your bride?
+
+Finally, at the word of command, we reached the altar.
+
+It was all over. I had given Bessy away. She was married.
+
+She bore up very gallantly; but then, of course, she had had a deal of
+practice.
+
+But as for the bridegroom, every one of his movements had to be by
+order; he was accustomed to have it so. He was so moved indeed that he
+could scarcely draw off his glove, and would have forced the bride to
+stand on the right hand, whereas the priest wished her to pass to the
+left; and when the ceremony was over, he turned towards his own witness
+with the expression of a delinquent condemned to death who has now no
+hope left save in the mercy of the Court of Appeal.
+
+"We have been married with our left hands," he stammered.
+
+His best man reassured him: "Have no fear of that, my son. 'Tis the
+usual thing. The bride always stands on the left, but your right hands
+were duly placed within each other."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+Worthy Kvatopil did not seem to know which was his right hand and which
+was his left.
+
+On the way home the happy bride and bridegroom sat together in a little
+coach.
+
+A splendid banquet awaited the guests in Bessy's lodgings. The table was
+already spread.
+
+When the happy husband had conducted his darling yoke-fellow into the
+midst of us, he, without more ado, flung himself on the sofa, and,
+hiding his face in the palms of both hands, began to weep bitterly.
+Such a wonder as that is surely not to be seen for either love or money!
+That a bridegroom should weep fit to break his heart immediately after
+the marriage ceremony, and bewail the loss of his bachelordom in floods
+of bitter tears!
+
+The two ladies, however, took him in hand between them, and began to
+entreat and console him, but he could not stifle this outburst of
+feeling. The major also reassured him very prettily: "Come, come, my
+dear friend, you need not take it so tragically. Look at me now! I've
+been through it all! Look how well I get on with my domestic dragon!"
+This, however, was poor balm to him in his great affliction. At last the
+major fairly lost his temper. "A thousand Turkish skulls! What's this,
+lieutenant? Do you wish to regale us with a specimen of the higher
+morality? Bombs and grenades! Embrace your wife, sir, immediately!"
+
+Bessy looked at me as if she were on the point of weeping. I pitied her
+from the bottom of my heart.
+
+"Mr. Lieutenant," I said, "have you ever learnt English?"
+
+The newly-married husband was amazed.
+
+"Yes," said he.
+
+"From Ollendorf's grammar?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you recollect exercise No. 2: '_Why does the Captain weep?--Because
+the Englishman has no bread._'--Well, then, let us _give_ the Englishman
+some bread."
+
+At this every one burst out laughing. The lieutenant also laughed.
+
+And so this scene came to an end. We sat down to table, and amidst the
+merry ring of glasses we made a good deal of fun out of the odd and
+mystical question of Ollendorf's, "Why does the Captain weep?" and the
+still more curious answer, "Because the Englishman has no bread."
+
+The lieutenant's frame of mind remained an inexplicable enigma to me. In
+after years I discovered its true solution.
+
+The cause of his weeping was altogether different from what Ollendorf
+had supposed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SOLDIERING
+
+
+The idyll did not last very long, and was quickly followed by the epic.
+
+War broke out, not among the young married folks, but among the European
+Powers. This only so far concerned my ward as Kvatopil was also
+mobilized; with his dragoon regiment he went towards the eastern
+frontier. Bessy, naturally, went with him.
+
+We parted abruptly. They both came to me to say good-bye. Kvatopil's
+face was radiant with joy, and the reflection of it was visible in the
+smiling face of the lady. There will be war. The soldier's harvest will
+now ripen.
+
+For the purpose of sending her her quarterly allowance it was absolutely
+indispensable that I should know their place of sojourning.
+
+"Our title for the present will be--'An Ihre hochwohlgeboren Frau
+Oberlieutenantin Elisabeth von Kvatopil!' For the present, I say. Later
+on we shall no doubt advance _farther_ and _higher_."
+
+"_Farther_ towards the frontier, and _higher_ in the scale of rank, I
+suppose?" said I, by way of solving the rebus.
+
+My ward (she was four years younger than I) was very pleased with my
+polite elucidation, and the pair of them parted from me in the best
+humour in the world.
+
+After that I received a letter from my ward every week. There is
+absolutely nothing in the most intricately combined knights' moves of
+the severest chess problems which can be compared with their peripatetic
+zigzagings. Now towards the south, a week afterwards towards the west,
+then up again towards the north, retreating, advancing, then back again;
+knocking about in such utterly unknown hamlets, that one could only
+discover them on the best charts by means of microscopes. Finally, the
+war took a flying leap into Wallachia and Moldavia, skipped about Jassy
+and Bucharest, and then leaped across and all along the Pruth, and at
+last settled down in Czernovicz, till it had to move on farther to
+Przemysl, whence again it happily doubled back by way of Stry, Munkács,
+Tokaj, Miskolcz, Kecskemet, and through Kalocsa again to Buda-Pest.
+
+Bessy accompanied her husband everywhere. All the vicissitudes of the
+seasons which naturally abounded in such a martial pleasure trip she
+patiently endured with him. The letters which she sent to me during this
+period would make a very interesting chapter in a history of camp life.
+_Opportunist_ reasons restrain me from making them public--they might
+deter our young persons (I allude, of course, to the female sex) from
+following Bessy's example.
+
+Often and often I thought how accurately this young woman had foretold
+all these things of herself when we sat beside each other in my little
+wooden hut on the Comorn islet. In a straw-hut, in a cow-stall, in a
+besieged fortress, in a bare barrack, in the tent of an itinerant
+player, at the bivouac of an out-camping soldier--anywhere and
+everywhere, it is Love that makes us happy, and its sweet illusion can
+conjure up fairy palaces out of these wretched surroundings. And
+remember, too, that an officer in the field is by no means an amiable
+husband. Plagued, worried, chicaned by his official superiors; flouted
+by the weather; looking at the enemy with wolf's eyes, and kept back
+from falling upon him; eternally bickering with an unfriendly
+population; a guest beheld with evil eyes; and his wife (if he have one)
+like an iron chain hanging to his neck--it requires no small amount of
+love on the lady's part for her to follow him everywhere, and put up
+with his ill-humour.
+
+And she had prophesied all this beforehand. What was to be the end of it
+all?
+
+But there had been no advance whatever up the ladder of rank. My last
+letter was still addressed to a lieutenant's lady.
+
+When the great universal war was over, which left behind it so much
+bitter disillusion, Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil again came tapping at
+my door.
+
+Clerk Coloman was no longer with me. The _Délibab_ had come to grief. I
+now edited the _Vasárnapi Ujság_, in the place of the publicly
+advertised and responsible editor Albert Pakh, who was lying ill at
+Graefenberg. My new name was "Kakas Mártin."[101] Eh, what a popular man
+I was then! There were Kakas Mártin meerschaum pipes and Kakas Mártin
+clays, with bowls in the shape of cock-headed men. I really was in the
+mouth of the nation in those days. _O tempi passati!_
+
+[Footnote 101: Martin Cock.]
+
+"Ah! 'tis you, brother, eh?" said I.
+
+"So you still recognise me, then?"
+
+I must admit that his physiognomy had considerably changed. During the
+campaign the officers were permitted to grow absolutely
+counter-regulationary beard-pieces. Wenceslaus was now bearded _à la
+Haynau_, that is to say, the beard was shaved so as to run into the
+moustache, till the two seemed one, which contributed not a little to
+the formidability of the whole face. But a still more notable correction
+of the features was due to his nose, which had grown quite red,--a piece
+of ruby.
+
+He began by laying his index finger on the bridge of his nose.
+
+"Do you see that? My sole booty from the Russo-Turkish war is this red
+nose. Last winter, while we were encamping on the Galician frontier, I
+happened to be out in the open field the whole of one night, and got in
+the way of a villainous Russian blast. The wind drove the powdered snow
+into my face, and each flake stung me like a red-hot needle-point. I
+was not even able to turn my back upon it. In the morning my nose was
+just as you see it now. That same week twenty of my men were frozen to
+death in their saddles, half of my regiment was down in the hospital
+with inflammation of the lungs, scurvy, and hunger-typhus. Of my whole
+squadron I only brought forty men home--and this blood-red nose as a
+trophy."
+
+At this I did not know whether to condole with or congratulate him.
+
+"I shouldn't have minded so much if only we had been able to fight with
+some one; but to go through a six-months' campaign without having
+anything else to do with one's sword than lay the flat of the blade
+about the shoulders of stubborn peasants during our requisitions for
+hay, that I _do_ call hard. Sometimes our foreposts were so close to the
+enemy that we could _see_ each other's breath, and yet we were not
+allowed to attack. At one time we were face to face with the Turks, at
+another time with the Muscovites. It would have been all one to me whom
+I pitched into, so long as I could pitch into some one. No such luck!
+Just when I was fancying that now we really were going to begin the
+battle, the order came again, 'Sheathe your swords!' and we marched
+somewhere else. I would have preferred storming trenches with cavalry to
+this sort of thing. And then that cursed maize-bread! Nothing but
+maize-bread, and not always enough of that. Half-roasted horse-flesh,
+too! Thank you for nothing!"
+
+"But, thank Heaven, it is all over now!" said I encouragingly.
+
+"It is over, certainly. But what have I gained by it?"
+
+He pointed to his collar. There certainly were only two stars there
+still.
+
+"No promotion. I am just where I was before. And yet our major has
+retired. He was obliged to go, poor fellow; every limb was full of
+rheumatism. Our senior captain was promoted to his place, our second
+captain into the first captain's place. His place is now empty. I am the
+senior lieutenant, but there's not a word said about me. It is enough to
+make a fellow blow his brains out!"
+
+I earnestly begged him not to think of such a thing. He had other
+duties. With such an amiable consort too!
+
+"True, brother! She really is an angel. I dare not think what that woman
+has gone through during these bitter times. She was with me everywhere;
+but for her, perhaps, I should have gone to the bad. Ah, my friend, you
+don't know what bliss it is when, after going one's rounds through a
+biting snowstorm, one returns to one's quarters to find there an angel
+awaiting you with a bowl of steaming-hot punch."
+
+"I do know, for I've tried it."
+
+"The punch never failed. If rum was to be had for money, she got it from
+somewhere. I have known her, sir, get into her sledge and drive a day's
+journey into town to get rum for me. A diamond-hearted woman, I say! And
+then her love, too! Despite this ruby nose of mine, she loves me. She
+says it suits me very well. Nay, she is not even hurt at remaining
+simply the wife of a senior lieutenant. But for her I should have sent a
+bullet through my head long ago."
+
+I tried to comfort him with the assurance that a senior lieutenant in
+active service was worth ever so much more in the world's estimation
+than a general on the retired list.
+
+He wound up by inviting me to have a glass of punch with him in the
+evening as soon as his lodgings were ready to receive me.
+
+I didn't go.
+
+Frequently did he invite me, by letter in his wife's name even, and yet
+I never went to drink punch with them. When we met together afterwards,
+I always invented some excuse. On the first occasion I said my head
+ached; on the second occasion I said I was too busy; on the third
+occasion unexpected country cousins had looked in upon me, and so on.
+
+Every time I met him, however, friend Wenceslaus always wound up with
+the bitter exclamation: "I shall have to blow my brains out. Still no
+promotion!"
+
+At last I was tired of telling so many lies, so I told my friend the
+truth.
+
+Now, there are three sorts of truths in the world.
+
+The first sort of truth is that which pleases my friend, but doesn't
+please me.
+
+The second sort of truth is that which pleases me, but doesn't please my
+friend.
+
+The third sort of truth is that which pleases neither my friend nor
+myself, and which brings us to loggerheads at once. Let me illustrate
+what I mean.
+
+To take number one first, I might have said to friend Kvatopil: "My dear
+comrade, a constitutional regime prevails in my house: my wife reigns,
+but I am _responsible_, and I could never obtain her majesty's consent
+to a bill authorizing me to go and have tea once a week with your pretty
+wife."
+
+But this truth I did _not_ tell him.
+
+But supposing I had said to him: "My dear lieutenant, I move in a
+completely different sphere to you. I should be infinitely honoured by
+your society, but I should not know what to talk to your colleagues
+about," that would have been the second sort of truth.
+
+But I did not tell him that.
+
+I told him the third sort of truth. I said: "My dear Kvatopil, if you
+want to know the reason why you don't get promotion, I'll tell you. It
+is because you are so friendly with me. I am a _persona ingrata_ in the
+eyes of the authorities. Only yesterday the police paid me a visit,
+packed up every scrap of paper they could lay their hands on, and
+carried it off; they even took my pictures out of the frames. Then
+Police-inspector Prottman came and worried me for half a day by asking
+me what I knew about Kossuth's proclamation and the dollar notes. If you
+keep on visiting me and writing to me, and if I were to go and amuse
+myself among your brother officers, they would think it gospel truth
+that you were also concerned in the conspiracy. Fortunately, I always
+burn your letters of invitation, or Prottman would now be engaged in
+docketting them."
+
+My friend was startled.
+
+"I only invited you to a glass of punch!" he cried.
+
+"Punch here and punch there! The police would be sure to read it
+'_putsch_.'[102] And look ye, comrade, to be perfectly candid with you,
+I think it would be better for you if you left off all this
+punch-drinking, for 'tis that which makes your nose so red."
+
+[Footnote 102: A riot or sedition.]
+
+Now _that_ was the truth which pleased neither of us.
+
+"You think so, eh? By Jove, you're right! It has often seemed to me when
+I swallow down a glass of punch as if my nose were assuming enormous
+dimensions and diffusing a radiance all about me. From this day forth
+I'll drink no more punch. My word upon it! What's to-day? January 23rd?
+Note it in your diary: 'On January 23rd, Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil
+gave me his word of honour as a gentleman that he would never drink
+punch again.'"--And he left me no peace till I had entered it in my
+diary.
+
+"Nay, more than that, no kind of brandy, or schnaps, or wine, or beer;
+in a word, no sort of spirituous liquor whatever."
+
+All this I had to make a note of.
+
+"And now for a whole year and a day we'll watch the result. Nothing else
+now but pure water."
+
+For a whole year after that I saw nothing of Kvatopil, nor did I hear
+anything of Bessy.
+
+One day, however, my lieutenant suddenly invaded me again; he was still
+the wearer of two stars only.
+
+"Now, if it isn't really enough to make a fellow blow his brains out!
+Again they have passed me over. I went straight to the Colonel. 'Your
+Excellency,' I said, 'here have I been in the service for the last
+twelve years. I have faithfully performed my duties. I have never used
+bad language. I know the regulations. I am at the head of the riding
+school--and still I am set aside. I want to know what objection they
+have against me.'"
+
+"Manly conduct on your part, comrade," I cried.
+
+"And do you know what answer I got? You were quite right, after all."
+
+"Your suspicious intimacy with me, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh dear, no! Who the devil cares for your chatter about the police? Not
+you it is, but this red nose! Here it is still, and it stands in my
+way." And he viciously tugged at the object that stood in his way as if
+it were some stubborn remount.
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"Then I'll make you. The Colonel replied to my interpellation with
+perfect candour. 'My dear Kvatopil,' said he, 'you have indeed the very
+best good-conduct report. There's but one fault which weighs heavily in
+the scale against you: you are too much devoted to drink.' 'What? I?
+Given to drink? Why, for more than a year I have been drinking nothing
+but water.' 'Impossible!' cried the Colonel--'just look at your red
+nose!' 'I acquired that while campaigning out.' The Colonel shook his
+head incredulously. 'But I assure your Excellency that I am speaking the
+truth, I have written testimony to the fact.' 'Then I should very much
+like to see it.' So that is why I have come straight to you. My dear
+friend, I adjure you by your hope of heavenly bliss, if you love me, if
+you ever loved Bessy, if you would save the life of a human creature, to
+give me that note-book in which, a year ago, you entered the vow that I
+made on my honour as a gentleman, that I may show it to the Colonel."
+
+I energetically resisted this proposal.
+
+"My dear friend, all sorts of ticklish items have been entered in this
+note-book of mine which absolutely cannot be read by anybody but
+myself."
+
+But he solemnly assured me that he would never while he was alive suffer
+the little book to leave his hands, and would only show to his superior
+that one page relating to his solemn engagement, so that at last I was
+obliged to submit to his discretion. He promised to return in an hour's
+time.
+
+And he kept his word. In an hour he returned, gave me back my little
+book, embraced me and pressed me to his breast.
+
+"My friend, you have made me a happy man. I have obtained my object. His
+Excellency, on reading the oath recorded in your note-book, laughed to
+such an extent that I could count at least four of his teeth that were
+stopped with gold. Great Heaven! he eats gold with gold, while I have to
+gnaw bones with bone! When he had somewhat recovered from his outburst
+of hilarity, he smacked me on the shoulder, and said: 'Mr. Lieutenant, a
+great injustice has been done you. You are not a drunkard. There has
+been a mistake. This must be seen to. And I promise you that at the very
+first vacancy you shall obtain your third star.'"
+
+This promise raised my friend into the seventh heaven of delight. Hope
+gave him back the desire of life.
+
+This now is the speciality of a soldier's life. We poor civilians can
+have no idea of the joy he felt, especially if we be nothing but
+simple-minded authors. For an author has only one star, and that is high
+above his head. If he can get it, he may keep it, 'tis his. If he cannot
+get it himself, nobody in the world can get it for him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+
+The most beautiful comet I ever saw was the comet of 1858. It was
+visible in the sky for a whole fortnight, from October 1st to 15th, and
+all the time the weather was as fine as could be, not a cloud in the
+sky. And meanwhile the comet drew steadily nearer to the earth, growing
+bigger and bigger, and in shape it exactly resembled a Turkish scimitar;
+at last it was quite visible in broad daylight.
+
+I had very good cause for remembering this comet so well. In September
+of the same year I was seized with hæmorrhage of the lungs, an alarming
+symptom in a young man. Our doctor, Sebastian Andrew Kovacs of blessed
+memory, said that it was not medicine that I wanted, but change of air.
+
+I submitted to his directions, and at the beginning of the autumn I
+undertook an audacious expedition--to visit the Western Carpathian Alps
+on horseback. Our good old friend Gabriel Török (he had been a
+Government Commissioner during the Revolution) and his two sons were my
+guides, for they had been all through those beautiful regions[103]
+before. Five to six hours in the saddle every day for a fortnight,
+through pathless forests, up and down steep rocky precipices, wading
+through streams and mountain torrents, dancing of an evening at the
+balls frequently given in our honour, in the big-heeled boots that we
+had worn on horseback during the day, gobbling bacon as we stopped to
+rest on the fresh grass, and washing it down with a gurgling drink out
+of our brandy-flasks--that is what I call a radical cure for
+inflammation of the lungs.
+
+[Footnote 103: Jókai has immortalized these wonderful landscapes in _Az
+Erdelyi arány Kóra_, perhaps his best descriptive romance.]
+
+It cured me, anyhow.
+
+With my suite, which gradually swelled into ten strong, I visited Bihar,
+and found out the rocky grave beneath which reposes my good friend Paul
+Vasváry, who died such a heroic death.[104] I also saw the Hungarian
+California, the gold-diggings of Abrudbanya and Verespatak. I painted
+that marvellous basalt hill Detonátá, than which it is impossible to
+imagine a more interesting formation. I was in _Csetátye Máré_, that
+overwhelming relic of the Roman power, a gigantic gold-producing hill
+entirely hollowed out by the slavish hands of a subjugated race. When
+they would have dug still deeper, the top of the scooped-out mountain
+fell in and buried beneath it both slaves and slave-holders. And there
+it stands now, a gaping chasm, like one of the circular Mountains of the
+Moon.
+
+[Footnote 104: One of the victims of the Revolution.]
+
+I love to look back on this delightful tour; and the lovely comet
+accompanied me in the sky all the time.
+
+The result of my journey was that I returned home with perfectly healthy
+lungs. From the comet, moreover, I borrowed the idea of starting a
+weekly comic paper under the title of _Ustökös_.[105] And this paper
+gave me something to do for the next fifteen years. During all that time
+it had great influence. With a preliminary and a supplementary
+censureship to deal with, it was only possible to say a word of truth or
+a word of encouragement in verse or by way of anecdote. Sometimes a
+printer's error served our turn instead. For instance, to the question,
+"What shall a Hungarian man do now?" the answer was, "_Várjon és
+türjön_" ("Wait and suffer"); but by a printer's error the "_türjön_"
+became "_türr jön_," which the reader, in his own mind, would read as
+"_Türr jön_" ("Let Türr come"), and associate it at once with the
+popular ballad sung from one end of the kingdom to the other, and which
+begins, "_Hoz Türr Pizta puskát!_" ("Pizta Türr he brings his musket!")
+
+[Footnote 105: This comic paper still exists, but M. Jókai is no longer
+its editor.]
+
+But the comet had another signification also.
+
+In those days war was our universal prayer. And the following year
+actually brought it.
+
+Napoleon III.'s historical new year's greeting settled the dread destiny
+of the year.
+
+One day my lieutenant again came to see me; I was still his guardian.
+His face beamed with joy.
+
+"God be with you, my friend!"
+
+It was a strange beginning.
+
+"I suppose you've got your promotion in your pocket?"
+
+"Not that, but an order to march. Our whole regiment goes to Lombardy,
+and perhaps even farther. There will be war with Italy, but pray don't
+say anything about it. 'Tis a State secret."
+
+"I knew it long ago."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+"From the Chief of the Police himself. One day he summoned before him
+all the newspaper editors in Buda-Pest and sternly commanded them not to
+write a single letter as _to the preparations_ for the impending war.
+And thus we heard all about the coming campaign from the very best
+authority."
+
+"Well, they certainly might have acted more discreetly than that."
+
+"Where, then, shall I send you your remittances in the immediate
+future?"
+
+"Nowhere at all, dear friend. Bessy will remain here. Nobody is allowed
+to take his wife with him, not even the Colonel; whilst from the very
+day on which the war begins I shall receive double pay. So give the
+money to Bessy."
+
+"I'll _send_ it to her."
+
+"I say _give_ it to her. Take it yourself personally."
+
+"I am much obliged for your confidence."
+
+"It is more than confidence. I wish you, while I am away, to go and see
+her: be her guest every day, and make yourself quite at home."
+
+"The deuce! Do you consider me, then, one of those ninnies to whom one
+can confide a pretty woman _à l'outrance_?"
+
+"_Au contraire!_ I am convinced of the contrary. I know that in such
+matters no reliance can be placed upon mere honour. The only thing a man
+expects from his worthy comrades is discretion. I am well informed of
+everything. My wife has confessed everything to me: the little wooden
+hut on the Comorn island, and then the visit in your private room, the
+meeting at the Pagan Altar.... He, he, he! we know all the circumstances
+quite well!"
+
+(It was an unheard of case. To think that a pretty woman should become
+the trumpet of her own notoriety!)
+
+"But, my dear comrade, on my word of honour ..."
+
+"Here we have nothing to do with words of honour. You were in love with
+her once, and I need have no further fear of any one who _used_ to love
+Bessy. Jupiter was the chief of the gods, and had the loveliest of women
+for his wife, yet _he_ didn't keep the ten commandments. 'Twill be
+better to pour pure wine into our glasses, I think."
+
+"But, I repeat, I don't want to pour any wine at all into my glass."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense! We know all about that. Bessy makes a fool of every
+man, and showers contempt on her worshippers. Of you alone does she
+always speak with rapture. Whenever your name is mentioned she sighs
+deeply, and says, 'Ah, and I might have been his, too!'"
+
+"That proves all the more that our relations have been purely Platonic."
+
+"Very good indeed! What I like about you best of all is the serious face
+with which you are always able to defend your point of view. Another man
+in your place would rejoice at his good fortune; you nobly deny
+yourself. You will compromise nobody. You have that advantage over all
+my other good friends. I would rather entrust her to you than to
+anybody."
+
+"But why not rather trust her to herself? Foster within her the
+sentiment of fidelity. Write to her every day from the camp."
+
+"Nay, my friend, a letter won't do. I can't be always scribbling and
+raving to her. Bessy is not one of the romantic sort. You know all her
+various temperaments."
+
+"Indeed, I know nothing of the sort."
+
+"Well, I do then. I know that the moment I've cast my right foot over my
+horse's back she will be unfaithful to me. It is as much her nature to
+be so as it is my nature to fight and yours to write. When I can't sit
+on horseback I'm ill, when you can't write a romance you're ill, and
+when a pretty woman is not flirting she gets the _migraine_. Your hand
+upon it that you will visit my Bessy while I am far away and comfort
+her!" And the tears really started to his eyes.
+
+Now, here was a situation which is not to be found in any romance, and
+which the reader will, I know, only accept as true under protest. A
+soldier departing for the wars forcibly compels his good friend to try
+and comfort the pretty wife he leaves behind him. But that that friend
+should kick and struggle with all his might against such a marvellous
+piece of good fortune is a fact which I am sure I shall never get the
+enlightened public to believe anyhow.
+
+"My friend," said Kvatopil finally, drying the tears from his eyes and
+violently pressing one of my hands in one of his, "you know that we
+valiant horsemen, dragoons and uhlans, are going down to Italy; the
+hussars have gone already. The volunteers will take our place here in
+garrison-duty. During our absence down there they will be raging
+furiously here. If I thought that mine would be the shame to see my
+place here taken by one of those red-braided, chicory hussars, I should
+be capable of blowing out first my wife's brains and then my own. Don't
+allow such a thing to happen. If one of those cockatoos were to see your
+astrachan pelisse with the large chalcedon buttons of yours hanging up
+in my ante-chamber, he would be scared into flight at once."
+
+At this we both laughed heartily.
+
+We took leave of each other very prettily. Kvatopil with the fairest
+hopes followed the glorious career which promised him fame and
+promotion.
+
+The whole kingdom waited for news from the seat of war with rapt
+attention.
+
+Our parting had taken place at the end of April. In May, the official
+newspapers gave us a brief account of the battle of Montebello. It was
+not a regular pitched battle, but a forced reconnaissance by the
+Austrian general with a jumble of some 12,000 men of all arms. Both the
+Austrians and the French fought bravely. The official _communiqué_ did
+not give further details.
+
+I, however, through the kind offices of a courier sent from the seat of
+war to the Commandant of Buda, also received a private letter from the
+field of battle. Kvatopil wrote thus:--
+
+     "MY DEAR FRIEND,--
+
+     "I hasten to write to you after the battle. The whole
+     of our regiment was under fire, repulsed the French
+     chasseurs and pursued them into Montebello. _I received
+     a slight wound in the forehead, which did not, however,
+     prevent my further fighting. The Commander-in-chief
+     immediately promoted me to the rank of captain, and
+     praised my valour in front of the regiment. Make known
+     the joyous news to my dear wife. I am not able to write
+     to her. A thousand kisses to the pair of you._
+
+     "WENCESLAUS KVATOPIL, Captain."
+
+But there was a postscript also.
+
+     "P.S.--Show this letter to nobody, and don't let it out
+     of your hand. Destroy it when you have read it through,
+     for, if it were discovered, it would bring me into the
+     greatest trouble, as it is absolutely forbidden to
+     write letters from the camp. That is why I have
+     addressed it to you instead of to my wife, for I can
+     count upon your discretion. In her triumph she would
+     show the letter everywhere. But you burn it.--W. K."
+
+Now, this letter made it my positive duty to visit Bessy, for I could
+only tell her about it by word of mouth. I might indeed have destroyed
+Kvatopil's letter, then written its entire purport to his wife in a
+letter of my own, but in that case she would certainly have carried my
+letter from pillar to post, and the mischief would have been the same.
+
+If I went to her in broad daylight, every one would see me. I could not
+go _incognito_, for I was as well known as a bit of bad money. Besides
+that, the Hungarian national costume was in fashion just then. Every one
+who wore it might expect to have his name bawled after him in the street
+for a week afterwards at the very least. If, on the other hand, I were
+to go to Bessy when it was dark, and they were lighting the gas-lamps,
+that would only make matters worse.
+
+And again, it would be an inconceivable absurdity not to suppose that
+one or other of Bessy's fair neighbours would not be looking out of the
+windows of the house opposite, with the most persistent curiosity, to
+see who was going in at the gate. And if but one of them saw me, the
+whole theatre would know all about it on the morrow.
+
+A husband with a conscience (and there _are_ such husbands) ought in
+such cases to stand before his wife with a demure countenance, and say
+to her honestly and openly: "My dear angel, I am obliged to pay a
+disagreeable visit to this or that lady, and I don't half like it; I
+wish you would come too." Whereupon the wife will naturally be quite
+magnanimous and say: "Go along by yourself, my dear; you know that I am
+not a bit jealous."
+
+But my wife happened, just then, to be away acting at Szeged, and would
+not be back for a week. That would be an aggravating circumstance in the
+case of a visit.
+
+While I was thus debating with myself, a smart little maid-servant came
+to my door. She had a covered market-basket on her arm, and she drew out
+of it a neatly-folded little _billet-doux_, which she placed in my hand.
+The note smelt of celery, under which it had been put. I recognised the
+handwriting of the address, it was Bessy's. I opened and read it. The
+maid stood there and waited. At last she grew impatient of the long
+delay, and said: "I am waiting for an answer."
+
+"Oh, so you're still there? Stop a bit!"
+
+I read the letter once more.
+
+     "MY DEAR GUARDIAN,
+
+     "Very serious business makes me send to you. Come and
+     see me. As your honoured wife is now engaged on a
+     provincial tour, can't you come and dine with me
+     to-day? We shall be all by ourselves.
+
+     "BESSY."
+
+Was there ever an odder reason?--"_As your honoured wife is now engaged
+on a provincial tour_"! No doubt she found that out in the _Fövárosi
+Lapok_.[106] But the conclusion: "_therefore_ you can come and dine with
+me to-day"! And finally: "We shall be all by ourselves"! If that wasn't
+a temptation, I don't know what is.
+
+[Footnote 106: _News of the Capital_, a popular newspaper of the
+period.]
+
+I began to walk up and down.
+
+The maid waited to see if I was going to count how many paces it was
+from the window to the door. At last she grew importunate.
+
+"Is there any answer, please? I have to go home and cook the dinner."
+
+"Ah, yes, of course! Greet your mistress from me, and tell her that I'll
+come and see her in the forenoon to-morrow."
+
+"But I want to know whether you are coming to dinner, that I may arrange
+my cooking accordingly."
+
+"True! Then say I'll come to dinner."
+
+In Bessy's house the custom seemed to prevail for the mistress to dine
+six days of the week with Duke Humphrey, and then on the seventh, her
+at-home day, to make a great parade before her guests.
+
+I was now running into the very centre of danger.
+
+I could not possibly back out of this engagement.
+
+"A serious business, eh?" I know it was serious enough to me.
+
+An ideal of my youth, and lovelier now than ever, with a husband of her
+own too, and that husband a fine manly fellow. So far from being
+jealous, he had openly entrusted me with the consolation of his
+sorrowing spouse. And I am the last person in the world to be enrolled
+in the Order of Anchorites.
+
+I candidly admit that I am not a bit better than my neighbours.
+
+So I tricked myself out finely. I put on my new coffee-coloured clothes
+with the antique buttons; I neatly tied my embroidered cravat; I drew on
+my Kordofan-leather boots with the silver spurs; I fastened a crane's
+plume in my new spiral hat.
+
+This was the audacious fashion of the year, and within a twelvemonth
+this costume was worn in the whole kingdom. And after that, I went to
+the barber's and he twisted my thick blonde hair into masterly ringlets.
+Aggravating circumstances, the whole lot of them!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A COLD DOUCHE
+
+
+How my heart beat when I set forth on my expedition!
+
+On the way from my dwelling to Bessy's lodgings my ill fate brought me
+face to face with all the veteran actresses of the National Theatre, and
+they all stopped me and asked where I was going. They all remarked that
+I was very stylishly got up, and they all shook their fingers at me, and
+said: "Fie, fie! you straw-widower!"
+
+The devil must really have been in me to make me take the trouble to
+have my hair so prettily frizzled.
+
+I was just about to dash hastily up the staircase of Bessy's dwelling,
+when whom should I run into but Tóni Sági. It only needed that. He came
+from the same town as I did, was a common friend of all my friends, and
+was about as reticent of news as a town-crier.
+
+"Your servant, friend! Why, you're quite a stranger. I've just come from
+Bessy. The young lady is in a very bad humour. She as good as pitched me
+out of doors. She must be expecting some one. Perhaps you are the very
+man, eh?"
+
+It was all up with me now! To-morrow every newspaper in the town will
+report my visit here. For "quod licet _bovi_, non licet _Jovi_."
+
+If I were to turn back now, it would only make matters worse.
+
+I hastened up the steps. Bessy lived on the third floor.... To get to
+her rooms I had to follow the open corridor which led down to the
+courtyard. I passed on my way the lodgings of a milliner, a female
+pawnbroker, and a lady who supplied families with servant-maids, and all
+three poked their heads out of their windows and watched me disappear.
+
+On reaching Bessy's number, I found, tugging at the bell-rope, a
+red-peluched young coxcomb. The door was about a fourth part open, and
+the face of the vicious looking cook was protruding out of it. She
+dismissed the visitor with curt ceremony.
+
+"My mistress is not at home!"
+
+We nearly trod each other's spurs off as we cannoned against each other
+in the narrow corridor.
+
+A minute afterwards the countenance of the self-same cook, rounded into
+complete amiability, again appeared, and she said to me:
+
+"Would you do us the honour to walk in?"
+
+And she held the door wide open for me.
+
+You should have seen the face which my red furbelowed gentleman made at
+this. It was not enough for him to open his eyes and mouth at me; he
+stuck his _pince-nez_ on the bridge of his nose as well.
+
+That will mean a duel for me to-morrow.
+
+Meantime, however, I was master of the situation.
+
+I had to go through the kitchen to get to Bessy's room. The kitchen was
+also the ante-chamber; you hung up your overcoat there. Her cook was her
+only servant, parlour-maid, chamber-maid, everything.
+
+"Would you kindly walk into the saloon?" urged the servant.
+
+"But announce me beforehand. Here's my card."
+
+"Beg pardon, but I can't take it; both my hands are doughy." (She was in
+the middle of kneading some dough cake or other with butter.) "Would you
+kindly put your card between my teeth?"
+
+Thus, like a retriever, she carried in my card between her teeth. A
+moment afterwards she cried:
+
+"Come in now, please!"
+
+I entered the room which the servant had called a saloon.
+
+Nobody was there. I looked around me. I found nothing there of the
+luxurious splendour which had surrounded the young lady formerly in her
+mother's house; but for all that everything was neat and pretty.
+Embroideries, a music-stand with songs upon it, and a fiddle,
+flower-pots, a cage with exotic birds, Wallachian _Katrinczas_,[107]
+Szekler pottery, a few handsomely bound books--all these were so
+disposed as to fill the mind with a sense of refined elegance combined
+with the utmost simplicity.
+
+[Footnote 107: Aprons.]
+
+A curtained door led from the saloon into another room--possibly a
+bed-chamber.
+
+In a few minutes this door opened and the fair lady fluttered in.
+
+It did not escape my attention that the moment she entered she turned
+her head on one side, and contracted her eyebrows as if to bid some one
+else remaining behind there to keep quiet. The momentary opening of the
+door also permitted me to see that in the direction in which she had
+looked was a tall tester bed with the curtains drawn close.
+
+The moment, however, that she had shut the door behind her and turned
+towards me, the face of the lovely lady became all amiability. She
+hastened up to me and pressed my hand.
+
+"It was very nice of you to come and see me. Don't be angry with me for
+giving you the trouble."
+
+The lady was now more amiable than ever.
+
+She was in the simplest stay-at-home toilet. The only ornament on her
+head was her own bright silky hair, twisted up into a knot and tied at
+the top with a ribbon.
+
+She looked just as she was ten years before, a little girl of sixteen.
+
+Her whole being recalled to me her childish days. There was the same
+candid, guileless look; those open eyes through which you could read
+into her very soul; the same artless mouth.
+
+She invited me to sit down. She took my hat and laid it on the table.
+
+"I suppose you'll remain to dinner? I have told the cook to prepare your
+favourite dish."
+
+"Then you know what it is?"
+
+"Why, of course! _Beans with pig's ear._ Why, all your admirers
+throughout the kingdom know that."
+
+I had now good reason to be proud! My nation, then, has some regard for
+me, after all. To others it presents _bays_, to me--_beans_.[108]
+
+[Footnote 108: In Hungarian the resemblance is closer still, _babo_
+meaning bean, and _babér_, laurel.]
+
+"In that case I'll remain," I said.
+
+"In Kvatopil's time I was never permitted to cook beans, for he
+maintained that they make a man stupid."
+
+"On the contrary. Pythagoras assures us that the bean contains the same
+component parts as the human brain."
+
+Having thus rehabilitated the bean, I reverted to the real motive of my
+visit there.
+
+"I should have come to visit you to-day even without a special
+invitation."
+
+"Was there any special reason, then, why I should occupy a place in your
+thoughts?"
+
+"I have received a letter from Italy, the contents of which will greatly
+interest you."
+
+At these words she looked at me as coldly as if she had become an
+alabaster statue.
+
+"Interest _me_?"
+
+"So I believe. On the 20th instant there was a battle on the Mincio, at
+which your husband distinguished himself."
+
+"Really?" said the lady mechanically.
+
+("Really?"--In that tone? It was rather odd. However, I went on.)
+
+"Nay, in the heat of the combat he was even wounded."
+
+(I calculated surely on the dramatic effect of these words. I fancied
+that the tender spouse would leap to her feet, pale, ready to faint,
+wringing her hands, till at last, amidst sobs, the name of the adored
+husband would burst forth from her lips: "Oh! my Wenceslaus! Oh! my
+Kvatopil!" But she did not so much as turn her head round.)
+
+"Indeed?" she said, with complete _sangfroid_.
+
+Just as if it were an every-day occurrence for a beloved husband to be
+wounded in battle.
+
+I was offended. Such ungrateful indifference I had never met with
+before. How was I to go on? I had calculated that when the despairing
+consort had wept and sobbed her fill, I should hasten to console her.
+
+"It is true," said I, "that his wound is not sufficiently dangerous to
+prevent him from continuing in the field."
+
+"I can easily believe it," replied the lady, with a shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+Now this was a want of feeling worthy of an alligator! Surely she had
+the nerves of a rhinoceros! I was not prepared for this reception. "I
+can easily believe it!" Was that all?
+
+Well, then, if our tender feelings are so hermetically sealed, we must
+try what more drastic means will do. We must appeal to other sentiments.
+Vanity, for instance, is a sentiment which never can be blunted.
+
+So I moved forward my heavy artillery.
+
+"Lieutenant Kvatopil," I said, "was called to the front and made a
+captain straight off for heroic valour in the field."
+
+But even at this the lovely lady did not fling herself on my neck. She
+did not even utter a sound, but contracted the corners of her mouth.
+What did that mean? When you tell a lieutenant's wife that from to-day
+she has a right to the title Mrs. Captain; that every one who meets her
+in the street and congratulates her will address her as, "Frau
+Rittmeisterin," while the other lieutenants' wives naturally burn with
+secret envy; that she may now print her corresponding rank on her
+visiting cards--when you tell her all this, and even then no impression
+is produced, and the cherry lips do _not_ expand with joy, revealing the
+sparkling, pearly teeth and the dimples on the sunbright face; when,
+instead of that, she purses up her mouth so nastily and gives herself a
+double chin--what _are_ you to think? There is nothing so hideous as a
+pretty woman with a double chin. A double chin makes a woman look
+absolutely old.
+
+I was quite confused. What am I to do to amuse her now? Should I talk
+about the weather?
+
+"May I congratulate you?" I said, seizing her hand.
+
+But not only did she _not_ press my hand in return, as she ought to have
+done; on the contrary, she irritably drew it back and turned aside her
+head.
+
+Suddenly a light flashed through my brain, a light kindled by my
+immeasurable self-conceit. "Why go on praising the distant husband,"
+said I to myself, "when you yourself are present? Do you think she
+invited you to dinner to sing the praises of Wenceslaus Kvatopil?"
+
+I drew my chair nearer to the sofa on which Bessy was sitting, and
+airily passed my hand through my frizzled locks.
+
+Bessy observed the movement, and quickly turned her face towards me. A
+mocking smile suddenly lighted up her face, a smile from which a man can
+read a whole chapter in a moment. That is something like stenography.
+
+"Ha, ha, sir! then we have come thither with that thought, have we? We
+have had our hair frizzled, eh? We have decked ourselves out to be
+irresistible, I know?"
+
+A thousand mocking fish-tailed nixies were wriggling about in those
+sea-like eyes.
+
+It was a murderous sort of smile.
+
+I was conscious of having been taken down pretty considerably. Here was
+I (quite contrary to my usual custom) tricked and furbished up like a
+"_petit maître_," while she, the lady, received me in her simplest
+barracan house-dress, without any finery, and with a smile she
+discharged at me the saying of the great poet:
+
+    "O Vanity! thy name is woman!"
+
+But why, then, had she sent for me?
+
+Why had she driven away one visitor and denied herself to another if not
+for my sake?
+
+Perhaps for the sake of a third party who had already arrived? When she
+came out of her boudoir she seemed to me to be signalling with her
+eyebrows at some one.
+
+I quickly pulled myself together. I fancy I must have been very red in
+the face, and I certainly had good reason to be ashamed of myself.
+
+I saw that I had not been able to reap laurels in the _rôle_ of Don
+Juan, so I began to take up the part of Tartuffe. Let us play the
+righteous judge!
+
+"Perhaps I have not come at a very convenient time?"
+
+"On the contrary, I _asked_ you to come at this time."
+
+"On a serious business, eh?"
+
+"A serious business for me."
+
+"But isn't what I've just been saying to you serious?"
+
+"Apparently."
+
+"Yet you received it with a very queer face."
+
+"I listened seriously enough."
+
+"But the affair had its cheerful aspect also, surely?"
+
+The fair dame made a contemptuous clicking with her tongue.
+
+"Don't you feel any interest, then, in Kvatopil's heroism, wounds,
+distinction, and promotion?"
+
+"No!" she replied resolutely, almost snapping my sentence in two. Her
+eyes sparkled like burning naphtha lakes.
+
+"No?" I repeated, in my amazement. "You take no interest in your
+husband's fate whether it be bad or good? You feel neither hot nor cold
+on the subject?"
+
+"No!"
+
+("No!" again).
+
+"But you parted in the greatest affection when he went to the wars?"
+
+"True."
+
+"And it is scarcely a month since then."
+
+"Only twenty-nine days, I've counted them."
+
+"And meanwhile winter has come?"
+
+"It has."
+
+After that she began to laugh maliciously. She leaped to her feet and
+rumpled my frizzly hair with her fingers.
+
+"Let's leave the matter till after dinner; then I'll tell you
+everything. But don't let us spoil a good dinner in the meantime. You
+are quite horrified at me now, and fancy that I've laid a trap for you.
+You will see later on that this serious business of mine is not a joke.
+Let us leave it till after the black coffee."
+
+I revived again. The lady was capricious, and it suited her.
+
+"I was determined to give you a good dinner. I owe you your revenge. It
+is a long time since we dined together. Last time I was your guest.
+Don't you remember? At the Pagan Altar. I never ate so heartily. What
+splendid toast you had! And the bacon, too, broiled on a stick! Why,
+I've got the taste of that good red pepper of yours in my mouth to this
+day! And now I mean to give you hospitality that you will remember for a
+long time!"
+
+This again was delightfully reassuring! She was of the true cat
+species--she purrs and fondles, but one must be continually on one's
+guard against her claws.
+
+"Come now, help me to lay the table! My cook has enough to do without
+that."
+
+So I had to help her lay the table, for the saloon was the dining-room
+also. One had only to remove the books, porcelain vases, and china
+knick-knacks from the table in front of the sofa, and then cover it with
+the table-cloth.
+
+I was curious to see how many she would lay for. Only for two. Two
+plates, two knives, forks and spoons, and two glasses.
+
+But how about that third person, that person in the bedroom yonder? Or
+had I rightly interpreted that peculiar expression of hers? I was
+beginning to think the whole thing was pure hallucination on my part.
+
+Suddenly the scraping of a cautiously-moved chair sounded from the
+boudoir.
+
+I saw that the lady was considerably put out, and felt decidedly
+uncomfortable. She wrathfully pressed her lips together.
+
+"Have you any one in the next room?" I inquired, in a stern, judicial
+voice.
+
+"I have!" she replied defiantly.
+
+"Madame!" I exclaimed, in virtuous high dudgeon.
+
+"Would you like to know who _is_ inside?" she cried, in an offended
+tone.
+
+"Oh, dear, no! I'm not a bit curious," said I, and began looking about
+for my hat and stick.
+
+"But I _wish_ you to know," she cried indignantly, barring my way, and,
+seizing my hand, she led me to the door of the bedroom, and hastily
+flung it open. In the room a blonde young lady stood before me gazing at
+me with wondering large blue eyes.
+
+Bessy introduced this lady to me.
+
+"Madame Wenceslaus Kvatopil, from Cracow."
+
+Then she pulled aside the bed-curtains, and on the bed was lying a
+little girl about eleven years of age.
+
+"This is Wenceslaus Kvatopil's daughter. Poor things! let us leave them
+alone!"
+
+For at least a minute I felt as if some magic power were whirling me
+round and round the globe with it from the North Pole to the Equator,
+and back again.
+
+How I got out of that room into the other I really cannot say. Before
+me continually were the faces of that large-eyed, timid-looking woman
+and the little girl.
+
+I heard the sound of weeping behind me.
+
+It was Bessy. She had hidden her face in her hands, and was sobbing.
+
+"Oh, how I loved that man! How good, how perfect I thought him! I
+fancied him a model man! Even now I cannot accuse him. It was not his
+fault, but mine alone. His sin is my crime. Oh, what folly! Let us speak
+of the situation seriously. You know now, I suppose, why I wanted to see
+you. I wished to ask your advice."
+
+I sat down beside her.
+
+Bessy dried her eyes, and then began to speak quite soberly.
+
+"The whole world judges me wrongly. They fancy I am full of levity. But
+if anything pains me, the pain lasts a long, long time. Since _he_ went
+away I have been nowhere, and seen nobody. If any of my old
+acquaintances came to see me, I told them that the whole place was
+topsy-turvy, and there was not even a chair to sit down upon. My servant
+had orders to say to every one who called--_with one exception_--that I
+was not visible. Who was this exception? Yourself! She could easily
+guess whom I meant, and if she didn't guess it, it didn't much matter.
+When _he_ had to go away so suddenly, he was in a very tender mood. He
+wanted to make me swear that I would not be faithless while he was
+away. He even brought me a crucifix for the purpose, and when he saw
+that I laughed at him, he besought me, if I really must deceive him, at
+least not to bestow my favours upon the first ragamuffin that turned up;
+nay, he even took the trouble to indicate a worthy man to me, of whom he
+could not be jealous; whereupon I told him, very seriously, that the man
+he meant was capable of _killing_ anybody who stood in the way of _his_
+love, but was altogether incapable of _filching_ love from anybody
+else!"
+
+(At this my face grew very red indeed.)
+
+"Then he suddenly assumed a mystic mood, he knew my weak side. He said:
+'If you deceive me for the sake of any other man, at that same moment I
+shall die. Day and night I stand where death is meted out every instant,
+and the moment a kiss from your lips touches the lips of another man, at
+that self-same moment, I say, the bullet which is lying in wait for me
+will fly straight to my heart!' A horrible saying! It would not let me
+sleep, and rose up before me in my dreams. When one or other of my lady
+friends came to visit me and we fell a-chatting and began to laugh and
+joke, a sort of cold shiver would suddenly run all down my body. While I
+am smiling, I thought, perhaps he is dying a death of torments beneath
+the horses' hoofs. Every savoury morsel sticks in my throat when I
+think--perhaps he is now suffering hunger and thirst; and when the blast
+shakes my windows, I think--now he is standing defenceless amidst the
+tempest and freezing. And I unable to protect him!
+
+"In short, this threat of his made me quite a somnambulist. At last I
+denied myself even to my lady friends. I became quite morbid. I fancied
+I had no right to be gay. Ten times a day I went to the crucifix by
+which he had wished me to swear and knelt down before it to pray. I made
+all sorts of vows provided he were preserved and brought back safely to
+me. And yet I am a Calvinist! But that crucifix was _his_. He remained
+faithful to it through all his change of faith. In fact, I was in a fair
+way of becoming a Pietist. I began to think a life of virtue very
+beautiful. I should very much have liked to see you now and again, if
+only to show you that I could be just as moral as you. I would have
+praised your wife to you, and you would have returned the compliment by
+praising my husband. This would have been my ambition."
+
+It was the cook who interrupted this burst of feeling.
+
+"Shall I bring in the stew, madame?"
+
+"Yes, bring it in, if it is ready."
+
+Then she turned to me to explain the circumstances of the case.
+
+"I have to let these ladies have their food cooked separately, for
+Magyar dishes would make them mortally ill. That is why I don't lay the
+table for three. _Your_ favourite dishes would be death to these
+Germans."
+
+The cook now brought in the stewed chicken.
+
+Bessy tasted it first with a little spoon to see if it were salted
+enough, and also to see whether the cook had put parsley in it by
+mistake, for the doctor who was attending the little girl had forbidden
+every sort of seasoning ingredients in her food. Then she herself sliced
+up a roll of the best white bread for the little girl, poured some water
+for her into a glass, and warmed it a little by holding it tightly for a
+while between the palms of her hands instead of popping a live coal into
+it, as thoughtful mothers often do for their sick children. For the
+mother of the child, however, she had a bottle of Pilsener beer
+uncorked, and sent to her.
+
+Only when they had dined was our dinner served.
+
+Meanwhile, we did not resume our interrupted conversation; the servant
+was constantly passing in and out, and we could not speak before her.
+Then, after that, when we sat down to dinner (and a bitter meal it was
+to me) the thread of our conversation was broken as often as the cook
+came in with a new dish or to change a plate, and all that time she
+played the part of the amiable hostess, inviting me to fall to in good
+old Hungarian style.
+
+"One morning," she said, "while I was doing my hair, my servant came and
+told me that a shabby-looking woman was outside, with a biggish girl,
+making inquiries about the lieutenant. I went out to them into the
+kitchen. I saw before me a blonde, blue-eyed woman, of about the same
+age as myself, and clinging to her arm was a lanky slip of a growing
+girl about ten or eleven years of age. In the woman's hand was a
+travelling-bag and an umbrella. She was in bourgeois costume, without
+the fashionable crinoline, and on her head was a simple felt cap; her
+girl was dressed in just the same way. They both wore their hair quite
+smooth and combed back from the forehead.
+
+"The woman wished me good-day in German.
+
+"I asked her what she wanted.
+
+"The woman replied that she wanted her husband, Mr. Wenceslaus Kvatopil.
+
+"'The lieutenant?'
+
+"'When he left me he was only a lieutenant.'
+
+"I quickly caught her by the hand and led her out of the kitchen into
+the saloon. My servant, fortunately, did not understand German.
+
+"I led them right into my bedroom. I invited them both to be seated.
+
+"'Ah, that will do us good,' said the woman, 'for we have come a long
+way. We have come here from Cracow.'
+
+"'Surely not on foot?'
+
+"'On foot all the way. We couldn't afford to come by rail.'
+
+"Just fancy! The very thought is terrible! To come on foot all those
+hundred miles hither from Cracow with a growing girl! Can one's
+imagination realize such a thing?
+
+"'Are you the wife of Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil?' I inquired of the
+woman.
+
+"'I am, and this is his daughter, Marianna.'
+
+"And by way of proving her assertion she drew from her travelling-bag
+her marriage lines, extracted from the registers of the cathedral of
+Cracow, to wit:--'Bridegroom: Wenceslaus Kvatopil, Sub-Lieutenant in the
+*** Dragoons. Bride: Anna Dunkircher. Witnesses: Babolescky, Colonel,
+and Kolmarscky, shopkeeper. Officiating clergyman: Stanislaus Lubousky.
+Dated, Feb. 16th, 1846.'
+
+"Then she showed me the baptismal certificate of the daughter.
+'Marianna, born in lawful wedlock, June 19th, 1846. Father:
+Sub-Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil. Mother: Anna Dunkircher. Officiating
+clergyman: Stanislaus Lubousky. Godparents: the above-mentioned
+marriage-witnesses.'
+
+"A marriage contract, duly attested, was also among the documents."
+
+All at once Bessy burst out laughing.
+
+The cook came in and brought the soup.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Do you know why, according to Ollendorf, the Captain
+weeps?"
+
+"Because the Englishman has no bread."
+
+"Look, Susy, you've forgotten to give my guardian some bread! Give him a
+crusty bit, he likes that!"
+
+The servant apologised, but said that she didn't think the soup required
+bread.
+
+It was excellent soup, made of cream and eggs and rice and
+finely-chopped chicken. Bessy filled my plate with it.
+
+"Thank you, that will be enough."
+
+When the servant went out we resumed our conversation. And here, I may
+remark, by the way, that there is no more pleasant _tête-à-tête_ in the
+world than that which is interrupted every ten minutes or so by the
+incursions of the servants.
+
+"Now we know," said I, "what was the cause of the extraordinary
+phenomenon of a happy bridegroom beginning to sob bitterly immediately
+after his marriage. It was his deserted wife and child that the poor
+fellow was thinking about."
+
+"True, but don't let your soup cool on that account. Would you like a
+little Parmesan with it?"
+
+"Thank you, but I like it much better without."
+
+"Wenceslaus Kvatopil liked his _with_ Parmesan."
+
+Then we settled down to our soup.
+
+"Wenceslaus Kvatopil always had a second serving of rice soup."
+
+"Thank you, but I never take a second serving of any dish."
+
+"I know that, and I also know that it is your habit to leave the best
+bit at the side of your plate."
+
+"How did you come to know that?"
+
+"I first observed it when I was a little girl and you sometimes came to
+dine with us. They say that it is a species of superstition; the tit-bit
+placed at the side of the plate signifies that our distant true love is
+suffering from hunger."
+
+"It is no superstition, but a simple rule of health to leave off eating
+and drinking while your appetite is still at its best."
+
+Thus we continued our dietetic discussions as if we had no other desire
+in the world than to live a ripe old age and be free from gout.
+
+I have already mentioned that there was chopped-up chicken in the soup,
+and that portion of the chicken fell to Bessy's lot which is known as
+the spur-bone.
+
+Now, it is a well-known custom among young unmarried ladies in
+confidential conclave, when one of them gets such a spur-bone, for her
+to invite her fair colleague to crack the bone with her. One of them
+then takes one end of the spur-bone and the other takes the other end,
+and they pull away in different directions till the bone comes in two.
+Whichever of them gets the spur portion will be married soonest. That is
+a fantastic sort of superstition, if you like.
+
+Bessy laughed and said:
+
+"When we ate our first dinner together, a spur-bone of this sort fell
+into my hands. I stretched it out towards Anna. 'Pull,' I said, 'and see
+which of us is to have Kvatopil.'"
+
+"Then you got to be good friends pretty quickly?"
+
+"Why shouldn't we? Hadn't we both the same husband? I naturally kept
+them here with me. I don't know what would have become of them if I
+hadn't taken them in. At this moment they haven't got a farthing. They
+travelled the whole distance on coffee only. They had no other upper
+garments but what they were actually wearing on their bodies.... My
+first duty was to get them properly dressed. My clothes fitted the woman
+very well, and I bought some for the child in Kerepesi Street. But the
+little one had to take to her bed immediately, for she had a bad
+headache and was very feverish. I sent for a doctor, and he gave her
+some medicine which sent her to sleep. She and her mother have slept in
+my bed ever since, and I sleep on the sofa.--Won't you have a little
+liver?"
+
+"No, thank you. Pray, go on!"
+
+"When the poor lady saw that I received her kindly, her heart melted;
+she fell upon my neck, and our tears flowed like spring showers. We knew
+that one of us would be the death of the other, but which was to be the
+victim? Then we quickly told each other our experiences of our common
+husband, and how we first met him. I could make a strange dramatic scene
+out of it.
+
+"I inquired: 'Come now, Anna, tell me, how did you first meet with
+Kvatopil, and how could you remain absent from him for thirteen years?'
+Anna replied: 'It is a strange story. Do you happen to know, Bessy, the
+history of the Cracow Republic?'
+
+"I: 'No, dear, I never heard of the poor thing.'
+
+"Anna: 'Then you must know that it is a large Polish town where the
+Polish kings were formerly crowned and buried when they died. I am a
+native of that city. My father was a famous glove-maker in Cracow, whose
+goods were sold far and wide. Our town was the last free Polish Republic
+when Poland was finally partitioned. Its territory consisted of
+twenty-two square miles.'"
+
+("Less than Debreczin," I interrupted.)
+
+Bessy went on with Anna's narrative:--
+
+"'When I was a little girl ten years of age a fresh Polish insurrection
+broke out. The united forces of the Austrians, Russians, and Prussians
+again put it down, and the care of the Cracow Republic was entrusted to
+Austria. The old Polish customs and assemblies remained in force, but
+Austrian soldiers garrisoned the citadel continually. When I was sixteen
+years old my mother died, and I had to take her place behind the
+counter. Here I made the acquaintance of Kvatopil. He was a young
+sub-lieutenant, and he generally came to our shop to buy his gloves.
+Would that he had stopped short at gloves! Can any one justly give a bad
+name to a young girl because she is confiding? I believed in him! And he
+really had such a good heart. When he saw that I had only to choose
+between shame and death, he went to my father and begged for my hand.
+Naturally they gave us to each other. It was never the custom among the
+Poles when a girl married a soldier for her to go and ask permission
+first of all from the military authorities, and deposit a terribly big
+sum by way of caution-money; the priest simply united us without any
+questionings. We had not been man and wife a week when the Revolution
+again broke out. Cracow was the centre of the Polish rising. At first
+the Polish rebels fought with great success. I saw the Polish scythemen
+drive my husband's cavalry regiment from one end of the street to the
+other. My husband had not even time to say good-bye to me.'
+
+"'Then you are a Pole?' said I.
+
+"'Why shouldn't I be?' replied Anna. 'Surely I may be a Pole though I
+have a German name? Dark days followed. My little girl was born. Twice a
+day I felt bound to go to church--the first time to pray that my country
+might triumph, and the second time to pray that my husband might return
+to me. A mad idea, wasn't it? Surely it is impossible for Deity even to
+grant two diametrically opposite prayers at the same time? My husband
+returned indeed to Cracow, but the Polish cause was crushed. The
+champions of freedom fled in all directions, and the garrison troops
+returned. It was a sad meeting. After that catastrophe Cracow ceased to
+be a republic, and was incorporated with the Austrian hereditary
+possessions as a simple city. My father wept, but I rejoiced because I
+had got my husband back. But very soon I was punished for my criminal
+joy. My husband informed me that things were going badly with us.
+Hitherto the Austrian officers in Cracow had not been wont to ask the
+permission of their general to marry. Now, however, when Cracow had been
+joined to Austria, the military regulations of the rest of the empire
+had been extended to us, and a lieutenant's wife had to pay down
+caution-money to the amount of 7,000 florins. My father was incapable of
+raising such a sum. He had another daughter besides me, and could not
+withdraw so large a sum from his business. Danger threatened us if my
+husband's superiors discovered his marriage, for in such a case Kvatopil
+would have been degraded to the ranks. My father suggested that Kvatopil
+should quit the profession of arms and settle down to some sort of
+profession. But it was an impossible idea. Who would give employment in
+Cracow to an Austrian officer who had taken up arms against the Poles?
+
+"'Just about this time, too, Kvatopil was promoted to the rank of senior
+lieutenant. This at once inflamed our hearts with the joyous hope that
+he would rapidly scale the ladder of promotion, and we knew that if once
+he became a major he would not have to deposit his matrimonial
+caution-money, and we might then fearlessly publish the fact that we
+were man and wife. Nobody knew of it hitherto except our friends and
+relations.
+
+"'So we agreed to keep it quiet, and immediately afterwards Kvatopil and
+his regiment were transferred to Hungary.
+
+"'Since the revolution broke out in Hungary I have heard nothing more
+of Kvatopil. I know not where he is, or what has become of him, or
+whether he is alive or dead: no tidings of him whatever. In times of war
+they make a mystery of the whereabouts of this or that regiment.
+
+"'Once we read from a bulletin that my husband's regiment had taken part
+in a battle in the Banat. My poor father then resolved to go personally
+to the Banat and inquire of the colonel whether my husband was still
+alive. Just as he got there, they were burying the colonel with great
+pomp. He had died of typhus fever. He had been the witness of our
+marriage, and was the only one of the officers who knew anything about
+it. He had kept his secret well, for his officiating as a witness at an
+irregular ceremony might have cost him his place also. All that the
+lieutenant-colonel could tell us of Kvatopil was, that his company had
+been detached on some expedition, and had not come back. Possibly the
+Hungarian insurgents had eaten them all up.
+
+"'I could thus very well put on and wear mourning, and till the end of
+the war I heard not a word about my husband.'
+
+"So far spoke Anna; but now I began to speak.
+
+"'You didn't hear of him, because all through the campaign he was
+closely invested in the besieged Temesvar with his company, and no news
+could come out of that place till the end of the year.'
+
+"'But why couldn't he let me hear from him when Temesvar was free again?
+He could at least have written that he was still alive?'
+
+"'The cause of that is easy to find. So far as he was concerned, the
+whole campaign was sterile of glory. As a cavalry officer he was unable
+to be of any service to the besieged city. At the end of the campaign he
+still remained a senior lieutenant, whilst all the others had reached
+the rank of captain. Bitter disappointment was all that remained to him.
+An officer who is passed over is worse off than if he were dead. He
+cannot even say, "Thank God, I am still alive!"'
+
+"'But subsequently? In all these latter years? Why didn't he write to me
+all these three or four years, if but a line to say that he was still
+alive and thinking of me, and of the child whom he loved so much?'
+
+"'I can tell you the reason of that also,' I said. 'To save a frivolous
+comrade, he got into debt, and fell into the hands of unmerciful
+usurers, who immediately dragged him deeper into the mire. An officer in
+such a vexatious position is certainly not very much inclined to fetter
+himself with a wife and child as well. It is now not only the want of
+the caution-money which separates him from you, but also that nasty bog
+called Debt. This bog he cannot wade through. If under such
+circumstances he thinks of his wife and child, that only increases his
+despair. If he wrote you a letter at all, it would only contain these
+lines: "By the time you read these lines I shall have ceased to exist."'
+
+"Anna was curious to know how far into debt Kvatopil had actually got. I
+immediately mentioned the neat little sum it amounted to.
+
+"You should have seen what a long face my friend pulled.
+
+"She asked me in consternation whether this immense load of debt still
+remained upon him.
+
+"The situation was so droll that, despite all its bitterness, I couldn't
+help laughing. I could read from the poor simple creature's face that if
+I were to say to her, 'My dear, sweet friend, debt is the one thing in
+this earth which the tooth of time never nibbles, Kvatopil's bills still
+live' (this was quite true, but they were living in my strong box), she
+would have been capable, poor, unhappy lady! of taking her little girl
+by the hand and walking all the way back to Cracow. But I was sorry for
+the poor thing. I told her the pure naked truth. Four years long her
+husband had told her nothing of his goings on because of his creditors,
+but after that time because of me. I made his acquaintance; I did not
+know that he was married; I fell in love with him, and--offered him my
+hand. I was bound to acknowledge that he had hesitated to accept it. He
+made all sorts of excuses except the unexceptionable one that he had a
+wife already. But as he was already up to his eyes in hot water he had
+had no choice but to blow his brains out or commit bigamy. Apparently
+he had regarded the latter alternative as the less unpleasant one.
+
+"Anna herself admitted that it was very much wiser of Kvatopil to have
+chosen the latter course. What a good, affectionate creature the woman
+was!
+
+"I then satisfied her that I had paid off all worthy Kvatopil's debts
+before his marriage. I even showed her the bills preserved in my strong
+box, explaining to her besides that they had now expired, but that I did
+not mean to proceed against Kvatopil for the amount in spite of our
+altered relations. At this the good soul fell down at my feet, shedding
+tears of gratitude. She even kissed my knees, and assured me that she
+would bless my memory to the very day of her death. Ever since this
+comforting reassurance on my part, her tender inclination for the
+beloved Kvatopil was perfectly re-established.
+
+"I put the finishing touch to my kind-heartedness by describing to her
+the scene when Kvatopil, as bridegroom, fell to weeping bitterly after
+the wedding; there could be no doubt that those bitter tears were shed
+on account of his forsaken wife and daughter.
+
+"This quite overcame poor Anna. 'Look now, what a good heart poor
+Kvatopil has!' said she.
+
+"Then we began quoting to each other the various noble traits that we
+had mutually discovered in Kvatopil's character...."
+
+--"Well, did you find the pig's ears with beans to your liking, sir?"
+inquired the cook of me at that moment, as she came in to change the
+dishes.
+
+"On my word of honour as a poet, I have never tasted such pig's ears and
+beans," I replied.
+
+An apricot pasty followed, of which--I confess it freely--I am also
+fond.
+
+Bessy then continued her story:--
+
+"I went to my lawyer, put my case before him, and asked him what he
+advised me to do in my situation. I applied to him first (a dry, prosaic
+man, with his mental vision bounded by the law); after that, I wanted to
+lay the matter before you, that you might judge between us."
+
+"Between whom?"
+
+"Between me and my lawyer, for we are of diametrically opposite views as
+to what I ought to do next."
+
+"Then you have a view on the subject, too?"
+
+"Of course I have; but listen first to the view of the man learned in
+the law, and before you do that, let us drink to the health of those we
+love, and those who love us."
+
+We drank the toast accordingly, but we mentioned no names.
+
+"And now listen to the opinion of the lawyer:--
+
+"'It is a great misfortune, certainly,' he said, 'but the only person to
+suffer will be Anna Dunkircher. If we lived in ordinary peaceful times,
+the business might be settled by the military authorities compelling
+Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil to renounce his rank by marrying contrary
+to the regulations. In that case the marriage contracted with Anna
+Dunkircher would remain valid. On the other hand, according to the tenor
+of the Austrian criminal law, Mr. Kvatopil would then have the pleasant
+prospect of two years' imprisonment for the subsequently committed crime
+of bigamy. Nevertheless, under our present circumstances, when the army
+of Lombardy has great need of every valiant and experienced officer, the
+Cracow wife would, undoubtedly, get this answer for her trouble: "Your
+marriage has been contracted illegally, and is consequently null and
+void." The parson who joined them would be sent for a twelvemonth to a
+monastery, by way of penitential discipline; but Wenceslaus Kvatopil
+would remain a lieutenant, or even, if he distinguished himself, become
+a captain. You, consequently, will be Mrs. Lieutenant, and perhaps Mrs.
+Captain, for the annulling of the former marriage will restore to you
+all your rights.'
+
+"Those were the lawyer's words. I laid them to heart. Now, do you know
+anything of martial law?"
+
+"I frankly confess that martial law occupies a most prominent place
+among those sciences which I do _not_ know."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what I replied to him. 'Good!' I said, 'the laws,
+the circumstances, the position of things, everything, in fact, proves
+and proves to demonstration that Anna Dunkircher has forfeited all her
+marital rights; but has not the law of the human heart also its
+validity? Do I express myself in proper legal phraseology?'"
+
+At this I couldn't help laughing, but she proceeded with her story.
+
+"My lawyer was very far indeed from laughing. 'What!' said he, 'do you
+imagine that Wenceslaus Kvatopil's heart still beats for his first wife
+whom he deserted--to whom he did not write of set purpose, not even when
+he could, lest he might thus have supplied some written testimony to the
+fact of her really having been Wenceslaus Kvatopil's lawful spouse, and
+not merely some betrayed girl with whom he had, at some time or other,
+unlawfully cohabited? Do you fancy that Wenceslaus Kvatopil, thirteen
+years after the event, is still so romantic as to ask for his dismissal
+from the service in the middle of a campaign, on the very field of
+battle, and desert the standard of his Sovereign, whom he has sworn to
+obey, simply to enable Anna Dunkircher to save her matronly dignity? Do
+you fancy that Wenceslaus Kvatopil will throw up his career at the very
+moment when it is full of the most brilliant hopes for him, and allow
+himself to be shut up as a felon for a couple of years, at the end of
+which time he will be discharged a branded beggar, simply to live for
+the rest of his life as the lawful husband of a beggar woman even more
+beggarly than himself? And finally, do you imagine that Wenceslaus
+Kvatopil has so completely lost the use of his five senses as to be
+capable of spurning away from him, and exposing to the contempt of the
+whole world, a young and lovely consort like yourself, a rich and noble
+lady who can keep him in comfort for the rest of his days--and all for
+what? for the sake of taking back a faded, withered woman, whose face is
+wrinkled with care, who is the daughter of an honest glover, to whom it
+would be no advantage to stick the name of Kvatopil on his sign-board
+instead of the time-honoured firm of Dunkircher? No, madam. That he is
+such a good-hearted man as all that I do not for one moment believe. I
+would as soon believe in sea-maidens with finny tails--upon my word I
+would.'
+
+"I did not interrupt my lawyer. I allowed him to have his say out. But
+when he made a brief pause, I said to him: 'I am not speaking of
+Kvatopil's heart, but of my own.'
+
+"'Your own?' cried he, in amazement. 'What has _your_ heart got to do
+with it?'
+
+"'I have my own notion of settling this painful business,' I said. 'I
+propose to transfer to Anna Dunkircher the surety-money which I
+deposited on the occasion of our marriage, and then she will have
+satisfied the conditions imposed on officers who marry--and may she and
+her husband be happy. I can easily disappear somewhere in the crowd. The
+world is large.'
+
+"At this the lawyer flew into a passion. 'If you do that,' he cried,
+'you are only fit to be locked up in a lunatic asylum at Döbling.'
+
+"Nevertheless," concluded Bessy, "it is my serious and fixed resolve to
+do so."
+
+I could not help laying my hand on hers. What true, what noble
+sentiments were slumbering in that heart! If only she had had some one
+to awaken them! What an excellent lady might have been made out of this
+woman, if she had only met with a husband who, in the most ordinary
+acceptance of the word, had been a good fellow, as is really the case
+with about _nine_ men out of every ten. Why should she have always
+managed to draw the unlucky _tenth_ out of the urn of destiny?
+
+She guessed my thoughts during that moment of silence. Those large, deep
+fiery eyes slowly filled with tears. The fire of a diamond is nothing to
+be compared with the fiery sparkle of those tears. How lovely she was at
+that moment!
+
+Her lips began to quiver, and she could scarcely pronounce the words:
+
+"_That other woman had a child._"
+
+And at this she began to sob convulsively, covering her face with one
+hand, and squeezing my hand violently with the other.
+
+My heart was so touched that, a very little more, and I should have
+mingled my tears with hers.
+
+When she had wept out her bitter mood, she sighed deeply, and dried her
+tears.
+
+"Now you know why I asked you to come here," said she. "Be you the
+judge in this matter. Which is right, the reason or the heart? Am I to
+do what my lawyer advises, or what my own feelings suggest?"
+
+It was a difficult matter.
+
+"Let us see," I said, "can't we hit upon some middle course? I advise
+you neither to do what your lawyer advises nor what you yourself
+propose. Wait a bit. The great war is still going on, more than a
+million of warriors are standing face to face. Not a fifth part of that
+number will return to their homes when the war is over. In this war your
+Kvatopil will either fall or remain alive. If he falls, you can both go
+into mourning. You need not quarrel about the widow's veil. If, however,
+Kvatopil survives the end of the war, a brave and ambitious officer like
+him will undoubtedly have mounted higher on the ladder of promotion--the
+battle-field is the forcing house of advancement! He will have become a
+major, and as major he will not be required to deposit[109] any
+matrimonial caution-money. He can then take his Anna Dunkircher, and you
+will have no need to surrender your guarantee money, which you want very
+much yourself."
+
+[Footnote 109: I say this of past times.--M. J.]
+
+"I thank you," said the lady. "'Tis every bit as simple as the egg of
+Columbus. Then we'll wait, Anna and I, till the war is over, and till
+then we'll make one family."
+
+"Let me call your attention to one thing, however. For the present it
+would be well if you were to hide yourself somewhere, in some little
+town, for instance, where nobody knows you. Here, in this capital, you
+will quickly find yourself in an awkward and untenable position. The
+story of the first wife will very quickly be known by all the world. The
+title of _straw-widow_ would do pretty well perhaps, but the title of
+_straw-wife_ won't do at all. Pack up your traps, I say, go straight off
+to the country to-morrow, and take your guests along with you."
+
+"I'll do so."
+
+We had scarcely finished speaking when the doctor knocked at the door.
+When there's sickness in the house one cannot deny oneself to the
+doctor. The doctor, too, was an old acquaintance of mine. He had a very
+extensive practice, and he was a homœopathist. I could take it as
+absolutely certain that when he went his rounds among his patients on
+the morrow, he would let them have, in addition to their _nux vomica_,
+or whatever else it might be, the very latest bit of scandal--to wit,
+that he had found me closeted with the pretty lady, and both of us in
+our cups--tea-cups of course.
+
+I waited till he came back from his little patient. He satisfied us that
+there was now no danger, and she might leave her bed.
+
+Bessy asked whether the girl might be taken into the country.
+
+"Yes, it will do her good."
+
+The doctor and I left at the same time.
+
+I had no sooner got out of the door than I again stumbled upon Tóni
+Sági.
+
+"_Corpo di Bacco!_ And you have been sitting all this time with that
+pretty young lady?"
+
+"And you have been walking all the time in front of the door, eh?"
+
+The window of the house opposite was full of inquisitive female faces. I
+rushed into a coach and had myself driven to the railway station. The
+same evening I was at Szeged. There I remained for three days, and
+stayed with my wife till her provincial engagement was over. On every
+one of these three days one or two anonymous letters reached my wife
+from Buda-Pest of the following import: "My poor dear friend,--Your
+husband passes whole nights and days with his former lady-love, the
+lieutenant's wife. Our hearts bleed for you. The whole town knows all
+about it."
+
+How we did laugh at these letters! But what if I had _not_ traversed the
+intentions of our _dear friends_?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ESAIAS MEDVÉSI[110]
+
+
+[Footnote 110: Bearish.]
+
+It fared with Wenceslaus Kvatopil as I had predicted.
+
+I am very sorry, but I really can't help it. Willingly would I bring him
+back a full major if it depended on me; but it was written in the book
+of fate that the worthy officer was to end his heroic career on the
+battle-field. He had at least the consolation of falling in a famous
+battle. While MacMahon at Solferino broke through the mass of Schlick's
+forces, Benedek on the right wing pressed victoriously forwards and
+drove the Piedmontese army under Victor Emmanuel as far back as San
+Martino, and there it was that a mortal bullet struck Captain Kvatopil
+through the heart. Yet I am able to say that at that moment the kisses
+of his lovely wife pressed the lips of nobody but his own deserted
+daughter.
+
+The two widows could now share the widow's veil between them in peace.
+
+The bigamy became known, but of course they could not bring an action
+for it against a dead man. The events of those great days quickly
+obliterated all recollection of the petty scandal. Both Anna and Bessy
+could now assume the title of Widow Kvatopil, and nobody could have a
+word to say against it. There was this little difference, however, that
+while the one might style herself Mrs. Captain Kvatopil, the other had
+only the right to Mrs. Lieutenant.
+
+By the intervention of her lawyer, and with my consent as her guardian,
+Bessy recovered her deposited caution-money. One thousand florins of it
+she gave as a gift to Anna, who returned with it to Cracow to her
+father's. The rest of the money Bessy invested in a pretty little house,
+in the village where she was stopping, surrounded by a pleasant garden.
+I was now quite easy in my mind as to her subsequent fate. She had now
+her own house, an honourable title--"_Özvegy Kapitányné_,"[111] and a
+certain regular income. In the little village where she was she could
+play a leading part. In her present situation, moreover, she was
+completely protected against all the snares of the evil world, for in
+this particular village every man was virtuous, and the women ruled them
+with a rod of iron. To stumble, make a _faux pas_, and fall into sin was
+not possible, because it was not allowed.
+
+[Footnote 111: Lit., The widowed Captain's lady.]
+
+I could now be quite easy as to Bessy's prospects. A woman who had
+learnt such bitter experience at her own cost could not help drawing
+conclusions from the past; and if ever she were to make her choice
+again she certainly would not allow herself to be led astray by
+superficial graces, but would judge him whom she might definitely and
+finally select as the partner of her destiny by his inner worth alone. I
+even took the trouble, with the true solicitude of a guardian, to write
+this beautiful and sensible phrase to her in a letter. I also impressed
+upon her not to give herself away to any official "for the time being,"
+or any other kind of dog-headed Tartar, for such a husband could only be
+provisional.[112] She gave me her word that she would not do so.
+
+[Footnote 112: Towards this period it was plain that the Austrian
+domination of Hungary could not last much longer, and that the foreign
+officials who had been appointed by the Vienna Court must speedily
+go.--TR.]
+
+For nearly four years I heard nothing more of Bessy. She had fallen into
+the ranks of those women who do nothing to make people talk about them,
+and this category is the best of all. Every year I sent her the interest
+on her money; she acknowledged the receipt of it with thanks, and--that
+was all.
+
+But I, too, had cause enough not to think of those lovely but dangerous
+Eyes like the Sea.
+
+My evil stars were in the ascendant.
+
+Not a year passed without a heavy blow descending on my head. At one
+time it was a dear dead friend whom I had to bury; at another time I had
+to go through a severe illness which brought me to the very brink of
+death; I had scarcely recovered when my wife also fell dangerously ill.
+Through the conduct of persons whom I had regarded as my friends I very
+nearly became bankrupt; I had to work day and night at my writing-table
+to draw myself out of the mire. Then my publisher bolted to America;
+then came a year of calamity, when nobody cared a fig for either books
+or newspapers; then I had to fight a duel through no fault of my own;
+and all along there was the wretched fate of my country, which demanded
+my help. The whole plan of winning back our confiscated liberties was
+_my_ secret; I was the organ of the Committee, the organ that was
+tormented, persecuted, insulted by a derisive tyranny. Life under such
+conditions was like a dreadful dream--an incoherent, continually
+shifting vision of hope, an eternal nightmare; and when I awoke from
+this nightmare I found I was quite bald.
+
+One fine spring the Fairy Queen of my fantastic dreams locked me up in
+prison by way of variation. Nobody can escape his fate. I had founded a
+political journal. I was its responsible editor and publisher. My
+assistants were the votadores of the Liberal party. We soon had a large
+public. I had quite enough to do. It was my business to write romances
+for this paper, and leading articles too. Once an admirably elaborated
+article was sent to me, signed by one of the most illustrious names
+among the Hungarian magnate families. Without more ado I published it.
+It was a loyal, patriotic article on purely constitutional lines,
+showing in the most matter of fact way in the world the justice and the
+necessity of a constitutional government for Hungary. On account of this
+article, the Governor brought both the Count who wrote it and the editor
+who inserted it before a court-martial. He signified to the pair of us
+beforehand that he meant to lock us up for three months for it.
+
+The court-martial consisted of a colonel, a major, a captain, a senior
+and a junior lieutenant, a sergeant, a corporal, and a private; the last
+four were Bohemians. Before this Areopagus I delivered a powerful
+defence in German, to which they naturally replied "March!" The tribunal
+condemned me and my comrade the Count to twelve months hard labour in
+irons, on bread and water, with enforced fasting, loss of nobility, and
+a fine of a thousand florins.
+
+When the sentence was read out, I said to the President:
+
+"This is very strange. The Governor promised us only three months."
+
+To this the President replied with a smile:
+
+"Yes, three months for the incriminated article, but nine more for your
+high-flying defence."
+
+Our sentence was for no offence against the press-laws. Oh dear, no! We
+were condemned for inciting to a breach of the peace. The Count and I
+had been throwing stones at the windows, and breaking the gas-lamps in
+Kerepesi Street! It was as public brawlers that we were sent to cool our
+heels in jail!
+
+The reader must not expect me, however, to weave a martyr's crown for
+myself, or describe the tortures of the Venetian dungeons.... The whole
+of my life in prison was a pure joke and diversion. The Commandant of
+the place, with whom I lived, used to come every day to tell and be told
+anecdotes, and then took me out for country walks. He had my
+writing-table, my books, and my carpentering tools brought into my
+dungeon, and it was there that I turned out a bust of my wife. The
+Commandant also was passionately fond of carpenter's work, so we worked
+away together at our lathes as if for a wager. There was no talk
+whatever of chains or fetters, and I was allowed to have with my bread
+and water the best that money could purchase from the inn. In the
+afternoons my friends from the Pest Club came to play cards with me, so
+that when, on one occasion, one of my most radical acquaintances,
+Beniczky, entered my apartment and looked around, he exclaimed with
+contemptuous indignation: "Call this a dungeon! Why, there's no romance
+at all about this sort of thing!"
+
+Once I took my fellow-prisoner and my jailer to my villa at Svabhegy,
+where my wife had made ready for us a splendid supper. I tapped my new
+wine, and we amused ourselves to such a very late hour that when we
+returned they would hardly let us into prison again. Fortunately we had
+the Provost with us, and with our assistance he managed to force his way
+in.
+
+And then my visitors!
+
+In the whole course of my life I never received so many visitors as
+during the _month_ that my _year's_ captivity lasted. In the following
+month, by the way, I had to make room for the editor of the _officious_
+government, who was also condemned by the court-martial for disturbing
+the public peace.
+
+I was sought out in my dungeon by all sorts of good friends, who came
+from far--lords and ladies, countesses and actresses. It happened once
+that a magnate's wife, who was a great invalid, and therefore could not
+ascend to the second flight where our prison was, begged us to come down
+to her carriage, and there we received our visitor in the street--poor
+slaves that we were!
+
+In fact, I had too much of a good thing.
+
+How could I work when my admirers were crowding at my latch all day
+long? At last I had to beg my jailer, with tears in my eyes, to sentence
+me to _solitary_ confinement for a couple of hours every day, and write
+on my door the hours when I was free to receive company. "Wasn't I in
+prison?" I said.
+
+I had an honest Bohemian lad as my servant. His name was Wenceslaus. We
+soon got to understand each other very well.
+
+I explained to him that at certain hours when I was sitting down to
+work nobody was to be admitted--except when a pretty woman came to see
+me.
+
+_Honi soit qui mal y pense!_
+
+And singularly enough, one cannot imagine a more convenient place for an
+assignation than such a dungeon as mine. I only wonder that our
+_bon-viveurs_ have not grasped the fact. And what a capital place for an
+afternoon nap such a locality really is! The best advice I can give to
+any one who suffers from sleeplessness is--get yourself locked up! Is it
+not a special mercy of Providence that slaves can sleep so soundly?
+
+One afternoon Wenceslaus aroused me from my sweet afternoon nap with the
+intimation that a pretty woman wanted to speak to me.
+
+"Really pretty?"
+
+"Oh yes!"
+
+"Oh yes?"
+
+"Oh yes, yes!"
+
+It was indeed "oh yes!" for it was Bessy.
+
+She was dressed in complete mourning, with a black silk veil over her
+head. I saw from her eyes that she was in mourning for my fate.
+
+I anticipated her by making her a compliment.
+
+"Why, how nice you look, my dear ward! The country air seems to agree
+with you."
+
+With this I put a stop to her tearful anxiety on my account.
+
+"I see that the air of a dungeon has not done you much harm, either."
+
+"And how did you get in here?"
+
+"Not very easily, I can tell you. They would hardly let me in. They said
+that the prisoner was confined to his room. I thought of giving the
+warder a box on the ears, and then perhaps they would have shut me up
+along with you by way of punishment."
+
+"That would have, indeed, been a _heavy_ chain to bear."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I understand the allusion. My figure _has_ become a little sturdy, I
+know. What else has a person to do in a little country town but grow
+fat?"
+
+"It is a sign of peace of mind," I said.
+
+I offered her my arm-chair, and in this act of politeness she read
+another allusion.
+
+"It has good strong legs, I hope?" said she, as she sat down in it.
+
+I must candidly admit that her figure had grown pronouncedly rotund, but
+this by no means injured her beauty. She really looked quite appetizing!
+I was very glad, too, to see her again.
+
+"Don't take my remarks amiss," I said; "it is so good for the poor slave
+when a smiling lady's face lights up the gloom of his dungeon. A sweet,
+melodious woman's voice sounds so consolingly amidst the clanking of his
+fetters."
+
+"I am glad to see that you preserve your good humour, for I have come to
+you on a very serious business."
+
+"What! Then it was _not_ tender sympathy for the poor captive that
+brought you hither?"
+
+"That also--I may even say principally. Every day I read in the
+_Fövárosi Lapok_ how many and what sort of visitors you receive--noble
+ladies, pretty actresses, and what not. Well, thought I, if they may go
+and see him, it is only my duty to go too. At the same time there are
+other circumstances which have brought me here."
+
+At this she furtively looked around her.
+
+"Won't they hear what we are talking about through that door?"
+
+"Have no fear. That room is empty. My fellow-prisoner is provided with a
+separate apartment."
+
+"I have come to inform you of something. I have petitioned the office of
+wards to relieve you from your guardianship."
+
+"And you've very good cause, too, I think, seeing that I myself have
+been under guardianship for some time."
+
+"That's not my reason, however. But my position has now become such as
+to make it indispensable for me to have the free disposal of my money."
+
+"May I guess the cause? Another misfortune has happened. We have lost
+our heart again, eh?"
+
+Bessy covered her blushing face with her silk veil.
+
+"Eh, but how you do always detect a thing at once! You would have made a
+capital magistrate."
+
+"But it is such a natural thing to suppose. You are so young, you know."
+
+"I am well advanced in the thirties."
+
+"You are only four years over thirty. I ought to know, for I was at your
+christening. Then you have once more discovered your ideal?"
+
+"This time I most solemnly believe that I really have found him."
+
+"But no provisional person, I hope?"
+
+"Don't insult me, please."
+
+"I'm above such a thing. But, as your guardian, I would not have given
+my consent to it; so I was bound to suppose that that was why you wanted
+to be freed from my guardianship."
+
+"Not at all! In future also I mean to take your advice as though it came
+from my own father. Scold me as much as you like when you catch me
+tripping. I will continue to be your obedient ward if only you don't
+shut the door in my face. All I want is my money. Believe me when I say
+I will do nothing frivolous with it. The sum will remain to my credit,
+but I wish to be free to use it as I like in the future."
+
+"I presume your bridegroom is some squire to whom the amount will be of
+service?"
+
+"He is _not_ a squire."
+
+"Then perhaps he is a merchant? That also is an honourable walk in life.
+In good commercial hands the amount will yield a nice income."
+
+"He is not a merchant."
+
+"Then perhaps he is a manufacturer, the proprietor of a saw-mill or a
+steam-mill?"
+
+"Neither the one nor the other."
+
+"Then what on earth is he?"
+
+"My bridegroom is a worthy and eminent schoolmaster, whose name is
+Esaias Medvési."
+
+"Esaias Medvési! But what the deuce does a village schoolmaster want
+with twenty-five thousand florins?"
+
+"I'll tell you presently. But I must go a little farther back first.
+Have you the time to listen to my story?"
+
+"Of course I have: I remain at home all day."
+
+"Will nobody interrupt us?"
+
+"My servant is a very sensible fellow, he knows the rules of the place."
+
+"But won't they lock the door of the prison behind me?"
+
+An ordinary person would have replied to this question that it would
+have been no great harm if they did; but I pulled out the drawer of my
+writing-table and showed the fair lady that I had _my own key_ for
+opening my prison door. At this she laughed and seemed quite satisfied.
+
+"Well, I'll begin by telling you how I made his acquaintance."
+
+"What, your Ezzy?"
+
+"I beg your pardon, but you must always pronounce the name in full, or
+you will aggravate its owner. He is very particular about giving to
+every one his full name and corresponding titles; never breaks that
+rule himself, and constantly addresses me as 'Worthy dame Captain!' It
+is in vain to call me 'Madame' in his presence, for he roundly maintains
+that such a title belongs to the consort of the Prince of Transylvania
+only. His motto is '_suum cuique_.' Oh, I've learnt such a lot of Latin
+since I made his acquaintance?"
+
+"Oh, then you have been taking Latin lessons from him, and so the
+acquaintance began?"
+
+"No irony, please! It didn't begin that way at all. I suppose you know
+that in our little town there is a very well attended Calvinist church?"
+
+"I know it pretty well."
+
+"And I am a very zealous church goer?"
+
+"That I did _not_ know."
+
+"With us the laudable custom prevails of going to church every Sunday
+for the purpose of devotion."
+
+"And to show off your new bonnets."
+
+"Don't make fun of me, please. Esaias is not only the schoolmaster, but
+the cantor and the organist as well. He has a splendid bass voice. When
+he intones the verse--
+
+    'How blest the man whose walk in life ...'
+
+the whole podium trembles. It was that wondrously beautiful voice which
+first enthralled me."
+
+"But I should have thought that the organ would have drowned the sound
+of the hymn?"
+
+"But not only in church have I had the opportunity of hearing him, but
+at funerals also."
+
+"Then you condescend to go to funerals too?"
+
+"Not as a habit. But you must know that most of the people there beg me
+to act as sponsor to their new-born children. Now, two-thirds of our
+children seem only born to die, and I am obliged to always go to the
+funerals of my little _protégés_."
+
+"Then Esaias is in the habit of speaking and singing over them?"
+
+"Yes, and what beautiful speeches they are too, all in verse."
+
+"So Esaias is a poet into the bargain?"
+
+"Yes, he really makes most beautiful verses."
+
+"And I've no doubt he wrote a nice onomasticon on St. Elizabeth's Day?"
+
+"He did nothing of the kind. He's not that sort of man. It is not his
+habit to flatter anybody; on the contrary, he always tells them the
+truth to their faces."
+
+"That is generally the distinguishing characteristic of all Calvinist
+schoolmasters."
+
+"Well, but let us keep to the point. I left off at the funerals, I
+think. I was struck by the frequent mortality among our little ones, and
+set in movement a project among the ladies of the town for starting a
+_crèche_. The idea found zealous partisans. We soon found a large
+meeting-room; the ladies supplied linen in large quantities; milk and
+other necessary aliments were provided by public subscription; money we
+resolved to collect in the usual way."
+
+"By a charitable concert?"
+
+"I see that you are a practical man. A charitable concert was indeed
+arranged, and a committee of seven appointed to manage it. The sessions
+of this committee were held in my house; mine was the most convenient
+locality, and I had a piano besides. Each member of the committee had
+her part assigned to her: one was to recite, another to sing a solo, a
+third to give a comic reading, a fourth to play a piece on the piano, a
+fifth to dance a Hungarian dance; I was to fiddle, Esaias was to sing
+the high priest's aria from the opera of _Nabucco_: 'He who trusts in
+the Lord!'--You know the rest."
+
+"Of course I do. At the first meeting of the committee one of the
+members had a slight misunderstanding with another member, at the second
+meeting a second member had a second misunderstanding, and by the time
+the fifth meeting was held Esaias and yourself were left to practise
+alone."
+
+"That is, word for word, what did happen, with this little difference,
+that we never had any practice at all. On the fifth occasion, four of
+the six members of the committee sent letters of excuse. Every one of
+them was ill. It was a veritable epidemic. Only the dancing master found
+no excuse for himself. As he was the only dancing-master in the town he
+could not go and lie that he had sprained his foot.
+
+"Esaias walked three times up and down in front of my house, puffing
+away at his big pipe. Every time he passed he looked up at the window,
+and, seeing nobody there, went on farther.
+
+"At last the dancing-master came _chassé_-ing up; I could see from his
+grinning face that he had some ill-tidings to tell me. Only people who
+have found some excuse for covering their retreat come smiling like
+that.
+
+"'My lady! I am inconsolable'--('I know all about _that_!' thought
+I)--'but I can't come to the concert. Our gipsy musicians have gone to
+Pest.' ('What do they want there?' I asked.) 'All the gipsy bands in the
+kingdom have assembled together for a grand competition.... Now, without
+gipsy music I can't dance. Who can play me the "_Bihari Kesergó_," I
+should like to know?' ('I will!' I said.) 'Ha! ha! ha! that wouldn't do
+at all! What? _one_ dancer and _one_ violin-player!--it would be a mere
+farce.'
+
+"Hereupon Esaias popped in. Seeing through the window that I was no
+longer alone, he took heart and came in. He had not dared to do so
+before."
+
+Here I intervened: "If I am not very much mistaken, I know this dear
+Esaias of yours. It once happened to him, while still a student, that he
+sat beside the priest's daughter at supper. He did not dare to say a
+word to her; but in the afternoon he went up the church tower and
+courted the young lady from one of the windows."
+
+"It is possible that it was he. I, however, made both the gentlemen
+stay, that at least the coffee and 'cowl-skippers'[113] might not be
+wasted. They did not wait to be asked twice, but ate with right good
+will. During the meal we fully discussed the best means of helping
+forward the stranded concert. Suddenly the dancing-master looked at his
+watch: 'Gracious me, if it isn't six o'clock! I must be off to give the
+children of the chief magistrate a dancing-lesson'--and with that he
+jumped up, kissed my hand, and pirouetted off.
+
+[Footnote 113: A sort of dumpling.]
+
+"Then Esaias also rose from the table, brushed the crumbs of the
+cowl-skippers from his coat, and said: 'Blessing and peace be with
+you!'--This was always his parting formula. Such a salutation as 'Your
+humble servant!' or 'I commend myself to your protection!' nobody has
+ever heard from his lips--no, not even his superintendent; for Esaias is
+not _humble_ and not _your servant_, and does not commend himself to
+anybody, nor will he tell a lie even as a matter of form.
+
+"'What! must you go too?' I replied to his 'blessing and peace.' 'You
+have no six-o'clock school this evening.'
+
+"'No; but why should I stay here if there's to be no practice?'
+
+"'Must I, then, begin singing in my own house before a man?'
+
+"'It depends upon the man,' replied Esaias.
+
+"'What am I to understand by that?' I inquired, much astonished.
+
+"'What are you to understand by that?' said he, striking the leg of his
+boot repeatedly with his pipe stem--'what are you to understand by that?
+It is not very hard to understand, I should think. If a lawyer, a
+doctor, or a squire were to come to see you and amuse himself here with
+or without music, not a dog in the village would have anything to bark
+at; but if they saw the schoolmaster come here at six o'clock in the
+afternoon--if they saw him, I say, remain here last of all when the
+other guests were gone, then there would be such a stir in Israel that
+men would be ready to stone me.'
+
+"'Do I stand, then, in such evil odour as all that?'
+
+"'I did not say that you were in any evil odour at all.'
+
+"'It is true,' he continued, 'that there are as many names written in
+your album as in Charles Trattner's almanack. That, however, does a
+pretty woman no harm. But me the Church would not forgive. If I get into
+evil odour, if I overstep the line, I shall be sent packing.'
+
+"'Then celibacy obtains among the Calvinists also?'
+
+"'Not celibacy, but we have the canonical prescriptions. A canonical
+offence is a very serious business for a Calvinist priest or
+schoolmaster. Let a man be a veritable John Chrysostom, and it will
+avail him nothing if he commit a canonical offence.'
+
+"'And _you_ have _never_ committed a canonical offence?' I said to him.
+
+"'Never!' he replied resolutely. And he grew quite red in the face. He
+was so proud of his virtue."
+
+"Why surely this is quite a new thing?" I interrupted--"a thing never
+known in the world before: a man who is virtuous, and not ashamed to
+confess it?"
+
+"Quite unique, isn't it? When I heard this I seized his hand and would
+not let him leave me. I could read from his eyes that it was the first
+time he had ever felt the pressure of a lady's hand. 'You have been
+candid,' I said to him, 'I will be candid also. You would never approach
+a woman whom you had not led to the altar. I know it. Then you shall
+lead _me_ to the altar!'
+
+"Even this did not seem to surprise him. His face remained as motionless
+as a statue.
+
+"'That is soon done,' said he; 'but _respice finem_! Man proposes, but
+'tis an old dog that holds on. I am not like other men. I am a very
+difficult man to get on with. You can't deal with me as with those who
+look through their fingers at the goings-on of their spouses. If I take
+you to wife, there must be an end to all this dancing and prancing and
+gadding about, and flirting and ogling. My wife will not have to go
+fasting, but she won't be allowed any junketing. I don't understand a
+joke. Do you see this cherry-wood pipe-stem? If I catch my wife at any
+piece of trickery, I'll break this cherry-stem across her back--take my
+word for it.'"
+
+I couldn't help smiling at this. "And you, my dear, pretty ward, have
+actually taken the schoolmaster to husband, cherry-stem and all?"
+
+"I should like to have taken him, but he didn't surrender himself so
+easily. I assured him that I would submit myself to the most stringent
+discipline of virtue, and if I transgressed against him, I should not
+mind his beating me. But even that did not vanquish him. By no means
+whatever could he be brought to sit down beside me on the sofa. He even
+pushed back the chair on which he was sitting, when he saw that I was
+besieging him. At last he brought his big guns to bear upon me.
+
+"'Look now, my dear dame, I know very well that humorous habit of yours
+of never remaining long in one nest. You deal with your sweethearts on a
+sort of give-and-take system. You are here to-day and off to-morrow.
+Supposing now, that in the exercise of my marital authority, I were to
+inflict an edifying chastisement upon you for your flightiness, you
+might easily take it into your head to bolt, and there should I be left
+in the lurch for the finger of scorn to point at. A Calvinist
+schoolmaster cannot submit to the fate of an ordinary man. If my wife
+were to leave me, I should be expelled from the Church with contumely.
+Then I should have to flee. I should be as good as excluded from human
+society. Now, I am very well satisfied with my present condition. I have
+a fixed salary of six hundred florins in good hard cash, and my
+perquisites amount to about as much again. I live honourably, you see,
+and I cannot afford to stake everything on a throw of the dice.'
+
+"Then I talked big also.
+
+"'Listen to me!' I said. 'I have capital sufficient to bring me in as
+much as your yearly income--that is to say, twenty-five thousand
+florins. I will make over the whole amount to you by way of a dower, and
+I am ready to forfeit it all in case I am unfaithful to you.'"
+
+"And didn't your Esaias capitulate even then?" I inquired of Bessy.
+
+"He asked for three days to think about it. I immediately hastened to
+you to signify my desire that your guardianship might cease."
+
+"Then Esaias has still two days' grace," I said. "I hope and trust he
+may be inwardly illuminated to say no!"
+
+"Then you do not approve of my determination?"
+
+"I am a friend of truth, and I understand a little about prophecy too.
+It doesn't matter to me if you surrender all your capital as a sort of
+shrift-money, and your house as well."
+
+"Such a man as he is worthy of it."
+
+"I'll take your word for it. You are something of an expert in such
+matters! But one thing I strongly advise you to do: keep the garden
+attached to the house at your own disposition."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"That you may have it planted full of cherry-trees. I know the natural
+history of the Calvinist-schoolmaster species. I know that what once he
+has promised he always performs. I also know the natural history of the
+lady with the eyes like the sea, and it is my belief that you will
+frequently give occasion for the employment of cherry-tree stems."
+
+At this the fair lady sprang from her chair, boiling over with rage.
+
+"What a gross monster it is! Poet indeed! A pedantic lout is what I call
+you! They've done very well to lock you up. This is the last time that
+we shall ever talk to each other."
+
+And with that she went, or rather flounced, away.
+
+But I gave a great sigh of relief.
+
+"May she keep her word, and never, never come back again!" I said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the first things I saw, on my release from prison, was the
+announcement in the newspapers of the solemnization of the marriage. The
+bank also informed me by letter that the amount there standing to the
+credit of my ward had been transferred to her husband's name.
+
+Well, at last Bessy had got the _ne plus ultra_ of husbands. For,
+really, the man who has reached his two-and-thirtieth year without
+sinning against the canonical prescriptions must indeed be a superlative
+treasure in the eyes of a lady who knows how to appreciate the value of
+such renunciation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+CONFESSION
+
+
+Well, the long and short of it is, confess I must, that I have a
+sweetheart for whose sake I have been unfaithful, not only to my wife,
+but to my muse also--a sweetheart who has immeshed me in her spider's
+web, and sucked my heart's blood dry, who has appropriated my best
+ideas, made me scamper after her from one end of the kingdom to the
+other, and whose slave I was and still am. Often have I wasted half my
+fortune upon her, and rushed blindly into misfortune to please her. For
+her have I patiently endured insult, ridicule, and reprobation. For her
+sake I have staked life and liberty.
+
+Sometimes, when I have felt the pinch of her tyranny, I have tried to
+escape from her; but she has enticed me back again and would not let me
+go.
+
+Now, if she had been some pretty young damsel, there might have been
+some excuse for me. But she was a nasty, old, painted figure-head of a
+beldame; a flirting, faithless, fickle, foul-mouthed, scandal-mongering
+old liar, whom the whole world courts, who makes fools of all her
+wooers, and changes her lover as often as she changes her dress.
+
+Her name is _Politica_,[114] and may the plague take her.
+
+[Footnote 114: Politics.]
+
+There was one particular year in which I was over head and ears in love
+with her, and did absolutely everything she wanted. On her account I
+fell out with a good friend of mine who was the very right hand of my
+newspaper. I fought (also on her account) a duel with pistols with
+another good friend of mine, who had no more offended me than I had ever
+offended him, in fact, we had always respected each other most highly.
+But Politica insisted upon it, and so we banged away at each other. Then
+she hounded me on against a third good friend of mine, who was an
+excellent fellow, and a Hungarian Minister of State to boot, and induced
+me to endeavour to thwart his election. And I actually _did_ make this
+excellent fellow's election fall through, this good friend whom I
+respected, loved and honoured. Politica demanded it. What a parade she
+made when she dragged me along after her triumphal car! She actually
+made me believe that I was now the most famous man in the whole kingdom!
+And she made me _pay_ for her precious favours, too! What _petits
+soupers_ for five hundred men at a time! What hundreds of carriages!
+What toilets!... But in those days I was quite wrapped up in her.
+
+After my great triumph a torrent of congratulatory letters and telegrams
+showered down upon me. I had actually upset a Cabinet Minister! That
+_was_ a triumph! Every one who, at any time, or under any
+circumstances, had been acquainted with me, called upon me after my
+brilliant success. Old school-fellows with whom I had formerly fought in
+the playground now recollected me. There was a brisk demand for my
+autograph. I was proud of it all. I was not even surprised, therefore,
+when one afternoon they brought into me a visiting card with the name
+"Mrs. Esaias Medvési" upon it.
+
+It was very natural that she also should visit me. The sunbeams of my
+glory had melted the ice of her displeasure. Six years had now passed
+since I had seen her. I could imagine how she had filled out in the
+meantime. Well taken care of, with no vexations to worry her, harassed
+by no passions, what other fate could possibly await my fair ideal
+than--to grow fat?
+
+All the more startled was I, therefore, when I _did_ see her.
+
+She had grown quite gaunt. Her old-fashioned dress, which had been made
+to fit fuller forms, hung loosely about her. Her face, once so rosy and
+gay, was now lean and haggard; sombre wrinkles, which met together
+beneath her chin, had taken the place of her roguish dimples. Only by
+her eyes could I recognise her: they were still the eyes of yore.
+
+When she saw me she forced a smile, but I could see how much it cost
+her.
+
+I have never thought it a proper question to ask any one whose face has
+altered a good deal, "Are you ill?" but she herself led up to it.
+
+"I have greatly changed, haven't I? 'Tis a wonder that you recognise me.
+I have been very ill. I have just come from the doctor. I have been
+suffering from a quartan ague, which our country doctors could not drive
+away."
+
+"But otherwise you are all right, I trust?"
+
+"No, I am not. I fancy that my physical ailment is only as stubborn as
+it is, because my mind also is not as it should be."
+
+I asked her what was the matter.
+
+"I have come on purpose to tell you. You always gave me good advice, and
+I never took it. It may be that I wouldn't take it even now; but at
+least it would relieve my mind to tell you all about it. I have a secret
+desire which is destroying my whole soul: I go to sleep with it, and I
+wake up with it."
+
+"What desire can it be?"
+
+"If you but look at my face, you can easily see that it is no sinful
+affection."
+
+"And yet it must be kept secret?"
+
+"Yes, for I go about day and night with the thought of becoming a
+Catholic."
+
+I was so startled by this, that in my amazement I knew not what to say
+to her.
+
+"It is my fixed resolution. The only thing that can give to my soul
+peace on earth and salvation in heaven is conversion to the Roman
+Catholic Church."
+
+"How did you come by this resolution? There is no Catholic church in the
+town where you reside."
+
+"But there is a monastery quite close to it, a sweet, quiet, pleasant
+place. I am wont to go there when they are not watching me. A mere
+accident moved me at first. Curiosity led me into the church when I
+heard the holy chants through the door; but now it is devotion which
+leads me there. Ah! how much more sublime a place it is than our bald,
+bare place of worship. Wherever I look I see groups of holy figures who
+bless and beckon me. And those sublime chants, which seem to come from
+the angelic chorus of heaven, and ravish my soul away to a world
+unknown--but oh, how ardently desired! And then the deep silence, which
+is scarcely broken by the solemn sanctus-bell; and then the form of the
+priest himself, who, like a supernatural being, speaks before the altar
+in a language which men may not, but God does, understand. When I come
+out of such a church it seems to me as if I have been speaking to God."
+
+I began thinking what would be the end of it all. The lady became
+insistent.
+
+"What do you advise? What shall I do? My soul compels me to it."
+
+"My dear friend," I replied, "you know that I am a Protestant--and as a
+Protestant I am liberally and indulgently inclined towards every other
+creed. I _advise_ nobody to change his religion, neither do I dissuade
+him from so doing. I have a real veneration for the Catholic faith. I
+consider its ritual majestic and sublime, and its ceremonies are
+undoubtedly imposing and touching. Had I been born a Catholic, I should
+have been an ardent champion of my Church. But how can I approve of the
+conversion of a person in your position? Do you not reflect that your
+husband is an officer of the Calvinist communion?"
+
+"But it is the very prosaic nature of this communion which offends me.
+For in what a dull manner do our elders and deacons perform their sacred
+functions! Prayer, sermon, hymns--everything is with them a mere matter
+of enforced routine. How can they inspire others who have not themselves
+the gift of grace? Such people can only mock at and speak scornfully of
+their neighbours' faith because they have no real faith of their own."
+
+"But pray recollect that a Protestant schoolmaster loses his post if his
+wife changes her religion."
+
+"He may lose his material comforts, but I lose the repose of my soul."
+
+"My dear Bessy, I can imagine that a woman with extraordinarily
+sensitive nerves may find no consolation in Puritan simplicity. If you
+would seek refuge in true devotion, procure Allach's prayer-book--the
+manual of Catholic prayers, you know. In that book you'll find
+everything that is sublime, majestic, and heavenly in Catholic theology.
+Pray out of that book when you are alone and nobody sees you."
+
+"That is not enough for me. Religion does not consist in prayers and
+singing alone."
+
+"Then perhaps it is the pomp of the external ceremonies which has such
+an effect on your mind?"
+
+"That affects me least of all. But there is in the Catholic Church an
+institution as sublime as it is comforting, an institution sufficient of
+itself to spread the Catholic religion all over the round world wherever
+there are hearts that bleed, wherever there are those who suffer from
+other than merely material aches and pains. That institution is
+_confession_. It was a gross blunder of John Calvin not to have retained
+that institution for the faithful. He did not know the heart, especially
+the female heart. There is no greater torture in this world than to
+carry about in one's soul night and day an evil thought which harasses
+and pursues, and be unable to tell it to anybody. A Catholic woman can
+always find a word of consolation for her despair, a hand stretched out
+to raise her when she falls; _she_ has a refuge against the accusations
+of her own conscience; if she has sinned, she can beg for absolution,
+and her soul is lightened of its load. But who can absolve me? To whom
+can I tell that which tortures me within?"
+
+Her eyes were fixed and staring like the eyes of a somnambulist who sees
+nothing before her but a visionary world which others do not see, and at
+the same time she raised her index finger and laid it on her parched and
+cracking lips, as if to keep back the moanings of her dumb distress.
+
+I was deeply grieved for her. She had no need to tell me what she felt;
+her features spoke for themselves, and said how much she must have
+suffered since the last change in her life.
+
+"My dear friend," I said at last, "you have now known me for a long
+time, and you know that I have always been your well-wisher. If you have
+any bitter thought which oppresses you, confess it to me. _Amongst
+Protestants every man is a priest._ That is our fundamental dogma.
+Confess to me!"
+
+She smiled strangely; just as a sick man smiles when the doctor tries to
+persuade him that he really is well, while he himself is thinking all
+the time: "Just you wait a bit, and I'll turn the joke against you
+and--die!"
+
+"You will receive my confession, then?"
+
+"Yes; and rest assured that I'll keep the solemn secret as sacred as a
+consecrated priest."
+
+"As long as I am alive, at any rate. After I am dead, I don't care what
+you do. You may then proclaim it to the world if you like. When I am
+dead, I authorize you to write a romance about me, a romance like mine
+you have never written yet. But _till_ then, not a word to any one of
+what you will now hear from me. To nobody, not even to your wife!
+Promise me that! Your word of honour on it!"
+
+"My friend, there is a crypt within my breast for buried secrets. Your
+secret shall repose among the rest."
+
+She bent down to my ear, her burning breath scorched my face, and she
+whispered: "I confess to you that I wish _to kill my husband_."
+
+Horrified, I looked into her eyes, they flashed up at me like the eyes
+of devils. That wish of hers was a real living wish.
+
+"And what I've said, I'll do"--and she pressed her lips together till
+they were quite thin, and her eyes distended into orbs filled with
+threatening fire.
+
+"Good Heavens! what thought is this?"
+
+She looked at me with a malicious smile.
+
+"There, you see you are no priest, and can give no absolution."
+
+"Nor would a priest give you absolution either. A priest can impose
+penance for sin repented of, but he cannot give indulgence beforehand
+for a meditated crime. A priest could only say to you what I say now:
+'Fly to God and cleanse your soul from this dark thought!' How could you
+ever have suffered it to enter your soul, that good and gentle soul of
+yours that used always to love and never to hate?"
+
+"Yes, such I ever was, was I not? I was indeed a loving fool. You once
+wrote a tale which I remember reading when a child. In this tale a
+distracted heart relates how many ways there are of extinguishing life.
+Amongst other things written there is this: that if honey is allowed to
+stand till it rots, it turns into the deadliest venom. This is quite
+true as to the honey with which the heart of a poor credulous woman is
+full, but it is _not_ true with regard to the honey of the field. I have
+tried and found that it is not true."
+
+"Believe me, neither case is true. In married life there is no such sea
+of bitterness as cannot be made sweet again by a single drop of love."
+
+"Alas! what I suffer exceeds even the power of your imagination.
+Contempt, degradation, is my daily bread. Insult follows upon every step
+I take. When I speak, my words are misinterpreted; when I am silent, I
+am chided; when I weep, I am bullied and brow-beaten."
+
+"Do you think that perhaps your husband suspects your intention of
+changing your faith?"
+
+"So much he knows, that I frequently visit the monastery, and often have
+talks with one of the monks. I solemnly swear that I've talked to him
+about nothing but religion and holy things. He, however, accuses me of
+the nastiest things. Then when we sit together at table, he poisons
+every dish I eat by singing the most derisive songs he can think of
+about those women who rave about cowls and cassocks; in fact, he is
+_always_ singing such songs in my presence."
+
+"But, my dear friend, you take these things too tragically. These
+derisive songs have been sung time out of mind. Your husband has not
+invented them for your special aggravation. Laugh at him to his face,
+and he'll hold his tongue."
+
+"Very well, then. Let what he does to ridicule _me_ be forgiven. But
+ever since he has begun to suspect my spiritual condition, he leaves no
+stone unturned to disturb my devotions. If in the afternoon or evening,
+when the chiming of the cloister bell is wafted over to us, I
+involuntarily join my hands together, he laughs at me: 'Ha! ha! ha! they
+are ringing the bells to call you to prayer, are they?' Now, the
+Calvinists do not ring for evening prayers, neither do they sound the
+Angelus, and this is a great grief to me. It is like rolling my bread in
+the mud and then making me eat it. This continual ridiculing clings to
+me like tar; it chokes, it nauseates. I feel just as if I were swimming
+in a sea of glue. He relates to me the most villainous anecdotes about
+the holy images. Last Saturday it rained the whole morning, and I could
+not go to town. He saw my impatience, and said to me derisively, 'Never
+mind, _thou female_, it will clear up this afternoon, for the Virgin
+Mary wants to dry her son's little shirt for Sunday!' It was well for
+him that he left the room that instant, for I was very near driving my
+knife into his heart!"
+
+I tried to quiet the excited creature by saying that though this was no
+very reverent jest, yet it was not an invention of Esaias's. This jest
+about the breaking out of the sunshine on Saturday afternoon was a
+common saying among the Hungarian country folk, and, taken seriously,
+had really nothing impious about it, representing, indeed, that sacred
+figure, whom all of us are bound to reverence, as a provident mother
+from the homely, rustic point of view.
+
+"I don't like to hear _that_ name on _his_ lips. Why, I sent away an old
+servant of mine called Marcsa for no other reason than because her
+master was always calling her Maria, and every such time it was as if a
+dagger were piercing my heart."
+
+I saw that the woman was really suffering. It was a case where a heroic
+remedy was required.
+
+"My dear friend," I said, "I cannot blame your husband. Your religious
+extravagance, which has been not a little stimulated by the irritability
+of your nerves and the nostrums which the provincial doctors have made
+you drink, is a question of 'to be or not to be' for your husband. If
+you cling to the saints, poor Esaias will feel the earth giving way
+beneath him. You are bound to one another, remember. If you go and seek
+heaven in another church, you will only install hell in your own house.
+Believe me, if your husband discovers your design, he will fly into a
+fury and tear you to pieces. If I were you I should go to some medicinal
+watering place and get your nerves braced up a bit."
+
+"I see--I see. You do not understand what is the matter with me. You
+think it is a mere feminine ailment, which is, generally, half
+affectation. Look at that recipe. The most famous doctor in the capital
+prescribed it for me. I went to him, he diagnosed me. He said that the
+country doctors had not treated my case properly. They had stuffed me
+full of quinine, he said, and it was not the medicament that I wanted.
+So he prescribed me another. Read it!"
+
+I looked at the prescription and saw it was arsenic.
+
+"The doctor prescribed six drops for the first day, and a drop more
+every other day up to twenty drops, and then back by single drops to six
+again. Then my fever will return no more. But he cautioned me to keep
+most strictly to his prescription, as the remedy was a very dangerous
+one. Is that so?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"I have had it made up in the Józsefváros dispensary." And with that she
+drew out the flask from her pocket and showed it me.
+
+"That will do for me. I will now go with this prescription to all the
+ten apothecaries in the town and have it made up by every one of them.
+_Ten times the strength will certainly do for him._"
+
+Horrified, I seized her hand.
+
+"Miserable woman, what wouldst thou do? Surely not commit murder?
+Wouldst thou poison thy husband's body and my soul? Every time I have
+thought of thee I have seen thee before me in the idealized form of my
+pure love of early days, and wilt thou now put horror and aversion in
+the place of it? Give me that prescription!"
+
+With terrified, staring eyes, and trembling in every nerve, the woman
+fell down on her knees before me, and when I said to her: "Hitherto thou
+hast always had a place in my prayers, dost thou wish me to cast thee
+forth from my remembrance with curses?" she began to smile.
+
+"_'Tis the first time in your life that you have 'thou'd' me._ Let me
+then return the compliment. But no, I cannot _thou_ thee. The word
+_thou_ cannot come out of my mouth. Don't lift me up. Let me kneel
+before you. I fain would only weep, but no tears will flow. Here is the
+prescription. Destroy it if you like. I was mad. I knew not what I said.
+'Tis true. If life be grievous to me, 'tis I who ought to die."
+
+"What you now say is also a sin. Heaven does not give us that divine
+spark, the spirit, only that we may fling it back again. Learn to bear
+your sorrows in silence. Every one of us has his cross which God has
+laid upon him that he may carry it ... If you would believe in the
+saints, follow their example. _Be_ a martyr, if God so wills it--that is
+the _real_ Catholic faith...."
+
+She began to sob, but after some little difficulty I contrived to pacify
+her. I also provided her with all sorts of good homely counsels. "A good
+wife," I said, "ought to humour her husband, and not sit in judgment on
+his faults." I told her to bring him to me and introduce me to him.
+Perhaps I might make some impression on him, and prevail upon him not to
+press his crotchets too far. It was even possible that I might find him
+some work to do, something relating to spiritual subjects which might
+occupy his mind, kindle his ambition, and make him peel off his cynical
+husk. No doubt he was a good and worthy man, who only needed to be
+properly taken in hand to get on very well.
+
+The lady with the eyes like the sea listened with many shakes of the
+head, but she had gradually grown much more quiet. Those eyes of hers,
+how they could express gratitude! It really seemed as if, beneath the
+influence of my words, her face was recovering the rosy hue that it had
+lost.
+
+Alas, no! Vain thought! 'Twas not my words, but something else.
+
+She arose and rallied her spirits.
+
+"Very well! I'll take your advice. I will endure. I will be patient. I
+will down with every evil thought. I will show that I can be a good
+wife. You shall be satisfied with me. But one thing I'll tell you. My
+husband has threatened to strike me. If ever he does that, then God be
+merciful both to him and me."
+
+Now I knew why her face had turned so red--"If my husband dishonours me
+by a single blow, I swear that I'll seize a gun and shoot him dead!" And
+with that she rushed out of the room. I felt as if I ought to call after
+her: "Don't go home, wretched woman!"
+
+It was too late. She was already outside the door. She had vanished like
+a vision of the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+MARIA NOSTRA.
+
+
+Ah! what an ocean of time has passed since this happened. It must be
+twenty years, at least. It makes me giddy when I look back upon it. But
+how many evil years there were, how many days that I do not love to
+think about! How many have been torn from my side to whom life was a joy
+and on whom the future smiled! And I still remain! Only here and there,
+now and again, perhaps, do I encounter a grey-headed shape like myself,
+a relic from that brilliant time, and what a joy it then is to look back
+upon those old days and say: "It is not so good now as it was then!"
+
+Some years ago I was on a visit of inspection among our large national
+State prisons. I happened to be at Szamosujvár and Illava, where the
+aristocracy of crime is collected together, persons condemned to a term
+of imprisonment exceeding ten years, all of them criminals once under
+sentence of death, but reprieved by an act of grace. Here were
+interesting studies of the night side of human nature.
+
+I also visited the Maria Nostra. Here the female criminals resided, and
+nuns were the warders.
+
+This house of correction can only be visited by special permission of
+the Ministry.
+
+There the discipline is strict, but the prisoners are very well treated.
+
+Last of all we visited the day-room, where the prisoners were at work.
+
+They all sat in a long room, and were sewing. Those who could do the
+finer sort of work were at little tables of their own. I stopped before
+one of such tables; a woman was sewing some sort of child's garment. It
+is the rule that when a visitor stops before the table of one of the
+felons, she shall immediately rise from her seat and, whether asked or
+unasked, say what her crime is and how long her term of imprisonment.
+
+She arose when I stood before her table.
+
+Her hair was as white as autumn gossamers, but her eyes still flashed
+with their old varying fires--they were still, as of old, the flaming
+eyes like the sea! In a dull monotone she told me her crime and her
+sentence: "I killed my husband. I am condemned to imprisonment for
+life."
+
+For life!--and life so long!
+
+"Can I not use my interest in your favour?"
+
+"I thank you, but it is well with me here. I wish for nothing more in
+this world."
+
+And with that she returned to her place and went on with her work.
+
+Poor little Bessy!
+
+Last year I received a letter announcing her death. It was her last wish
+that I, but nobody else, should be informed of it.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+EYES LIKE THE SEA.
+
+BY MAURUS JÓKAI
+
+12MO, CLOTH
+
+A FEW COMMENTS OF THE
+ENGLISH PRESS
+
+Half autobiographical, dramatic, and at the same time
+humorous, Jókai's novel, crowned by the Hungarian
+Academy in 1860, is a delightful exception to the
+tendency which is fast making fiction a branch of
+science instead of art.--_Morning Post._
+
+It is a strikingly original and powerful story ... The
+great charm of the book is the manner in which Jókai
+analyses Bessie's character. All through the story
+indeed we feel ourselves in the presence of a master of
+the human heart, and again and again we come upon
+sentences pregnant with that wisdom which it is the lot
+of but few to acquire.--_Speaker._
+
+From beginning to end "Eyes like the Sea" teems with
+entertaining matter and the English version is highly
+creditable to Mr. Nisbet Bain the translator of this
+sprightly autobiographical novel.--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+"Eyes Like the Sea" is an alluring book into which to
+dip at random ...--_Academy._
+
+"Eyes like the Sea" is one of those rare books that
+break all rules and defy criticism by justifying their
+irregularities.--_Guardian._
+
+It is good to know too that fiction in Hungary has a
+master so hearty, so human, and so free at once from
+priggishness and _naturalism_.--_Saturday Review._
+
+In some respects the heroine reminds us of Becky Sharp
+and in others of Manon Lescaut, and in feminine
+dexterity and sexual eccentricities is no unworthy mate
+for either.--_Athenæum._
+
+It is truly, as Mr. Bain remarks in his preface, a
+brilliant example of the now rare novel of incident and
+adventure ... The vigor of the book is
+astonishing.--_World._
+
+The charm of the original as a work of art loses a good
+deal in the translation ... none the less the book is
+extremely interesting. It is a sketchy and vivacious
+summary of the more salient incidents in the political
+and literary career of the eminent Hungarian poet and
+romancist, its author.--_Literary World._
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the
+original edition have been corrected.
+
+In the Preface, "pronouned preference" was changed to "pronounced
+preference".
+
+In Chapter I, a missing period was added after "Valsez là".
+
+In Chapter II, "would have withrawn" was changed to "would have
+withdrawn", and a missing quotation mark was added before "you ought
+really to be a tamer of animals!".
+
+In Chapter III, a missing period was added after "after her wedding".
+
+In Chapter IV, a quotation mark was added before "They are all in a very
+good humour to-day".
+
+In Chapter VI, "amongst us at the, Table of Public Opinion" was changed
+to "amongst us at the Table of Public Opinion".
+
+In Chapter VIII a missing quotation mark was added after "skiz and
+pagát...."
+
+In Chapter X a missing period was added after "Newspapers he never
+reads".
+
+In Chapter XIII, "beleagured fortress" was changed to "beleaguered
+fortress", "hide yourself in the village of Isza" was changed to "hide
+yourself in the village of Izsa", a missing period was added after
+"glass full of szilvorium", and an extraneous quotation mark was deleted
+after "the hovel at Hetény".
+
+In Chapter XIV, a quotation mark was added before "Forget what we have
+been speaking about!"
+
+In Chapter XV, "Wencesclaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement" was
+changed to "Wenceslaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement".
+
+In Chapter XVI, "Kakas Mártin," was changed to "Kakas Mártin."
+
+The ellipses in Chapter XVII both contained an extra dot (a period plus
+four dots at the end of a sentence, and four dots following an
+incomplete sentence). The extra dots have been removed. Also, a missing
+period has been added after "her various temperaments".
+
+In Chapter XVIII, a missing quotation mark was added after "mutually
+discovered in Kvatopil's character....". In Chapter XIX, "Özvegy
+Kapitáuyné" was changed to "Özvegy Kapitányné", a period was changed to
+a colon after "said to the President", a missing quotation mark was
+added after "left to practise alone", and "piroutted off" was changed to
+"pirouetted off".
+
+In Chapter XX, "turn the jok against you" was changed to "turn the joke
+against you", "the Józsefvarose dispensary" was changed to "the
+Józsefváros dispensary", "the real Ca holic faith" was changed to "the
+real Catholic faith", and a misplaced quotation mark was move from after
+"taken in hand to get on very well" to after "sit in judgment on his
+faults".
+
+Numerous Hungarian words have been spelled inconsistently, sometimes
+with an accent and sometimes without, and some words have been
+inconsistently hyphenated. Each occurrence has been left as it appeared
+in the original text, except as follows: "Fövarosi" has been changed to
+"Fövárosi", "Heteny" to "Hetény", "Honvéd" to "Honved", "Jokai" to
+"Jókai", "Rakóczy" to "Rákóczy", "Sagi" to "Sági", "Segesvar" to
+"Segesvár", "Valy" to "Vály", "Vasvary" to "Vasváry", and "Verchovszky"
+to "Vérchovszky".
+
+Also, the section titled "A Few Comments of the English Press" has been
+moved from the front of the book to the back.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eyes Like the Sea, by Mór Jókai
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EYES LIKE THE SEA ***
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diff --git a/31642-0.zip b/31642-0.zip
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@@ -0,0 +1,11993 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Eyes Like the Sea, by M�r J�kai
+
+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: Eyes Like the Sea
+
+Author: M�r J�kai
+
+Translator: R. Nisbet Bain
+
+Release Date: March 14, 2010 [EBook #31642]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EYES LIKE THE SEA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: EYES LIKE THE SEA.]
+
+
+
+
+EYES LIKE THE SEA
+
+A NOVEL
+By MAURUS J�KAI
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN
+BY R. NISBET BAIN
+
+NEW YORK
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+27 AND 29 WEST 23D ST
+1894
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                                PAGE
+PREFACE                                                           ix
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SEA-EYES--MONSIEUR GALIFARD--THE FIRST NEEDLE-PRICK                1
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MY FIRST DISTINCTION--MY FIRST GRIEVANCE--THE DAMENWALZER--THE
+FRIGHTFUL MONSTER--THE READJUSTED SCARF--THE SECOND NEEDLE-PRICK   7
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MY MASTERPIECE AND MY HUT                                         24
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PET�FI WITH US--PLANS FOR THE FUTURE--THE RAPE OF THE
+BRIDES--AMATEUR THEATRICALS--MY MENSHIKOV                         40
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OLYMPIAN STRIVINGS                                                54
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+AN ODD DUEL--THE FATEFUL LETTER J.--I ALSO BECOME A
+PETER GYURICZA                                                    60
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WELTSCHMERZ CONDITIONS--"REMAIN OR FLY!"                          74
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+PETER GYURICZA'S CONSORT                                          80
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE WOMAN WHO WENT ALONG WITH ME                                 117
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+WHERE THE WORLD IS WALLED UP                                     132
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+VALENTINE B�LV�NYOSSI AND TIHAM�R RENGETEGI                      140
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE MEETING AT THE PAGAN ALTAR                                   151
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT                                         190
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE DEMON'S BAIT                                                 247
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+MARVELS NOT TO BE SEEN FOR MONEY                                 266
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+SOLDIERING                                                       297
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+TEMPTATION                                                       309
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A COLD DOUCHE!                                                   321
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+ESAIAS MEDV�SI                                                   357
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+CONFESSION                                                       379
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+MARIA NOSTRA                                                     394
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The pessimistic tone of Continental fiction, and its pronounced
+preference for minute and morbid analysis, are quite revolutionizing the
+modern novel. Fiction is ceasing to be a branch of art, and fast
+becoming, instead, a branch of science. The aim of the novelist,
+apparently, is to lecture instead of to amuse his readers. Plot,
+incident, and description are being sacrificed more and more to the
+dissection of peculiar and abnormal types of character, and the story is
+too often lost in physiological details or psychological studies. The
+wave of _Naturalism_, as it is called (though nothing could really be
+more unnatural), has spread from France all over Europe. The Spanish and
+Italian novels are but pale reflections of the French novel. The German
+Naturalists have all the qualities of the French School, minus its
+grace. In Holland, the so-called _Sensitivists_ are at great pains to
+combine a coarse materialism with a sickly sentimentality. Much more
+original, but equally depressing, is the new school of Scandinavian
+novelists represented by such names as Garborg, Strindberg, Jacobsen,
+L�ffler, Hamsun, and Bj�rnson (at least in his later works), all of whom
+are more or less under the influence of Ibsenism, which may be roughly
+defined as a radical revolt against conventionality. In point of
+thoroughness some of these Northern worthies are not a whit behind their
+fellow craftsmen in France. The novel of the year in Norway for 1891 was
+a loathsomely circumstantial account of slow starvation. There is a lady
+novelist in the same country who could give points to Zola himself; and
+nearly every work of Strindberg's has scandalized a large portion of the
+public in Sweden. Nay, even remote Finland has been reached at last by
+the wave of _Naturalism_ in fiction, and Respectability there is still
+in tears at the perversion of the most gifted of Finnish novelists,
+Juhani Aho. In the Slavonic countries also the pessimistic, analytical
+novel is paramount, though considerably chastened by Slavonic mysticism,
+and modified by peculiar political and social conditions. Though much
+nobler in sentiment, the novel in Poland, Russia, and Bohemia is quite
+as melancholy in character as the general run of fiction elsewhere. A
+minor key predominates them all. There is no room for humour in the
+mental vivisection which now passes for _Belles-lettres_. We may learn
+something, no doubt, from these _fin de si�cle_ novelists, but to get a
+single healthy laugh out of any one of them is quite impossible.
+
+There is, however, one country which is a singular exception to this
+general rule. In Hungary the good old novel of incident and adventure is
+still held in high honour, and humour is of the very essence of the
+national literature. This curious isolated phenomenon is due, in great
+measure, to the immense influence of the veteran novelist, Maurus J�kai,
+who may be said to have created the modern Hungarian novel,[1] and who
+has already written more romances than any man can hope to read in a
+life-time. J�kai is a great poet. He possesses a gorgeous fancy, an
+all-embracing imagination, and a constructive skill unsurpassed in
+modern fiction; but his most delightful quality is his humour, a humour
+of the cheeriest, heartiest sort, without a single _soup�on_ of
+ill-nature about it, a quality precious in any age, and doubly so in an
+overwrought, supercivilized age like our own. Lovers of literature must
+always regret, however, that the great Hungarian romancer has been so
+prodigal of his rare gifts. He has written far too much, and his works
+vary immensely. Between such masterpieces, for instance, as "_Karp�thy
+Zolt�n_" and "_Az ar�ny ember_" on the one hand, and such pot-boilers as
+"_Nincsen Ord�g_," or even "_Szerelem Bolondjai_," on the other, the
+interval is truly abysmal. But that such a difference is due not to
+exhaustion, but simply to excessive exuberance, is evident from the
+story which we now present for the first time to English readers. "_A
+tengerszem� h�lgy_" is certainly the most brilliant of J�kai's later,
+and perhaps[2] the most humorous of all his works. It was justly
+crowned by the Hungarian Academy as the best Magyar novel of the year
+1890, and well sustains the long-established reputation of the master.
+Apart from the intensely dramatic incidents of the story, and the
+originality and vividness of the characterization, "_A tengerszem�
+h�lgy_" is especially interesting as being, to a very great extent,
+autobiographical. It is not indeed a _professed_ record of the author's
+life-like "_Eml�keim_" (My Memoirs) for instance. It professes to be a
+novel, and a most startling novel it is. Yet in none of J�kai's other
+novels does he tell us so much about himself, his home, and his early
+struggles both as an author and a patriot; _he_ is one of the chief
+characters in his own romance. Of the heroine, Bessy, I was about to say
+that she stood alone in fiction, but there is a certain superficial
+resemblance, purely accidental of course, between her and that other
+delightful and original rogue of romance, Mrs. Desborough, in Mr. Robert
+Louis Stevenson's "More New Arabian Nights," though all who have had the
+privilege of making the acquaintance of both ladies will feel bound to
+admit that J�kai's Bessy, with her five husbands, is even more piquant,
+stimulating, and fascinating than Mr. Stevenson's charming and elusive
+heroine.
+
+R. NISBET BAIN.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: I do not forget _K�rm�n_, _J�sika_, and _E�tv�s_, but the
+former was an imitator of Richardson, and the two latter of Walter
+Scott.]
+
+[Footnote 2: I say "perhaps," as I can only claim to have read
+twenty-five out of J�kai's one hundred and fifty novels.]
+
+
+
+
+EYES LIKE THE SEA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SEA-EYES--MONSIEUR GALIFARD--THE FIRST NEEDLE-PRICK
+
+
+Never in my life have I seen such wonderful eyes! One might construct a
+whole astronomy out of them. Every changeful mood was there reflected;
+so I have called them "Eyes like the Sea."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When first I met pretty Bessy, we were both children. She was twelve
+years old, I was a hobbledehoy of sixteen. We were learning dancing
+together. A Frenchman had taken up his quarters in our town, an
+itinerant dancing-master, who set the whole place in a whirl. His name
+was Monsieur Galifard. He had an extraordinarily large head, a bronzed
+complexion, eyebrows running into each other, and short legs; and on the
+very tip of his large aquiline nose was a big wart. Yet, for all that,
+he was really charming. Whenever he danced or spoke, he instantly
+became irresistible. All our womankind came thither on his account; all
+of them I say, from nine years old and upwards to an age that was quite
+incalculable. I recall the worthy man with the liveliest gratitude. I
+have to thank him for the waltz and the quadrille, as well as for the
+art of picking up a fallen fan without turning my back upon the lady.
+
+Bessy was the master's greatest trouble. She would never keep time; she
+would never take to the elegant "_pli_," and he could never wean her
+from her wild and frolicsome ways. Woe to the dancer who became her
+partner!
+
+I, however, considered all this perfectly natural. When any one is
+lovely, rich, and well-born, she has the right to be regarded as the
+exception to every rule. That she was lovely you could tell at the very
+first glance; that she was rich anybody could tell from the silver coach
+in which she rode; and by combining the fact that every one called her
+mother "Your Ladyship" with the fact that even the "country people"
+kissed her hand, you easily arrived at the conclusion that she must be
+well-born. Her lady-mother and her companion, a gentlewoman of a certain
+age, were present at every dancing lesson, as also was the girl's aunt,
+a major's widow in receipt of a pension. Thus Bessy was under a
+threefold inspection, the natural consequence of which was that she
+could do just as she liked, for every one of her guardians privately
+argued, "Why should I take the trouble of looking after this little girl
+when the other two are doing the same thing?" and so all three were
+always occupied with their own affairs.
+
+The mother was a lady who loved to bask on the sunny side of life; her
+widowhood pined for consolation. She had her officially recognised
+wooers, with more or less serious intentions, graduated according to
+rank and quality.
+
+The companion was the scion of a noble family. All her brothers were
+officers. Her father was a Chamberlain at Court; his _own_ chamber was
+about the last place in the world to seek him in. The young lady's
+toilets were of the richest; she also had the reputation of being a
+beauty, and was famed for her finished dancing. Still, time had already
+called her attention to the seriousness of her surroundings; for Bessy,
+the daughter of the house, had begun to shoot up in the most alarming
+manner, and four or five summers more might make a rival of her. Her
+occupation during the dancing hour was therefore of such a nature as to
+draw her somewhat aside lest people should observe with whom and in what
+manner she was diverting herself, for there is many an evil feminine eye
+that can read all sorts of things in a mere exchange of glances or a
+squeeze of the hand, and then, of course, such things are always talked
+to death.
+
+But it was the aunt most of all who sought for pretexts to vanish from
+the dancing-room. She wanted to taste every dish and pasty in the
+buffet before any one else, and well-grounded investigators said of her,
+besides, that she was addicted to the dark pleasure of taking snuff,
+which naturally demanded great secrecy. When, however, she was in the
+dancing-room, she would sit down beside some kindred gossiper, and then
+they both got so engrossed in the delight of running down all their
+acquaintances, that they had not a thought for anything else.
+
+So Bessy could do what she liked. She could dance _cs�rd�s_[3] figures
+in the Damensolo; smack her _vis-�-vis_ on the hands in the _tour de
+mains_, and tell anecdotes in such a loud voice that they could be heard
+all over the room; and when she laughed she would press both hands
+between her knees in open defiance of Monsieur Galifard's repeated
+expostulations.
+
+[Footnote 3: The national dance of Hungary.]
+
+One evening there was a grand practice in the dancing-room. With the
+little girls came big girls, and with the big girls big lads. Such
+lubbers seem to think that they have a covenanted right to cut out
+little fellows like me. Luckily, worthy Galifard was a good-natured
+fellow, who would not allow his _prot�g�s_ to be thrust to the wall.
+
+"Nix cache-cache spielen, Monsieur Maurice. Allons! Walzer geht an. Nur
+courage. Ne cherchez pas toujours das allerschlekteste T�nzerin! Fangen
+sie Fr�ulein Erzsike par la main. Valsez l�."[4] And with that he
+seized my hand, led me up to Bessy, placed my hand in hers, and then
+"ein, zwei."
+
+[Footnote 4: "Don't play hide-and-seek, Master Maurice. Off you go! 'Tis
+a waltz, remember. Come, come! courage. Don't always pick out the worst
+partner. Take Miss Bessy by the hand. Waltz away!"]
+
+Now, the waltzes of those days were very different from the waltzes we
+dance now. The waltz of to-day is a mere joke; but waltzing then was a
+serious business. Both partners kept the upper parts of their bodies as
+far apart as possible, whilst their feet were planted close together.
+Then the upper parts went moving off to the same time, and the legs were
+obliged to slide as quickly as they could after the flying bodies. It
+was a dance worthy of will-o'-the-wisps.
+
+The master kept following us all the time, and never ceased his
+stimulating assurances: "Tr�s bien, Monsieur Maurice! �a va
+ausgezeiknet! 'Alten sie brav la demoiselle! Nix auf die F�sse schauen.
+Regardez aux yeux. Das ist riktig. Embrassiren ist besser als
+embarrasiren! Pouah! Da liegst schon alle beide!"[5]
+
+[Footnote 5: "Very good, Master Maurice! That's capital! Hold the lady
+nicely! Don't look at your feet. Look at her eyes. That's right! To
+embrace is better than to embarrass. Pooh! There, they both are
+together!"]
+
+No, not quite so bad as that! I had foreseen the inevitable tumble, and
+in order to save my partner I sacrificed myself by falling on my knees,
+_she_ scarcely touched the floor with the tip of her finger. My knee
+was not much the worse for the fall, but I split my pantaloons just
+above the knee. I was annihilated. A greater blow than that can befall
+no man.
+
+Bessy laughed at my desperate situation, but the next moment she had
+compassion upon me.
+
+"Wait a bit," said she, "and I'll sew it up with my darning-needle."
+Then she fished up a darning-needle from one of the many mysterious
+folds of her dress, and, kneeling down before me, hastily darned up the
+rent in my dove-coloured pantaloons, and in her great haste she pricked
+me to the very quick with the beneficent but dangerous implement.
+
+"I didn't prick you, did I?" she asked, looking at me with those large
+eyes of hers which seemed to speak of such goodness of heart.
+
+"No," I said; yet I felt the prick of that needle even then.
+
+Then we went on dancing. I distinguished myself marvellously. With a
+needle-prick in my knee, and another who knows where, I whirled Bessy
+three times round the room, so that when I brought her back to the
+_garde des dames_, it seemed to me as if three-and-thirty mothers,
+aunts, and companions were revolving around me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MY FIRST DISTINCTION--MY FIRST GRIEVANCE--THE DAMENWALZER--THE FRIGHTFUL
+MONSTER--THE READJUSTED SCARF--THE SECOND NEEDLE-PRICK
+
+
+I am really most grateful to Monsieur Galifard. I have to thank him for
+the first distinction I ever enjoyed in my life. This was the
+never-to-be-forgotten circumstance that when my colleagues, the young
+hopefuls of the Academy of Jurisprudence at Kecskemet, gave a lawyers'
+ball, they unanimously chose me to be the _el�t�nczos_.[6] To this day I
+am proud of that distinction; what must I have been then? On the heels
+of this honour speedily came a second. The very same year, the Hungarian
+Academy of Sciences, on the occasion of the competition for the Teleki
+prize, honourably mentioned my tragedy, "The Jew Boy," and there were
+even two competent judges, V�r�smarty and Bajza,[7] who considered it
+worthy of the prize.... When, therefore, I returned to my native town,
+after an absence of three years, I found that a certain _renomm�e_ had
+preceded me. I had also very good reasons for returning home. The legal
+curriculum in my time embraced four years. The third year was given to
+the _patveria_, the fourth year to the _jurateria_.[8] Every respectable
+man goes through the patveria in his own country, but the _jurateria_ at
+Buda-Pest.
+
+[Footnote 6: The dancer who leads off the ball.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Two of the most eminent Hungarian poets.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Different branches of Hungarian law.]
+
+And I had something else to boast of, too. In my leisure hours I painted
+portraits, miniatures in oil. So well did I hit off the Judge of Osziny
+(and he did not give me a sitting either) that every one recognised him;
+but a still greater sensation was caused by my portrait of the wife of
+the Procurator Fiscal, who passed for one of the prettiest women in the
+town.
+
+And yet, despite all this, when in the following Shrovetide the Lord
+Lieutenant gave a ball to the county (they were something like Lord
+Lieutenants in those days), I was _not_ called upon to open the ball!
+Ungrateful fatherland!
+
+And who was it, pray, who caused me this bitter slight? A dandy, who did
+not belong to our town at all; a certain Muki Bagotay, of whom the world
+only knew that he had been to Paris, and was a good match. In my rage I
+had resolved not to dance at the Lord Lieutenant's ball, although I had
+received an invitation. Moreover, my indignation was increased by the
+circumstance that rumour had already designated Bessy as the
+semi-official partner of the opener of the ball.
+
+However, Nemesis overtook the pair of them.
+
+At this ball Bessy wore a frisure _� l'Anglaise_, which did not suit her
+face at all; and I rejoiced beforehand at the misadventure I clearly
+foresaw, for I was certain that her flying dishevelled hair would catch
+in the buttons of her partner's dress-coat.
+
+As for Muki Bagotay himself, the first time we cast eyes upon him, my
+young brother and I immediately agreed that it was an absolute
+impertinence to be so handsome. Only a romance-writer has the right to
+produce such perfect figures; they have no business to exist in reality.
+I comforted myself with the reflection that such a handsome fellow
+_must_ be a blockhead. I didn't know then that dulness was fashionable.
+Why, even _gold_ has a dull ring!
+
+But I was a very inexperienced youngster in those days. I had no down on
+my face, I did not know how to smoke, I would not have drunk wine for
+worlds, and had never even looked a lady in the face.
+
+But, as I said before, Nemesis overtook them.
+
+The dance opened with a waltz. If _I_ had been master of the ceremonies,
+I should have started with a _k�rmagyar_.[9] Ah! that _k�rmagyar_. That
+is something like a dance. It requires enthusiasm to dance _that_, and
+you want eight or sixteen couples to dance it properly, and all
+thirty-two dancers must dance it with histrionic precision, and that was
+not an easy thing to do, I can tell you. But, then, Bagotay was all for
+waltzes. The "Pecsovics"![10]
+
+[Footnote 9: An old Hungarian round dance.]
+
+[Footnote 10: One who preferred foreign and especially Austrian customs
+to Hungarian.]
+
+But there's a Nemesis!
+
+It was the regular custom then for the band to play ten or twelve bars
+of each dance before it began, and then stop for a few moments so that
+the public might know whether the next dance was to be a polka,
+quadrille, or waltz. Muki Bagotay did not know this (what did he know,
+forsooth?), so when the band gave the usual signal, he took his partner
+on his arm and started off with her in a fine whirl, till the band
+suddenly stopped, and they found themselves high and dry at the other
+end of the room with no music for their feet to dance to; so they had to
+sneak back shamefacedly to the place from whence they had started. Bessy
+was furious, and Muki was full of excuses; you would have taken them for
+a married couple of six months' standing. Serve them right!
+
+I did not watch them dance any more, but sat down in a corner and
+sketched caricatures on the back of my invitation card. Then I made my
+way to the buffet to drink almond-tea, and gathered round me two or
+three _blas�_ young men, like myself weary of existence. Let the gay
+company inside there try and amuse themselves without our assistance if
+they could!
+
+Suddenly some one tapped me on the shoulder with a fan, then I
+recognised a voice; it was Bessy. "What," she said, "not content with
+flying from the dancing-room yourself, must you keep away other dancers
+also! Come back, sir! A _Damenwalzer_ is beginning."
+
+For the privilege of a _Damenwalzer_ I capitulated unconditionally of
+course. Having completed the turn round the room with my partner, I led
+Bessy back to her mother, and thanked her for the never-to-be-forgotten
+distinction. She had to be off again almost immediately, for the voice
+of the master of the ceremonies announced a cotillon. The couples flew
+round with the velocity of will-o'-the-wisp. But her mother remained
+where she was, and there was an empty chair beside her.
+
+"You are quite forgetting your old acquaintances," said she, breathing
+heavily (she was stout and suffered from asthma). "You don't trouble
+your head about us now you have become a famous man."
+
+A famous man! What! then does _she_ also know that the Academy of
+Sciences honourably mentioned my tragedy? No, no! My other fame it was
+that had reached her--my pictorial successes.
+
+"We have seen the lovely portrait that you painted. Yes, it was Madame
+M�ller to the life--just as she looked fifteen years ago. Why did you
+not rather paint her daughter, she is much prettier? But you don't like
+painting girls, do you--you are afraid it is a losing game, eh?"
+
+The lady had certainly very peculiar expressions.
+
+Of course I could only reply that I was not a bit afraid, and that if
+they would let me, I should have the greatest pleasure in painting Miss
+Bessy.
+
+She was gracious enough to give her consent. The only thing was to fix
+when it should be. It could not be at once, as for some days after a
+ball young ladies do not look their best. Then they had to get ready for
+another dancing party, or were busy, and on Sundays they went to church.
+At last, however, after much calculation, a day was hunted up on which
+Bessy was free to sit to me.
+
+Then there was another question for consideration: was the portrait to
+be painted on ivory with water-colours, or on linen with oils? "Ivory is
+better," I insinuated, "because one can always wipe off a portrait in
+water-colours with a wet sponge whenever one likes."
+
+The lady remarked the self-reproach, and was gracious enough to
+neutralize it by a contradiction.
+
+"Then I declare for oils, for we wish to keep the picture for ever."
+
+I felt that I could have done anything for her.
+
+Meanwhile the cotillon had come to an end. Bessy returned to her mother,
+and the companion also resumed her place. The chair which I had
+appropriated belonged to her, and resigning it to its lawful possessor,
+I would have withdrawn, but the lady considered it her duty to present
+me to the ruling planet of the day, Muki Bagotay, who was escorting back
+his partner. She immediately acquainted him with my artistic
+qualifications, and made it generally known that I was going in a few
+days to paint her daughter's portrait.
+
+On the afternoon of the day appointed I appeared at Bessy's house. I had
+sent on beforehand my easel and my canvas by our servant. I found not a
+single soul of a lackey either in the passage or the ante-chamber. I was
+obliged to stand there and wait till some one came to announce me, and
+in the meantime I could not help overhearing the conversation in the
+adjoining room.
+
+"You are a good-for-nothing rascal yourself--a shameful, impertinent
+fellow!"
+
+I recognised the voice of the mistress of the house.
+
+In reply came a protesting shriek.
+
+"Where is there a stick?" cried the lady.
+
+And at the same instant a hoarse voice replied: "Madame, vous �tes une
+friponne!"
+
+A pretty conversation truly. I had certainly arrived at the wrong time.
+
+Meanwhile the door opened, and the flunkey came in rubbing one of his
+hands with the other; he was evidently in pain.
+
+"Have you been beaten?" cried I, in amazement; to which he angrily
+replied: "No! I have been _bitten_."
+
+What, actually bitten the footman!
+
+"Would you kindly walk in, sir; they are waiting for you."
+
+The moment I entered the room this enigmatical state of things was
+immediately plain to me. The personage to whom her ladyship was meting
+out these offensive epithets, and who was returning her such
+contemptuous replies, was a grey parrot who had just bitten the lackey
+in the finger and been chastised for this misdeed. The whole company was
+in the utmost excitement. There was a large assembly both of ladies and
+gentlemen; amongst the latter my eye immediately caught sight of Muki
+Bagotay. But the chief personage was the parrot. He was a grey-liveried,
+red-tailed, big-billed monster, and he stood in the middle of the
+tea-table in a threatening attitude. Somehow or other he had contrived
+to open the door of his bronze cage, and in a twinkling he stood in the
+midst of the tea-things on the covered table. "Oh, I only hope he won't
+get on my head!" cried a somewhat elderly lady, holding on to her
+chignon with both hands. Nobody dared to assume the offensive. The
+footman who had attempted to seize the fugitive had already been laid
+_hors de combat_ by the winged rebel, while the parlour-maid declared
+that she would not go near him if they gave her the whole house. The
+lady of the house meanwhile was making little dabs at the bird with a
+small Spanish cane, and calling it all sorts of abusive names; but the
+warlike pet always grasped the end of the cane with its strong beak,
+while he repaid with interest the injurious epithets bestowed upon him.
+
+When I joined the company I was scarcely noticed and the lady of the
+house, in reply to my salutation, "I kiss your hand," said, "You
+infamous scoundrel!" though she immediately added, "I did not mean
+you."--"You're one yourself," retorted the bird.
+
+"Come now, find a rhyme to that, Mr. Rhymster!" said Mr. Muki Bagotay.
+The wretch was apostrophizing me.--Rhymster, indeed!
+
+"Don't go near it!" cried Bessy; "he might bite your hand, and then you
+would not be able to paint me."
+
+They'd terrify me, eh? It only needed that. I instantly went straight
+for the bird. I would have done so had it been the double-headed Russian
+eagle itself. Was it divination which made me hit upon the proper word
+to say to such a human-voiced monster? "Give me your head!" said I. And
+at that word the terrible wretch bobbed down his head till he was
+actually standing on his curved beak, while I scratched his head with my
+index finger, which gratified him so much that he began to flutter his
+wings.
+
+Then I hazarded a second command.
+
+"Give me your foot!"
+
+And then, to the general amazement, the parrot raised its formidable
+three-pronged foot and clasped me tightly round the index finger with
+its claws; then it seized my thumb with its other foot, and allowed me
+to lift it from the table. Nor was that all. While I held it on my hand,
+just as the medi�val huntsmen held their falcons, the parrot bent its
+head over my hand and began to distribute kisses; but finally he went
+through every variation of the kiss till it was a perfect scandal. The
+ladies laughed. "Who ever could have taught him?"
+
+"I got the bird during the lifetime of my late lamented husband,"
+explained the lady of the house, with some confusion.
+
+Finally, the conquered sphinx affectionately confided to me his name:
+"Little Koko! Darling Koko!" But I transferred Koko from my fist to his
+cage, and put him on to the swinging ring, which he seized, and began to
+climb upwards with his beak. He was a veritable triped! On settling
+comfortably in his ring, he made me a low bow, and cried with a na�ve
+inflexion of voice--"Your humble servant!"
+
+"Positively marvellous!" gasped the lady-mother; "you ought really to be
+a tamer of animals!"
+
+"I mean to be."
+
+"Indeed! And what sort of beasts will you tame?"
+
+"Men!"
+
+Not one of them understood me.
+
+"Well, Mr. Poet," joked Muki Bagotay, "the ballad was a success; now let
+us see whether the picture also will be superlative."
+
+"How do you want to see it?"
+
+"So!" and with that he stuck his eye-glass into the corner of his nose.
+
+"Then you're just mistaken!" said I, "for when I paint a portrait nobody
+is allowed in the room except myself and the sitter."
+
+The whole company was amazed. Every one fancied that it would have been
+a public exhibition, and so they had all congregated together to see how
+a person's eye, mouth and ear came out. A large round table had been
+prepared for me, in order that a whole lot of them might sit around it
+with their hands on their elbows, and give me general directions as I
+went along: That eye a bit higher! that ringlet a little lower! A little
+more red here, and a little more white there! However, I declared
+plainly that I would not paint before a crowd; it was the rule in
+painting, I said. When portraits were being painted, nobody must be in
+the atelier but the painter and his model. Barab�s,[11] too, always made
+that a rule.
+
+[Footnote 11: Michael Barab�s, a famous Hungarian painter, born at
+Markosfalu in 1810.]
+
+My resolution produced an imposing effect on the company. It's a very
+nice thing when a man can do something which nobody else can! They had
+to agree that Bessy and I should sit alone in a little side room, which
+had only one window, and the lower part of even this window had to be
+covered by a Spanish screen so as to get a proper light. And nobody was
+to disturb us so long as the sitting lasted.
+
+The first sitting did not last long. In oil painting, the image should
+first of all be painted _under_, that is to say, with dull neutral
+colours. In those days I had never heard of such a thing as a first
+coating; while it is in this stage the picture is not fit to be looked
+at. It is absolutely hideous, and the better the likeness, the worse it
+looks. I allowed nobody to look at it, not even Bessy. I locked up the
+first essay in my painter's knapsack; it was a miniature. At this stage
+it was quite sufficient if the _insetting_ had succeeded, with the
+figure in profile, but the countenance quite _en face_; the shadows
+piled up, but the background merely thrown out tentatively, and the
+fundamental colours of the dress just insinuated. Every one will see
+that this last part is the hardest of all.
+
+The company was very much deceived in its expectations when it was
+informed that I had nothing to show it. Every one had expected that in
+an hour and a half I should have finished the eye or the mouth at any
+rate; they now thought to themselves that nothing at all would come of
+it.
+
+"Well, but will Bessy look pretty in this dress?" asked her mother.
+
+What could I do at such a question as this but look silly? As if I knew
+whether Bessy had had a pretty dress on or not! All I knew was that I
+had had to use for it a little "English lake," some "Neapolitan yellow,"
+"Venetian white," and just a scrinch of "burnt ochre."
+
+"I can tell you that it was a very tiresome amusement," said Bessy. "The
+face a little more that way--Not so serious--Not so smiling--Don't sit
+so stiffly--Raise your finger--Don't move about so much.--And you've
+laid so much licorice-juice on my portrait that they'll fancy I'm a
+gipsy girl."
+
+I hastened to assure her that this was only laying the ground work, and
+that on the morrow it would be a much merrier business.
+
+The next day I was there again after an early dinner. In the forenoon I
+was with my chief at the office. Thus before dinner I was a lawyer, and
+after dinner I was artist, poet, and reciter.
+
+This time there was no company. The picture proceeded briskly, and the
+members of the family were allowed to come in from time to time, one by
+one, and have a peep at it.
+
+I had now begun to study the face more in detail. It was an interesting
+head. The face was almost heart-shaped, terminating below in a little
+chin which was delicately divided by a single dimple. There were
+spiral-like lips of dazzling red enamel; a slightly _retrouss�_ nose,
+with vibrating nostrils; round, rosy-red cheeks, with little beauty
+spots here and there, which I christened "black stars in the ruddy
+dawning heavens!" Her densely thick hair curled naturally, and gleamed
+like golden enamel, diminishing, after the manner of Phidias' ideal
+Venus, the smoothest of foreheads, and fluttering the most roguish of
+little ringlets over the blue-veined temples. (How could I help learning
+by heart such minute details when every one of them passed beneath my
+brush?) But what my brush could not possibly reproduce was her
+marvellous pair of eyes. They drove me entirely to despair. I really
+believe that even if I had been a true artist instead of a wretched
+dilettante, I should never have been able to conjure forth their
+secrets. Just when I was thinking I had fixed them, her eyes would
+flash, and my whole work was thrown away. At last I had to be content
+with a dreamy expression, which pleased _me_, at any rate, best. The
+inspecting family trio said that they had never seen such an expression
+on Bessy's face; nevertheless they acknowledged, with one voice, that it
+was a speaking likeness.
+
+The head was now ready, the dress was to remain till to-morrow.
+
+On that day there was a _pr�f�rence_ party in town at the General's.
+Bessy's mother was an enthusiastic _pr�f�rence_ player.... Consequently
+she was not at home. The aunt alone remained as the guardian of maidens,
+and she used generally to take a nap in the afternoon, or play patience.
+I don't know who presided over Bessy's toilet on this occasion, perhaps
+nobody. That clean-cut, pale pink bodice on other days had given full
+scope to her charming figure; but on this particular day it was more
+insinuating than ever. It seemed to me as if the frill of English tulle
+had crept considerably lower down the shoulder, nay, lower still.
+
+One cannot imagine a lovelier masterpiece of a creative hand than that
+bust. And it is a painter's right, nay, his duty, not merely to look,
+but to observe. A dangerous privilege. My hand trembled, I seemed to
+freeze, and yet beads of sweat stood out upon my forehead.... She, too,
+seemed to remark my agitation. A roguish flame sparkled in her eye. She
+was now not a bit like her yesterday's portrait. She seemed to be
+flouting me. And I was putting that treacherous frill of tulle to rights
+in the picture, putting it where it _ought_ to have been. That is what I
+really call "_corriger la fortune_."
+
+At this sitting the face was completely finished, and the dress also was
+painted. I thanked the fair self-sacrificing victim, and told her that
+she might now look at the picture; it was ready. The girl rose from her
+chair and peeped over my shoulder. She looked at the picture and laughed
+in my face.
+
+"Why, you've readjusted the frill of my dress, haven't you?" said she.
+
+"So you wore it like that purposely, eh?"
+
+"Then was there something you didn't want to see?"
+
+"There was something I didn't want other people to see."
+
+"Well, now, I've been looking at you for days and days, and I've
+observed something _on you_ which is very nasty, and which I don't like
+at all."
+
+"I had no idea you gave me so much of your attention."
+
+"It is only a mere speck, no bigger than the eye of a bean."
+
+"What can it be?"
+
+"The wart on your right hand."
+
+And, indeed, on my right hand, just below the thumb, was a not very
+ornamental excrescence, which everybody could see when I was writing or
+painting.
+
+"I cannot cut it out, because it is just above the artery. I showed it
+to a doctor, and he said it would be a rather dangerous operation."
+
+"What does the doctor know about it? I'll destroy it for you; it won't
+hurt you. I learned it at school from my school-fellows. I'll destroy it
+in a moment."
+
+"By incantations, eh?"
+
+"Oh, dear no! It will smart dreadfully. But if a girl can stand it, you
+can."
+
+I consented.
+
+She lit a candle forthwith, and placed it on the table beside me. Then
+she produced a darning-needle from somewhere (I thought of the other
+darning-needle), took firm hold of it, shoved it right down to the very
+roots of the wart, held up my hand, and placed the head of the needle in
+the candle flame till it was heated to a white heat. And all the time
+her wondrous eyes were opened round and wide, and looked straight into
+my eyes with irises turned downwards. It is thus that the demons of hell
+must look upon those whom they are roasting!
+
+"Does it hurt?" she hissed between her teeth. She appeared to be in a
+state of ecstatic delight.
+
+"It hurts, but it is not the needle."
+
+"Well, now you can take your wart away with you."
+
+Two days after, the calcined wart fell from my hand, leaving behind it a
+little speck no bigger than a lentil; and that speck is there still, and
+is of a whiteness which contrasts strongly with the colour of the rest
+of the hand. And every day I set to work writing, I must needs look at
+this little white spot, and when I have looked at it long, it seems to
+me as if _her_ face were appearing before me in the midst of this tiny
+circle just as it looked then; and then that face runs through all its
+variations down to that last shape of all, which still startles me from
+my slumbers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MY MASTERPIECE AND MY HUT
+
+
+In the later stages of the painting we could converse. Indeed,
+conversation is necessary for completing one's study of one's subject,
+and prevents, besides, the constraint of sitting from becoming too
+tiresome.
+
+"Have you read the poems of Pet�fi?"[12]
+
+[Footnote 12: The Burns of Hungary.]
+
+"Oh, at our house we read nothing."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because those who come to see us bring no books with them."
+
+"Then don't you get any newspaper?"
+
+"Oh, yes, the _Journal des Demoiselles_; but it's a frightful bore."
+
+"A Hungarian paper would be better, the _Pesti Divatlap_, for instance."
+
+"I'll tell my mother to order it. You write for it sometimes, don't
+you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What?"
+
+"The description of a desert island among the sedges."
+
+"Have you ever been on this desert island?"
+
+"No; I only imagine it."
+
+"What's the good of that?"
+
+"It's part of a romance I'm working at."
+
+"Ah, so you write romances! Will you put us into them?"
+
+"Oh, no! Romance writing does not consist in merely copying down all
+that one sees and hears about one."
+
+"I should like to know how you set about it?"
+
+"First of all I think out the end of the story."
+
+"What, you begin at the end?"
+
+"Yes. Then I create the characters of the story. Then I deal out to
+these characters the parts they must play, and the vicissitudes they
+must go through down to the very end of the story."
+
+"Then, according to that, none of it is true?"
+
+"It is not real, perhaps, but it may be true, for all that."
+
+"I don't understand. And how much time do you take to write a story? I
+suppose it will come out?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Ah, yes, 'tis an easy thing for you to do! You have a rich aunt at �
+Gyalla, and you've only got to say a word to her and she'll get your
+book printed for you. I suppose you've only got to ask her?"
+
+"I shall not tell my rich aunt a word about it."
+
+"Then you'll get your book printed at Fani Weinm�ller's, I suppose. Now
+listen, that won't do at all. I knew an author who published his own
+book and went from village to village, and persuaded every landed
+proprietor to buy a copy from him. That is a rugged path."
+
+"My romance will not be one of those which the author himself has to
+carry from door to door; it will be one of those for which the publisher
+pays the author an honorarium."
+
+She absolutely laughed in my face.
+
+And after all, when you come to think about it, surely it is somewhat
+comical when a person comes forward and barefacedly says, "Here, I've
+written something in which there is not one word of truth, and
+nevertheless I insist upon people reading it, and paying me for writing
+it."
+
+"Do you fancy, Miss Bessy, that Pet�fi was not paid for his poems? He
+got two hundred florins for 'Love's Pearls.'"
+
+"'Love's Pearls'! And pray what are they?"
+
+"Lovely poems to a beautiful girl."
+
+"And did he get the girl?"
+
+"No, he did not."
+
+"Well, now, that _is_ a nice thing. A fellow courts a girl, puts his
+feelings into verse, finally gets a basket[13] from her, and then
+demands that this basket should be filled for him with silver pieces."
+
+[Footnote 13: The Hungarian "Kosarat kapni," like the German "einen Korb
+bekommen" (to get a basket), is the equivalent of our "to get a flea in
+one's ear," _i.e._, "a rejection."]
+
+The same day I sent her Pet�fi's "Love's Pearls," and his "Cypress
+Leaves" also.
+
+I resumed my portrait painting three days afterwards, and immediately
+asked her whether she had taken up "Love's Pearls."
+
+"Oh, yes; I took them up to dry flowers in them."
+
+"But I suppose you've just dipped into the 'Cypress Leaves'?"
+
+"I don't like such things. I always burst into tears; and then my nose
+gets quite red."
+
+I did not pursue the subject further.
+
+Miss Bessy hastened, however, to sweeten my bitter disappointment with
+the delightful intelligence that, at my suggestion, mamma had at once
+subscribed to the _Pesti Divatlap_, and for six months, too.
+
+I was there when the postman brought the first four copies of the paper.
+In those days every paper had to be sent through the post in an
+envelope, postage stamps had not yet been invented....
+
+After the solemnity of breaking open the envelope, the assembled
+womankind naturally looked to see if there were any pictures, especially
+pictures of the fashions.
+
+Was it not called "Divatlap"?[14] And a fashionable journal it really
+was. That worthy, high-souled patriot, Emericus Vahot, was labouring
+with iron determination to make fashion a national affair.
+
+[Footnote 14: Fashionable journal.]
+
+"Well, whoever wore that might exhibit herself for money!" That was the
+universal verdict of the ladies. They alluded to one of the fashion
+patterns.
+
+The illustrated supplement to the second number was Gabriel Egressy as
+Richard III., in the dream scene, surrounded by spectres; the picture
+was sketched by our countryman Valentine Kiss.
+
+Her ladyship asked me which was the head of the principal figure, and
+which the feet. And I must confess that I myself could not quite make
+out how Richard III. had got his head between his knees.
+
+With the illustrated supplement to the third number, however, they were
+quite satisfied. It was Rosa Laborfalvy[15] as Queen Gertrude, by
+Barab�s, a work of real artistic merit. This interested the ladies
+greatly.
+
+[Footnote 15: J�kai's future wife, as will be seen in the sequel.]
+
+"They say she has such wonderful eyes that there's nothing like them
+anywhere," said Miss Bessy.
+
+The logical consequence of this should have been a contradiction
+accompanied by a flattering compliment on my part; but all at once it
+was as if something so squeezed my throat that I absolutely could not
+get the courtly expression out anyhow. "I have never seen her," I
+replied.
+
+At the end of the fourth number was a lithograph representing a slim,
+youthful figure, and beneath it was written the name, Alexander Pet�fi.
+It was one of the best sketches of Barab�s. It is the one absolutely
+faithful portrait of the immortal poet. As such he was known by all
+those who lived with him, that eye gazing forth into the far distance,
+that mouth opened prophetically, those hands crossed behind him as if he
+would hide something in them. The whole portrait seems to say, "I _will_
+be Pet�fi"; all the other portraits say, "I _am_ Pet�fi."
+
+This picture produced a great impression upon the ladies, for the
+appearance of a lithographed portrait in a journal was a great event. In
+those days there were none of the beneficent penny papers, whose right
+of existence is considered amply justified if the frontispiece
+represents some one battering an old woman's head in with an axe. Only
+great and famous patriots enjoyed the distinction of figuring on
+title-pages, and photography was not yet invented.... The appearance,
+then, of Pet�fi's portrait in an illustrated supplement of the
+_Divatlap_ created quite a sensation.... The companion at once undertook
+to read the book of verses which had been sent to the house by me.
+Bessy, on the other hand, desired to know whether she would find
+anything of mine in the portion of the journal devoted to the
+Belles-Lettres. Immediately afterwards she actually hit upon it. It was
+a portion of my romance, which appeared there under the title of "Az
+ingov�ny o�za"--"The Oasis of the Fens."
+
+"Well, I mean to read this at once."
+
+I gave her plenty of time to do so, for I only appeared again after the
+lapse of several days.
+
+She really _had_ read it. It was the first thing she told me.
+
+"Now I am curious to know," she added, "what was the beginning of the
+story and what will be the end? You know, don't you?"
+
+"How can I help knowing?"
+
+"But I don't understand the title. Where does the 'oiseau'[16] come in?"
+
+[Footnote 16: The Hungarian _o�za_ (oasis) and the French _oiseau_ are
+pronounced so very much alike, that the ill-instructed Bessy, who had
+never heard of the former, not unnaturally confounded them.]
+
+I explained to her that the "_o�z_" was not a flying fowl, but a plot of
+verdure concealed in the desert.
+
+"Then why don't you write 'island'?"
+
+She was right there.
+
+"Apropos of island," she continued, "I often see you from the verandah
+of our island summer-house walking up and down in front of our garden;
+yet you never give us so much as a glance, though we make noise enough."
+
+"That is quite possible. At such times I am immersed."
+
+"Immersed in what?"
+
+"In working at my romance."
+
+"Working and walking at the same time?"
+
+"Such is my habit. I work out the whole scene in my head first of all,
+down to the smallest details, so that when I sit down it is a mere
+mechanical a-b-c sort of business."
+
+"Then according to that, when you are marching with rapid strides up and
+down that long path, you neither hear nor see anything?"
+
+"Pardon me, I see grass, trees, flowers, birds, stumps of trees, and
+huts of reeds overgrown with brambles. Amongst all these I weave my
+thoughts like the meshes of a spider's web. And I hear, too. I hear the
+piping of the yellow-hammer, the twittering of the titmouse, the notes
+of the horn from distant ships, the humming of the gnats, and they all
+have something to whisper to me, something to tell me. A buzzing wasp
+lends wings to my imagination; but if I meet a human face, the whole
+thing flies out of my thoughts, and a single 'your humble servant' will
+dissolve utterly my _fata Morgana_, until I turn back and reconstruct
+the ends of my spider's-web among the freshly-discovered reed-built
+huts, tree-trunks and trailing flowers, when the well-known voices of
+the dwellers in the wilderness bring back to me again my scattered
+ideas; then I retreat into the little wooden summer-house in our garden,
+and there, disturbed by nobody, I transfer to paper the images which
+stand before my mind."
+
+And Bessy, contrary to my expectation, didn't laugh at this
+elucidation. On the contrary, she had grown quite serious. The
+expression of her eyes now resembled the expression which I had given
+them in her portrait.
+
+"And this gives you pleasure?" she whispered. "It is just as if a man
+were to set off dreaming after taking care beforehand that all his
+dreams should turn out beautiful."
+
+"Mr. Muki Bagotay," announced the footman.
+
+I took up my hat. I could not endure that fellow. He had already enjoyed
+everything in reality which existed for me only in imagination....
+
+The little wooden hut there in the orchard on the Danubian islet
+(whether it is still there I know not) was the most splendid palace in
+which I ever dwelt. 'Twas there I wrote my first romance. It is true
+that it had to put up with a lot of criticism, that first romance. What,
+indeed, did a young mind which knew nothing of men or of the world
+understand about romance writing? And yet I loved my first work, just as
+much as a man loves his first-born, though it may be deformed by all
+sorts of physical and spiritual defects. How plainly I still see before
+me those large, wide-spreading _Reineclaude_ trees, crammed with fruit
+ripe to bursting, which covered the little hut. A little farther off was
+an apple-tree covered with blood-red fruit, and then a second with
+taffety white, and a third with velvety apples. From the open door of
+the hut one could see right along the overgrown path, which was bordered
+on both sides by bowery vines. When the warm blood-red rays of summer
+pierced through the meshes of the foliage, it seemed as if every shadow
+was of green-gold. Far away on the banks of the Danube could be heard
+the delusive echoes from the military band in the "English Garden,"
+whilst closer at hand the yellow-hammer piped, and a frog here and there
+croaked in the irrigating trenches. I was writing the hardest part of my
+romance--the love part, that most undiscoverable of all unknown worlds.
+One may write down a description of the marsh world from the
+imagination, but not a description of the world of love. If the heart
+has not already discovered it, the head can tell us nothing at all about
+it.
+
+All at once the green-gold shadows were lit up by something bright.
+_She_ was standing there in the door of my hut, dressed in a white
+frock, with a straw hat fastened to two blue ribbons hanging upon her
+arm, and her dishevelled locks floating down her shoulders. For a moment
+I fancied that the dream-shapes of my imagination had taken bodily form.
+Then her ringing peal of laughter assured me that a living person stood
+before me.
+
+"How did you come here?"
+
+"How? Why, by walking over the soft grass, of course."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Alone! Why not? Whom _should_ I have brought with me, I should like to
+know? I suppose I may come to a neighbour's garden unattended?"
+
+It was quite true that our gardens were only about a hundred feet apart,
+lying one on each side of the common path, which ran right through the
+island.
+
+"You don't seem to give me a very hearty reception," pouted she, as she
+entered my hut.
+
+My head began to swim.
+
+"On the contrary, I am overjoyed at the honour you do me, and I'll
+gather for you at once some of our princely plums."
+
+Nobody else had such plums then, and it was a good excuse, besides, for
+quitting the hut.
+
+"I did not come for the sake of your princely plums; I filch them long
+before you ever taste them. I have come now to see how you make up your
+romance."
+
+I pointed out to her that here was the paper and there the pen, and all
+a man had to do was to take up the pen, and it went on writing of its
+own accord.
+
+"Then you don't peep into any book first of all?"
+
+"You can see that I am provided with no tools of that sort."
+
+"Well, now, sit down, and I'll sit down beside you and see how you
+write."
+
+And then, not waiting for an invitation, she sat down at the end of my
+sofa, driving me into the dilemma of sitting down by the table,
+willy-nilly, likewise. I may mention that my hut was so narrow that the
+table reached from the door to the window.
+
+"I can't write a word, though, at this moment," said I.
+
+"Why? Because I'm here?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"Then read me what you have just written."
+
+"There's a lot of it."
+
+"So much the better. I can remain here all the longer."
+
+"Won't they miss you at home?"
+
+"They know that I am sure to turn up again."
+
+Vanity is the horn by which one may always catch hold of a man. It
+flattered me to read what I had written, whoever the listener might be.
+In other parts of the kingdom I had already gained applause with my
+recitations, but nobody in my own narrow little town had ever heard me
+speak. _Nemo profeta in patria._
+
+And Bessy was a very appreciative audience. You could read from her face
+the effect I produced and the interest she took. She rested her face on
+her hand, smoothed down her hair, and fixed her attention that she might
+listen the better. She seemed quite frightened at the exciting scenes,
+her eyes and lips opened wide. I do not say this to praise myself, but
+simply as a justification of the fact that in those days I could recite
+with considerable emphasis. In one place, however, my voice began to
+falter.
+
+"Well, what is it? Can't you read your own writing?"
+
+"Yes--no, I mean. I think we had better leave off here?"
+
+"Why? You've come to the most interesting part."
+
+"I don't want to read it to you."
+
+"Why? Do you mean to say you write such things as a girl ought not to
+know?"
+
+"No, no! Anybody may read it except myself--before you."
+
+The girl laughed, but there was something bitter in her laugh too.
+
+"Oh, don't be anxious on my account, pray! We read, at school, things of
+which you have no idea. It is an old institution among us that every
+girl when she marries shall write a letter to her school friends on the
+very day after her wedding. We have a whole collection of such letters."
+
+"And do you mean to tell me that _you_ have promised to increase this
+collection?" I cried, with all the indignation of my youthful mind.
+
+The girl must have guessed my anger from my face, for she cast down her
+eyes and said, in a low voice: "It depends upon whose I shall be."
+
+Immediately afterwards she laughed uproariously: "You may read your
+love-scene before me."
+
+I answered more firmly than ever: "I will not read it before you."
+
+She understood and stared at me.
+
+"You fear, perhaps, that I shall take it for a declaration? You think,
+perhaps, that I shall laugh at you in consequence?"
+
+"No! You will not laugh at me."
+
+"Then what are you afraid of?"
+
+"I do not fear, I wait."
+
+"Wait! For what?"
+
+"I am waiting till I count for something in the world; at present I am a
+mere cipher."
+
+"One who is born a man can never be a mere cipher."
+
+"Look now! This wooden booth is at present the whole of my property,
+this little pile of paper my whole claim upon the world; but in my soul
+there is a vigorous flame to which I can give no name. This flame would
+suffice to make a man a pretender to a throne, but it is not sufficient
+to make him propose to a girl."
+
+"But you know that I am rich."
+
+"And I am still richer, for I dine deliciously off a crust of bread, and
+I sleep sweetly on a bed of straw."
+
+"Well, and that pleases me too. _I_ like a crust of bread and a bed of
+straw. You do not know me. A man might make a she-devil of me, though he
+built a temple in my name straight off, enshrined me on the altar, and
+knelt down before me. But he whom I truly loved might make an angel of
+me. I could be happy anywhere: in a shepherd's hut, a strolling player's
+tent, at a soldier's bivouac, in a schoolmaster's clay cabin. I would
+dream of luxury on my bed of straw."
+
+And with that, she threw herself at full length on my bare sofa, and
+clasped her hands above her head.
+
+Oh, what distracting loveliness!
+
+Was it a blessing or a chastisement on the part of guiding Providence
+that I was able, at that moment, to see with my soul as well as with my
+eyes? This girl had in a few words unfolded before me the whole of her
+coming destiny.... I sat down at her feet by the side of the bare old
+sofa, and looked into her eyes.
+
+Very softly I said to her: "She whom I love will not be my slave, but my
+queen. I will not filch my happiness, but win it. And she to whom I
+shall dedicate my heart shall be crowned by me with an aureola of glory,
+just as the rich of this world load _their_ darlings with pearls and
+diamonds. The lady of my heart must be honoured by all the world--but
+most of all by myself."
+
+At these words the half-closed eyelids opened. The girl began to sob
+violently, leaped to her feet, threw her arms round my neck, kissed me,
+and ran away.
+
+And I looked after her like one that dreams, while the shrubs and the
+vine-leaves concealed her vanishing form. The yellow-hammer cried in my
+ear, "Silly boy, silly boy!" And immediately there occurred to my mind
+the story of the young man whose confessor gave him a bundle of hay to
+eat as a penance for a sin unachieved.
+
+And now, too, when I stand before the big silly bookcase, which is
+filled with nothing but my own works, I often think, would it not have
+been better if they had none of them been ever thought out? And instead
+of writing so much for the whole world, would it not have been better if
+I had written for my own private use, just so much as would go within
+the inside cover of a family Bible? Nowadays, a whole street in my
+native town is called after my name: would it not have been better if
+all I had there were a simple hut?
+
+But no! I willed it so, and if it were possible for me to go back to the
+diverging cross-roads of my opening life, I would tread once more in the
+self-same footprints that I have left so long behind me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PET�FI WITH US--PLANS FOR THE FUTURE--THE RAPE OF THE BRIDES--AMATEUR
+THEATRICALS--MY MENSHIKOV
+
+
+I really imagined that I loved and was beloved. I was always a welcome
+guest at her ladyship's house, and was a regular visitor on her "at
+home" days. On such occasions I learnt to know Bessy from another point
+of view. She was a musician also. She could play the fiddle. Whether she
+played artistically I really cannot say, for I don't understand music,
+and couldn't tell the difference between Paul Racz[17] and Sarasate; but
+so much is certain, she knew all the cunning tricks and poses which I
+admired so much in the famous musicians of a later day. She could make
+arpeggios and pizzicatos like Ole Bull, _fughe di diavolo_ like Rem�nyi,
+and pianissimos like Sarasate. She could make her fiddle weep softly
+like Milanollo and Miss Terezina Tua, and she could lash it savagely
+with her fiddle-bow like the Russian Princess Olga Korinshka, or play
+with the instrument close up to ear like a gipsy _prim�s_.[18] When she
+played she had the beauty of a demon; every limb was set in motion, her
+shoulders marked time, her bosom heaved, her body waved to and fro, her
+mouth smiled provocatively, her eyes sparkled; at one moment she softly
+caressed the fiddle with her bow, at another she flogged the strings
+unmercifully, and at the end of the performance she stood there with the
+pose of a triumphant Toreadrix. At such moments every one was fascinated
+by her; why, then, should I have been an exception?
+
+[Footnote 17: A famous gipsy musician.]
+
+[Footnote 18: The leader of a gipsy band.]
+
+One day I got a letter from Pet�fi, in which he informed me he was going
+to call upon us the following Sunday. I naturally skipped off to town at
+once, and showed the letter to all my acquaintances. It was a great
+event in our little town. Pet�fi's popularity in those days was great
+indeed; he was worshipped from one end of the kingdom to the other. His
+visit was regarded as an extraordinary distinction. On Sunday afternoon,
+therefore, half the population of the town had assembled on the island,
+where the landing-stage of the steamers now is. Bessy's family was also
+there. All the religious persuasions were represented by the presence of
+the Benedictine priests and the Calvinist and Lutheran ministers. The
+captain of the civic train bands, with two lackeys in gold liveries;
+represented the magistracy; and Muki Bagotay was there on behalf of the
+county (he held some petty office or other), and maintained that he knew
+Pet�fi very well. Congratulatory speeches had been got ready, and
+lovely hands were to present handsome bouquets to the coming guest.
+Pet�fi, however, when he had crossed over the steamship bridge to the
+other side, troubled himself not one bit about the congratulatory mob,
+left in the lurch the lovely ladies with their bouquets, and the
+distinguished gentlemen with their speeches, and, dressed as he was in
+his short _carbonari_ mantle, rushed straight towards me, threw his arms
+round my neck, knocked my hat from my head, and cried, "Why, Marksi! Is
+it you, you old scoundrel, Marksi!" (he never would call me by my proper
+name), and, with that, wrapping me in one-half of his mantle, he dragged
+me with him towards the town just as if he knew the way quite well (he
+had never been there before in his life). The windows of the chief
+thoroughfares of the town were adorned with flowers and with fair
+damsels, who had tricked themselves out in Pet�fi's honour, which, when
+he perceived, he thrust me down a side street, and so we got at last to
+our house by roundabout by-paths, on which we met not a single soul. My
+worthy mother received our dear guest most heartily, not because he was
+such a famous poet, but because he was my good friend. I had known him
+ever since we had been students together at P�p�, when they had called
+him "Petrovics." Now, however, they added a syllable to his name, and
+called him "Petrekovics." Nothing used to put Pet�fi into such a rage
+as when anybody called him by his rejected family name. But even this
+he took in good part from my mother. He never even tried to put her
+right. "Let me always remain Petrekovics in your house!" he would say to
+her, as he kissed her hand. This was by no means his usual custom, the
+only other person whose hand he used to kiss was his own mother. The
+first question after that naturally was about his favourite dish. My
+mother herself looked after the _cuisine_, and the following day the
+whole family assembled to dinner--my brother Charles, my sister Esther,
+and my brother-in-law Francis V�ly included.
+
+We had scarcely risen from the table when a lackey in silver livery
+arrived from Bessy's mother with a gold-edged letter for Pet�fi, in
+which her ladyship invited him to her "at home" that evening. The
+entertainment was arranged in his honour. All the beauties and the
+notabilities of the town would be there together. I had naturally
+received a similar invitation some days before.
+
+'Twas thus that Pet�fi answered the messenger--his words are recorded in
+the family records: "Tell her ladyship that I am inconsolable at the
+impossibility of coming to her reception this evening; but this time I
+have come specially to visit my beloved Marksi, and will go nowhere
+else."
+
+The astonished lackey could scarcely grasp the meaning of this terrible
+reply. But my mother understood it right well, and said, "Noble young
+fellow!"
+
+But I said nothing, for I candidly confess that in those days I
+worshipped a pretty girl far, far more than any man however famous, or
+any friend however good.
+
+I tried, therefore, to explain the situation to my good friend. "I tell
+you what, though; that pretty girl is there about whom I wrote to you."
+
+"Then give _yourself_ up to that pretty girl, but don't sacrifice _me_
+to her likewise."
+
+"If you could only hear how splendidly she plays the fiddle."
+
+"Fiddle, do you say? Then don't give yourself up to her either! You know
+there are three things in this world that I hate--horse-radish with
+milk, the critics, and after that, music." (He could never be persuaded
+to listen to an opera.)
+
+"But Tony V�rady also plays the fiddle!" (I should explain that this
+young lawyer shared Pet�fi's room with him.)
+
+"He fiddles, it is true, but it is useful to me."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"In our neighbourhood dwells a rascally card-player, who comes home
+every night between two and three, and begins to sing. I immediately
+wake Tony and say to him, 'Rise, and fiddle away at that fellow there!'
+Then he begins to fiddle in a way that makes your hair stand on end, and
+your blood run cold, and in ten minutes our neighbour, falling upon his
+knees, sobs for mercy, and declares that he will leave off singing.
+However, from to-day I live no longer with Tony."
+
+"Have you quarrelled?"
+
+"On the contrary, we are the best of friends. But I'll tell you about
+that later on; let us now talk about serious things. What have you been
+doing since I last saw you?"
+
+I showed him the MS. of "H�tk�znapok."[19] It was just ready.
+
+[Footnote 19: "Every-day Days." One of the best, if not _the_ best, of
+J�kai's earlier works.]
+
+"Why do you call it 'H�tk�znapok'?"
+
+"In order that nobody may expect anything extraordinary in it."
+
+He turned over the leaves, but only read the headings of the chapters.
+
+"Well, that was an original idea of yours, I must say, to choose mottoes
+from popular ballads for your chapter headings. I'll take this with me
+to Pest, and get it published."
+
+"Nobody knows me."
+
+"You're wrong. Bajza and V�r�smarty are inquiring about you. Your
+specimen composition has been much approved. I've squeezed twelve
+florins for it out of Emericus Vahot. Frankenburg was more liberal. He
+sends you fifteen for 'The Island Nepean.'"
+
+And Pet�fi counted out the twenty-seven silver florins on to the table.
+It was my first honorarium. I fancied myself a Rothschild.
+
+"This romance now shall be published by Hartleben."
+
+"Are you on good terms with him?"
+
+"I don't know the German fellow, but he's the publisher of Ignatius
+Nagy's romances, and Nagy shall recommend it to him."
+
+"But will Ignatius Nagy like to do it?"
+
+"What! When I bring him such work as yours! He is a great enemy of mine,
+I know, but he is a man of honour."
+
+And with that he thrust my manuscript into his knapsack, but without
+locking it.
+
+"And what else have you written?"
+
+I produced another heap of papers.
+
+"A play entitled _Two Guardians_."
+
+"And what do you want to do with it?"
+
+"To compete for the Academy prize."
+
+"Don't do that! I won't allow you. You competed once, and they did not
+give you the prize, and yet two Academicians were on your side; don't
+give them any more. Give your pieces to the theatre."
+
+I had nothing for it but to surrender.
+
+"Now, I'll take your piece to Szigligeti.[20] He will at once recognise
+in you a dangerous rival, and for that very reason will have your piece
+brought out instantly. That's the sort of man he is!"
+
+[Footnote 20: Pseudonym of the eminent Hungarian dramatist, Joseph
+Szathm�ry.]
+
+I entrusted my piece to his care.
+
+"And try to get up to Pest as soon as possible. Don't go loafing about
+all your days in a village!"
+
+"As soon as I have got through with my _patvaria_ I'll hasten to join
+you."
+
+"Get ready to go away at once. To-morrow I'll take you with me to Gran."
+
+I was greatly astonished.
+
+"To Gran! Why, what business have we there?"
+
+"We go not to do business, but to _rob_. We must steal away Tony
+V�rady's bride for him. That is why we no longer live together."
+
+But now the members of my family had also a word to say.
+
+Pet�fi then related, quite calmly, that our common friend, the worthy
+lawyer, wished to take to wife the daughter of a landed proprietor at
+Gran. The girl's parents were Catholics, the bridegroom was a Calvinist,
+they therefore would not permit the marriage. But the young people
+really loved each other. So there was nothing for it but to steal the
+bride.
+
+The thing was quite clear. I could make no objection. When a man is poet
+and Protestant, girl-stealing in such a situation becomes a duty. Just
+then a great parliamentary strife was going on concerning mixed
+marriages. It was Guelph and Ghibelline over again. One had to choose
+one's party.
+
+So on the following day I really did set out with Pet�fi to steal a girl
+for the benefit of a third friend. The affair succeeded beyond all
+expectation. We had no need of the darkness of midnight and scaling
+ladders, the mere appearance of Pet�fi and myself at the bride's house
+was sufficient; the parents gave way, and the priest united the two
+lovers. Yet for all that we always made much of our damsel-robbing
+adventure. And, indeed, it seemed likely to turn out a dangerous
+precedent. Example is contagious.
+
+But I returned home with the guilty consciousness that I had absolutely
+spoiled the _soir�e_. I expected that I should be pretty severely taken
+to task for it. How should I put things to rights again?
+
+I discovered how to make amends, but it was not without great artfulness
+that I succeeded.
+
+Our city was not only the capital of the county, but a fortress.
+Consequently one might frequently come upon vehicles in our streets
+which consisted of little more than a round chest on two wheels, crammed
+full of water-butts from the Danube, ammunition, bread, and sacks of
+meal, and between the poles of these conveyances were fastened a couple
+of human beings in garments of grey baize, with twenty-pound chains
+fastened to their legs. The creatures were called in plain
+Hungarian--slaves.[21] You could hear the rattling of their fetters
+from afar. On certain days while the self-same creatures were suffering
+the flogging with sticks, which was part of their sentence, their woful
+cries resounded through the whole town. Thus the rattling of chains and
+the howls of woe were a sort of speciality in our town. And the sight of
+those starved faces too! From my childish years upwards this slave-life
+used to disturb my dreams.
+
+[Footnote 21: They were prisoners condemned to penal servitude.]
+
+I got up an agitation among the more enthusiastic of the youths and
+maidens of our town on behalf of the poor slaves. If the affair had
+succeeded, I should of course never have bragged about it; but as I
+failed in it, I may as well make a clean breast of it.
+
+It was determined, at my suggestion, to invite Bessy's mother to be the
+president of our philanthropic society. A deputation set off at once to
+her house, and, naturally, I was its spokesman. The distinction thus
+conferred upon her quite wiped out my former offence, and I was again
+taken into favour.
+
+The first problem in any case was to establish our beneficent scheme on
+a sound, financial basis, and the simplest way of getting funds was by
+means of an amateur entertainment. Of this, too, I was the manager. With
+very great difficulty the programme was finally settled. Overture:
+_Beatrice di Tenda_.--"What's the watchword? Death, torture, ruin, to
+the betrayers of the fatherland!" rendered by the glee club of the
+College. After that a flute duet from _Lucia di Lammermoor_, piped by
+the local musical society and a young lawyer. That was to be followed by
+a humorous recitation of my own: "Gregory Sonkolyi"; then came an
+exhibition of legerdemain by Muki Bagotay; and last of all, as _pi�ce de
+r�sistance_, Bessy's fiddling.
+
+It was a terrible business to bring all this about. We had rehearsals
+every day at Bessy's house. I was very busy just then. I ought to have
+been working as an articled clerk, but I'm quite sure I never looked at
+a law-book. At last, however, it was possible to fix the day on which
+the concert would come off.
+
+Meanwhile, the time was approaching when I ought to have passed my
+_patvaria_, and gone through my _jurateria_. My elder brother Charles
+wrote to a well-known lawyer at Pest, who had a large practice, to take
+me into his office as a juratus. And as winter was also drawing nigh,
+and I was about to go far, far away into a strange world, my good and
+ever-blessed mother was busying herself about my outfit. Nowadays people
+will regard it as a fable, but say it I must, that all the linen I wore
+during the time when I was a juratus was spun by my mother's own hands.
+I verily believe that that shirt, spun by a mother's hand, and worn by
+me, was the magic web which turned aside so many of the blows of fate.
+
+A tailor and a weaver lived in some of the smaller houses we possessed;
+we had no need of the help of strangers. My mother also provided me with
+a good winter overcoat.
+
+It was really a capital overcoat, which covered me down to the very
+heels, a real Menshikov overcoat, very fashionable forty years later,
+but in those days worn by nobody but the porters of the Benedictine
+Order.
+
+When I appeared at the amateur rehearsals at Bessy's house in this
+prematurely born Menshikov, a circle was instantly formed round me, and
+every one asked me, with ironical congratulations, where I had had it
+made. Was it possible to get the fellow of it? Bessy even remarked that
+there was room for two in it, and I was not a bit offended with her.
+
+When I withdrew (a letter, just arrived from Pest, called me home), I
+scarcely had time to close the door behind me, when I heard an outburst
+of merriment inside. When, however, I had got out into the street and
+turned round to have a last look at the house I had left behind me, lo
+and behold! all the windows were filled with groups of smiling faces,
+amongst which I saw Bessy's face also. "They are all in a very good
+humour to-day," I thought to myself.
+
+Hastening home, I found there the letter from the Pest lawyer, in which
+he informed me, with official brevity, that there was a vacant place for
+a juratus in his office, which I might occupy. If, however, I did not
+come and claim it within three days, the vacant place would be given to
+some one else. The amateur entertainment had been fixed for Sunday, and
+it was now Tuesday. If I am not there by Friday, another will sit in my
+place. But what will become of the concert? Ought I to leave Bessy in
+the lurch--so faithlessly?
+
+And how about the poor slaves?
+
+Perhaps the lawyer at Pest would make a bargain with me and give me a
+couple of days' grace? I sat down to reply to him: "Worshipful Mr.
+Advocate--I feel in duty bound to say, in reply to your honourable
+communication----" Yes, but what? I must tell him some lie or other.
+Nay, not a lie, only a freak of fancy. A sudden illness? No, that's no
+joke. An uncompleted piece of law business, which I must finish for my
+old chief? The Pest lawyer will never believe that. What pretext could I
+hit upon to steal a little more time?
+
+While I was still biting my pen, my mother came into the room, and said
+to me: "Where have you been, my dear son?"
+
+I said I had been at Bessy's house.
+
+Then she said: "Now, tell me, my darling, why do you run after these
+great people? Don't you see that they are only making fun of you?"
+
+Something like a cold ague fit ran down my back.
+
+Hadn't I myself seen and heard them laugh at me, and didn't know it? and
+here was my mother who had neither seen nor heard it, and yet _she_ knew
+it!
+
+Not another word did I say, but I went on with my letter ... "that I
+will come to Pest at once to-morrow morning, and take the place of
+juratus offered by you."
+
+I then showed my mother both letters, whereupon she rewarded me with
+that blessed smile of hers which has made her face so unforgettable to
+me.
+
+She immediately packed up my belongings and placed in my hand what
+little money she had put by, so that I might not want for anything in
+the expensive capital. I wanted to write to Bessy with an apology for my
+sudden departure.
+
+"Don't go scribbling to them," said my mother; "I'll go myself to-morrow
+to her ladyship and tell her what has happened."
+
+The following afternoon I was sitting on the steamer, and in three days
+I arrived at Pest.... And for this sudden change of fortune I had to
+thank my Menshikov alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V[22]
+
+OLYMPIAN STRIVINGS
+
+
+[Footnote 22: This chapter is somewhat condensed.]
+
+It was Pet�fi who introduced me to my associates of the "Table of Public
+Opinion" (as the long table close to the counter in the Caf� Pillwax was
+called), and who got me a place there. "This is a true Frenchman!" said
+Pet�fi, as he presented me to his young army of _literati_ who were
+assembled there. In those days this was the highest conceivable praise.
+The face of every liberty-loving nation was turned towards France, and
+from thence we expected the dawn of the new era. We read nothing but
+French books. Lamartine's "History of the Girondists" and Tocqueville's
+"Democracy" were our bibles. Pet�fi worshipped Beranger, I had found my
+ideal in Victor Hugo.... This school might easily have become dangerous
+to us had not its influence fortunately coincided with the opening up of
+a new and hitherto unexplored field--popular literature. Hitherto it had
+been the endeavour of Hungarian writers to write in a style which was
+distinct from the language of ordinary life. Our group, on the other
+hand, started the idea that it was just those very constructions,
+expressions, and modes of thought employed in every-day life that
+Hungarian writers ought to take as the fundamental principle of their
+writing; nay, that they should even develop the ideally beautiful,
+poetry itself, from the life of the common people.... As belonging to
+this camp of ours I must also reckon Sigismund Czak�, who acclimatized
+the modern drama to our stage with marked success; and finally Anthony
+Csengery, the editor of the _Pesti Hirlap_, who wrote nothing in the way
+of _belles lettres_ himself, but whose immense erudition and thorough
+knowledge of literature enabled him to exercise a most beneficial
+influence over the whole of our group. Amongst our older writers also,
+V�r�smarty and Bajza watched over us with stimulating encouragement; but
+it was Ignatius Nagy in particular who befriended us, and of him I have
+the most pleasant recollections.... At this time he was a cripple. He
+was rarely to be seen in the street, and then only on his wife's arm. He
+stopped at home all day at his writing-table, writing those life-like
+sketches of the little world of Buda-Pest which testify to such a serene
+good-humour. The first time I saw him was when I went to speak to him
+about my novel, "H�tk�znapok." He had a most embarrassing face covered
+with dark-red spots right up to his astonishingly lofty forehead, whose
+shiny baldness was half cut in two, as it were, by a bright black
+peruke. He had also an inconceivably big red nose, at which, however,
+you had no time to be amazed, so instantly were you spell-bound by a
+couple of squinting eyes, one of which glared as fixedly at you as if it
+were made wholly of stone. His voice, on the other hand, was as the
+voice of a sick child. And within this repulsive frame dwelt the noblest
+of souls, in this crippled body the most energetic of characters. From
+no strange face did I ever get a kinder glance than I got from those
+stiff fishy eyes, and that sick voice announced to me my first great
+piece of good news. Upon his recommendation, the publisher Hartleben
+agreed to publish my first romance, and gave me for it 360 silver
+florins. In those days that was an immense fortune to me. I had no
+further need to go scribbling all day long in a lawyer's office at six
+florins a month. And his fatherly solicitude for me went still further.
+He introduced me to Frankenburg as a dramatic critic. The editor of the
+_Eletk�pek_ had just parted with his dramatic critic (he had been a
+little too unmerciful to the artistes), and was looking out for a new
+colleague. By way of honorarium he offered me a free seat at the
+theatre, and ten florins a month. But my year of office came to an end
+the very first week. To make amends for the sins of my predecessor, I
+lauded every artist to the skies, according to the dictates of my
+youthful enthusiasm. And I can honestly say that I wrote it all from my
+very heart. It was then that I saw a ballet for the first time in my
+life. It was my solemn conviction that I was bound by a debt of
+gratitude to the excellent damsel who exhibited her natural charms to
+the public eye with such magnanimous frankness. And a pretty lecture
+Frankenburg read me for it too! "Delightful Sylphid indeed! A clumsy
+stork, I should say!" Still, _that_ might have passed. But it was my
+magnifying of Lilla Szil�gyi who took the part of Smike in the _Beggars
+of London_ which did the business for me. I said of her that she was "a
+lovely sapling!" and promised her a brilliant future in her dramatic
+career. "Leave her where you found her! She has got no heart that's
+certain!" said the editor. "Then she'll get one!" said I. "But you'll
+never get to be a critic," said he.
+
+And so, for Lilla Szil�gyi's sake, I laid down my _r�le_ of critic, and
+yet I was right after all, for, as Madame Bulyovszky, she really did
+become a great artiste. Now, however, I bless my fate that things fell
+out as they did. Terrible thought: fancy if I now only had the
+reputation of a famous--critic!
+
+A few days after that, a new career suddenly opened before me. Paul
+Kir�lyi invited me to join his newspaper, the _Jelenkor_, as a
+correspondent. He offered me a salary of thirty-five florins a month. Of
+course I jumped at it. Newspaper writing was a very grateful task in
+those days. The paper appeared thrice a week. That was quite sufficient
+to give us all the news. It is different now. Nowadays more murders,
+suicides, and burglaries occur in the twenty-four hours than occurred in
+a whole twelvemonth then.
+
+And a newspaper contributor was then a personage of some importance. Let
+me give an example:--
+
+I lived with the dramatist, Szigligeti. In the summer we occupied a
+whole flat in a brand-new house in Pipe Street, and there I had a room
+of my own, with an exit opening on the staircase. The other flats were
+empty. The Szigligetis flitted during the summer to the suburbs of Buda.
+Thus I had the whole of the first floor of the new house at my disposal,
+to my great satisfaction, for I could work away quite undisturbed. In
+the autumn, however, the Szigligetis returned, and the adjoining flats
+at the same time got new tenants. The very next night I discovered, to
+my horror, with whom I was living under the same roof. It was the wife
+of the possessor of a flower-garden, who also kept a dancing academy.
+What afternoons, what nights I passed!
+
+At last I could stand it no longer, and I implored Szigligeti to appeal
+most energetically to the authorities against the nuisance. Szigligeti
+fully shared my indignation himself, so he posted off at once to the
+Town Captain to lay his complaint.
+
+"Sir," said he, "the proprietress of a flower-garden has settled down in
+my immediate neighbourhood."
+
+"But flowers must bloom somewhere, I suppose?"
+
+"But the people dance the livelong night."
+
+"That doesn't injure any one, surely?"
+
+"But after dancing they sit down to rest."
+
+"That is very natural."
+
+"But they take their rest and recreation very noisily."
+
+The Town Captain shrugged his shoulders, he could do nothing in the
+matter; it was a ticklish business to interfere in; it did not fall
+within his jurisdiction, etc., etc.
+
+But when, finally, Szigligeti said: "My lodger, the correspondent of the
+_Jelenkor_, cannot sleep all night because of them," then, indeed, the
+Town Captain suddenly leaped from his chair, set all his myrmidons in
+motion, and by the next day the whole flower-garden and dancing academy
+was transferred to another forcing bed. Such in those days was the
+authority of a newspaper correspondent.... I was therefore no longer a
+mere cipher. I was a something now. And, more than that, I was a
+somebody also. For it was in those days that I passed my legal
+examination, and became a certificated lawyer in the ordinary and
+commercial courts. My diploma, indeed, was not _pr�clarus_, but at any
+rate it was _laudibilis_. The oral _rigorosum_ I passed through
+brilliantly, but in the _scripturistik_ (there's a fine dog Latin word
+for you!) my _Hungarian style_ was not considered satisfactory.
+
+The publication of my legal diploma in the county court was a
+sufficiently dignified excuse for a visit to my native town. With head
+erect I could now enter the presence of the fairy damsel with the
+sparkling "eyes like the sea."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AN ODD DUEL--THE FATEFUL LETTER J.--I ALSO BECOME A PETER GYURICZA
+
+
+Emericus Vahot had discovered a youthful humorist whom he attached to
+the staff of his newspaper. Ultimately he became a most eminent writer,
+but at first he was quite a savage genius. He knew no languages but
+Hungarian and Latin. He was really after all a very worthy young fellow.
+He, too, took his place amongst us at the "Table of Public Opinion,"
+and even brought a pair of friends with him. One of the friends was a
+wry-shouldered critic, who judged the stage from a philological point of
+view, but the other was Muki Bagotay. He was not a writer, but a mere
+figure head. As, however, he drank with us, he considered himself as one
+of us.
+
+One afternoon the humorist and Muki fell out. Muki had thought good to
+boast of a certain conquest of his, the humorist had made a joke of it;
+a squabble ensued, and from words they came to blows. I was not there,
+but I heard all about it from those who were. There could not be a doubt
+that the end of it would be a duel. Late in the evening, just as I was
+preparing to go to bed, the wry-shouldered critic rushed into my room.
+His face was even more portentous than usual.
+
+"I have to communicate a secret to you, but you must give me your word
+as a gentleman not to let the matter go any further."
+
+"I give you my word upon it."
+
+"Our friend is going to fight Muki Bagotay to-morrow, I am his second."
+
+"That's all right."
+
+"Would you be so good as to lend us the weapons?"
+
+"My friend, I only possess one pistol, and that is a double-barrelled
+one."
+
+"That will just do!"
+
+"What the deuce? I suppose one of them will fire with it first, and if
+he does not hit his man he'll hand it over to the other, and he'll fire
+back with it?"
+
+"Precisely!"
+
+The crooked critic said this with such a solemn face that it was
+impossible not to believe him. This was quite a novel mode of duelling,
+and not a bad idea either.
+
+Early next morning, before I had got up, the second again appeared
+before me. He brought back the fatal pistol.
+
+"It is over," said he, with mournful dignity.
+
+"What was the result?"
+
+"Our poor friend was hit!"
+
+"Dangerously?"
+
+"The bullet penetrated his arm. But it has been taken out now."
+
+The news excited all my sympathy.
+
+I threw on my clothes and made my way to the Pillwax coffee-house. I
+found my good friends already at the "Table of Public Opinion," and
+every one of them shared my compassion. The critic related the mournful
+details to us.
+
+All at once two of our comrades, Degr� and Lauka, rushed excitedly into
+the coffee-house. "The whole duel was a swindle!" they cried. "There was
+no harm done to any one. He was not even wounded. He is lying in bed
+with his arm tied up, and a bloody shirt; they are giving him ice
+cataplasms--the whole thing is a pure farce!"
+
+The second, however, solemnly maintained that his principal had been
+wounded.
+
+"We will convince ourselves of the fact."
+
+"Surely you would not want them to tear the bandages from the gaping
+wound?" This I also resolutely opposed, and, taking the part of my
+colleague, devised another expedient.
+
+"Who was the doctor who bound up the wound?"
+
+The critic mentioned the doctor's name.
+
+"We'll go to the doctor, then."
+
+Dr. K----y was a worthy, honest, high-spirited fellow, who well deserved
+the public respect.
+
+We rushed upon him in a body.
+
+"Tell us, now," we said, "is there a wound on the arm of the humorist?"
+
+"There is," replied the doctor.
+
+"Is it true that you took a bullet out of it?"
+
+"It is true."
+
+"On your professional reputation?"
+
+"On my professional reputation."
+
+With that my friends were bound to be satisfied. No further inquiries
+could be made.
+
+When, however, my two friends had withdrawn, I remained behind with the
+doctor, and I said to him, "My dear doctor, you have answered the
+question, did you take a bullet out of our friend's arm? but now answer
+me this question, who put that bullet in?"
+
+"Egad! egad! egad!" growled the doctor, "you imaginative people are
+really sad scamps!"
+
+The fact was that our humorist and Muki Bagotay had fought an American
+duel: whoever drew the black ball had--well, not to die, but to get Dr.
+K----y to make a wound in his arm. The doctor, with his lancet, made an
+incision about two centim�tres in length and four millem�tres in depth,
+in the epidermis just below the biceps; into this wound he insinuated a
+bullet, then took it out, sewed up the wound, and so wounded honour was
+amply satisfied. And I'll not say a single word against this being the
+most correct mode of procedure imaginable.
+
+Then I went home to my native town, ostensibly to advertise my legal
+diploma, but really to look once more upon her from whom I had been so
+long absent.
+
+I was very well received in the bosom of my family; the whole clan came
+together for dinner at my mother's, and for supper at the house of my
+brother-in-law, Francis V�ly. The two Calvinist ministers were also
+invited, and one of them toasted me as "the ward of one guardian and the
+guardian of two wards" (an allusion to my father's profession and my new
+drama, _The Two Wards_); it was the first toast that made me blush.
+
+The next day was the meeting of the county board, at the end of which,
+with open doors, my diploma was promulgated. On that self-same day my
+dear mother gave me my father's silver-mounted sword, and the cornelian
+signet-ring, with the old family crest engraved upon it, which he used
+to wear. Democrat as I am, I frankly confess that to me there was a
+soul-steeling thought in the reflection that with this sword my worthy
+ancestors, who were much better men than myself, had defended their
+nation, country, laws, and constitution of yore, and that this
+signet-ring had put the seal upon their covenanted rights for all time.
+According to ancient custom, the sword and signet-ring of the father
+belonged of right to the _younger_ son; my father had given my elder
+brother a ring and sword of his own when he brought home _his_ diploma.
+
+After that, I had to pay visits of ceremony to the county and municipal
+authorities; I called upon my principal also, and a pretty little girl
+was there whose features I had perpetuated in a portrait; she still went
+to the convent school. This little girl, I may add, never had her
+romance; she died young, and thus found her true bliss.
+
+It was only in the afternoon that I was able to get to Bessy's.
+
+Among all earthly joys, is there one that can be compared with that
+heart-throbbing which a young man feels when he again approaches, after
+a long absence, the woman whom he idolises, with the thought that she
+also has been dreaming of him all the time? It is true that our parting
+had been somewhat abrupt, and a hill of thorns had risen up between us
+perhaps in consequence; but, on the other hand, my absence had had a
+definite, deliberate aim--I went to win for myself name and fame, and a
+worldly position. And lo! but six months had passed and all this was
+already accomplished. I was an author. I had the right to speak of
+myself in the plural "we," like a king; nay, I had even a _better_
+right, for the king can only lay the peasantry under contribution, but I
+could make the gentry pay up as well, and that right was also "_Dei
+gratia_." I fancied the whole world was mine, and that triumphs would go
+before and follow after me whithersoever I went.
+
+I was dressed according to the latest fashion. The famous firm of
+tailors, "Martinek and Korsinek," had performed a masterpiece upon me:
+my feet were shod with varnished dress-shoes, I had a whale-bone cane
+with a gold-headed handle, I wore Jaquemar gloves. I no longer singed my
+hair with heated hair-tongs as in the days when I was a patvarist, but a
+hairdresser had twisted it into ringlets; and now, too, I had a sprucely
+twisted moustache and a beard.
+
+I really must make the most of all these glories to emphasize the
+dramatic climax.
+
+I found Bessy's mother and her aunt in the well-known reception room;
+the companion was on a visit to her relations. After the ceremonial
+kissing of hands, my first question was, "And Miss Bessy?"
+
+"She is in her own room, yonder."
+
+"May I go there?"
+
+"Oh, by all means!"
+
+It was that memorable room in which I had painted her portrait.
+
+The girl was alone, seated by her little table, and was bending over her
+embroidery frame. She really must have been very much absorbed in her
+work, as otherwise she must certainly have seen through the window that
+I was coming to her. It was a sort of pearl embroidery that she was busy
+over, meant apparently for the cover of a portfolio. On perceiving me
+enter, she hastily covered it with her handkerchief, but for all that,
+my eyes caught a momentary glimpse of a large letter "J." on the
+embroidery. What else could it be but the initial letter of my surname?
+I was confirmed in this belief by the circumstance that on the same
+little table stood my portrait of her on a gorgeous stand.
+
+She greeted me kindly, but I could detect a certain hostile sentiment in
+her smile. It is only in the eyes that one can read such things, and
+practised swordsmen always can tell from the expression of their
+opponents' eyes how they are going to lunge.
+
+She questioned me about everything, and I replied with great precision;
+but these questions and answers were mere feints: the points of the
+swords were so far only twirling around each other.
+
+All at once she lunged straight at my head with her sword.
+
+"And pray what is the _amiable little sapling_ doing?"
+
+In my first amazement I absolutely did not know what she was alluding
+to.
+
+"What sapling?"
+
+"Why, that darling little stage fairy, of course, who kindled you to
+such enthusiasm."
+
+So it turned up again now! Even here they cast it in my teeth! Was it
+not enough to have smarted once in my life for pretty Lilla's sake? In
+vain did I assure her that never in my life had I seen the young artiste
+except on the stage; that there indeed she had earned my admiration, but
+that I had never felt any tender sentiment either for her or for any
+other mortal maiden in the whole of Buda-Pest.
+
+"Let that go, then!" said Bessy mockingly. "We are well informed of
+everything that goes on. How about your landlord's three pretty
+daughters?"
+
+"Pardon me, but the eldest of them is only nine years old."
+
+"And your gay neighbours, the flower-garden ladies?"
+
+Well, this was simply appalling. How could I tell her the whole story?
+And yet I was the very person who had got them removed.
+
+"Whom the Town Captain was forced to interfere with? Oh, we know all
+about it! My little finger has whispered it to me."
+
+I was quite confused. Who could have been tittle-tattling about me so?
+
+And all the time her eyes were flashing sparks at me!
+
+But I was not to remain in doubt long. A new visitor arrived, his voice
+was already heard in the ante-chamber. It was Muki Bagotay.
+
+It was plain to me now that it was he who had whispered all these things
+to Bessy.
+
+Into the room he rushed. He certainly was infamously handsome. My head
+of curls was quite dwarfed by his. His dress was much more fashionable
+than mine. And what a cocksure air he had! I dared not so much as press
+Bessy's hand, while he knelt down before her and laid his hat--together
+with his heart--at her feet.
+
+"Go away with you--don't be silly!" said Bessy, by way of correction,
+pointing at me.
+
+"Your servant, comrade," cried Muki, becoming aware of my presence.
+
+Then he occupied himself with me no more, but turned towards Bessy and
+tried to remove the handkerchief from the embroidery, which attempt
+Bessy resisted with all her might.
+
+"It's mine, after all, you know," insisted Muki.
+
+"Then wait your turn, and you shall have it on your birthday."
+
+His birthday! A thought flashed through my brain. Muki's name was J�nos.
+That initial letter was _his_, not mine.
+
+A dramatic climax. How instantly Muki became the sensible fellow and I
+the blockhead! At that moment I must have cut a somewhat queer figure
+the very type of gaping confusion.
+
+By way of explanation Muki seized Bessy's hand and raised it to his
+lips, and said to me as a matter of form, "Bessy is my betrothed."
+
+And it was for this, then, that all these Sardanapalian accusations had
+been piled upon my head. The sapling of the stage, the flower-garden,
+and my landlord's young ladies were the golden bridge for a retreat.
+
+It was only then that I hit upon more sensible ideas and hastened to
+congratulate them.
+
+And now I made it a point to remain where I was. They shall see that the
+whole matter is of the utmost indifference to me.
+
+"You know, I suppose," said Muki, "what was the cause of my last duel?"
+
+"That famous duel of yours, eh?"
+
+"Yes, it was pretty famous, I think. That poor young fellow whom I shot
+was a worthy comrade, but had he been my born brother I would have shot
+him for his disrespectful allusions to my bride."
+
+"Go along with you, you bloodthirsty man!" cried Bessy, with coquettish
+self-satisfaction.
+
+And he had the cheek to say all this before me who knew the whole
+history of the duel! How ridiculous I could have made him look, if I had
+told how it had happened! But do it I wouldn't, because I felt that they
+were a worthy pair. I merely said: "I must admit, friend Muki, that in
+the way of imagination you are much greater than I."
+
+"And greater in other things also," said Muki, half drawing his sword.
+
+"We'll see about that one of these days in the fencing-school."
+
+"What! That swindling fencing! Wrestling is the thing to test a man's
+mettle. That fashionable gymnastic rubbish is a mere farce. I should
+like to see a fellow do what I can do when I go out on my _puszta_.[23]
+I have a stout _gulg�sy_[24] there, Peter Gyuricza, with whom I am wont
+to wrestle. A stalwart fellow, hard as a stone; he can keep the upper
+hand over a hundred steers. Twice out of three bouts have I floored
+Peter Gyuricza, and Peter Gyuricza has only floored me once."
+
+[Footnote 23: The Hungarian steppe or great plain.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Neat-herd, peculiar to Hungary.]
+
+"A pretty pastime, certainly."
+
+"It is not to be learnt by pen-scribbling or brush-daubing, anyhow."
+
+That I had to let pass, for there's no getting over the truth. It is not
+only true that I was no Samson, but it is also true that, compared with
+a hundred oxen, my poor Pegasus was but a sorry beast of draught. But
+Muki Bagotay was not even content with this triumph, he wanted to
+absolutely trample me beneath his feet; and as if he had only just
+observed for the first time the picture of Bessy painted by me, he chose
+to make _that_ the bone of contention.
+
+"Meanwhile, till I possess the original, I appropriate this picture."
+
+Bessy protested. "No, no, I will not part with that."
+
+But Muki thereupon took the picture from the table and held it aloft, so
+that Bessy could not get it out of his hand. She begged, implored,
+raved, but Muki only laughed and said he meant to stick to the picture.
+
+It was then that my ill-humour got the better of me.
+
+"Sir," said I, laying my hand on his shoulder, "put down that portrait!
+I did not paint it for you."
+
+How scornfully he looked at me over his shoulder! "_You_ would needs try
+conclusions with me--_you_, a mere poet!"
+
+And he flung himself upon me with the pious resolve of forcing me out of
+Bessy's boudoir into the ante-chamber. When he saw that I resisted, he
+threw both his arms round my body. I also hugged him, and to work we
+went straightway.
+
+Muki was furious because I would not allow my frame to be smashed so
+easily. Bessy began shrieking, and took refuge in the bow window.
+Suddenly I rallied all my strength and pitched Muki on to the sofa with
+such violence that the back of it cracked and came off.
+
+"I also am a Peter Gyuricza!" I cried.
+
+I would not have exchanged that triumph for all the glory in the world.
+
+At the noise of this great scuffle, the mother and the aunt rushed into
+the room, and great was their indignation when they saw me kneeling on
+Muki's breast.
+
+"Let me get up, fellow!" said my antagonist.
+
+All that I wanted to do was to take the portrait from the hands of its
+unlawful possessor. Meanwhile the poor portrait had got terribly mauled.
+During the struggle it had fallen to the ground, and the pair of us had
+left the impression of our heels upon it. Bessy burst into tears when
+she saw the wreckage of her own portrait, but her mother lamented over
+the broken sofa.
+
+I comforted Bessy with the assurance that I would make the damaged
+portrait all right again--there were special colours for that.
+
+"But she must not sit again," hastily intervened her mother. She was
+afraid I should begin coming to the house again and spoil the good
+match.
+
+"And I haven't got that dress either," said Bessy.
+
+It certainly was a pretty dress. Would that she had never had it!
+
+I assured them, however, that I would be able to put the picture to
+rights at home, all by myself. And with that I put it in my pocket. I
+never went back there again.
+
+The mother and the aunt ostentatiously occupied themselves with Muki,
+expressing all the time their regretful sympathy, at which he was beside
+himself for fury.
+
+I beat a retreat without any attempt to say good-bye. But Bessy ran
+after me, and, overtaking me in the doorway, seized my hand, and
+whispered in an ardent voice, "You'll put _me_ to rights, won't you?"
+
+"The _portrait_? oh yes!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour afterwards I was sitting on the steamer and gazing at the
+lingering smoke which hid my native town from my eyes. It was just as if
+I were returning from a funeral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WELTSCHMERZ CONDITIONS[25]--"REMAIN OR FLY!"
+
+
+[Footnote 25: _Vil�g f�jdalmas_ �llapotok. There is no English
+equivalent of _Vil�g f�jdalmas_.]
+
+When I got back to Pest, I found two letters awaiting me on my
+writing-table, one from Tony V�rady, inviting me to stand godfather to
+his new-born son, and the other from Pet�fi, informing me that he had
+just been married to Julia Szendrey, and that they were having very
+happy days at Teleky's Castle, Kolt�. Both of these friends were poor
+fellows, like myself; and the ladies who had chosen to be their
+companions through life were girls belonging to wealthy, eminent
+families, accustomed to luxury and splendour, surrounded by obsequious
+wooers, and their mothers loved them as the apples of their eyes. Their
+families opposed the marriages, and the enamoured young ladies,
+handicapped as they were by the weight of their parents' refusal,
+followed their beloveds notwithstanding.
+
+Then true love is no dream after all, but pure gold. And yet when I seek
+this pure gold they call me a crazy alchemist!
+
+And now Pet�fi begged me by letter to seek out a convenient lodging for
+him, where they and I could live together. That a newly-married
+bridegroom should invite his faithful bachelor comrade to be a
+fellow-lodger with him is a fact which belongs to the realm of fairy
+tales.
+
+I immediately hunted up in Tobacco Street a nice
+first-floor-apartment,[26] consisting of three chambers and their
+domestic offices; the first room was for the Pet�fis, the second for me,
+while the intermediate one was to be a common dining-room, and there
+were separate entrances for each of us.
+
+[Footnote 26: Used here in the French sense of a suite of rooms.]
+
+The young couple came in during the autumn; they kept one maid, and I
+had an old servant. We had both very primitive furniture. Mrs. Pet�fi
+had left her father's house without a dowry; she had not so much as a
+fashionable hat to bless herself with; she had sewed herself together a
+sort of head-dress of her own invention, which she never wore. Her hair
+was cut short, so that she looked like a little boy. They had nothing,
+and yet they were very happy! Julia's sole amusement was to learn
+English from Pet�fi, and afterwards, at dinner (which was sent in from
+"The Eagle"), we spoke English, and laughed at each other's blunders.
+And I had to be a witness of their bliss every day!
+
+It was just as if one were to season hell with piquant pepper.
+
+Just about this time there appeared in _Eletk�pek_ some very ordinary
+verses entitled "Word-Echoes," by one "Aggteleki,"[27] ostensibly
+addressed to a certain actress. I am now able to confess that _I_ was
+the author of those verses. But for all that (though the verses were not
+so bad) I solemnly forbid any one at any time to include these verses
+among my works, for even now, forty years after the event, I am not such
+an old, decrepit, suicidally inclined fellow as Aggteleki was.
+
+[Footnote 27: Aged Teleki.]
+
+But, indeed, every one of the works that I wrote at that period breathe
+the same bitter tone. The paroxysms of a crushed spirit, the dreamy
+phantoms of a diseased imagination, self-contempt, a moon-sick view of
+the world in general, characterise all my tales belonging to that
+period. And yet they pleased people then. I even had imitators. I turned
+Pet�fi himself away from the right path. He himself confessed that his
+novel entitled "H�h�r K�tele"[28] was written under the influence of my
+"Nyomar�k napl�ja,"[29] a literary abortion.
+
+[Footnote 28: "The Hangman's Rope." It certainly is a wretched
+performance.--TR.]
+
+[Footnote 29: "The Cripple's Diary."]
+
+Who knows whither I should have got to with my tower of Babel, had not a
+healthy earthquake brought it to the ground?
+
+One day Pet�fi caught me in the act of touching up Bessy's portrait. He
+saw from my eyes that I had been weeping. I tried to hide it, for I was
+a bit ashamed.
+
+"_It is well that it is so, my son_," said he on that occasion; "_it is
+men who are unhappy that the world wants now._"
+
+A memorable saying!
+
+It was in those days that he wrote "I dream, I dream of bloody days,"
+and "My Songs," with this final strophe, all blood and fire:--
+
+    "Wherefore doth this race of thralls endure it?
+    Wherefore rise not? Rend your chains and cure it!
+    Do ye wait, forsooth! till God's good pleasure
+    Rusts them off, and makes them drop at leisure?"
+
+And then he would lead me into his room. On the walls there, in handsome
+frames, hung the portraits of the chiefs of the French Revolution--this
+was his only luxury--Danton, Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins,
+Saint-Juste, Madame Roland. There, too, the parts we were to play were
+distributed; Saint-Juste was designed for me, Madame Roland for Julia.
+And then we spoke of "the bloody days." They were to be no mere dream,
+we were to see them with our eyes wide open. And we were to be among the
+first to feel them.
+
+A healthy-minded man would have been ready after such words as these to
+have left the house by jumping out of the window; but they had a charm
+for me. It suited my peculiar frame of mind just then to set on fire the
+Dejanira robe that was about me, and then rush out among the people and
+set them on fire also.
+
+"Man's fate is woman!"
+
+Had that young lady the last time I held her hand in mine said "Stay!" I
+should certainly have remained. I should have crept into my little nook
+of bliss and never have gazed after the moonshine of fame. In that case
+I should now perhaps have been one of the judicial assessors at the
+Royal Courts, and have joined heartily in the laugh when one or other of
+my colleagues at the end of a friendly banquet might take it into his
+head to quote some monstrous sentences out of my earliest romance, an
+imperfect copy of which turns up now and then as a literary curiosity
+among other antiquarian rubbish.
+
+This is what would have happened if the young lady had said "Stay!"
+
+But if that young lady had said "Fly!" then I should have flown like the
+rest after the falling stars. And, indeed, of those who stood with me on
+the 11th March[30] before the mob on the balcony of the town-hall to
+announce "This is the day of national liberty!" of those my
+youthful-visaged, warm-hearted comrades, three have perished in defence
+of that word "Liberty" then pronounced: those three names are
+"Pet�fi,"[31] "Vasv�ry," "Bozzai." And certainly, in that case, the
+four ounces of lead, or the cossack's lance, or the grenade splinter
+which killed them, might have sufficed for me also--that is, of course,
+if that young lady had said "Fly!" Fate, in fact, confronted me with
+this paradox--"Either live and be forgotten, or be remembered as one who
+died young!"
+
+[Footnote 30: When the Hungarian revolution of 1848 began.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Pet�fi was most probably killed at the battle of Segesv�r
+in July, 1849; at any rate he was never seen or heard of afterwards. He
+was only twenty-seven, and in him the world lost one of its great lyric
+poets.]
+
+"Stay!" or "Fly!"
+
+Then a voice said to me: "Go! but let us go together!"
+
+But it was not the voice of the lady with the eyes like the sea.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One morning Pet�fi rushed into my room roaring with laughter.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Do you want to laugh? Just catch hold of that _Honder�_."
+And into my hands he thrust the latest number of the opposition paper.
+
+I immediately caught sight of what had made him laugh so much. There was
+a magnificent description from my native town of the wedding which had
+taken place between Mr. J�nos Nepomuk Bagotay and the world-renowned
+beauty--I didn't trouble to look at the name. "The happy pair will spend
+their honeymoon at Paris!"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! ha!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PETER GYURICZA'S CONSORT
+
+
+After the March days, I quitted the Pet�fis and went into another
+lodging. I had got on so well that I could maintain a bachelor's
+establishment, consisting of two rooms, which I furnished myself.
+Properly speaking, it only became a bachelor's establishment when I
+entered, for before I took it it was occupied by a little old woman who
+kept a registry office for providing respectable families with servants.
+Every one knew "M�mi," as she was called.... I was very well satisfied
+with my lodging, which quite answered all my requirements. It had this
+one drawback, however, that a whole mob of cooks, parlour-maids, and
+nursery-maids were constantly opening my door under the persuasion that
+I could provide them with places, and they disturbed my work terribly.
+Besides, this constant flow of petticoats towards my door was sufficient
+of itself to bring a young man into disrepute. From the apartments at
+the opposite end of the corridor it was possible to catch a glimpse of
+my door, and it was just in these very apartments that Rosa Laborfalvy
+lived. I was afraid that _some one_ might think ill of me.
+
+It was no longer the _Weltschmerz_, but a _Privatschmerz_,[32] that
+afflicted me.
+
+[Footnote 32: _Priv�t f�jdalmas_--private anxiety.]
+
+Again I had applied myself to portrait-painting. A tall, slender girl in
+a white atlas dress, with large black eyes, and coal-black ringlets _�
+l'Anglaise_ rolling down to her shoulders, was standing on my easel; I
+was just giving it the finishing-touch, I had no need for the original
+to be my model. I have the portrait to this day.
+
+All at once there came a knocking at my door "Come in!" The door opened,
+and in came a stylish young peasant girl. I thought as much; here we
+have another nursery-maid in search of a place.
+
+"No, no; go away! The registry-office lady does not live here!" said I
+viciously, for I was busy with my portrait; and perceiving that the
+intruder did not retire even now, I bawled out, not over gently: "In
+Heaven's name, be off, my dear!"
+
+At this the peasant girl began to laugh. Had I not heard that laughing
+voice somewhere before? I turned round and looked at her, and the more I
+looked, the more astonished I felt. It was Bessy!
+
+She wore a bright red gown trimmed with yellowish-green flowers, over
+that a dark blue, double-bordered damask apron, and a black silk bodice
+with puff sleeves. Above the bodice was a bib with beautifully
+embroidered palm flowers; on her head sat a cockscomb like Haube,
+frilled with starched thread-lace; on her arm she carried a covered
+basket by the handle.
+
+Her face was ruddy and bronzed from exposure to the sun, and a sort of
+waggish little imp was nestling provocatively in her smiling features. I
+couldn't believe my own eyes.
+
+"What! don't you know me?" she cried, with a merry laugh. "I'm Bessy!"
+
+I saw that, but for the life of me I could not conceive what her object
+was in coming masquerading like this through the streets of Buda in
+broad daylight. And to hit upon _my_ lodgings of all places in the
+world!
+
+"Madame de Bagotay?" I stammered in my confusion.
+
+"Oh, I am no longer Madame Bagotay, but Madame Peter Gyuricza!"
+
+"What on earth do you mean? Mrs. Gyuricza! The wife of a herdsman?"
+
+My amazement was so genuine that Bessy clapped her hands together with
+glee.
+
+"Then you actually don't know about it? They haven't written to you from
+home?"
+
+"It is a long time since I received a letter from home."
+
+"But this was a scandal which set seven counties in an uproar; there has
+been nothing like it since the French Revolution--and you call yourself
+the editor of a newspaper!"
+
+"My paper does not meddle with purely family matters."
+
+Bessy's face was flushed, and she began smoothing it with the palms of
+both hands; she thought, perhaps, that she would brush the tell-tale
+blush away.
+
+"I have heated myself a little on that steep staircase of yours," she
+said.
+
+She blamed the staircase for that flaming face of hers.
+
+It then occurred to me that it would only be polite to ask my fair
+visitor to take a seat. I offered her the sofa.
+
+"Oh, dear, no! That's only for ladies! This will do quite well enough
+for me." And with that she sat down on my trunk, and put down her basket
+beside it. "I really am quite tired. I have travelled by the corn-boat
+as far as V�cz,[33] and thence I have walked all the way to Pest."
+
+[Footnote 33: Waitzen.]
+
+"But you could have gone by steamer?"
+
+"But my master[34] could not give me steamboat fare. We are poor people.
+Look! this is my whole provision for the journey."
+
+[Footnote 34: _i.e._, husband.]
+
+And with that she lifted the lid of the basket, and showed me what was
+inside it: a piece of black bread, and something wrapped up in greasy
+paper--a piece of cheese possibly, and a garlic-seasoned sausage.
+
+"I must keep this for my return journey."
+
+The cynicism of the proceeding revolted me.
+
+"But now, if you please, I should very much like to know what's the
+meaning of it all. Is it a practical joke you are playing upon me?"
+
+"Oh, no! certainly not! Pray don't suppose that I have dressed up on
+your account. I am now a real peasant woman, and such I mean to remain.
+It is a serious thing for me, I can tell you, and I've come to you, not
+that you may write about it in your paper, but that you may give me
+advice."
+
+"_I_ give _you_ advice?"
+
+"Certainly! Whom else should I ask? The whole world condemns and
+tramples upon me, and yet I have offended nobody, not even in thought.
+You are the only one I have injured, bitterly injured, so it is from you
+that I must seek protection."
+
+Woman's logic with a vengeance! I stood up in front of her, leaning on
+the edge of the table. I was contriving all the time to prevent her from
+seeing the portrait I was painting.
+
+"I'll begin from the very beginning," continued the lady, lowering her
+long eyelashes. "I was married. So much you know. We gave a splendid
+banquet. The whole town, half the county was there. I fancy they
+described it in the newspapers; and why shouldn't they, when the
+richest, best-known, and most handsome girl in the town was married to
+the ideal cavalier? The lady brought a dowry of 100,000 florins, and the
+gentleman conveyed his bride to his ancestral castle in a carriage drawn
+by four fiery horses. The universal envy was a more piquant grace to the
+meal than the benediction of the priest. The gentlemen envied the
+bridegroom, and the ladies envied the bride, and every one was forced to
+say: 'A couple made for each other.' Alas! the only joy which remained
+in my heart when I came out of church and looked among the crowd was the
+thought, 'Ah! you all envy me, I know!'
+
+"We went straight from church to my husband's castle," continued Bessy.
+"Thirty carriages escorted us. I counted them. A splendid banquet
+followed. That day I changed my dress four times. The fifth time I put
+on a lace _n�glig�_, and the bridesmaids led me to the bridal chamber.
+This room was a veritable masterpiece of upholstery. A Vienna furnisher
+had decorated it most elaborately. I couldn't sleep all night. The voice
+of the bass viol and the clarionet resounded in my ears from the
+banqueting-room, and the noise and uproar of the guests also. I did not
+see my husband till the morning. Then the guests began to disperse. Only
+now and then did a cracked and piping voice mingle with the frantic
+music of the gipsies. Then it was that my husband appeared before me,
+and a pitiable object he looked. He called me his darling little sister,
+and asked me if I could tell him where he lived. Then he undressed
+himself on the sofa and talked such nonsense that at last I couldn't
+help laughing. 'Well,' said I to myself, 'I suppose this is always the
+way when they take leave of their bachelordom.' Then sleep overcame me
+and I dreamed the silliest stuff. _You_ were continually in my dreams.
+But why mention such things now?"
+
+With that she readjusted the kerchief which was tied around her
+head-dress and proceeded:--
+
+"It was afternoon when I awoke. I must have wept a great deal in my
+dreams, for the pillow on which my head lay was quite wet. My husband
+was no longer reposing on the sofa, but sprawling on the floor like a
+stuffed frog. It cost me a great deal of trouble to shake him into life
+again. It was a still greater effort to make him understand in what part
+of the world he was, and in what relations we stood to each other here
+below. After that he insisted upon my crawling with him under the sofa,
+and when I wouldn't hear of it, he began to cry like a child, and
+demanded a pistol from me that he might blow his brains out. Then I
+brought a washing-basin and washed his face for him, and ducked it once
+or twice in cold water. He roared like a baby who is being tubbed, but
+finally recovered his spirits, and allowed himself to be raised from the
+ground. Then he drank out of the water-jug, and his eyes opened, but
+they were as tiny as a mole's, and I now perceived for the first time
+that they were a little crooked."
+
+During this narration Bessy laughed and laughed again.
+
+"What a sight the fellow did look! his hair all rumpled, his moustache
+all askew, his clothes soiled and tousled. He had to be dressed all over
+again. I began to scold him a little, 'A pretty condition of things, I
+must say!' To which he replied that I ought to have seen his comrades,
+Nusi, and Lenezi, and Blekus, and how _they_ had been settled. They had
+all fallen under the table, and he had remained the victor. And he
+yawned so much as he told me this, that I had to beg him not to swallow
+me. At last I got him to sit down on a chair while I did his hair for
+him, and he meanwhile howled and swore continually that every single
+hair pained him as much as if devils were tweaking him with iron
+pincers."
+
+Again the lady stopped to laugh.
+
+"That's quite a novel state of things to you, eh? A person who becomes
+the bride of an out-and-out dandy must expect to see something
+extraordinary. But perhaps there was nothing extraordinary in it after
+all. And now the banquet was resumed, commencing with a pick-me-up. I
+presided at the table with a turban on my head. All our guests were
+still drunk. I had to listen to very peculiar anecdotes. At such times
+the best man is he who can pay the new bride the compliment which will
+make her blush the most. The lady guests had all departed in the
+morning, and had come to bid me good-bye one by one. They all wept over
+me--it is the usual thing. I was the only lady left, and glad was I when
+I managed to get away from the gentlemen. I think that they had been
+awaiting my withdrawal; they could then continue their interrupted
+pastime. Again I could not sleep; my head was throbbing. For the first
+time in my life I recognised the existence of the headache, that
+frightful curse of feminine nerves which I had hitherto always put down
+to affectation or imagination. How good it would have been for me if
+some one had laid a cool, refreshing hand upon my temples! Perhaps a
+single word of comfort would have relieved my pangs! I waited for it in
+vain. I sent a message. He never came to me. Suddenly, while an
+oppressive dream was benumbing my pain, a hellish uproar awoke me. I
+fancied that Pandemonium had been let loose. It was only my husband, but
+he had brought with him the whole of his drunken crew. I saw before me a
+whole legion of them, with guffawing, sardonic, lascivious, distorted
+faces, and amongst them my husband, with the grin of a satyr on his
+idiotic face. I rose in terror from my bed, cast my counterpane around
+me, fled into my waiting-maid's room, and barricaded myself behind the
+door. There he thumped and thundered for some time. I threatened to
+throw myself out of the window if he broke in by force. Thereupon some
+of his comrades, in whom a little human feeling still remained,
+contrived to drag him away, though not without difficulty. Then followed
+a little sulky squabble on both sides. I wouldn't leave my room for
+four-and-twenty hours; he wouldn't come to me. The noise that he made
+over head was sufficient evidence to me that he hadn't committed
+suicide in the meantime. The third day was passed by the bridal guests
+in a more profitable occupation. They played at cards. The table,
+vigorously punched by their fists, proclaimed their handiwork aloud. It
+was like blacksmiths' apprentices pounding iron on the anvil with
+sledgehammers. Only in the morning did 'my lord and master' turn up
+while I was still only half-dressed. He was sober then, and, what is
+more, ill-tempered. His loss at cards was mirrored in his face like a
+guilty conscience. He frankly told me all about it. He had been peppered
+finely, and his comrades were vile curs.... Such was my wedding."
+
+Bessy covered her face with both her hands. Was she laughing? Was she
+weeping? I cannot say.
+
+All at once she asked me, "Did you ever play at cards?"
+
+"Yes, but only for copper coins."
+
+"It's all one. You ought not to waste your time with it."
+
+"Well, really, I only spend that time on it which I do not know how to
+employ otherwise, the time when I am tired of work, and want a rest from
+thinking. Cards are very good things at such times."
+
+"Then what a pity girls also do not learn the science of card-playing at
+school, just as they learn to find out towns on maps, or gather the
+properties of exotic plants and animals from zoological albums; then at
+least a newly-married bride would understand why it is necessary to
+subtract so much from her heritage to sacrifice it to such mythological
+deities as _skiz_ and _pag�t_.[35] ..."
+
+[Footnote 35: Terms used in Tarok.]
+
+Meanwhile I didn't interrupt her, but remained standing and looking at
+her with my hands resting on the table. This seemed to put her out.
+
+"Why don't you smoke a cigar? Don't mind me."
+
+"I would only remind you that you used always to make fun of me because
+I didn't smoke."
+
+"True. Smoking becomes a man. A cigar or a pipe makes his face so
+cosy-looking. Just look at any man who hasn't a pipe stuck into his
+mouth, and tell me if he doesn't look like a judge pronouncing judgment,
+or a priest shriving a penitent? Believe me, that one of the reasons why
+I was faithless to you was that you didn't smoke. Well, at any rate, I
+have got my reward for it.
+
+"Now, Muki used to suck Havannahs all day. Yes, nothing but Havannahs;
+but Gyuricza smokes the coarsest tobacco, and even chews pigtail."
+
+I burst out laughing; I couldn't help it. In what ways are a woman's
+graces gained! No, I wouldn't chew pigtail if the favour of the Goddess
+Melpomene herself depended on it.
+
+"I will not weary you with our diversions at Paris. There, I perceived,
+it is the common practice for husband and wife to take their pleasures
+apart. My husband did no more than what other husbands do. It is not
+good form to ask a husband who returns home at dawn where he has been.
+Besides, Muki, with perfect candour, informed me all about these places
+of public entertainment and the joys of _les petits soupers_; once he
+took me with him to these delights--I didn't ask to go again.... I was
+very glad when the season was over and we returned to our village, and
+after all the bustling diversions, flirtations, visitings and boredom, I
+could once more be alone and fill my straw hat with forget-me-nots on
+the banks of the river, as of old on the island. You remember my visit
+to your rustic hut, don't you? You remember the golden thrushes who used
+to speak to you? To you they said, 'Silly boy! silly boy!' to me they
+cried, 'What's the good! what's the good!' On returning to his estates
+my husband became quite another man: you would have said that he was a
+changeling. The dainty dandy became an enthusiastic agriculturist. He
+was up early, on horseback all day, went from one _puszta_ to another,
+and brought home ears of barley in his hat. The only things he talked
+about at home were sheepshearing and the diseases of horned cattle. He
+had a stud and a neat-herd, and of the latter he appeared to be
+particularly proud. Sometimes he drove me all over his demesne in a
+light gig. A fine demesne it was. You might drive about it the whole day
+and not see the whole of it. He showed me his herds. He told me that
+herds like them were not to be had in the whole kingdom. I didn't
+understand it. All that I could see was that the oxen had very large
+horns. But the form of the herdsman really did surprise me. He was a
+veritable ancient-hero sort of a man, such as we imagine the primeval
+Magyars to have been who wandered hither out of Asia. His bronzed face
+beamed with health, his thick black hair whipped his shoulders with its
+greasy curls, and add to that his sun-defying glance, his stately
+bearing, his long mantle embroidered with tulips and cast lightly across
+his shoulder. His white linen garment fluttered in the breeze, and when
+he raised his arm to take off his cap, the loose fluttering short
+sleeves fell right back and revealed an arm like the arm of the figure
+of an athlete cast in bronze. 'Why, Peter,' said I, 'is it with you that
+your master is wont to wrestle?' The Hercules, thus addressed, timidly
+cast down his eyes and said: 'Yes!' 'But how on earth is your master
+ever able to throw you?' At this question, Peter Gyuricza shifted his
+mantle from one shoulder to the other, and twisting his moustache,
+replied: 'As often as his Excellency throws me I get five florins.' So
+that was the secret of Muki's acrobatic triumphs. After that, the
+herdsman conducted us to the great summer farm, which was a good
+distance from the hut where the calves are put to rest at midday. There,
+a savoury luncheon, prepared by the wife of the herdsman, awaited us.
+She was a buxom, smart young woman, with roguish eyes and radiating
+eyebrows, all life and freshness, a true blossom of the _puszta_.[36] I
+caught myself looking repeatedly in the mirror, and making comparisons
+between her face and my own. After luncheon we went all round the farm,
+and the herdsman's wife guided us from stable to stable. A thorn got
+into my foot through my slipper. The herdsman's wife bobbed down and
+drew the thorn out. 'You don't feel the thorn now, do you?' she asked,
+flashing a look upon me. 'I do not feel it in my foot,' I replied."
+
+[Footnote 36: _i.e._, a true heath-flower.]
+
+Bessy paused for a moment, and smoothed her brows with both hands as if
+to refresh her memory.
+
+"I took another sort of thorn away with me. I began to be suspicious of
+the grand economical zeal of my husband. Such assiduity was not natural.
+Early one morning he again took horse, called to his greyhounds, and
+told me not to wait for him to dinner, he would not be home till
+evening. A certain instinct would not let me rest. I went out into the
+garden, right to the boundary fence and into the stubble beyond, and
+then I went on foot into the _puszta_, through the turnip fields and the
+Indian corn. Nobody saw me. The vesper-bell was ringing in the village
+when I entered the courtyard of the herdsman. In the stubble I saw the
+two dogs hunting a hare on their own account. Truly, a Cockney sportsman
+who allows his dogs to win their own meat like that! I whistled to them,
+they recognised me and came leaping around me. 'Where's your master?'
+The dogs understood me. They began yelping and barking, and darted on
+before me helter-skelter, with their heads between their legs as if to
+give me to understand that they would lead me to the spot if I followed
+them. They made straight for the hut. No doubt they fancied they were
+doing something very knowing. When I marched in at the door the little
+servant exclaimed, 'Good gracious!' and let fall the wooden trencher in
+which she was kneading some dough with a large pot-ladle, and when I
+advanced towards the dwelling-room door, she stood in my way, and said,
+'Please don't go in now!' I boxed her ears for her, first on the right
+side and then on the left, pushed her into a cupboard and locked the
+door upon her. Then I opened the door of the dwelling-room. There was
+nobody there. But the door of a little side room, which in peasants'
+houses is, as a rule, always open, was closed. On the table, however, I
+perceived my lord's hat and his riding-whip. I made no disturbance. The
+clothes of the herdsman's wife lay in a heap on a bench. I took off my
+clothes and put on hers carefully, one by one. I was just as you see me
+now."
+
+She stood up before me and turned herself round that I might have a
+better look at her.
+
+"Then I went into the outer hut again, and picked the ladle from the
+floor which the maid had let fall in her terror. It was a mess of bacon
+dumplings that she had been engaged upon. I kneaded the dough for the
+dumplings, I made twelve beautiful little round ones out of it, boiled
+them, beat up a nice garlic sauce with them, and poured the whole lot of
+it into a varnished jug, first tasting to see that it was not over
+salted. Then I tied up the jar in my kerchief, and set off with it
+towards the pasturage. But another idea also occurred to me. I concealed
+behind my apron my husband's riding whip that was reposing on the table,
+and took it away with me.
+
+"The pasturage is pretty far from the hut. It was somewhat late when I
+arrived there. The herdsman was quite impatient, and had climbed up a
+'look-out' tree, and when he saw my striped dress and bright red
+kerchief, he began to bawl out, 'Hillo! Come along, can't you! I'll give
+you what for! I'll teach you something, you cursed blockhead! What have
+you done with my dinner? A pretty time when they're already ringing
+vespers in the village. I suppose you've been carrying on with his
+honour again? Let me catch you at it, that's all, and I'll tickle your
+hide for you with my whip.' When I got up to him and lifted the kerchief
+from my head, he stopped short with his mouth open. 'Well, I never! if
+it isn't her ladyship!'--'True, Peter!' said I. 'I've cooked your dinner
+for you, and now you see I've brought it to you. Your wife cannot come.
+She's learning French from my husband. I've also brought with me my
+husband's whip. I found it on your table. You may flog with it whomever
+you like, either me or your wife.'"
+
+Here she stopped short. She evidently meant me to find out the rest of
+the story for myself.
+
+"Poor woman!" I murmured. I was sorry and embarrassed.
+
+She burst out laughing.
+
+"Don't pity me, pray! I am perfectly happy. Gyuricza did not strike me
+with his whip. I am now mistress in the herdsman's hut."
+
+And she seemed quite proud of it all!
+
+Then she began to tell me of her new hero with real enthusiasm. He was
+what man was meant to be when first created, all strength and truth;
+there was nothing artificial, nothing false, nothing effeminate about
+him. "When he comes home at night he goes to the fireplace to smoke his
+pipe; then he empties a can of buttermilk to the very dregs. Wine is
+only put upon the table on Sundays. Then he asks, 'Have you any good
+dumpling soup, sweetheart?' 'Of course I have, and cured bacon and groat
+pottage as well.' As soon as it is ready we turn it out and sit down to
+it. We eat with tin spoons out of a large common dish. No invitation is
+needed there. The lady herself fetches the water from the spring. The
+master drinks one half of it and offers the other half to his wife: 'You
+drink too!' And after that they don't go in for much stargazing, nor do
+they care a fig for the world and all its thousand troubles. They sleep
+with open doors, and the four sheep-dogs guard the house.
+
+"At three o'clock in the morning Bessy gets up and goes into the stable
+to milk the cows; by dawn it must be all done. The little milking-stool
+is now her throne. She pours the fresh foaming milk into the pails and
+takes them into the cellar with the help of the serving maid. When the
+boy sounds his horn the cows must be driven out; they must be pastured
+apart from the brood-cows. And all this time the master is eating his
+breakfast: peppered bacon and green leeks with good _papramorg�_,[37]
+and then he follows his herds out into the pastures. The reason why he
+cracks his whip so loudly is because he knows that some one is standing
+there in the little door and looking after him. Then _she_ has to skim
+the cream from the standing milk, churn the milk, and take the butter to
+market. Then she has to buckle to bread-baking. The maid is sent to heat
+the oven; meanwhile she herself is kneading the dough, then she shovels
+out the burning embers with the oven scoop, and wipes down the inside of
+the oven with a wet kitchen-clout; then the loaves are shot in by means
+of the long baking-shovel (first of all, however, are baked the
+'fire-cakes,' which 'my soul'[38] loves so much), finally the 'lock-up'
+stone is smeared with clay and placed in front of the oven, and one must
+be ready to an instant to pull the stone from the mouth of the oven
+again and take out the loaves. Meanwhile, she has had time to prepare
+upon the hearth a pottage of millet and smoked bacon, and carry it
+quickly, pot and all, to the pasturage, so that when the mid-day bell
+rings, the master may have his victuals ready laid on his outspread fur
+pelisse. After dinner, beneath the shadow of the big wild nut-tree, she
+may take a nap with an apron thrown over her face. On returning home she
+gets out her bruised flax and heckles it, so that when the husband
+returns home he finds wife and family sitting by the distaff and singing
+together the spinning songs of the country folk, till the pigs come
+running home with a great grunting and demand their slush.--Oh, such a
+life as that is pure enjoyment!"
+
+[Footnote 37: A sort of _eau-de-vie_.]
+
+[Footnote 38: _Lelkem_, _i.e._, "My darling."]
+
+I shook my head dubiously.
+
+"It will bore you one day."
+
+"Bore me! Don't you recollect when I was in your lath hut I painted this
+very life to you as my ideal?--A hut of rushes and a bed of straw. You
+spoke to me of fame and glory. The lowing of kine, the tinkling of
+sheep-bells, the cracking of whips is my delight. It was so even then.
+Since that time I have learnt to know the great world, but it hasn't
+altered me. I am full of disgust with everything that is to be found in
+palaces. Those demi-men, those Sunday husbands--those refined and
+exquisitely polite she-sinners, those model sticklers for virtue who sin
+through the whole ten commandments day after day, and vie even with the
+ladies of the ballet, with this difference, however, that the
+ballet-dancers are much more modest in private than these great ladies
+are in public--I am sick and weary of the whole lot of them. I would
+rather have a man who never washes his mouth after he has eaten garlic,
+than a man who returns home from an orgie and pretends he has been to a
+political conference. The famous Hamilton bed, which costs you a hundred
+ducats if you sleep in it for a single night, is wretchedness itself
+compared to the bed of fresh straw on which I sleep. Believe me when I
+tell you that I am perfectly happy."
+
+"I'll believe anything you like, but there's one circumstance I cannot
+understand. How is it that nobody disturbs this sweet idyll of yours? Is
+the one man who is so confoundedly nearly interested in your happiness,
+is that man still alive? Does Muki Bagotay still exist anywhere in the
+wide world?"
+
+"I fancy so."
+
+"Well, if he does, I'll only say that what flows through his veins is
+milk, not blood. Is he content to carry the horns of his hundred oxen? A
+rich and powerful landlord, a county magnate, and the master of your
+ideal peasant!--A thousand lightnings! if I were only in his place!"
+
+Bessy, with a sarcastic smile, folded her hands together above her
+knees.
+
+"Well, come now! If you were in dear Muki's place what would _you_ do?"
+
+"I'll tell you. I wouldn't call Peter Gyuricza out, but one fine day I
+would put my democratic principles on the shelf, and collecting my
+heydukes and my rustics, I'd give chase to the herdsman, trounce him
+according to his deserts, and kick him out of my employment. I would get
+another herdsman; but as for my wife, I'd tie her to the pummel of my
+saddle, and drag her like that to my castle. That's what _I_ would do,
+were I the husband of Muki Bagotay's wife!"
+
+I had certainly got a little heated. It was only afterwards that I
+reflected, "What's Hecuba to me? Why should I bother my head about Peter
+Gyuricza?"
+
+Bessy, however, laughed most heartily.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! You'd have done that to me, would you? You'd have tied me
+to your horse's tail and whipped me home, eh? How sorry I am then that I
+did not choose you! What a fine thing it would have been if I could have
+boasted of bearing the impression of your blows on my body! Tell me now,
+have you ever struck any one who was unable to hit you back?"
+
+At this I was fairly put to silence.
+
+"But let that be! You could not be so good a Muki Bagotay as Muki
+Bagotay himself would have been if he could. He actually _did_ try the
+very recipe which you now recommend. The very next day he sent his
+bailiff with the verbal message to Peter Gyuricza to pack himself off
+forthwith, but me the bailiff was to bring straight home. The bailiff
+gave himself airs, and would have used force, so I gave him a sound box
+on the ears, which he'll not forget in a hurry; whereupon Peter Gyuricza
+threw him out of the house.
+
+"Next day the wounded honour of the offended husband resorted to still
+stronger measures: six _pandurs_[39] appeared upon the scene with swords
+and pistols. Peter and I were outside in the pastures. Thither they came
+after us. But Peter was not a bit put out. He hastily called together
+his young shepherds; there were four of them; they caught up their
+cudgels, and the four sheep dogs took the same side. The six _pandurs_
+never dreamt we should tackle them. The corporal of the _pandurs_
+threatened to fire if we offered the least resistance. I immediately
+rushed forward in front of Peter, and said to them, 'Very well! there
+you are! Fire!' There was a pretty rumpus, the dogs began to bark, and
+at last even the stolid steers got mad, and the big old bull rushed out
+of the herd and charged straight at the _pandurs_, who were thronging
+round the herdsman. They took to their heels straightway, and those who
+did not leave their shakos behind them might think themselves lucky."
+
+[Footnote 39: County police.]
+
+"Why, that was quite an epic poem!"
+
+"Wasn't it! But you haven't heard the end of it yet. After the repulse
+of the second assault, Muki began to carry on the war in grim earnest.
+One evening, our maid, who had been sent out as a spy, came back with
+the terrifying news that his honour had sent out orders that on the
+following day all his tenants were to assemble in the courtyard of the
+castle armed with cudgels, flails, and pitchforks; to his huntsmen and
+heydukes also he had distributed guns and ammunition. The whole of this
+host was to advance upon us in battle array on the morrow. It would have
+been well, perhaps, to have fled before them while there was yet time.
+But we did not fly."
+
+"Then what was the end of it all?"
+
+"A very droll ending indeed. When the danger was greatest, good luck
+sent a deliverer, a good friend, just as usually happens in
+happily-constructed dramas, who intervened with a mighty hand and
+diverted the stroke from our heads."
+
+"And who was this good friend?"
+
+"Why, who else but the bearer of this fine blonde beard!" cried she,
+with an ironical smile, caressing my chin.
+
+"I? Why, I was not in that part of the country at all."
+
+"Ah! but poets have long arms, you know. At the very moment when Muki
+was placing firearms in the hands of his peasants, freedom was
+proclaimed at Pest. The rumour spread throughout the kingdom like
+wildfire--the Revolution had broken out. They say in Pressburg that
+Pet�fi and you were on the R�kos[40] at the head of 40,000 peasants,
+and that a new D�zsa[41] war had begun. The retainers of Muki also
+thronged up to his castle, not to carry me off by force, but to demand
+their liberties. 'We'll work no more!' they cried; 'we'll pay no more
+tithes, and no more hearth-money.'[42] Freedom had broken out with a
+vengeance! Muki was thereupon so terrified that he fled incontinently
+through the back door in the clothes of his lackey, and never stopped
+till he was safely out of the kingdom. I have heard nothing of him
+since. So you see your mighty hand turned aside the danger that was
+hovering over our heads. We drank your health afterwards in big
+bumpers."
+
+[Footnote 40: A plain to the east of Pest, where, from the earliest
+times, elective assemblies were held.]
+
+[Footnote 41: George D�zsa, the leader of the Hungarian _jacquerie_ of
+1514, who was finally captured and executed after truly infernal
+torments.]
+
+[Footnote 42: _F�stpenz_--lit., smoke money, so much on each chimney.]
+
+I certainly had never calculated upon success of this sort.
+
+"Well," said I, "you have certainly disposed of Mr. J�nos Nepomuk
+Bagotay for a time (though I would call your attention to the fact that
+he will not be very long in perceiving that there is no D�zsa war in
+Hungary, and will then return with reinforcements), but may I ask what
+her ladyship your mother says to all this?"
+
+"I should have come to that, even if you had not asked me. In fact, this
+is the very thing which brings me to you. One fine evening when I was
+returning home from the maize fields, with my kerchief full of pods, I
+found an official notification nailed on the door of our hut. The
+lawyer's clerk who brought it, delighted to find nobody at home, had
+fastened the document to the door-post and decamped. It gave me to
+understand that Muki was bringing an action against me for adultery. A
+term was fixed, however, within which, according to custom, we might
+appear before the priest at any place we liked and be reconciled if
+possible. After the lapse of six weeks the priest would make another
+attempt to bring about a reconciliation; if this did not succeed, he
+would bid us go to the ----! and we should have to appear before the
+judge instead!"
+
+I now began to see to what I was indebted for the pleasure of her visit.
+I should very much have liked to have banged the door in her face with
+the words: "I am not a lawyer, though I have served my terms!" But I let
+her go on.
+
+"I immediately took down the notification from the door," she resumed,
+"and sent my little maid with it to town to my mother's. By way of
+explanation I wrote her a letter, a task not unattended with difficulty,
+as Peter Gyuricza's hut was singularly ill-provided with writing
+materials. First of all I had to manufacture ink from wild juniper
+berries, then I carved a pen from a goose-quill; in place of paper I
+made use of beautifully smooth maize leaves."
+
+"Just as the Egyptians used papyrus?"
+
+"Yes, and if papyrus was good enough for the daughters of the Pharaohs,
+why shouldn't maize-membranes be good enough for me? I wrote and told
+her everything that had happened. I entirely justified my proceedings.
+If there was but one drop of justice in her composition she would be
+bound to acknowledge that my line of action was as clear as the day.
+Muki had made off with the herdsman's wife; I, following the _lex
+talionis_--an eye for eye--had made off with Gyuricza. He had brought an
+action against me; Gyuricza would bring an action against his own wife.
+The pair of us stood on exactly the same legal footing. If the two
+divorces were carried out, I meant to make the man of my choice my
+lawful husband, and would become in name what I already was in fact, the
+wife of Peter Gyuricza. I referred to you also in my letter."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"Yes. I argued that there was now no difference between peasants and
+gentlemen, and pointed out that since the 15th March you had omitted the
+privileged '_y_'[43] from the end of your name, and had substituted for
+it a simple '_i_,' and you were a 'glorious patriot,' as every one knew.
+Nobody therefore had any reason to be ashamed of Peter Gyuricza.
+Besides, I did not mean that he should remain a herdsman any longer;
+but as soon as my mother handed over to me my patrimony (so much of it I
+mean as Muki had not already squandered away), I meant to purchase a
+farm, and Gyuricza and I would settle down upon it as independent
+proprietors."
+
+[Footnote 43: The "_y_" at the end of Hungarian personal names has much
+the same value as the French _de_ or the German _von_--TR.]
+
+The matter now really began to amuse me. I could imagine to myself the
+Hogarthian group when the trio of ladies began spelling out syllable by
+syllable the letter that had been written on a maize-leaf.
+
+"Well! and what answer did you get?"
+
+"The answer you may easily have anticipated. My mother replied that she
+repudiated me entirely, that I should not get a farthing from her, and
+that I was never again to presume to show my face in a family which I
+had so utterly disgraced."
+
+"And did Peter know all about this?"
+
+"I was obliged to tell him, for my mother had nearly frightened to death
+the bearer of my letter, our little serving maid. She told her that if
+she ever dared to come to town again she would have her seized and tied
+to the pillory (though there wasn't one), and well flogged into the
+bargain; so that neither by cuffs nor entreaties was the wench to be
+persuaded to go to town again. She said as much to Peter. She said she
+would rather lose her place. And yet she ought to have gone every
+market-day to the town with cheese and butter, for these wares were
+Peter's chief means of livelihood. What was I to do now? I did this. I
+resolved to take the butter and cheese to market myself."
+
+"You? But how?"
+
+"Not in a glass carriage, you may be sure. The market is a good two
+hours' journey from our hut, and the direction is marked by the church
+tower. The peasant women, when they pack with wares the baskets which
+they put on their heads, make, first of all, a sort of wreath of rags,
+which they place below the baskets to lighten the pressure and maintain
+the equilibrium."
+
+"And you did the same?"
+
+"Naturally! It is no greater hardship for me, surely, than for the other
+poor girls who do it. And remember, besides, that this marketing is just
+as great an amusement to the peasant women as a promenade concert is to
+fine ladies. There was only one little nuisance connected with it. Just
+at this time all the irrigation waters had overflowed, and all the
+fields and meadows between our hut and the market town were turned into
+a lake, through which we had to wade."
+
+"What! you waded through the flooded fields?"
+
+"Oh, the water did not really come above my knees. It was only here and
+there, by the side of the streams, that we had to truss up our
+petticoats pretty high, and then we took off our boots and carried them
+tied on to the handles of our baskets. That is how all the women go."
+
+"And you picked your way along like that too?"
+
+"Again and again! I might, indeed, have gone along by the dykes, but
+then I should have had to turn into the village and make a circuit of
+four miles with the mud up to my knees. Along the even marshes, on the
+other hand, it is pleasant going, the soft soil does not hurt your
+heels, and there are no leeches."
+
+"But did no one see you?"
+
+"What did I care? I quite enjoyed my aquatic promenade. It was every bit
+as good as bathing at Trouville, and there I had by no means so ample a
+toilet. On arriving in town, I at once readjusted my clothes, put on my
+boots, and went to sell butter and cheese right in front of my mother's
+house. It was really a capital position that I chose; a corner-house
+between two thoroughfares, opening out upon the market-place."
+
+"And nobody recognised you?"
+
+"Why shouldn't they? Every one recognised me, even the money-collector
+who hires out the standing-rooms. He allowed me my standing-room gratis,
+because I 'belonged to the place.' I was surrounded by quite a crowd of
+my former cavaliers, who bought up all my butter, and I sold my cheese
+by the ounce, at fancy prices; there was quite a run upon it. Never had
+Peter Gyuricza seen so much money as I brought home to him from the sale
+of his butter and cheese."
+
+"And your worthy mother?"
+
+"Alas! all that the poor thing could do was to pull down all the blinds
+in broad daylight. I, however, purchased with the proceeds of the butter
+and cheese as much salt and tobacco as we required, packed them all up
+in the basket, and, placing it on my head, returned through the floods
+the same way by which I came."
+
+"And did you do this often?"
+
+"Every market day. Sometimes it was rainy. Then the peasant woman is
+wont to throw her upper garment over her head, that is her umbrella. I
+had to get accustomed to that too. Once, a couple of my former young
+gentlemen acquaintances took it into their heads to play me a practical
+joke. They paddled a canoe out of the Danube into the submerged plain,
+and when I began my wading tour they paddled after me. That did _me_ no
+harm, but it turned out badly for them, for the peasant girls who went
+with me charged upon them like the host of Sisera, wrested the paddles
+from their hands, and left them rocking helplessly to and fro in the
+midst of the waters."
+
+"But hasn't the water all dried up now?" I asked impatiently.
+
+"Oh, how he snaps at me! Of course! Now we can go dry-shod. Only when we
+come to a ditch do we take off our shoes. But, dear heart! how I do go
+on gabbling without ever coming to the point. I must explain why I have
+come all the way hither to you, my dear Mr. Advocate. As I will not
+appear before the priest to further the reconciliation project, and my
+husband (my first, I mean) will do so neither, I must, of course, appear
+before the judge! and as, moreover, my mother must be admonished to hand
+over my little property, if you would take my case up for me I should be
+exceedingly obliged to you."
+
+I told her that I did not practise as an advocate, and that I had no
+experience whatever of divorce proceedings, not having been taught the
+subject in the schools.
+
+Then she began to speak in a very solemn voice. She said she had never
+expected me to take up her case, but had sought me out because she had
+been informed that the advocates with whom I had served my articles were
+very eminent practitioners; she would like to entrust her double suit to
+them. As, however, she feared that they would neither receive her nor
+believe her if she appeared before them in her present costume, she
+earnestly begged that I would give her a letter of introduction to the
+firm of Moln�r & V�rchovszky for friendship's sake--or for any other
+price.
+
+"Well, I can do that for you--for nothing."
+
+To write this letter I had to sit down at my writing-table.
+
+"May I peep and see what you write about me?"
+
+"If you like."
+
+I could not take offence at her curiosity.
+
+"I'll help you!" said she, with na�ve archness, and went and stood
+behind my back.
+
+I must say that she had a very odd notion of helping me. She leant right
+over me so that I could feel her burning breath on my face, and the
+throbbing of her heart against my shoulder. I spoiled the first sheet of
+paper by writing last year's date at the top of it. Then I could not
+call to mind the name of my client, and I thought one thing and wrote
+another. Add to that that I made a mess of the simplest sentences, and
+wrote in a style worthy of a pedantic grammarian. Finally I got
+hopelessly involved in the maze of a long-winded phrase which I began
+but could not finish. That's what happens to a man when he has to listen
+to the beating of two hearts!
+
+It was on this self-same table that the picture stood which I have
+already mentioned. I had no time to conceal it in my drawer. And why
+should I have tried to hide it? Was I bound to make a mystery of it
+before her?
+
+Right opposite to my writing-table was a mirror on the wall. On one
+occasion, when I was pursuing an elusive word, I raised my head from my
+writing-desk and saw in the mirror the figure of the woman who was
+standing behind my back. Oh, what a face was that! She was not looking
+into my letter, but at the portrait. The eyes were turned sideways, so
+that the upper parts of the whites were visible; the lips were drawn
+aside, and the teeth clenched.
+
+I saw this from the mirror. And this mirror, too had the property of
+making things look green. Viewed in this magic light, the fair lady
+standing behind me appeared like the Iblis of the _Thousand-and-one
+Nights_, who sucks the blood of her lovers and leads the dances of the
+dead.
+
+I finished the letter to my old chiefs.
+
+Then I dried it with a piece of blotting-paper. Sand I have always
+hated. I also felt, in this respect, like Stephen Szechenyi,[44] who,
+whenever he received a sanded-letter, used to give it first of all to
+his lackey to be taken out in the hall and dusted. Before enclosing the
+letter, however, I turned round and handed it to her.
+
+[Footnote 44: Count Stephen Szechenyi, "the greatest of the Magyars,"
+was born in 1791. He brilliantly distinguished himself at the battle of
+Leipsic, and at Tolentino, in 1815, at the head of his Hussars,
+annihilated Murat's cavalry. After the war, he devoted himself to
+domestic politics with a tact, courage, and noble liberality which
+speedily made him the most popular man in Hungary. The Hungarian Academy
+and the Hungarian National Theatre were founded at his initiative and
+mainly at his expense. The breach with Austria in 1848 so preyed upon
+his mind that he went mad, and was confined in an asylum, where he
+destroyed himself in 1860.--TR.]
+
+"Would you read it, please?"
+
+The menacing spectre was no longer there. Iblis had changed into a
+smiling young bride.
+
+"And how do you know that I haven't read the letter?" she asked, in her
+astonishment.
+
+"My little finger whispered it to me!"
+
+At this she burst out laughing, and pushed the letter away.
+
+"I don't mean to read it! I know that you have written no end of good
+things about me."
+
+I folded up my letter, sealed it and wrote the address--"Joseph Moln�r
+and Alexander V�rchovszky, Advocates." Then I handed it to her.
+
+Still she kept standing there in front of my writing-table, twirling the
+letter round and round in her hands, and gazing continually at the
+portrait. Her face had become quite solemn. In her deeply downcast eyes
+there was a suspicious brightness testifying to restrained tear-drops.
+
+She heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"But this is mere folly!" She thrust my letter beneath her bodice, and
+in a voice of real warmth and sincerity, she stammered: "I thank you
+most kindly." Then she added, in a voice half grave, half gay: "But come
+now! You won't write my story in the newspapers, will you?"
+
+"I assure you it is not my practice."
+
+"And you won't put my stupid story into a novel or a romance, eh? At
+least not while I'm alive?"
+
+"Never! Put your mind at rest on that point."
+
+"No; don't say never. Let it be only as long as I'm alive. But when I
+die, wherever it may be, you shall receive a letter from me, which I
+will write to you at my last hour, authorizing you to write all that you
+know of me."
+
+"My dear friend, death is written much more plainly on my brow than on
+yours."
+
+She shuddered. Twice she shuddered. Then she threw her basket over her
+arm, and took her leave. I would have escorted her to the door of the
+ante-chamber, but she held me back.
+
+"Stay where you are. I do not wish any one to see you paying attention
+to a country wench."
+
+When I was by myself again and thinking over the whole scene, it seemed
+to me as if a golden thrush were piping derisively in my ear again--
+
+"Foolish fellow! Foolish fellow!"
+
+For the second time I had let slip the opportunity of pilfering
+Paradise, conceded to me by a special and peculiar favour of the gods. I
+candidly confess that I am no saint.... I am a true son of Adam, of real
+flesh and blood. No vow binds me to an ascetic life. Let temptation come
+to me again in the shape of that pretty woman to-day and she shall see
+what I am made of!... All day long these feverish imaginings haunted me.
+In the drawer of my writing-table was the portrait which I once wrested
+in knightly tourney from her bridegroom, and which she herself had given
+me to put to rights. I went again and again to my writing-table in order
+to take out that portrait and have another look at it. But that other
+portrait lay there on my table and would not allow it. It was much
+better to leave the house. I occupied the whole day in strolling about
+the town. Perhaps I may meet her somewhere in the street.
+
+Late in the evening I returned home.
+
+I was alone. My lackey only came to me in the morning.
+
+I had scarcely lighted my lamp when I heard a knocking at my door. I
+certainly had forgotten to shut the door of my ante-chamber, and so my
+visitor had managed to penetrate so far. Who could it be at such a late
+hour? "Come in!"
+
+The blood flew to my head when the door opened.
+
+_She_ had come back!
+
+Then she was here again!
+
+She did not come in, however, but stood with the door-latch in her hand,
+as if she were afraid of me.
+
+"It is not nice of me, I know," she stammered, with a faltering voice,
+"to come here so late. I have been here three times, but you were out. I
+must tell you what I've heard. Don't be angry."
+
+I begged her to come in, and took her by the hand. My heart beat
+feverishly.
+
+"The lawyers received me very well. They were both at home. They took up
+my case and assured me that it was bound to result in my favour, and
+that they would pay the preliminary expenses. They behaved like
+gentlemen. Then the conversation turned upon you. They asked how long we
+had been acquainted. I told them as much as was necessary, and wound up
+by saying that you were the one thoroughly disinterested friend that I
+possessed. Then one of the advocates, the tall dry one I mean, said,
+with perfect good-nature: 'Well, if you are kindly disposed towards our
+young friend, just tell him that _the path along which he is now rushing
+so impetuously leads straight to the gallows_,' whereupon the blonde,
+ruddy-faced man added, '_or else to suicide._' I felt I must tell you
+that."
+
+And with these words she stepped back from the door.
+
+An icy shudder would have run down the shoulders of any other man at
+these words, but the message regularly set _me_ on fire. It was my pet
+idea they wanted me to give up, the idea which I adored even more than
+my lady-love, the idea of my youth--the idea of liberty. If any one
+offends my lady-love I will shed his blood, but let not even my
+lady-love interfere with my principles, as for them I am ready to pour
+out my own blood to the last drop.
+
+"Be it so!" I cried passionately; "that has nothing to do with you;" and
+I shut the door in her face. Every fibre of my body quivered with rage.
+
+They threaten me with the gallows, or with the suicidal dagger of a
+Cato! I fear them not.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My poor chiefs! Half a year later they were rushing along the self-same
+path, at the end of which so many monsters were lurking. I only lost my
+hair in the hands of these monsters, but they lost their heads. Their
+own prophecy was fulfilled on them both.
+
+From that day forth I was very wrath with the lady with the eyes like
+the sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE WOMAN WHO WENT ALONG WITH ME
+
+
+And now we'll go back to the day which forms so remarkable a
+turning-point in the life of the Hungarian nation, the 15th March, 1848.
+
+It did not come without due preparation. The emancipation of the people,
+a free press and a free soil, equality of taxation and equality before
+the law--all these splendid ideas had been fought for during the last
+ten years by those great minds which towered above their fellows. The
+time had now arrived, the process had been decided, the judgment lived
+in the heart of every honest patriot. The great sacrifices which the
+metamorphosis required were not demanded, but volunteered. We debated
+about them in the Diet, party against party, with all the fervour of
+conviction.
+
+A melancholy example was before us, which, like that _fata Morgana_ of
+the ocean, the phantom galley overturned, warns the seaman of the danger
+that is hovering over his head. I allude to the events in Galicia the
+year before.
+
+The Polish gentry of Galicia demanded their liberties, and emphasized
+their demands by force of arms. There was no need on the part of the
+authorities to set in motion an army corps against this new confederacy,
+the peasantry did the work for them instead. The Galician peasants[45]
+crushed the Polish gentry. The censorship had prevented the Hungarian
+newspapers from making known the details of this rebellion, but when the
+Diet met, it was impossible to prevent the fiery deputy for Comorn, the
+youthful Denis Pazmandy, from raising his mighty voice on behalf of the
+Poles, and making known the shocking particulars of the bloody massacre
+to the Hungarian nation. There are many sad pages in the history of the
+Polish nation, but none so sad as this. And the hand which wrote that
+page could easily glide over to the next page also, and that next page
+was the history of the Hungarian nation. Here half a million of gentry
+stand face to face with fifteen millions of serfs which serve, suffer,
+pay, carry arms, and are silent. Then the Paris Revolution broke out.
+The French nation overthrew the throne. (By the way, a tatter from the
+canopy over the French throne was brought home by one of our young
+writers, Louis D�bsa, as a present for Pet�fi. D�bsa fought on the
+February barricades.) Serious debates were held in the Hungarian Diet.
+But Pressburg[46] was much too cold a field for such things. They wanted
+assistance from Pest. We didn't say Buda-Pest then, Buda[47] was not
+ours.... Meanwhile the Vienna Revolution broke out. The streets of
+Vienna resounded with the watchword "Freedom," and were painted with the
+blood of the heroes that had fallen for it.
+
+[Footnote 45: They were mostly Ruthenians, and racial and religious
+differences had much to do with their antagonism. This inveigling of the
+peasantry against the gentry, generally attributed to Metternich, is one
+of the darkest blots in Austrian history.--TR.]
+
+[Footnote 46: The old coronation city of Hungary, but more of a German
+than a Magyar city then.--TR.]
+
+[Footnote 47: It was an Austrian fortress.--TR.]
+
+"_So these Vienna people whom we blackguard so much show that they know
+how to shed their blood for freedom while we glorious Magyars sit at our
+firesides!_" cried Pet�fi bitterly. "Let us send no more petitions to
+the Diet," he added, "it is deaf! Let us appeal to the nation: it will
+hear!"
+
+Then he wrote his "Talpra Magyar!"[48]
+
+[Footnote 48: "Up! Magyar, up!"]
+
+Early in the morning we assembled in my room by lamplight. There were
+four of us--Pet�fi, Paul Vasv�ry, Julius Bulyovszky, and myself. My
+companions entrusted me with the drawing up of the Pest Articles in a
+short popular form intelligible to everybody. While I was thus occupied,
+they were disputing about what should happen next. The most violent of
+them was Paul Vasv�ry, who had the figure of a mighty young athlete. In
+his hand was a sword-stick with a horn handle, which he was flourishing
+about in a martial manner, when, all at once, the jolted stiletto flew
+from its case, and turning a somersault, flew through the air over my
+head and struck the wall.
+
+"A lucky omen!" cried Pet�fi.
+
+The proclamation was ready. We hastened into the street. We said nothing
+to Madame Pet�fi. Every one of us had arms of some sort. I pocketed the
+famous duplex pistol already mentioned.
+
+Every one knows _ad nauseam_ what followed--how the human avalanche
+began to move, how it grew, and what speeches we made in the great
+square. But speech-making was not sufficient, we wanted to _do_
+something. The first thing to be done was to give practical application
+to the doctrine of a free press. We resolved to print the Twelve
+Articles of Pest, the Proclamation, and the "Talpra Magyar" without the
+consent of the censor.
+
+The printing press of Landerer and Heckenast was honoured with this
+compulsory distinction. The printers were naturally not justified in
+printing anything without permission from the authorities, so we turned
+up our sleeves and worked away at the hand-presses ourselves. The name
+of the typesetter who set up the first word of freedom was _Potemkin_.
+
+While Irinyi and other young authors were working away at the press, it
+was my duty to harangue the mob that thronged the whole length of
+Hatv�ni Street. I had no idea how to set about it, but it came of its
+own accord.
+
+My worthy and loyal contemporary, Paul Szontagh, occasionally quotes to
+me, even now, some of the heaven-storming phrases which he heard me say
+on that occasion; _e.g._, "... No! fellow-citizens; he is not the true
+hero who can _die_ for his country; he who can _slay_ for his country,
+he is the true hero!"
+
+That was the sort of oratory I used to practise in those days!
+
+Meanwhile the rain began to fall, and rain is the most reactionary
+opponent of every revolution. But my people were not to be dispersed by
+the rain, and all at once the whole street was filled with expanded
+umbrellas.
+
+"What! gentlemen," thundered I from the corner of the street, "if you
+stick up your umbrellas now against mere rain-drops, what will you stick
+up against the bullets which will presently begin to fall?"
+
+It was only then that I noticed that there were not only gentlemen
+around me but ladies also. A pair of them had insinuated themselves
+close to my side. In one of them I recognised "Queen Gertrude."[49] On
+her head she wore a plumed cap, and was wrapped up in a Persian shawl
+embroidered with palm-tree flowers. Both cap and shawl were dripping
+with rain. I had met the lady once or twice at the Szigligetis'. I
+exhorted the ladies to go home; here they would get dripping-wet, I
+said, and some other accident might befall them.
+
+[Footnote 49: _i.e._, the actress who took that part.]
+
+"We are no worse off here than you are," was the reply.
+
+They were determined to wait till the printed broad-sides were ready.
+
+Not very long afterwards Irinyi appeared at the window of the
+printing-office, for to get out of the door was a sheer impossibility.
+He held in his hands the first printed sheets from the free press.
+
+Ah, that scene! when the very first free sheets were distributed from
+hand to hand! I cannot describe it. "Freedom, freedom!" It was the first
+ray of a new and better era!... A free press! the first-fruit of the
+universal tree of knowledge of Paradise. What a tumult arose when they
+actually clutched that forbidden fruit in their hands.... Hail to thee,
+O Freedom of the Press! Thou seven-headed dragon, how many times hast
+thou not bitten me since then! Yet I bless the hour when I first saw
+thee creep out of thy egg and gave thee what little help I could!
+
+Young authors, clerks, advocates, all hot-headed young people, crowded
+around the invisible banner.
+
+A young county official was now seen forcing his way through the dense
+crowd right to the very door of the printing-office, and from thence he
+addressed me. The influential Vice-Lieutenant of the County, Paul Ny�ry,
+sent word to me that I was to go to him to the town hall.
+
+"Why _should_ I go?" cried I from my point of vantage. "I'll be shot
+down with cannon-balls rather! If the Vice-Lieutenant of the County
+wants to speak to us, let him come here. We are the 'mountain' now."
+
+And Mohammed really did come to the "mountain," and with him came a
+group of grave-faced men, the veteran leaders of the camp of freedom.
+
+Amongst them was a dwarfish little oddity of a man, the assistant editor
+of the _Eletk�pek_, the gallant little S�key, who, despite a chronic
+asthma, fought through the whole campaign, musket in hand. Besides being
+a cripple, he was a really extraordinary stammerer. When he saw the
+grave-visaged men making their way to us through the crowd, he scrambled
+along beside them, and with all the force of his lungs bellowed out this
+notable declaration: "D-d-d-don't li-li-li-listen to those
+wi-wi-wi-wiseacres!"
+
+But the wiseacres hadn't come to convert us to wisdom. On the contrary,
+Ny�ry had come to approve of what we had done hitherto, and then to go
+together with us to the town hall, that they might there, together with
+the town councillors, ratify the Articles of the liberal programme.
+
+It was a fine scene. The town hall was crammed to suffocation. Those who
+were called upon to speak stood upon the green table, and remained there
+afterwards, so that at last the whole magistracy of the county, and I
+and all my colleagues were standing on the top of the table. The flames
+spread! The burgomaster, the worthy Rotterbiller, announced from the
+balcony of the town hall, that the town of Pest had adopted the Twelve
+Articles as its own; and with that the avalanche carried the whole of
+the burgesses along with it. But the matter did not end even there. In
+the evening crowds of workmen inundated the streets. They had got from
+somewhere or other a banner, inscribed with the three sacred words,
+"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!"
+
+... Such a great day must needs have a brilliant close, so the town was
+illuminated in the evening, and a free performance was given at the
+theatre, _B�nk-b�n_[50] being the piece selected. But the mob, which by
+this time was in a state of ecstasy, had no longer the patience to
+listen to the pious declamations of Ban Peter. It called for "Talpra
+Magyar."
+
+[Footnote 50: Joseph Katona's celebrated tragedy.]
+
+What was to be done? The brilliant court of King Andrew II., with the
+Queen and B�nk-b�n to boot, had to stand aside and form a group round
+Gabriel Egressy, who, in a simple attila, with a sword by his side,
+stood in the middle of the stage and declaimed with magnificent emphasis
+Pet�fi's inspiring poem.
+
+That was all very well, but it was not enough.
+
+Then the whole company sang the "Sz�zato," and the people in the pit and
+the galleries joined in.
+
+That also was soon over.
+
+What shall we give next?
+
+The band struck up the R�k�czy[51] march. That kindled the excitement,
+instead of extinguishing it. And it was high time that something should
+be done to quench it, for the excited populace was drunk with triumph.
+
+[Footnote 51: Prohibited in Hungary at this time as being of
+revolutionary tendency.]
+
+Then a voice from the gallery cried: "Long live T�ncsis!"[52]
+
+[Footnote 52: Michal T�ncsis, a prisoner who had been released from the
+citadel of Buda the same morning by the mob.]
+
+And with that the whole populace suddenly roared with one voice: "Let us
+see T�ncsis!"
+
+A frightful tumult arose. T�ncsis was not at hand. He lived some way out
+in the suburb of Ferenczv�ros. But even had he been near, it would have
+been a cruel thing to have dragged on the stage a worn-out invalid, that
+he might merely bow to the public like a celebrated musician.
+
+But what was to be done?
+
+"Well, my sons," said Ny�ry, with whom I was standing in the same box,
+"you have awakened this great monster, now see if you can put him to
+sleep again!"
+
+My young friends attempted to address the people one after the other,
+Pet�fi from the Academy box, Irinyi from the balcony of the Casino club,
+but their voices were drowned in the howling of the mob. The curtain was
+let down, but then the tumult was worse than ever; the gallery stamped
+like mad; it was a perfect pandemonium.
+
+Then a thought occurred to me. I could get on to the stage from Ny�ry's
+box; I rushed in through the side wings.
+
+I cut a pretty figure I must say. I was splashed up to the knees with
+mud from scouring the streets all day. I wore huge, dirty overshoes, my
+tall hat was drenched, so that I could easily have made a crush-hat of
+it and carried it under my arm.
+
+I looked around me and perceived Egressy. I told him to draw up the
+curtain, I wanted to harangue the people from the stage.
+
+Then "Queen Gertrude" came towards me. She smiled upon me with truly
+majestic grace, greeted me and pressed my hand. No sign of fear was to
+be seen in her face. She was wearing the tricoloured cockade[53] on her
+bosom, and, of her own accord, she took it off and pinned it on my
+breast. Then the curtain was raised.
+
+[Footnote 53: Red, white, and green, the Hungarian colours.]
+
+When the mob beheld my drenched and muddy figure, it began to shout
+afresh, and the uproar gradually became a call for every one to hear me.
+When at last I was able to make my voice heard, I came out with the
+following oratorical masterpiece: "Brother citizens! our friend T�ncsis
+is not here. He is at home in the bosom of his family. Allow the poor
+blind man to taste the joy of _seeing_ his family once more!"
+
+It was only then that I felt I was talking nonsense. How could a
+"_blind_ man" _see_ his family? If the mob began to laugh I should be
+done for!
+
+It was the tricoloured ribbon that saved me.
+
+"Do you see," I cried, "this tricoloured cockade on my breast? Let it be
+the badge of this glorious day! Let every man who is Freedom's warrior
+wear it; it will distinguish us from the hireling host of slavery! These
+three colours represent the three sacred words: Liberty, Equality,
+Fraternity! Let every one in whom Hungarian blood and a free spirit
+burns wear them on his breast."
+
+And so the thing was done.
+
+The tricoloured cockade preserved order. Whoever wished to pin on the
+tricoloured cockade had to hurry home first. Ten minutes later the
+theatre was empty, and next day the tricoloured cockade was to be seen
+on every breast, from the paletots of the members of the Casino[54] to
+the buckram of the populace, and those who went about with mantles on
+wore the cockade in their hats.
+
+[Footnote 54: The Nobles' club.]
+
+In the intoxication of my triumph I hastened after Rosa Laborfalvy as
+soon as this scene was over, and pressed her hand.
+
+With that pressure of our hands our engagement began.
+
+I have recorded the whole of this episode in order to explain how it was
+that _that_ portrait found its way to my table, which was able to
+convert in an instant the smiling face of the lady with the eyes like
+the sea into the hideous features of Iblis. Four months had passed away
+since then.
+
+And the honeymoon was in keeping with the engagement. The roar of cannon
+and the clash of swords was the music that played at my wedding.
+
+Oh what a marriage night was that!
+
+At the very moment when the happy bridegroom asks his bride, "Dost thou
+love me as I love thee?" at that very moment there is the roll of drums
+in the streets, and the cry goes forth, "To arms, citizens!" An Italian
+regiment had revolted against the Hungarian Government. Without waiting
+for a kiss or an embrace, I had to snatch up my musket and hurry off to
+the place of meeting, and thence to go straight into fire among the
+flying bullets. We had to storm the K�roly Barracks. By dawn the
+mutinous regiment had to lay down its weapons, and the bridegroom, with
+his face sooty with smoke, returned home, and again put the question to
+his bride, "Dost thou love me as I love thee?"
+
+And the answer? Ah! the heart alone can feel it, the lips cannot express
+it.
+
+That was our honeymoon. With the shame of lost battles in our hearts,
+and despairing even of divine justice, those who can love under such
+circumstances must love dearly indeed!
+
+And then out into the desolate world, in the midst of a Siberian winter,
+with everything crackling with cold in a night lit only by the blaze of
+artillery, forcing one's way along through the snowy deserts of the
+Alf�ld[55] with the retreating Honved[56] army! Passing the night in an
+inhospitable hut where the closed door had frozen to the ground by
+morning, and the roll of drums and the blare of trumpets aroused us to
+toil on still farther! Those who can love under such circumstances must
+love indeed!
+
+[Footnote 55: The low-land. The name given to the great Hungarian
+plain.]
+
+[Footnote 56: Defending the country. The title of the Hungarian national
+forces.]
+
+My wife went everywhere with me.
+
+She quitted a comfortable home, sacrificed a fortune, a brilliant
+career, to endure hunger, cold, and hardship with me. And I never heard
+her utter one word of complaint. When I was downhearted, she comforted
+me. And when all _my_ hopes were stifled, she shared _her_ hopes with
+me. At the new seat of the Hungarian Government, Debreczin, we were
+huddled together in a tiny little room, compared with which the hut of
+Peter Gyuricza was a palace from the _Thousand-and-one Nights_. And my
+queen worked like a slave, like the wife of a Siberian convict. She
+worked not for a joke, not in sheer defiance; she did not _play the
+part_ of a peasant girl, she was a serving-woman in grim earnest.
+
+The hazard of the die of war changed. We advanced. We marched in triumph
+from one battle-field to another. I was present at the storming of the
+citadel of Buda. Even in those awful days she never left me, when every
+night the sky seemed about to plunge down upon our heads.
+
+The brilliant days of triumph were again succeeded by misfortune. The
+Northern ogre[57] threw all his legions upon us. Again we had to fly, to
+leave our happy hut, and continue our marriage tour through desolate
+wildernesses, where savage hordes had devastated whole villages. Our
+night's lodging was four bare sooty walls, our couch a bundle of charred
+straw. Hated by strangers, feared by acquaintances, we were a terror to
+the people from whom we begged a shelter.
+
+[Footnote 57: Pastliewich, by command of the Tzar, invaded Hungary in
+1849, with 100,000 men.]
+
+The chaos of war finally parted us. I insisted that she should remain
+away from me. I could not endure to see her suffering any longer. It was
+not right that I should accept such sacrifices. I bade her leave me to
+meet my fate alone.
+
+After the catastrophe of Vilag�s[58] my life was ended. That mighty
+giant, the famous Hungary of our dreams, collapsed into atoms: her great
+men became grains of dust.
+
+[Footnote 58: When the Hungarian Commander-in-chief finally capitulated
+to the Russians.]
+
+I also became a nameless, weightless, aimless grain of dust.
+
+The end of all things had arrived. The prophecy of the lady with the
+eyes like the sea lay literally fulfilled before me. Either the gibbet
+or suicide was to be my fate. I was twenty-four years of age, and a dead
+man. My former chief, the brave Catonian, Joseph Molnar, the president
+of the national court martial, had set me the example. He lay before me
+on the sward of Vilag�s, slain by his own hand. The last hussar breaking
+his sword was a spectacle he could not bear to survive. Then it was that
+a burning hand seized my hand. It was hers, the hand of the woman who
+loved me. When all was lost, her love was not lost. She came after me.
+She took me with her. She set me free. When all Hungary was already
+subdued, there was still one corner in our native land where the hand of
+authority never came. She discovered that corner, and led me thither
+with her through every hostile camp.
+
+That was "the woman who went along with me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+WHERE THE WORLD IS WALLED UP
+
+
+It required quite a strategical combination to transport me from the
+town of Vilag�s to where the world is boarded up.
+
+This place was selected for me by my wife while she was already in Pest,
+whence on the approach of the catastrophe she set out from home on a
+peasant's car to seek me up and down the kingdom. For a time she
+travelled with the wife of Alexander K�r�sy, who set her on my track. At
+the storming of Szegedin we were all within an ace of being blown into
+the air by the explosion of a powder magazine.
+
+It was a little village called Tordona, deep in the beech forests of
+Borsod, the name of which was not even to be found on the chart of
+Francis Karacs.[59] Here the celebrated comedian and scene-painter of
+the National Theatre, Telepi, had built a house with the intention of
+seeking an asylum there with his family in troublous times. When the
+Russians came, he sent thither his wife and his son Charles, who was
+then a young artist student. Telepi gave my wife this sage piece of
+advice. "When the bottom of the world falls out, take your husband
+where nobody will find him." Tordona had taken no part in the
+Revolution.... The journey was quite an Odyssey. In a small covered
+peasant's car a lady conveys water-melons to market; the coachman and
+the footman sit in front together. The footman is myself, the coachman
+J�nos R�k�czy, who only the day before was Kossuth's secretary. The
+price of water-melons was a silver _tizes_[60] a-piece. Our heads were
+not worth so much as that. The way from Vilag�s to Bekes-Gyula is long,
+and the whole way we were going straight towards the advancing Russian
+host. Cossacks, lancers, infantry, artillery, gun-carriages, met us at
+every step, and yet nobody asked us the price of those melons or the
+price of those heads. It was only the two splendid horses in front of
+our car which might have raised suspicions that we were not itinerant
+market-gardeners, although R�k�czy wore the genuine blue livery of a
+coachman. When we got into the domain of swamp and rushes, a mounted
+_bety�r_[61] took us under his protection, and guarded us along paths
+where a carriage had never yet gone, where our horses repeatedly waded
+up to their breasts in water, till we fought our way through into the
+endless plain. He would take nothing from us but a "God bless you!"
+
+[Footnote 59: The first Hungarian engraver (1769-1838). His celebrated
+map of Hungary was first published in 1813.]
+
+[Footnote 60: The tenth of a florin.]
+
+[Footnote 61: A peasant drover.]
+
+Our dear friend J�nos R�k�czy, as an old country gentleman, was a
+capital coachman so long as he had only to guide the horses, but that
+part of the stableman's science which deals with harnessing and
+unharnessing he had never learnt. So when we came to a place in the
+sweltering heat of the dog-days after a long drive through the vast
+plain, the very first thing he did was to let the unharnessed horses
+immediately drink their fill at the spring, and then tie them up in the
+stable, in consequence of which the shaft horse caught inflammation of
+the lungs, and expired an hour afterwards. The saddle horse survived as
+by a miracle. Instead of the deceased horse, therefore, we had to
+harness another nag, which we picked up on the road for 100 florins.
+This new horse was a hand and a half smaller than the steed that still
+remained with us. With this slap-dash team nobody would have taken us
+any longer for gentry.
+
+We had still to pass through Miskolcz, where the Russians were
+encamping. Here dwelt my wife's father, the wise and worthy professor
+Benke Laborfalvy. He pointed out to us the road which led into Tordona.
+Five hours long we penetrated through dense forests: not a human
+dwelling place, not a beaten tract was to be seen. A stream cut through
+the winding valley and along its bank, shifting now to the right hand
+and now to the left, a sort of path wound its way naturally, without
+anything like a bridge; for the convenience of foot passengers, huge
+stones at irregular intervals had been cast into the bed of the racing
+stream. There, in a deeply hidden, delightful valley, lay the little
+spot which is walled off from the world.
+
+My wife and I descended at the Telepi's house and were heartily welcomed
+by our worthy hostess. R�k�czy, with his equipage, had to be lodged in
+another house. Madame Telepi's brother, my tenderly remembered good
+friend, the worthy B�ni Cs�nyi, dwelt in a house a little farther off.
+It was he who stabled the horses. Later on I joined him.
+
+He was really a model of a "small country gentleman," such as they ought
+to be nowadays. An accomplished, intelligent man, speaking, besides his
+own language, Latin and German, with a thorough knowledge of the law,
+for which he had been trained, and who, for all that, now went out and
+ploughed his own land with the aid of a man-servant. He ate his
+home-made bread, drank his home-brewed wine, welcomed guests with all
+his heart, and slew a sheep or a pig in their honour. His wife baked and
+brewed, led the way at the spindle, and sewed her children's clothes
+with her own hand. They had three sons, and the little money that flowed
+into the domestic coffers was spent in the schooling of the children.
+Cs�nyi never borrows, and owes no man anything. His work-room is a
+joiner and wheelwright's shed; when anything breaks in the wagon he
+mends it himself: it is his pet pastime. He has a library also, full of
+such books as Sir Walter Scott's historical work on the French
+Revolutionary Wars. Newspapers he never reads. If, again, a poem
+pleases him, he learns it by heart, and passes it on further by word of
+mouth. He never goes to law with his neighbour, and when two fall out he
+makes peace between them. But when the cry goes forth, "The fatherland
+is in danger! Let us make sacrifices for the commonweal!" then he cuts
+the large silver buttons off his mantle, and lays them on the altar of
+his country.
+
+I owe it for the most part to this worthy man that I did not lose my
+reason altogether in these hard times.
+
+Thus we arrived hither. I was saved. I was no longer a dead man. I
+lived.
+
+But what sort of a life was it? It was the sort of life which belongs to
+a new-born babe: absolute inability to help one's self. R�k�czy quitted
+us on the following day. He was off to the Carpathians. There he took
+service as coachman (naturally under an assumed name) in the family of a
+wealthy territorial Count. They were more than contented with him, for
+he was an excellent and honest coachman. But one day a strange
+misadventure befell him. He was taking the Count and his brother-in-law
+out for a drive, when the gentleman began talking of the era of Louis
+XIV., and one of them could not call to mind the name of a celebrated
+statesman of those days. Then the coachman could not help turning round
+towards them, and saying, "Colbert!" The Counts immediately dismounted
+from the coach and went home on foot. The learned coachman, however,
+was discharged. It is not good to sleep under the same roof with a
+coachman who knows so much.
+
+My wife and I agreed that _she_ should return to Pest and resume her
+engagement at the National Theatre there till I should get back my
+patrimony. Then we would purchase a little property in the depths of the
+beech forest, close to B�ni Cs�nyi, and plough and sow to the end of our
+days. What else _could_ we do? Our country, our nation, our liberty were
+now no more. Our souls had no wings. We stuck fast in the mire.
+
+On the very anniversary of our wedding, which was my wife's birthday as
+well, we parted. Our wedding tour had lasted exactly a year. I wish
+nobody such another, but I would not exchange all the joys in the world
+for the recollection of it.
+
+I remained behind in a vast primeval forest, entombed, forgotten.
+
+The latest rumours I got from worthy B�ni Cs�nyi, who had taken my wife
+to Pest, driving his four horses himself all the way from his stable
+door to the capital. They were evil times there. Haynau had appropriated
+even the National Theatre for the German players. But the director,
+worthy J�nos Simoncsics, formerly a Conservative celebrity, protested
+against the proceedings of the high-handed tyrant, and when Haynau began
+to haggle with the stiff-necked old magistrate as to how many days a
+week he would allow the German players to act in the Hungarian National
+Theatre, brave old Simoncsics replied in his own peculiar Buda-German:
+"Wen i reden _musz_, so sag i: amol; wen i reden _darf_, so sag i:
+komol."[62] And "komol"[63] it remained.
+
+[Footnote 62: If I _must_ speak: once; if I _may_ speak: not at all.]
+
+[Footnote 63: Not once.]
+
+My wife counselled me not to write to her through the post-office, as
+the whole town was full of spies. When she wrote to me she would send
+the letter to her father at Miskolcz, directed to Judith Benke.
+
+Even now I often draw out those _love-letters_ which were written to me
+and began "My dear Juczi."[64] Even now they light up that endless
+darkness which I call the _cancelled_ portion of my life.
+
+[Footnote 64: Contraction for Judith.]
+
+From August to the middle of October I knew absolutely nothing of what
+was going on in the world.
+
+It was a corner of the earth where no visitor ever came, and where the
+inhabitants themselves went nowhere. Now that winter was approaching,
+there would be a sledge drive, and communications would be opened up
+between Tordona and Miskolcz. Then one would be able to convey timber
+into the town. Of timber there was no lack. Cs�nyi had four hundred
+acres of virgin forest to forty acres of arable land.
+
+Day after day I rambled up and down these forests that had never heard
+the voice of man. Never did I meet a fellow creature. However many
+heights I might ascend, I saw from thence nothing but the smoking
+chimneys of Tordona. I discovered the source of the stream that sped
+through the valley. "Linden-spring" was the name they gave it. It was
+entirely circled by lindens. I hit upon the childish sport of cutting a
+water-mill out of elder-tree wood, piecing it together, and placing it
+across the little stream. Thus I amused myself.
+
+One day I received a box of water-colours from my wife. I was immensely
+delighted. I now had something to occupy myself with all day. I filled a
+whole album with my landscapes. Then I painted that journey through the
+plain with a horse and a half in the covered car. I painted my own
+portrait on a piece of paper no bigger than a finger-nail, which could
+be inserted in a medallion. I sent it to my wife. B�ni Cs�nyi's wife
+asked me to paint her a portrait of her "old man" also. She wanted it
+about the size of a kidney bean; she had a medallion just as large as
+that. This was my only work in that terrible year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+VALENTINE B�LV�NYOSSI AND TIHAM�R RENGETEGI
+
+
+When the beech-mast began to fall from the trees in the beginning of
+October, unexpected guests came to us at Tordona--two country gentlemen
+from the beechwood district. They were kinsmen keeping house together,
+whose whole estate consisted of forest, and whose whole economy was an
+enormous herd of swine. They were both jolly thick-set men, with fur
+pelisses of nicely embroidered sheepskins, and boots of red Russian
+leather. They had come to rent the beech-mast district in the Tordona
+forests. Pig just then was an article not quoted in the market.
+Hungarian money there was none. It had all been destroyed. German money
+had not yet been introduced. Pig-rearers were therefore obliged to let
+their herds go into winter quarters. The pigs in question were really
+fine fellows of the good old Szalonta breed, with legs as long as
+stags', red bristles and pointed ears; they were half-savage beasts,
+too, who faced the wolf instead of fleeing from him. They develop but
+slowly, however; only after two years' time do they become as large as
+the Mangalicza swine. But they more than atone for this fault by the
+good quality of wanting neither stall nor sty; winter and summer alike
+they camp out in the woods and seek their own food, thus costing their
+masters no more than two florins a head, and three pints of
+_palinka_,[65] which is the perquisite of the swine-herd. Each of these
+kinsmen had a thousand of such pigs.
+
+[Footnote 65: Hungarian brandy.]
+
+And a thousand pigs give a man a lot to think about.
+
+They were good, genial fellows. In fact, they knew not what melancholy
+meant. It was now the season when the new wine was beginning to ferment.
+The two kinsmen used to drink it in that state, and I joined them. It
+went very well with well-peppered swine stew.
+
+They brought a new song with them also, and I learnt it.
+
+    "The milk-pail stood behind the door,
+    The Gendarme came, flopped in and swore!
+      D�rum-mad�rum, d�rum-mad�rum!"
+
+From this song I gathered that there was now a being in the world called
+Gendarme,[66] and also that the Magyars had no very great affection for
+him.
+
+[Footnote 66: _Zsandar._ The name as well as the thing was quite new to
+Hungary.--TR.]
+
+It was only after supper that the guests began to give me to understand
+that they did not yet know "whom they had the honour of addressing."
+
+My worthy host constrained his honest features, and introduced me under
+the pseudonym by which I was known in the village, "Mr. Albert Benke."
+
+"Surely not the actress Rosa Laborfalvy's younger brother, Bebus?"
+
+"Yes, Bebus! the very same."
+
+(That might pass very well. Poor Bebus! he had perished in some
+out-of-the-way corner during the war.)
+
+"Why, I knew him quite well! I have a lively recollection of his
+features. Why, 'tis Bebus, of course! And how's your sister? Is it true
+that she's married?"
+
+"So I have heard."
+
+"To a certain Maurus J�kai, eh? Do you know him?"
+
+"I have never spoken to him."
+
+(And this was quite true.)
+
+"You were one of those theatre-fellows, too, I understand?"
+
+"Yes, I was an actor, certainly."
+
+"I saw you once at Miskolcz. What were you playing then?"
+
+"Claude Froll� in the _Tower of Notre Dame_."
+
+"And won't you join some other company now?"
+
+"I don't know whether there is one to be found."
+
+"What! There is a troupe all ready at Miskolcz at the present moment.
+They mean to play at the new theatre during the coming winter, and then
+they are going to Kassa. B�lv�nyossi wants to put new blood into his
+company. You know the director, Valentine B�lv�nyossi, don't you?"
+
+I was just on the point of blurting out that he was from the same
+birthplace as myself. He was, in fact, the person who had coached Bessy
+in the _r�le_ which she had to play with me in our second dramatic
+entertainment. All I _did_ say, however, was that I knew him by report.
+
+"Anyhow, he knows you very well. He asks frequently about you. If he
+only knew that you were loafing about here he would certainly come and
+see you."
+
+It only needed that!
+
+"I was not aware that he was able to collect together another troupe."
+
+"Oh dear, yes! Why, he's got a prima donna now. She is his wife also.
+Such a bonny little bride! She'll turn the heads of all the young
+fellows, I know. But you're in hiding here, are you not?"
+
+"In hiding?"
+
+"Yes, and I tell you what--_entre nous_, of course--B�lv�nyossi also has
+reason to make himself scarce."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why, because he played such a great part in the Revolution."
+
+"_I_ never heard anything about it."
+
+"Ah! but he might have been a famous man without _your_ hearing anything
+about it. You also were a comedian during the Revolution, weren't you?"
+
+I allowed him to suppose so.
+
+Then the second kinsman took up his parable. He was better informed than
+the first one.
+
+"Let me make things clear to you, _amice_! During the Revolution, the
+theatre director, Valentine B�lv�nyossi, acted under the name of Tiham�r
+Rengetegi."
+
+"Ah! yes, of course, I remember the name."
+
+"Many a nut has he cracked beneath the very noses of the Germans."
+
+The other kinsman confirmed the statement.
+
+"If they can only catch him they'll make the wind cool his heels for
+him."
+
+"But that theatre director is really a most knowing rogue," explained
+the younger kinsman, with a laugh. "During the Revolution, he entered
+the service of the Hungarian Government and rose to be major. They say
+he performed prodigies. But at the same time he took the precaution to
+completely alter his personal appearance. During the Revolution he dyed
+his beautiful fair hair a deep black, and carefully fostered a gigantic
+moustache with whiskers to correspond; in that guise he looked exactly
+like Don C�sar de Bazan. When, however, things began to go wrong, he
+speedily had his hair shaved off and his beard also, and is now waiting
+in retirement till his original fair hair has grown again. Then he will
+once more come before the world as Valentine B�lv�nyossi; and who will
+dare to say that there was ever such a person as Tiham�r Rengetegi?"
+
+One really must admit that it was a stroke of genius to serve the
+Revolution with a black-dyed head of hair!
+
+"When he hears that you are strolling about here he will most certainly
+come and engage you."
+
+It was necessary to put a stop to this forthwith.
+
+"I regret that I shall not remain here very long," I said; "I, too, have
+to go up to Pest."
+
+"And what is your business at Pest?"
+
+"I want to look out for some appointment."
+
+At this, both the pig-Croesuses pulled a very wry face. Whoever went to
+Pest in those days to seek an appointment was looked upon with
+suspicion. It was as well to have as little as possible to do with such
+a person.[67]
+
+[Footnote 67: It was a point of honour with every loyal Hungarian to
+starve rather than to accept any appointment whatsoever from the
+Austrian Government.--TR.]
+
+Henceforth the pair of them treated me very superciliously.
+
+I, however, continued to go about and paint landscapes in the vast beech
+forests. I have those pictures by me still. What splendid _motives_ I
+had; if only the hand of a true artist had been there to seize them! In
+the midst of the gloomy virgin forest lay the ruin of a Paulinian
+cloister--gigantic Gothic walls of grey granite; on the friezes of the
+pillars winged angel-heads; the pointed arches terminated in flowers,
+and these stone-flowers were supplemented by the living stone-rose,
+which grew luxuriantly between the mouldings. Behind the vast
+blue-shadowed ruin lay the dark beech forest; in front was a spring,
+which, in wondrous wise, bubbled forth from the roots of a huge
+prostrate linden. From the summit of the ruin depended a large and ample
+hazel-nut tree, the foliage of which was now a reddish-brown from the
+autumn frost, while from the windows the dark-green chaplets of the
+wild-rose tree hung down in the midst of cornel-shrubs and
+spindle-plants variegated with scarlet, pink, and vermilion berries. And
+the floor of the ruin is covered with a tangled carpet of brownish-green
+angelica. And there is but one single living figure in this vast and
+silent tableau. From the gloom of the ancient church porch a timidly
+glancing stag peeps forth like the mythical guiding-star of the
+Hunnic-Magyar pagan legends. Alas! thou white-antlered hind of our
+ancient leader Almos, whither hast thou led us? Would that thou hadst
+left us in Asia! There, at any rate, we should not have been obliged to
+learn German!
+
+And then that other picture, the mighty stone of the Holy Ghost. This
+was a rock as large as a tower, which rose from the edge of the
+table-land. Close beside it were two gigantic beech-trees, whose summits
+just reached up to the middle of this rock, and Autumn, that great
+decorative artist, had touched the leaves of one with reddish-brown, and
+the other with golden-yellow. On the very top of this rock are three
+trees rich with verdure: how did they ever get up there?
+
+It is possible to scramble up at the risk of one's neck, and from thence
+one can see fresh pictures to paint. From the dizzy height of the rock
+a view into a deep valley opens out. The two lines of hill opposite are
+closed up by a curved and undulating range of other hills. The setting
+sun lights up the hillside, and bathes the whole scene in transparent
+lilac mist, while the forest fringe of the summits projects in sharply
+defined golden lines. Down below, the valley winds along like a
+dark-green ribbon, and on the spot where it is lost in the evening mist
+is to be seen a little hut whose kitchen fire twinkles from the depths
+like a blood-red star. Can any human creature be living there?
+
+But the most magnificent landscape-motive (in which I was happily
+immersed) was the panorama which presented itself from the "Precipice
+Stone." This "Precipice Stone" was the highest point of the beech
+mountain-district. Viewed from Tordona, it was like a projecting
+mountain-spar, but one could get to the top of it by making a long
+circuit. This rock was generally the goal of my wanderings. It took half
+a day to get there and half a day to get back, and at midday I used to
+kindle a fire of twigs and make a princely banquet of toasted bread and
+bacon; and then, sitting down on the dizzy edge of the rock, I would
+tackle the impossible artistic problem--at least it was impossible to
+me. Beneath my feet, in the foreground, was a dark spot formed by a
+crown of beech-trees, and where this ended there was a smiling little
+nook, and in the midst of it tiny, smoky, stony Tordona, with its
+scattered cottages, surrounded by their yellow dice-like vineyards, and
+their hills striped with green corn, above which the still darker green
+beech hills show their heads. Above these crowds the group of the G�m�ri
+Hills, whose shadows are now deepening into lilac; but these again are
+dominated by the chain of the Trencs�ni and Turoczi Hills. These hills
+are of a clouded blue, and above them rises, like a _fata Morgana_, the
+princely range of the fair Carpathians, as blue as heaven itself, and
+only to be distinguished from it by the dividing line of their
+diamond-like snowy peaks. My skill was, naturally, not equal to such a
+task. If I succumbed when I struggled with it, that was not my fault.
+
+With a mighty lead-loaded oaken staff in my hand, and a sharp
+kitchen-knife in my roomy jack-boots, I deemed myself sufficient to cope
+with any wolf I might meet on the way. As for a musket, those who had
+them took good care to keep them well hidden. Rumour said that to be
+found with a musket was as much as a man's life was worth.
+
+The middle of October had come.
+
+Another guest now arrived at Tordona. This time it was a heartily
+welcome guest, the merry-minded Telepi. He had come to fetch his little
+Charlie that he might take him abroad for his education. He was the
+favourite comic actor of the National Theatre.... He had a round face, a
+round figure, and was all vivacity, with sparkling eyes, pointed
+eyebrows, and tiny pointed moustache; it was just as if he had four
+eyebrows and four moustaches: he was Hungarian humour personified.
+
+'Twas he who brought me my first news from the outside world: the
+horrible events of the October days, the inconceivable deeds of horror
+done by a madman,[68] who was not even sufficiently punished by being
+burned alive twice.
+
+[Footnote 68: Haynau.--An allusion to the massacre of Hungarian
+prisoners and the brutalities inflicted on their wives.--TR.]
+
+Fortunately, I heard these things from a joking, smiling,
+devil-may-care, comic mouth! For Telepi knew how to season the tidings
+with so many happy anecdotes and comforting assurances that he quite
+turned the edge off the murderous knife. And then he was so full of
+optimism. "Our time is coming," he would say. "England and France are
+hastening to our assistance. The Turks are arming, the Americans are
+showing their fists." And when I shook my head at all this, he comforted
+me with the assurance that an amnesty was at hand.
+
+But when we were quite alone, and nobody else was listening, then he
+told me everything frankly, and without embellishment.
+
+My wife would have come herself, but she had been ailing; in fact she
+had been very ill. She was better now. As soon as she could leave her
+bed she would hasten to me at Tordona. I might expect her this very
+month. My wife had a plan whereby she hoped to free me completely, so
+that I should not be exposed to persecution any more. What it was,
+however, she could not tell me. She only begged _one_ thing of me, but
+_that_ she begged most earnestly, and it was this: until she came to me
+I was to show myself nowhere, hold no communication with anybody, let
+nothing be known of my whereabouts. I was not even to write a letter,
+for they might recognise my handwriting, and then all would be over. So
+I had to solemnly promise that I would go nowhere, and speak to nobody
+whatever but the good and honest men of Tordona. I gave my word upon it.
+
+My wife sent me at the same time a warm winter overcoat, a large fur
+cap, and a pair of double-soled Russia-leather boots. Winter was
+approaching, and I should have to spend it here among the forests.
+Telepi also brought me a little silver money from my wife, for
+bank-notes were of no use here. She also sent me some coffee. That, too,
+was not to be had here, and I am fond of it in the morning. In the
+course of the conversation, Telepi inadvertently let out that my wife
+had sold her emeralds, had gone into pokey lodgings, and was living very
+sparingly. "But what's the good of fretting?" he added. "The God of the
+Magyars is still alive!" I shall never forget that jocose, smiling face,
+when, in the midst of his magnanimous assurances, a tear suddenly rolled
+down his round, red countenance!
+
+Then I gave all the pictures I had painted hitherto to Telepi, that he
+might take them home to my wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE MEETING AT THE PAGAN ALTAR
+
+
+After Telepi had gone back, a deep melancholy took possession of me.
+
+My wife was ill, and I had never even dreamt of the possibility of such
+a thing. What if she were to die without being able to exchange a last
+adieu? She wants to set me free, she says; but how? She cannot tell me.
+She cannot tell anybody. Why should she have any secrets from me? Ah!
+that green-eyed monster is a bad guide to the imagination. A celebrated
+actress can so readily find protectors. Perhaps they are men in
+authority, who hold life and death in their hands. Oh, eternal darkness,
+do not deprive me of the light of my reason! Suppose I were to gain
+readmittance into the world at such a price as that! This condition of
+mind was becoming absolutely unendurable.
+
+Sometimes the desire seized me to rush out of the forest, knock at the
+door of the first Commandant I came to, and give up my name: "I am that
+notorious rebel--take my head, I'll pay the price!"
+
+But my given word, my word of honour, held me back. Ah! a man's word of
+honour must be kept, even though it be only given to his wife.
+
+I had promised to go nowhere. But surely the forest is nowhere, and that
+Precipice Stone is, indeed, the most out-of-the-way nowhere in the whole
+world. Thither no man ever goes. Thither at least I am free to go.
+
+My first, not very successful, picture of the great panorama I had sent
+to my wife. I would now have another try at it.
+
+One fine autumn morning I again took up my lead-loaded stick, and said
+to my dear good hostess that she was not to expect me home to dinner
+that day, as I was going to scramble up to the Pagan Altar and sketch
+there.
+
+The gentry call this rocky pinnacle the Pagan Altar; the peasants call
+it the Precipice Stone.
+
+"But don't stay long," said Mrs. Cs�nyi; "suppose your dearest were to
+arrive in the meantime?"
+
+My dearest! As if she thought of seeking me out! They only put me off
+with promises, just as they tell a sick child that he shall have a
+rocking-horse when he gets well. It was exactly seven weeks since she
+had left me. What an endless time!
+
+I made my way at once towards the linden spring, and thence up the
+forest hill-side by the often-trodden familiar path. The nuts came
+showering down; the frost had already tweaked the Cornelian cherries. I
+crammed my knapsack full of both: I shall have a luxurious banquet
+to-day. I also found a large coral-coloured mushroom; roasted in embers,
+it would make a tit-bit worthy of a gourmet.
+
+It was about ten o'clock when I got up to the Pagan Altar.
+
+When I went out upon the rocky ledge, a truly wondrous scene spread
+itself out before me; it was quite certain that _I_ should never be able
+to paint it. The whole kingdom was under the sea! The autumn mist, like
+a snow-cloud, covered the whole landscape to the very horizon, from
+which towered vast snowy peaks and snowy cupolas; in other places the
+misty mantle resembled frozen waves, out of which here and there rose
+round, blackish islands, the peaks of the higher mountains. It was a
+faithful image of reality: nothingness. There was nothing left now.
+
+I could calculate pretty surely on the mist descending at midday, and
+painting field and forest with frost; but till then I could sketch
+nothing.
+
+So I lay down upon the rocky ledge, and marvelled at this motionless,
+huge, white winding-sheet which covered a whole realm. I had no thought
+of eating now. I hung up my knapsack with my bread and bacon on a
+spruce-fir tree, and when I had looked my fill of wonder at the sea of
+mist, I watched the itinerant ants who, following their regular road,
+crept right over my body, never troubling themselves very much about the
+circumstance that a giant, like a mountain range, lay right across their
+path.
+
+At this height not even the thrush's whistle broke the stillness.
+
+The sun shone down. Not a breeze was stirring. My head was resting on a
+large green mossy stone; I felt like dropping off to sleep.
+
+All at once, as if I really were dreaming, from somewhere not very far
+off a song rang out:--
+
+    "Lo! on the mountain top
+      A valiant man doth stand,
+    And on his trusty weapon rests
+      His stalwart good right hand."
+
+It was a man's voice, and I seemed to recognise it.
+
+My first feeling was joy. I was about to meet some old acquaintance in
+that vast wilderness. It only occurred to me afterwards that this would
+be contrary to my compact. I was to meet no man who could possibly
+recognise me.
+
+But it was too late to avoid him now. Only one single path led up to the
+summit of the Precipice Stone, whether one came from Tordona or from
+Malyinka, and my songster was evidently coming from the latter place.
+
+The next verse of the song sounded very much nearer:--
+
+    "Lo! on his _kalpag_[69] see
+      A blood-red nodding plume;
+    A mantle black surrounds his neck,
+      His wild eye lowers with gloom."
+
+    [Footnote 69: The tall fur hat, generally plumed, which
+    forms part of the Hungarian national costume.]
+
+And now I heard a woman's voice also.
+
+Some one was telling the singer not to sing while climbing.
+
+So there was a pair of them!
+
+And as the singer gradually mounted higher and higher, his figure also
+became visible from behind the rocky ledge.
+
+    "Presumptuous mortal, quake and fear
+    When thou his awful name dost hear:
+        Diavolo, Diavolo, Diavolo!"
+
+Yet nobody quaked so much as Fra Diavolo himself, when he perceived a
+human shape stretched before him on the ground as he scaled the very
+summit of the rocky ledge.
+
+And certainly I was not a very reassuring spectacle, as, with my
+sheepskin cap pressed closely to my head, and a large cudgel in my fist,
+I slowly rose from my knees.
+
+I recognised him before he recognised me.
+
+"Your servant, B�lv�nyossi! Why, how did you manage to get here, where
+not even the bird that flies can come?"
+
+Then his terror was turned into joy.
+
+"Ah, ha! my poet-friend! What a divine encounter here in Heaven above!"
+With that he hastened up to me and we embraced.
+
+By this time his lady companion had also got the better of the rocky
+zig-zag which led up to the mountain ledge.
+
+It was now the turn of my own heart to stop beating. That female shape
+was Bessy--the sea-eyed beauty!
+
+How came they two to be together? How came they to be both here at the
+same time?
+
+But it was no vision. The fair lady recognised me instantly. Her face,
+red already from her mountain scramble, could be no redder at the sight
+of me, nor could her bosom heave more than it was heaving now; but on
+her face there was a sort of holding-back expression.
+
+Friend Valentine perceived the look of amazed inquiry on my face, and
+turning with true histrionic humour towards his lady-companion,
+introduced her to me with the words, "My grandmother!"
+
+At this witticism the lady laughed, and I had sufficient self-control
+not to reply to this introduction with a single word.
+
+"Then come to my bosom, my son, for I am thy grandfather."
+
+"It is very strange we should meet here," I put in.
+
+But my friend's features suddenly darkened as if he were obeying a stage
+direction like, "here he suddenly assumes a grave face."
+
+"First of all, my dear friend," said he, "I demand your word of honour
+not to reveal to any one in the created world that you have seen me. You
+know that I am now Tiham�r Rengetegi till the old blonde hair grow again
+(what I'm wearing now is a wig); for a heavy price is fixed upon my
+head. A word, and I am lost. Your _parole_ that you'll say nothing about
+me?"
+
+"The promise must be mutual, then," I replied. "I just as solemnly
+require you to say not a word to anybody about me, for I also am in
+hiding here."
+
+At this he began to laugh. It was a stage laugh, for he placed his hand
+on his stomach, crooked his back, and turned upon his heel, choking with
+laughter.
+
+"And you also are hiding away here from the Germans! Well, that _is_ a
+joke!"
+
+I inquired somewhat brusquely what there was to laugh at.
+
+"Why, at your hiding--hiding away from the Imperialists. You, of all
+people! Why, don't you know, then, that very many deputies defended
+themselves before the court-martials by declaring themselves former
+contributors to your _Esti Lap_?[70] Why, every one knows that you were
+the organ of the peace party at Debreczin. Every one is well aware that
+you were the ally of the Imperialists."
+
+[Footnote 70: _Evening News_.]
+
+At this I at once flew into a rage.
+
+"Have you ever seen the _Esti Lap_?"
+
+"No, I've not actually _seen_ it, but it was the general opinion among
+us soldiers that you were higgling with the Imperialists."
+
+At this Bessy intervened by giving a good tug at her friend's collar.
+
+"Rubbish! Such rumours are only circulated by pot-house heroes like
+yourself. He certainly was no traitor! Would that all who open their
+mouths so loudly were as good patriots?"
+
+My friend, with sheepish obsequiousness, hastened to readjust his
+opinion to the satisfaction of his "grandmother."
+
+"Good, good! I never believed a word of it myself--why should I?" said
+he.
+
+"The best proof that I am not what calumny would make me is the fact of
+my meeting you here at the Pagan Altar; and again I beg of you to tell
+nobody that we have met."
+
+Here Bessy again intervened.
+
+"I'll answer for that. I shall now be constantly at the side of this
+honest gentleman, and if his tongue begins to wag, my hand will be ready
+to stop it for him."
+
+Mr. Valentine laughed.
+
+"What a woman it is! She really has a most rapid hand. Not a day passes
+but she lets me feel the weight of her palm."
+
+At this I made a very critical face. My good friend could read very well
+from it that I wished to know by what right his cheeks were allowed to
+feel the force of Bessy's rosy palms day by day.
+
+"We met together in camp, and the field-chaplain blessed our union to
+the roaring of guns and the beating of drums."
+
+That was right enough, surely!
+
+Bessy's eyes were raised towards me as if she could add a great deal to
+this short history. Friend Valentine thought it good to become loudly
+enthusiastic.
+
+"What a woman, my friend! A heroine! A perfect Jeanne d'Arc! We were
+bound together by a whole chain of wonders and exploits. She was not my
+consort--nay! she was much more, my companion in arms. I'll tell you the
+whole thing one of these days."
+
+"That will do...."
+
+"What? That will do? Are you, then, so poor-spirited? _I_ am ready to
+meet the spectres of the darkness face to face. I'll set in motion the
+avalanche which shall wrench the world from its hinges."
+
+I left him to set his avalanche in motion while I went to gather dry
+twigs and leaves and make a heap of them. Meanwhile Valentine declaimed
+to the clouds.
+
+"What a spectacle! The whole realm a sea! We stand alone, like the
+co-operating Demiurges at the creation, in the face of chaos."
+
+"Have you got your troupe together?" I inquired, thus bringing him down
+at once from his pedestal.
+
+"My troupe? That's just what I am going about now. Brutus must play the
+fool until his day has come. But when once the hour of retribution
+arrives, we will rise as one man and win back our outraged liberties."
+
+"With my bludgeon, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, not with that sort of thing," said friend Valentine, with haughty
+condescension. "I have no secret to hide from you. An American hero of
+freedom has invented a weapon which, placed in the hand of a simple
+citizen, will give him an irresistible advantage over the hireling
+soldiery. Its English name is 'revolver.' I have one by me. Thanks to my
+acquaintances beyond the ocean, I have managed to provide myself with
+it. Look here!"
+
+With that he produced from his side pocket a pistol, the like of which I
+had never seen before. It was the Colt revolver, for discharging five
+shots. You loaded it in front, and with this object in view, you had to
+shove out the cartridge cylinder and sprinkle powder out of the
+powder-flask in every loop-hole; at the end of the bullet was a nail,
+which had to be made firm with a cork-stopper, then the bullet had to be
+driven into the barrel by means of a hammer and ramrod, then the
+cartridge cylinder had to be fastened down again into its place, and
+pyramids of priming powder piled on the top of it--while the enemy was
+supposed to be looking on all the time and watching good-naturedly to
+see what would come of it all.
+
+Friend Valentine had immense confidence in his wondrous firearm.
+
+"You can see that I am prepared for every conceivable emergency. My
+faith, I will sell my life dearly! I may tell _you_, for you will not
+betray me. Beneath this Pagan Altar is a cave, the existence of which is
+known only to the initiated. I have selected it for my hiding-place.
+When the chase against me begins, and a whole brigade of gendarmes
+marches out to seize me, I will creep into this cave; victuals and
+brandy for a whole week are already there for me; let them riot round me
+then as they like."
+
+I could not help laughing at these wise precautions. But friend
+Valentine's explanations became still more fiery.
+
+"My friend! a single narrow little path leads to this cave. The bears
+used possibly to resort thither in the days when bears camped in the
+beech districts. If they attempt to storm me there, I can defend myself
+with this revolver against a whole host."
+
+All this time I had been employed in piling up a nice little heap of dry
+twigs and leaves, which I now set on fire with my flint and steel.
+
+Friend Valentine caught me nervously by the hand.
+
+"What are you doing, my friend?"
+
+"Lighting a fire, my friend."
+
+"Why, my friend?"
+
+"To cook bacon with, my friend."
+
+"They will see the blaze of our fire from below."
+
+"How _can_ they see when the mist is so thick there?"
+
+He admitted that I was right, and allowed me to ignite my heap, which
+immediately began to crackle merrily.
+
+Meanwhile, friend Valentine went and stood on the edge of the Precipice
+Stone to watch the mist, and from time to time informed me of the
+changes of scene that were going on: now the mists were beginning to
+break, now they were rising, the houses would be visible almost
+immediately.
+
+And all the time I was toasting slices of bread by the fire, and after
+that slices of bacon, allowing the bacon fat to drip gradually down and
+soak through the toast with a deftness that would have done honour to a
+professional cook.
+
+Bessy took it into her head to follow my example.
+
+"Give me the bread and bacon out of the knapsack," said she to
+Valentine.
+
+"But what necessity for it is there now?"
+
+"I must have it at once."
+
+And with that she went up to him and began rummaging in the knapsack.
+
+"Why, what a prosaic nature is yours!" said Valentine reproachfully to
+the lady. "At such a sublime moment, too, in the presence of such a
+glorious spectacle! Just look at that magnificent scene! The whole of
+the cloud of mist is rising like a stage curtain. The gigantic theatre
+appears like magic from behind the hanging cloudy tapestries. Behold the
+sunlit heights, the white shimmering houses. And now a fresh
+mountain-chain emerges crowned with dim forests. Just as if they were of
+massive gold...."
+
+"Give me the bacon, I say."
+
+"My heart, my blood is thine, but ask me not for bacon! Look how the
+earth rises up before us; nothing but mountains, mountains, mountains!
+Still nothing to be seen of the dome of Heaven! And that deep divine
+calm around us! Only from the distant forge resounds the measured thud
+of the sledge hammer, as though one heard the throbbing of the heart of
+the universe! And does not thine own heart beat faster in this sublime
+place?"
+
+"It throbs, it throbs! Right sorely does it throb! But we'll look at the
+august spectacle a little later."
+
+"What! Not look when an instant like this is worth a world?"
+
+The natural phenomenon before us really was very fine, as the whole
+misty cloud rose swiftly from the mountains, covering with a deep shadow
+the sky that up to that moment had been shining bright and blue before
+us, and at the same time unfolding before us the muffled panorama of
+hill behind hill beneath our feet; the solar rays, like the broad
+diverging spokes of a huge wheel, shot down from the cloudy rifts with a
+milky sort of glare. It would really have been a majestic scene but for
+the false, disturbing pathos of friend Valentine.
+
+"Nay, nay! I cannot view it standing on my feet! Here one should go down
+upon one's knees. Here the gods themselves walk abroad!"
+
+Valentine plumped down upon his knees, and because Bessy would not
+follow his example, he wound his arm around her and clasped her to his
+breast. She, however, was impatient at his insipid vapourings.
+
+"You are just like that professor," said she, "who held up his oil-lamp
+against the moon that his guests might see her better."
+
+"Elizabeth!" sighed the Celadon bitterly (Bessy was a name which could
+not be emphasized with sighs so well as Elizabeth), "dost thou not
+remember that solemn moment when we said to one another, 'How sweet it
+would be to die together this instant'? Has not our common friend said
+(here he looked at me), 'A good death is better than a bad life'? Come,
+let us verify that saying: wrapped in each other's embrace, heart
+throbbing responsive to heart, a dizziness, a plunge forward from this
+rock, and then a delicious flight whose goal will be the stars!"
+
+"Go away with you! Don't make a fool of yourself! I have no wish to
+plunge into Heaven!"
+
+"But I'll bear thee thither with me like a Valkyrian. And thou, my
+friend, wilt immortalize our final catastrophe in a heroic ballad."
+
+And with that he seized the lady by the arm, and rushed with her upon
+the steep rocky ledge.
+
+"Hast thou said thy prayers to-day, Desdemona?"
+
+Bessy looked towards me with a timid look. I pretended to observe
+nothing. What had I to do with these amorous passages? I was frizzling
+bacon.
+
+"Dost thou doubt me capable of dying with thee at this moment?" cried
+Valentine B�lv�nyossi, with his wig awry over his eyes.
+
+Then the lady cried with a supplicating voice: "Nay; but help me, dear
+Maurice!"
+
+"Very well, I _will_ help you," thought I; "I did it once before, so you
+say. Poets have long arms."
+
+"Friend Valentine," said I, without rising from my squatting position
+beside the frizzling bacon, "don't you see those two men with muskets
+coming up this way along the mountain path?"
+
+"Wha-a-at, two m-m-men with mus-us-kets?" said the hero, his rumbling
+bass-baritone voice suddenly dwindling into a piping treble. "Where are
+they?" All his longing for death had instantly vanished, and he
+immediately released his victim from his embrace.
+
+I indicated the approaching strangers with my toasting-fork. "There!"
+
+Then he also saw them.
+
+"Br-r-rother, those are gend-end-end-armes!"
+
+"Possibly they _are_ gend-end-armes, for there are two of them."
+
+"Put out the fire at once!"
+
+"I would if I could, but I can't now. And if I did, what good would that
+do? They have seen it already."
+
+"I told you not to make a fire here."
+
+But now Bessy turned furiously upon him.
+
+"It is your stagey spouting that has saddled us with them. What business
+had you to go declaiming on the mountain tops? The people fancy you are
+murdering some one."
+
+"They are coming straight towards us," gasped friend Valentine. "If they
+get hold of me, I am lost."
+
+I tried to reassure him: "Come, come! recollect there are two of us;
+with my loaded cudgel and your revolver we shall offer a stubborn
+resistance."
+
+"Br-r-other, they have guns which hit at four hundred yards, while my
+revolver has only a range of thirty, and it doesn't always hit the mark
+even then. We cannot risk so much. It is quite another thing when I am
+in the dark cave, and they are out in the light, for then I can see
+them, but they can't see me."
+
+"Then you'll hide away in your cave, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, not for my own life's sake, but for the sake of my country, whose
+fate I carry in my bosom. The heels of my boots are full of secret
+despatches from England and Turkey. I am not free to stake everything so
+lightly."
+
+"Well, go and hide yourself, by all means!"
+
+But then Bessy put in a word: "'Tis all very well, but what's to become
+of me. I cannot crawl on all fours into your big bear-garden."
+
+"Nor would I allow it. Is not our common friend here? He will remain
+here. _You_ will not run away, will you? I am sure they don't know you.
+Your portrait has appeared nowhere, but mine has gone from hand to hand.
+A full description of my personal appearance flutters at every street
+corner. If they come, say that it was you who kicked up that row; say
+that she is your wife."
+
+"I won't say that."
+
+"Then do what you like. I rely upon you, mind!"
+
+"That's all very well," cried Bessy peevishly, "but what will happen
+afterwards? If you remain in your hole, and our good friend goes home,
+what am I to do all alone here by myself on the top of a rock? I shall
+never find my way home through this wood."
+
+Then my friend, with cheap generosity, made this magnanimous offer:--
+
+"Dear friend, take her home with you."
+
+So that was to be the _d�nouement_ of this odd drama!
+
+"No, my magnanimous friend. Not so! You go and reserve yourself for
+posterity. We two will remain here. One of two things is bound to
+happen. If those two men, armed with muskets, find me painting pictures
+in my album, they will believe either that I am a simple painter (they
+know that K�roly Telepi is wandering about on a sketching tour here, and
+they'll take me for him, and Bessy for--my sister); or they'll not
+believe anything of the kind, and in that case they'll escort us both to
+Miskolcz. In the latter case you need have no fear of turning back. If,
+on the other hand, after the lapse of a few hours, you creep out of your
+cave and see me sitting as before, on the rocky ledge, and peaceably
+continuing my sketching, then you will know that the armed invasion has
+passed on further, and you can come back again to the Lady Elizabeth.
+Then I'll give you my blessing, and we'll return from whence we
+came--you to the east, I to the west."
+
+With this he was satisfied.
+
+"But don't betray me!" he murmured, casting a terrified look upon us;
+"even though they hale you off to the block, don't say where I am."
+
+I gave him my word of honour that not even the Spanish boot should
+extort his secret from me, whereupon he went gingerly down upon all
+fours, scrambled up the rocky summit by the corkscrew path, and vanished
+among the bushes.
+
+"Ugh! I only wish he hadn't taken the bread and bacon along with him!"
+lamented the girl he left behind him.
+
+"I'll share mine with you; there's enough for two."
+
+And with that I seized my crooked clasp-knife, cut the slice of bread in
+two, minced the bacon into little bits, and sprinkled it with salt and
+pepper.
+
+Nor was that all. I rubbed both sides of the toasted bacon with a knob
+of garlic. It was a sort of Oriental language of flowers. I meant to
+remind her that her ideal of a man was one who did not rinse his mouth
+after eating garlic.
+
+Thus we were alone on the summit of the Pagan Altar, crouching together
+beside a fire of burning embers, and dividing a piece of toast and a
+slice of bacon--I and the former mistress of my heart.
+
+That "former" was not so very long ago. It was scarcely three years
+since the golden thrushes mingled their songs with our chats. The
+idyllic contemplation of the matter, however, was considerably disturbed
+by the concrete circumstance that, during these three years, a third
+masterpiece of creation had found in my former paragon the rib that had
+been subtracted from him while he slept. Her first venture was a
+fashionable fop, her second an Antinous of the wilderness, her third was
+now a stage Othello.
+
+And our feelings were still further subdued by the disagreeable tension
+occasioned by the approach towards us of two armed men, who kept on
+popping up before us in the clearings of the forest, now here, now
+there, but continually drawing nearer to the Pagan Altar. There could
+not now be a doubt that they were making towards us.
+
+"It would be as well if I set to work and sketched something in my album
+while they are approaching," said I, "in case they inquire what I am
+doing here."
+
+With that, I sat down on the steep rocky ledge, placed my sketch-book on
+my knee, and designed the contours of my picture on a grand scale.
+
+The lady sat down close beside me, and observed how I looked now on the
+hills and now on my paper--but never into her fine eyes.
+
+We did not exchange a word with each other, not a single word.
+
+At last, however, I grew impatient of the silence, and without looking
+up from my sketch, I said to her: "I really thought that by this time
+you and Peter Gyuricza had filled the whole world full of butter and
+cheese."
+
+But then, with both her hands, she seized my sketching hand, so that I
+had to leave off my work, and said, with a mournful voice:
+
+"You have the most sovereign contempt for me now, eh? But if I were to
+tell you what frightful calamities I have gone through since last we
+met, then I am sure you would have compassion on me."
+
+I told her that if she liked to speak, I could now listen, as I had
+plenty of time.
+
+"You remember when last we met, don't you? When you banged the door in
+my face, I mean--though, God knows, I only meant to do you good then. I
+never meant to make you so angry, and immediately made the best of my
+way home to the hut of Peter Gyuricza. Ah! how sorry I then was that I
+had not pleaded my cause with you better. I had another reason for going
+to you. When the lawyers took up my case, the fair-haired partner
+offered me a little money, which I might repay him, he said, when I
+gained my suit. But I chose to ride the high horse, and rejected the
+proffered money, although I had really nothing about me but three
+_huszases_,[71] which I had saved from the proceeds of the butter. That
+was not even enough for the steam-boat. A couple of florins or so would
+have done. But, of course, when you drove me out of your room I had to
+do without."
+
+[Footnote 71: The _husza_--20 kreutzers.]
+
+"I am very sorry that I did not guess your need."
+
+"Still more sorry was I. I was obliged, in my straits, to climb into the
+cart of a poulterer who was going to Vienna, and who, for two of my
+_huszases_, found a place for me among the hen-coops. I still had a few
+_garashes_[72] for my journey, which were sufficient to pay for the
+straw on which I slept at the inns where we descended. On the third day
+I arrived safely at Uj-Sz�ny, and by that time I had eaten the last bit
+of bread and cheese in my basket. In front of the inn stood a lame and
+paralysed beggar, who begged alms of me in God's name. I had only two
+kreutzers still left. I kept back one kreutzer from the beggar, for I
+knew that I should have to pay a toll on the bridge. Now, that was your
+fault, look you. You might have inserted a paragraph in the Twelve
+Articles of Pest abolishing the tolls."
+
+[Footnote 72: A _garash_--3 kreutzers.]
+
+I was furious. I had to erase half my drawing. Bessy laughed at my
+misfortune, and at her own also. Then she proceeded:--
+
+"From thence I had to make my way home on foot. I could go right along
+by the banks of the Danube without entering the town. I did not meet a
+single acquaintance. In front of me I saw a large group of National
+Guards in blue attilas, hastening rapidly towards the fortress amidst
+the beating of drums. It must have been a serious business which
+prevented them from looking at a pretty woman. Then I went nicely and
+quietly along the well-known way. Like the egg-selling woman in the
+fairy-tale, I began to consider what I would do when I got back my
+patrimony. I would go with my Gyuricza right away into Transylvania,
+there I would buy him a property, where he might rear as many cattle as
+he liked. I myself would learn to spin like the P�kular[73] women: my
+husband should wear clothes of my own weaving. I would adorn my
+bedchamber with embroidered napkins, hang varnished vases all round, and
+there should be rows of pewter dishes on every shelf. We should have our
+plum-orchard too, and from the plums I would make _palinka_. I would
+keep bees, and make mead, and bake honey-cakes, which Peter loves so
+much when he can get them at the fair. All this time I had never noticed
+that I was getting quite close to the hut. It was drawing towards
+evening, and smoke was coming from the chimney. No doubt the little
+serving-maid was cooking supper according to my directions. How
+surprised Peter would be when I brought his flesh-pot out to him in the
+pastures! When I entered the hut I found by the hearth--nobody. I went
+into the room. What do I see? My Peter Gyuricza sitting at the
+table--with his wife; and they were supping sweetly together out of the
+same dish, like two turtle-doves!"
+
+[Footnote 73: A village in Transylvania, chiefly inhabited by
+Wallachs.--TR.]
+
+("Aha!" I murmured, "poetic justice with a vengeance; I myself could not
+have devised a happier _d�nouement_.")
+
+"Everything became green and blue before my eyes. My throat contracted.
+I was incapable of uttering a word. But the tongue of the little peasant
+woman wagged all the brisker. No sooner did she see me than she bounced
+from her place, cocked her _haube_ on the side of her head, stuck her
+arms akimbo, and fell foul of me.
+
+"'Ah, ha! my dear precious lady! I suppose 'tis Carnival time, since you
+come masquerading hither like that! Perhaps you've come because you've
+lost something here, eh? A shawl, perhaps? A very pretty little
+ladyship, that I _will_ say! Haven't you got a nice enough lord and
+master of your own at home? Must you befool the poor peasant also? Or if
+your lawful husband is not enough for you, can't you go and choose
+another from among the cavaliers of your own rank? You hanker after
+laying your little stuck-up noddle on my patch-pillow, eh? You ought to
+be ashamed of yourself!'
+
+"I was dumbfoundered. This face of a fury, with the eyes sticking out of
+its head, robbed me of all my pluck. In my despair and doubt I looked at
+Peter.
+
+"He all this time was sitting with his elbows on the table and
+swallowing one dumpling after another.
+
+"'Is this justice, Peter?' stammered I, half-sobbing; 'will you let me
+be treated like this?'
+
+"At this he struck the table with his fist a mighty blow and roared at
+his wife: 'Woman! Shut up! Hold your tongue! Sit down at that table and
+fill your stomach! I'll speak now.'
+
+"The woman sulked in silence, but, even while her husband was speaking,
+she could not forbear putting in a word or two here and there, such as:
+'She has worn out my dress, too!--I didn't steal that! My lovely chintz
+dress! How she has rumpled it! Just as if she had been tumbling it about
+in every pot-house!'
+
+"But Peter spoke very sagely.
+
+"'My lady, I beg pardon! I know what honour is. I was once a soldier. I
+know my duty. What won't match can't match. A horse and an ox won't draw
+together. A peasant woman's meet for a peasant, a lady's meet for a
+gentleman. Now did I ever so much as raise my little finger to your
+ladyship? You know I didn't. And yet how many times haven't you ruined
+the butter? You never moistened the maize. The pigs wouldn't eat it
+because it set their teeth on edge, for you threw them hard raw grain.
+This won't do, you know! When the cows calve, who'll be there to see to
+them? And who is there to clean out the furnace? The mice have gnawed
+away the sleeves of my jacket, it's all in rags. Besides that, I have
+got into the way of saying, "Hie, you Jutka! d'ye hear?" and then she
+knows very well what her duty is; and when I strike her she makes no
+bones about it, either. I couldn't live without thrashing her
+occasionally; it does my back good, which would else grow double; and
+she always knows how to come round me again.'"
+
+I threw my sketch-book and my palette out of my hand, and flung myself
+down on my back, I laughed so much. How could I help laughing? Bessy
+laughed too.
+
+"I can laugh mightily at it now, but situated as I was then, his words
+were so many lashes. At last I flew into a rage and attacked Peter.
+
+"'Can't you say straight out that Muki Bagotay has bribed you to take
+back your wife, whom you drove away on his account?'
+
+"'Oh, I humbly beg your pardon, you must not say that I am bribed. I am
+an upright man. His honour, my lord Bagotay, gave me ten head of oxen as
+a gift, but he didn't bribe me.'
+
+"My heart was ready to break at these words.
+
+"Ten head of oxen indeed! For the sake of this peasant I had sacrificed
+my whole existence, the world in which I had hitherto lived, the respect
+of my acquaintances, my ease and comfort. I had made the earnest resolve
+to become a peasant woman for his sake, to work, do without things,
+suffer penury, and when once I had recovered my property, to give it all
+to him, make him a gentleman according to _his_ notion of a gentleman,
+and the wretched creature had bartered me for ten oxen!"
+
+I hastened to explain to Bessy that this was really the legally
+appointed fine for adultery in case the affair came to be settled.
+Verb�czy[74] says: "_Raptor solvat decem juvencos._"--"The seducer must
+pay ten oxen."
+
+[Footnote 74: The great Hungarian jurist (1460-1541), and one of the
+most eminent statesmen of his day. His _opus magnum_, entitled
+"Tripartitum opus juris consultudinarii inclyti regni Hungari�," was
+first published in 1517.--TR.]
+
+Bessy then proceeded:--
+
+"Peter next began to give me counsels worthy of a patriarch.
+
+"'My lady, I've only one thing to say. Go back to his lordship. God's my
+witness that nothing will befall you. Say now, Jutka--come, on your soul
+be honest--have I so much as touched you with my little finger since you
+came back? His lordship, too, knows all about it. He will close one eye.
+Let's look upon the matter as if he and I had been wrestling together,
+and first one had had a fall and then the other. One box on the ears
+deserves another. So it is among men of honour!'"
+
+"Oh, don't make me laugh so, or I cannot go on sketching!" said I to
+Bessy, with the tears in my eyes.
+
+"I don't know what you can find to laugh at, I could cry for vexation
+even now."
+
+"Why, that of itself is enough to make one laugh!"
+
+Bessy continued:--
+
+"But then the woman began talking nicely to me, which was ever so much
+worse. 'Come, come, my dear, good, pretty lady, have respect for your
+nice, handsome, lawful lord. Why, what a fine gentleman it is! Why, if I
+hadn't my Peter ...'
+
+"'You manage to forget that, though, pretty often!' intervened Peter.
+
+"The long and short of it all was that I had to resume the clothes I had
+left behind me, and restore to Jutka the draggle-tail rags which she had
+charged me with spoiling. But what objection could I make? What belongs
+to another is his, so I began to strip off my frock and neckerchief
+before the pair of them straightaway.
+
+"The other woman then got a bit ashamed on my account. 'Let us go into
+the inner room,' said she; and drew me into the little chamber, and took
+out of her wardrobe the lordly raiment I had left there, and then helped
+me to dress. And all the time she was so mild, so friendly, and quite
+lost herself in rustic caresses and flatteries: 'Why, what a nice slim
+waist! What a shame that a mere clown should clasp it round! What lovely
+white shoulders! What a sin to ruin them by carrying about heavy loads!
+And how swollen the little feet are from much walking! Why, they'll
+scarcely go into the old dress-boot, I do declare! Why fly into such
+tantrums about such trifles! Good gracious me! suppose every lady who
+caught her lord with a little milkmaid were to carry on with the first
+clown that fell in her way! Things like that should not be taken so
+seriously. A man is but a man, especially if he is a gentleman! Why,
+I've seen _countesses_ even, whose husbands went on the loose. You
+expect too much, my dear! Chocolate is the nicest dish in the whole
+world; but if one were to give one's husband nothing but chocolate every
+day, he would soon loathe the very sight of it. Come, come! go home,
+dear heart, my darling ladykin, to your dear good lord and master, and
+you'll see how heartily he'll receive you!'
+
+"I replied that I would never go back to him again. I wept for shame.
+The woman guessed the cause of my tears.
+
+"'Come, come, good heart! Why, my lady, we'll all of us agree to deny
+that this little holiday ever happened. We were talking about it just
+now. We'll lie the thing away, and say that your ladyship only wanted to
+frighten the good gentleman, and that you were hiding the whole time at
+the house of the local magistrate.'
+
+"And how about the flower-selling in the market-place, and the promenade
+through the waters?'
+
+"'We'll say that that was only done out of spite. How should a dirty
+clown like my husband presume to cast his eyes on such a precious
+treasure as your ladyship? Why, anybody who could believe such a thing
+would be called a downright fool. We'll put it all to rights finely.'
+
+"'But a separation suit is already going on?'
+
+"'Your ladyship needn't trouble your head about that. His honour has
+withdrawn his complaint. Yes, I declare he has. He told me he was in
+great embarrassment. He had been deprived of his tithes and land tax,
+and did not know whither to turn for money. The gentlemen up at Pest had
+reintroduced the _morgatorium_, or whatever the plaguy thing is called,
+which as good as said that all the old debts were not to be paid, but
+that no new debts were to be made. Now, if he is divorced from your
+ladyship, he will have to pay you back your 100,000 florins, and then
+he'll be ruined. That's a fact.'
+
+"A light began to dawn upon me. This garrulous little peasant woman had
+let out the secret why my idyll had terminated so abruptly. A very
+pretty twice-two certainly! They receive me back like a pupil returning
+to school after the vacation. For that very reason I resolved I would
+_not_ go back.
+
+"When I was dressed again in my old clothes, she opened the little door
+and readmitted me into the larger apartment. Peter was now tricked out
+in his grandest array. He had donned his Sunday mantle, drawn on his new
+boots, and stood before me hat in hand. He was as humble as a lackey. He
+kissed my hand, and I noticed now for the first time how very bristly
+his chin was. When he spoke it sounded like the whining voice of a
+burnt-out beggar-man who stands at the stable-door and begs an alms.
+
+"'I kiss your gracious hands, my lady. I humbly beg pardon if I have
+offended you in any way. I didn't mean to do it. Forgive me my fault,
+and I'll never do it again.'
+
+"At this I knew not whether to laugh or to cry.
+
+"Then he got quite touched, and wiped his eyes with the flapping sleeves
+of his shirt.
+
+"Behind the door stood a stout willow-wood stick, which he laid hold of.
+I wondered what he was going to do with it. Would he give it to me as a
+staff for my pilgrimage?
+
+"'Permit me, your ladyship, to accompany you as far as the castle. Some
+evil might befall you on the way. There are bad men about. The dogs
+might bark at you, and the bull is quite savage.'
+
+"'But I am not going to the castle,' I said.
+
+"He gaped at me. 'Whither away, then?'
+
+"'That's my business! The road goes up, and the road goes down. I'll go
+whichever way the wind blows.'
+
+"Then he rallied all the wisdom he possessed, and preached a sermon to
+me with all the unction of an Old Testament patriarch.
+
+"'Don't do that, my dear good lady! Don't grieve your good and loving
+lord! There's not a better man in the world. Allow me to accompany you
+home. I'll keep well behind--twenty yards if you like.'
+
+"I stamped my foot impatiently, and bawled at him to come away from the
+door and let me go my way.
+
+"Then it was that Peter showed his true colours.
+
+"'My lady, this cannot be! The good and worthy squire, when he gave me
+the ten oxen to take back my wife, said this to me: "Well! Peter
+Gyuricza, if you bring my wife home also, ten young calves shan't stand
+between us."'
+
+(The rocks and woods re-echoed with my laughter. I couldn't keep it
+back.)
+
+"Then my fury boiled over. You know that when I fly into a rage I am a
+perfect lioness, don't you? I snatched the stick from Peter Gyuricza's
+hand. 'Lubber, lout! I'll give you your ten young calves! There you are,
+take them!' I don't know whether I gave him exactly ten blows. I didn't
+count them. And the big lout of a man turned tail, rushed into the room,
+dodged round the table, and roared like a hippopotamus, while I broke
+the stick over his shoulders. His consort thought it best not to
+interfere, but leaped upon the bench and looked on. It was a real luxury
+for her to meet with some one who could thoroughly trounce her tyrant.
+
+"I only wish my previous journey had not fatigued me so much.
+
+"I began to recover a little when I found myself out in the fields, and
+the breeze blew the heat out of my head. My idyll had come to a pretty
+end. What was I to do now? One thing was certain, I could not return to
+Muki Bagotay.
+
+"But whither was I to go, then?
+
+"Before me lay the beautiful Danube. The road by the dam ran all the way
+along it. From time to time I leaned against an old willow-tree and
+looked at the great living-water. Now and then a fish would leap up into
+the air with a loud splash. I was not afraid of the water, but of the
+fishes I was afraid. I could not kill myself. I should have rejoiced, if
+that had been true with which they used to frighten us in our childish
+days when we leaned over the bank and looked into the water: Beware of
+the devil who lurks behind you and will push you in! But he didn't push
+me in. The devil can do nothing now. He cannot compete at all with the
+sons of men. But was it really worth while to kill myself for the sake
+of two such men as Muki Bagotay and Peter Gyuricza? No, my death would
+then have been as ridiculous as my life!
+
+"I thought I would go home to my mother. She couldn't exactly turn me
+out of doors. Let her punish me as she will--I'll humble myself; I'll
+bow down before her; I'll endure her wrath. After all, is she not my
+mother, and am I not her only child? She cannot but love her little one.
+From any one else I could not expect to find pity or love. Why, I even
+hated myself!
+
+"With these thoughts I set off towards the town.
+
+"It was baking hot. A strong south wind was blowing, as dry and burning
+as if it had come out of a stove. Clouds of sand covered the whole
+region, and whenever a gust came, I had to take refuge under a
+willow-tree, lest I should be hurled into the dam. I can't say what time
+of the day it was, but I know that it was the forenoon to me, for I had
+eaten nothing yet that day. The Gyuriczas had forgotten to invite me to
+sit down to their dumplings.... To quench my thirst, I descended once or
+twice to the Danube and drank some water out of the palm of my hand. On
+the road-side I found a flower which I thought was a cheese-poppy. I
+tasted it, but it was very nasty. Weary as I was, I must hasten to get
+to the town as soon as possible. I should have been glad even of such a
+piece of bread as I used to distribute to the beggars at home on Friday.
+
+"I was hastening on towards the town, when suddenly a kind of darkness
+rose up before me in the sky, and on looking at it more attentively, I
+was horrified to observe that in the town a fire had broken out, the
+black smoke of which was rolling up into the dust-clouded sky.
+
+"The burning simoon blew back the black smoke upon the town. Great
+Heaven! the whole town will be reduced to ashes.
+
+"And now I began to run. I forgot that I was weary, I forgot that I was
+hungry. Fear lent me fresh strength. The nearer I got to the town the
+higher the smoke rolled up. Now, however, it was not black, but red.
+Millions of sparks shot flashing upwards, and huge fragments of flaming
+roofs were to be seen flying in the midst of them. When a tiled house
+caught fire, the burning tiles shivered like fiery rockets in every
+direction. A whole street was already in flames when I reached the town.
+Howling heaps of men, carts and carriages in full career, wailing women,
+children half crushed and suffocated, and in the midst of them all
+lowing kine and oxen wildly struggling back into their dark stables at
+the sight of the conflagration--the whole mass was rushing backwards and
+forwards in aimless confusion. I forced my way into a side street, lest
+I should be crushed to death, with the intention of getting home that
+way. Everywhere I encountered lamenting crowds attempting to drag along
+the streets the things they had saved from their houses. Nobody thought
+of extinguishing the flames. The burning embers fell in torrents. When I
+got to my mother's house I found it already wrapped in flames. It was
+the highest house in the street. A handful of Honveds were attempting to
+extinguish the flames. Others had mounted on the roof, and were throwing
+the furniture out of the windows. I saw a gold-framed picture flying
+through the air--it was the portrait of my poor father. Oh! he indeed
+used to love me. If he had only lived, I should not be what I am now.
+There were none but strange faces around me. In vain I asked them where
+my mother was. They had not heard of her. All at once a white-collared
+officer, some major or other I suppose, came up and cried to the
+fire-extinguishing Honveds, 'Why are you putting out that fire? It
+doesn't deserve it. It was there that the colonel lodged who set the
+town on fire! Leave the cursed hole alone, and go and protect the
+hospital!' I knew not whether I had gone mad or not. Why did they curse
+our house? The Honveds began execrating the name of a colonel who had
+often come to our _soir�es_. If they recognise me, I thought, perhaps
+they'll pitch me into the fire also. One heavy cart after another
+rattled over my poor father's portrait. I couldn't even save that. I was
+aroused from my benumbing stupor by a frightful yell, the shout of
+thousands and thousands of men: 'Saint Andrew's Church is burning!' One
+of the slender towers of that vast cathedral was already in flames,
+while in the other the alarm-bells were ringing furiously. The mob
+carried me with it. Every one hastened along to save the church. But it
+was already too late. The other tower had also caught fire, the bells
+were silenced, the roof of the church was also ablaze. The beautiful
+church banners, which the guildsmen used to carry all round the town
+with great pomp on Corpus Christi day, were dragged out half charred
+amidst the falling firebrands. The heat was so terrible that one could
+not remain in the market-place. 'The whole town's done for!' cried the
+men. 'Let us fly to the island!' And with that the human flood poured
+through the narrow streets towards the Danube. The thought occurred to
+me that _there_ was a little villa which belonged to us. Happy thought!
+Perhaps I might find my mother there: she might have fled there for
+refuge. So I went along with the human torrent. By the time we got to
+the island drawbridge, it was impossible to get any farther through the
+densely packed crowd. Why were they coming back? Because the drawbridge
+was also burning. It was a terrible spectacle. The whole Danube shore
+was in flames, and the drawbridge leading to the island carried the
+conflagration still farther. The Danube was hissing with falling red-hot
+beams. Corn-ships, windmills, swam blazing along, and dashed against the
+ice-breakers. A band of armed Honveds posted by the custom-house kept
+the people back from rushing upon the burning bridge. They told us what
+had happened. There was a greater danger even than fire. An Imperial
+regiment had tried to creep quietly into the town. They were already at
+Tat�. The citizens, however, had found it out, and raised the drawbridge
+against them. The troops, enraged at the failure of their stratagem, had
+set the town on fire. What a cursing there was! I heard one particular
+name branded again and again, the name of the colonel who was to have
+married my mother if the revolution had not intervened."
+
+I could not go on with my drawing. The mist no longer lay upon the
+landscape, but upon my eyes.
+
+The young lady continued circumstantially the history of those
+horrors:--
+
+"Then three cannon-shots thundered from the fortress. No doubt it was
+only a signal which the troops often give in times of fire. But at this
+roaring of guns the fear of the people became still greater. 'The enemy
+is storming the town!' At this the whole crowd, which had hitherto
+entirely covered the Danube's bank, immediately rushed back again into
+the burning town, through the flaming streets and the burning rafters.
+'To the Waag, to the Waag!'[75] everybody cried. In that direction there
+was a hope of deliverance. I am only amazed that I was not crushed to
+death. In my terror I seized hold of a boatman's arm, and the worthy
+man, whom I had never seen before, allowed me to cling on to him like
+grim death; assured me that he would take care I was not left behind,
+and dragged me along with him over the backs of the struggling mob."
+
+[Footnote 75: A confluent of the Danube.]
+
+Here she had to pause. The recollections of these horrors stopped her
+breath. Pearls of sweat stood upon her forehead. It was only after a
+very long pause that she was able to resume.
+
+"I shall never forget that day. The alarm-bells were still pealing from
+a single tower, the tower of the Calvinist church. All the other church
+towers were in ashes, this one alone remained. The wind was blowing in a
+contrary direction. The fire had not yet extended to that part of the
+town. Every one hastened in the direction of the Calvinist church tower.
+The streets in the vicinity of the fortress were barred against the
+flying crowd by the Honved regiments; the only street by which it was
+possible to get to the Waag was Sunday Street. This also was half in
+flames, but from where Great St. Michael Street cuts across it, it still
+remained untouched. Your house was the border building beyond which the
+fire had not yet extended, but the inn at the opposite corner was burned
+to the ground. Oh, that dear familiar house, with those cool corridors,
+and those red marble columns, on the iron cross-bars of which you, as a
+boy, so often used to show off your acrobatic feats before me! The
+thought occurred to me of seeking sanctuary there in my great extremity.
+At one time I was wont to be heartily welcomed there. It is true that I
+had sinned grievously against that house, and the lady had reproached me
+with it to my face. I _had laughed at her son_, and that laughter had
+driven him out into the world. But in seasons of great calamity wrath is
+forgotten. I would seek a refuge there with your mother. Such were my
+thoughts when I saw your mother's house. That sight I shall never
+forget. There stood the good old lady on the threshold of her house, in
+that very brown dress, that very frilled turban in which you painted her
+portrait. Whenever she recognised anybody among the flying crowd, she
+stopped him, and asked, 'Have you not seen my son?' and when he
+replied, 'I have not!' she would wring her hands and sob bitterly, 'Oh,
+Holy Father! why is not my son here?'"
+
+Alas! what was the matter with my eyes? They suddenly filled with
+something.
+
+The young lady continued her story:--
+
+"When I heard your mother saying these words, I was possessed with fresh
+horror. It never occurred to me that you had an elder brother who was
+the guardian of the orphan wards of the town, and that his proper place
+then was in the Town Hall, with the roof blazing over his head, trying
+to save the property of the orphans. I dared not go along that side of
+the street; I crossed over to the other side. Suppose she were to seize
+me also and ask: 'What have you done with my son? But for those
+accursed, colour-shifting eyes of yours, he would now be beside me, he
+would never have left me all alone!' I dared not, I dared not meet her
+eye. I would rather endure the sight of my own mother's angry face than
+the tearful look of your mother. I hid my face in my hands, and hurried
+past."
+
+She could say no more. She let her face fall on my breast, and sobbed
+aloud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT
+
+
+When she again lifted up her face, her eyes were like a somnambulist's
+gazing fixedly in the moonlight. They appeared absolutely dark-blue, so
+much were the irises distended. Her voice was quite low.
+
+"The whole picture is still vividly before my eyes. The greater part of
+the town was in flames. It must have been evening. The sound of the
+clock in the Calvinist church tower mingled with the peal of the
+alarm-bells. The clock struck eight, the alarm-bells five. The people
+counted the strokes: exactly thirteen. The sun shone no longer, but the
+whole vault of heaven was alight; the fiery reflection of the thick
+clouds of smoke made a hellish daylight, and in the midst of this
+terrible illumination, like some dread idol, rose the tower of the
+Calvinist church, with its large copper roof, and its spire with the
+great gold ball and star. Star and ball glowed like phantoms from the
+world beyond the grave. The crackling of the fire roared down the
+howling of the beasts and the cries of ten thousand terrified men. In
+that part of the town where the carters dwelt, carts, horses and oxen,
+and their owners were all huddled together in one dense mass. To move
+was an impossibility. Then upon this howling, cursing, blaspheming
+multitude came pouring that mass of men which had fought its way from
+the banks of the Danube through the burning town, with the terrifying
+cry, 'The enemy has attacked the town!' By this time the alarming rumour
+had gained such proportions that there were those who said they had
+actually seen the enemy's soldiers entering the town. 'They are burning,
+they are plundering--fly! fly!' Some even exclaimed, 'They are about to
+bombard the captured town from the fortress!' All at once the whole
+street, as far as the Waag bridge, was filled with flying vehicles. In
+my terror I had clutched hold of the mud-splasher of one of these
+vehicles as it came tearing along, and ran along after it till there was
+scarcely a breath left in my body. My light buskins were completely worn
+off my feet and full of gravel. I had no time to stop and empty them.
+This particular carriage had excellent horses in it, and the coachman
+did not spare his whip. Two women, dressed in peasants' hoods, were
+sitting in this carriage. I was astonished that they should wrap
+themselves up so closely in their hoods, and cover their heads with big
+kerchiefs, when such an infernal heat was blazing all around us, from
+the earth, from the sky, and from every side of us.
+
+"The coachman reached the Waag bridge safely before the other fugitive
+carriages had blocked up the way. At the entrance they had to stop, for
+there the custom-house officers demanded the bridge-tolls. That the
+whole town was in flames mattered not a button to them, all they wanted
+was their tolls. One of the women handed them an Austrian bank-note for
+100 florins. The toll-collector could not give change. A queer sort of
+peasant woman, truly, who had no smaller change than a bank-note for 100
+florins! While they were haggling about it, it occurred to me that I was
+now wearing my genteel clothes, and that in the pockets there was sure
+to be a silver _tizes_[76] for any beggar I might chance to meet on my
+way. So I went up and said to the peasant women: 'I've got a _tizes_
+which I'll give to the toll-collector; all that I ask is that you will
+take me in your carriage--there's room for me beside the coachman. I
+don't mind where you take me.' At this, one of the women called to the
+coachman: 'Don't let that girl get up, we won't have her.' Then they
+told the toll-collector that he might keep the 100-florin note if he
+couldn't give them change, if only he would let their coachman go on. I
+was horrified at such inhumanity. What a heartless woman it must be who,
+in such a time of peril, could refuse a fugitive girl a place in her
+carriage, and who, rather than do so, preferred to sacrifice a bank-note
+for 100 florins, peasant though she was! In my indignation I tore the
+big muffling clout from the head of the peasant woman and discovered her
+face. And now my blood froze to ice. I recognised my own mother!
+'Mother, dear mother!' I cried, 'don't you know me? I am your own little
+girl, Bessy!' Then my mother, pulling up the collar of her mantle over
+her face, said, in a simulated peasant voice: 'Be off! Don't bother us!
+I don't know the girl. I'm not your mother. Let go my kerchief!'
+
+[Footnote 76: The tenth part of a florin.]
+
+"I thought I was going mad. My own mother wouldn't know me! She wouldn't
+let me get into her carriage. Like lightning the thought flashed through
+my mind that she it was whom the people were cursing so. No doubt they
+were cursing her unjustly, but in such times as these that mattered
+little. Whomsoever the popular fury points out is condemned already. I
+could not betray my own mother. I hastily threw my silver coin to the
+toll-collector that they might let the carriage go on. I thought that if
+once we got beyond the bridge, and my mother had no further fear of
+pursuit, she would take me into the carriage. So catching hold of the
+back part of the vehicle, I ran on beside the carriage till we had got
+beyond the trenches of the fortress and out upon the highway. Then I
+again began to supplicate, so far as my gasping voice would allow me:
+'Mother, dear, good mother! take me into the carriage; I am dropping. I
+can go no farther.' They would not hear me. They only cursed and
+scolded: 'Be off! Decamp!' And when I still persisted in clinging on,
+they at last seized my fingers, which were still clutching the splasher,
+violently wrenched them off, and gave me a rough push so that I fell at
+full length into the highway. Then the carriage rolled on farther.
+
+"I had held out till then, but now my strength failed me. I trembled so
+that I could no longer stand upon my legs. Utterly crushed in mind and
+body by the sufferings of that terrible day, I dragged myself on my
+knees to the edge of the wayside ditch. My instinctive fear of death
+told me that I must avoid the middle of the road if I didn't want to be
+trampled to death. There then I lay clinging to a roadside poplar,
+gazing apathetically at the dreadful scene. The fugitive vehicles dashed
+madly along the highway in threes and fours, colliding every moment. The
+cursing and swearing were something awful. Every now and then one
+conveyance overturned another into the ditch, and the women who were
+sitting in them screamed and cried most piteously. One coachman hit upon
+the foolhardy idea of forcing his way through the ditch into the open
+field, and others followed his example. They came so close to me as to
+all but run over me, and I had not sufficient strength left to draw up
+my legs out of reach of their revolving wheels.
+
+"Then the blast of trumpets mingled with the hurly-burly. A regiment of
+Hussars was trying to cut its way through the fugitive carriages with a
+convoy of hay-waggons, which, as was explained to me later on, the
+Commandant of the fortress was transferring from the burning town to the
+village of Izsa across the Waag. The commanding officer was cursing and
+swearing, and striking all the coachmen he met with the flat of his
+sword for stopping his soldiers' way. 'Damned rascals! instead of
+putting out the fire, you all take to your heels. What the devil is the
+matter with you? There's no enemy behind you! Would that the souls of
+your ancestors could revivify you!'
+
+"The voice seemed familiar to me, but the face I had never seen before.
+A spiral moustache, a French beard, a Hussar uniform, and a plumed
+hat--I had never seen _that_ figure before.
+
+"Thus he appeared before me like the dragon-slaying hero of a fairy
+tale.
+
+"Hitherto, of all those who scurried past me, not one had noticed the
+wretched creature lying in the ditch. Some girl or other quite past
+help, they thought, perhaps. Nobody took any notice of me.
+
+"This officer _did_ notice me. In the midst of the greatest turmoil he
+perceived a woman lying beneath his horse's feet. He hastily reined in
+his charger, and called me by my name. 'My lady Elizabeth! how ever did
+you come here? In Heaven's name, what has befallen you?'
+
+"I recognised him by his mode of addressing me. There was only one man
+who used to address me in this way, the man who taught me my _r�le_ at
+those famous amateur theatricals that you remember.
+
+"'Mr. B�lv�nyossi! Mr. Director!' I stammered, in my joy.
+
+"'No, no! Captain Rengetegi is my name. Why, where is your mother? Run
+away? She did well. Get up, my lady, into my carriage, and I'll take you
+now to a place of safety.'
+
+"'I cannot get up.'
+
+"Then he hastily dismounted from his horse, gave his bridle to his
+orderly, went up to me, raised me in his arms, carried me to his
+carriage, and laid me down there among sweet-smelling hay.
+
+"I felt just as if I had been placed in Paradise.
+
+"Then he threw his mantle over me. It was cold outside now, and a strong
+wind was blowing.
+
+"But his care for me went even further than that.
+
+"'There is food in my knapsack, lady Elizabeth. I suppose you have had
+no supper to-day? Take whatever you find there. There's some drink, too,
+in my flask. It will do you good. You have nothing more to fear. The
+finger-pointing virgin still stands there on the bastions of our
+fortress.'
+
+"Then he mounted his horse again, and continued commanding his men
+loudly and authoritatively to force their way through the crush of carts
+and carriages with their convoy of hay. I fancied that I saw before me
+an archangel.
+
+"I didn't wait to be asked twice. As soon as I was able to get hold of
+the knapsack of victuals, I stuffed myself indiscriminately with all it
+contained--ham, cake, rolls. I gorged like a wild beast broken loose
+from a menagerie. I verily believe that if my bliss in Heaven had
+depended upon it, I would have renounced it for that couch of soft straw
+and those greedily devoured delicacies.
+
+"When I had satisfied my appetite as I had never done before, I
+unscrewed the top of the flask and put it to my mouth. I didn't taste
+what was in it, but I gulped and gulped so long as I had any breath in
+my body, as much as my thirst craved. I fancy it must have been brandy.
+When I couldn't drink any more I looked all about me. The burning town
+was a grand illumination; in the midst of it was the Calvinist church
+tower--only it was now not one tower, but three. The silly thing was
+dancing a _pas seul_, and wagging its head now to the right, and now to
+the left, and all the people, and the horses, and the coachmen, and the
+hay-carts were leaping and dancing, like wedding-guests considerably the
+worse for liquor.
+
+"When next day I awoke out of a twenty-hours' sleep, I found myself in
+the room of a peasant's house. Two men were holding a consultation over
+me--the camp-surgeon and 'he.' 'How do you find yourself, lady
+Elizabeth? You are in my little room.'
+
+"So ever since then I have been the lady Elizabeth."
+
+With these words Bessy rushed to the edge of the steep rock, crossed
+her two hands over her breast, and looked over her shoulder at me.
+
+"I have now told you everything, and you must judge me. You have no need
+to push me. Give but a signal with your finger and I'll put an end to
+myself!"
+
+Horrified, I grasped her hand, and snatched her away from the dizzying
+rocky ledge.
+
+"Do not tempt God! Be reasonable!" And, not without some little force, I
+made her sit down by the hot embers.
+
+"But do you call this _life_?"
+
+"Come, come, calm yourself! Look, these armed men are close upon us!"
+
+They were not gendarmes. They were two worthy foresters belonging to the
+domain of the Forests of Diosgy�r--a grey-bearded old man with a
+youthful assistant.
+
+No hostile intentions had brought them thither. They could see, too,
+that our picnic beside the fire was a very innocent diversion. In the
+album left upon the rock was my unfinished landscape.
+
+They greeted us cordially, and I returned their greeting in like manner.
+I asked the elder man whether I was injuring any one's proprietorial
+rights by making a fire with other people's wood. If so, I said, I would
+make good the trespass. To which the old man replied that he had no
+quarrel with me on that score. The stuff was there for the poor man to
+gather, and he cited the classical German ballad in which the
+evil-minded forester robbed the peasant of his bundle of faggots. He
+must needs be a lover of letters, then!
+
+Then he told us why they had come.
+
+"We perceived the smoke from below, and knew, therefore, that there were
+visitors on the Precipice Stone. We thought it our duty to come up.
+Wolves are about in the forest. We wished to tell you so."
+
+"I thank you for your great kindness; but, from what I am told, wolves
+will not attack a man."
+
+"But they've become very aggressive since they discovered that the
+Government has confiscated all muskets, leaving only a pair or two with
+us. They avoid men in the day time, I know; but at dark or in a
+snowstorm they are very impudent."
+
+"We do not intend to remain here till evening. I only wanted to finish
+the drawing, for the sake of which I scrambled up hither."
+
+"But I would call your attention, sir, to the fact that we shall have a
+fall of snow here before night. I know the signs of the weather. When
+such a vast mist lies over the country in the morning, and then rises
+suddenly, and is quickly followed by darkness, then we may expect a
+snowstorm the same day. That is an old experience of mine."
+
+"We will hasten home."
+
+"Do you live at Tordona, or at Malyinka?"
+
+"I live at Tordona."
+
+"God bless you, sir. I know every one there."
+
+He didn't ask who I was. We shook hands, and with that the pair of them
+went on their way.
+
+"Was it worth while creeping into the cave for this?" said Bessy, when
+the foresters had withdrawn.
+
+"There are men who can face a great danger and hide away from a little
+one."
+
+"And you think, then, that our friend there is a fire-eater?--I thought
+so too for a long time. It was no unexampled thing in those
+extraordinary times for men to become suddenly transformed. Those who
+were looked upon as mere carpet knights became veritable heroes; lawyers
+became colonels: war has an ennobling influence on so many types of
+character. I really believed that Rengetegi had changed his whole nature
+with his name. When others had to be aroused, there was no such orator
+as he. I was absolutely proud that we belonged to each other. When the
+Austrian troops invested the fortress, and hurled the first bomb into
+the market-place, the whole of our social life was suddenly turned
+upside down. There was now no such thing as etiquette. The families of
+great magnates left their houses (those, that is, whose houses were not
+burnt down already), pitched their tents in the Gipsy-field and dwelt
+there. The guns of the Monostor batteries did not carry so far as that.
+In the barracks, moral law disappeared. An officer was a great personage
+then, and to walk about the streets leaning on his arm was a
+much-coveted glory. Whether the lady on his arm was his wife was not
+the question--he was a fine fellow, a gallant fellow. That was the main
+thing. And if I met an acquaintance I introduced Rengetegi as my future
+husband. Every one knew that I had begun a suit against Muki Bagotay.
+But where were the courts, the advocates, the judges?--every one was
+either wearing a sword or serving a gun. When people asked me where I
+lived, I said 'in the fortress!' To dwell in the fortress was an
+enviable position. The rooms there were fire-proof. I really think that
+there were more who envied than pitied my fate. I also got familiar with
+the ways of a soldier's life. They gave concerts, and I fiddled while
+Rengetegi declaimed. When the enemy was hurling away his bombs at the
+fortress, we took our band out on the ramparts, and there, with a great
+flourish of trumpets, we danced _cs�rd�ses_. How that did aggravate the
+Germans! I had a great reputation as a _rak�t�s_[77] dancer."
+
+[Footnote 77: Rocket-dance.]
+
+I must frankly admit that I was not much edified by this turn in the
+conversation.
+
+Bessy perceived that I was not well pleased with her doings in camp.
+
+"Ah, my dear friend!" she said, "don't fancy by any means that this
+episode of my life consisted entirely of rioting and revelry, there was
+a little intermezzo in it also. You know, of course, that, during the
+winter, things at Comorn were very bad indeed. The Commandant had not
+the capacity for the problem before him, which included the defence of
+such an important fortress. The garrison was lazy and mutinous. Whispers
+of treachery arose, and the chief of the artillery was deprived of his
+post. It was necessary to inform the Hungarian Government at Debreczin
+of the dangerous state of things at Comorn, and to beg for a new
+Commandant who should be a distinguished officer. But how was it
+possible to carry a message from Comorn to Debreczin? Who would
+undertake the risky enterprise of carrying the despatch from Comorn,
+through so many hostile armies, and bringing back the reply to it again?
+They had sent one messenger already, but he had been unable to get back.
+It was a joke which might cost a man his head.
+
+"One evening, Rengetegi came to my little room in the barracks, and
+said: 'Elizabeth, the hour has come for us to part!'
+
+"I immediately thought that he was tipsy.
+
+"'You haven't played me away at cards, I hope?'
+
+"'It is not you, but my own head that I have lost. I have accepted the
+mission to Debreczin. I've run my head against a wall, I know. It's neck
+or nothing now. And they've pressed a thousand florins into my hand to
+make the way before me quite secure.'
+
+"'And you have lost it all at cards this evening?'
+
+"'How did you find that out?'
+
+"'I have made it my study. I know well those Hippocratic countenances.
+Well, and what are you going to do now?'
+
+"'Save my honour! I'll go on my way without money.'
+
+"'Listen to me! I believe that you would be very glad to get out of this
+bombarded fortress--but I've no very ardent belief that you'll ever come
+back again. I tell you what: give me the official despatch which has to
+be taken, and I'll take care that it reaches the hands of the
+Government.'
+
+"'But how?' inquired Rengetegi, immensely delighted.
+
+"'That I shall not tell you. I've been turning the matter over for some
+time. You have only a passive part to play here. You hide yourself in
+the village of Izsa, which the enemy has not occupied, because it lies
+within the range of the guns of the fortress, and wait for me there till
+I return from Debreczin with the answer of the Government.'"
+
+"And Rengetegi actually accepted the proposal?" I inquired. I now began
+to admire this woman.
+
+"He jumped at it. He gave me soul-stirring examples of the heroic women
+of history, who had gone to the wars along with their husbands.... He
+vowed that if I ever returned in safety from my mission he would
+henceforth call me 'Queen Zenobia.'
+
+"By the evening of the same day I was ready for the enterprise. I made
+Rengetegi dye his hair, moustache, and beard black, so that it was
+almost impossible to recognise him."
+
+"So that was your idea!" I cried.
+
+"Then I stowed him away in a peasant's hut at Het�ny, with strict
+instructions not to emerge from his prison till I tapped at the door.
+Next I set to work to thoroughly disguise my own person. I was to be the
+leader of a gipsy band. Ah! if you could only have painted my portrait!
+Then, indeed, I really was lovely! I smeared my face with the juice of
+green walnut-shells till it was so black that I could pass for a gipsy
+among the gipsies themselves; I clipped my hair till it only reached
+down to my shoulders; I put on a jacket which some gentleman or other
+had worn threadbare before giving it away; hose that certainly were
+never intended for me, and a shirt that had never been washed: and so I
+transformed myself into as filthy a shape as ever led a wandering gipsy
+band."
+
+Here I could not forbear from pressing her hand. What sacrifices will
+not a woman make for her country and for her lover!
+
+"But all this was a mere joke to what followed. I now had to get
+together a band. If they catch a gipsy alone they arrest him as a spy;
+but if he be one of a quartet he may go on his way rejoicing. I provided
+myself with a violoncellist, a clarinet-player, and a contra-bass. It
+was easy to persuade them to quit the bombarded town, into which the
+gentry who had robbed them of their poor hovels had forced them to go.
+Bread and meat were getting dearer and dearer, and there was nothing to
+be earned. Who had the heart to pay for music amidst such a frightful
+carnival?
+
+"Thus, with my little band of three, I set out upon my long and
+uncertain journey on foot. Gipsies only ride in sledges when a magnate
+sends for them, and there was no such magnate in the whole district. If
+on our way we fell in with a cart laden with dried reeds taken out of
+the swamps for firewood, we would ask for a lift in it. But our legs
+nearly froze there, and we were glad to get down again and walk.
+
+"In the very first village we came to, O-Gyalla, we fell in with a
+division of the Austrian investing army, German cuirassiers. The patrol
+brought us to the major in command. He was indeed a merciless personage.
+He roared at us, and asked us how we dared to leave the town. We
+naturally did not understand a word of German, and all four of us, in
+true gipsy fashion, began to raise objections at the same time: we could
+not remain in the town, the Honveds posted us right in front of the
+bombs, and made us play music at the very top of the bastions; all the
+cannons had fired at us, and that was a thing that gipsies couldn't
+stand. '_Was sagen die Spitzbuben?_' inquired the major of his auditor.
+The auditor understood Hungarian, and expounded unto him: 'Nix da, you
+rascals! You are spies, and must be searched. Come! you must undress.'
+I was not a little alarmed, I can tell you. Not on account of the
+despatches I had with me, I had put them in a place where they couldn't
+be found; but they would discover that I was a woman, and that while my
+face and hands were gipsy, the rest of me was European--and then I
+should be lost. I hastily said something to the gipsies, and in an
+instant they out with their instruments and rattled off _con fuoco_ the
+fine hymn '_Gott erhalte!_' At this the frosty face of the old martinet
+thawed somewhat. 'Well, well, you rascals,' said he, 'as you know what's
+proper and decent, I won't have you flogged this time, but be off at
+once and don't remain in the village here. You mustn't play here for
+anybody. Whoever has an itch for dancing just let him tell me, and I'll
+give him dancing enough. There's the whipping-post!' Now the
+clarinet-player was a merry wag, and could not hide his light. 'Devil
+bless your honour,' said he, 'you pay with big bank-notes.' '_Was sagt
+der Karl?_' asked the major. He says, 'Gott soll segnen den grossen
+Herren, der zahlt mit grossen _Bank_[78]-noten!' At this his honour also
+laughed. 'But for all that you must pack yourselves off at once. You
+mustn't stop till you reach Ersekuvar, but there you may play as long as
+you like.' We kissed his hands and feet, and asked him to let us stay
+the night there. We were half frozen, we said. We had not a morsel in
+our stomachs: for a whole week we had only eaten ice and drunk water.
+But he knew no pity. They blindfolded us, packed us into a sledge, and a
+patrol of horse escorted us out of the village. Now, of course, it was
+my very dearest desire to get as soon as possible beyond the iron girdle
+by which the besieged fortress was girt about. If only he can get out
+into the wide world, the gipsy has no fear of going astray. He can
+fiddle his way through the whole of Europe if only he gives his mind to
+it. And so we made our way along the Danube, from one town to the other,
+and enjoyed to the full all the romantic adventures of a wandering
+gipsy's life which abound in winter especially."
+
+[Footnote 78: "God bless the great gentleman, he pays with big
+_bang_-notes!"--a poor jest.]
+
+"But," interrupted I, "didn't you come across G�rgey's Hungarian army,
+under whose protection you might have continued your journey?"
+
+"Of course I did, but my instructions were to deliver my despatches to
+the head of the Hungarian Government, and nobody else, not even to a
+general. It is true that I might have gone on farther with the gallant
+Magyar army, where gipsy-music is always heartily welcomed. The Honveds,
+too, never lose their good humour; but, on the other hand, the main
+Magyar army was going towards Slavonia, whereas it was my object to get
+to Debreczin as soon as possible. So there was nothing for it but to go
+straight through the enemy's lines till we reached the banks of the
+Theiss, when we could be once more in a friendly world."
+
+"But where did you conceal the despatches?" I asked.
+
+"I stuck them inside the belly of my fiddle. Who would break the fiddle
+of a poor gipsy with which he earns his daily bread? The money we earned
+in one town was sufficient to hire a sledge to convey us to the next.
+Gipsies dwell on the skirts of every town. We made ourselves at home
+there, and they never asked us whence we came; but if we were
+cross-examined at any place, then we lied to such a degree that the
+difficulty was to find anybody to believe us. You recollect what a
+terrible winter it was last year?"
+
+"I remember it very well. I was out all through it with my wife," I
+said.
+
+"How fine it would have been had we run across each other unexpectedly.
+I would have played a nocturne beneath your window. Ha, ha, ha!--The
+bitterest stage of the journey was from Kecskemet to the Theiss. There
+lay Jellachich,[79] with all his army, occupying the towns of the great
+Hungarian plain one after the other. Here we had to creep through as
+best we could. As for me, I had the good fortune to play every evening
+before his Excellency the valiant Ban. He was very pleased with me. With
+my little band I managed to play the famous Croatian march, '_Szl�va,
+szl�va, mu, mu, mu, Jelacsicsu nas omu_,' in quite a superior manner. I
+also knew the tune of the fine 'Kolo' dance, and absolutely won his
+Excellency's heart with the melodious 'Fanny Schneider' polka. I might
+say that I was really quite spoiled. There was plenty of money and wine,
+and, despite my black face and my predominating odour of garlic, the
+enthusiasm rose so high that all the officers kissed me one after the
+other."
+
+[Footnote 79: The Ban of Croatia, who sided with the Austrians against
+Hungary.--TR.]
+
+Bessy had no sooner uttered these words than she buried her face in her
+hands. Again I came to her rescue.
+
+"Those kisses don't count; you were a man then."
+
+"It was quite a gipsy paradise, but the mischief was we did not know how
+to escape from it. The chivalrous Ban told us not to try to run away,
+for in that case he would court-martial and shoot the lot of us. At
+night, when our duties were done, he locked us up in a little out-house,
+and placed an armed sentry before the door.
+
+"One night we escaped up the chimney and over the roof of the
+neighbouring house; that is to say, three of us managed to get away, I
+and the clarinet-player and the contra-bass. The violoncello, however,
+could not be got out of the chimney, and the violoncellist declared that
+he would rather be stretched on the rack than leave his instrument in
+the lurch. So there we left him--to pay the piper. Besides, I had now
+not much need of my band; the Theiss was only a four hours' journey
+off.
+
+"I had heard from the officers that in the willow woods of the Theiss,
+in the neighbourhood of the 'Szikra' inn, some Hungarian guerillas were
+encamping. If only we could get among them!
+
+"It was a good thing for us that sentinel duty was very laxly ordered in
+the camp of the Ban of Croatia. At the end of the town was a _putri_, or
+semi-subterranean clay hut of the kind in which field-labourers pass the
+night during the summer. The soldiers who had been sent out on forepost
+duty were sitting in this hut, and their muskets were all leaning
+against the door. One of the gipsies said: 'Let us steal the muskets!'
+The other said: 'Steal your grandfather; I play with clarinets, not with
+muskets.' I urged them to press forward. We were near to the sand-hills.
+Before us lay a savage, rugged plain, where one sand-hill followed hard
+upon another. Some of these hills were half hollowed out by the wind,
+and the hollows between them sparsely dotted with dwarf fir-trees. A
+ghostly region. The sides of these sand-hills were white, and the
+snow-fall on the top of them was still whiter; and every tree-trunk
+there is also white with its pendant branches[80] bending down beneath
+the hoar-frost. We dodged up and down among these sand-hills, turning
+aside from the regular high road so that we might crouch down in case
+we were pursued. Along the whole length of the plain the broom of the
+wind swept our footprints over with snow.
+
+[Footnote 80: To-day this former waste of shifting sand-hills has been
+converted into a splendid vineyard, which the Hungarian Government has
+planted with vines from America proof against the _Phylloxera_.--J�KAI.]
+
+"'If only we don't come across wolves!' said the contra-bass, with
+chattering teeth.
+
+"'How can they be here when so many soldiers are about?' said I, by way
+of encouragement.
+
+"'Nay, but they like to prowl about camps, because carrion is always to
+be found there.'
+
+"Where the sand-hills ended, a far-extending flat began, and in the
+distance was a direful-looking object, resembling a ruin. A light mist
+covered the whole district, in which mist every object seemed as large
+again; the full moon shone wanly, like a huge broad halo in the misty
+heavens."
+
+Here I explained to Bessy that this district was the famous plain of
+Alpar, where the ancient Magyars fought the decisive battle against
+Zal�n, which gave them possession of the land; the ruin was the wall of
+the desert church of St. Laurence.
+
+"Indeed! and I may add that this desert is memorable to me also. While
+we were waddling along as fast as we could, with our short mantles
+turned against the wind, the contra-bass, who was going on leisurely in
+front, exclaimed:
+
+"'Devil take all these crows! Why don't they all go to sleep in the
+tower of the Calvinist church?'
+
+"I inquired why the crows ought to go to sleep on the top of the
+Calvinist church of all places in the world.
+
+"'Let the Calvinist crow stick to the top of the Calvinist church, and
+the Papist crow to the top of the Papist church, as is meet and right,'
+he explained.
+
+"I did not understand this sectarian distinction among crows, but the
+gipsy made it quite plain to me.
+
+"'One sort of crow is ashen grey, another sort black. The grey sort eats
+no flesh, but only grain; that is the Papist crow. The black sort lives
+on flesh, whether it be earthworms or fallen horse; that is the
+Calvinist crow, for it keeps no fast-days.'
+
+"Then he called my attention to the fact that on the hill there straight
+before us, a whole army of crows was making a great commotion. At one
+moment they rose high into the air with loud croakings, at another they
+descended upon the self-same spot from which they had risen. 'There must
+be carrion,' he said.
+
+"When we got to the top of the hill, we saw, to our great consternation,
+that the evil foreboding of the gipsy was correct.
+
+"On the highway below, by the side of the ditch, lay a big black mass,
+the carcase of a fallen horse, and fighting over what remained of it was
+a whole army of crows and ravens and five large _wolves_.
+
+"We were about five hundred paces from the terrible beasts.
+
+"They immediately perceived us, and, leaving the carcase, forthwith
+began scudding towards us, spurring each other on with their nasty short
+sharp yelps.
+
+"'Alas, alas! It is all up with us now!' wailed the contra-bass. 'The
+wolves will eat us up.'
+
+"Even in that hour of mortal peril the clarinetist was true to his gipsy
+humour. 'Then we shall have a very queer shape at the resurrection,'
+said he.
+
+"I bade them leave off wailing, and hasten to clamber up into a
+willow-tree, whither the monsters could not follow us.
+
+"It was an old pollard willow, the branches of which were cut off every
+year, so that only the crown of it remained, surrounded by young shoots.
+I, who had never learnt the art of tree-climbing, was hoisted up by the
+gipsies first of all, and then they hastily scrambled up after me.
+
+"When we had got to the top of the tree we discovered that in the middle
+of it was a large hole--the whole inside of the tree was hollow, and
+could contain a man.
+
+"'Leader,' said the contra-bass, 'your loss would be most serious, creep
+down into that hole.' I took him at his word, and glided down from the
+crown of the tree into the deep hollow trunk. First of all, however, I
+tied my long cotton neckerchief to a little branch, that I might be able
+to hoist myself up again in case of need, for the hole in the willow
+went right down to its very roots. At the side of the tree, too, close
+to an old branch, there was an orifice as large as one's fist, through
+which one could look as through an attic window.
+
+"The five wolves were not long in arriving.
+
+"They did not come quite near at first, but reconnoitred. Whenever one
+of them sneaked up a little nearer, the clarinet-player aimed at it with
+his instrument, which the wolf took for a musket. Then the beast would
+back a little and scratch up the snow with his hind legs. They say the
+creature is wont to do this when he sees a man stand on the defensive;
+he tries to blind him with snow.
+
+"When, however, the wolves at last discovered that we had no fire-arms,
+they sent up the ugliest howls, and began the siege of the willow. They
+took tremendous leaps in the air to reach the crown of the tree, but it
+was too high for them.
+
+"Then it occurred to the gipsies that they had often heard that wolves
+had a strong penchant for music, and they began giving them a clarinet
+and fiddle concert.
+
+"It is true that the nasty brutes left off the siege, sat round the
+willow, and began to howl in concert with the music, at the same time
+raising their horrid jaws towards the moon, and lashing their sides with
+their ragged brush-like tails; and for a short time I was quite amused
+at the scene. But suddenly our double danger occurred to my mind.
+
+"'Hey! gipsies. Stop, I say! Is the devil in you? Your music will bring
+the pickets of the Croats upon us, and they will flay us alive.'
+
+"At this they stopped their music.
+
+"This appeared to make the wolves still more savage, and now they tried
+a fresh stratagem.
+
+"They had found out that the willow leaned a little to one side, and
+rushing at it from a little distance, they attempted to scale the
+sloping side of the tree. This manoeuvre was likely to have succeeded. It
+was then that I saw what a powerful beast the wolf really is, and how
+much more cunning than any species of dog. Scrambling up at full tilt,
+they managed to reach the crown of the willow, but there the brave
+contra-bass was awaiting them, and gave them such a kick on the snout
+with his iron-heeled boots that the attacking beasts fell head over
+heels backwards.
+
+"This they repeated ten or twelve times.
+
+"And there was this remarkable circumstance about it, that every time an
+attacking wolf was prostrated by a kick from the gipsy, the others
+rushed upon him as he fell, and worried him as if to punish him for his
+failure.
+
+"Suddenly they left off, and went and sat down in a heap just in front
+of my window. Their tongues lolled out of their panting mouths; their
+hot, bestial breath rose into the cold air before me. They appeared to
+be taking counsel together. The biggest of them seemed to be their
+leader. If one of the younger ones yelped too much, he would snap at his
+neck as if to say 'shut up!'
+
+"At last they appeared to have hatched their stratagem. The whole lot
+of them got up and shuffled farther off, squinting over their shoulders
+all the time towards the willow-tree.
+
+"My gipsies fancied they were saved.
+
+"'You shall have no roast gipsy this time!' bawled the clarinet-player
+after them derisively from his sure stronghold, as he fancied it.
+
+"All at once the wolves returned and stormed onwards like race-horses,
+each one being about a wolf's tail ahead of the other.
+
+"The first of them rushed straight up the tree, and while the
+contra-bass was kicking him in the head, the second wolf leaped across
+the first wolf's back and seized the man's leg.
+
+"I heard a despairing shriek:
+
+"'Don't let me go, comrade!'
+
+"The second musician tried to free his down-falling friend from the jaws
+of the wild beast, and in doing so lost his balance, and the pair of
+them fell down from the tree.
+
+"What happened after that is more than I can tell you. It is enough that
+I should have had to live through that mortal struggle of the two
+luckless victims with those filthy brutes. How many times have I not
+dreamt it all over again! I believe that even if I had committed all the
+seven deadly sins, I should have more than expiated them all in that
+awful hour. I hid my face in the crumbling rottenness of the hollow
+tree, that I might hear and see nothing. It seemed an eternity to me
+while the bestial howling lasted which the wolves made as they shared
+together their accursed banquet in my very presence.
+
+"I dared not stir, lest they might find out that I also was there. Great
+Heaven! What horrors I had to endure!
+
+"Suddenly a sort of growling and snarling began close beside me. The old
+wolf was running sniffing round the hollow tree. He had discovered that
+there was still booty inside it.
+
+"He began to scrape the earth at the root of the tree. He evidently
+meant to dig a hole beneath the tree through which he might get at me.
+Fortunately for me, it was not sandy soil, but stony, hard-frozen turf.
+He could not succeed that way.
+
+"Then he caught sight of the hole in the side of the tree. At one time,
+perhaps, a branch had been sawed off at this spot, and the bark had
+rotted away. The wolf began to enlarge this opening, tore it with his
+claws, and gnawed and worried the rotten wood with his grinders. He had
+soon so far enlarged the hole as to be able to stick his head into it. I
+saw the green glare of his fiery eyes; I felt his stinking breath; I
+heard the gnashing of his teeth. Then despair made me foolhardy. I drew
+my crooked knife out of the leg of my boot, with the other hand I seized
+the wolf by the ear, and cut it off at a single twirl.
+
+"At this the beast, with a furious howl, drew back his head from the
+hole, and began to howl and run away like a whipped cur. The others
+followed after him. With the wolf's ear remaining in my hand as a
+trophy, I sank back against the hollow trunk; I could not sink right
+down, because the hollow space was too narrow."
+
+I felt a cold shudder run all over me at this ghastly narrative. Bessy
+herself was quite exhausted.
+
+"Alas! I am quite worn out. I tremble at the very thought of it. You are
+the second person to whom I have told it. But how pale you are all at
+once!"
+
+I suppose I _had_ turned very pallid. It had suddenly flashed through my
+brain that just at that very time my wife was on her journey through an
+uninhabited valley, and the foresters told me that wolves strayed about
+there.
+
+Bessy sighed deeply, raised her drooping head, and then continued her
+story:--
+
+"Thus I had freed myself from the wolves; but I was not left very long
+in the belief that shame at my depriving their leader of one of his ears
+was the cause of it. No! Wolves are not so shamefaced as all that. A
+troop of horsemen was approaching from behind the sand-hills. There were
+six men on horseback and one man on assback.
+
+"One terror had been supplanted by another.
+
+"Peering through the hole in the tree, I recognised the uniforms of the
+horsemen by the light of the moon--they were Jellachich's hussars. And
+that there might be no doubt about their coming after us, I recognised
+as they came near the face of the ass-rider. It was my bass-viol
+player, whom I had left behind me.
+
+"It was very easy to see what had happened. The gipsy, to save his own
+skin, or, perhaps, at the flogging-post itself, had confessed that the
+band had come from Comorn, and was hired by me to go as far as
+Debreczin. Hence it was not very difficult to conclude that I was only a
+false gipsy, who was carrying despatches from the beleaguered fortress
+to the Hungarian Government.
+
+"The horsemen had brought the gipsy with them that he might put them on
+my track. Once discovered, and I was lost.
+
+"On the snow field, lit up by the moonlight, the scene of the hideous
+struggle was plain to the newcomers. The long lines of blood, fragments
+of torn garments, a foot sticking out of a boot in the snow--Ugh! May I
+never see such a sight again!
+
+"The horsemen galloped quickly up over the crackling snow.
+
+"The violoncellist had to dismount from his ass.
+
+"The good creature howled and groaned from the bottom of his throat,
+bewailing his comrades in the gipsy tongue, and cursing the monsters who
+had devoured them.
+
+"The leader of the patrol was a sergeant. He ordered the gipsy about in
+Croatian, and the gipsy has the peculiar virtue of understanding what is
+said to him in a language of which he is perfectly ignorant. He replied
+in Hungarian.
+
+"'Oh, woe, woe! Those accursed wolves have devoured our leader! There's
+his boot! They've only left his boot. I recognise it well. He bought it
+only last week at Czegled. He gave six florins for it. A brand-new boot!
+And this is his foot.'
+
+"It was plain to me that the gipsy had guessed that I was hidden
+somewhere, and there was enough of the gipsy in him, even amidst the
+greatest horrors, to induce him to make fools of my pursuers. He
+betrayed me first of all because he couldn't help it; he saved me
+finally because he _could_. He knew very well that I had given my new
+boots to the contra-bass. My boots were of Russian leather.
+
+"'Look there!' cried the sergeant, and he pointed with his finger.
+'_Jeden, dwa! Jak sza tri?_'[81]
+
+[Footnote 81: Croatian--"One, two! Where's the third?"]
+
+"The gipsy swore by all that was holy that that was the third.
+
+"'Then where's the first?'
+
+"'That's the first, of course!'
+
+"There was no dinning into his head the arithmetical truism that if you
+take two from three one remains.
+
+"The sergeant thereupon ordered one of the hussars to dismount from his
+horse, at the same time pointing at the willow-tree with his sword,
+whence I concluded that he was about to examine the tree to see if
+anybody was hidden in its hollow trunk.
+
+"I now veritably believed that the time had come for me to turn my
+crooked knife against my own throat.
+
+"All at once a crackle of musketry resounded from the brushwood, and a
+company of guerilla horse dashed out, crying, 'Forward, Magyars!' The
+Jellachich hussars didn't see the joke of this at all, hastily turned
+their horses' heads and galloped off in the direction of the town. The
+violoncellist also mounted his long-eared beast, and ambled gently off
+in a third direction midway between the two belligerents. He had no
+desire to take any part in the struggle.
+
+"The guerillas, who were numerous, sent a few volleys after the enemy,
+but from such a distance that the bullets couldn't possibly hit the
+fugitives, and then returned in triumph. Then I, hearing them speak
+Hungarian, quickly hoisted myself up out of the hole into the top of the
+tree, and began so far as my hoarse voice would allow me, to give them
+indications of my existence.
+
+"The gallant warriors immediately hastened to the willow-tree and helped
+me down from my dangerous perch. Their leader, a handsome,
+chivalrous-looking young man, with a true Hungarian face, began to
+cross-question me, and asked me whence I came and whither I was going.
+Perceiving that I was among Hungarian soldiers, I frankly told them that
+I had come from Comorn, and had been sent to Debreczin with despatches
+for the Hungarian Government.
+
+"The guerilla captain was a suspicious man.
+
+"'Oho! I daresay! That's easily said, but difficult to believe. What!
+confide such a mission to a gipsy! A likely tale!'
+
+"I told him that I was no gipsy, though my face was painted so, but that
+I lived at Comorn and belonged to the place.
+
+"'Then, if you are an inhabitant, tell me if you know one Maurus J�kai
+there--and what you know of him?'
+
+"I was very pleased to answer such a question. 'I know him very well,' I
+said, 'and I can tell you this much about him, that he went to the High
+School at Kecskemet, where he completed his legal studies--or rather
+learnt how to paint in oils from a worthy comrade of his there.'
+
+"Without more ado he clapped his hand in mine: 'That worthy comrade of
+his was no other than myself.'
+
+"So you see," she said, turning towards me, "you were of assistance to
+me, even here."
+
+"Wasn't that old schoolfellow of mine called Jansci?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, that's what they called him. With him was another young man, with
+quite a girlish face, and him they called J�zsi; he inquired about you
+most particularly. When you gave your artistic representations at
+Kecskemet, he used to play the girl's parts."
+
+"Quite true," I said, "so it was."
+
+"So you see I must have been there or I should have known nothing about
+these things. The guerillas told me all about it as they took me with
+them. They were very attentive. One of them gave me his mantle, another
+let me mount his nag, and so they took me to the 'Szikra' inn, where
+they made me drink punch with them, regaled me with veal, and then made
+me a bed on the straw with their mantles that I might sleep off my
+exhaustion. The Jellachich hussars gave us no trouble. They could not
+come back till morning, when the whole regiment would doubtless turn out
+to capture the guerillas, who would, by that time, be on the other side
+of the Theiss. The sledges were all ready to start, and would scour back
+across the frozen river at the first signal to Czibakhaza, where were
+the foreposts of the Hungarian army under Damjanich.
+
+"But for a long time I could not sleep. Constantly before my eyes
+flitted the horrible death-struggle between the two unhappy men and the
+wild beasts, and amidst the howling and shrieking resounded the gay song
+of the guerillas:
+
+    'The hut's ablaze, the rush-roof crackles,
+    Press thy brown maid to thy breast!'
+
+In my dream this tune was mingled with the howling of the wolves, and at
+one moment the wolves were singing, 'The hut's ablaze,' and at another
+the Croats were howling at the gipsies sitting on the branch. Towards
+morning I was awakened by two cannon-shots. I rejoiced to be delivered
+from my spectres. The lieutenant of the guerillas hurried me into the
+sledge, as a regiment of hostile horse was approaching from Kecskemet.
+
+"It took us ten minutes to dash across the frozen Theiss. On the
+opposite bank the foreposts of the Honveds were encamping. The business
+of the guerillas was to harass the enemy, capture their forage waggons,
+and then bring word of their movements to the main army.
+
+"They took me straight to General Damjanich.[82]
+
+[Footnote 82: Made Commander-in-chief of the 3rd Hungarian Army Corps in
+consequence of his brilliant exploits at Alibunar and Lagerdorf; he
+annihilated Karger's brigade at the great battle of Szolnok, and was
+elected to represent that town in the Hungarian Diet. After fresh
+exploits he was made War Minister, and, after the war, was
+court-marshalled at Arad by the Austrians and shot. He had not the
+military genius of G�rgey perhaps, but as a general of division was
+admirable.--TR.]
+
+"I was now no longer obliged to keep my despatch hidden, so I split up
+my fiddle, took out of it the documents that were gummed to it, and
+their production was my best credentials.
+
+"The approving, smiling glance of the powerful, heroic-looking General I
+shall never forget. At the sight of him I quite forgot that I was
+personating a man, and would have liked to have fallen down before him
+and kissed his hand. Indeed, I was so agitated that I could not utter a
+word.
+
+"The General filled a little glass full of _szilvorium_.[83] 'Drink, my
+son!' said he, 'it will loosen your throat.'
+
+[Footnote 83: A spirit made from plums.]
+
+"My throat was hoarse; I had a voice as deep as a man's. I told him I
+had come from Comorn, and I was sent to Lazar M�sz�ros, the War
+Minister.
+
+"'You will seek old K�ficz[84] in vain at Debreczin, my son, he commands
+there no more. So you Comorn folks don't know what's going on outside,
+eh? Another is at the head of the War Department now. I will give you a
+letter of introduction to him.'
+
+[Footnote 84: This Hungarian War Minister had said in one of his reports
+that the motions of the Opposition in the Diet would turn to nothing but
+_K�ficz_ (_i.e._, water-gruel). The name stuck to him ever
+after.--J�KAI.]
+
+"Then he sat down and wrote me a couple of lines to a General with a
+German name, which is expressed in Hungarian by the word _Bacsi_.[85]
+
+[Footnote 85: Cousin.--Vetter was the General in question.]
+
+"He said, while he was writing this letter, that this General with a
+German name was the life and soul of our military organization.
+
+"Then, by the General's command, I received a nice clean Honved uniform
+(I had to retain my brown countenance for some time longer), and besides
+that I had an open passport enjoining upon all to give me every facility
+to reach Debreczin as quickly as possible.
+
+"On the evening of the following day I arrived at Debreczin, and on
+descending from my sledge, proceeded at once to the General's. He was a
+mild, soft-featured gentleman, with a close-clipped beard and
+moustache. He didn't even wear a General's uniform. Nobody would have
+guessed his rank from the look of him. After reading through my letter
+of introduction, he looked me straight and sharply in the face.
+
+"'You are Captain Tiham�r Rengetegi, eh?'
+
+"If I had only been intent on my own interest, I might have told him
+quite frankly that I had no right either to the name or the uniform of a
+soldier; but how could I betray my faithful consort who was smuggled
+away in the hovel at Het�ny?
+
+"'Yes, General, I am.'
+
+"'Who made you captain?'
+
+"'The War Minister.'
+
+"'For deeds of valour?'
+
+"'During the siege of Vienna I twice carried despatches through the
+besieging camp from the Hungarian Government to General Bem.'"
+
+Here I intervened: "That is not true; I know very well through whom the
+Hungarian Government got those despatches."
+
+"Anyhow, my friend boasted of it as his own deed," said Bessy; after
+which she resumed her narration.
+
+"'Good!' said the General; 'now give me the despatch.'
+
+"The information was written in a secret cipher.
+
+"'I must decipher this first. There will be a meeting to-night of the
+Committee of National Defence. Early to-morrow morning you will appear
+before me. Now go to the "White Horse." Speak to nobody. Keep your
+room!'
+
+"Nevertheless, an hour afterwards he sent for me.
+
+"He led me into his inner room, for he allowed himself the luxury of a
+double-roomed apartment at Debreczin. Two other ministers, Paul Ny�ry
+and Joseph Patay, were not so fortunate. They had to be content with a
+double room between them.
+
+"The General was now very gentle with me. He made me sit down at table,
+and poured me out some tea. He offered me a cigar too, and although I
+ought not to have done so, I lighted it. It nipped my tongue a good
+deal, but I had to show them that I was a man.
+
+"Then he made me tell them how I had got out of the fortress, and how I
+had forced my way through the hostile camp. My relation made a great
+impression. When I was dismissed, they pressed my hand and assured me
+that my good and boldly executed service should be rewarded. They
+further commanded me to come to them early the next day.
+
+"I appeared next day at his headquarters in full parade, and they
+admitted me before any one else.
+
+"Again they made me sit down in the inner apartment, and drew the bolt
+before the door of the outer room.
+
+"Stretched out on the table was a large military map which embraced
+Upper Hungary and Galicia. 'You have brought very important information
+with you from Comorn,' said he, in a low voice. 'Considering the time
+when you set out, you have arrived here with astonishing rapidity. You
+must now take the reply back, which will contain the directions of the
+Council of War and the appointment of the new Commandant, who will be
+gazetted to-night. Can you make your way back to the fortress with this
+despatch?'
+
+"'I'll try.'
+
+"'You must get back without fail. What's your plan?'
+
+"'To go back by the same road in the same manner and the same disguise
+is impossible. The wolves tore two of my comrades to pieces, the Croats
+captured the third, and as he may have confessed everything, they would
+recognise me at once if I appeared before their eyes as I am now.
+Besides, there is no conceivable reason why gipsies should wish to leave
+the open plain in order to get into a bombarded town. This despatch can
+only be conveyed to Comorn by a woman who is _obliged_ to go there on
+some unimpeachable business, and is provided with an Austrian
+safe-conduct.'
+
+"The General clapped his hands together in amazement.
+
+"'And do you know of any woman who would undertake such a thing?'
+
+"'Certainly I do.'
+
+"'Where? What's her name?'
+
+"'That's my secret, General. The difficulty of getting into the fortress
+is also very much increased by the fact that the appointment of Richard
+Guyon as the new Commandant has already become generally known.'
+
+"The General leaped furiously from his seat.
+
+"'Who, then, has made this public?'
+
+"'It is here in the official gazette,' I replied, drawing out of my
+pocket that morning's issue of the _K�zl�ny_.
+
+"The General tugged his short moustache still shorter.
+
+"'Well, well! I see that we Magyars have yet to learn the art of keeping
+a secret. The enemy knows it now, but the Comorn folks do _not_ know
+it.'
+
+"'I have already hit upon a good idea of enabling the mandate of the
+Council of War to reach their hands.'
+
+"'By a carrier-pigeon or a balloon, I suppose?'
+
+"'A foreign passport is necessary for my plan.'
+
+"'That you shall have--an English passport _vis�d_ by the Embassy. In
+whose name?'
+
+"'In the lady's.'
+
+"'Then you must give us the lady's name.'
+
+"Then I gave him my real name as the lawful wife of Muki Bagotay.
+
+"'And you? Will you get into the fortress?'
+
+"'Possibly, as that lady's coachman--possibly not at all; but the
+despatch will get in, anyhow.'
+
+"'And how will this lady of yours manage to hide the despatch? I can
+tell you beforehand, that even if your lady were provided with a
+safe-conduct from the Princess Windischgr�tz[86] herself, and so got
+right through the hostile camp into the invested fortress, the Austrians
+would indeed welcome her most courteously; but they would at the same
+time say to her: "Would your little ladyship be so good as to step into
+that side-chamber; there you will find a complete set of lady's clothes,
+would you be so kind as to put them on--if they are a little more
+abundant than your own, that doesn't matter? The toilet you have brought
+with you may remain here, down even to the shoes and stockings; whenever
+you like to come back again, you can re-exchange your clothes." For they
+know that it is possible to write on chemises with invisible ink and
+reproduce the writing by means of chemical re-agents. It is also
+possible for the heels of your boots to have secret openings, in which a
+letter written on straw-paper might be inserted. They might also retain
+the comb with which you fasten up your hair, for a valuable message
+might be written thereupon in microscopic letters.'
+
+[Footnote 86: The wife of the Austrian Commander-in-chief.--TR.]
+
+"'All this they may do if they like, and yet this lady of mine will
+convey the despatch into the fortress.'
+
+"'I should like to know her secret.'
+
+"''Tis a very simple one. She will learn the whole despatch by heart
+from beginning to end.'
+
+"The General began to laugh.
+
+"'Oho ho! My dear friend, you don't suppose that we would entrust our
+couriers with a despatch in good Hungarian for the enemy to snap it up
+on the way, and thus learn all about our military operations. It may
+also be deliberately betrayed. In the times in which we now live men are
+quick enough to discover excuses for _changing their saddles_. This
+despatch contains all our secrets: where we are strong, where we are
+weak, where we want to assume the offensive, where we are obliged to
+stand on the defensive. Such a despatch would be worth 200,000 florins
+to the enemy at the very least.'
+
+"'I can assure you, General, that neither I nor this lady will betray
+it.'
+
+"'You couldn't if you would, for the whole despatch is in cipher. Take
+it, and look at it. Do you understand a word of it? Can any one possibly
+learn it by heart?'
+
+"The writing which he placed in my hand was composed of a jumble of
+letters grouped into words--characters whose contents could scarcely be
+called language at all. I nevertheless assured the General that this
+lady of mine would learn the despatch off by heart all the same.
+
+"''Tis impossible.'
+
+"'Nothing is impossible. Once, when we were actors ...'
+
+"'Then you were actors? And this lady was an actress too, eh?'
+
+"'Yes. Once our whole company went to Eszek, and there we acted a whole
+piece in the Croatian tongue without understanding a word of its
+meaning. A man is like a starling. If he repeats a thing a hundred times
+it remains in his head although he does not understand it.'
+
+"'Look here, then! Read but two lines of this despatch a hundred times
+over, half an hour will do, and see if it remains in your head.'
+
+"I consented. A quarter of an hour had not yet elapsed when I said that
+I was ready. I gave the General the despatch back again, and asked for
+ink and paper. And then slowly, meditatively, I wrote down the contents
+of those two lines letter by letter.
+
+"'You've got a marvellous headpiece,' said the General, in amazement.
+'And has that lady of yours just such a marvellously retentive capacity
+as you have?'
+
+"'Just the same.'
+
+"'Then I consider the stratagem as feasible.'"
+
+Here I could not help leaping to my feet. "What!" cried I, "you actually
+undertook to learn by heart a whole despatch written in cipher?"
+
+"No, my sweet friend! I won't deceive you as I deceived that other man.
+The whole thing was a delusion. The cryptograms which reached the
+Commandant of the fortress were entrusted to Rengetegi, that he might
+unpod them with a secret key. He communicated this key to me. One had
+only to know a single word whose consecutive letters repeat all the
+characters of the alphabet in different series. The whole thing only
+required a little calculation; there was no need to rack one's brains
+about it. With the assistance of the secret key I first of all
+deciphered the cipher, and then I retransferred it into its original
+rigmarole."
+
+"But are you aware," I interrupted, "that if the General had found you
+out, he would have had you shot on the spot?"
+
+"I suspected as much. But he suspected nothing. He was really a good,
+worthy man. He said that things being as they were, he could safely
+confide the despatch to my hands.
+
+"After that he pointed out to me on the military map the route I ought
+to take through Galicia, by which I should possibly avoid falling in
+with the enemy's squadrons. My passport in the name of Madame J�nos
+Bagotay he filled up with his own hand. I begged him to leave a blank
+space for the personal description of my travelling companion.
+
+"When this was ready he gave me a portfolio full of Austrian bank-notes,
+besides a hundred louis d'ors and a handful of silver money.
+
+"Then he pressed my hand, and said: 'The last line of this despatch
+announces the promotion of Captain Rengetegi to the rank of major.'"
+
+At this both Bessy and I laughed heartily, and then she merrily resumed
+her story as follows:--
+
+"My return journey was in a much more lordly fashion. Everywhere relays
+were waiting for me. In a couple of days I reached Vienna. While still
+in Comorn, I had learnt that my mother had gone there for refuge, and
+still kept up her intimacy with a certain high official in the Imperial
+army. He was in the service of the War Minister there. It was not
+difficult to find him. I will leave you to picture to yourself the scene
+of our meeting. My mother loves acting, but she is a bad player, she
+never knows her part. She would have liked to have cried and fainted
+when I came rushing in, but she got no further than sobbing. I was all
+the better able to play my part. I hastened to excuse her for her
+behaviour at our last meeting. I took all the blame on myself. I ought
+to have remembered, I said, that it was not the proper thing to cling on
+to my mother's carriage when the infuriated populace was seeking her
+life. Then I went on to the motive of my coming there. The Hungarian
+Governmental Commission at Comorn had ordered that every Austrian
+bank-note which could be laid hands upon was to be burnt in the middle
+of the market-place. My mother had 40,000 florins in bank-notes, which
+the Orphanage Fund had retained from my patrimony. This amount had been
+lent out to various persons at interest. These persons, as soon as they
+heard of the order of the Governmental Commission, had hastened to
+deposit their German bank-notes--not in the fortress, but in the town
+bank, that they might at least get back their securities; and thus it
+was _our_ money that would be burnt. That was why I had come at such a
+break-neck pace, I said. If my mother would give me a power of attorney
+for the purpose, I would immediately return, and as I had great
+influence with the Commandant, I would so manage that our money instead
+of being burnt should be handed over to me. After that I would settle
+with my mother. She also had money locked up there which I would get
+handed over to me.
+
+"This proposition made an impression.
+
+"I had already informed my mother by letter of all this when
+communications were freer than now, but she, as all nervous people do
+with their letters, the moment she recognised my handwriting in the
+address, put it away without opening it. She fancied it was full of
+maudlin penitence. Now, however, when I called her attention to this
+letter, she took it out and opened it, and almost fainted with terror
+when she saw the annexed official communication of the Governmental
+Commission, and learnt therefrom that the term fixed for the bonfire of
+the Austrian bank-notes would be reached in three days.
+
+"Then there was such a scampering to her good friend the high official,
+and to all sorts of high commanding officers, in order to procure for me
+a safe-conduct; then she got me a power of attorney neatly written out,
+by means of which I could reclaim her money, and then she said: 'Now,
+don't wait a moment, my darling girl, but jump into a fiacre and gallop
+off to Comorn.'
+
+"I found my journey back much freer from obstacles than my coming away.
+The self-same major of cuirassiers who would have had me flogged as a
+gipsy leader was now full of courtesy towards me. After reading my
+letter of introduction, in which the object of my journey was mentioned,
+he could not have the slightest doubt that I was about purely private
+business which was very pressing. He did not even have me searched. I
+could have smuggled into the fortress anything I liked.
+
+"When I had passed through the besieging lines, I turned off from the
+highway in the direction of Het�ny, that I might seek out my captive.
+
+"After the first delights of meeting each other again were over, I told
+him the whole story which I have just been telling you. I must say that
+I had a much more appreciative audience than you are. At the sensational
+scenes, he flung himself on the ground ... and with folded, uplifted
+hands implored the wolves not to devour me. He swore that if he caught
+the Ban of Croatia he would dance the life out of him for making me
+fiddle so unmercifully. When I dictated to him the despatch I had learnt
+by heart, by means of the secret key, the last lines of which contained
+his promotion to the rank of major, he exclaimed, with an irresistible
+burst of grateful emotion: 'My Queen! my Zenobia!' I had made him a
+major; he made me a queen. We were quits.
+
+"'And now let us hasten to the fortress,' I said, 'for I have urgent
+business there. I want to save my property. Our house has been burnt
+already; if our money is burnt too, we shall be beggars.' This made him
+hasten.
+
+"'I must, however,' said he, 'devise something to round off my
+expedition, something of the quality of a heroic deed.'
+
+"And by the time we reached the fortress he _had_ devised something.
+
+"The return of the courier with the despatch of the Hungarian
+Commander-in-chief created an extraordinary sensation in the fortress
+and spread even to the town. The Commandant immediately proclaimed that
+Captain Tiham�r Rengetegi had been promoted to the rank of Major by the
+Hungarian War Minister for extraordinary services.
+
+"A banquet in honour of the returning hero followed. All the officers
+were present. The ladies also took part in it. I was there too. Never
+had I seen B�lv�nyossi (I beg his pardon, Rengetegi) play his part in so
+masterly a manner as on that evening. He was the gipsy leader who, with
+three others, fiddled his way right through every hostile camp. And what
+amusing adventures befell him on the road! I believe he laid under
+contribution every book of gipsy anecdote that was ever published. And
+when he came to that ghastly scene with the wolves--that was indeed a
+drastic description. The reality was nothing like so horrible as his
+account of it. The ladies swooned, the men were horror-stricken, only I
+was inclined to laugh. And when the guerillas turned up, how valiant my
+Rengetegi became all at once! He took horse and started off in pursuit
+of the cuirassiers. (To him they were cuirassiers!) It would have been
+beneath his dignity to have chased mere hussars.... By way of climax
+came the splendid description of how he cut his way through the
+besieging host. In the dark night, amidst a blinding blackness of
+midnight snow-storm, he cut his way on horseback through the Austrian
+foreposts, leaping over trenches and earth-works, with the bullets
+skimming about his ears right and left. His horse was shot dead beneath
+him, but ever equal to the occasion, he hastily fastened on his skates,
+and skated with the rapidity of lightning over the frozen Zsitva and the
+Csiliz, and two other rivers the names of which I never heard of before.
+Thus at last he reached the fortress. Every one was enchanted with the
+narration. The ladies rose _en masse_ and kissed him, and improvised a
+laurel-wreath for his brows out of muscatel leaves.
+
+"To save appearances, I also went up to him that I might condole with
+and congratulate him upon all the exploits and sufferings he had gone
+through, when all at once my friend turned quite stiff and rigid, gave
+me a cold bow, pursed his lips, and turned up the whites of his eyes.
+
+"'Madame!' said he, 'I have a word or two to say to you also. Where
+were you, may I ask, while I was jeopardizing my life a hundred times
+every day for my country? Can you tell me how you were occupying your
+days all this while?'
+
+"I was confounded. Language died away on my lips. The blood rushed to my
+face. I felt that every one was now looking at me. Naturally nobody in
+Comorn had seen me all this time.
+
+"'If what the world whispers turns out to be true, and you have in the
+meantime been to Vienna--but no! I will not believe it.'
+
+"His magnanimity offended me even more than his indictment.
+
+"'What is it to you whence I come or whither I go?' I replied, turning
+my back upon him and beginning to talk to the young officers, like one
+who has nothing to be ashamed of.
+
+"Shortly afterwards I quitted the banqueting-room. I hadn't reached the
+end of the long pavilion corridor in the fortress when Rengetegi came
+running after me.
+
+"'What on earth possessed you to calumniate and accuse me before the
+whole company,' I said to him, 'just as if I were a traitor, or I don't
+know what?'
+
+"'Tsitt! Zenobia, my Queen. Let us understand each other. It was in your
+own interest that I had to feign jealousy and rage. Let us go into my
+room and I'll explain everything.'
+
+"When we were alone together he locked the door and then explained
+things nicely.
+
+"'It concerns your money.'
+
+"'Aha!'
+
+"'Amidst all this laudation, appreciation, and ovation, and all the
+other flummery, I did not lose sight of the _main chance_. I told the
+Governor privately that if he wished to reward me in any way, he might
+do me the favour not to give to the flames the property deposited in the
+bank to the credit of the damsel who was so near to my heart, but allow
+me to bring it back to her. The austere patriot was as inexorable as
+Brutus. "Never!" said he. "We will burn what we have laid hands upon,
+even though it were the property of my own father. We can make no
+exception. What would those poor devils say whose paltry ten or twenty
+florins we surrender to the flames of the _auto-da-f�_ if we allowed the
+forty or fifty thousand florins of the rich to fly away? Burn they
+shall!" This he said with a very wrathful voice. Then he added in a
+milder tone: "However, I'll confide the burning of them to you."'
+
+"Now I began to understand.
+
+"'A quarrel between us therefore has become an absolute necessity. We
+must fly into a rage with each other. The _auto-da-f�_ will take place
+in a couple of days. The bonfire will be in the centre of the public
+square. I shall throw the bundles of bank-notes one by one among the
+spluttering faggots. You must be close by the booths of the
+bread-sellers, and break out into curses. You remember the cursing
+scene from _Deborah_? Very well, it may be useful. After the
+_auto-da-f�_ there must be a lively scene between us. We must cast our
+mutual souvenirs at each other's feet. I'll throw at you the embroidered
+cushion which you worked for my birthday, and inside it will be the
+money belonging to you and your mamma which I have rescued. Then be off
+as quick as you can to Vienna.'
+
+"'But how about the packet that you have to burn?'
+
+"'Leave that to me; a few copies of the _Comorn News_ will give every
+bit as brisk a flame.'
+
+"Everything happened according to his instructions. I saved our
+property, and you must admit that my friend and I displayed considerable
+prudence on this occasion. We did nobody any wrong: I only recovered
+what was my own.
+
+"Then we fell out together publicly, as preconcerted. My friend
+Rengetegi played Othello in a masterly manner. Then as our acquaintances
+could not succeed in reconciling us, we solemnly separated and I went
+back to Vienna.
+
+"On the way back I again fell in with the Austrian major. I showed him
+the money I brought with me, naturally without letting him know how I
+came by it. He became so friendly as even to entrust me with a letter to
+an old acquaintance of his in Vienna, who was none other than my
+mother's colonel....
+
+"You may imagine the friendly reception which awaited me when I
+returned to Vienna and gave my mother her money. She folded me in her
+arms, covered me with kisses, bedewed me with tears, and called me her
+darling child. What still remained to me of my patrimony, about 40,000
+florins, I placed in the Vienna savings-bank. The rest of my dower was
+in the hands of Muki Bagotay, with the exception of what we spent while
+we lived together. This also I contrived to get back again--but how?
+
+"In the spring, when the fortune of the war changed, Comorn was
+relieved, and I hastened off home again. I told my mother that I was
+urgently bent upon building up again our burnt house--only the roof had
+been burnt off, the walls remained standing. She approved of my
+resolution, and was very proud of having such a sensible and
+enterprising daughter. I immediately set about rebuilding our house,
+taking advantage of the time which elapsed from the raising of the first
+to the beginning of the second siege. During my stay at Vienna I moved
+continually in military circles, and I saw quite plainly what was
+coming. But why reopen my wounds? All my illusions were over. I had
+learnt to know my hero at close quarters, behind the scenes, I might
+say. This 'lord of creation' used to whine before his tailor for a
+respite with his account till next pay-day, and immediately afterwards
+would ascend his triumphal car drawn by captive kings and declaim to the
+populace of conquered Constantinople. But in one particular thing Major
+Rengetegi really extorted my admiration, I mean by his strategical
+science."
+
+"Ah!" cried I.
+
+"You may well say 'ah!' I have read the campaigns of Napoleon I., I have
+read the campaigns of Charles XII., but in none of them could I discover
+so many ruses of war as my hero invented in order to triumphantly solve
+the problem--how a man in his capacity of superior officer may
+constantly be taking part in the most ticklish skirmishes without
+allowing his person to get into the way of any wandering bullet. He
+always knew how to hit upon some mission whereby he might manage to
+skedaddle out of danger. And if I now and then fluttered the red rag of
+_self-esteem_ before his eyes, he would reply: 'I have duties towards
+art; if they shoot away half my leg, how shall I be able to act on the
+stage again?' Yet, when the battle was over, who so great a hero as he!
+Others only mowed down the enemy, he thrashed them afterwards with a
+flail. 'Tis a dreadful thing when a woman discovers that her hero is a
+habitual liar, lying with the fiery burning conviction that no man will
+dare to doubt him, so that she has to make him swear to the truth of
+every word he utters.
+
+"Meanwhile, I continued my house-building. Every sort of building
+material was very dear, and there was plenty of money too. Whence did
+all this money come? I'll tell you. The Russian hosts had already
+invaded the kingdom. The speculator-species perceived that the national
+cause was declining. The Hungarian armies were everywhere falling back.
+Then Klapka, by a brilliant victory, raised the second siege of Comorn
+and was within an ace of capturing the besieging host. The region was
+instantly alive with people, and a whole series of triumphs followed one
+after another. And now there flocked to Comorn from every part of the
+kingdom quite a tribe of panic-stricken speculators and jobbers, with
+bags full of Hungarian bank-notes, and bought everything that was for
+sale, at whatever price the sellers liked to ask. My Muki also took
+advantage of this lucky period to regulate his finances. He sold his
+herds at four times their real value, and paid the price, in Hungarian
+bank-notes, into the deposit bank at Comorn. It was my dowry paid back,
+he said. The bank hastened to place the amount in my hands; and I
+hastened to satisfy therewith my architects and builders, who did not
+let the money stick to their hands.
+
+"Doesn't this remind you of the round game we used to play as children,
+when we lit a straw, and, sitting in a circle, passed it round from hand
+to hand; whoever was the last to hold it till the fire burned his hands,
+him we used to thump unmercifully--that was the forfeit? Just such a
+burning straw was the dowry paid back to me by my husband. The roof of
+my father's house was the straw end which remained in my hands. The
+amount which I deposited in the Vienna bank is all I have left in the
+world--except Tiham�r Rengetegi. But not even he has remained mine, for
+he has changed into B�lv�nyossi. And now here we are together. The
+playing of a common part unites us. From morn to eve every word we say
+to one another is a lie. It is not even true that any one is pursuing
+Rengetegi, for at the capitulation of Comorn he received his
+safe-conduct which guarantees his life and liberty. That is not what
+distresses him. But he wishes to deny the whole part he played during
+the Revolution, that as B�lv�nyossi, the theatre-director, he may get
+the necessary concession. He is continually urging me to go to Miskolcz
+to the Government Commissioner and settle the business for him."
+
+"I understand."
+
+"No, you don't. It is none of those interventions which we see in
+romances and dramas, when a pretty woman goes to move a mighty tyrant
+with her tears, and sacrifice her charms to him as the price of the life
+and liberty of her persecuted husband. Oh no! my hero is no plagiarist!
+His ideas are all original. He wants me to go to the mighty gentleman
+and tell him that the Debreczin expedition, which has given rise to the
+whole of this heroic poem, is not his '_crime_,' but mine. I was the
+gipsy leader who played before the Ban Jellachich, and then escaped. It
+was I who carried the despatch to the Hungarian Government. In a word: I
+am to sacrifice myself on his account!"
+
+"Fie! fie! And still you love this man!"
+
+"What am I to do? I have nobody but him in the wide world; and besides,
+he is such a droll, amusing character. All day long we are either
+fighting or frolicking, and it is this variation which makes life so
+charming."
+
+But for all that, she flung herself on the ground and hid her face in
+the green moss. She was in such a good humour!
+
+"Sha'n't we give our friend a signal to come out of his hole?"
+
+"He is quite comfortable--don't disturb him."
+
+"I wonder you don't hit upon the very obvious idea of putting an end to
+this pantomimic game of hide and seek. You have a foreign passport. You
+could enter your friend in it under some such description as major-domo
+or travelling companion. You could take him with you to Naples or to
+Paris, and you could live without care on the interest of the fund
+deposited at the Vienna bank."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"Then why not do it?"
+
+"Because I don't choose."
+
+And as she said this she looked strangely at me with her enigmatically
+mysterious eyes, in which heaven and hell were blended together like
+starlight in darkness!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE DEMON'S BAIT
+
+
+I said in the last chapter that the lady was looking straight into my
+eyes with the glance of Circe. Then she shrugged her shoulders, flung
+herself down beside the fire-ashes, and began to blow the cinders so as
+to entice a flame from the smouldering embers.
+
+"It's useless to give advice to me, for I always do exactly the
+contrary. Let us rather have a chat together. What is your fate, now?"
+
+"The fate of the grub when it is in its chrysalis."
+
+"Then it was not without cause that I went to you that evening when you
+shut your door in my face? And yet I only said what I did because I
+feared that either the gibbet or suicide awaited you on the path you
+chose to take."
+
+Here her voice trembled, her chin, her lips twitched convulsively, and
+her eyes filled with tears.
+
+A lady in tears is dangerous!
+
+I did _not_ hasten to dry her tears. On the contrary, I replied with
+cool cynicism:
+
+"Every career has its own peculiar _maleficium_--drowning awaits the
+sailor, shooting the soldier; the doctor may fall a victim to an
+epidemic; the glass-maker suffers from caries; choke-damp kills the
+miner; and he who meddles with politics runs a chance of being hanged or
+guillotined."
+
+"No, no! They shall not do it!" she cried hoarsely, seizing my hand in
+both her own.
+
+"I do not want them to do it," I said, "and that is why I am hiding
+myself here at the back of beyond."
+
+"But how long is this to go on? What future do you see before you?"
+
+"For the present I am like the convalescent beggar whose promenading
+does not go beyond the house-door. I thought of beginning a little
+farming in this valley and forgetting all my dreams of glory. I shall
+become an agriculturist."
+
+"Very nice! And your wife?"
+
+"She will join me."
+
+"And you seriously think so? You think she'll come and settle down with
+you in a hut with a clay floor and a straw roof, like the one you are
+living in now."
+
+"It's a palace compared with what we lived in in our Debreczin days.
+When my wife did the cooking--for we had no servant--we loved each other
+better than ever. In a little house loving hearts are nearer to each
+other than in a large palace."
+
+"It was possible then, no doubt. I have experienced the same thing. But
+this is quite different. When a man has such brilliant hopes, want is no
+affliction. It will be over soon, he thinks. But to enter upon misery
+with the knowledge that it will last till death, is beyond the power of
+resignation. And particularly with a woman! Believe me, I know my own
+sex. Your wife, who now stands at the summit of her artistic fame,
+cannot quit her brilliant career. No! If you were an angel she could
+not."
+
+I could not defend my point of view against her. Stern reality was on
+her side; on my side were only faith and imagination.
+
+"I believe in my wife's promise to deliver me out of my difficult
+position."
+
+"I can't imagine how. She cannot do what I can do for B�lv�nyossi--in
+other words, accuse herself and say: 'It was not he who proclaimed
+freedom on March 15th. It was not he who wrote those heart-stirring
+articles to the nation. It was not he who edited those newspapers; not
+he who went to battle with the armies; not he who inspired the Honveds
+at the siege of Buda: but I.' Your wife cannot take your fault on her
+shoulders."
+
+I couldn't help laughing.
+
+"I would not let her."
+
+"But let us suppose that a great _artiste_, a renowned beauty, might
+perhaps manage by some means or other to procure an amnesty for her
+hidden husband" (and as she said this she discharged murderous,
+envenomed darts at me from the corners of her eyes), "what will be your
+subsequent lot when you return to Pest as a rebel amnestied at the
+intercession of his wife? The earth and the sky which you used to adore
+have vanished. No poet, no newspaper, no publisher: what will you do?
+Will you enter a lawyer's office again to copy deeds, issue summonses,
+and serve writs at so much a day? Or will you translate comedies (under
+official protection) at fifty florins each for the National Theatre; or
+paint fashionable portraits of butchers' wives at five florins apiece?
+Or, perhaps, you'll do nothing at all, but live simply under the wing of
+your wife as 'the actress's husband,' and see a woman bending beneath
+the load of sustaining a household--accomplishing the most exhausting
+work; coming home after her day's acting is over, tired to death,
+excited, unstrung. See her, poorly though she be, hurry from one
+provincial town to another, acting uncongenial parts, so as to scrape
+together a little money wherewith to satisfy the Jews with whom she has
+to haggle for the material for her costumes. And the husband must look
+on at all this with his arms folded, or, if he does anything at all, may
+perhaps paint the flowers for her costumes, which she herself will then
+sew on with her own hands."
+
+"It will not last for ever--other times will come."
+
+"Other times! You think other times will come, eh? Now, that is what I
+fear most of all. I know you well. You are not the sort of man who can
+content himself with the thought--what is past is over! You will never
+forget what you used to be, still less what you meant to be. The glory
+of fame is not forgotten as easily as a pawned jewel. You will again
+fall into those straits from which you have been set free."
+
+And the woman saw right into my soul. My face is so maladroit that it
+never could keep a secret. You can read my features like an open book.
+When I am frightened, it is vain for me to pretend that I am plucky.
+When I'm in a rage, it is useless for me to affect calmness--nobody is
+taken in by it. I cannot even haggle over a bargain properly, people can
+read from my face what I have to give. This woman could see where my
+soul was wandering in secret, far, far away, in a gloriously arisen
+Hungary of the future. And she regarded this talk of turning farmer as
+little more than the incoherent delirium of a fevered visionary.
+
+"Let it be as you say," I said.... "If I live I will build a tower out
+of the ruins of my country's glory; if I die, my grave will become an
+altar. Vainly does this coward flesh of mine tremble in every nerve. I
+am neither a hero nor a giant. The report of a gun makes me tremble; I
+grow pale in the presence of death; grief draws tears from me--but I
+will not depart from my set path. If I cannot write under my own name, I
+will write under the name of my landlord's dog. I will be 'Saj�.'[87]
+We'll bark if we can't speak, but we'll not be silent."
+
+[Footnote 87: My works "_Forradalmi �s csatakepek_," "_Bujdos� napl�ja_"
+were written under the pseudonym _Saj�_.--J�KAI.]
+
+The lady, in terror, seized me by both arms.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, take care! A step backwards, and you'll fall over
+the rock."
+
+"But I don't mean to take a step backwards."
+
+"Listen to me quietly. Don't fly into a rage. Sit down beside me. You
+need have no great fear of me. I am not a luring demon. I have not a
+word to say against what you've said. Do whatever your soul bids you. I
+ask for nothing more. Don't you believe that I've a good heart also?"
+
+"I believe that you've a little too much heart."
+
+"Perhaps all that my heart led me to do was sinful. I was mad. I was
+blind. Passion got hold of me; but the feeling I had for you would not
+have been out of place in heaven itself. When I am alone, I am always
+with you; and when I think of anything I think of you. I wish you to go
+onwards and upwards along the rugged path that you have entered upon;
+but can you do it here, with a leaden weight on your feet, a padlock on
+your mouth, and a strait jacket on your body?"
+
+"'Tis because it _is_ heavy that I must needs carry my burden."
+
+"But how much more brilliant would be the success of your struggle if
+you could continue it on a foreign soil--in free France, for instance!
+Just think! If you were now to appear in Paris, the leaders of the
+French literature would receive you with open arms. The French public
+would enrol you among its great writers, and then you might write of
+the glory, the sufferings, and the heroic struggles of Hungary, and of
+the amiable qualities of its people; you might write all this with
+perfect freedom, from the very bottom of your heart, and millions and
+millions, the whole round world, would read your writings, and not
+merely a handful of people, as here at home. There you would be a rich
+man, here you are only a day-labourer. Here you might sing like a
+Tyrt�us, and the world outside would hear nothing of it; but if you
+raised your voice abroad in the midst of a great nation and a
+cosmopolitan capital, your voice would be like the horns of Joshua
+before the walls of Jericho."
+
+Ah! how luring was the panorama.... To become a great French writer! To
+be raised aloft on the shoulders of the most glorious of nations! What
+here at home was but the crack of a whip in my hands, would there be a
+thunderbolt!
+
+"But it is impossible," I objected. "How could I possibly force my way
+to the frontiers of France from the depths of Tordona, through my own
+country, through Austria, through Germany, without a passport, without
+money, in a semi-Asiatic garb? Just as well might I cast myself down
+from the mountain-top in the belief that I could fly."
+
+"Well, come now, I have a very good plan to suggest to you. I've got an
+English passport. Have I not told you exactly how I got it? None
+besides yourself knows that I have it, except, of course, the officials
+who have _vis�d_ it on the way. In this passport the blank for my
+travelling companion has not yet been filled up. You asked me just now
+why I did not insert the name and description of B�lv�nyossi. Now, I'll
+tell you. Nobody is pursuing him. I always intended to fill up that
+blank with your name. You won't have to sacrifice much beyond that
+little moustache and beard of yours, and resigning yourself to speak
+nothing abroad but French and German. I appoint you my secretary. I
+myself am an English lady. We mustn't go _vi�_ Vienna. But the way is
+clear in the direction of Breslau. I have quite enough money for us
+both. I still retain the hundred ducats which I received at Debreczin.
+We shall do sumptuously with this till we get to Paris. My capital in
+the Vienna bank I can leave where it is, or I may have it sent after me,
+and the interest from it will suffice for your modest needs at the
+beginning of your residence at Paris, so that you will not have to
+resort to the emigrants' fund. When once you have won a position for
+yourself in Continental literature you will need no further assistance
+from anybody. You will be able to refund to me what I advanced to you as
+a loan. Only as a loan remember, not as a gift; still less do I expect
+anything in exchange, not even a warm pressure of the hand. I am simply
+your proselyte whose mission it is to make straight the way of the
+prophet."
+
+It was a seductive picture, and still more seductive was she who
+presented it to me.
+
+To be free! To be able to pronounce my name boldly in the face of every
+one who met me! Not to tremble at the pattering of every footstep at my
+door! To fight for great ideas in the company of great and noble minds!
+
+And how her _eyes_ sparkled as she said these words, like the parhelia
+in the glowing girdle of a solar halo! And her face was as open as a
+child's. I could have sworn that she was an artless virgin opening her
+heart for the first time to a true sentiment. Her hands were folded as
+if in prayer.
+
+Had I wavered but a hair's-breadth, I must have plunged down into the
+abyss.
+
+Ah! what a different man I should have become. Had I fled with her, I
+should now be the grand master of the Realists, for there is as much
+erotic flame, satiric vein, and luxurious fancy in me as in them; but I
+have not used these qualities, because I write for a Hungarian public.
+Had I flown with her, millions would have read my works, and fathers and
+mothers would have cursed me as the corrupter of their children. And I
+should have laughed at them, and tapped the fat paunch, which as an
+idealistic writer I have never been able to acquire.
+
+And whither would this reinless, bridleless passion have hurried me had
+I been swayed by such a fascinating Calypso, whose every movement was a
+charm, whose every word was a snare, who was herself the personified
+joy of a Mohammedan paradise? For, remember, I was then only
+four-and-twenty!
+
+Fortunately, a sober thought still remained in my head.
+
+"I mean to remain in my own land," I said abruptly.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I will not forsake those who arose at my word. If they lie on the
+earth, I also will lie down beside them. I will take my share of the
+suffering of which I was the cause."
+
+"You won't remain out in the cold for ever, of course. Haven't you,
+then, the hope that those who have sought refuge abroad will one day
+return in triumph? Then you also will return home at the head of the
+reprieved."
+
+Even this weapon she managed to turn against me! Oh, what a weak coat of
+mail it was that defended me--only a single word!
+
+"I have given my word that I'll not depart from hence," I said softly.
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"To her who gave me her word that she would come and seek me here."
+
+"Your wife?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And if she seeks you, what then?"
+
+"She will bring me liberty."
+
+"How? In what way?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You don't know, and yet you believe?"
+
+"I believe with my whole heart."
+
+"And you never think what may be the price of such freedom?"
+
+"I spurn such a thought as often as it arises."
+
+"You believe in a woman's loyalty, a woman's virtue?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then you are a very happy man!"
+
+During this conversation I continued my drawing, and she called my
+attention to several objects in the landscape which had escaped me.
+Shortly after that she began a very ordinary conversation about the
+weather.
+
+"Look! the prophecy of the old forester is well-nigh fulfilled. The sky
+is quite overcast. The snowstorm will surprise us here."
+
+"Then, perhaps, it may be as well to call our friend out of his
+hiding-place?"
+
+"Oh, that will be very easy! I need only give him one signal. He himself
+selected it from the romance 'Ivanhoe'--the note of the hero's
+horn--'Wasa h�a!' At this signal he will appear immediately."
+
+"Well, I can scarcely see to sketch any more, it is so dark."
+
+"Then you are determined to go to that little village down there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"No news from the world will ever penetrate thither."
+
+"That will be all the better for me."
+
+"You have heard nothing of what is going on outside all this time, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Nothing pleasant."
+
+"It is a dreadful world. How would the women manage to live if they
+couldn't chatter?"
+
+"They could sew their children's clothes."
+
+"Perhaps you haven't heard that Pet�fi's widow has married again?"
+
+Ah, that was indeed a murderous thrust! A calculated, well-aimed,
+poisonous dart where there was a weak joint in my coat of mail.
+
+"What do you say?" cried I, in a perfect passion.
+
+"It is a fact known to everybody."
+
+"Pet�fi's wife! Then what has become of Pet�fi?"
+
+"He fell at the battle of Segesv�r."
+
+"Who saw him fall?"
+
+"A Honved officer who testified to the fact. This was quite enough for
+his widow. She immediately went to the altar with another young writer,
+who was not perhaps such a knightly hero as your friend, but who is a
+pleasant young man in a good official position, moving in the best
+society, and who is able to assure his wife a comfortable existence."
+
+Every one of this woman's words went right through my heart.
+
+Now, indeed, after years have elapsed, I can say that poor Julia did
+well to confide her fate to a good and worthy man. She had a child, and
+had duties towards that child. But at that moment a heavier blow could
+not have descended upon my head. The death of our martyrs, let it be
+never so cruel, was not nearly such terrible news to me as the news that
+the martyrs had been forgotten.
+
+That any woman could ever forget Pet�fi! The woman whom the poet had
+encompassed with the rays of his soul of flame! That the poet should be
+able to make himself immortal to the whole world and not to her whom he
+had worshipped!
+
+No doubt the widow was right, she will be blessed in the next world, and
+there Pet�fi himself will justify her--the righteous are always just;
+but to me this news seemed to open the very gates of hell. If the grass
+can grow so quickly over my overthrown idol, what am I, I should like to
+know? A frog enclosed in a tree, whose calling it is to live for a
+hundred years--beneath the bark!
+
+"I won't believe it! I won't believe it! I won't believe it!"
+
+She laughed at me. "Now wriggle away!" she seemed to say.
+
+From the crown of my head to the heel of my foot I was full of
+bitterness. If such a thing as this could happen, why shouldn't that
+other thing happen, too? Why shouldn't another fallen writer forget the
+promise he had made to his wife, seize the hand of his former ideal, and
+fly away with her out into the world? That would be tit for tat.
+
+Her two eyes flamed as she looked at me and laughed. It was just as if
+she knew she had wounded me and would fain stir me up to vengeance.
+
+She had destroyed my idol: belief in a woman's heart.
+
+Women were all alike!
+
+"No, no, no! My wife is not like other women."
+
+I sat down on the edge of the precipitous rock, made a speaking-trumpet
+of the palms of both hands, and called loudly down into the valley "Wasa
+h�a!"
+
+The echo repeated my words. And not long afterwards could be heard from
+below the proud refrain:--
+
+    "Whom he meets upon his way
+    Him he cruelly doth slay;
+    But if a pretty girl draw near,
+    Ah, then what gayer cavalier!
+    Tremble and quake ye tongues that lie,
+    And speak his name all whisp'ringly:
+        Diavolo, diavolo, diavolo!"
+
+As the song drew nearer, I packed up my traps and clasped my stick all
+ready to say good-bye.
+
+"Forget what we have been speaking about!"
+
+I said this.
+
+"Have we been speaking about anything, then? I didn't know!" replied the
+lady with the eyes like the sea.
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+I was quite persuaded that we should never meet again.
+
+I did not wait till my friend had climbed up again out of his hole. They
+would easily find one another. The snow had already begun to fall in
+thick flakes. I set off homewards.
+
+The snowstorm drove full against me as I proceeded. I had very nearly
+lost myself in the forest. The evening had fallen early; by the time I
+had descended from the hill it was quite dark.
+
+But still darker was what I carried with me in my brain--the black
+thought that there was now no such thing as love or loving remembrance
+in the world. Where we fall, there we lie, and none cares. Some of us
+die, and there is none to mourn us; the rest of us remain alive, and
+mourn over ourselves.
+
+How fair is the fate of a fallen tree. There it lies, and the ground-ivy
+covers it.
+
+If the wild beasts were to tear me to pieces now, nobody would know
+where I had perished.
+
+At last I stumbled upon the linden spring.
+
+This was a good guide. The stream flows right along beside the house of
+the Cs�nyis; one can get home by keeping near its banks, even in the
+dark.
+
+My soul blamed me for having passed so much time by the Pagan Altar with
+that "other" woman.
+
+The snow now completely covered the fields, and through it in serpentine
+flight darted the threefold stream. The autumn leaves were still on the
+trees, their crowns bent down beneath loads of snow. The whole landscape
+was sombre, but it was not more sombre than my soul.
+
+Suddenly, like a ray of hope, the window-light of the little house in
+which I was lodging flashed out before me. It stood at the end of the
+village, and was the last house of all.
+
+I was utterly wearied both in body and soul when I arrived at last at
+the little dwelling.
+
+It had neither courtyard nor enclosure. It stood right out upon the
+road. The carts and ploughs stood there beneath a shed. There are no
+thieves here.
+
+The door of the house is never bolted, and it opens out upon a little
+passage. On the right-hand side of this passage lie kitchen and
+store-room; on the left the living-rooms, and a side chamber, which
+served me as a bedroom, and the rest of the family as a sort of
+withdrawing-room. It is the only room in the house which has a deal
+floor, all the other floors are of clay.
+
+The kitchen door was also open, and a large fire was blazing on the open
+hearth. My hostess with her serving-maid was busy baking and boiling.
+
+When I bade her good evening, she glanced at me with a roguish smile.
+
+"Ei, ei! A nice time to come home, I must say! But go into the
+room--supper will be ready presently."
+
+I went into the room.
+
+By the lighted stove sat my wife!
+
+Rapturous joy drove every other thought out of my soul.
+
+I don't know what I said. I wouldn't believe she was there till I had
+caught her in my arms and embraced her tightly.
+
+'Tis true, 'tis true, 'tis true--loyalty, love, sweet remembrance still
+belong to this world!
+
+She told me afterwards--very briefly--how ill she had been. She had
+wanted to come before, but couldn't; as it was, she had left Pest by
+stealth, and had come with a passport made out under a false name. She
+had suffered much on the way. She had gone astray in the snowstorm in
+the beech woods, and it had been as much as she could do to find her way
+again. She had been terrified by the wolves, whose howls even now
+resounded from the woods.
+
+And all the while I suffered the mental torture of a man who hears the
+person who _is_ talking to him and the person who _has been_ talking to
+him at the same time. I saw the one figure and I saw the other also.
+
+Our good host, worthy Beno Cs�nyi, as he sat by the table, kept on
+mumbling in his beard: "That's something like a woman--that _is_ a wife,
+if you like!"
+
+Well, now that we are both together again, what does it all matter?
+
+Yes, but how long shall we be together again?
+
+My wife must go back the day after to-morrow. Only grudgingly had the
+director of the theatre allowed her a four days' leave. On the fifth day
+she must play.
+
+But my captivity was soon to draw to a close.
+
+My wife took a carefully concealed piece of paper from her breast; it
+was a tiny little grey schedule, but that little schedule was in those
+days a great treasure. It was the guarantee of my liberation--a Comorn
+passport.
+
+It was a very simple method of deliverance, as simple as the egg of
+Columbus.
+
+When the fortress of Comorn capitulated, each of the officers of the
+garrison there received a passport which guaranteed his life and
+liberty, and also dispensed him from enrolment in the Austrian army. My
+wife managed to procure me such a passport in the simplest way in the
+world. There was a brother of Szigligeti's in the Comorn garrison,
+Vincent Szathmary (Szathmary was their family name), who wrote my name
+down in the list of the capitulating officers as a Honved lieutenant,
+and handed the passport bearing my name to my wife.
+
+This was the reason why I was obliged to remain in concealment in the
+meantime.
+
+Thus my dove had brought me two leaves of the olive-branch, namely, life
+and liberty; but how about the third? I had still to wait for that. I
+was not free to come forth till I got it. I should have to wait till she
+came back for me a second time. I no longer ran any risk of being
+condemned, but I might still run the risk of being interned at my native
+place, Comorn, and that would have been a fresh torment for me.
+
+Then my wife asked me: "Have you been thinking of me also all this
+time?"
+
+And if I had not been able to answer, "Always of thee!" and if, while
+saying this, I had not been able to look her honestly in the face, she
+would have been amply justified in tearing the passport to pieces and
+flinging the fragments in my face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MARVELS NOT TO BE SEEN FOR MONEY
+
+
+It was now four years since I had made friends with the beech woods. For
+two years I was "Saj�," but after that I was again able to practise the
+art of letters in my own name.
+
+My wife and I saw nobody, and nobody came to see us. We had both of us
+quite enough to do without paying visits. My wife was an actress, and I
+an author. And let nobody suppose that actresses and authors live in the
+land of Cockaigne.[88] Both have very hard work to do, and rest is their
+dearest recreation.
+
+[Footnote 88: Lit., a sky full of fiddles.]
+
+Unfortunately I was engaged in publishing and editing. Nominally,
+indeed, the director of the National Theatre was the responsible editor
+and publisher of the belle-lettristic and artistic journal _D�libab_,
+for my name was still under police supervision; but, in reality, I wrote
+and edited the whole paper, corrected the proofs, and folded up,
+directed, and despatched the copies of it to the subscribers--and got
+into trouble for it besides.
+
+My only assistant was a worthy, semi-rustic, very pronounced Hungarian
+lad, called Coloman Igl�di, who had served as lieutenant under the
+banner of the red-capped Honveds in our Utopian days.[89] At the battle
+of Tarczal he had received three bullets, one in the face, the second in
+the arm, and the third in the leg, and these wounds he had to thank for
+his dismissal as a genuine invalid. So he joined me as messenger,
+secretary, and door-keeper, and a worthy, honest fellow he was.
+
+[Footnote 89: _i.e._, during the war.]
+
+One afternoon "clerk Coloman" (that was his familiar epithet) opened the
+door of my working-room. "I beg pardon, sir," said he, "but a cuirassier
+is here."
+
+"What sort of a cuirassier?"
+
+"A senior lieutenant."
+
+"What does he want with me, I wonder?"
+
+In the fifties the visit of an officer was tantamount to a challenge.
+Those were the days of the famous political duels in which Coloman
+Tisza,[90] Julius Szapary,[91] and Francis Beniczky fought with the
+delegated officers.
+
+[Footnote 90: The late Prime Minister of Hungary and leader of the
+Liberal party there.]
+
+[Footnote 91: The present Prime Minister.--Since this note was written,
+Szapary has given way to Weckerle.]
+
+"Admit him!"
+
+"Call me, please, if necessary," said clerk Coloman confidentially,
+making at the same time a significant movement with the paper-knife.
+
+Then the visitor entered.
+
+In figure he was half a head taller than me at the very least. He was a
+strong, broad-shouldered fellow. His bony face wore quite a stony
+expression by reason of a powerful eagle nose and a broad double chin.
+On the other hand this sternness was somewhat contradicted by a pair of
+honest, bright-blue eyes, a little mouth, and offensively light hair,
+though his eyebrows, moustache, and whiskers were even lighter.
+
+My visitor, as he advanced from my door to my writing-table, took those
+three short mazurka steps which, with men, are generally the
+preliminaries to a military salute; he held, close pressed to his thigh,
+his beautiful helmet, with the golden lions and the black-yellow plumes;
+and when he stood in front of me, he clashed his spurs together and
+introduced himself in Hungarian.
+
+"I am Wenceslaus Kvatopil, senior lieutenant of dragoons."
+
+He had the peculiar habit of accompanying every word with an explanatory
+movement of his hand, so that a stone-deaf person could have understood
+perfectly what he meant. The deprecatory movement of his hand
+meant--Wenceslaus Kvatopil; the indication of the twin stars on his
+collar meant that he was a lieutenant; the slight elevation of his
+helmet signified that he was a dragoon, and the simultaneous sweep of
+the hand towards his breast gave me to understand that he was _not_ a
+cuirassier.
+
+"I am glad to see you," I said; "how can I be of service?"
+
+"I should like to have a long conversation with you, sir, if you will
+let me."
+
+At this I would have offered him a chair, but on no account in the world
+would he suffer me to do so, but helped himself to one, and then once
+more apologised for the trouble he was giving before he sat down
+opposite to me.
+
+I begged him to address me in German, as I was quite capable of making
+myself understood in that tongue.
+
+"No! no! En _akarom_ magyariul besz�lni"[92]--and at the same time he
+made as though he were ducking the head of a refractory urchin in a
+basin of soapsuds.
+
+[Footnote 92: "I want to talk in Hungarian."]
+
+"_Akarok_," I good-humouredly corrected him.
+
+"No! no! _Akarok_ is the _indefinite_ mood, _akarom the definite_ mood;
+and I want to speak Hungarian _definitely_."
+
+I was forced to acknowledge to myself that his logic was stronger than
+his grammar.
+
+"I was born in Leutomischl"[93]--here he let his head fall regretfully
+on his breast.
+
+[Footnote 93: A Bohemian town. He meant by this that he belonged to
+Czech officials who had been forced upon Hungary.--TR.]
+
+I with corresponding pantomime replied that that need not make any
+difference between us.
+
+"My father was"--here with both hands he took aim with an imaginary gun.
+
+It now occurred to me _why_ he made all these gestures. Such is often
+the way with those who have taught themselves a foreign language without
+a master, and cannot find quickly enough the word they want. I hastened
+to his assistance.
+
+"A forester?"
+
+"Yes, a forester. He had sons"--he lifted up both hands, and then one
+finger.
+
+"Eleven?"
+
+"Yes, eleven. I myself was"--he held the palm of his hand quite low down
+towards the floor.
+
+"The youngest?"
+
+"Yes, the youngest."
+
+"My father gave me"--here followed a very suggestive gesture.
+
+"Yes, a _very rigorous_ education."
+
+"But it was all"--he lightly tapped the hollow of his hand, as much as
+to say "No good!"
+
+"He wanted me to be"--he laid the palms of his hands together as if in
+prayer.
+
+"A priest?"
+
+"Quite right! I wouldn't"--a snap of the fingers, and then a lizard-like
+dart into the palm of the hand.
+
+"You mean to say you took French leave of the Seminary?"
+
+At this we both laughed. The gesture next following--a smack on the palm
+of the hand illustrated by a little equitation on the back of a
+chair--gave me to understand that my visitor had then become a soldier.
+
+"At four-and-twenty I was a lieutenant. I lay at Cracow for two years. I
+served in the Hungarian war from beginning to end. I am now thirty-four
+years old. And still I am only a lieutenant. Curious, isn't it?"
+
+I agreed with him that it was certainly most surprising.
+
+"My other comrades--no, not _comrades_, that's a French word."
+
+"_Bajtarsai?_"[94] I suggested.
+
+[Footnote 94: "Your comrades"--the Hungarian equivalent.]
+
+"Yes, of course! my other _bajtarsai_ all became captains and majors,
+and have got decorations. I've nothing! Nothing, I tell you! And I'm
+pretty plucky too. I'm a good horseman--I've never given offence--I
+understand my duties. What do you think the cause is?"
+
+I really was curious myself to know the cause of this misadventure.
+
+"All through the war I was interned at Temesvar with my squadron. No
+occasion for displaying valour. Cavalry behind trenches. My comrades all
+on the battle-field"--he made a swift motion with his hand.
+
+"And fought bravely?" said I, completing the sentence.
+
+"Yes, they fought bravely, whilst we horsemen besieged in the fortress
+might"--here he put the tips of his thumbs between his teeth and puffed
+out his cheeks.
+
+"Smoke your pipes?" I suggested.
+
+"Yes, we smoked our pipes."
+
+Here we both gave way to merriment once more. Again I urged upon my
+visitor to speak in German, and we could then perhaps get along more
+easily, but he only replied, "_Muszaj!_"[95] Well, if he knows even that
+_Hungarian_ word, I thought, he _must_ have his own way, that's all.
+
+[Footnote 95: A corruption of the German _mussen_, but as used in
+Hungarian it expresses the most emphatic necessity. When all other
+arguments fail, the word _muszaj_ is supposed to carry everything before
+it.--TR.]
+
+"Yes, I _must_ speak Hungarian, by command of the highest authority."
+
+"The highest?"
+
+With that he seized the lappets of my coat with both hands.
+
+"Come, now! Do you know who is the greatest tyrant in the whole world?"
+
+"Dionysius of Syracuse."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Young blood! 'Tis this!"--and with his index finger he
+tapped himself between his fourth and fifth ribs on the left-hand side.
+
+"The heart, eh?"
+
+"You're right. The heart. 'Tis the greatest tyrant. _It_ commands me to
+speak Hungarian."
+
+"Then you are in love, eh?"
+
+A gesture with the palm of his hand right up to the chin was the answer.
+
+"Up to the neck, eh?"
+
+"No, over head and ears."
+
+"With a lovely Hungarian damsel?"
+
+He raised his three fingers closely pressed together to his lips, which
+were pointed as if to receive a kiss, thereby explaining that she was
+_very_ lovely.
+
+Then he passed his extended palms softly over his face, then, joining
+them together beneath his chin, affirmed, so far as I understood him,
+that she was also young and charming.
+
+Then he pressed his waist with both hands, which meant "slim as a lily
+stalk."
+
+After that he cracked his fingers right in front of his eyes, which
+meant "What eyes!"
+
+Finally he crossed his arms, and immediately afterwards disengaged them
+again.
+
+"In a word, a ravishing beauty," said I. "I congratulate you!"
+
+"I think you may."
+
+"Your tender sentiment is naturally reciprocated?"
+
+"Oho!" and he caught hold of the flat of his sword.
+
+"I did not mean to insinuate the contrary," I said.
+
+"Naturally."
+
+Then he was silent, and began to fumble about his stiff cravat. I saw
+that he wanted me to ask him some more questions.
+
+"A maiden lady?"
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"Then a widow lady?"
+
+"Ah, no!"
+
+"Then it can't be a lady at all?"
+
+"No, no! What are you thinking of?"
+
+"Then what is she?"
+
+"A lady who has a husband, but yet is not a married lady."
+
+"Aha! A _divorc�e_?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then the relations between you are quite legitimate."
+
+At this, my lieutenant of dragoons rose from his chair and stood before
+me in quite a magisterial position. I also stood up.
+
+"The lady desires you to be her ..."--here the word he wanted would not
+occur to him. He raised the three first fingers of his right hand above
+his head, like one who is taking an oath. I guessed his meaning.
+
+"A witness to her marriage?"
+
+"No, not that. She used another word."
+
+"Oh, she meant I was to give her away?"
+
+"Yes, that is it. How I do forget!"
+
+"Then is the chosen of your heart an acquaintance of mine?"
+
+"Naturally. If I were only to mention her first name you would remember
+at once. Bessy!"
+
+"Ah, Bessy!"
+
+"How red you've got! You were in love with her once yourself. I know!
+She told me. Well, will you give her away?"
+
+"With pleasure."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"With all my heart."
+
+Then he caught hold of my hand with both his hands; squeezed my hand
+violently, and his eyes grew quite tiny with sheer rapture. I believed
+he would have liked to kiss me; but he had a big nose, and I had a big
+nose, too, so we could not very well have managed it.
+
+"Then will you allow me to bring in my bride?"
+
+"Whence?"
+
+"She is waiting outside."
+
+"Not on the staircase?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. On the staircase. She won't come in till she's quite sure
+you'll give her away. She's a bit shy."
+
+I immediately hastened to open the door for my hesitating visitor.
+
+It really was Bessy.
+
+It was winter time just then, and she had all sorts of furry garments
+upon her, and a furred cap on her head; she looked just like a fair
+Muscovite.
+
+There really seemed to be some sort of coquettish bashfulness in her
+face.
+
+I couldn't imagine why. I had seen her face before under many similar
+circumstances, and after Muki Bagotay, Peter Gyuricza, and Tiham�r
+Rengetegi, Wenceslaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement.
+
+The bridegroom remained in the room while I admitted the lady. Then he
+first craved permission to kiss her hand, and then begged her pardon for
+kissing it. After that there was absolutely no getting him to take a
+seat, but he persisted in standing on one spot, leaning over the back of
+the arm-chair in which his lady sat.
+
+"Have you grasped what my hero has told you?" inquired Bessy, when she
+had got over her first embarrassment. "Just fancy! he has given me his
+word as a gentleman that henceforth he'll never address a word to any
+Hungarian except in the Hungarian language. And he tortures his
+Hungarian orderly to death with it to begin with."
+
+"A most laudable resolve," I was obliged to answer.
+
+"But now, first of all, let me explain to you why I ask you to put
+yourself to the inconvenience of giving me away."
+
+I assured her that to give her away was not an inconvenience, but a
+pleasure.
+
+"After our last meeting you never anticipated, perhaps, that we should
+meet again in this life?"
+
+I lifted my head and looked at her with amazement.
+
+"Oh! we can say anything before _him_" (here she pointed at her
+bridegroom). "He's as nice and good a boy as ever lived. I could twist
+him round my little finger if I liked. You can say anything before him.
+You know my story, I think, up to the time when I had to go into hiding
+with B�lv�nyossi after the Revolution. I shouldn't like you to imagine
+that I quitted that man from pure lightness of heart. Just fancy! he had
+the impudence to commit that act of baseness which I mentioned to you:
+he told the Imperial Commissioner the whole story of the conveying of
+those despatches, cleared himself from the accusation of that heroic
+deed, and at the same time denounced me. He justified himself to me on
+the ground that it was necessary to '_purify_ himself,' in order that he
+might obtain a theatrical licence, and that they would not _impute_ this
+little joke to me because I was a woman. But they _did_ impute it! They
+arrested me, they imprisoned me, and they severely cross-examined me.
+And I have to thank this worthy young fellow alone for getting off
+scot-free. He took my part. But for him I should have had to pay most
+dearly for my heroic exploit. Shouldn't I, Wenzy?"
+
+The lieutenant hinted, with a deprecatory wave of his hand, that no more
+need be said about the matter.
+
+"Hence our acquaintance began," continued the lady, "and this, perhaps,
+will justify me in your eyes for selecting a foreigner, a foreign
+officer, as my _fianc�_. I had very strong reasons, you must admit, for
+growing cold towards my former hero."
+
+The fair lady did not appear to be satisfied with the impression that
+her eyes had made upon me; at least, I had some reason to believe that
+the following commentary was intended not so much for the delight of her
+bridegroom as for my own edification.
+
+"Believe me (I am perfectly serious about it), I am not merely grateful
+to Kvatopil because he has rescued me from my great difficulties, and,
+what is more, from any further improprieties on the part of that
+Barabbas B�lv�nyossi;--no, I also esteem him as a noble nature worthy of
+all respect; from the crown of his head to the tip of his toe he is full
+of the love of truth, not even in jest would he tell a lie. He is
+valiant and strong-minded, and at the same time affectionate and
+tender-hearted. A man of his word, in fact, who does not lightly give
+his word either. A really model man."
+
+A pencil was in my hand, and before me was a blank sheet of paper, and I
+involuntarily scribbled on this piece of paper "Number 4."
+
+The lady grasped the import of my hieroglyphic and shook her head, but
+she smiled a little too.
+
+"But he is not like the others," she insisted; "he is the direct
+opposite of what _ladies' men_ think a man should be. It will sound
+incredible, I know, but it is the simple fact that he has been my
+visitor these three years. He has come to see me nearly every day during
+that period, and never has he permitted himself a single bold advance or
+a single unbecoming expression. Every day I have to tell him, just as if
+it were the first time, to take a seat, put down his helmet, and place
+his sword in the corner, and our conversation has never gone beyond the
+criticism of Schiller's verses."
+
+I was bound to admit that this was really an extraordinary case.
+
+"I couldn't help rallying him about it," continued the lady; "you know
+that I am not accustomed to a wooer who imitates the statue of Memnon;
+and then Kvatopil confessed, with perfect simplicity, that he was
+_afraid_ of me. 'If I were as timid on the battle-field,' said he, 'as I
+am in your presence, His Majesty would only give me my deserts by
+dismissing me from his service.'"
+
+The lieutenant signified by a nod of his head that his words had been
+correctly reported.
+
+"Finally," continued Bessy, "I had to ask for his hand--hadn't I, my
+friend?"
+
+The bridegroom replied that such had indeed been the case.
+
+"Even then he was quite coy. He pleaded his humble rank. He begged time
+for consideration. Now, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, I did."
+
+"I had to remove his scruples one by one, till at last I brought him to
+a definite declaration, and he said he would take me to wife. Never have
+I met with such an officer before."
+
+Bessy read from my face the expression, "Why bother me with all this?" I
+never asked about it, and I didn't care a fig about her affairs.
+
+"Look now," continued she, in an almost supplicating voice, "I don't
+tell you all these things to amuse you, but because I have an earnest
+request to make of you."
+
+"So the lieutenant informed me."
+
+"I don't mean about giving me away--that is _not_ a serious request. You
+would do that to oblige any servant of yours. I have a much greater
+request than that to make. I wish to ask you to be my guardian, my
+foster-father."
+
+"I? Your _foster-father_?"
+
+"Don't put so much emphasis on the word _father_. You are four years
+older than I am, remember."
+
+"What does a married woman want with a guardian?"
+
+"I assume the case of a married woman who mismanages her property."
+
+"And do you believe, then, that _I_ am such a great financier?"
+
+"I believe that you are my sincere friend, anyhow. You are my only real
+friend in the round world who neither asks nor expects anything for his
+kindness to me. I know it from experience. You have heard, no doubt (and
+if you haven't heard, you might easily have guessed it), that my
+relations have shaken me off. They deny that they ever knew me. My
+mother has married again and removed to Prague. Every one in whom I
+would confide tries to get something out of me--either money, or what is
+more precious than money. Whosoever would attach himself to me is either
+a swindler, or a seducer, or a parasite. As for myself, I am a stupid,
+credulous creature, who will never have any brains to bless herself
+with. I need a strong hand over me, some one to look after my material
+interests and save me from bankruptcy, some one in whose good-will I may
+confide. I know very well I might find a more _experienced_ guardian
+than you, even if I went no further than the civic magistrates; but I
+could endure dictation from nobody--but you. Your dictation I could put
+up with. For Heaven's sake do not let me perish!"
+
+I could not help being sorry for her. I perceived also that she forbore
+to take my hand. Still, it is a rather ticklish position to become the
+guardian of a pretty woman, especially a pretty woman of this kind.
+
+"Very well, I don't mind. But let us consider the whole business
+seriously. I suppose the lieutenant agrees to it?"
+
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil assured me that he had no will of his own in the
+matter.
+
+"Well, now, let us consider the merits of the case. Have you still got
+the money which you deposited in the Vienna savings bank?"
+
+"Yes, and as soon as you are my guardian, I mean to draw it out and
+deposit it in the bank at Pest."
+
+"So much the better, it will be more convenient for the quarterly
+payments of interest. And then, too, you will have to pay out of this
+amount the usual caution-money required of every officer about to
+marry."
+
+"Yes, I know. Six thousand florins."
+
+"Of course, you might also mortgage your father's house to this
+amount."
+
+"Whichever you think best."
+
+"I think the latter way will be best, for I foresee that you will get
+very little profit from your houses, and I want to save as much of your
+ready money as possible."
+
+"_Save_, do you say?" cried Bessy, opening her eyes very wide at this
+word.
+
+I scratched my head all over (I had lots of hair to scratch in those
+days). It was my duty as guardian to express my views with perfect
+candour. At last I found the requisite formula.
+
+"Look now, my sweet ward Bessy, and you also, respected lieutenant, I
+have seen all sorts of wonders in my lifetime. I have seen a one-legged
+ballet-dancer who could turn the most difficult pirouettes; I have seen
+a painter without hands who painted masterly pictures with his feet; I
+have seen a blind actor who played Hamlet right to the very end. But
+what I never have seen yet is a cavalry officer without debts."
+
+At this, the pair of them burst into a loud ha! ha! ha!
+
+"No, no!" cried the bridegroom, "I am not such a wonder as that!"
+
+I now begged him, since we had become so confidential, to be so good as
+to draw his chair close to the table and put down his beautiful helmet
+with the black and yellow plumes and go into figures.
+
+"How much do your debts amount to?"
+
+And a very pretty little amount he made of it.
+
+The bridegroom could read from my face that I thought the amount a
+trifle extravagant for a lieutenant; for that amount Bessy could have
+got a major at least. He hastened to explain matters.
+
+"I did not incur this large debt myself, the culprit was another
+lieutenant, a friend of mine, a rich and distinguished young fellow. He
+got me to write my name to a bill as guarantor of the amount. He was
+still a minor. I wrote my name, of course--what did I know about it?
+Suddenly, when my young friend got over head and ears in difficulties,
+he blew his brains out. His father refused to pay the bill, and so I
+inherited it from his creditors. Since then I have been paying and
+paying, but the debt, instead of diminishing, increases, and the
+terrible _boa conscriptor_ winds itself tighter and tighter round my
+body."
+
+A boa conscriptor indeed, was this gigantic conscriptor[96] serpent!
+
+[Footnote 96: A translation of the Hungarian word _Osszeiro_, which
+means a conscript or schedule of anything, _here_ a schedule of debts.]
+
+At this we all three laughed again, which was rather odd, for there was
+nothing at all to laugh at.
+
+The long and the short of it all was that after discharging her lover's
+debts, and depositing the caution-money, my ward Bessy still had
+twenty-five thousand florins left.
+
+"All right," said she, "that's just why I asked you to be my guardian,
+for if the money remains in my hands, every bit of it will vanish by
+the end of the year."
+
+"I wonder you've kept it so long."
+
+"The wonder is owing to the fact that my mother inhibited the payment of
+the amount to me, and this embargo can only be removed when I am married
+to a man of rank and honour."
+
+"You'll have to be very economical in your housekeeping," I said, "not
+to exceed your income."
+
+"There's Kvatopil's pay, too, and as a cavalry officer he is entitled to
+free unfurnished quarters."
+
+"And you'll be able to put up with an officer's free quarters?" I said.
+
+"You know very well that to such things" ... (I saw that she meant to
+say, "I am used to such things," and I pulled a wry face. She rightly
+understood from my pantomime that it would be scarcely _proper_ to
+mention the events of "Anno Rengetegi" in the presence of her Royal and
+Imperial[97] bridegroom, so, with theatrical _savoir-faire_, she passed
+in an instant from the impudent nonchalance of a _vivandi�re_ to the
+tender cooing of a turtle-dove) ... "true love is always ready to
+sacrifice itself." And with an enchanting smile she extended her hand to
+her bridegroom, who raised it with tender enthusiasm to his lips. They
+were just like turtle-doves.
+
+[Footnote 97: Royal as belonging to the service of the King of Hungary,
+Imperial as serving the Emperor of Austria.]
+
+"Eh, Wenzy?"
+
+"Yes, Eliza!"
+
+I felt no particular pleasure in this version of Romeo and Juliet,
+indeed I was half-inclined to hiss the performers.
+
+"Before giving you my paternal blessing, my dear children," said I, "I
+have one question to ask you. Most honoured Mr. Lieutenant, as I
+understand that you were originally intended for a priest, I presume
+that you are a Catholic?"
+
+"A Roman Catholic, yes."
+
+"During the time you spent in the Seminary, then, have you not so much
+as learnt that a Catholic is not free to marry a Calvinist woman whom
+the civil tribunals have divorced from her husband; for, according to
+Catholic dogma, marriage is a sacrament which the secular power cannot
+dissolve?"
+
+At this the bridegroom looked very much amazed.
+
+"Neither of us thought of this certainly."
+
+Bessy suddenly cast a basilisk look at me. Huh! what lightnings flashed
+in those sea-like eyes!
+
+"Then how are we to get over that?" inquired the bridegroom of me, with
+childlike helplessness.
+
+"Why, by your becoming a Calvinist, I suppose."
+
+"A _Calvi_ ..." he was already outside the door when he said the ...
+"_nist_!" He caught up his helmet and bolted without saying good-bye to
+any one. Clerk Coloman told me afterwards he had never seen a dragoon in
+such a hurry.
+
+Bessy he left behind on my hands.
+
+The young lady was in a terrible rage.
+
+"It was pure malice on your part," cried she, "to do me out of my
+bridegroom like that! What do you mean by it? To serve me such a nasty
+trick as that!"
+
+I justified myself as best I could.
+
+"He would have had to know it sooner or later. The priest would have
+refused to unite you."
+
+"You should have left that to me. If once I had paid his debts, his
+honour as a gentleman would have bound him to make this sacrifice for
+me; he could not have got out of it then."
+
+I was forced to admit that I had acted very clumsily. I humbly begged
+her pardon. I would never do it again. Her next bridegroom might be a
+Mohammedan, for all that I cared.
+
+"You never could speak sensibly to me. No matter! I'll bring Wenceslaus
+Kvatopil back here one of these days."
+
+And off she went in a huff.
+
+This interruption had annoyed me. I had lots to do. I had to write the
+addresses of our subscribers on the covers of the neatly folded
+newspapers. This was not an ideal occupation, especially when one had to
+paste on the wrappers as well, which it was also _my_ business to do.
+Some proof-sheets were also awaiting me with a lot of printers' errors.
+It was a realization of the proverb, "When the church is poor, the
+parson tolls the bell himself." In my leisure hours, however--my time of
+repose--I went on with my romance, "A Hungarian Nabob"; the idea of the
+principal character I had borrowed from a story of my wife's.
+
+A couple of weeks elapsed. One evening, when I was hesitating whether I
+should go and see about my oil-lamp myself, or wait till clerk Coloman
+returned home from the post, or the chamber-maid from the theatre,
+whither she had gone to carry my consort her costume in a basket, a
+violent ringing began outside. I had to go and open the door myself.
+
+To my great surprise, I saw Bessy before me with her lieutenant on her
+arm.
+
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil was bubbling over with affability.
+
+"Here I am again, sir. They have arrested me, and put me in chains. I
+must surrender."
+
+Yes, I thought, when the starving garrison is reduced to horse-flesh.
+
+"The siege was vigorous. Such batteries. Look! Those eyes! Congreve
+rockets are nothing in comparison. The star battery is already taken."
+
+"The firing must have been terrible indeed."
+
+"And now I must ask you once more to be my witness."
+
+"You mean your bride's witness?"
+
+"No, mine. First you must come with me to the priest to inform him that
+I have renounced the Catholic faith."
+
+"What, already?"
+
+"Yes, and from conviction."
+
+"Would you take a chair, please?"
+
+"From absolute conviction."
+
+"Bessy is a more clever arguer than any missionary; an energetic
+propagandist."
+
+"And if I were to be damned on the spot, if I were to lose my hope of
+eternal salvation, I should be ready to sacrifice that also for those
+dear, lovely eyes."
+
+"Come, come, Mr. Lieutenant," I said, "pray don't talk so wildly."
+
+"But I mean what I say--I am ready to become a Mohammedan for her sake."
+
+"I can quite believe it."
+
+"Then you will be my witness at the priest's?"
+
+"Pardon me. 'Tis a serious matter. I honour my own religion as much as
+other sects honour theirs, yet I am no proselytizer. Do you wish to
+become a Calvinist from sincere conviction?"
+
+At this word he leaped furiously from his seat.
+
+"A Calvinist? Certainly not! Heaven forbid!"
+
+"Then what do you want to be?"
+
+"I want to be a Lutheran."
+
+"'Tis all one."
+
+"The devil it is! We at Leutomischl hold the Calvinists to be infidels."
+
+"Your bride might have told you, I think, that this is not true."
+
+At this, Bessy again intervened. She implored me prettily not to deny
+her this little kindness. Kvatopil had only consented to be converted
+because they have crosses in the Lutheran churches and believe in the
+sacraments, so that by joining them a man does not risk losing his
+heavenly hopes so much, and the Commander-in-chief would not be down
+upon him so fiercely as if he were to go over to the Calvinist
+Kuruczes.[98] The end of it all was that I, a Calvinist presbyter, had
+to introduce a newly-converted soul into the Lutheran Church.
+
+[Footnote 98: _Kurucz_, a name originally given to the Transylvanian
+insurgents under Francis R�k�czy; they were mostly Protestants.--TR.]
+
+I really must have been a very good sort of fellow formerly, that is to
+say, before my heart was hardened.
+
+At last every obstacle was overcome. I consented to give away my ward,
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil's bride. Bessy received from her excellent mother
+(who was now a general's wife) intimation that she had withdrawn her
+sequestration from the money in the Vienna bank; the caution-money was
+deposited, the boa conscriptors were satisfied, and nothing hindered us
+from going to church.
+
+The marriage party, besides the bride and bridegroom, consisted of two
+witnesses; the bridegroom's witness was a battalion commander, a major
+who brought his wife with him.
+
+And here, perhaps, every one will ask me why the wife of the _other_
+witness was not there also?
+
+It is an awkward question.
+
+I might, I know, summarily dispose of the whole matter by saying that my
+wife had just gone, by special invitation, to act at Szabadka; she had
+been invited, but could not come. But this answer, I know, is
+unsatisfactory.
+
+I would, however, first of all, lay down this axiom: "An honourable
+husband should give his wife _no occasion_ for jealousy; but neither
+ought he to make her jealous _without occasion_."
+
+The sacred truth is that I had never mentioned Bessy's name in my wife's
+hearing. ("Slipper-hero!") Did she know of her? I don't know. She was
+much too proud to have ever shown it if she did.
+
+I had Bessy's portrait, and it was in the drawer of my writing-table. It
+was there even when I got married. And if it had found its way into any
+one's hands, I could not have said that it was the portrait of my
+grandmother. But this is what did happen. When the Russian armies broke
+into the kingdom, I, foreseeing the end of the unequal struggle,
+shouldered my musket, tied on my sword, fastened my knapsack round my
+neck, took leave of my wife, and went forth to seek the camp of
+G�rgey--on foot. On my way I met Paul Ny�ry. "Whither away so armed to
+the teeth, brother Maurice?" said he. "I am going to die for my
+country," I replied, with tragic pathos. "And what have you got in your
+knapsack?" "A ham." "Well, before dying for your country, let us have a
+bit of that ham of yours together." With that he helped me up into his
+car, and in the car beside him was already sitting Joseph Patay--two
+members of the Hungary Government at Debreczin, in fact. I was curious
+enough to inquire whither we were going, whereupon Ny�ry replied:
+
+    "The dog that bolts to Szeged town
+    T'wards Buda lets his tail hang down."[99]
+
+    [Footnote 99: Buda and Szeged being in diametrically
+    opposite directions.]
+
+Even with the danger of instant death hanging over his head, his bitter
+irony never forsook him. So I went on with Ny�ry to Szeged. A week
+afterwards my wife followed me. Our house she had entrusted to poor old
+Dame Kovacs. The clever comic actress had no need to fear the Cossacks.
+When, however, the Russians occupied Buda-Pest, and the rigorous order
+was issued that all arms, uniforms, and Hungarian bank-notes were to be
+given up, whilst every one in possession of a prohibited object or a
+revolutionary proclamation was to be tried by court-martial and shot,
+then indeed the good old dame ransacked all the drawers of my
+writing-table, and crumpling up into a heap all she found there,
+including Pet�fi's correspondence, a letter of Klapka's, the whole of my
+diary which I had written during the Revolution, with innumerable and
+invaluable data, pitched the whole behind the fire, and so they
+disappeared. In this great _auto-da-f�_ Bessy's portrait was also
+reduced to ashes. I therefore have my suspicions that something was
+known about it, but nothing was ever said to me on the subject.
+
+So that, you see, was why _only I_ was present at Bessy's wedding.
+
+The rendezvous took place in her apartments. Here I had the opportunity
+of making the acquaintance of my fellow-witness, the major of dragoons,
+and a very genial man he was. He was a good copy of a genuine Hungarian
+lord-lieutenant of a county. Nothing but cordial hilarity and jovial
+merriment, you would never have taken him for a soldier, least of all
+for an Austrian soldier. He blackguarded the "Bach[100]-hussars," but
+had nothing but praise for the Hungarians. He had not been shut up in
+Temesvar like the lieutenant, but had been fighting in Italy, and had
+only just come hither. He had the habit of seasoning his discourse with
+Hungarian proverbs and pithy aphorisms. He introduced his wife to me
+also. "My domestic dragon," he said; he could not dispense with his
+jesting even then. The lady, however, clearly did not belong to the
+dragon species. On the contrary, she was a remarkably pleasant woman, in
+the prime of life, with really handsome features. One thing I will say
+of her: when once she began to talk she never knew when to leave off.
+Her conversation knew neither rest nor pause. In my eyes, however, this
+is an advantage, for it is my invariable practice to entertain my lady
+friends by letting them talk to their hearts' content, while I listen.
+
+[Footnote 100: The reactionary Austrian Minister who was mainly
+responsible for the attempted denationalization of Hungary.--TR.]
+
+When the bride was still in her boudoir, the major's lady made me
+thoroughly acquainted with the family affairs of all the officers' wives
+in the regiment. When the bride appeared in all her bridal glory,
+accompanied by the bridegroom, who held his helmet in one hand and a
+gigantic bouquet of camellias in the other, the exchange of notes
+between the witness of the bridegroom and the witness of the bride took
+place with all the usual formalities.
+
+Towards me the major acted with the studied courtesy of a high
+Government official, but towards the lieutenant he acted the part of a
+senior officer from beginning to end. He ordered him about as if he were
+sitting on horseback and on the point of setting out for scout duty. And
+the lieutenant obeyed him like a machine. In fact, the bridegroom quite
+gave me the impression of a man sitting in his saddle at the head of his
+squadron. The small arms were beginning to fire, the musket balls were
+piping about his ears, the hissing grenades strike the ground in front
+of him, and he cannot so much as move his head aside till the liberating
+command sounds: "Forward! March! Draw your swords! On 'em! Cut, slash!"
+Stop! What am I saying? Here was no question of cutting and slashing!
+No; press her to your breast, rather! Is she not your bride?
+
+Finally, at the word of command, we reached the altar.
+
+It was all over. I had given Bessy away. She was married.
+
+She bore up very gallantly; but then, of course, she had had a deal of
+practice.
+
+But as for the bridegroom, every one of his movements had to be by
+order; he was accustomed to have it so. He was so moved indeed that he
+could scarcely draw off his glove, and would have forced the bride to
+stand on the right hand, whereas the priest wished her to pass to the
+left; and when the ceremony was over, he turned towards his own witness
+with the expression of a delinquent condemned to death who has now no
+hope left save in the mercy of the Court of Appeal.
+
+"We have been married with our left hands," he stammered.
+
+His best man reassured him: "Have no fear of that, my son. 'Tis the
+usual thing. The bride always stands on the left, but your right hands
+were duly placed within each other."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+Worthy Kvatopil did not seem to know which was his right hand and which
+was his left.
+
+On the way home the happy bride and bridegroom sat together in a little
+coach.
+
+A splendid banquet awaited the guests in Bessy's lodgings. The table was
+already spread.
+
+When the happy husband had conducted his darling yoke-fellow into the
+midst of us, he, without more ado, flung himself on the sofa, and,
+hiding his face in the palms of both hands, began to weep bitterly.
+Such a wonder as that is surely not to be seen for either love or money!
+That a bridegroom should weep fit to break his heart immediately after
+the marriage ceremony, and bewail the loss of his bachelordom in floods
+of bitter tears!
+
+The two ladies, however, took him in hand between them, and began to
+entreat and console him, but he could not stifle this outburst of
+feeling. The major also reassured him very prettily: "Come, come, my
+dear friend, you need not take it so tragically. Look at me now! I've
+been through it all! Look how well I get on with my domestic dragon!"
+This, however, was poor balm to him in his great affliction. At last the
+major fairly lost his temper. "A thousand Turkish skulls! What's this,
+lieutenant? Do you wish to regale us with a specimen of the higher
+morality? Bombs and grenades! Embrace your wife, sir, immediately!"
+
+Bessy looked at me as if she were on the point of weeping. I pitied her
+from the bottom of my heart.
+
+"Mr. Lieutenant," I said, "have you ever learnt English?"
+
+The newly-married husband was amazed.
+
+"Yes," said he.
+
+"From Ollendorf's grammar?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you recollect exercise No. 2: '_Why does the Captain weep?--Because
+the Englishman has no bread._'--Well, then, let us _give_ the Englishman
+some bread."
+
+At this every one burst out laughing. The lieutenant also laughed.
+
+And so this scene came to an end. We sat down to table, and amidst the
+merry ring of glasses we made a good deal of fun out of the odd and
+mystical question of Ollendorf's, "Why does the Captain weep?" and the
+still more curious answer, "Because the Englishman has no bread."
+
+The lieutenant's frame of mind remained an inexplicable enigma to me. In
+after years I discovered its true solution.
+
+The cause of his weeping was altogether different from what Ollendorf
+had supposed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SOLDIERING
+
+
+The idyll did not last very long, and was quickly followed by the epic.
+
+War broke out, not among the young married folks, but among the European
+Powers. This only so far concerned my ward as Kvatopil was also
+mobilized; with his dragoon regiment he went towards the eastern
+frontier. Bessy, naturally, went with him.
+
+We parted abruptly. They both came to me to say good-bye. Kvatopil's
+face was radiant with joy, and the reflection of it was visible in the
+smiling face of the lady. There will be war. The soldier's harvest will
+now ripen.
+
+For the purpose of sending her her quarterly allowance it was absolutely
+indispensable that I should know their place of sojourning.
+
+"Our title for the present will be--'An Ihre hochwohlgeboren Frau
+Oberlieutenantin Elisabeth von Kvatopil!' For the present, I say. Later
+on we shall no doubt advance _farther_ and _higher_."
+
+"_Farther_ towards the frontier, and _higher_ in the scale of rank, I
+suppose?" said I, by way of solving the rebus.
+
+My ward (she was four years younger than I) was very pleased with my
+polite elucidation, and the pair of them parted from me in the best
+humour in the world.
+
+After that I received a letter from my ward every week. There is
+absolutely nothing in the most intricately combined knights' moves of
+the severest chess problems which can be compared with their peripatetic
+zigzagings. Now towards the south, a week afterwards towards the west,
+then up again towards the north, retreating, advancing, then back again;
+knocking about in such utterly unknown hamlets, that one could only
+discover them on the best charts by means of microscopes. Finally, the
+war took a flying leap into Wallachia and Moldavia, skipped about Jassy
+and Bucharest, and then leaped across and all along the Pruth, and at
+last settled down in Czernovicz, till it had to move on farther to
+Przemysl, whence again it happily doubled back by way of Stry, Munk�cs,
+Tokaj, Miskolcz, Kecskemet, and through Kalocsa again to Buda-Pest.
+
+Bessy accompanied her husband everywhere. All the vicissitudes of the
+seasons which naturally abounded in such a martial pleasure trip she
+patiently endured with him. The letters which she sent to me during this
+period would make a very interesting chapter in a history of camp life.
+_Opportunist_ reasons restrain me from making them public--they might
+deter our young persons (I allude, of course, to the female sex) from
+following Bessy's example.
+
+Often and often I thought how accurately this young woman had foretold
+all these things of herself when we sat beside each other in my little
+wooden hut on the Comorn islet. In a straw-hut, in a cow-stall, in a
+besieged fortress, in a bare barrack, in the tent of an itinerant
+player, at the bivouac of an out-camping soldier--anywhere and
+everywhere, it is Love that makes us happy, and its sweet illusion can
+conjure up fairy palaces out of these wretched surroundings. And
+remember, too, that an officer in the field is by no means an amiable
+husband. Plagued, worried, chicaned by his official superiors; flouted
+by the weather; looking at the enemy with wolf's eyes, and kept back
+from falling upon him; eternally bickering with an unfriendly
+population; a guest beheld with evil eyes; and his wife (if he have one)
+like an iron chain hanging to his neck--it requires no small amount of
+love on the lady's part for her to follow him everywhere, and put up
+with his ill-humour.
+
+And she had prophesied all this beforehand. What was to be the end of it
+all?
+
+But there had been no advance whatever up the ladder of rank. My last
+letter was still addressed to a lieutenant's lady.
+
+When the great universal war was over, which left behind it so much
+bitter disillusion, Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil again came tapping at
+my door.
+
+Clerk Coloman was no longer with me. The _D�libab_ had come to grief. I
+now edited the _Vas�rnapi Ujs�g_, in the place of the publicly
+advertised and responsible editor Albert Pakh, who was lying ill at
+Graefenberg. My new name was "Kakas M�rtin."[101] Eh, what a popular man
+I was then! There were Kakas M�rtin meerschaum pipes and Kakas M�rtin
+clays, with bowls in the shape of cock-headed men. I really was in the
+mouth of the nation in those days. _O tempi passati!_
+
+[Footnote 101: Martin Cock.]
+
+"Ah! 'tis you, brother, eh?" said I.
+
+"So you still recognise me, then?"
+
+I must admit that his physiognomy had considerably changed. During the
+campaign the officers were permitted to grow absolutely
+counter-regulationary beard-pieces. Wenceslaus was now bearded _� la
+Haynau_, that is to say, the beard was shaved so as to run into the
+moustache, till the two seemed one, which contributed not a little to
+the formidability of the whole face. But a still more notable correction
+of the features was due to his nose, which had grown quite red,--a piece
+of ruby.
+
+He began by laying his index finger on the bridge of his nose.
+
+"Do you see that? My sole booty from the Russo-Turkish war is this red
+nose. Last winter, while we were encamping on the Galician frontier, I
+happened to be out in the open field the whole of one night, and got in
+the way of a villainous Russian blast. The wind drove the powdered snow
+into my face, and each flake stung me like a red-hot needle-point. I
+was not even able to turn my back upon it. In the morning my nose was
+just as you see it now. That same week twenty of my men were frozen to
+death in their saddles, half of my regiment was down in the hospital
+with inflammation of the lungs, scurvy, and hunger-typhus. Of my whole
+squadron I only brought forty men home--and this blood-red nose as a
+trophy."
+
+At this I did not know whether to condole with or congratulate him.
+
+"I shouldn't have minded so much if only we had been able to fight with
+some one; but to go through a six-months' campaign without having
+anything else to do with one's sword than lay the flat of the blade
+about the shoulders of stubborn peasants during our requisitions for
+hay, that I _do_ call hard. Sometimes our foreposts were so close to the
+enemy that we could _see_ each other's breath, and yet we were not
+allowed to attack. At one time we were face to face with the Turks, at
+another time with the Muscovites. It would have been all one to me whom
+I pitched into, so long as I could pitch into some one. No such luck!
+Just when I was fancying that now we really were going to begin the
+battle, the order came again, 'Sheathe your swords!' and we marched
+somewhere else. I would have preferred storming trenches with cavalry to
+this sort of thing. And then that cursed maize-bread! Nothing but
+maize-bread, and not always enough of that. Half-roasted horse-flesh,
+too! Thank you for nothing!"
+
+"But, thank Heaven, it is all over now!" said I encouragingly.
+
+"It is over, certainly. But what have I gained by it?"
+
+He pointed to his collar. There certainly were only two stars there
+still.
+
+"No promotion. I am just where I was before. And yet our major has
+retired. He was obliged to go, poor fellow; every limb was full of
+rheumatism. Our senior captain was promoted to his place, our second
+captain into the first captain's place. His place is now empty. I am the
+senior lieutenant, but there's not a word said about me. It is enough to
+make a fellow blow his brains out!"
+
+I earnestly begged him not to think of such a thing. He had other
+duties. With such an amiable consort too!
+
+"True, brother! She really is an angel. I dare not think what that woman
+has gone through during these bitter times. She was with me everywhere;
+but for her, perhaps, I should have gone to the bad. Ah, my friend, you
+don't know what bliss it is when, after going one's rounds through a
+biting snowstorm, one returns to one's quarters to find there an angel
+awaiting you with a bowl of steaming-hot punch."
+
+"I do know, for I've tried it."
+
+"The punch never failed. If rum was to be had for money, she got it from
+somewhere. I have known her, sir, get into her sledge and drive a day's
+journey into town to get rum for me. A diamond-hearted woman, I say! And
+then her love, too! Despite this ruby nose of mine, she loves me. She
+says it suits me very well. Nay, she is not even hurt at remaining
+simply the wife of a senior lieutenant. But for her I should have sent a
+bullet through my head long ago."
+
+I tried to comfort him with the assurance that a senior lieutenant in
+active service was worth ever so much more in the world's estimation
+than a general on the retired list.
+
+He wound up by inviting me to have a glass of punch with him in the
+evening as soon as his lodgings were ready to receive me.
+
+I didn't go.
+
+Frequently did he invite me, by letter in his wife's name even, and yet
+I never went to drink punch with them. When we met together afterwards,
+I always invented some excuse. On the first occasion I said my head
+ached; on the second occasion I said I was too busy; on the third
+occasion unexpected country cousins had looked in upon me, and so on.
+
+Every time I met him, however, friend Wenceslaus always wound up with
+the bitter exclamation: "I shall have to blow my brains out. Still no
+promotion!"
+
+At last I was tired of telling so many lies, so I told my friend the
+truth.
+
+Now, there are three sorts of truths in the world.
+
+The first sort of truth is that which pleases my friend, but doesn't
+please me.
+
+The second sort of truth is that which pleases me, but doesn't please my
+friend.
+
+The third sort of truth is that which pleases neither my friend nor
+myself, and which brings us to loggerheads at once. Let me illustrate
+what I mean.
+
+To take number one first, I might have said to friend Kvatopil: "My dear
+comrade, a constitutional regime prevails in my house: my wife reigns,
+but I am _responsible_, and I could never obtain her majesty's consent
+to a bill authorizing me to go and have tea once a week with your pretty
+wife."
+
+But this truth I did _not_ tell him.
+
+But supposing I had said to him: "My dear lieutenant, I move in a
+completely different sphere to you. I should be infinitely honoured by
+your society, but I should not know what to talk to your colleagues
+about," that would have been the second sort of truth.
+
+But I did not tell him that.
+
+I told him the third sort of truth. I said: "My dear Kvatopil, if you
+want to know the reason why you don't get promotion, I'll tell you. It
+is because you are so friendly with me. I am a _persona ingrata_ in the
+eyes of the authorities. Only yesterday the police paid me a visit,
+packed up every scrap of paper they could lay their hands on, and
+carried it off; they even took my pictures out of the frames. Then
+Police-inspector Prottman came and worried me for half a day by asking
+me what I knew about Kossuth's proclamation and the dollar notes. If you
+keep on visiting me and writing to me, and if I were to go and amuse
+myself among your brother officers, they would think it gospel truth
+that you were also concerned in the conspiracy. Fortunately, I always
+burn your letters of invitation, or Prottman would now be engaged in
+docketting them."
+
+My friend was startled.
+
+"I only invited you to a glass of punch!" he cried.
+
+"Punch here and punch there! The police would be sure to read it
+'_putsch_.'[102] And look ye, comrade, to be perfectly candid with you,
+I think it would be better for you if you left off all this
+punch-drinking, for 'tis that which makes your nose so red."
+
+[Footnote 102: A riot or sedition.]
+
+Now _that_ was the truth which pleased neither of us.
+
+"You think so, eh? By Jove, you're right! It has often seemed to me when
+I swallow down a glass of punch as if my nose were assuming enormous
+dimensions and diffusing a radiance all about me. From this day forth
+I'll drink no more punch. My word upon it! What's to-day? January 23rd?
+Note it in your diary: 'On January 23rd, Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil
+gave me his word of honour as a gentleman that he would never drink
+punch again.'"--And he left me no peace till I had entered it in my
+diary.
+
+"Nay, more than that, no kind of brandy, or schnaps, or wine, or beer;
+in a word, no sort of spirituous liquor whatever."
+
+All this I had to make a note of.
+
+"And now for a whole year and a day we'll watch the result. Nothing else
+now but pure water."
+
+For a whole year after that I saw nothing of Kvatopil, nor did I hear
+anything of Bessy.
+
+One day, however, my lieutenant suddenly invaded me again; he was still
+the wearer of two stars only.
+
+"Now, if it isn't really enough to make a fellow blow his brains out!
+Again they have passed me over. I went straight to the Colonel. 'Your
+Excellency,' I said, 'here have I been in the service for the last
+twelve years. I have faithfully performed my duties. I have never used
+bad language. I know the regulations. I am at the head of the riding
+school--and still I am set aside. I want to know what objection they
+have against me.'"
+
+"Manly conduct on your part, comrade," I cried.
+
+"And do you know what answer I got? You were quite right, after all."
+
+"Your suspicious intimacy with me, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh dear, no! Who the devil cares for your chatter about the police? Not
+you it is, but this red nose! Here it is still, and it stands in my
+way." And he viciously tugged at the object that stood in his way as if
+it were some stubborn remount.
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"Then I'll make you. The Colonel replied to my interpellation with
+perfect candour. 'My dear Kvatopil,' said he, 'you have indeed the very
+best good-conduct report. There's but one fault which weighs heavily in
+the scale against you: you are too much devoted to drink.' 'What? I?
+Given to drink? Why, for more than a year I have been drinking nothing
+but water.' 'Impossible!' cried the Colonel--'just look at your red
+nose!' 'I acquired that while campaigning out.' The Colonel shook his
+head incredulously. 'But I assure your Excellency that I am speaking the
+truth, I have written testimony to the fact.' 'Then I should very much
+like to see it.' So that is why I have come straight to you. My dear
+friend, I adjure you by your hope of heavenly bliss, if you love me, if
+you ever loved Bessy, if you would save the life of a human creature, to
+give me that note-book in which, a year ago, you entered the vow that I
+made on my honour as a gentleman, that I may show it to the Colonel."
+
+I energetically resisted this proposal.
+
+"My dear friend, all sorts of ticklish items have been entered in this
+note-book of mine which absolutely cannot be read by anybody but
+myself."
+
+But he solemnly assured me that he would never while he was alive suffer
+the little book to leave his hands, and would only show to his superior
+that one page relating to his solemn engagement, so that at last I was
+obliged to submit to his discretion. He promised to return in an hour's
+time.
+
+And he kept his word. In an hour he returned, gave me back my little
+book, embraced me and pressed me to his breast.
+
+"My friend, you have made me a happy man. I have obtained my object. His
+Excellency, on reading the oath recorded in your note-book, laughed to
+such an extent that I could count at least four of his teeth that were
+stopped with gold. Great Heaven! he eats gold with gold, while I have to
+gnaw bones with bone! When he had somewhat recovered from his outburst
+of hilarity, he smacked me on the shoulder, and said: 'Mr. Lieutenant, a
+great injustice has been done you. You are not a drunkard. There has
+been a mistake. This must be seen to. And I promise you that at the very
+first vacancy you shall obtain your third star.'"
+
+This promise raised my friend into the seventh heaven of delight. Hope
+gave him back the desire of life.
+
+This now is the speciality of a soldier's life. We poor civilians can
+have no idea of the joy he felt, especially if we be nothing but
+simple-minded authors. For an author has only one star, and that is high
+above his head. If he can get it, he may keep it, 'tis his. If he cannot
+get it himself, nobody in the world can get it for him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+
+The most beautiful comet I ever saw was the comet of 1858. It was
+visible in the sky for a whole fortnight, from October 1st to 15th, and
+all the time the weather was as fine as could be, not a cloud in the
+sky. And meanwhile the comet drew steadily nearer to the earth, growing
+bigger and bigger, and in shape it exactly resembled a Turkish scimitar;
+at last it was quite visible in broad daylight.
+
+I had very good cause for remembering this comet so well. In September
+of the same year I was seized with h�morrhage of the lungs, an alarming
+symptom in a young man. Our doctor, Sebastian Andrew Kovacs of blessed
+memory, said that it was not medicine that I wanted, but change of air.
+
+I submitted to his directions, and at the beginning of the autumn I
+undertook an audacious expedition--to visit the Western Carpathian Alps
+on horseback. Our good old friend Gabriel T�r�k (he had been a
+Government Commissioner during the Revolution) and his two sons were my
+guides, for they had been all through those beautiful regions[103]
+before. Five to six hours in the saddle every day for a fortnight,
+through pathless forests, up and down steep rocky precipices, wading
+through streams and mountain torrents, dancing of an evening at the
+balls frequently given in our honour, in the big-heeled boots that we
+had worn on horseback during the day, gobbling bacon as we stopped to
+rest on the fresh grass, and washing it down with a gurgling drink out
+of our brandy-flasks--that is what I call a radical cure for
+inflammation of the lungs.
+
+[Footnote 103: J�kai has immortalized these wonderful landscapes in _Az
+Erdelyi ar�ny K�ra_, perhaps his best descriptive romance.]
+
+It cured me, anyhow.
+
+With my suite, which gradually swelled into ten strong, I visited Bihar,
+and found out the rocky grave beneath which reposes my good friend Paul
+Vasv�ry, who died such a heroic death.[104] I also saw the Hungarian
+California, the gold-diggings of Abrudbanya and Verespatak. I painted
+that marvellous basalt hill Deton�t�, than which it is impossible to
+imagine a more interesting formation. I was in _Cset�tye M�r�_, that
+overwhelming relic of the Roman power, a gigantic gold-producing hill
+entirely hollowed out by the slavish hands of a subjugated race. When
+they would have dug still deeper, the top of the scooped-out mountain
+fell in and buried beneath it both slaves and slave-holders. And there
+it stands now, a gaping chasm, like one of the circular Mountains of the
+Moon.
+
+[Footnote 104: One of the victims of the Revolution.]
+
+I love to look back on this delightful tour; and the lovely comet
+accompanied me in the sky all the time.
+
+The result of my journey was that I returned home with perfectly healthy
+lungs. From the comet, moreover, I borrowed the idea of starting a
+weekly comic paper under the title of _Ust�k�s_.[105] And this paper
+gave me something to do for the next fifteen years. During all that time
+it had great influence. With a preliminary and a supplementary
+censureship to deal with, it was only possible to say a word of truth or
+a word of encouragement in verse or by way of anecdote. Sometimes a
+printer's error served our turn instead. For instance, to the question,
+"What shall a Hungarian man do now?" the answer was, "_V�rjon �s
+t�rj�n_" ("Wait and suffer"); but by a printer's error the "_t�rj�n_"
+became "_t�rr j�n_," which the reader, in his own mind, would read as
+"_T�rr j�n_" ("Let T�rr come"), and associate it at once with the
+popular ballad sung from one end of the kingdom to the other, and which
+begins, "_Hoz T�rr Pizta pusk�t!_" ("Pizta T�rr he brings his musket!")
+
+[Footnote 105: This comic paper still exists, but M. J�kai is no longer
+its editor.]
+
+But the comet had another signification also.
+
+In those days war was our universal prayer. And the following year
+actually brought it.
+
+Napoleon III.'s historical new year's greeting settled the dread destiny
+of the year.
+
+One day my lieutenant again came to see me; I was still his guardian.
+His face beamed with joy.
+
+"God be with you, my friend!"
+
+It was a strange beginning.
+
+"I suppose you've got your promotion in your pocket?"
+
+"Not that, but an order to march. Our whole regiment goes to Lombardy,
+and perhaps even farther. There will be war with Italy, but pray don't
+say anything about it. 'Tis a State secret."
+
+"I knew it long ago."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+"From the Chief of the Police himself. One day he summoned before him
+all the newspaper editors in Buda-Pest and sternly commanded them not to
+write a single letter as _to the preparations_ for the impending war.
+And thus we heard all about the coming campaign from the very best
+authority."
+
+"Well, they certainly might have acted more discreetly than that."
+
+"Where, then, shall I send you your remittances in the immediate
+future?"
+
+"Nowhere at all, dear friend. Bessy will remain here. Nobody is allowed
+to take his wife with him, not even the Colonel; whilst from the very
+day on which the war begins I shall receive double pay. So give the
+money to Bessy."
+
+"I'll _send_ it to her."
+
+"I say _give_ it to her. Take it yourself personally."
+
+"I am much obliged for your confidence."
+
+"It is more than confidence. I wish you, while I am away, to go and see
+her: be her guest every day, and make yourself quite at home."
+
+"The deuce! Do you consider me, then, one of those ninnies to whom one
+can confide a pretty woman _� l'outrance_?"
+
+"_Au contraire!_ I am convinced of the contrary. I know that in such
+matters no reliance can be placed upon mere honour. The only thing a man
+expects from his worthy comrades is discretion. I am well informed of
+everything. My wife has confessed everything to me: the little wooden
+hut on the Comorn island, and then the visit in your private room, the
+meeting at the Pagan Altar.... He, he, he! we know all the circumstances
+quite well!"
+
+(It was an unheard of case. To think that a pretty woman should become
+the trumpet of her own notoriety!)
+
+"But, my dear comrade, on my word of honour ..."
+
+"Here we have nothing to do with words of honour. You were in love with
+her once, and I need have no further fear of any one who _used_ to love
+Bessy. Jupiter was the chief of the gods, and had the loveliest of women
+for his wife, yet _he_ didn't keep the ten commandments. 'Twill be
+better to pour pure wine into our glasses, I think."
+
+"But, I repeat, I don't want to pour any wine at all into my glass."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense! We know all about that. Bessy makes a fool of every
+man, and showers contempt on her worshippers. Of you alone does she
+always speak with rapture. Whenever your name is mentioned she sighs
+deeply, and says, 'Ah, and I might have been his, too!'"
+
+"That proves all the more that our relations have been purely Platonic."
+
+"Very good indeed! What I like about you best of all is the serious face
+with which you are always able to defend your point of view. Another man
+in your place would rejoice at his good fortune; you nobly deny
+yourself. You will compromise nobody. You have that advantage over all
+my other good friends. I would rather entrust her to you than to
+anybody."
+
+"But why not rather trust her to herself? Foster within her the
+sentiment of fidelity. Write to her every day from the camp."
+
+"Nay, my friend, a letter won't do. I can't be always scribbling and
+raving to her. Bessy is not one of the romantic sort. You know all her
+various temperaments."
+
+"Indeed, I know nothing of the sort."
+
+"Well, I do then. I know that the moment I've cast my right foot over my
+horse's back she will be unfaithful to me. It is as much her nature to
+be so as it is my nature to fight and yours to write. When I can't sit
+on horseback I'm ill, when you can't write a romance you're ill, and
+when a pretty woman is not flirting she gets the _migraine_. Your hand
+upon it that you will visit my Bessy while I am far away and comfort
+her!" And the tears really started to his eyes.
+
+Now, here was a situation which is not to be found in any romance, and
+which the reader will, I know, only accept as true under protest. A
+soldier departing for the wars forcibly compels his good friend to try
+and comfort the pretty wife he leaves behind him. But that that friend
+should kick and struggle with all his might against such a marvellous
+piece of good fortune is a fact which I am sure I shall never get the
+enlightened public to believe anyhow.
+
+"My friend," said Kvatopil finally, drying the tears from his eyes and
+violently pressing one of my hands in one of his, "you know that we
+valiant horsemen, dragoons and uhlans, are going down to Italy; the
+hussars have gone already. The volunteers will take our place here in
+garrison-duty. During our absence down there they will be raging
+furiously here. If I thought that mine would be the shame to see my
+place here taken by one of those red-braided, chicory hussars, I should
+be capable of blowing out first my wife's brains and then my own. Don't
+allow such a thing to happen. If one of those cockatoos were to see your
+astrachan pelisse with the large chalcedon buttons of yours hanging up
+in my ante-chamber, he would be scared into flight at once."
+
+At this we both laughed heartily.
+
+We took leave of each other very prettily. Kvatopil with the fairest
+hopes followed the glorious career which promised him fame and
+promotion.
+
+The whole kingdom waited for news from the seat of war with rapt
+attention.
+
+Our parting had taken place at the end of April. In May, the official
+newspapers gave us a brief account of the battle of Montebello. It was
+not a regular pitched battle, but a forced reconnaissance by the
+Austrian general with a jumble of some 12,000 men of all arms. Both the
+Austrians and the French fought bravely. The official _communiqu�_ did
+not give further details.
+
+I, however, through the kind offices of a courier sent from the seat of
+war to the Commandant of Buda, also received a private letter from the
+field of battle. Kvatopil wrote thus:--
+
+     "MY DEAR FRIEND,--
+
+     "I hasten to write to you after the battle. The whole
+     of our regiment was under fire, repulsed the French
+     chasseurs and pursued them into Montebello. _I received
+     a slight wound in the forehead, which did not, however,
+     prevent my further fighting. The Commander-in-chief
+     immediately promoted me to the rank of captain, and
+     praised my valour in front of the regiment. Make known
+     the joyous news to my dear wife. I am not able to write
+     to her. A thousand kisses to the pair of you._
+
+     "WENCESLAUS KVATOPIL, Captain."
+
+But there was a postscript also.
+
+     "P.S.--Show this letter to nobody, and don't let it out
+     of your hand. Destroy it when you have read it through,
+     for, if it were discovered, it would bring me into the
+     greatest trouble, as it is absolutely forbidden to
+     write letters from the camp. That is why I have
+     addressed it to you instead of to my wife, for I can
+     count upon your discretion. In her triumph she would
+     show the letter everywhere. But you burn it.--W.�K."
+
+Now, this letter made it my positive duty to visit Bessy, for I could
+only tell her about it by word of mouth. I might indeed have destroyed
+Kvatopil's letter, then written its entire purport to his wife in a
+letter of my own, but in that case she would certainly have carried my
+letter from pillar to post, and the mischief would have been the same.
+
+If I went to her in broad daylight, every one would see me. I could not
+go _incognito_, for I was as well known as a bit of bad money. Besides
+that, the Hungarian national costume was in fashion just then. Every one
+who wore it might expect to have his name bawled after him in the street
+for a week afterwards at the very least. If, on the other hand, I were
+to go to Bessy when it was dark, and they were lighting the gas-lamps,
+that would only make matters worse.
+
+And again, it would be an inconceivable absurdity not to suppose that
+one or other of Bessy's fair neighbours would not be looking out of the
+windows of the house opposite, with the most persistent curiosity, to
+see who was going in at the gate. And if but one of them saw me, the
+whole theatre would know all about it on the morrow.
+
+A husband with a conscience (and there _are_ such husbands) ought in
+such cases to stand before his wife with a demure countenance, and say
+to her honestly and openly: "My dear angel, I am obliged to pay a
+disagreeable visit to this or that lady, and I don't half like it; I
+wish you would come too." Whereupon the wife will naturally be quite
+magnanimous and say: "Go along by yourself, my dear; you know that I am
+not a bit jealous."
+
+But my wife happened, just then, to be away acting at Szeged, and would
+not be back for a week. That would be an aggravating circumstance in the
+case of a visit.
+
+While I was thus debating with myself, a smart little maid-servant came
+to my door. She had a covered market-basket on her arm, and she drew out
+of it a neatly-folded little _billet-doux_, which she placed in my hand.
+The note smelt of celery, under which it had been put. I recognised the
+handwriting of the address, it was Bessy's. I opened and read it. The
+maid stood there and waited. At last she grew impatient of the long
+delay, and said: "I am waiting for an answer."
+
+"Oh, so you're still there? Stop a bit!"
+
+I read the letter once more.
+
+     "MY DEAR GUARDIAN,
+
+     "Very serious business makes me send to you. Come and
+     see me. As your honoured wife is now engaged on a
+     provincial tour, can't you come and dine with me
+     to-day? We shall be all by ourselves.
+
+     "BESSY."
+
+Was there ever an odder reason?--"_As your honoured wife is now engaged
+on a provincial tour_"! No doubt she found that out in the _F�v�rosi
+Lapok_.[106] But the conclusion: "_therefore_ you can come and dine with
+me to-day"! And finally: "We shall be all by ourselves"! If that wasn't
+a temptation, I don't know what is.
+
+[Footnote 106: _News of the Capital_, a popular newspaper of the
+period.]
+
+I began to walk up and down.
+
+The maid waited to see if I was going to count how many paces it was
+from the window to the door. At last she grew importunate.
+
+"Is there any answer, please? I have to go home and cook the dinner."
+
+"Ah, yes, of course! Greet your mistress from me, and tell her that I'll
+come and see her in the forenoon to-morrow."
+
+"But I want to know whether you are coming to dinner, that I may arrange
+my cooking accordingly."
+
+"True! Then say I'll come to dinner."
+
+In Bessy's house the custom seemed to prevail for the mistress to dine
+six days of the week with Duke Humphrey, and then on the seventh, her
+at-home day, to make a great parade before her guests.
+
+I was now running into the very centre of danger.
+
+I could not possibly back out of this engagement.
+
+"A serious business, eh?" I know it was serious enough to me.
+
+An ideal of my youth, and lovelier now than ever, with a husband of her
+own too, and that husband a fine manly fellow. So far from being
+jealous, he had openly entrusted me with the consolation of his
+sorrowing spouse. And I am the last person in the world to be enrolled
+in the Order of Anchorites.
+
+I candidly admit that I am not a bit better than my neighbours.
+
+So I tricked myself out finely. I put on my new coffee-coloured clothes
+with the antique buttons; I neatly tied my embroidered cravat; I drew on
+my Kordofan-leather boots with the silver spurs; I fastened a crane's
+plume in my new spiral hat.
+
+This was the audacious fashion of the year, and within a twelvemonth
+this costume was worn in the whole kingdom. And after that, I went to
+the barber's and he twisted my thick blonde hair into masterly ringlets.
+Aggravating circumstances, the whole lot of them!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A COLD DOUCHE
+
+
+How my heart beat when I set forth on my expedition!
+
+On the way from my dwelling to Bessy's lodgings my ill fate brought me
+face to face with all the veteran actresses of the National Theatre, and
+they all stopped me and asked where I was going. They all remarked that
+I was very stylishly got up, and they all shook their fingers at me, and
+said: "Fie, fie! you straw-widower!"
+
+The devil must really have been in me to make me take the trouble to
+have my hair so prettily frizzled.
+
+I was just about to dash hastily up the staircase of Bessy's dwelling,
+when whom should I run into but T�ni S�gi. It only needed that. He came
+from the same town as I did, was a common friend of all my friends, and
+was about as reticent of news as a town-crier.
+
+"Your servant, friend! Why, you're quite a stranger. I've just come from
+Bessy. The young lady is in a very bad humour. She as good as pitched me
+out of doors. She must be expecting some one. Perhaps you are the very
+man, eh?"
+
+It was all up with me now! To-morrow every newspaper in the town will
+report my visit here. For "quod licet _bovi_, non licet _Jovi_."
+
+If I were to turn back now, it would only make matters worse.
+
+I hastened up the steps. Bessy lived on the third floor.... To get to
+her rooms I had to follow the open corridor which led down to the
+courtyard. I passed on my way the lodgings of a milliner, a female
+pawnbroker, and a lady who supplied families with servant-maids, and all
+three poked their heads out of their windows and watched me disappear.
+
+On reaching Bessy's number, I found, tugging at the bell-rope, a
+red-peluched young coxcomb. The door was about a fourth part open, and
+the face of the vicious looking cook was protruding out of it. She
+dismissed the visitor with curt ceremony.
+
+"My mistress is not at home!"
+
+We nearly trod each other's spurs off as we cannoned against each other
+in the narrow corridor.
+
+A minute afterwards the countenance of the self-same cook, rounded into
+complete amiability, again appeared, and she said to me:
+
+"Would you do us the honour to walk in?"
+
+And she held the door wide open for me.
+
+You should have seen the face which my red furbelowed gentleman made at
+this. It was not enough for him to open his eyes and mouth at me; he
+stuck his _pince-nez_ on the bridge of his nose as well.
+
+That will mean a duel for me to-morrow.
+
+Meantime, however, I was master of the situation.
+
+I had to go through the kitchen to get to Bessy's room. The kitchen was
+also the ante-chamber; you hung up your overcoat there. Her cook was her
+only servant, parlour-maid, chamber-maid, everything.
+
+"Would you kindly walk into the saloon?" urged the servant.
+
+"But announce me beforehand. Here's my card."
+
+"Beg pardon, but I can't take it; both my hands are doughy." (She was in
+the middle of kneading some dough cake or other with butter.) "Would you
+kindly put your card between my teeth?"
+
+Thus, like a retriever, she carried in my card between her teeth. A
+moment afterwards she cried:
+
+"Come in now, please!"
+
+I entered the room which the servant had called a saloon.
+
+Nobody was there. I looked around me. I found nothing there of the
+luxurious splendour which had surrounded the young lady formerly in her
+mother's house; but for all that everything was neat and pretty.
+Embroideries, a music-stand with songs upon it, and a fiddle,
+flower-pots, a cage with exotic birds, Wallachian _Katrinczas_,[107]
+Szekler pottery, a few handsomely bound books--all these were so
+disposed as to fill the mind with a sense of refined elegance combined
+with the utmost simplicity.
+
+[Footnote 107: Aprons.]
+
+A curtained door led from the saloon into another room--possibly a
+bed-chamber.
+
+In a few minutes this door opened and the fair lady fluttered in.
+
+It did not escape my attention that the moment she entered she turned
+her head on one side, and contracted her eyebrows as if to bid some one
+else remaining behind there to keep quiet. The momentary opening of the
+door also permitted me to see that in the direction in which she had
+looked was a tall tester bed with the curtains drawn close.
+
+The moment, however, that she had shut the door behind her and turned
+towards me, the face of the lovely lady became all amiability. She
+hastened up to me and pressed my hand.
+
+"It was very nice of you to come and see me. Don't be angry with me for
+giving you the trouble."
+
+The lady was now more amiable than ever.
+
+She was in the simplest stay-at-home toilet. The only ornament on her
+head was her own bright silky hair, twisted up into a knot and tied at
+the top with a ribbon.
+
+She looked just as she was ten years before, a little girl of sixteen.
+
+Her whole being recalled to me her childish days. There was the same
+candid, guileless look; those open eyes through which you could read
+into her very soul; the same artless mouth.
+
+She invited me to sit down. She took my hat and laid it on the table.
+
+"I suppose you'll remain to dinner? I have told the cook to prepare your
+favourite dish."
+
+"Then you know what it is?"
+
+"Why, of course! _Beans with pig's ear._ Why, all your admirers
+throughout the kingdom know that."
+
+I had now good reason to be proud! My nation, then, has some regard for
+me, after all. To others it presents _bays_, to me--_beans_.[108]
+
+[Footnote 108: In Hungarian the resemblance is closer still, _babo_
+meaning bean, and _bab�r_, laurel.]
+
+"In that case I'll remain," I said.
+
+"In Kvatopil's time I was never permitted to cook beans, for he
+maintained that they make a man stupid."
+
+"On the contrary. Pythagoras assures us that the bean contains the same
+component parts as the human brain."
+
+Having thus rehabilitated the bean, I reverted to the real motive of my
+visit there.
+
+"I should have come to visit you to-day even without a special
+invitation."
+
+"Was there any special reason, then, why I should occupy a place in your
+thoughts?"
+
+"I have received a letter from Italy, the contents of which will greatly
+interest you."
+
+At these words she looked at me as coldly as if she had become an
+alabaster statue.
+
+"Interest _me_?"
+
+"So I believe. On the 20th instant there was a battle on the Mincio, at
+which your husband distinguished himself."
+
+"Really?" said the lady mechanically.
+
+("Really?"--In that tone? It was rather odd. However, I went on.)
+
+"Nay, in the heat of the combat he was even wounded."
+
+(I calculated surely on the dramatic effect of these words. I fancied
+that the tender spouse would leap to her feet, pale, ready to faint,
+wringing her hands, till at last, amidst sobs, the name of the adored
+husband would burst forth from her lips: "Oh! my Wenceslaus! Oh! my
+Kvatopil!" But she did not so much as turn her head round.)
+
+"Indeed?" she said, with complete _sangfroid_.
+
+Just as if it were an every-day occurrence for a beloved husband to be
+wounded in battle.
+
+I was offended. Such ungrateful indifference I had never met with
+before. How was I to go on? I had calculated that when the despairing
+consort had wept and sobbed her fill, I should hasten to console her.
+
+"It is true," said I, "that his wound is not sufficiently dangerous to
+prevent him from continuing in the field."
+
+"I can easily believe it," replied the lady, with a shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+Now this was a want of feeling worthy of an alligator! Surely she had
+the nerves of a rhinoceros! I was not prepared for this reception. "I
+can easily believe it!" Was that all?
+
+Well, then, if our tender feelings are so hermetically sealed, we must
+try what more drastic means will do. We must appeal to other sentiments.
+Vanity, for instance, is a sentiment which never can be blunted.
+
+So I moved forward my heavy artillery.
+
+"Lieutenant Kvatopil," I said, "was called to the front and made a
+captain straight off for heroic valour in the field."
+
+But even at this the lovely lady did not fling herself on my neck. She
+did not even utter a sound, but contracted the corners of her mouth.
+What did that mean? When you tell a lieutenant's wife that from to-day
+she has a right to the title Mrs. Captain; that every one who meets her
+in the street and congratulates her will address her as, "Frau
+Rittmeisterin," while the other lieutenants' wives naturally burn with
+secret envy; that she may now print her corresponding rank on her
+visiting cards--when you tell her all this, and even then no impression
+is produced, and the cherry lips do _not_ expand with joy, revealing the
+sparkling, pearly teeth and the dimples on the sunbright face; when,
+instead of that, she purses up her mouth so nastily and gives herself a
+double chin--what _are_ you to think? There is nothing so hideous as a
+pretty woman with a double chin. A double chin makes a woman look
+absolutely old.
+
+I was quite confused. What am I to do to amuse her now? Should I talk
+about the weather?
+
+"May I congratulate you?" I said, seizing her hand.
+
+But not only did she _not_ press my hand in return, as she ought to have
+done; on the contrary, she irritably drew it back and turned aside her
+head.
+
+Suddenly a light flashed through my brain, a light kindled by my
+immeasurable self-conceit. "Why go on praising the distant husband,"
+said I to myself, "when you yourself are present? Do you think she
+invited you to dinner to sing the praises of Wenceslaus Kvatopil?"
+
+I drew my chair nearer to the sofa on which Bessy was sitting, and
+airily passed my hand through my frizzled locks.
+
+Bessy observed the movement, and quickly turned her face towards me. A
+mocking smile suddenly lighted up her face, a smile from which a man can
+read a whole chapter in a moment. That is something like stenography.
+
+"Ha, ha, sir! then we have come thither with that thought, have we? We
+have had our hair frizzled, eh? We have decked ourselves out to be
+irresistible, I know?"
+
+A thousand mocking fish-tailed nixies were wriggling about in those
+sea-like eyes.
+
+It was a murderous sort of smile.
+
+I was conscious of having been taken down pretty considerably. Here was
+I (quite contrary to my usual custom) tricked and furbished up like a
+"_petit ma�tre_," while she, the lady, received me in her simplest
+barracan house-dress, without any finery, and with a smile she
+discharged at me the saying of the great poet:
+
+    "O Vanity! thy name is woman!"
+
+But why, then, had she sent for me?
+
+Why had she driven away one visitor and denied herself to another if not
+for my sake?
+
+Perhaps for the sake of a third party who had already arrived? When she
+came out of her boudoir she seemed to me to be signalling with her
+eyebrows at some one.
+
+I quickly pulled myself together. I fancy I must have been very red in
+the face, and I certainly had good reason to be ashamed of myself.
+
+I saw that I had not been able to reap laurels in the _r�le_ of Don
+Juan, so I began to take up the part of Tartuffe. Let us play the
+righteous judge!
+
+"Perhaps I have not come at a very convenient time?"
+
+"On the contrary, I _asked_ you to come at this time."
+
+"On a serious business, eh?"
+
+"A serious business for me."
+
+"But isn't what I've just been saying to you serious?"
+
+"Apparently."
+
+"Yet you received it with a very queer face."
+
+"I listened seriously enough."
+
+"But the affair had its cheerful aspect also, surely?"
+
+The fair dame made a contemptuous clicking with her tongue.
+
+"Don't you feel any interest, then, in Kvatopil's heroism, wounds,
+distinction, and promotion?"
+
+"No!" she replied resolutely, almost snapping my sentence in two. Her
+eyes sparkled like burning naphtha lakes.
+
+"No?" I repeated, in my amazement. "You take no interest in your
+husband's fate whether it be bad or good? You feel neither hot nor cold
+on the subject?"
+
+"No!"
+
+("No!" again).
+
+"But you parted in the greatest affection when he went to the wars?"
+
+"True."
+
+"And it is scarcely a month since then."
+
+"Only twenty-nine days, I've counted them."
+
+"And meanwhile winter has come?"
+
+"It has."
+
+After that she began to laugh maliciously. She leaped to her feet and
+rumpled my frizzly hair with her fingers.
+
+"Let's leave the matter till after dinner; then I'll tell you
+everything. But don't let us spoil a good dinner in the meantime. You
+are quite horrified at me now, and fancy that I've laid a trap for you.
+You will see later on that this serious business of mine is not a joke.
+Let us leave it till after the black coffee."
+
+I revived again. The lady was capricious, and it suited her.
+
+"I was determined to give you a good dinner. I owe you your revenge. It
+is a long time since we dined together. Last time I was your guest.
+Don't you remember? At the Pagan Altar. I never ate so heartily. What
+splendid toast you had! And the bacon, too, broiled on a stick! Why,
+I've got the taste of that good red pepper of yours in my mouth to this
+day! And now I mean to give you hospitality that you will remember for a
+long time!"
+
+This again was delightfully reassuring! She was of the true cat
+species--she purrs and fondles, but one must be continually on one's
+guard against her claws.
+
+"Come now, help me to lay the table! My cook has enough to do without
+that."
+
+So I had to help her lay the table, for the saloon was the dining-room
+also. One had only to remove the books, porcelain vases, and china
+knick-knacks from the table in front of the sofa, and then cover it with
+the table-cloth.
+
+I was curious to see how many she would lay for. Only for two. Two
+plates, two knives, forks and spoons, and two glasses.
+
+But how about that third person, that person in the bedroom yonder? Or
+had I rightly interpreted that peculiar expression of hers? I was
+beginning to think the whole thing was pure hallucination on my part.
+
+Suddenly the scraping of a cautiously-moved chair sounded from the
+boudoir.
+
+I saw that the lady was considerably put out, and felt decidedly
+uncomfortable. She wrathfully pressed her lips together.
+
+"Have you any one in the next room?" I inquired, in a stern, judicial
+voice.
+
+"I have!" she replied defiantly.
+
+"Madame!" I exclaimed, in virtuous high dudgeon.
+
+"Would you like to know who _is_ inside?" she cried, in an offended
+tone.
+
+"Oh, dear, no! I'm not a bit curious," said I, and began looking about
+for my hat and stick.
+
+"But I _wish_ you to know," she cried indignantly, barring my way, and,
+seizing my hand, she led me to the door of the bedroom, and hastily
+flung it open. In the room a blonde young lady stood before me gazing at
+me with wondering large blue eyes.
+
+Bessy introduced this lady to me.
+
+"Madame Wenceslaus Kvatopil, from Cracow."
+
+Then she pulled aside the bed-curtains, and on the bed was lying a
+little girl about eleven years of age.
+
+"This is Wenceslaus Kvatopil's daughter. Poor things! let us leave them
+alone!"
+
+For at least a minute I felt as if some magic power were whirling me
+round and round the globe with it from the North Pole to the Equator,
+and back again.
+
+How I got out of that room into the other I really cannot say. Before
+me continually were the faces of that large-eyed, timid-looking woman
+and the little girl.
+
+I heard the sound of weeping behind me.
+
+It was Bessy. She had hidden her face in her hands, and was sobbing.
+
+"Oh, how I loved that man! How good, how perfect I thought him! I
+fancied him a model man! Even now I cannot accuse him. It was not his
+fault, but mine alone. His sin is my crime. Oh, what folly! Let us speak
+of the situation seriously. You know now, I suppose, why I wanted to see
+you. I wished to ask your advice."
+
+I sat down beside her.
+
+Bessy dried her eyes, and then began to speak quite soberly.
+
+"The whole world judges me wrongly. They fancy I am full of levity. But
+if anything pains me, the pain lasts a long, long time. Since _he_ went
+away I have been nowhere, and seen nobody. If any of my old
+acquaintances came to see me, I told them that the whole place was
+topsy-turvy, and there was not even a chair to sit down upon. My servant
+had orders to say to every one who called--_with one exception_--that I
+was not visible. Who was this exception? Yourself! She could easily
+guess whom I meant, and if she didn't guess it, it didn't much matter.
+When _he_ had to go away so suddenly, he was in a very tender mood. He
+wanted to make me swear that I would not be faithless while he was
+away. He even brought me a crucifix for the purpose, and when he saw
+that I laughed at him, he besought me, if I really must deceive him, at
+least not to bestow my favours upon the first ragamuffin that turned up;
+nay, he even took the trouble to indicate a worthy man to me, of whom he
+could not be jealous; whereupon I told him, very seriously, that the man
+he meant was capable of _killing_ anybody who stood in the way of _his_
+love, but was altogether incapable of _filching_ love from anybody
+else!"
+
+(At this my face grew very red indeed.)
+
+"Then he suddenly assumed a mystic mood, he knew my weak side. He said:
+'If you deceive me for the sake of any other man, at that same moment I
+shall die. Day and night I stand where death is meted out every instant,
+and the moment a kiss from your lips touches the lips of another man, at
+that self-same moment, I say, the bullet which is lying in wait for me
+will fly straight to my heart!' A horrible saying! It would not let me
+sleep, and rose up before me in my dreams. When one or other of my lady
+friends came to visit me and we fell a-chatting and began to laugh and
+joke, a sort of cold shiver would suddenly run all down my body. While I
+am smiling, I thought, perhaps he is dying a death of torments beneath
+the horses' hoofs. Every savoury morsel sticks in my throat when I
+think--perhaps he is now suffering hunger and thirst; and when the blast
+shakes my windows, I think--now he is standing defenceless amidst the
+tempest and freezing. And I unable to protect him!
+
+"In short, this threat of his made me quite a somnambulist. At last I
+denied myself even to my lady friends. I became quite morbid. I fancied
+I had no right to be gay. Ten times a day I went to the crucifix by
+which he had wished me to swear and knelt down before it to pray. I made
+all sorts of vows provided he were preserved and brought back safely to
+me. And yet I am a Calvinist! But that crucifix was _his_. He remained
+faithful to it through all his change of faith. In fact, I was in a fair
+way of becoming a Pietist. I began to think a life of virtue very
+beautiful. I should very much have liked to see you now and again, if
+only to show you that I could be just as moral as you. I would have
+praised your wife to you, and you would have returned the compliment by
+praising my husband. This would have been my ambition."
+
+It was the cook who interrupted this burst of feeling.
+
+"Shall I bring in the stew, madame?"
+
+"Yes, bring it in, if it is ready."
+
+Then she turned to me to explain the circumstances of the case.
+
+"I have to let these ladies have their food cooked separately, for
+Magyar dishes would make them mortally ill. That is why I don't lay the
+table for three. _Your_ favourite dishes would be death to these
+Germans."
+
+The cook now brought in the stewed chicken.
+
+Bessy tasted it first with a little spoon to see if it were salted
+enough, and also to see whether the cook had put parsley in it by
+mistake, for the doctor who was attending the little girl had forbidden
+every sort of seasoning ingredients in her food. Then she herself sliced
+up a roll of the best white bread for the little girl, poured some water
+for her into a glass, and warmed it a little by holding it tightly for a
+while between the palms of her hands instead of popping a live coal into
+it, as thoughtful mothers often do for their sick children. For the
+mother of the child, however, she had a bottle of Pilsener beer
+uncorked, and sent to her.
+
+Only when they had dined was our dinner served.
+
+Meanwhile, we did not resume our interrupted conversation; the servant
+was constantly passing in and out, and we could not speak before her.
+Then, after that, when we sat down to dinner (and a bitter meal it was
+to me) the thread of our conversation was broken as often as the cook
+came in with a new dish or to change a plate, and all that time she
+played the part of the amiable hostess, inviting me to fall to in good
+old Hungarian style.
+
+"One morning," she said, "while I was doing my hair, my servant came and
+told me that a shabby-looking woman was outside, with a biggish girl,
+making inquiries about the lieutenant. I went out to them into the
+kitchen. I saw before me a blonde, blue-eyed woman, of about the same
+age as myself, and clinging to her arm was a lanky slip of a growing
+girl about ten or eleven years of age. In the woman's hand was a
+travelling-bag and an umbrella. She was in bourgeois costume, without
+the fashionable crinoline, and on her head was a simple felt cap; her
+girl was dressed in just the same way. They both wore their hair quite
+smooth and combed back from the forehead.
+
+"The woman wished me good-day in German.
+
+"I asked her what she wanted.
+
+"The woman replied that she wanted her husband, Mr. Wenceslaus Kvatopil.
+
+"'The lieutenant?'
+
+"'When he left me he was only a lieutenant.'
+
+"I quickly caught her by the hand and led her out of the kitchen into
+the saloon. My servant, fortunately, did not understand German.
+
+"I led them right into my bedroom. I invited them both to be seated.
+
+"'Ah, that will do us good,' said the woman, 'for we have come a long
+way. We have come here from Cracow.'
+
+"'Surely not on foot?'
+
+"'On foot all the way. We couldn't afford to come by rail.'
+
+"Just fancy! The very thought is terrible! To come on foot all those
+hundred miles hither from Cracow with a growing girl! Can one's
+imagination realize such a thing?
+
+"'Are you the wife of Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil?' I inquired of the
+woman.
+
+"'I am, and this is his daughter, Marianna.'
+
+"And by way of proving her assertion she drew from her travelling-bag
+her marriage lines, extracted from the registers of the cathedral of
+Cracow, to wit:--'Bridegroom: Wenceslaus Kvatopil, Sub-Lieutenant in the
+*** Dragoons. Bride: Anna Dunkircher. Witnesses: Babolescky, Colonel,
+and Kolmarscky, shopkeeper. Officiating clergyman: Stanislaus Lubousky.
+Dated, Feb. 16th, 1846.'
+
+"Then she showed me the baptismal certificate of the daughter.
+'Marianna, born in lawful wedlock, June 19th, 1846. Father:
+Sub-Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil. Mother: Anna Dunkircher. Officiating
+clergyman: Stanislaus Lubousky. Godparents: the above-mentioned
+marriage-witnesses.'
+
+"A marriage contract, duly attested, was also among the documents."
+
+All at once Bessy burst out laughing.
+
+The cook came in and brought the soup.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Do you know why, according to Ollendorf, the Captain
+weeps?"
+
+"Because the Englishman has no bread."
+
+"Look, Susy, you've forgotten to give my guardian some bread! Give him a
+crusty bit, he likes that!"
+
+The servant apologised, but said that she didn't think the soup required
+bread.
+
+It was excellent soup, made of cream and eggs and rice and
+finely-chopped chicken. Bessy filled my plate with it.
+
+"Thank you, that will be enough."
+
+When the servant went out we resumed our conversation. And here, I may
+remark, by the way, that there is no more pleasant _t�te-�-t�te_ in the
+world than that which is interrupted every ten minutes or so by the
+incursions of the servants.
+
+"Now we know," said I, "what was the cause of the extraordinary
+phenomenon of a happy bridegroom beginning to sob bitterly immediately
+after his marriage. It was his deserted wife and child that the poor
+fellow was thinking about."
+
+"True, but don't let your soup cool on that account. Would you like a
+little Parmesan with it?"
+
+"Thank you, but I like it much better without."
+
+"Wenceslaus Kvatopil liked his _with_ Parmesan."
+
+Then we settled down to our soup.
+
+"Wenceslaus Kvatopil always had a second serving of rice soup."
+
+"Thank you, but I never take a second serving of any dish."
+
+"I know that, and I also know that it is your habit to leave the best
+bit at the side of your plate."
+
+"How did you come to know that?"
+
+"I first observed it when I was a little girl and you sometimes came to
+dine with us. They say that it is a species of superstition; the tit-bit
+placed at the side of the plate signifies that our distant true love is
+suffering from hunger."
+
+"It is no superstition, but a simple rule of health to leave off eating
+and drinking while your appetite is still at its best."
+
+Thus we continued our dietetic discussions as if we had no other desire
+in the world than to live a ripe old age and be free from gout.
+
+I have already mentioned that there was chopped-up chicken in the soup,
+and that portion of the chicken fell to Bessy's lot which is known as
+the spur-bone.
+
+Now, it is a well-known custom among young unmarried ladies in
+confidential conclave, when one of them gets such a spur-bone, for her
+to invite her fair colleague to crack the bone with her. One of them
+then takes one end of the spur-bone and the other takes the other end,
+and they pull away in different directions till the bone comes in two.
+Whichever of them gets the spur portion will be married soonest. That is
+a fantastic sort of superstition, if you like.
+
+Bessy laughed and said:
+
+"When we ate our first dinner together, a spur-bone of this sort fell
+into my hands. I stretched it out towards Anna. 'Pull,' I said, 'and see
+which of us is to have Kvatopil.'"
+
+"Then you got to be good friends pretty quickly?"
+
+"Why shouldn't we? Hadn't we both the same husband? I naturally kept
+them here with me. I don't know what would have become of them if I
+hadn't taken them in. At this moment they haven't got a farthing. They
+travelled the whole distance on coffee only. They had no other upper
+garments but what they were actually wearing on their bodies.... My
+first duty was to get them properly dressed. My clothes fitted the woman
+very well, and I bought some for the child in Kerepesi Street. But the
+little one had to take to her bed immediately, for she had a bad
+headache and was very feverish. I sent for a doctor, and he gave her
+some medicine which sent her to sleep. She and her mother have slept in
+my bed ever since, and I sleep on the sofa.--Won't you have a little
+liver?"
+
+"No, thank you. Pray, go on!"
+
+"When the poor lady saw that I received her kindly, her heart melted;
+she fell upon my neck, and our tears flowed like spring showers. We knew
+that one of us would be the death of the other, but which was to be the
+victim? Then we quickly told each other our experiences of our common
+husband, and how we first met him. I could make a strange dramatic scene
+out of it.
+
+"I inquired: 'Come now, Anna, tell me, how did you first meet with
+Kvatopil, and how could you remain absent from him for thirteen years?'
+Anna replied: 'It is a strange story. Do you happen to know, Bessy, the
+history of the Cracow Republic?'
+
+"I: 'No, dear, I never heard of the poor thing.'
+
+"Anna: 'Then you must know that it is a large Polish town where the
+Polish kings were formerly crowned and buried when they died. I am a
+native of that city. My father was a famous glove-maker in Cracow, whose
+goods were sold far and wide. Our town was the last free Polish Republic
+when Poland was finally partitioned. Its territory consisted of
+twenty-two square miles.'"
+
+("Less than Debreczin," I interrupted.)
+
+Bessy went on with Anna's narrative:--
+
+"'When I was a little girl ten years of age a fresh Polish insurrection
+broke out. The united forces of the Austrians, Russians, and Prussians
+again put it down, and the care of the Cracow Republic was entrusted to
+Austria. The old Polish customs and assemblies remained in force, but
+Austrian soldiers garrisoned the citadel continually. When I was sixteen
+years old my mother died, and I had to take her place behind the
+counter. Here I made the acquaintance of Kvatopil. He was a young
+sub-lieutenant, and he generally came to our shop to buy his gloves.
+Would that he had stopped short at gloves! Can any one justly give a bad
+name to a young girl because she is confiding? I believed in him! And he
+really had such a good heart. When he saw that I had only to choose
+between shame and death, he went to my father and begged for my hand.
+Naturally they gave us to each other. It was never the custom among the
+Poles when a girl married a soldier for her to go and ask permission
+first of all from the military authorities, and deposit a terribly big
+sum by way of caution-money; the priest simply united us without any
+questionings. We had not been man and wife a week when the Revolution
+again broke out. Cracow was the centre of the Polish rising. At first
+the Polish rebels fought with great success. I saw the Polish scythemen
+drive my husband's cavalry regiment from one end of the street to the
+other. My husband had not even time to say good-bye to me.'
+
+"'Then you are a Pole?' said I.
+
+"'Why shouldn't I be?' replied Anna. 'Surely I may be a Pole though I
+have a German name? Dark days followed. My little girl was born. Twice a
+day I felt bound to go to church--the first time to pray that my country
+might triumph, and the second time to pray that my husband might return
+to me. A mad idea, wasn't it? Surely it is impossible for Deity even to
+grant two diametrically opposite prayers at the same time? My husband
+returned indeed to Cracow, but the Polish cause was crushed. The
+champions of freedom fled in all directions, and the garrison troops
+returned. It was a sad meeting. After that catastrophe Cracow ceased to
+be a republic, and was incorporated with the Austrian hereditary
+possessions as a simple city. My father wept, but I rejoiced because I
+had got my husband back. But very soon I was punished for my criminal
+joy. My husband informed me that things were going badly with us.
+Hitherto the Austrian officers in Cracow had not been wont to ask the
+permission of their general to marry. Now, however, when Cracow had been
+joined to Austria, the military regulations of the rest of the empire
+had been extended to us, and a lieutenant's wife had to pay down
+caution-money to the amount of 7,000 florins. My father was incapable of
+raising such a sum. He had another daughter besides me, and could not
+withdraw so large a sum from his business. Danger threatened us if my
+husband's superiors discovered his marriage, for in such a case Kvatopil
+would have been degraded to the ranks. My father suggested that Kvatopil
+should quit the profession of arms and settle down to some sort of
+profession. But it was an impossible idea. Who would give employment in
+Cracow to an Austrian officer who had taken up arms against the Poles?
+
+"'Just about this time, too, Kvatopil was promoted to the rank of senior
+lieutenant. This at once inflamed our hearts with the joyous hope that
+he would rapidly scale the ladder of promotion, and we knew that if once
+he became a major he would not have to deposit his matrimonial
+caution-money, and we might then fearlessly publish the fact that we
+were man and wife. Nobody knew of it hitherto except our friends and
+relations.
+
+"'So we agreed to keep it quiet, and immediately afterwards Kvatopil and
+his regiment were transferred to Hungary.
+
+"'Since the revolution broke out in Hungary I have heard nothing more
+of Kvatopil. I know not where he is, or what has become of him, or
+whether he is alive or dead: no tidings of him whatever. In times of war
+they make a mystery of the whereabouts of this or that regiment.
+
+"'Once we read from a bulletin that my husband's regiment had taken part
+in a battle in the Banat. My poor father then resolved to go personally
+to the Banat and inquire of the colonel whether my husband was still
+alive. Just as he got there, they were burying the colonel with great
+pomp. He had died of typhus fever. He had been the witness of our
+marriage, and was the only one of the officers who knew anything about
+it. He had kept his secret well, for his officiating as a witness at an
+irregular ceremony might have cost him his place also. All that the
+lieutenant-colonel could tell us of Kvatopil was, that his company had
+been detached on some expedition, and had not come back. Possibly the
+Hungarian insurgents had eaten them all up.
+
+"'I could thus very well put on and wear mourning, and till the end of
+the war I heard not a word about my husband.'
+
+"So far spoke Anna; but now I began to speak.
+
+"'You didn't hear of him, because all through the campaign he was
+closely invested in the besieged Temesvar with his company, and no news
+could come out of that place till the end of the year.'
+
+"'But why couldn't he let me hear from him when Temesvar was free again?
+He could at least have written that he was still alive?'
+
+"'The cause of that is easy to find. So far as he was concerned, the
+whole campaign was sterile of glory. As a cavalry officer he was unable
+to be of any service to the besieged city. At the end of the campaign he
+still remained a senior lieutenant, whilst all the others had reached
+the rank of captain. Bitter disappointment was all that remained to him.
+An officer who is passed over is worse off than if he were dead. He
+cannot even say, "Thank God, I am still alive!"'
+
+"'But subsequently? In all these latter years? Why didn't he write to me
+all these three or four years, if but a line to say that he was still
+alive and thinking of me, and of the child whom he loved so much?'
+
+"'I can tell you the reason of that also,' I said. 'To save a frivolous
+comrade, he got into debt, and fell into the hands of unmerciful
+usurers, who immediately dragged him deeper into the mire. An officer in
+such a vexatious position is certainly not very much inclined to fetter
+himself with a wife and child as well. It is now not only the want of
+the caution-money which separates him from you, but also that nasty bog
+called Debt. This bog he cannot wade through. If under such
+circumstances he thinks of his wife and child, that only increases his
+despair. If he wrote you a letter at all, it would only contain these
+lines: "By the time you read these lines I shall have ceased to exist."'
+
+"Anna was curious to know how far into debt Kvatopil had actually got. I
+immediately mentioned the neat little sum it amounted to.
+
+"You should have seen what a long face my friend pulled.
+
+"She asked me in consternation whether this immense load of debt still
+remained upon him.
+
+"The situation was so droll that, despite all its bitterness, I couldn't
+help laughing. I could read from the poor simple creature's face that if
+I were to say to her, 'My dear, sweet friend, debt is the one thing in
+this earth which the tooth of time never nibbles, Kvatopil's bills still
+live' (this was quite true, but they were living in my strong box), she
+would have been capable, poor, unhappy lady! of taking her little girl
+by the hand and walking all the way back to Cracow. But I was sorry for
+the poor thing. I told her the pure naked truth. Four years long her
+husband had told her nothing of his goings on because of his creditors,
+but after that time because of me. I made his acquaintance; I did not
+know that he was married; I fell in love with him, and--offered him my
+hand. I was bound to acknowledge that he had hesitated to accept it. He
+made all sorts of excuses except the unexceptionable one that he had a
+wife already. But as he was already up to his eyes in hot water he had
+had no choice but to blow his brains out or commit bigamy. Apparently
+he had regarded the latter alternative as the less unpleasant one.
+
+"Anna herself admitted that it was very much wiser of Kvatopil to have
+chosen the latter course. What a good, affectionate creature the woman
+was!
+
+"I then satisfied her that I had paid off all worthy Kvatopil's debts
+before his marriage. I even showed her the bills preserved in my strong
+box, explaining to her besides that they had now expired, but that I did
+not mean to proceed against Kvatopil for the amount in spite of our
+altered relations. At this the good soul fell down at my feet, shedding
+tears of gratitude. She even kissed my knees, and assured me that she
+would bless my memory to the very day of her death. Ever since this
+comforting reassurance on my part, her tender inclination for the
+beloved Kvatopil was perfectly re-established.
+
+"I put the finishing touch to my kind-heartedness by describing to her
+the scene when Kvatopil, as bridegroom, fell to weeping bitterly after
+the wedding; there could be no doubt that those bitter tears were shed
+on account of his forsaken wife and daughter.
+
+"This quite overcame poor Anna. 'Look now, what a good heart poor
+Kvatopil has!' said she.
+
+"Then we began quoting to each other the various noble traits that we
+had mutually discovered in Kvatopil's character...."
+
+--"Well, did you find the pig's ears with beans to your liking, sir?"
+inquired the cook of me at that moment, as she came in to change the
+dishes.
+
+"On my word of honour as a poet, I have never tasted such pig's ears and
+beans," I replied.
+
+An apricot pasty followed, of which--I confess it freely--I am also
+fond.
+
+Bessy then continued her story:--
+
+"I went to my lawyer, put my case before him, and asked him what he
+advised me to do in my situation. I applied to him first (a dry, prosaic
+man, with his mental vision bounded by the law); after that, I wanted to
+lay the matter before you, that you might judge between us."
+
+"Between whom?"
+
+"Between me and my lawyer, for we are of diametrically opposite views as
+to what I ought to do next."
+
+"Then you have a view on the subject, too?"
+
+"Of course I have; but listen first to the view of the man learned in
+the law, and before you do that, let us drink to the health of those we
+love, and those who love us."
+
+We drank the toast accordingly, but we mentioned no names.
+
+"And now listen to the opinion of the lawyer:--
+
+"'It is a great misfortune, certainly,' he said, 'but the only person to
+suffer will be Anna Dunkircher. If we lived in ordinary peaceful times,
+the business might be settled by the military authorities compelling
+Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil to renounce his rank by marrying contrary
+to the regulations. In that case the marriage contracted with Anna
+Dunkircher would remain valid. On the other hand, according to the tenor
+of the Austrian criminal law, Mr. Kvatopil would then have the pleasant
+prospect of two years' imprisonment for the subsequently committed crime
+of bigamy. Nevertheless, under our present circumstances, when the army
+of Lombardy has great need of every valiant and experienced officer, the
+Cracow wife would, undoubtedly, get this answer for her trouble: "Your
+marriage has been contracted illegally, and is consequently null and
+void." The parson who joined them would be sent for a twelvemonth to a
+monastery, by way of penitential discipline; but Wenceslaus Kvatopil
+would remain a lieutenant, or even, if he distinguished himself, become
+a captain. You, consequently, will be Mrs. Lieutenant, and perhaps Mrs.
+Captain, for the annulling of the former marriage will restore to you
+all your rights.'
+
+"Those were the lawyer's words. I laid them to heart. Now, do you know
+anything of martial law?"
+
+"I frankly confess that martial law occupies a most prominent place
+among those sciences which I do _not_ know."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what I replied to him. 'Good!' I said, 'the laws,
+the circumstances, the position of things, everything, in fact, proves
+and proves to demonstration that Anna Dunkircher has forfeited all her
+marital rights; but has not the law of the human heart also its
+validity? Do I express myself in proper legal phraseology?'"
+
+At this I couldn't help laughing, but she proceeded with her story.
+
+"My lawyer was very far indeed from laughing. 'What!' said he, 'do you
+imagine that Wenceslaus Kvatopil's heart still beats for his first wife
+whom he deserted--to whom he did not write of set purpose, not even when
+he could, lest he might thus have supplied some written testimony to the
+fact of her really having been Wenceslaus Kvatopil's lawful spouse, and
+not merely some betrayed girl with whom he had, at some time or other,
+unlawfully cohabited? Do you fancy that Wenceslaus Kvatopil, thirteen
+years after the event, is still so romantic as to ask for his dismissal
+from the service in the middle of a campaign, on the very field of
+battle, and desert the standard of his Sovereign, whom he has sworn to
+obey, simply to enable Anna Dunkircher to save her matronly dignity? Do
+you fancy that Wenceslaus Kvatopil will throw up his career at the very
+moment when it is full of the most brilliant hopes for him, and allow
+himself to be shut up as a felon for a couple of years, at the end of
+which time he will be discharged a branded beggar, simply to live for
+the rest of his life as the lawful husband of a beggar woman even more
+beggarly than himself? And finally, do you imagine that Wenceslaus
+Kvatopil has so completely lost the use of his five senses as to be
+capable of spurning away from him, and exposing to the contempt of the
+whole world, a young and lovely consort like yourself, a rich and noble
+lady who can keep him in comfort for the rest of his days--and all for
+what? for the sake of taking back a faded, withered woman, whose face is
+wrinkled with care, who is the daughter of an honest glover, to whom it
+would be no advantage to stick the name of Kvatopil on his sign-board
+instead of the time-honoured firm of Dunkircher? No, madam. That he is
+such a good-hearted man as all that I do not for one moment believe. I
+would as soon believe in sea-maidens with finny tails--upon my word I
+would.'
+
+"I did not interrupt my lawyer. I allowed him to have his say out. But
+when he made a brief pause, I said to him: 'I am not speaking of
+Kvatopil's heart, but of my own.'
+
+"'Your own?' cried he, in amazement. 'What has _your_ heart got to do
+with it?'
+
+"'I have my own notion of settling this painful business,' I said. 'I
+propose to transfer to Anna Dunkircher the surety-money which I
+deposited on the occasion of our marriage, and then she will have
+satisfied the conditions imposed on officers who marry--and may she and
+her husband be happy. I can easily disappear somewhere in the crowd. The
+world is large.'
+
+"At this the lawyer flew into a passion. 'If you do that,' he cried,
+'you are only fit to be locked up in a lunatic asylum at D�bling.'
+
+"Nevertheless," concluded Bessy, "it is my serious and fixed resolve to
+do so."
+
+I could not help laying my hand on hers. What true, what noble
+sentiments were slumbering in that heart! If only she had had some one
+to awaken them! What an excellent lady might have been made out of this
+woman, if she had only met with a husband who, in the most ordinary
+acceptance of the word, had been a good fellow, as is really the case
+with about _nine_ men out of every ten. Why should she have always
+managed to draw the unlucky _tenth_ out of the urn of destiny?
+
+She guessed my thoughts during that moment of silence. Those large, deep
+fiery eyes slowly filled with tears. The fire of a diamond is nothing to
+be compared with the fiery sparkle of those tears. How lovely she was at
+that moment!
+
+Her lips began to quiver, and she could scarcely pronounce the words:
+
+"_That other woman had a child._"
+
+And at this she began to sob convulsively, covering her face with one
+hand, and squeezing my hand violently with the other.
+
+My heart was so touched that, a very little more, and I should have
+mingled my tears with hers.
+
+When she had wept out her bitter mood, she sighed deeply, and dried her
+tears.
+
+"Now you know why I asked you to come here," said she. "Be you the
+judge in this matter. Which is right, the reason or the heart? Am I to
+do what my lawyer advises, or what my own feelings suggest?"
+
+It was a difficult matter.
+
+"Let us see," I said, "can't we hit upon some middle course? I advise
+you neither to do what your lawyer advises nor what you yourself
+propose. Wait a bit. The great war is still going on, more than a
+million of warriors are standing face to face. Not a fifth part of that
+number will return to their homes when the war is over. In this war your
+Kvatopil will either fall or remain alive. If he falls, you can both go
+into mourning. You need not quarrel about the widow's veil. If, however,
+Kvatopil survives the end of the war, a brave and ambitious officer like
+him will undoubtedly have mounted higher on the ladder of promotion--the
+battle-field is the forcing house of advancement! He will have become a
+major, and as major he will not be required to deposit[109] any
+matrimonial caution-money. He can then take his Anna Dunkircher, and you
+will have no need to surrender your guarantee money, which you want very
+much yourself."
+
+[Footnote 109: I say this of past times.--M.�J.]
+
+"I thank you," said the lady. "'Tis every bit as simple as the egg of
+Columbus. Then we'll wait, Anna and I, till the war is over, and till
+then we'll make one family."
+
+"Let me call your attention to one thing, however. For the present it
+would be well if you were to hide yourself somewhere, in some little
+town, for instance, where nobody knows you. Here, in this capital, you
+will quickly find yourself in an awkward and untenable position. The
+story of the first wife will very quickly be known by all the world. The
+title of _straw-widow_ would do pretty well perhaps, but the title of
+_straw-wife_ won't do at all. Pack up your traps, I say, go straight off
+to the country to-morrow, and take your guests along with you."
+
+"I'll do so."
+
+We had scarcely finished speaking when the doctor knocked at the door.
+When there's sickness in the house one cannot deny oneself to the
+doctor. The doctor, too, was an old acquaintance of mine. He had a very
+extensive practice, and he was a homoeopathist. I could take it as
+absolutely certain that when he went his rounds among his patients on
+the morrow, he would let them have, in addition to their _nux vomica_,
+or whatever else it might be, the very latest bit of scandal--to wit,
+that he had found me closeted with the pretty lady, and both of us in
+our cups--tea-cups of course.
+
+I waited till he came back from his little patient. He satisfied us that
+there was now no danger, and she might leave her bed.
+
+Bessy asked whether the girl might be taken into the country.
+
+"Yes, it will do her good."
+
+The doctor and I left at the same time.
+
+I had no sooner got out of the door than I again stumbled upon T�ni
+S�gi.
+
+"_Corpo di Bacco!_ And you have been sitting all this time with that
+pretty young lady?"
+
+"And you have been walking all the time in front of the door, eh?"
+
+The window of the house opposite was full of inquisitive female faces. I
+rushed into a coach and had myself driven to the railway station. The
+same evening I was at Szeged. There I remained for three days, and
+stayed with my wife till her provincial engagement was over. On every
+one of these three days one or two anonymous letters reached my wife
+from Buda-Pest of the following import: "My poor dear friend,--Your
+husband passes whole nights and days with his former lady-love, the
+lieutenant's wife. Our hearts bleed for you. The whole town knows all
+about it."
+
+How we did laugh at these letters! But what if I had _not_ traversed the
+intentions of our _dear friends_?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ESAIAS MEDV�SI[110]
+
+
+[Footnote 110: Bearish.]
+
+It fared with Wenceslaus Kvatopil as I had predicted.
+
+I am very sorry, but I really can't help it. Willingly would I bring him
+back a full major if it depended on me; but it was written in the book
+of fate that the worthy officer was to end his heroic career on the
+battle-field. He had at least the consolation of falling in a famous
+battle. While MacMahon at Solferino broke through the mass of Schlick's
+forces, Benedek on the right wing pressed victoriously forwards and
+drove the Piedmontese army under Victor Emmanuel as far back as San
+Martino, and there it was that a mortal bullet struck Captain Kvatopil
+through the heart. Yet I am able to say that at that moment the kisses
+of his lovely wife pressed the lips of nobody but his own deserted
+daughter.
+
+The two widows could now share the widow's veil between them in peace.
+
+The bigamy became known, but of course they could not bring an action
+for it against a dead man. The events of those great days quickly
+obliterated all recollection of the petty scandal. Both Anna and Bessy
+could now assume the title of Widow Kvatopil, and nobody could have a
+word to say against it. There was this little difference, however, that
+while the one might style herself Mrs. Captain Kvatopil, the other had
+only the right to Mrs. Lieutenant.
+
+By the intervention of her lawyer, and with my consent as her guardian,
+Bessy recovered her deposited caution-money. One thousand florins of it
+she gave as a gift to Anna, who returned with it to Cracow to her
+father's. The rest of the money Bessy invested in a pretty little house,
+in the village where she was stopping, surrounded by a pleasant garden.
+I was now quite easy in my mind as to her subsequent fate. She had now
+her own house, an honourable title--"_�zvegy Kapit�nyn�_,"[111] and a
+certain regular income. In the little village where she was she could
+play a leading part. In her present situation, moreover, she was
+completely protected against all the snares of the evil world, for in
+this particular village every man was virtuous, and the women ruled them
+with a rod of iron. To stumble, make a _faux pas_, and fall into sin was
+not possible, because it was not allowed.
+
+[Footnote 111: Lit., The widowed Captain's lady.]
+
+I could now be quite easy as to Bessy's prospects. A woman who had
+learnt such bitter experience at her own cost could not help drawing
+conclusions from the past; and if ever she were to make her choice
+again she certainly would not allow herself to be led astray by
+superficial graces, but would judge him whom she might definitely and
+finally select as the partner of her destiny by his inner worth alone. I
+even took the trouble, with the true solicitude of a guardian, to write
+this beautiful and sensible phrase to her in a letter. I also impressed
+upon her not to give herself away to any official "for the time being,"
+or any other kind of dog-headed Tartar, for such a husband could only be
+provisional.[112] She gave me her word that she would not do so.
+
+[Footnote 112: Towards this period it was plain that the Austrian
+domination of Hungary could not last much longer, and that the foreign
+officials who had been appointed by the Vienna Court must speedily
+go.--TR.]
+
+For nearly four years I heard nothing more of Bessy. She had fallen into
+the ranks of those women who do nothing to make people talk about them,
+and this category is the best of all. Every year I sent her the interest
+on her money; she acknowledged the receipt of it with thanks, and--that
+was all.
+
+But I, too, had cause enough not to think of those lovely but dangerous
+Eyes like the Sea.
+
+My evil stars were in the ascendant.
+
+Not a year passed without a heavy blow descending on my head. At one
+time it was a dear dead friend whom I had to bury; at another time I had
+to go through a severe illness which brought me to the very brink of
+death; I had scarcely recovered when my wife also fell dangerously ill.
+Through the conduct of persons whom I had regarded as my friends I very
+nearly became bankrupt; I had to work day and night at my writing-table
+to draw myself out of the mire. Then my publisher bolted to America;
+then came a year of calamity, when nobody cared a fig for either books
+or newspapers; then I had to fight a duel through no fault of my own;
+and all along there was the wretched fate of my country, which demanded
+my help. The whole plan of winning back our confiscated liberties was
+_my_ secret; I was the organ of the Committee, the organ that was
+tormented, persecuted, insulted by a derisive tyranny. Life under such
+conditions was like a dreadful dream--an incoherent, continually
+shifting vision of hope, an eternal nightmare; and when I awoke from
+this nightmare I found I was quite bald.
+
+One fine spring the Fairy Queen of my fantastic dreams locked me up in
+prison by way of variation. Nobody can escape his fate. I had founded a
+political journal. I was its responsible editor and publisher. My
+assistants were the votadores of the Liberal party. We soon had a large
+public. I had quite enough to do. It was my business to write romances
+for this paper, and leading articles too. Once an admirably elaborated
+article was sent to me, signed by one of the most illustrious names
+among the Hungarian magnate families. Without more ado I published it.
+It was a loyal, patriotic article on purely constitutional lines,
+showing in the most matter of fact way in the world the justice and the
+necessity of a constitutional government for Hungary. On account of this
+article, the Governor brought both the Count who wrote it and the editor
+who inserted it before a court-martial. He signified to the pair of us
+beforehand that he meant to lock us up for three months for it.
+
+The court-martial consisted of a colonel, a major, a captain, a senior
+and a junior lieutenant, a sergeant, a corporal, and a private; the last
+four were Bohemians. Before this Areopagus I delivered a powerful
+defence in German, to which they naturally replied "March!" The tribunal
+condemned me and my comrade the Count to twelve months hard labour in
+irons, on bread and water, with enforced fasting, loss of nobility, and
+a fine of a thousand florins.
+
+When the sentence was read out, I said to the President:
+
+"This is very strange. The Governor promised us only three months."
+
+To this the President replied with a smile:
+
+"Yes, three months for the incriminated article, but nine more for your
+high-flying defence."
+
+Our sentence was for no offence against the press-laws. Oh dear, no! We
+were condemned for inciting to a breach of the peace. The Count and I
+had been throwing stones at the windows, and breaking the gas-lamps in
+Kerepesi Street! It was as public brawlers that we were sent to cool our
+heels in jail!
+
+The reader must not expect me, however, to weave a martyr's crown for
+myself, or describe the tortures of the Venetian dungeons.... The whole
+of my life in prison was a pure joke and diversion. The Commandant of
+the place, with whom I lived, used to come every day to tell and be told
+anecdotes, and then took me out for country walks. He had my
+writing-table, my books, and my carpentering tools brought into my
+dungeon, and it was there that I turned out a bust of my wife. The
+Commandant also was passionately fond of carpenter's work, so we worked
+away together at our lathes as if for a wager. There was no talk
+whatever of chains or fetters, and I was allowed to have with my bread
+and water the best that money could purchase from the inn. In the
+afternoons my friends from the Pest Club came to play cards with me, so
+that when, on one occasion, one of my most radical acquaintances,
+Beniczky, entered my apartment and looked around, he exclaimed with
+contemptuous indignation: "Call this a dungeon! Why, there's no romance
+at all about this sort of thing!"
+
+Once I took my fellow-prisoner and my jailer to my villa at Svabhegy,
+where my wife had made ready for us a splendid supper. I tapped my new
+wine, and we amused ourselves to such a very late hour that when we
+returned they would hardly let us into prison again. Fortunately we had
+the Provost with us, and with our assistance he managed to force his way
+in.
+
+And then my visitors!
+
+In the whole course of my life I never received so many visitors as
+during the _month_ that my _year's_ captivity lasted. In the following
+month, by the way, I had to make room for the editor of the _officious_
+government, who was also condemned by the court-martial for disturbing
+the public peace.
+
+I was sought out in my dungeon by all sorts of good friends, who came
+from far--lords and ladies, countesses and actresses. It happened once
+that a magnate's wife, who was a great invalid, and therefore could not
+ascend to the second flight where our prison was, begged us to come down
+to her carriage, and there we received our visitor in the street--poor
+slaves that we were!
+
+In fact, I had too much of a good thing.
+
+How could I work when my admirers were crowding at my latch all day
+long? At last I had to beg my jailer, with tears in my eyes, to sentence
+me to _solitary_ confinement for a couple of hours every day, and write
+on my door the hours when I was free to receive company. "Wasn't I in
+prison?" I said.
+
+I had an honest Bohemian lad as my servant. His name was Wenceslaus. We
+soon got to understand each other very well.
+
+I explained to him that at certain hours when I was sitting down to
+work nobody was to be admitted--except when a pretty woman came to see
+me.
+
+_Honi soit qui mal y pense!_
+
+And singularly enough, one cannot imagine a more convenient place for an
+assignation than such a dungeon as mine. I only wonder that our
+_bon-viveurs_ have not grasped the fact. And what a capital place for an
+afternoon nap such a locality really is! The best advice I can give to
+any one who suffers from sleeplessness is--get yourself locked up! Is it
+not a special mercy of Providence that slaves can sleep so soundly?
+
+One afternoon Wenceslaus aroused me from my sweet afternoon nap with the
+intimation that a pretty woman wanted to speak to me.
+
+"Really pretty?"
+
+"Oh yes!"
+
+"Oh yes?"
+
+"Oh yes, yes!"
+
+It was indeed "oh yes!" for it was Bessy.
+
+She was dressed in complete mourning, with a black silk veil over her
+head. I saw from her eyes that she was in mourning for my fate.
+
+I anticipated her by making her a compliment.
+
+"Why, how nice you look, my dear ward! The country air seems to agree
+with you."
+
+With this I put a stop to her tearful anxiety on my account.
+
+"I see that the air of a dungeon has not done you much harm, either."
+
+"And how did you get in here?"
+
+"Not very easily, I can tell you. They would hardly let me in. They said
+that the prisoner was confined to his room. I thought of giving the
+warder a box on the ears, and then perhaps they would have shut me up
+along with you by way of punishment."
+
+"That would have, indeed, been a _heavy_ chain to bear."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I understand the allusion. My figure _has_ become a little sturdy, I
+know. What else has a person to do in a little country town but grow
+fat?"
+
+"It is a sign of peace of mind," I said.
+
+I offered her my arm-chair, and in this act of politeness she read
+another allusion.
+
+"It has good strong legs, I hope?" said she, as she sat down in it.
+
+I must candidly admit that her figure had grown pronouncedly rotund, but
+this by no means injured her beauty. She really looked quite appetizing!
+I was very glad, too, to see her again.
+
+"Don't take my remarks amiss," I said; "it is so good for the poor slave
+when a smiling lady's face lights up the gloom of his dungeon. A sweet,
+melodious woman's voice sounds so consolingly amidst the clanking of his
+fetters."
+
+"I am glad to see that you preserve your good humour, for I have come to
+you on a very serious business."
+
+"What! Then it was _not_ tender sympathy for the poor captive that
+brought you hither?"
+
+"That also--I may even say principally. Every day I read in the
+_F�v�rosi Lapok_ how many and what sort of visitors you receive--noble
+ladies, pretty actresses, and what not. Well, thought I, if they may go
+and see him, it is only my duty to go too. At the same time there are
+other circumstances which have brought me here."
+
+At this she furtively looked around her.
+
+"Won't they hear what we are talking about through that door?"
+
+"Have no fear. That room is empty. My fellow-prisoner is provided with a
+separate apartment."
+
+"I have come to inform you of something. I have petitioned the office of
+wards to relieve you from your guardianship."
+
+"And you've very good cause, too, I think, seeing that I myself have
+been under guardianship for some time."
+
+"That's not my reason, however. But my position has now become such as
+to make it indispensable for me to have the free disposal of my money."
+
+"May I guess the cause? Another misfortune has happened. We have lost
+our heart again, eh?"
+
+Bessy covered her blushing face with her silk veil.
+
+"Eh, but how you do always detect a thing at once! You would have made a
+capital magistrate."
+
+"But it is such a natural thing to suppose. You are so young, you know."
+
+"I am well advanced in the thirties."
+
+"You are only four years over thirty. I ought to know, for I was at your
+christening. Then you have once more discovered your ideal?"
+
+"This time I most solemnly believe that I really have found him."
+
+"But no provisional person, I hope?"
+
+"Don't insult me, please."
+
+"I'm above such a thing. But, as your guardian, I would not have given
+my consent to it; so I was bound to suppose that that was why you wanted
+to be freed from my guardianship."
+
+"Not at all! In future also I mean to take your advice as though it came
+from my own father. Scold me as much as you like when you catch me
+tripping. I will continue to be your obedient ward if only you don't
+shut the door in my face. All I want is my money. Believe me when I say
+I will do nothing frivolous with it. The sum will remain to my credit,
+but I wish to be free to use it as I like in the future."
+
+"I presume your bridegroom is some squire to whom the amount will be of
+service?"
+
+"He is _not_ a squire."
+
+"Then perhaps he is a merchant? That also is an honourable walk in life.
+In good commercial hands the amount will yield a nice income."
+
+"He is not a merchant."
+
+"Then perhaps he is a manufacturer, the proprietor of a saw-mill or a
+steam-mill?"
+
+"Neither the one nor the other."
+
+"Then what on earth is he?"
+
+"My bridegroom is a worthy and eminent schoolmaster, whose name is
+Esaias Medv�si."
+
+"Esaias Medv�si! But what the deuce does a village schoolmaster want
+with twenty-five thousand florins?"
+
+"I'll tell you presently. But I must go a little farther back first.
+Have you the time to listen to my story?"
+
+"Of course I have: I remain at home all day."
+
+"Will nobody interrupt us?"
+
+"My servant is a very sensible fellow, he knows the rules of the place."
+
+"But won't they lock the door of the prison behind me?"
+
+An ordinary person would have replied to this question that it would
+have been no great harm if they did; but I pulled out the drawer of my
+writing-table and showed the fair lady that I had _my own key_ for
+opening my prison door. At this she laughed and seemed quite satisfied.
+
+"Well, I'll begin by telling you how I made his acquaintance."
+
+"What, your Ezzy?"
+
+"I beg your pardon, but you must always pronounce the name in full, or
+you will aggravate its owner. He is very particular about giving to
+every one his full name and corresponding titles; never breaks that
+rule himself, and constantly addresses me as 'Worthy dame Captain!' It
+is in vain to call me 'Madame' in his presence, for he roundly maintains
+that such a title belongs to the consort of the Prince of Transylvania
+only. His motto is '_suum cuique_.' Oh, I've learnt such a lot of Latin
+since I made his acquaintance?"
+
+"Oh, then you have been taking Latin lessons from him, and so the
+acquaintance began?"
+
+"No irony, please! It didn't begin that way at all. I suppose you know
+that in our little town there is a very well attended Calvinist church?"
+
+"I know it pretty well."
+
+"And I am a very zealous church goer?"
+
+"That I did _not_ know."
+
+"With us the laudable custom prevails of going to church every Sunday
+for the purpose of devotion."
+
+"And to show off your new bonnets."
+
+"Don't make fun of me, please. Esaias is not only the schoolmaster, but
+the cantor and the organist as well. He has a splendid bass voice. When
+he intones the verse--
+
+    'How blest the man whose walk in life ...'
+
+the whole podium trembles. It was that wondrously beautiful voice which
+first enthralled me."
+
+"But I should have thought that the organ would have drowned the sound
+of the hymn?"
+
+"But not only in church have I had the opportunity of hearing him, but
+at funerals also."
+
+"Then you condescend to go to funerals too?"
+
+"Not as a habit. But you must know that most of the people there beg me
+to act as sponsor to their new-born children. Now, two-thirds of our
+children seem only born to die, and I am obliged to always go to the
+funerals of my little _prot�g�s_."
+
+"Then Esaias is in the habit of speaking and singing over them?"
+
+"Yes, and what beautiful speeches they are too, all in verse."
+
+"So Esaias is a poet into the bargain?"
+
+"Yes, he really makes most beautiful verses."
+
+"And I've no doubt he wrote a nice onomasticon on St. Elizabeth's Day?"
+
+"He did nothing of the kind. He's not that sort of man. It is not his
+habit to flatter anybody; on the contrary, he always tells them the
+truth to their faces."
+
+"That is generally the distinguishing characteristic of all Calvinist
+schoolmasters."
+
+"Well, but let us keep to the point. I left off at the funerals, I
+think. I was struck by the frequent mortality among our little ones, and
+set in movement a project among the ladies of the town for starting a
+_cr�che_. The idea found zealous partisans. We soon found a large
+meeting-room; the ladies supplied linen in large quantities; milk and
+other necessary aliments were provided by public subscription; money we
+resolved to collect in the usual way."
+
+"By a charitable concert?"
+
+"I see that you are a practical man. A charitable concert was indeed
+arranged, and a committee of seven appointed to manage it. The sessions
+of this committee were held in my house; mine was the most convenient
+locality, and I had a piano besides. Each member of the committee had
+her part assigned to her: one was to recite, another to sing a solo, a
+third to give a comic reading, a fourth to play a piece on the piano, a
+fifth to dance a Hungarian dance; I was to fiddle, Esaias was to sing
+the high priest's aria from the opera of _Nabucco_: 'He who trusts in
+the Lord!'--You know the rest."
+
+"Of course I do. At the first meeting of the committee one of the
+members had a slight misunderstanding with another member, at the second
+meeting a second member had a second misunderstanding, and by the time
+the fifth meeting was held Esaias and yourself were left to practise
+alone."
+
+"That is, word for word, what did happen, with this little difference,
+that we never had any practice at all. On the fifth occasion, four of
+the six members of the committee sent letters of excuse. Every one of
+them was ill. It was a veritable epidemic. Only the dancing master found
+no excuse for himself. As he was the only dancing-master in the town he
+could not go and lie that he had sprained his foot.
+
+"Esaias walked three times up and down in front of my house, puffing
+away at his big pipe. Every time he passed he looked up at the window,
+and, seeing nobody there, went on farther.
+
+"At last the dancing-master came _chass�_-ing up; I could see from his
+grinning face that he had some ill-tidings to tell me. Only people who
+have found some excuse for covering their retreat come smiling like
+that.
+
+"'My lady! I am inconsolable'--('I know all about _that_!' thought
+I)--'but I can't come to the concert. Our gipsy musicians have gone to
+Pest.' ('What do they want there?' I asked.) 'All the gipsy bands in the
+kingdom have assembled together for a grand competition.... Now, without
+gipsy music I can't dance. Who can play me the "_Bihari Keserg�_," I
+should like to know?' ('I will!' I said.) 'Ha! ha! ha! that wouldn't do
+at all! What? _one_ dancer and _one_ violin-player!--it would be a mere
+farce.'
+
+"Hereupon Esaias popped in. Seeing through the window that I was no
+longer alone, he took heart and came in. He had not dared to do so
+before."
+
+Here I intervened: "If I am not very much mistaken, I know this dear
+Esaias of yours. It once happened to him, while still a student, that he
+sat beside the priest's daughter at supper. He did not dare to say a
+word to her; but in the afternoon he went up the church tower and
+courted the young lady from one of the windows."
+
+"It is possible that it was he. I, however, made both the gentlemen
+stay, that at least the coffee and 'cowl-skippers'[113] might not be
+wasted. They did not wait to be asked twice, but ate with right good
+will. During the meal we fully discussed the best means of helping
+forward the stranded concert. Suddenly the dancing-master looked at his
+watch: 'Gracious me, if it isn't six o'clock! I must be off to give the
+children of the chief magistrate a dancing-lesson'--and with that he
+jumped up, kissed my hand, and pirouetted off.
+
+[Footnote 113: A sort of dumpling.]
+
+"Then Esaias also rose from the table, brushed the crumbs of the
+cowl-skippers from his coat, and said: 'Blessing and peace be with
+you!'--This was always his parting formula. Such a salutation as 'Your
+humble servant!' or 'I commend myself to your protection!' nobody has
+ever heard from his lips--no, not even his superintendent; for Esaias is
+not _humble_ and not _your servant_, and does not commend himself to
+anybody, nor will he tell a lie even as a matter of form.
+
+"'What! must you go too?' I replied to his 'blessing and peace.' 'You
+have no six-o'clock school this evening.'
+
+"'No; but why should I stay here if there's to be no practice?'
+
+"'Must I, then, begin singing in my own house before a man?'
+
+"'It depends upon the man,' replied Esaias.
+
+"'What am I to understand by that?' I inquired, much astonished.
+
+"'What are you to understand by that?' said he, striking the leg of his
+boot repeatedly with his pipe stem--'what are you to understand by that?
+It is not very hard to understand, I should think. If a lawyer, a
+doctor, or a squire were to come to see you and amuse himself here with
+or without music, not a dog in the village would have anything to bark
+at; but if they saw the schoolmaster come here at six o'clock in the
+afternoon--if they saw him, I say, remain here last of all when the
+other guests were gone, then there would be such a stir in Israel that
+men would be ready to stone me.'
+
+"'Do I stand, then, in such evil odour as all that?'
+
+"'I did not say that you were in any evil odour at all.'
+
+"'It is true,' he continued, 'that there are as many names written in
+your album as in Charles Trattner's almanack. That, however, does a
+pretty woman no harm. But me the Church would not forgive. If I get into
+evil odour, if I overstep the line, I shall be sent packing.'
+
+"'Then celibacy obtains among the Calvinists also?'
+
+"'Not celibacy, but we have the canonical prescriptions. A canonical
+offence is a very serious business for a Calvinist priest or
+schoolmaster. Let a man be a veritable John Chrysostom, and it will
+avail him nothing if he commit a canonical offence.'
+
+"'And _you_ have _never_ committed a canonical offence?' I said to him.
+
+"'Never!' he replied resolutely. And he grew quite red in the face. He
+was so proud of his virtue."
+
+"Why surely this is quite a new thing?" I interrupted--"a thing never
+known in the world before: a man who is virtuous, and not ashamed to
+confess it?"
+
+"Quite unique, isn't it? When I heard this I seized his hand and would
+not let him leave me. I could read from his eyes that it was the first
+time he had ever felt the pressure of a lady's hand. 'You have been
+candid,' I said to him, 'I will be candid also. You would never approach
+a woman whom you had not led to the altar. I know it. Then you shall
+lead _me_ to the altar!'
+
+"Even this did not seem to surprise him. His face remained as motionless
+as a statue.
+
+"'That is soon done,' said he; 'but _respice finem_! Man proposes, but
+'tis an old dog that holds on. I am not like other men. I am a very
+difficult man to get on with. You can't deal with me as with those who
+look through their fingers at the goings-on of their spouses. If I take
+you to wife, there must be an end to all this dancing and prancing and
+gadding about, and flirting and ogling. My wife will not have to go
+fasting, but she won't be allowed any junketing. I don't understand a
+joke. Do you see this cherry-wood pipe-stem? If I catch my wife at any
+piece of trickery, I'll break this cherry-stem across her back--take my
+word for it.'"
+
+I couldn't help smiling at this. "And you, my dear, pretty ward, have
+actually taken the schoolmaster to husband, cherry-stem and all?"
+
+"I should like to have taken him, but he didn't surrender himself so
+easily. I assured him that I would submit myself to the most stringent
+discipline of virtue, and if I transgressed against him, I should not
+mind his beating me. But even that did not vanquish him. By no means
+whatever could he be brought to sit down beside me on the sofa. He even
+pushed back the chair on which he was sitting, when he saw that I was
+besieging him. At last he brought his big guns to bear upon me.
+
+"'Look now, my dear dame, I know very well that humorous habit of yours
+of never remaining long in one nest. You deal with your sweethearts on a
+sort of give-and-take system. You are here to-day and off to-morrow.
+Supposing now, that in the exercise of my marital authority, I were to
+inflict an edifying chastisement upon you for your flightiness, you
+might easily take it into your head to bolt, and there should I be left
+in the lurch for the finger of scorn to point at. A Calvinist
+schoolmaster cannot submit to the fate of an ordinary man. If my wife
+were to leave me, I should be expelled from the Church with contumely.
+Then I should have to flee. I should be as good as excluded from human
+society. Now, I am very well satisfied with my present condition. I have
+a fixed salary of six hundred florins in good hard cash, and my
+perquisites amount to about as much again. I live honourably, you see,
+and I cannot afford to stake everything on a throw of the dice.'
+
+"Then I talked big also.
+
+"'Listen to me!' I said. 'I have capital sufficient to bring me in as
+much as your yearly income--that is to say, twenty-five thousand
+florins. I will make over the whole amount to you by way of a dower, and
+I am ready to forfeit it all in case I am unfaithful to you.'"
+
+"And didn't your Esaias capitulate even then?" I inquired of Bessy.
+
+"He asked for three days to think about it. I immediately hastened to
+you to signify my desire that your guardianship might cease."
+
+"Then Esaias has still two days' grace," I said. "I hope and trust he
+may be inwardly illuminated to say no!"
+
+"Then you do not approve of my determination?"
+
+"I am a friend of truth, and I understand a little about prophecy too.
+It doesn't matter to me if you surrender all your capital as a sort of
+shrift-money, and your house as well."
+
+"Such a man as he is worthy of it."
+
+"I'll take your word for it. You are something of an expert in such
+matters! But one thing I strongly advise you to do: keep the garden
+attached to the house at your own disposition."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"That you may have it planted full of cherry-trees. I know the natural
+history of the Calvinist-schoolmaster species. I know that what once he
+has promised he always performs. I also know the natural history of the
+lady with the eyes like the sea, and it is my belief that you will
+frequently give occasion for the employment of cherry-tree stems."
+
+At this the fair lady sprang from her chair, boiling over with rage.
+
+"What a gross monster it is! Poet indeed! A pedantic lout is what I call
+you! They've done very well to lock you up. This is the last time that
+we shall ever talk to each other."
+
+And with that she went, or rather flounced, away.
+
+But I gave a great sigh of relief.
+
+"May she keep her word, and never, never come back again!" I said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the first things I saw, on my release from prison, was the
+announcement in the newspapers of the solemnization of the marriage. The
+bank also informed me by letter that the amount there standing to the
+credit of my ward had been transferred to her husband's name.
+
+Well, at last Bessy had got the _ne plus ultra_ of husbands. For,
+really, the man who has reached his two-and-thirtieth year without
+sinning against the canonical prescriptions must indeed be a superlative
+treasure in the eyes of a lady who knows how to appreciate the value of
+such renunciation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+CONFESSION
+
+
+Well, the long and short of it is, confess I must, that I have a
+sweetheart for whose sake I have been unfaithful, not only to my wife,
+but to my muse also--a sweetheart who has immeshed me in her spider's
+web, and sucked my heart's blood dry, who has appropriated my best
+ideas, made me scamper after her from one end of the kingdom to the
+other, and whose slave I was and still am. Often have I wasted half my
+fortune upon her, and rushed blindly into misfortune to please her. For
+her have I patiently endured insult, ridicule, and reprobation. For her
+sake I have staked life and liberty.
+
+Sometimes, when I have felt the pinch of her tyranny, I have tried to
+escape from her; but she has enticed me back again and would not let me
+go.
+
+Now, if she had been some pretty young damsel, there might have been
+some excuse for me. But she was a nasty, old, painted figure-head of a
+beldame; a flirting, faithless, fickle, foul-mouthed, scandal-mongering
+old liar, whom the whole world courts, who makes fools of all her
+wooers, and changes her lover as often as she changes her dress.
+
+Her name is _Politica_,[114] and may the plague take her.
+
+[Footnote 114: Politics.]
+
+There was one particular year in which I was over head and ears in love
+with her, and did absolutely everything she wanted. On her account I
+fell out with a good friend of mine who was the very right hand of my
+newspaper. I fought (also on her account) a duel with pistols with
+another good friend of mine, who had no more offended me than I had ever
+offended him, in fact, we had always respected each other most highly.
+But Politica insisted upon it, and so we banged away at each other. Then
+she hounded me on against a third good friend of mine, who was an
+excellent fellow, and a Hungarian Minister of State to boot, and induced
+me to endeavour to thwart his election. And I actually _did_ make this
+excellent fellow's election fall through, this good friend whom I
+respected, loved and honoured. Politica demanded it. What a parade she
+made when she dragged me along after her triumphal car! She actually
+made me believe that I was now the most famous man in the whole kingdom!
+And she made me _pay_ for her precious favours, too! What _petits
+soupers_ for five hundred men at a time! What hundreds of carriages!
+What toilets!... But in those days I was quite wrapped up in her.
+
+After my great triumph a torrent of congratulatory letters and telegrams
+showered down upon me. I had actually upset a Cabinet Minister! That
+_was_ a triumph! Every one who, at any time, or under any
+circumstances, had been acquainted with me, called upon me after my
+brilliant success. Old school-fellows with whom I had formerly fought in
+the playground now recollected me. There was a brisk demand for my
+autograph. I was proud of it all. I was not even surprised, therefore,
+when one afternoon they brought into me a visiting card with the name
+"Mrs. Esaias Medv�si" upon it.
+
+It was very natural that she also should visit me. The sunbeams of my
+glory had melted the ice of her displeasure. Six years had now passed
+since I had seen her. I could imagine how she had filled out in the
+meantime. Well taken care of, with no vexations to worry her, harassed
+by no passions, what other fate could possibly await my fair ideal
+than--to grow fat?
+
+All the more startled was I, therefore, when I _did_ see her.
+
+She had grown quite gaunt. Her old-fashioned dress, which had been made
+to fit fuller forms, hung loosely about her. Her face, once so rosy and
+gay, was now lean and haggard; sombre wrinkles, which met together
+beneath her chin, had taken the place of her roguish dimples. Only by
+her eyes could I recognise her: they were still the eyes of yore.
+
+When she saw me she forced a smile, but I could see how much it cost
+her.
+
+I have never thought it a proper question to ask any one whose face has
+altered a good deal, "Are you ill?" but she herself led up to it.
+
+"I have greatly changed, haven't I? 'Tis a wonder that you recognise me.
+I have been very ill. I have just come from the doctor. I have been
+suffering from a quartan ague, which our country doctors could not drive
+away."
+
+"But otherwise you are all right, I trust?"
+
+"No, I am not. I fancy that my physical ailment is only as stubborn as
+it is, because my mind also is not as it should be."
+
+I asked her what was the matter.
+
+"I have come on purpose to tell you. You always gave me good advice, and
+I never took it. It may be that I wouldn't take it even now; but at
+least it would relieve my mind to tell you all about it. I have a secret
+desire which is destroying my whole soul: I go to sleep with it, and I
+wake up with it."
+
+"What desire can it be?"
+
+"If you but look at my face, you can easily see that it is no sinful
+affection."
+
+"And yet it must be kept secret?"
+
+"Yes, for I go about day and night with the thought of becoming a
+Catholic."
+
+I was so startled by this, that in my amazement I knew not what to say
+to her.
+
+"It is my fixed resolution. The only thing that can give to my soul
+peace on earth and salvation in heaven is conversion to the Roman
+Catholic Church."
+
+"How did you come by this resolution? There is no Catholic church in the
+town where you reside."
+
+"But there is a monastery quite close to it, a sweet, quiet, pleasant
+place. I am wont to go there when they are not watching me. A mere
+accident moved me at first. Curiosity led me into the church when I
+heard the holy chants through the door; but now it is devotion which
+leads me there. Ah! how much more sublime a place it is than our bald,
+bare place of worship. Wherever I look I see groups of holy figures who
+bless and beckon me. And those sublime chants, which seem to come from
+the angelic chorus of heaven, and ravish my soul away to a world
+unknown--but oh, how ardently desired! And then the deep silence, which
+is scarcely broken by the solemn sanctus-bell; and then the form of the
+priest himself, who, like a supernatural being, speaks before the altar
+in a language which men may not, but God does, understand. When I come
+out of such a church it seems to me as if I have been speaking to God."
+
+I began thinking what would be the end of it all. The lady became
+insistent.
+
+"What do you advise? What shall I do? My soul compels me to it."
+
+"My dear friend," I replied, "you know that I am a Protestant--and as a
+Protestant I am liberally and indulgently inclined towards every other
+creed. I _advise_ nobody to change his religion, neither do I dissuade
+him from so doing. I have a real veneration for the Catholic faith. I
+consider its ritual majestic and sublime, and its ceremonies are
+undoubtedly imposing and touching. Had I been born a Catholic, I should
+have been an ardent champion of my Church. But how can I approve of the
+conversion of a person in your position? Do you not reflect that your
+husband is an officer of the Calvinist communion?"
+
+"But it is the very prosaic nature of this communion which offends me.
+For in what a dull manner do our elders and deacons perform their sacred
+functions! Prayer, sermon, hymns--everything is with them a mere matter
+of enforced routine. How can they inspire others who have not themselves
+the gift of grace? Such people can only mock at and speak scornfully of
+their neighbours' faith because they have no real faith of their own."
+
+"But pray recollect that a Protestant schoolmaster loses his post if his
+wife changes her religion."
+
+"He may lose his material comforts, but I lose the repose of my soul."
+
+"My dear Bessy, I can imagine that a woman with extraordinarily
+sensitive nerves may find no consolation in Puritan simplicity. If you
+would seek refuge in true devotion, procure Allach's prayer-book--the
+manual of Catholic prayers, you know. In that book you'll find
+everything that is sublime, majestic, and heavenly in Catholic theology.
+Pray out of that book when you are alone and nobody sees you."
+
+"That is not enough for me. Religion does not consist in prayers and
+singing alone."
+
+"Then perhaps it is the pomp of the external ceremonies which has such
+an effect on your mind?"
+
+"That affects me least of all. But there is in the Catholic Church an
+institution as sublime as it is comforting, an institution sufficient of
+itself to spread the Catholic religion all over the round world wherever
+there are hearts that bleed, wherever there are those who suffer from
+other than merely material aches and pains. That institution is
+_confession_. It was a gross blunder of John Calvin not to have retained
+that institution for the faithful. He did not know the heart, especially
+the female heart. There is no greater torture in this world than to
+carry about in one's soul night and day an evil thought which harasses
+and pursues, and be unable to tell it to anybody. A Catholic woman can
+always find a word of consolation for her despair, a hand stretched out
+to raise her when she falls; _she_ has a refuge against the accusations
+of her own conscience; if she has sinned, she can beg for absolution,
+and her soul is lightened of its load. But who can absolve me? To whom
+can I tell that which tortures me within?"
+
+Her eyes were fixed and staring like the eyes of a somnambulist who sees
+nothing before her but a visionary world which others do not see, and at
+the same time she raised her index finger and laid it on her parched and
+cracking lips, as if to keep back the moanings of her dumb distress.
+
+I was deeply grieved for her. She had no need to tell me what she felt;
+her features spoke for themselves, and said how much she must have
+suffered since the last change in her life.
+
+"My dear friend," I said at last, "you have now known me for a long
+time, and you know that I have always been your well-wisher. If you have
+any bitter thought which oppresses you, confess it to me. _Amongst
+Protestants every man is a priest._ That is our fundamental dogma.
+Confess to me!"
+
+She smiled strangely; just as a sick man smiles when the doctor tries to
+persuade him that he really is well, while he himself is thinking all
+the time: "Just you wait a bit, and I'll turn the joke against you
+and--die!"
+
+"You will receive my confession, then?"
+
+"Yes; and rest assured that I'll keep the solemn secret as sacred as a
+consecrated priest."
+
+"As long as I am alive, at any rate. After I am dead, I don't care what
+you do. You may then proclaim it to the world if you like. When I am
+dead, I authorize you to write a romance about me, a romance like mine
+you have never written yet. But _till_ then, not a word to any one of
+what you will now hear from me. To nobody, not even to your wife!
+Promise me that! Your word of honour on it!"
+
+"My friend, there is a crypt within my breast for buried secrets. Your
+secret shall repose among the rest."
+
+She bent down to my ear, her burning breath scorched my face, and she
+whispered: "I confess to you that I wish _to kill my husband_."
+
+Horrified, I looked into her eyes, they flashed up at me like the eyes
+of devils. That wish of hers was a real living wish.
+
+"And what I've said, I'll do"--and she pressed her lips together till
+they were quite thin, and her eyes distended into orbs filled with
+threatening fire.
+
+"Good Heavens! what thought is this?"
+
+She looked at me with a malicious smile.
+
+"There, you see you are no priest, and can give no absolution."
+
+"Nor would a priest give you absolution either. A priest can impose
+penance for sin repented of, but he cannot give indulgence beforehand
+for a meditated crime. A priest could only say to you what I say now:
+'Fly to God and cleanse your soul from this dark thought!' How could you
+ever have suffered it to enter your soul, that good and gentle soul of
+yours that used always to love and never to hate?"
+
+"Yes, such I ever was, was I not? I was indeed a loving fool. You once
+wrote a tale which I remember reading when a child. In this tale a
+distracted heart relates how many ways there are of extinguishing life.
+Amongst other things written there is this: that if honey is allowed to
+stand till it rots, it turns into the deadliest venom. This is quite
+true as to the honey with which the heart of a poor credulous woman is
+full, but it is _not_ true with regard to the honey of the field. I have
+tried and found that it is not true."
+
+"Believe me, neither case is true. In married life there is no such sea
+of bitterness as cannot be made sweet again by a single drop of love."
+
+"Alas! what I suffer exceeds even the power of your imagination.
+Contempt, degradation, is my daily bread. Insult follows upon every step
+I take. When I speak, my words are misinterpreted; when I am silent, I
+am chided; when I weep, I am bullied and brow-beaten."
+
+"Do you think that perhaps your husband suspects your intention of
+changing your faith?"
+
+"So much he knows, that I frequently visit the monastery, and often have
+talks with one of the monks. I solemnly swear that I've talked to him
+about nothing but religion and holy things. He, however, accuses me of
+the nastiest things. Then when we sit together at table, he poisons
+every dish I eat by singing the most derisive songs he can think of
+about those women who rave about cowls and cassocks; in fact, he is
+_always_ singing such songs in my presence."
+
+"But, my dear friend, you take these things too tragically. These
+derisive songs have been sung time out of mind. Your husband has not
+invented them for your special aggravation. Laugh at him to his face,
+and he'll hold his tongue."
+
+"Very well, then. Let what he does to ridicule _me_ be forgiven. But
+ever since he has begun to suspect my spiritual condition, he leaves no
+stone unturned to disturb my devotions. If in the afternoon or evening,
+when the chiming of the cloister bell is wafted over to us, I
+involuntarily join my hands together, he laughs at me: 'Ha! ha! ha! they
+are ringing the bells to call you to prayer, are they?' Now, the
+Calvinists do not ring for evening prayers, neither do they sound the
+Angelus, and this is a great grief to me. It is like rolling my bread in
+the mud and then making me eat it. This continual ridiculing clings to
+me like tar; it chokes, it nauseates. I feel just as if I were swimming
+in a sea of glue. He relates to me the most villainous anecdotes about
+the holy images. Last Saturday it rained the whole morning, and I could
+not go to town. He saw my impatience, and said to me derisively, 'Never
+mind, _thou female_, it will clear up this afternoon, for the Virgin
+Mary wants to dry her son's little shirt for Sunday!' It was well for
+him that he left the room that instant, for I was very near driving my
+knife into his heart!"
+
+I tried to quiet the excited creature by saying that though this was no
+very reverent jest, yet it was not an invention of Esaias's. This jest
+about the breaking out of the sunshine on Saturday afternoon was a
+common saying among the Hungarian country folk, and, taken seriously,
+had really nothing impious about it, representing, indeed, that sacred
+figure, whom all of us are bound to reverence, as a provident mother
+from the homely, rustic point of view.
+
+"I don't like to hear _that_ name on _his_ lips. Why, I sent away an old
+servant of mine called Marcsa for no other reason than because her
+master was always calling her Maria, and every such time it was as if a
+dagger were piercing my heart."
+
+I saw that the woman was really suffering. It was a case where a heroic
+remedy was required.
+
+"My dear friend," I said, "I cannot blame your husband. Your religious
+extravagance, which has been not a little stimulated by the irritability
+of your nerves and the nostrums which the provincial doctors have made
+you drink, is a question of 'to be or not to be' for your husband. If
+you cling to the saints, poor Esaias will feel the earth giving way
+beneath him. You are bound to one another, remember. If you go and seek
+heaven in another church, you will only install hell in your own house.
+Believe me, if your husband discovers your design, he will fly into a
+fury and tear you to pieces. If I were you I should go to some medicinal
+watering place and get your nerves braced up a bit."
+
+"I see--I see. You do not understand what is the matter with me. You
+think it is a mere feminine ailment, which is, generally, half
+affectation. Look at that recipe. The most famous doctor in the capital
+prescribed it for me. I went to him, he diagnosed me. He said that the
+country doctors had not treated my case properly. They had stuffed me
+full of quinine, he said, and it was not the medicament that I wanted.
+So he prescribed me another. Read it!"
+
+I looked at the prescription and saw it was arsenic.
+
+"The doctor prescribed six drops for the first day, and a drop more
+every other day up to twenty drops, and then back by single drops to six
+again. Then my fever will return no more. But he cautioned me to keep
+most strictly to his prescription, as the remedy was a very dangerous
+one. Is that so?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"I have had it made up in the J�zsefv�ros dispensary." And with that she
+drew out the flask from her pocket and showed it me.
+
+"That will do for me. I will now go with this prescription to all the
+ten apothecaries in the town and have it made up by every one of them.
+_Ten times the strength will certainly do for him._"
+
+Horrified, I seized her hand.
+
+"Miserable woman, what wouldst thou do? Surely not commit murder?
+Wouldst thou poison thy husband's body and my soul? Every time I have
+thought of thee I have seen thee before me in the idealized form of my
+pure love of early days, and wilt thou now put horror and aversion in
+the place of it? Give me that prescription!"
+
+With terrified, staring eyes, and trembling in every nerve, the woman
+fell down on her knees before me, and when I said to her: "Hitherto thou
+hast always had a place in my prayers, dost thou wish me to cast thee
+forth from my remembrance with curses?" she began to smile.
+
+"_'Tis the first time in your life that you have 'thou'd' me._ Let me
+then return the compliment. But no, I cannot _thou_ thee. The word
+_thou_ cannot come out of my mouth. Don't lift me up. Let me kneel
+before you. I fain would only weep, but no tears will flow. Here is the
+prescription. Destroy it if you like. I was mad. I knew not what I said.
+'Tis true. If life be grievous to me, 'tis I who ought to die."
+
+"What you now say is also a sin. Heaven does not give us that divine
+spark, the spirit, only that we may fling it back again. Learn to bear
+your sorrows in silence. Every one of us has his cross which God has
+laid upon him that he may carry it ... If you would believe in the
+saints, follow their example. _Be_ a martyr, if God so wills it--that is
+the _real_ Catholic faith...."
+
+She began to sob, but after some little difficulty I contrived to pacify
+her. I also provided her with all sorts of good homely counsels. "A good
+wife," I said, "ought to humour her husband, and not sit in judgment on
+his faults." I told her to bring him to me and introduce me to him.
+Perhaps I might make some impression on him, and prevail upon him not to
+press his crotchets too far. It was even possible that I might find him
+some work to do, something relating to spiritual subjects which might
+occupy his mind, kindle his ambition, and make him peel off his cynical
+husk. No doubt he was a good and worthy man, who only needed to be
+properly taken in hand to get on very well.
+
+The lady with the eyes like the sea listened with many shakes of the
+head, but she had gradually grown much more quiet. Those eyes of hers,
+how they could express gratitude! It really seemed as if, beneath the
+influence of my words, her face was recovering the rosy hue that it had
+lost.
+
+Alas, no! Vain thought! 'Twas not my words, but something else.
+
+She arose and rallied her spirits.
+
+"Very well! I'll take your advice. I will endure. I will be patient. I
+will down with every evil thought. I will show that I can be a good
+wife. You shall be satisfied with me. But one thing I'll tell you. My
+husband has threatened to strike me. If ever he does that, then God be
+merciful both to him and me."
+
+Now I knew why her face had turned so red--"If my husband dishonours me
+by a single blow, I swear that I'll seize a gun and shoot him dead!" And
+with that she rushed out of the room. I felt as if I ought to call after
+her: "Don't go home, wretched woman!"
+
+It was too late. She was already outside the door. She had vanished like
+a vision of the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+MARIA NOSTRA.
+
+
+Ah! what an ocean of time has passed since this happened. It must be
+twenty years, at least. It makes me giddy when I look back upon it. But
+how many evil years there were, how many days that I do not love to
+think about! How many have been torn from my side to whom life was a joy
+and on whom the future smiled! And I still remain! Only here and there,
+now and again, perhaps, do I encounter a grey-headed shape like myself,
+a relic from that brilliant time, and what a joy it then is to look back
+upon those old days and say: "It is not so good now as it was then!"
+
+Some years ago I was on a visit of inspection among our large national
+State prisons. I happened to be at Szamosujv�r and Illava, where the
+aristocracy of crime is collected together, persons condemned to a term
+of imprisonment exceeding ten years, all of them criminals once under
+sentence of death, but reprieved by an act of grace. Here were
+interesting studies of the night side of human nature.
+
+I also visited the Maria Nostra. Here the female criminals resided, and
+nuns were the warders.
+
+This house of correction can only be visited by special permission of
+the Ministry.
+
+There the discipline is strict, but the prisoners are very well treated.
+
+Last of all we visited the day-room, where the prisoners were at work.
+
+They all sat in a long room, and were sewing. Those who could do the
+finer sort of work were at little tables of their own. I stopped before
+one of such tables; a woman was sewing some sort of child's garment. It
+is the rule that when a visitor stops before the table of one of the
+felons, she shall immediately rise from her seat and, whether asked or
+unasked, say what her crime is and how long her term of imprisonment.
+
+She arose when I stood before her table.
+
+Her hair was as white as autumn gossamers, but her eyes still flashed
+with their old varying fires--they were still, as of old, the flaming
+eyes like the sea! In a dull monotone she told me her crime and her
+sentence: "I killed my husband. I am condemned to imprisonment for
+life."
+
+For life!--and life so long!
+
+"Can I not use my interest in your favour?"
+
+"I thank you, but it is well with me here. I wish for nothing more in
+this world."
+
+And with that she returned to her place and went on with her work.
+
+Poor little Bessy!
+
+Last year I received a letter announcing her death. It was her last wish
+that I, but nobody else, should be informed of it.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+EYES LIKE THE SEA.
+
+BY MAURUS J�KAI
+
+12MO, CLOTH
+
+A FEW COMMENTS OF THE
+ENGLISH PRESS
+
+Half autobiographical, dramatic, and at the same time
+humorous, J�kai's novel, crowned by the Hungarian
+Academy in 1860, is a delightful exception to the
+tendency which is fast making fiction a branch of
+science instead of art.--_Morning Post._
+
+It is a strikingly original and powerful story ... The
+great charm of the book is the manner in which J�kai
+analyses Bessie's character. All through the story
+indeed we feel ourselves in the presence of a master of
+the human heart, and again and again we come upon
+sentences pregnant with that wisdom which it is the lot
+of but few to acquire.--_Speaker._
+
+From beginning to end "Eyes like the Sea" teems with
+entertaining matter and the English version is highly
+creditable to Mr. Nisbet Bain the translator of this
+sprightly autobiographical novel.--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+"Eyes Like the Sea" is an alluring book into which to
+dip at random ...--_Academy._
+
+"Eyes like the Sea" is one of those rare books that
+break all rules and defy criticism by justifying their
+irregularities.--_Guardian._
+
+It is good to know too that fiction in Hungary has a
+master so hearty, so human, and so free at once from
+priggishness and _naturalism_.--_Saturday Review._
+
+In some respects the heroine reminds us of Becky Sharp
+and in others of Manon Lescaut, and in feminine
+dexterity and sexual eccentricities is no unworthy mate
+for either.--_Athen�um._
+
+It is truly, as Mr. Bain remarks in his preface, a
+brilliant example of the now rare novel of incident and
+adventure ... The vigor of the book is
+astonishing.--_World._
+
+The charm of the original as a work of art loses a good
+deal in the translation ... none the less the book is
+extremely interesting. It is a sketchy and vivacious
+summary of the more salient incidents in the political
+and literary career of the eminent Hungarian poet and
+romancist, its author.--_Literary World._
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the
+original edition have been corrected.
+
+In the Preface, "pronouned preference" was changed to "pronounced
+preference".
+
+In Chapter I, a missing period was added after "Valsez l�".
+
+In Chapter II, "would have withrawn" was changed to "would have
+withdrawn", and a missing quotation mark was added before "you ought
+really to be a tamer of animals!".
+
+In Chapter III, a missing period was added after "after her wedding".
+
+In Chapter IV, a quotation mark was added before "They are all in a very
+good humour to-day".
+
+In Chapter VI, "amongst us at the, Table of Public Opinion" was changed
+to "amongst us at the Table of Public Opinion".
+
+In Chapter VIII a missing quotation mark was added after "skiz and
+pag�t...."
+
+In Chapter X a missing period was added after "Newspapers he never
+reads".
+
+In Chapter XIII, "beleagured fortress" was changed to "beleaguered
+fortress", "hide yourself in the village of Isza" was changed to "hide
+yourself in the village of Izsa", a missing period was added after
+"glass full of szilvorium", and an extraneous quotation mark was deleted
+after "the hovel at Het�ny".
+
+In Chapter XIV, a quotation mark was added before "Forget what we have
+been speaking about!"
+
+In Chapter XV, "Wencesclaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement" was
+changed to "Wenceslaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement".
+
+In Chapter XVI, "Kakas M�rtin," was changed to "Kakas M�rtin."
+
+The ellipses in Chapter XVII both contained an extra dot (a period plus
+four dots at the end of a sentence, and four dots following an
+incomplete sentence). The extra dots have been removed. Also, a missing
+period has been added after "her various temperaments".
+
+In Chapter XVIII, a missing quotation mark was added after "mutually
+discovered in Kvatopil's character....". In Chapter XIX, "�zvegy
+Kapit�uyn�" was changed to "�zvegy Kapit�nyn�", a period was changed to
+a colon after "said to the President", a missing quotation mark was
+added after "left to practise alone", and "piroutted off" was changed to
+"pirouetted off".
+
+In Chapter XX, "turn the jok against you" was changed to "turn the joke
+against you", "the J�zsefvarose dispensary" was changed to "the
+J�zsefv�ros dispensary", "the real Ca holic faith" was changed to "the
+real Catholic faith", and a misplaced quotation mark was move from after
+"taken in hand to get on very well" to after "sit in judgment on his
+faults".
+
+Numerous Hungarian words have been spelled inconsistently, sometimes
+with an accent and sometimes without, and some words have been
+inconsistently hyphenated. Each occurrence has been left as it appeared
+in the original text, except as follows: "F�varosi" has been changed to
+"F�v�rosi", "Heteny" to "Het�ny", "Honv�d" to "Honved", "Jokai" to
+"J�kai", "Rak�czy" to "R�k�czy", "Sagi" to "S�gi", "Segesvar" to
+"Segesv�r", "Valy" to "V�ly", "Vasvary" to "Vasv�ry", and "Verchovszky"
+to "V�rchovszky".
+
+Also, the section titled "A Few Comments of the English Press" has been
+moved from the front of the book to the back.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eyes Like the Sea, by M�r J�kai
+
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Eyes Like the Sea, by M�r J�kai.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Eyes Like the Sea, by M�r J�kai
+
+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: Eyes Like the Sea
+
+Author: M�r J�kai
+
+Translator: R. Nisbet Bain
+
+Release Date: March 14, 2010 [EBook #31642]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EYES LIKE THE SEA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 314px;">
+<img src="images/cover.png" width="314" height="500" alt="cover" title="EYES LIKE THE SEA." />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>EYES LIKE THE SEA</h1>
+
+<p class="bigtype center"><i>A NOVEL</i></p>
+
+<h2>By MAURUS J&Oacute;KAI</h2>
+
+<p class="center">TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN<br />
+BY<br />
+<span class="bigtype">R. NISBET BAIN</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK<br />
+<span class="bigtype">G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">27 and 29 West 23d St</span><br />
+1894</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chapterbreak" />
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="pageheader">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Preface</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#PREFACE">ix</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Sea-Eyes&mdash;Monsieur Galifard&mdash;The First Needle-Prick</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">My First Distinction&mdash;My First Grievance&mdash;The Damenwalzer&mdash;The Frightful Monster&mdash;The Readjusted Scarf&mdash;The Second Needle-Prick</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">7</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">My Masterpiece and My Hut</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">24</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Pet&ouml;fi with us&mdash;Plans for the Future&mdash;The Rape of the Brides&mdash;Amateur Theatricals&mdash;My Menshikov</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">40</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Olympian Strivings</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">54</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">An Odd Duel&mdash;The Fateful Letter J.&mdash;I also become a Peter Gyuricza</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">60</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Weltschmerz Conditions&mdash;"Remain or Fly!"</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">74</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Peter Gyuricza's Consort</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">80</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Woman who went along with Me</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">117</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Where the World is Walled Up</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">132</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Valentine B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi and Tiham&eacute;r Rengetegi</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">140</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Meeting at the Pagan Altar</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">151</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">What Happened after That</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">190</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Demon's Bait</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">247</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Marvels not to be seen for Money</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">266</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Soldiering</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">297</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Temptation</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">309</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">A Cold Douche!</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">321</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Esaias Medv&eacute;si</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">357</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Confession</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">379</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Maria Nostra</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">394</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapterbreak" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>The pessimistic tone of Continental fiction, and its pronounced
+preference for minute and morbid analysis, are quite revolutionizing the
+modern novel. Fiction is ceasing to be a branch of art, and fast
+becoming, instead, a branch of science. The aim of the novelist,
+apparently, is to lecture instead of to amuse his readers. Plot,
+incident, and description are being sacrificed more and more to the
+dissection of peculiar and abnormal types of character, and the story is
+too often lost in physiological details or psychological studies. The
+wave of <i>Naturalism</i>, as it is called (though nothing could really be
+more unnatural), has spread from France all over Europe. The Spanish and
+Italian novels are but pale reflections of the French novel. The German
+Naturalists have all the qualities of the French School, minus its
+grace. In Holland, the so-called <i>Sensitivists</i> are at great pains to
+combine a coarse materialism with a sickly sentimentality. Much more
+original, but equally depressing, is the new school of Scandinavian
+novelists represented by such names as Garborg, Strindberg, Jacobsen,
+L&ouml;ffler, Hamsun, and Bj&ouml;rnson (at least in his later works), all of whom
+are more or less under the influence of Ibsenism, which may be roughly
+defined as a radical revolt against con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>ventionality. In point of
+thoroughness some of these Northern worthies are not a whit behind their
+fellow craftsmen in France. The novel of the year in Norway for 1891 was
+a loathsomely circumstantial account of slow starvation. There is a lady
+novelist in the same country who could give points to Zola himself; and
+nearly every work of Strindberg's has scandalized a large portion of the
+public in Sweden. Nay, even remote Finland has been reached at last by
+the wave of <i>Naturalism</i> in fiction, and Respectability there is still
+in tears at the perversion of the most gifted of Finnish novelists,
+Juhani Aho. In the Slavonic countries also the pessimistic, analytical
+novel is paramount, though considerably chastened by Slavonic mysticism,
+and modified by peculiar political and social conditions. Though much
+nobler in sentiment, the novel in Poland, Russia, and Bohemia is quite
+as melancholy in character as the general run of fiction elsewhere. A
+minor key predominates them all. There is no room for humour in the
+mental vivisection which now passes for <i>Belles-lettres</i>. We may learn
+something, no doubt, from these <i>fin de si&egrave;cle</i> novelists, but to get a
+single healthy laugh out of any one of them is quite impossible.</p>
+
+<p>There is, however, one country which is a singular exception to this
+general rule. In Hungary the good old novel of incident and adventure is
+still held in high honour, and humour is of the very essence of the
+national literature. This curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> isolated phenomenon is due, in great
+measure, to the immense influence of the veteran novelist, Maurus J&oacute;kai,
+who may be said to have created the modern Hungarian novel,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> and who
+has already written more romances than any man can hope to read in a
+life-time. J&oacute;kai is a great poet. He possesses a gorgeous fancy, an
+all-embracing imagination, and a constructive skill unsurpassed in
+modern fiction; but his most delightful quality is his humour, a humour
+of the cheeriest, heartiest sort, without a single <i>soup&ccedil;on</i> of
+ill-nature about it, a quality precious in any age, and doubly so in an
+overwrought, supercivilized age like our own. Lovers of literature must
+always regret, however, that the great Hungarian romancer has been so
+prodigal of his rare gifts. He has written far too much, and his works
+vary immensely. Between such masterpieces, for instance, as "<i>Karp&aacute;thy
+Zolt&aacute;n</i>" and "<i>Az ar&aacute;ny ember</i>" on the one hand, and such pot-boilers as
+"<i>Nincsen Ord&ouml;g</i>," or even "<i>Szerelem Bolondjai</i>," on the other, the
+interval is truly abysmal. But that such a difference is due not to
+exhaustion, but simply to excessive exuberance, is evident from the
+story which we now present for the first time to English readers. "<i>A
+tengerszem&uuml; h&ouml;lgy</i>" is certainly the most brilliant of J&oacute;kai's later,
+and perhaps<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> most humorous of all his works. It was justly
+crowned by the Hungarian Academy as the best Magyar novel of the year
+1890, and well sustains the long-established reputation of the master.
+Apart from the intensely dramatic incidents of the story, and the
+originality and vividness of the characterization, "<i>A tengerszem&uuml;
+h&ouml;lgy</i>" is especially interesting as being, to a very great extent,
+autobiographical. It is not indeed a <i>professed</i> record of the author's
+life-like "<i>Eml&eacute;keim</i>" (My Memoirs) for instance. It professes to be a
+novel, and a most startling novel it is. Yet in none of J&oacute;kai's other
+novels does he tell us so much about himself, his home, and his early
+struggles both as an author and a patriot; <i>he</i> is one of the chief
+characters in his own romance. Of the heroine, Bessy, I was about to say
+that she stood alone in fiction, but there is a certain superficial
+resemblance, purely accidental of course, between her and that other
+delightful and original rogue of romance, Mrs. Desborough, in Mr. Robert
+Louis Stevenson's "More New Arabian Nights," though all who have had the
+privilege of making the acquaintance of both ladies will feel bound to
+admit that J&oacute;kai's Bessy, with her five husbands, is even more piquant,
+stimulating, and fascinating than Mr. Stevenson's charming and elusive
+heroine.</p>
+
+<p class="rightalign">R. NISBET BAIN.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> I do not forget <i>K&aacute;rm&aacute;n</i>, <i>J&oacute;sika</i>, and <i>E&ouml;tv&ouml;s</i>, but the
+former was an imitator of Richardson, and the two latter of Walter
+Scott.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> I say "perhaps," as I can only claim to have read
+twenty-five out of J&oacute;kai's one hundred and fifty novels.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr class="chapbreak" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1><a name="EYES_LIKE_THE_SEA" id="EYES_LIKE_THE_SEA"></a>EYES LIKE THE SEA</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">SEA-EYES&mdash;MONSIEUR GALIFARD&mdash;THE FIRST NEEDLE-PRICK</p>
+
+
+<p>Never in my life have I seen such wonderful eyes! One might construct a
+whole astronomy out of them. Every changeful mood was there reflected;
+so I have called them "Eyes like the Sea."</p>
+
+<hr class="thoughtbreak" />
+
+<p>When first I met pretty Bessy, we were both children. She was twelve
+years old, I was a hobbledehoy of sixteen. We were learning dancing
+together. A Frenchman had taken up his quarters in our town, an
+itinerant dancing-master, who set the whole place in a whirl. His name
+was Monsieur Galifard. He had an extraordinarily large head, a bronzed
+complexion, eyebrows running into each other, and short legs; and on the
+very tip of his large aquiline nose was a big wart. Yet, for all that,
+he was really charming. Whenever he danced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> or spoke, he instantly
+became irresistible. All our womankind came thither on his account; all
+of them I say, from nine years old and upwards to an age that was quite
+incalculable. I recall the worthy man with the liveliest gratitude. I
+have to thank him for the waltz and the quadrille, as well as for the
+art of picking up a fallen fan without turning my back upon the lady.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy was the master's greatest trouble. She would never keep time; she
+would never take to the elegant "<i>pli</i>," and he could never wean her
+from her wild and frolicsome ways. Woe to the dancer who became her
+partner!</p>
+
+<p>I, however, considered all this perfectly natural. When any one is
+lovely, rich, and well-born, she has the right to be regarded as the
+exception to every rule. That she was lovely you could tell at the very
+first glance; that she was rich anybody could tell from the silver coach
+in which she rode; and by combining the fact that every one called her
+mother "Your Ladyship" with the fact that even the "country people"
+kissed her hand, you easily arrived at the conclusion that she must be
+well-born. Her lady-mother and her companion, a gentlewoman of a certain
+age, were present at every dancing lesson, as also was the girl's aunt,
+a major's widow in receipt of a pension. Thus Bessy was under a
+threefold inspection, the natural consequence of which was that she
+could do just as she liked, for every one of her guardians privately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+argued, "Why should I take the trouble of looking after this little girl
+when the other two are doing the same thing?" and so all three were
+always occupied with their own affairs.</p>
+
+<p>The mother was a lady who loved to bask on the sunny side of life; her
+widowhood pined for consolation. She had her officially recognised
+wooers, with more or less serious intentions, graduated according to
+rank and quality.</p>
+
+<p>The companion was the scion of a noble family. All her brothers were
+officers. Her father was a Chamberlain at Court; his <i>own</i> chamber was
+about the last place in the world to seek him in. The young lady's
+toilets were of the richest; she also had the reputation of being a
+beauty, and was famed for her finished dancing. Still, time had already
+called her attention to the seriousness of her surroundings; for Bessy,
+the daughter of the house, had begun to shoot up in the most alarming
+manner, and four or five summers more might make a rival of her. Her
+occupation during the dancing hour was therefore of such a nature as to
+draw her somewhat aside lest people should observe with whom and in what
+manner she was diverting herself, for there is many an evil feminine eye
+that can read all sorts of things in a mere exchange of glances or a
+squeeze of the hand, and then, of course, such things are always talked
+to death.</p>
+
+<p>But it was the aunt most of all who sought for pretexts to vanish from
+the dancing-room. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> wanted to taste every dish and pasty in the
+buffet before any one else, and well-grounded investigators said of her,
+besides, that she was addicted to the dark pleasure of taking snuff,
+which naturally demanded great secrecy. When, however, she was in the
+dancing-room, she would sit down beside some kindred gossiper, and then
+they both got so engrossed in the delight of running down all their
+acquaintances, that they had not a thought for anything else.</p>
+
+<p>So Bessy could do what she liked. She could dance <i>cs&aacute;rd&aacute;s</i><a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> figures
+in the Damensolo; smack her <i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i> on the hands in the <i>tour de
+mains</i>, and tell anecdotes in such a loud voice that they could be heard
+all over the room; and when she laughed she would press both hands
+between her knees in open defiance of Monsieur Galifard's repeated
+expostulations.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The national dance of Hungary.</p></div>
+
+<p>One evening there was a grand practice in the dancing-room. With the
+little girls came big girls, and with the big girls big lads. Such
+lubbers seem to think that they have a covenanted right to cut out
+little fellows like me. Luckily, worthy Galifard was a good-natured
+fellow, who would not allow his <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;s</i> to be thrust to the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Nix cache-cache spielen, Monsieur Maurice. Allons! Walzer geht an. Nur
+courage. Ne cherchez pas toujours das allerschlekteste T&auml;nzerin! Fangen
+sie Fr&auml;ulein Erzsike par la main. Valsez<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> l&agrave;."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> And with that he
+seized my hand, led me up to Bessy, placed my hand in hers, and then
+"ein, zwei."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> "Don't play hide-and-seek, Master Maurice. Off you go! 'Tis
+a waltz, remember. Come, come! courage. Don't always pick out the worst
+partner. Take Miss Bessy by the hand. Waltz away!"</p></div>
+
+<p>Now, the waltzes of those days were very different from the waltzes we
+dance now. The waltz of to-day is a mere joke; but waltzing then was a
+serious business. Both partners kept the upper parts of their bodies as
+far apart as possible, whilst their feet were planted close together.
+Then the upper parts went moving off to the same time, and the legs were
+obliged to slide as quickly as they could after the flying bodies. It
+was a dance worthy of will-o'-the-wisps.</p>
+
+<p>The master kept following us all the time, and never ceased his
+stimulating assurances: "Tr&egrave;s bien, Monsieur Maurice! &Ccedil;a va
+ausgezeiknet! 'Alten sie brav la demoiselle! Nix auf die F&uuml;sse schauen.
+Regardez aux yeux. Das ist riktig. Embrassiren ist besser als
+embarrasiren! Pouah! Da liegst schon alle beide!"<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> "Very good, Master Maurice! That's capital! Hold the lady
+nicely! Don't look at your feet. Look at her eyes. That's right! To
+embrace is better than to embarrass. Pooh! There, they both are
+together!"</p></div>
+
+<p>No, not quite so bad as that! I had foreseen the inevitable tumble, and
+in order to save my partner I sacrificed myself by falling on my knees,
+<i>she</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> scarcely touched the floor with the tip of her finger. My knee
+was not much the worse for the fall, but I split my pantaloons just
+above the knee. I was annihilated. A greater blow than that can befall
+no man.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy laughed at my desperate situation, but the next moment she had
+compassion upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a bit," said she, "and I'll sew it up with my darning-needle."
+Then she fished up a darning-needle from one of the many mysterious
+folds of her dress, and, kneeling down before me, hastily darned up the
+rent in my dove-coloured pantaloons, and in her great haste she pricked
+me to the very quick with the beneficent but dangerous implement.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't prick you, did I?" she asked, looking at me with those large
+eyes of hers which seemed to speak of such goodness of heart.</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said; yet I felt the prick of that needle even then.</p>
+
+<p>Then we went on dancing. I distinguished myself marvellously. With a
+needle-prick in my knee, and another who knows where, I whirled Bessy
+three times round the room, so that when I brought her back to the
+<i>garde des dames</i>, it seemed to me as if three-and-thirty mothers,
+aunts, and companions were revolving around me.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">MY FIRST DISTINCTION&mdash;MY FIRST GRIEVANCE&mdash;THE DAMENWALZER&mdash;THE FRIGHTFUL
+MONSTER&mdash;THE READJUSTED SCARF&mdash;THE SECOND NEEDLE-PRICK</p>
+
+
+<p>I am really most grateful to Monsieur Galifard. I have to thank him for
+the first distinction I ever enjoyed in my life. This was the
+never-to-be-forgotten circumstance that when my colleagues, the young
+hopefuls of the Academy of Jurisprudence at Kecskemet, gave a lawyers'
+ball, they unanimously chose me to be the <i>el&ouml;t&aacute;nczos</i>.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> To this day I
+am proud of that distinction; what must I have been then? On the heels
+of this honour speedily came a second. The very same year, the Hungarian
+Academy of Sciences, on the occasion of the competition for the Teleki
+prize, honourably mentioned my tragedy, "The Jew Boy," and there were
+even two competent judges, V&ouml;r&ouml;smarty and Bajza,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> who considered it
+worthy of the prize.... When, therefore, I returned to my native town,
+after an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> absence of three years, I found that a certain <i>renomm&eacute;e</i> had
+preceded me. I had also very good reasons for returning home. The legal
+curriculum in my time embraced four years. The third year was given to
+the <i>patveria</i>, the fourth year to the <i>jurateria</i>.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> Every respectable
+man goes through the patveria in his own country, but the <i>jurateria</i> at
+Buda-Pest.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The dancer who leads off the ball.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Two of the most eminent Hungarian poets.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Different branches of Hungarian law.</p></div>
+
+<p>And I had something else to boast of, too. In my leisure hours I painted
+portraits, miniatures in oil. So well did I hit off the Judge of Osziny
+(and he did not give me a sitting either) that every one recognised him;
+but a still greater sensation was caused by my portrait of the wife of
+the Procurator Fiscal, who passed for one of the prettiest women in the
+town.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, despite all this, when in the following Shrovetide the Lord
+Lieutenant gave a ball to the county (they were something like Lord
+Lieutenants in those days), I was <i>not</i> called upon to open the ball!
+Ungrateful fatherland!</p>
+
+<p>And who was it, pray, who caused me this bitter slight? A dandy, who did
+not belong to our town at all; a certain Muki Bagotay, of whom the world
+only knew that he had been to Paris, and was a good match. In my rage I
+had resolved not to dance at the Lord Lieutenant's ball, although I had
+received an invitation. Moreover, my indignation was increased by the
+circumstance that rumour had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> already designated Bessy as the
+semi-official partner of the opener of the ball.</p>
+
+<p>However, Nemesis overtook the pair of them.</p>
+
+<p>At this ball Bessy wore a frisure <i>&agrave; l'Anglaise</i>, which did not suit her
+face at all; and I rejoiced beforehand at the misadventure I clearly
+foresaw, for I was certain that her flying dishevelled hair would catch
+in the buttons of her partner's dress-coat.</p>
+
+<p>As for Muki Bagotay himself, the first time we cast eyes upon him, my
+young brother and I immediately agreed that it was an absolute
+impertinence to be so handsome. Only a romance-writer has the right to
+produce such perfect figures; they have no business to exist in reality.
+I comforted myself with the reflection that such a handsome fellow
+<i>must</i> be a blockhead. I didn't know then that dulness was fashionable.
+Why, even <i>gold</i> has a dull ring!</p>
+
+<p>But I was a very inexperienced youngster in those days. I had no down on
+my face, I did not know how to smoke, I would not have drunk wine for
+worlds, and had never even looked a lady in the face.</p>
+
+<p>But, as I said before, Nemesis overtook them.</p>
+
+<p>The dance opened with a waltz. If <i>I</i> had been master of the ceremonies,
+I should have started with a <i>k&ouml;rmagyar</i>.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> Ah! that <i>k&ouml;rmagyar</i>. That
+is some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>thing like a dance. It requires enthusiasm to dance <i>that</i>, and
+you want eight or sixteen couples to dance it properly, and all
+thirty-two dancers must dance it with histrionic precision, and that was
+not an easy thing to do, I can tell you. But, then, Bagotay was all for
+waltzes. The "Pecsovics"!<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">10</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> An old Hungarian round dance.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> One who preferred foreign and especially Austrian customs
+to Hungarian.</p></div>
+
+<p>But there's a Nemesis!</p>
+
+<p>It was the regular custom then for the band to play ten or twelve bars
+of each dance before it began, and then stop for a few moments so that
+the public might know whether the next dance was to be a polka,
+quadrille, or waltz. Muki Bagotay did not know this (what did he know,
+forsooth?), so when the band gave the usual signal, he took his partner
+on his arm and started off with her in a fine whirl, till the band
+suddenly stopped, and they found themselves high and dry at the other
+end of the room with no music for their feet to dance to; so they had to
+sneak back shamefacedly to the place from whence they had started. Bessy
+was furious, and Muki was full of excuses; you would have taken them for
+a married couple of six months' standing. Serve them right!</p>
+
+<p>I did not watch them dance any more, but sat down in a corner and
+sketched caricatures on the back of my invitation card. Then I made my
+way to the buffet to drink almond-tea, and gathered round me two or
+three <i>blas&eacute;</i> young men, like myself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> weary of existence. Let the gay
+company inside there try and amuse themselves without our assistance if
+they could!</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly some one tapped me on the shoulder with a fan, then I
+recognised a voice; it was Bessy. "What," she said, "not content with
+flying from the dancing-room yourself, must you keep away other dancers
+also! Come back, sir! A <i>Damenwalzer</i> is beginning."</p>
+
+<p>For the privilege of a <i>Damenwalzer</i> I capitulated unconditionally of
+course. Having completed the turn round the room with my partner, I led
+Bessy back to her mother, and thanked her for the never-to-be-forgotten
+distinction. She had to be off again almost immediately, for the voice
+of the master of the ceremonies announced a cotillon. The couples flew
+round with the velocity of will-o'-the-wisp. But her mother remained
+where she was, and there was an empty chair beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite forgetting your old acquaintances," said she, breathing
+heavily (she was stout and suffered from asthma). "You don't trouble
+your head about us now you have become a famous man."</p>
+
+<p>A famous man! What! then does <i>she</i> also know that the Academy of
+Sciences honourably mentioned my tragedy? No, no! My other fame it was
+that had reached her&mdash;my pictorial successes.</p>
+
+<p>"We have seen the lovely portrait that you painted. Yes, it was Madame
+M&uuml;ller to the life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>&mdash;just as she looked fifteen years ago. Why did you
+not rather paint her daughter, she is much prettier? But you don't like
+painting girls, do you&mdash;you are afraid it is a losing game, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>The lady had certainly very peculiar expressions.</p>
+
+<p>Of course I could only reply that I was not a bit afraid, and that if
+they would let me, I should have the greatest pleasure in painting Miss
+Bessy.</p>
+
+<p>She was gracious enough to give her consent. The only thing was to fix
+when it should be. It could not be at once, as for some days after a
+ball young ladies do not look their best. Then they had to get ready for
+another dancing party, or were busy, and on Sundays they went to church.
+At last, however, after much calculation, a day was hunted up on which
+Bessy was free to sit to me.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was another question for consideration: was the portrait to
+be painted on ivory with water-colours, or on linen with oils? "Ivory is
+better," I insinuated, "because one can always wipe off a portrait in
+water-colours with a wet sponge whenever one likes."</p>
+
+<p>The lady remarked the self-reproach, and was gracious enough to
+neutralize it by a contradiction.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I declare for oils, for we wish to keep the picture for ever."</p>
+
+<p>I felt that I could have done anything for her.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the cotillon had come to an end. Bessy returned to her mother,
+and the companion also resumed her place. The chair which I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+appropriated belonged to her, and resigning it to its lawful possessor,
+I would have withdrawn, but the lady considered it her duty to present
+me to the ruling planet of the day, Muki Bagotay, who was escorting back
+his partner. She immediately acquainted him with my artistic
+qualifications, and made it generally known that I was going in a few
+days to paint her daughter's portrait.</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of the day appointed I appeared at Bessy's house. I had
+sent on beforehand my easel and my canvas by our servant. I found not a
+single soul of a lackey either in the passage or the ante-chamber. I was
+obliged to stand there and wait till some one came to announce me, and
+in the meantime I could not help overhearing the conversation in the
+adjoining room.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good-for-nothing rascal yourself&mdash;a shameful, impertinent
+fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>I recognised the voice of the mistress of the house.</p>
+
+<p>In reply came a protesting shriek.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is there a stick?" cried the lady.</p>
+
+<p>And at the same instant a hoarse voice replied: "Madame, vous &ecirc;tes une
+friponne!"</p>
+
+<p>A pretty conversation truly. I had certainly arrived at the wrong time.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the door opened, and the flunkey came in rubbing one of his
+hands with the other; he was evidently in pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been beaten?" cried I, in amazement;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> to which he angrily
+replied: "No! I have been <i>bitten</i>."</p>
+
+<p>What, actually bitten the footman!</p>
+
+<p>"Would you kindly walk in, sir; they are waiting for you."</p>
+
+<p>The moment I entered the room this enigmatical state of things was
+immediately plain to me. The personage to whom her ladyship was meting
+out these offensive epithets, and who was returning her such
+contemptuous replies, was a grey parrot who had just bitten the lackey
+in the finger and been chastised for this misdeed. The whole company was
+in the utmost excitement. There was a large assembly both of ladies and
+gentlemen; amongst the latter my eye immediately caught sight of Muki
+Bagotay. But the chief personage was the parrot. He was a grey-liveried,
+red-tailed, big-billed monster, and he stood in the middle of the
+tea-table in a threatening attitude. Somehow or other he had contrived
+to open the door of his bronze cage, and in a twinkling he stood in the
+midst of the tea-things on the covered table. "Oh, I only hope he won't
+get on my head!" cried a somewhat elderly lady, holding on to her
+chignon with both hands. Nobody dared to assume the offensive. The
+footman who had attempted to seize the fugitive had already been laid
+<i>hors de combat</i> by the winged rebel, while the parlour-maid declared
+that she would not go near him if they gave her the whole house. The
+lady of the house meanwhile was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> making little dabs at the bird with a
+small Spanish cane, and calling it all sorts of abusive names; but the
+warlike pet always grasped the end of the cane with its strong beak,
+while he repaid with interest the injurious epithets bestowed upon him.</p>
+
+<p>When I joined the company I was scarcely noticed and the lady of the
+house, in reply to my salutation, "I kiss your hand," said, "You
+infamous scoundrel!" though she immediately added, "I did not mean
+you."&mdash;"You're one yourself," retorted the bird.</p>
+
+<p>"Come now, find a rhyme to that, Mr. Rhymster!" said Mr. Muki Bagotay.
+The wretch was apostrophizing me.&mdash;Rhymster, indeed!</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go near it!" cried Bessy; "he might bite your hand, and then you
+would not be able to paint me."</p>
+
+<p>They'd terrify me, eh? It only needed that. I instantly went straight
+for the bird. I would have done so had it been the double-headed Russian
+eagle itself. Was it divination which made me hit upon the proper word
+to say to such a human-voiced monster? "Give me your head!" said I. And
+at that word the terrible wretch bobbed down his head till he was
+actually standing on his curved beak, while I scratched his head with my
+index finger, which gratified him so much that he began to flutter his
+wings.</p>
+
+<p>Then I hazarded a second command.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me your foot!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>And then, to the general amazement, the parrot raised its formidable
+three-pronged foot and clasped me tightly round the index finger with
+its claws; then it seized my thumb with its other foot, and allowed me
+to lift it from the table. Nor was that all. While I held it on my hand,
+just as the medi&aelig;val huntsmen held their falcons, the parrot bent its
+head over my hand and began to distribute kisses; but finally he went
+through every variation of the kiss till it was a perfect scandal. The
+ladies laughed. "Who ever could have taught him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I got the bird during the lifetime of my late lamented husband,"
+explained the lady of the house, with some confusion.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the conquered sphinx affectionately confided to me his name:
+"Little Koko! Darling Koko!" But I transferred Koko from my fist to his
+cage, and put him on to the swinging ring, which he seized, and began to
+climb upwards with his beak. He was a veritable triped! On settling
+comfortably in his ring, he made me a low bow, and cried with a na&iuml;ve
+inflexion of voice&mdash;"Your humble servant!"</p>
+
+<p>"Positively marvellous!" gasped the lady-mother; "you ought really to be
+a tamer of animals!"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to be."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! And what sort of beasts will you tame?"</p>
+
+<p>"Men!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>Not one of them understood me.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Poet," joked Muki Bagotay, "the ballad was a success; now let
+us see whether the picture also will be superlative."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you want to see it?"</p>
+
+<p>"So!" and with that he stuck his eye-glass into the corner of his nose.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you're just mistaken!" said I, "for when I paint a portrait nobody
+is allowed in the room except myself and the sitter."</p>
+
+<p>The whole company was amazed. Every one fancied that it would have been
+a public exhibition, and so they had all congregated together to see how
+a person's eye, mouth and ear came out. A large round table had been
+prepared for me, in order that a whole lot of them might sit around it
+with their hands on their elbows, and give me general directions as I
+went along: That eye a bit higher! that ringlet a little lower! A little
+more red here, and a little more white there! However, I declared
+plainly that I would not paint before a crowd; it was the rule in
+painting, I said. When portraits were being painted, nobody must be in
+the atelier but the painter and his model. Barab&aacute;s,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> too, always made
+that a rule.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Michael Barab&aacute;s, a famous Hungarian painter, born at
+Markosfalu in 1810.</p></div>
+
+<p>My resolution produced an imposing effect on the company. It's a very
+nice thing when a man can do something which nobody else can! They had
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> agree that Bessy and I should sit alone in a little side room, which
+had only one window, and the lower part of even this window had to be
+covered by a Spanish screen so as to get a proper light. And nobody was
+to disturb us so long as the sitting lasted.</p>
+
+<p>The first sitting did not last long. In oil painting, the image should
+first of all be painted <i>under</i>, that is to say, with dull neutral
+colours. In those days I had never heard of such a thing as a first
+coating; while it is in this stage the picture is not fit to be looked
+at. It is absolutely hideous, and the better the likeness, the worse it
+looks. I allowed nobody to look at it, not even Bessy. I locked up the
+first essay in my painter's knapsack; it was a miniature. At this stage
+it was quite sufficient if the <i>insetting</i> had succeeded, with the
+figure in profile, but the countenance quite <i>en face</i>; the shadows
+piled up, but the background merely thrown out tentatively, and the
+fundamental colours of the dress just insinuated. Every one will see
+that this last part is the hardest of all.</p>
+
+<p>The company was very much deceived in its expectations when it was
+informed that I had nothing to show it. Every one had expected that in
+an hour and a half I should have finished the eye or the mouth at any
+rate; they now thought to themselves that nothing at all would come of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, but will Bessy look pretty in this dress?" asked her mother.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>What could I do at such a question as this but look silly? As if I knew
+whether Bessy had had a pretty dress on or not! All I knew was that I
+had had to use for it a little "English lake," some "Neapolitan yellow,"
+"Venetian white," and just a scrinch of "burnt ochre."</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you that it was a very tiresome amusement," said Bessy. "The
+face a little more that way&mdash;Not so serious&mdash;Not so smiling&mdash;Don't sit
+so stiffly&mdash;Raise your finger&mdash;Don't move about so much.&mdash;And you've
+laid so much licorice-juice on my portrait that they'll fancy I'm a
+gipsy girl."</p>
+
+<p>I hastened to assure her that this was only laying the ground work, and
+that on the morrow it would be a much merrier business.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I was there again after an early dinner. In the forenoon I
+was with my chief at the office. Thus before dinner I was a lawyer, and
+after dinner I was artist, poet, and reciter.</p>
+
+<p>This time there was no company. The picture proceeded briskly, and the
+members of the family were allowed to come in from time to time, one by
+one, and have a peep at it.</p>
+
+<p>I had now begun to study the face more in detail. It was an interesting
+head. The face was almost heart-shaped, terminating below in a little
+chin which was delicately divided by a single dimple. There were
+spiral-like lips of dazzling red enamel; a slightly <i>retrouss&eacute;</i> nose,
+with vibrating nostrils; round, rosy-red cheeks, with little beauty
+spots here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> and there, which I christened "black stars in the ruddy
+dawning heavens!" Her densely thick hair curled naturally, and gleamed
+like golden enamel, diminishing, after the manner of Phidias' ideal
+Venus, the smoothest of foreheads, and fluttering the most roguish of
+little ringlets over the blue-veined temples. (How could I help learning
+by heart such minute details when every one of them passed beneath my
+brush?) But what my brush could not possibly reproduce was her
+marvellous pair of eyes. They drove me entirely to despair. I really
+believe that even if I had been a true artist instead of a wretched
+dilettante, I should never have been able to conjure forth their
+secrets. Just when I was thinking I had fixed them, her eyes would
+flash, and my whole work was thrown away. At last I had to be content
+with a dreamy expression, which pleased <i>me</i>, at any rate, best. The
+inspecting family trio said that they had never seen such an expression
+on Bessy's face; nevertheless they acknowledged, with one voice, that it
+was a speaking likeness.</p>
+
+<p>The head was now ready, the dress was to remain till to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>On that day there was a <i>pr&eacute;f&eacute;rence</i> party in town at the General's.
+Bessy's mother was an enthusiastic <i>pr&eacute;f&eacute;rence</i> player.... Consequently
+she was not at home. The aunt alone remained as the guardian of maidens,
+and she used generally to take a nap in the afternoon, or play patience.
+I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> don't know who presided over Bessy's toilet on this occasion, perhaps
+nobody. That clean-cut, pale pink bodice on other days had given full
+scope to her charming figure; but on this particular day it was more
+insinuating than ever. It seemed to me as if the frill of English tulle
+had crept considerably lower down the shoulder, nay, lower still.</p>
+
+<p>One cannot imagine a lovelier masterpiece of a creative hand than that
+bust. And it is a painter's right, nay, his duty, not merely to look,
+but to observe. A dangerous privilege. My hand trembled, I seemed to
+freeze, and yet beads of sweat stood out upon my forehead.... She, too,
+seemed to remark my agitation. A roguish flame sparkled in her eye. She
+was now not a bit like her yesterday's portrait. She seemed to be
+flouting me. And I was putting that treacherous frill of tulle to rights
+in the picture, putting it where it <i>ought</i> to have been. That is what I
+really call "<i>corriger la fortune</i>."</p>
+
+<p>At this sitting the face was completely finished, and the dress also was
+painted. I thanked the fair self-sacrificing victim, and told her that
+she might now look at the picture; it was ready. The girl rose from her
+chair and peeped over my shoulder. She looked at the picture and laughed
+in my face.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you've readjusted the frill of my dress, haven't you?" said she.</p>
+
+<p>"So you wore it like that purposely, eh?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>"Then was there something you didn't want to see?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was something I didn't want other people to see."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, I've been looking at you for days and days, and I've
+observed something <i>on you</i> which is very nasty, and which I don't like
+at all."</p>
+
+<p>"I had no idea you gave me so much of your attention."</p>
+
+<p>"It is only a mere speck, no bigger than the eye of a bean."</p>
+
+<p>"What can it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"The wart on your right hand."</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, on my right hand, just below the thumb, was a not very
+ornamental excrescence, which everybody could see when I was writing or
+painting.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot cut it out, because it is just above the artery. I showed it
+to a doctor, and he said it would be a rather dangerous operation."</p>
+
+<p>"What does the doctor know about it? I'll destroy it for you; it won't
+hurt you. I learned it at school from my school-fellows. I'll destroy it
+in a moment."</p>
+
+<p>"By incantations, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear no! It will smart dreadfully. But if a girl can stand it, you
+can."</p>
+
+<p>I consented.</p>
+
+<p>She lit a candle forthwith, and placed it on the table beside me. Then
+she produced a darning-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>needle from somewhere (I thought of the other
+darning-needle), took firm hold of it, shoved it right down to the very
+roots of the wart, held up my hand, and placed the head of the needle in
+the candle flame till it was heated to a white heat. And all the time
+her wondrous eyes were opened round and wide, and looked straight into
+my eyes with irises turned downwards. It is thus that the demons of hell
+must look upon those whom they are roasting!</p>
+
+<p>"Does it hurt?" she hissed between her teeth. She appeared to be in a
+state of ecstatic delight.</p>
+
+<p>"It hurts, but it is not the needle."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now you can take your wart away with you."</p>
+
+<p>Two days after, the calcined wart fell from my hand, leaving behind it a
+little speck no bigger than a lentil; and that speck is there still, and
+is of a whiteness which contrasts strongly with the colour of the rest
+of the hand. And every day I set to work writing, I must needs look at
+this little white spot, and when I have looked at it long, it seems to
+me as if <i>her</i> face were appearing before me in the midst of this tiny
+circle just as it looked then; and then that face runs through all its
+variations down to that last shape of all, which still startles me from
+my slumbers.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">MY MASTERPIECE AND MY HUT</p>
+
+
+<p>In the later stages of the painting we could converse. Indeed,
+conversation is necessary for completing one's study of one's subject,
+and prevents, besides, the constraint of sitting from becoming too
+tiresome.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you read the poems of Pet&ouml;fi?"<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">12</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> The Burns of Hungary.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Oh, at our house we read nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because those who come to see us bring no books with them."</p>
+
+<p>"Then don't you get any newspaper?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, the <i>Journal des Demoiselles</i>; but it's a frightful bore."</p>
+
+<p>"A Hungarian paper would be better, the <i>Pesti Divatlap</i>, for instance."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell my mother to order it. You write for it sometimes, don't
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"The description of a desert island among the sedges."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>"Have you ever been on this desert island?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I only imagine it."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the good of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's part of a romance I'm working at."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, so you write romances! Will you put us into them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! Romance writing does not consist in merely copying down all
+that one sees and hears about one."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know how you set about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"First of all I think out the end of the story."</p>
+
+<p>"What, you begin at the end?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Then I create the characters of the story. Then I deal out to
+these characters the parts they must play, and the vicissitudes they
+must go through down to the very end of the story."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, according to that, none of it is true?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not real, perhaps, but it may be true, for all that."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand. And how much time do you take to write a story? I
+suppose it will come out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, 'tis an easy thing for you to do! You have a rich aunt at &Oacute;
+Gyalla, and you've only got to say a word to her and she'll get your
+book printed for you. I suppose you've only got to ask her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not tell my rich aunt a word about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you'll get your book printed at Fani<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> Weinm&uuml;ller's, I suppose. Now
+listen, that won't do at all. I knew an author who published his own
+book and went from village to village, and persuaded every landed
+proprietor to buy a copy from him. That is a rugged path."</p>
+
+<p>"My romance will not be one of those which the author himself has to
+carry from door to door; it will be one of those for which the publisher
+pays the author an honorarium."</p>
+
+<p>She absolutely laughed in my face.</p>
+
+<p>And after all, when you come to think about it, surely it is somewhat
+comical when a person comes forward and barefacedly says, "Here, I've
+written something in which there is not one word of truth, and
+nevertheless I insist upon people reading it, and paying me for writing
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you fancy, Miss Bessy, that Pet&ouml;fi was not paid for his poems? He
+got two hundred florins for 'Love's Pearls.'"</p>
+
+<p>"'Love's Pearls'! And pray what are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lovely poems to a beautiful girl."</p>
+
+<p>"And did he get the girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, he did not."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, that <i>is</i> a nice thing. A fellow courts a girl, puts his
+feelings into verse, finally gets a basket<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> from her, and then
+demands that this basket should be filled for him with silver pieces."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The Hungarian "Kosarat kapni," like the German "einen Korb
+bekommen" (to get a basket), is the equivalent of our "to get a flea in
+one's ear," <i>i.e.</i>, "a rejection."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<p>The same day I sent her Pet&ouml;fi's "Love's Pearls," and his "Cypress
+Leaves" also.</p>
+
+<p>I resumed my portrait painting three days afterwards, and immediately
+asked her whether she had taken up "Love's Pearls."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I took them up to dry flowers in them."</p>
+
+<p>"But I suppose you've just dipped into the 'Cypress Leaves'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like such things. I always burst into tears; and then my nose
+gets quite red."</p>
+
+<p>I did not pursue the subject further.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bessy hastened, however, to sweeten my bitter disappointment with
+the delightful intelligence that, at my suggestion, mamma had at once
+subscribed to the <i>Pesti Divatlap</i>, and for six months, too.</p>
+
+<p>I was there when the postman brought the first four copies of the paper.
+In those days every paper had to be sent through the post in an
+envelope, postage stamps had not yet been invented....</p>
+
+<p>After the solemnity of breaking open the envelope, the assembled
+womankind naturally looked to see if there were any pictures, especially
+pictures of the fashions.</p>
+
+<p>Was it not called "Divatlap"?<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> And a fashionable journal it really
+was. That worthy, high-souled patriot, Emericus Vahot, was labouring
+with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> iron determination to make fashion a national affair.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Fashionable journal.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Well, whoever wore that might exhibit herself for money!" That was the
+universal verdict of the ladies. They alluded to one of the fashion
+patterns.</p>
+
+<p>The illustrated supplement to the second number was Gabriel Egressy as
+Richard III., in the dream scene, surrounded by spectres; the picture
+was sketched by our countryman Valentine Kiss.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship asked me which was the head of the principal figure, and
+which the feet. And I must confess that I myself could not quite make
+out how Richard III. had got his head between his knees.</p>
+
+<p>With the illustrated supplement to the third number, however, they were
+quite satisfied. It was Rosa Laborfalvy<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> as Queen Gertrude, by
+Barab&aacute;s, a work of real artistic merit. This interested the ladies
+greatly.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> J&oacute;kai's future wife, as will be seen in the sequel.</p></div>
+
+<p>"They say she has such wonderful eyes that there's nothing like them
+anywhere," said Miss Bessy.</p>
+
+<p>The logical consequence of this should have been a contradiction
+accompanied by a flattering compliment on my part; but all at once it
+was as if something so squeezed my throat that I absolutely could not
+get the courtly expression out anyhow. "I have never seen her," I
+replied.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>At the end of the fourth number was a lithograph representing a slim,
+youthful figure, and beneath it was written the name, Alexander Pet&ouml;fi.
+It was one of the best sketches of Barab&aacute;s. It is the one absolutely
+faithful portrait of the immortal poet. As such he was known by all
+those who lived with him, that eye gazing forth into the far distance,
+that mouth opened prophetically, those hands crossed behind him as if he
+would hide something in them. The whole portrait seems to say, "I <i>will</i>
+be Pet&ouml;fi"; all the other portraits say, "I <i>am</i> Pet&ouml;fi."</p>
+
+<p>This picture produced a great impression upon the ladies, for the
+appearance of a lithographed portrait in a journal was a great event. In
+those days there were none of the beneficent penny papers, whose right
+of existence is considered amply justified if the frontispiece
+represents some one battering an old woman's head in with an axe. Only
+great and famous patriots enjoyed the distinction of figuring on
+title-pages, and photography was not yet invented.... The appearance,
+then, of Pet&ouml;fi's portrait in an illustrated supplement of the
+<i>Divatlap</i> created quite a sensation.... The companion at once undertook
+to read the book of verses which had been sent to the house by me.
+Bessy, on the other hand, desired to know whether she would find
+anything of mine in the portion of the journal devoted to the
+Belles-Lettres. Immediately afterwards she actually hit upon it. It was
+a portion of my romance, which appeared there under the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> title of "Az
+ingov&aacute;ny o&aacute;za"&mdash;"The Oasis of the Fens."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I mean to read this at once."</p>
+
+<p>I gave her plenty of time to do so, for I only appeared again after the
+lapse of several days.</p>
+
+<p>She really <i>had</i> read it. It was the first thing she told me.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I am curious to know," she added, "what was the beginning of the
+story and what will be the end? You know, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"How can I help knowing?"</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't understand the title. Where does the 'oiseau'<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> come in?"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The Hungarian <i>o&aacute;za</i> (oasis) and the French <i>oiseau</i> are
+pronounced so very much alike, that the ill-instructed Bessy, who had
+never heard of the former, not unnaturally confounded them.</p></div>
+
+<p>I explained to her that the "<i>o&aacute;z</i>" was not a flying fowl, but a plot of
+verdure concealed in the desert.</p>
+
+<p>"Then why don't you write 'island'?"</p>
+
+<p>She was right there.</p>
+
+<p>"Apropos of island," she continued, "I often see you from the verandah
+of our island summer-house walking up and down in front of our garden;
+yet you never give us so much as a glance, though we make noise enough."</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite possible. At such times I am immersed."</p>
+
+<p>"Immersed in what?"</p>
+
+<p>"In working at my romance."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>"Working and walking at the same time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Such is my habit. I work out the whole scene in my head first of all,
+down to the smallest details, so that when I sit down it is a mere
+mechanical a-b-c sort of business."</p>
+
+<p>"Then according to that, when you are marching with rapid strides up and
+down that long path, you neither hear nor see anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, I see grass, trees, flowers, birds, stumps of trees, and
+huts of reeds overgrown with brambles. Amongst all these I weave my
+thoughts like the meshes of a spider's web. And I hear, too. I hear the
+piping of the yellow-hammer, the twittering of the titmouse, the notes
+of the horn from distant ships, the humming of the gnats, and they all
+have something to whisper to me, something to tell me. A buzzing wasp
+lends wings to my imagination; but if I meet a human face, the whole
+thing flies out of my thoughts, and a single 'your humble servant' will
+dissolve utterly my <i>fata Morgana</i>, until I turn back and reconstruct
+the ends of my spider's-web among the freshly-discovered reed-built
+huts, tree-trunks and trailing flowers, when the well-known voices of
+the dwellers in the wilderness bring back to me again my scattered
+ideas; then I retreat into the little wooden summer-house in our garden,
+and there, disturbed by nobody, I transfer to paper the images which
+stand before my mind."</p>
+
+<p>And Bessy, contrary to my expectation, didn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> laugh at this
+elucidation. On the contrary, she had grown quite serious. The
+expression of her eyes now resembled the expression which I had given
+them in her portrait.</p>
+
+<p>"And this gives you pleasure?" she whispered. "It is just as if a man
+were to set off dreaming after taking care beforehand that all his
+dreams should turn out beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Muki Bagotay," announced the footman.</p>
+
+<p>I took up my hat. I could not endure that fellow. He had already enjoyed
+everything in reality which existed for me only in imagination....</p>
+
+<p>The little wooden hut there in the orchard on the Danubian islet
+(whether it is still there I know not) was the most splendid palace in
+which I ever dwelt. 'Twas there I wrote my first romance. It is true
+that it had to put up with a lot of criticism, that first romance. What,
+indeed, did a young mind which knew nothing of men or of the world
+understand about romance writing? And yet I loved my first work, just as
+much as a man loves his first-born, though it may be deformed by all
+sorts of physical and spiritual defects. How plainly I still see before
+me those large, wide-spreading <i>Reineclaude</i> trees, crammed with fruit
+ripe to bursting, which covered the little hut. A little farther off was
+an apple-tree covered with blood-red fruit, and then a second with
+taffety white, and a third with velvety apples. From the open door of
+the hut one could see right along the overgrown path, which was bordered
+on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> both sides by bowery vines. When the warm blood-red rays of summer
+pierced through the meshes of the foliage, it seemed as if every shadow
+was of green-gold. Far away on the banks of the Danube could be heard
+the delusive echoes from the military band in the "English Garden,"
+whilst closer at hand the yellow-hammer piped, and a frog here and there
+croaked in the irrigating trenches. I was writing the hardest part of my
+romance&mdash;the love part, that most undiscoverable of all unknown worlds.
+One may write down a description of the marsh world from the
+imagination, but not a description of the world of love. If the heart
+has not already discovered it, the head can tell us nothing at all about
+it.</p>
+
+<p>All at once the green-gold shadows were lit up by something bright.
+<i>She</i> was standing there in the door of my hut, dressed in a white
+frock, with a straw hat fastened to two blue ribbons hanging upon her
+arm, and her dishevelled locks floating down her shoulders. For a moment
+I fancied that the dream-shapes of my imagination had taken bodily form.
+Then her ringing peal of laughter assured me that a living person stood
+before me.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you come here?"</p>
+
+<p>"How? Why, by walking over the soft grass, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alone! Why not? Whom <i>should</i> I have brought with me, I should like to
+know? I suppose I may come to a neighbour's garden unattended?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>It was quite true that our gardens were only about a hundred feet apart,
+lying one on each side of the common path, which ran right through the
+island.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't seem to give me a very hearty reception," pouted she, as she
+entered my hut.</p>
+
+<p>My head began to swim.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, I am overjoyed at the honour you do me, and I'll
+gather for you at once some of our princely plums."</p>
+
+<p>Nobody else had such plums then, and it was a good excuse, besides, for
+quitting the hut.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not come for the sake of your princely plums; I filch them long
+before you ever taste them. I have come now to see how you make up your
+romance."</p>
+
+<p>I pointed out to her that here was the paper and there the pen, and all
+a man had to do was to take up the pen, and it went on writing of its
+own accord.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't peep into any book first of all?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can see that I am provided with no tools of that sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, sit down, and I'll sit down beside you and see how you
+write."</p>
+
+<p>And then, not waiting for an invitation, she sat down at the end of my
+sofa, driving me into the dilemma of sitting down by the table,
+willy-nilly, likewise. I may mention that my hut was so narrow that the
+table reached from the door to the window.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>"I can't write a word, though, at this moment," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Because I'm here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally."</p>
+
+<p>"Then read me what you have just written."</p>
+
+<p>"There's a lot of it."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better. I can remain here all the longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't they miss you at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"They know that I am sure to turn up again."</p>
+
+<p>Vanity is the horn by which one may always catch hold of a man. It
+flattered me to read what I had written, whoever the listener might be.
+In other parts of the kingdom I had already gained applause with my
+recitations, but nobody in my own narrow little town had ever heard me
+speak. <i>Nemo profeta in patria.</i></p>
+
+<p>And Bessy was a very appreciative audience. You could read from her face
+the effect I produced and the interest she took. She rested her face on
+her hand, smoothed down her hair, and fixed her attention that she might
+listen the better. She seemed quite frightened at the exciting scenes,
+her eyes and lips opened wide. I do not say this to praise myself, but
+simply as a justification of the fact that in those days I could recite
+with considerable emphasis. In one place, however, my voice began to
+falter.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is it? Can't you read your own writing?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>"Yes&mdash;no, I mean. I think we had better leave off here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why? You've come to the most interesting part."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to read it to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Do you mean to say you write such things as a girl ought not to
+know?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! Anybody may read it except myself&mdash;before you."</p>
+
+<p>The girl laughed, but there was something bitter in her laugh too.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't be anxious on my account, pray! We read, at school, things of
+which you have no idea. It is an old institution among us that every
+girl when she marries shall write a letter to her school friends on the
+very day after her wedding. We have a whole collection of such letters."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you mean to tell me that <i>you</i> have promised to increase this
+collection?" I cried, with all the indignation of my youthful mind.</p>
+
+<p>The girl must have guessed my anger from my face, for she cast down her
+eyes and said, in a low voice: "It depends upon whose I shall be."</p>
+
+<p>Immediately afterwards she laughed uproariously: "You may read your
+love-scene before me."</p>
+
+<p>I answered more firmly than ever: "I will not read it before you."</p>
+
+<p>She understood and stared at me.</p>
+
+<p>"You fear, perhaps, that I shall take it for a declaration? You think,
+perhaps, that I shall laugh at you in consequence?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>"No! You will not laugh at me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what are you afraid of?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not fear, I wait."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait! For what?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am waiting till I count for something in the world; at present I am a
+mere cipher."</p>
+
+<p>"One who is born a man can never be a mere cipher."</p>
+
+<p>"Look now! This wooden booth is at present the whole of my property,
+this little pile of paper my whole claim upon the world; but in my soul
+there is a vigorous flame to which I can give no name. This flame would
+suffice to make a man a pretender to a throne, but it is not sufficient
+to make him propose to a girl."</p>
+
+<p>"But you know that I am rich."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am still richer, for I dine deliciously off a crust of bread, and
+I sleep sweetly on a bed of straw."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and that pleases me too. <i>I</i> like a crust of bread and a bed of
+straw. You do not know me. A man might make a she-devil of me, though he
+built a temple in my name straight off, enshrined me on the altar, and
+knelt down before me. But he whom I truly loved might make an angel of
+me. I could be happy anywhere: in a shepherd's hut, a strolling player's
+tent, at a soldier's bivouac, in a schoolmaster's clay cabin. I would
+dream of luxury on my bed of straw."</p>
+
+<p>And with that, she threw herself at full length on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> my bare sofa, and
+clasped her hands above her head.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, what distracting loveliness!</p>
+
+<p>Was it a blessing or a chastisement on the part of guiding Providence
+that I was able, at that moment, to see with my soul as well as with my
+eyes? This girl had in a few words unfolded before me the whole of her
+coming destiny.... I sat down at her feet by the side of the bare old
+sofa, and looked into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Very softly I said to her: "She whom I love will not be my slave, but my
+queen. I will not filch my happiness, but win it. And she to whom I
+shall dedicate my heart shall be crowned by me with an aureola of glory,
+just as the rich of this world load <i>their</i> darlings with pearls and
+diamonds. The lady of my heart must be honoured by all the world&mdash;but
+most of all by myself."</p>
+
+<p>At these words the half-closed eyelids opened. The girl began to sob
+violently, leaped to her feet, threw her arms round my neck, kissed me,
+and ran away.</p>
+
+<p>And I looked after her like one that dreams, while the shrubs and the
+vine-leaves concealed her vanishing form. The yellow-hammer cried in my
+ear, "Silly boy, silly boy!" And immediately there occurred to my mind
+the story of the young man whose confessor gave him a bundle of hay to
+eat as a penance for a sin unachieved.</p>
+
+<p>And now, too, when I stand before the big silly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> bookcase, which is
+filled with nothing but my own works, I often think, would it not have
+been better if they had none of them been ever thought out? And instead
+of writing so much for the whole world, would it not have been better if
+I had written for my own private use, just so much as would go within
+the inside cover of a family Bible? Nowadays, a whole street in my
+native town is called after my name: would it not have been better if
+all I had there were a simple hut?</p>
+
+<p>But no! I willed it so, and if it were possible for me to go back to the
+diverging cross-roads of my opening life, I would tread once more in the
+self-same footprints that I have left so long behind me.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">PET&Ouml;FI WITH US&mdash;PLANS FOR THE FUTURE&mdash;THE RAPE OF THE BRIDES&mdash;AMATEUR
+THEATRICALS&mdash;MY MENSHIKOV</p>
+
+
+<p>I really imagined that I loved and was beloved. I was always a welcome
+guest at her ladyship's house, and was a regular visitor on her "at
+home" days. On such occasions I learnt to know Bessy from another point
+of view. She was a musician also. She could play the fiddle. Whether she
+played artistically I really cannot say, for I don't understand music,
+and couldn't tell the difference between Paul Racz<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> and Sarasate; but
+so much is certain, she knew all the cunning tricks and poses which I
+admired so much in the famous musicians of a later day. She could make
+arpeggios and pizzicatos like Ole Bull, <i>fughe di diavolo</i> like Rem&eacute;nyi,
+and pianissimos like Sarasate. She could make her fiddle weep softly
+like Milanollo and Miss Terezina Tua, and she could lash it savagely
+with her fiddle-bow like the Russian Princess Olga Korinshka, or play
+with the instrument close up to ear like a gipsy <i>prim&aacute;s</i>.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> When she
+played she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> the beauty of a demon; every limb was set in motion, her
+shoulders marked time, her bosom heaved, her body waved to and fro, her
+mouth smiled provocatively, her eyes sparkled; at one moment she softly
+caressed the fiddle with her bow, at another she flogged the strings
+unmercifully, and at the end of the performance she stood there with the
+pose of a triumphant Toreadrix. At such moments every one was fascinated
+by her; why, then, should I have been an exception?</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> A famous gipsy musician.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The leader of a gipsy band.</p></div>
+
+<p>One day I got a letter from Pet&ouml;fi, in which he informed me he was going
+to call upon us the following Sunday. I naturally skipped off to town at
+once, and showed the letter to all my acquaintances. It was a great
+event in our little town. Pet&ouml;fi's popularity in those days was great
+indeed; he was worshipped from one end of the kingdom to the other. His
+visit was regarded as an extraordinary distinction. On Sunday afternoon,
+therefore, half the population of the town had assembled on the island,
+where the landing-stage of the steamers now is. Bessy's family was also
+there. All the religious persuasions were represented by the presence of
+the Benedictine priests and the Calvinist and Lutheran ministers. The
+captain of the civic train bands, with two lackeys in gold liveries;
+represented the magistracy; and Muki Bagotay was there on behalf of the
+county (he held some petty office or other), and maintained that he knew
+Pet&ouml;fi very well. Congratulatory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> speeches had been got ready, and
+lovely hands were to present handsome bouquets to the coming guest.
+Pet&ouml;fi, however, when he had crossed over the steamship bridge to the
+other side, troubled himself not one bit about the congratulatory mob,
+left in the lurch the lovely ladies with their bouquets, and the
+distinguished gentlemen with their speeches, and, dressed as he was in
+his short <i>carbonari</i> mantle, rushed straight towards me, threw his arms
+round my neck, knocked my hat from my head, and cried, "Why, Marksi! Is
+it you, you old scoundrel, Marksi!" (he never would call me by my proper
+name), and, with that, wrapping me in one-half of his mantle, he dragged
+me with him towards the town just as if he knew the way quite well (he
+had never been there before in his life). The windows of the chief
+thoroughfares of the town were adorned with flowers and with fair
+damsels, who had tricked themselves out in Pet&ouml;fi's honour, which, when
+he perceived, he thrust me down a side street, and so we got at last to
+our house by roundabout by-paths, on which we met not a single soul. My
+worthy mother received our dear guest most heartily, not because he was
+such a famous poet, but because he was my good friend. I had known him
+ever since we had been students together at P&aacute;p&aacute;, when they had called
+him "Petrovics." Now, however, they added a syllable to his name, and
+called him "Petrekovics." Nothing used to put Pet&ouml;fi into such a rage
+as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> when anybody called him by his rejected family name. But even this
+he took in good part from my mother. He never even tried to put her
+right. "Let me always remain Petrekovics in your house!" he would say to
+her, as he kissed her hand. This was by no means his usual custom, the
+only other person whose hand he used to kiss was his own mother. The
+first question after that naturally was about his favourite dish. My
+mother herself looked after the <i>cuisine</i>, and the following day the
+whole family assembled to dinner&mdash;my brother Charles, my sister Esther,
+and my brother-in-law Francis V&aacute;ly included.</p>
+
+<p>We had scarcely risen from the table when a lackey in silver livery
+arrived from Bessy's mother with a gold-edged letter for Pet&ouml;fi, in
+which her ladyship invited him to her "at home" that evening. The
+entertainment was arranged in his honour. All the beauties and the
+notabilities of the town would be there together. I had naturally
+received a similar invitation some days before.</p>
+
+<p>'Twas thus that Pet&ouml;fi answered the messenger&mdash;his words are recorded in
+the family records: "Tell her ladyship that I am inconsolable at the
+impossibility of coming to her reception this evening; but this time I
+have come specially to visit my beloved Marksi, and will go nowhere
+else."</p>
+
+<p>The astonished lackey could scarcely grasp the meaning of this terrible
+reply. But my mother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> understood it right well, and said, "Noble young
+fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>But I said nothing, for I candidly confess that in those days I
+worshipped a pretty girl far, far more than any man however famous, or
+any friend however good.</p>
+
+<p>I tried, therefore, to explain the situation to my good friend. "I tell
+you what, though; that pretty girl is there about whom I wrote to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then give <i>yourself</i> up to that pretty girl, but don't sacrifice <i>me</i>
+to her likewise."</p>
+
+<p>"If you could only hear how splendidly she plays the fiddle."</p>
+
+<p>"Fiddle, do you say? Then don't give yourself up to her either! You know
+there are three things in this world that I hate&mdash;horse-radish with
+milk, the critics, and after that, music." (He could never be persuaded
+to listen to an opera.)</p>
+
+<p>"But Tony V&aacute;rady also plays the fiddle!" (I should explain that this
+young lawyer shared Pet&ouml;fi's room with him.)</p>
+
+<p>"He fiddles, it is true, but it is useful to me."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?"</p>
+
+<p>"In our neighbourhood dwells a rascally card-player, who comes home
+every night between two and three, and begins to sing. I immediately
+wake Tony and say to him, 'Rise, and fiddle away at that fellow there!'
+Then he begins to fiddle in a way that makes your hair stand on end, and
+your blood run cold, and in ten minutes our neighbour, falling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> upon his
+knees, sobs for mercy, and declares that he will leave off singing.
+However, from to-day I live no longer with Tony."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you quarrelled?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, we are the best of friends. But I'll tell you about
+that later on; let us now talk about serious things. What have you been
+doing since I last saw you?"</p>
+
+<p>I showed him the MS. of "H&eacute;tk&ouml;znapok."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> It was just ready.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> "Every-day Days." One of the best, if not <i>the</i> best, of
+J&oacute;kai's earlier works.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Why do you call it 'H&eacute;tk&ouml;znapok'?"</p>
+
+<p>"In order that nobody may expect anything extraordinary in it."</p>
+
+<p>He turned over the leaves, but only read the headings of the chapters.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that was an original idea of yours, I must say, to choose mottoes
+from popular ballads for your chapter headings. I'll take this with me
+to Pest, and get it published."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody knows me."</p>
+
+<p>"You're wrong. Bajza and V&ouml;r&ouml;smarty are inquiring about you. Your
+specimen composition has been much approved. I've squeezed twelve
+florins for it out of Emericus Vahot. Frankenburg was more liberal. He
+sends you fifteen for 'The Island Nepean.'"</p>
+
+<p>And Pet&ouml;fi counted out the twenty-seven silver<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> florins on to the table.
+It was my first honorarium. I fancied myself a Rothschild.</p>
+
+<p>"This romance now shall be published by Hartleben."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you on good terms with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know the German fellow, but he's the publisher of Ignatius
+Nagy's romances, and Nagy shall recommend it to him."</p>
+
+<p>"But will Ignatius Nagy like to do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"What! When I bring him such work as yours! He is a great enemy of mine,
+I know, but he is a man of honour."</p>
+
+<p>And with that he thrust my manuscript into his knapsack, but without
+locking it.</p>
+
+<p>"And what else have you written?"</p>
+
+<p>I produced another heap of papers.</p>
+
+<p>"A play entitled <i>Two Guardians</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you want to do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"To compete for the Academy prize."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do that! I won't allow you. You competed once, and they did not
+give you the prize, and yet two Academicians were on your side; don't
+give them any more. Give your pieces to the theatre."</p>
+
+<p>I had nothing for it but to surrender.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I'll take your piece to Szigligeti.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> He will at once recognise
+in you a dangerous rival, and for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> that very reason will have your piece
+brought out instantly. That's the sort of man he is!"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Pseudonym of the eminent Hungarian dramatist, Joseph
+Szathm&aacute;ry.</p></div>
+
+<p>I entrusted my piece to his care.</p>
+
+<p>"And try to get up to Pest as soon as possible. Don't go loafing about
+all your days in a village!"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as I have got through with my <i>patvaria</i> I'll hasten to join
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Get ready to go away at once. To-morrow I'll take you with me to Gran."</p>
+
+<p>I was greatly astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"To Gran! Why, what business have we there?"</p>
+
+<p>"We go not to do business, but to <i>rob</i>. We must steal away Tony
+V&aacute;rady's bride for him. That is why we no longer live together."</p>
+
+<p>But now the members of my family had also a word to say.</p>
+
+<p>Pet&ouml;fi then related, quite calmly, that our common friend, the worthy
+lawyer, wished to take to wife the daughter of a landed proprietor at
+Gran. The girl's parents were Catholics, the bridegroom was a Calvinist,
+they therefore would not permit the marriage. But the young people
+really loved each other. So there was nothing for it but to steal the
+bride.</p>
+
+<p>The thing was quite clear. I could make no objection. When a man is poet
+and Protestant, girl-stealing in such a situation becomes a duty. Just
+then a great parliamentary strife was going on concerning mixed
+marriages. It was Guelph and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> Ghibelline over again. One had to choose
+one's party.</p>
+
+<p>So on the following day I really did set out with Pet&ouml;fi to steal a girl
+for the benefit of a third friend. The affair succeeded beyond all
+expectation. We had no need of the darkness of midnight and scaling
+ladders, the mere appearance of Pet&ouml;fi and myself at the bride's house
+was sufficient; the parents gave way, and the priest united the two
+lovers. Yet for all that we always made much of our damsel-robbing
+adventure. And, indeed, it seemed likely to turn out a dangerous
+precedent. Example is contagious.</p>
+
+<p>But I returned home with the guilty consciousness that I had absolutely
+spoiled the <i>soir&eacute;e</i>. I expected that I should be pretty severely taken
+to task for it. How should I put things to rights again?</p>
+
+<p>I discovered how to make amends, but it was not without great artfulness
+that I succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>Our city was not only the capital of the county, but a fortress.
+Consequently one might frequently come upon vehicles in our streets
+which consisted of little more than a round chest on two wheels, crammed
+full of water-butts from the Danube, ammunition, bread, and sacks of
+meal, and between the poles of these conveyances were fastened a couple
+of human beings in garments of grey baize, with twenty-pound chains
+fastened to their legs. The creatures were called in plain
+Hungarian&mdash;slaves.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>You could hear the rattling of their fetters
+from afar. On certain days while the self-same creatures were suffering
+the flogging with sticks, which was part of their sentence, their woful
+cries resounded through the whole town. Thus the rattling of chains and
+the howls of woe were a sort of speciality in our town. And the sight of
+those starved faces too! From my childish years upwards this slave-life
+used to disturb my dreams.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> They were prisoners condemned to penal servitude.</p></div>
+
+<p>I got up an agitation among the more enthusiastic of the youths and
+maidens of our town on behalf of the poor slaves. If the affair had
+succeeded, I should of course never have bragged about it; but as I
+failed in it, I may as well make a clean breast of it.</p>
+
+<p>It was determined, at my suggestion, to invite Bessy's mother to be the
+president of our philanthropic society. A deputation set off at once to
+her house, and, naturally, I was its spokesman. The distinction thus
+conferred upon her quite wiped out my former offence, and I was again
+taken into favour.</p>
+
+<p>The first problem in any case was to establish our beneficent scheme on
+a sound, financial basis, and the simplest way of getting funds was by
+means of an amateur entertainment. Of this, too, I was the manager. With
+very great difficulty the programme was finally settled. Overture:
+<i>Beatrice di Tenda</i>.&mdash;"What's the watchword? Death, torture, ruin, to
+the betrayers of the fatherland!" rendered by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> glee club of the
+College. After that a flute duet from <i>Lucia di Lammermoor</i>, piped by
+the local musical society and a young lawyer. That was to be followed by
+a humorous recitation of my own: "Gregory Sonkolyi"; then came an
+exhibition of legerdemain by Muki Bagotay; and last of all, as <i>pi&egrave;ce de
+r&eacute;sistance</i>, Bessy's fiddling.</p>
+
+<p>It was a terrible business to bring all this about. We had rehearsals
+every day at Bessy's house. I was very busy just then. I ought to have
+been working as an articled clerk, but I'm quite sure I never looked at
+a law-book. At last, however, it was possible to fix the day on which
+the concert would come off.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the time was approaching when I ought to have passed my
+<i>patvaria</i>, and gone through my <i>jurateria</i>. My elder brother Charles
+wrote to a well-known lawyer at Pest, who had a large practice, to take
+me into his office as a juratus. And as winter was also drawing nigh,
+and I was about to go far, far away into a strange world, my good and
+ever-blessed mother was busying herself about my outfit. Nowadays people
+will regard it as a fable, but say it I must, that all the linen I wore
+during the time when I was a juratus was spun by my mother's own hands.
+I verily believe that that shirt, spun by a mother's hand, and worn by
+me, was the magic web which turned aside so many of the blows of fate.</p>
+
+<p>A tailor and a weaver lived in some of the smaller<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> houses we possessed;
+we had no need of the help of strangers. My mother also provided me with
+a good winter overcoat.</p>
+
+<p>It was really a capital overcoat, which covered me down to the very
+heels, a real Menshikov overcoat, very fashionable forty years later,
+but in those days worn by nobody but the porters of the Benedictine
+Order.</p>
+
+<p>When I appeared at the amateur rehearsals at Bessy's house in this
+prematurely born Menshikov, a circle was instantly formed round me, and
+every one asked me, with ironical congratulations, where I had had it
+made. Was it possible to get the fellow of it? Bessy even remarked that
+there was room for two in it, and I was not a bit offended with her.</p>
+
+<p>When I withdrew (a letter, just arrived from Pest, called me home), I
+scarcely had time to close the door behind me, when I heard an outburst
+of merriment inside. When, however, I had got out into the street and
+turned round to have a last look at the house I had left behind me, lo
+and behold! all the windows were filled with groups of smiling faces,
+amongst which I saw Bessy's face also. "They are all in a very good
+humour to-day," I thought to myself.</p>
+
+<p>Hastening home, I found there the letter from the Pest lawyer, in which
+he informed me, with official brevity, that there was a vacant place for
+a juratus in his office, which I might occupy. If, however, I did not
+come and claim it within three days, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> vacant place would be given to
+some one else. The amateur entertainment had been fixed for Sunday, and
+it was now Tuesday. If I am not there by Friday, another will sit in my
+place. But what will become of the concert? Ought I to leave Bessy in
+the lurch&mdash;so faithlessly?</p>
+
+<p>And how about the poor slaves?</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the lawyer at Pest would make a bargain with me and give me a
+couple of days' grace? I sat down to reply to him: "Worshipful Mr.
+Advocate&mdash;I feel in duty bound to say, in reply to your honourable
+communication&mdash;&mdash;" Yes, but what? I must tell him some lie or other.
+Nay, not a lie, only a freak of fancy. A sudden illness? No, that's no
+joke. An uncompleted piece of law business, which I must finish for my
+old chief? The Pest lawyer will never believe that. What pretext could I
+hit upon to steal a little more time?</p>
+
+<p>While I was still biting my pen, my mother came into the room, and said
+to me: "Where have you been, my dear son?"</p>
+
+<p>I said I had been at Bessy's house.</p>
+
+<p>Then she said: "Now, tell me, my darling, why do you run after these
+great people? Don't you see that they are only making fun of you?"</p>
+
+<p>Something like a cold ague fit ran down my back.</p>
+
+<p>Hadn't I myself seen and heard them laugh at me, and didn't know it? and
+here was my mother who had neither seen nor heard it, and yet <i>she</i> knew
+it!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>Not another word did I say, but I went on with my letter ... "that I
+will come to Pest at once to-morrow morning, and take the place of
+juratus offered by you."</p>
+
+<p>I then showed my mother both letters, whereupon she rewarded me with
+that blessed smile of hers which has made her face so unforgettable to
+me.</p>
+
+<p>She immediately packed up my belongings and placed in my hand what
+little money she had put by, so that I might not want for anything in
+the expensive capital. I wanted to write to Bessy with an apology for my
+sudden departure.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go scribbling to them," said my mother; "I'll go myself to-morrow
+to her ladyship and tell her what has happened."</p>
+
+<p>The following afternoon I was sitting on the steamer, and in three days
+I arrived at Pest.... And for this sudden change of fortune I had to
+thank my Menshikov alone.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">22</a></h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">OLYMPIAN STRIVINGS</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> This chapter is somewhat condensed.</p></div>
+
+<p>It was Pet&ouml;fi who introduced me to my associates of the "Table of Public
+Opinion" (as the long table close to the counter in the Caf&eacute; Pillwax was
+called), and who got me a place there. "This is a true Frenchman!" said
+Pet&ouml;fi, as he presented me to his young army of <i>literati</i> who were
+assembled there. In those days this was the highest conceivable praise.
+The face of every liberty-loving nation was turned towards France, and
+from thence we expected the dawn of the new era. We read nothing but
+French books. Lamartine's "History of the Girondists" and Tocqueville's
+"Democracy" were our bibles. Pet&ouml;fi worshipped Beranger, I had found my
+ideal in Victor Hugo.... This school might easily have become dangerous
+to us had not its influence fortunately coincided with the opening up of
+a new and hitherto unexplored field&mdash;popular literature. Hitherto it had
+been the endeavour of Hungarian writers to write in a style which was
+distinct from the language of ordinary life. Our group, on the other
+hand, started the idea that it was just those very constructions,
+expressions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> and modes of thought employed in every-day life that
+Hungarian writers ought to take as the fundamental principle of their
+writing; nay, that they should even develop the ideally beautiful,
+poetry itself, from the life of the common people.... As belonging to
+this camp of ours I must also reckon Sigismund Czak&oacute;, who acclimatized
+the modern drama to our stage with marked success; and finally Anthony
+Csengery, the editor of the <i>Pesti Hirlap</i>, who wrote nothing in the way
+of <i>belles lettres</i> himself, but whose immense erudition and thorough
+knowledge of literature enabled him to exercise a most beneficial
+influence over the whole of our group. Amongst our older writers also,
+V&ouml;r&ouml;smarty and Bajza watched over us with stimulating encouragement; but
+it was Ignatius Nagy in particular who befriended us, and of him I have
+the most pleasant recollections.... At this time he was a cripple. He
+was rarely to be seen in the street, and then only on his wife's arm. He
+stopped at home all day at his writing-table, writing those life-like
+sketches of the little world of Buda-Pest which testify to such a serene
+good-humour. The first time I saw him was when I went to speak to him
+about my novel, "H&eacute;tk&ouml;znapok." He had a most embarrassing face covered
+with dark-red spots right up to his astonishingly lofty forehead, whose
+shiny baldness was half cut in two, as it were, by a bright black
+peruke. He had also an inconceivably big red nose, at which, however,
+you had no time to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> amazed, so instantly were you spell-bound by a
+couple of squinting eyes, one of which glared as fixedly at you as if it
+were made wholly of stone. His voice, on the other hand, was as the
+voice of a sick child. And within this repulsive frame dwelt the noblest
+of souls, in this crippled body the most energetic of characters. From
+no strange face did I ever get a kinder glance than I got from those
+stiff fishy eyes, and that sick voice announced to me my first great
+piece of good news. Upon his recommendation, the publisher Hartleben
+agreed to publish my first romance, and gave me for it 360 silver
+florins. In those days that was an immense fortune to me. I had no
+further need to go scribbling all day long in a lawyer's office at six
+florins a month. And his fatherly solicitude for me went still further.
+He introduced me to Frankenburg as a dramatic critic. The editor of the
+<i>Eletk&eacute;pek</i> had just parted with his dramatic critic (he had been a
+little too unmerciful to the artistes), and was looking out for a new
+colleague. By way of honorarium he offered me a free seat at the
+theatre, and ten florins a month. But my year of office came to an end
+the very first week. To make amends for the sins of my predecessor, I
+lauded every artist to the skies, according to the dictates of my
+youthful enthusiasm. And I can honestly say that I wrote it all from my
+very heart. It was then that I saw a ballet for the first time in my
+life. It was my solemn conviction that I was bound by a debt of
+gratitude to the ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>cellent damsel who exhibited her natural charms to
+the public eye with such magnanimous frankness. And a pretty lecture
+Frankenburg read me for it too! "Delightful Sylphid indeed! A clumsy
+stork, I should say!" Still, <i>that</i> might have passed. But it was my
+magnifying of Lilla Szil&aacute;gyi who took the part of Smike in the <i>Beggars
+of London</i> which did the business for me. I said of her that she was "a
+lovely sapling!" and promised her a brilliant future in her dramatic
+career. "Leave her where you found her! She has got no heart that's
+certain!" said the editor. "Then she'll get one!" said I. "But you'll
+never get to be a critic," said he.</p>
+
+<p>And so, for Lilla Szil&aacute;gyi's sake, I laid down my <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of critic, and
+yet I was right after all, for, as Madame Bulyovszky, she really did
+become a great artiste. Now, however, I bless my fate that things fell
+out as they did. Terrible thought: fancy if I now only had the
+reputation of a famous&mdash;critic!</p>
+
+<p>A few days after that, a new career suddenly opened before me. Paul
+Kir&aacute;lyi invited me to join his newspaper, the <i>Jelenkor</i>, as a
+correspondent. He offered me a salary of thirty-five florins a month. Of
+course I jumped at it. Newspaper writing was a very grateful task in
+those days. The paper appeared thrice a week. That was quite sufficient
+to give us all the news. It is different now. Nowadays more murders,
+suicides, and burglaries occur in the twenty-four hours than occurred in
+a whole twelvemonth then.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>And a newspaper contributor was then a personage of some importance. Let
+me give an example:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I lived with the dramatist, Szigligeti. In the summer we occupied a
+whole flat in a brand-new house in Pipe Street, and there I had a room
+of my own, with an exit opening on the staircase. The other flats were
+empty. The Szigligetis flitted during the summer to the suburbs of Buda.
+Thus I had the whole of the first floor of the new house at my disposal,
+to my great satisfaction, for I could work away quite undisturbed. In
+the autumn, however, the Szigligetis returned, and the adjoining flats
+at the same time got new tenants. The very next night I discovered, to
+my horror, with whom I was living under the same roof. It was the wife
+of the possessor of a flower-garden, who also kept a dancing academy.
+What afternoons, what nights I passed!</p>
+
+<p>At last I could stand it no longer, and I implored Szigligeti to appeal
+most energetically to the authorities against the nuisance. Szigligeti
+fully shared my indignation himself, so he posted off at once to the
+Town Captain to lay his complaint.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said he, "the proprietress of a flower-garden has settled down in
+my immediate neighbourhood."</p>
+
+<p>"But flowers must bloom somewhere, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"But the people dance the livelong night."</p>
+
+<p>"That doesn't injure any one, surely?"</p>
+
+<p>"But after dancing they sit down to rest."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very natural."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>"But they take their rest and recreation very noisily."</p>
+
+<p>The Town Captain shrugged his shoulders, he could do nothing in the
+matter; it was a ticklish business to interfere in; it did not fall
+within his jurisdiction, etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>But when, finally, Szigligeti said: "My lodger, the correspondent of the
+<i>Jelenkor</i>, cannot sleep all night because of them," then, indeed, the
+Town Captain suddenly leaped from his chair, set all his myrmidons in
+motion, and by the next day the whole flower-garden and dancing academy
+was transferred to another forcing bed. Such in those days was the
+authority of a newspaper correspondent.... I was therefore no longer a
+mere cipher. I was a something now. And, more than that, I was a
+somebody also. For it was in those days that I passed my legal
+examination, and became a certificated lawyer in the ordinary and
+commercial courts. My diploma, indeed, was not <i>pr&aelig;clarus</i>, but at any
+rate it was <i>laudibilis</i>. The oral <i>rigorosum</i> I passed through
+brilliantly, but in the <i>scripturistik</i> (there's a fine dog Latin word
+for you!) my <i>Hungarian style</i> was not considered satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>The publication of my legal diploma in the county court was a
+sufficiently dignified excuse for a visit to my native town. With head
+erect I could now enter the presence of the fairy damsel with the
+sparkling "eyes like the sea."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">AN ODD DUEL&mdash;THE FATEFUL LETTER J.&mdash;I ALSO BECOME A PETER GYURICZA</p>
+
+
+<p>Emericus Vahot had discovered a youthful humorist whom he attached to
+the staff of his newspaper. Ultimately he became a most eminent writer,
+but at first he was quite a savage genius. He knew no languages but
+Hungarian and Latin. He was really after all a very worthy young fellow.
+He, too, took his place amongst us at the "Table of Public Opinion,"
+and even brought a pair of friends with him. One of the friends was a
+wry-shouldered critic, who judged the stage from a philological point of
+view, but the other was Muki Bagotay. He was not a writer, but a mere
+figure head. As, however, he drank with us, he considered himself as one
+of us.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon the humorist and Muki fell out. Muki had thought good to
+boast of a certain conquest of his, the humorist had made a joke of it;
+a squabble ensued, and from words they came to blows. I was not there,
+but I heard all about it from those who were. There could not be a doubt
+that the end of it would be a duel. Late in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> evening, just as I was
+preparing to go to bed, the wry-shouldered critic rushed into my room.
+His face was even more portentous than usual.</p>
+
+<p>"I have to communicate a secret to you, but you must give me your word
+as a gentleman not to let the matter go any further."</p>
+
+<p>"I give you my word upon it."</p>
+
+<p>"Our friend is going to fight Muki Bagotay to-morrow, I am his second."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you be so good as to lend us the weapons?"</p>
+
+<p>"My friend, I only possess one pistol, and that is a double-barrelled
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"That will just do!"</p>
+
+<p>"What the deuce? I suppose one of them will fire with it first, and if
+he does not hit his man he'll hand it over to the other, and he'll fire
+back with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely!"</p>
+
+<p>The crooked critic said this with such a solemn face that it was
+impossible not to believe him. This was quite a novel mode of duelling,
+and not a bad idea either.</p>
+
+<p>Early next morning, before I had got up, the second again appeared
+before me. He brought back the fatal pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"It is over," said he, with mournful dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"What was the result?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our poor friend was hit!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>"Dangerously?"</p>
+
+<p>"The bullet penetrated his arm. But it has been taken out now."</p>
+
+<p>The news excited all my sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>I threw on my clothes and made my way to the Pillwax coffee-house. I
+found my good friends already at the "Table of Public Opinion," and
+every one of them shared my compassion. The critic related the mournful
+details to us.</p>
+
+<p>All at once two of our comrades, Degr&eacute; and Lauka, rushed excitedly into
+the coffee-house. "The whole duel was a swindle!" they cried. "There was
+no harm done to any one. He was not even wounded. He is lying in bed
+with his arm tied up, and a bloody shirt; they are giving him ice
+cataplasms&mdash;the whole thing is a pure farce!"</p>
+
+<p>The second, however, solemnly maintained that his principal had been
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"We will convince ourselves of the fact."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely you would not want them to tear the bandages from the gaping
+wound?" This I also resolutely opposed, and, taking the part of my
+colleague, devised another expedient.</p>
+
+<p>"Who was the doctor who bound up the wound?"</p>
+
+<p>The critic mentioned the doctor's name.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll go to the doctor, then."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. K&mdash;&mdash;y was a worthy, honest, high-spirited fellow, who well deserved
+the public respect.</p>
+
+<p>We rushed upon him in a body.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>"Tell us, now," we said, "is there a wound on the arm of the humorist?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is," replied the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true that you took a bullet out of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is true."</p>
+
+<p>"On your professional reputation?"</p>
+
+<p>"On my professional reputation."</p>
+
+<p>With that my friends were bound to be satisfied. No further inquiries
+could be made.</p>
+
+<p>When, however, my two friends had withdrawn, I remained behind with the
+doctor, and I said to him, "My dear doctor, you have answered the
+question, did you take a bullet out of our friend's arm? but now answer
+me this question, who put that bullet in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Egad! egad! egad!" growled the doctor, "you imaginative people are
+really sad scamps!"</p>
+
+<p>The fact was that our humorist and Muki Bagotay had fought an American
+duel: whoever drew the black ball had&mdash;well, not to die, but to get Dr.
+K&mdash;&mdash;y to make a wound in his arm. The doctor, with his lancet, made an
+incision about two centim&egrave;tres in length and four millem&egrave;tres in depth,
+in the epidermis just below the biceps; into this wound he insinuated a
+bullet, then took it out, sewed up the wound, and so wounded honour was
+amply satisfied. And I'll not say a single word against this being the
+most correct mode of procedure imaginable.</p>
+
+<p>Then I went home to my native town, ostensibly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> to advertise my legal
+diploma, but really to look once more upon her from whom I had been so
+long absent.</p>
+
+<p>I was very well received in the bosom of my family; the whole clan came
+together for dinner at my mother's, and for supper at the house of my
+brother-in-law, Francis V&aacute;ly. The two Calvinist ministers were also
+invited, and one of them toasted me as "the ward of one guardian and the
+guardian of two wards" (an allusion to my father's profession and my new
+drama, <i>The Two Wards</i>); it was the first toast that made me blush.</p>
+
+<p>The next day was the meeting of the county board, at the end of which,
+with open doors, my diploma was promulgated. On that self-same day my
+dear mother gave me my father's silver-mounted sword, and the cornelian
+signet-ring, with the old family crest engraved upon it, which he used
+to wear. Democrat as I am, I frankly confess that to me there was a
+soul-steeling thought in the reflection that with this sword my worthy
+ancestors, who were much better men than myself, had defended their
+nation, country, laws, and constitution of yore, and that this
+signet-ring had put the seal upon their covenanted rights for all time.
+According to ancient custom, the sword and signet-ring of the father
+belonged of right to the <i>younger</i> son; my father had given my elder
+brother a ring and sword of his own when he brought home <i>his</i> diploma.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>After that, I had to pay visits of ceremony to the county and municipal
+authorities; I called upon my principal also, and a pretty little girl
+was there whose features I had perpetuated in a portrait; she still went
+to the convent school. This little girl, I may add, never had her
+romance; she died young, and thus found her true bliss.</p>
+
+<p>It was only in the afternoon that I was able to get to Bessy's.</p>
+
+<p>Among all earthly joys, is there one that can be compared with that
+heart-throbbing which a young man feels when he again approaches, after
+a long absence, the woman whom he idolises, with the thought that she
+also has been dreaming of him all the time? It is true that our parting
+had been somewhat abrupt, and a hill of thorns had risen up between us
+perhaps in consequence; but, on the other hand, my absence had had a
+definite, deliberate aim&mdash;I went to win for myself name and fame, and a
+worldly position. And lo! but six months had passed and all this was
+already accomplished. I was an author. I had the right to speak of
+myself in the plural "we," like a king; nay, I had even a <i>better</i>
+right, for the king can only lay the peasantry under contribution, but I
+could make the gentry pay up as well, and that right was also "<i>Dei
+gratia</i>." I fancied the whole world was mine, and that triumphs would go
+before and follow after me whithersoever I went.</p>
+
+<p>I was dressed according to the latest fashion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> The famous firm of
+tailors, "Martinek and Korsinek," had performed a masterpiece upon me:
+my feet were shod with varnished dress-shoes, I had a whale-bone cane
+with a gold-headed handle, I wore Jaquemar gloves. I no longer singed my
+hair with heated hair-tongs as in the days when I was a patvarist, but a
+hairdresser had twisted it into ringlets; and now, too, I had a sprucely
+twisted moustache and a beard.</p>
+
+<p>I really must make the most of all these glories to emphasize the
+dramatic climax.</p>
+
+<p>I found Bessy's mother and her aunt in the well-known reception room;
+the companion was on a visit to her relations. After the ceremonial
+kissing of hands, my first question was, "And Miss Bessy?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is in her own room, yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"May I go there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, by all means!"</p>
+
+<p>It was that memorable room in which I had painted her portrait.</p>
+
+<p>The girl was alone, seated by her little table, and was bending over her
+embroidery frame. She really must have been very much absorbed in her
+work, as otherwise she must certainly have seen through the window that
+I was coming to her. It was a sort of pearl embroidery that she was busy
+over, meant apparently for the cover of a portfolio. On perceiving me
+enter, she hastily covered it with her handkerchief, but for all that,
+my eyes caught a momentary glimpse of a large letter "J." on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+embroidery. What else could it be but the initial letter of my surname?
+I was confirmed in this belief by the circumstance that on the same
+little table stood my portrait of her on a gorgeous stand.</p>
+
+<p>She greeted me kindly, but I could detect a certain hostile sentiment in
+her smile. It is only in the eyes that one can read such things, and
+practised swordsmen always can tell from the expression of their
+opponents' eyes how they are going to lunge.</p>
+
+<p>She questioned me about everything, and I replied with great precision;
+but these questions and answers were mere feints: the points of the
+swords were so far only twirling around each other.</p>
+
+<p>All at once she lunged straight at my head with her sword.</p>
+
+<p>"And pray what is the <i>amiable little sapling</i> doing?"</p>
+
+<p>In my first amazement I absolutely did not know what she was alluding
+to.</p>
+
+<p>"What sapling?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that darling little stage fairy, of course, who kindled you to
+such enthusiasm."</p>
+
+<p>So it turned up again now! Even here they cast it in my teeth! Was it
+not enough to have smarted once in my life for pretty Lilla's sake? In
+vain did I assure her that never in my life had I seen the young artiste
+except on the stage; that there indeed she had earned my admiration, but
+that I had never felt any tender sentiment either for her or for any
+other mortal maiden in the whole of Buda-Pest.</p>
+
+<p>"Let that go, then!" said Bessy mockingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> "We are well informed of
+everything that goes on. How about your landlord's three pretty
+daughters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, but the eldest of them is only nine years old."</p>
+
+<p>"And your gay neighbours, the flower-garden ladies?"</p>
+
+<p>Well, this was simply appalling. How could I tell her the whole story?
+And yet I was the very person who had got them removed.</p>
+
+<p>"Whom the Town Captain was forced to interfere with? Oh, we know all
+about it! My little finger has whispered it to me."</p>
+
+<p>I was quite confused. Who could have been tittle-tattling about me so?</p>
+
+<p>And all the time her eyes were flashing sparks at me!</p>
+
+<p>But I was not to remain in doubt long. A new visitor arrived, his voice
+was already heard in the ante-chamber. It was Muki Bagotay.</p>
+
+<p>It was plain to me now that it was he who had whispered all these things
+to Bessy.</p>
+
+<p>Into the room he rushed. He certainly was infamously handsome. My head
+of curls was quite dwarfed by his. His dress was much more fashionable
+than mine. And what a cocksure air he had! I dared not so much as press
+Bessy's hand, while he knelt down before her and laid his hat&mdash;together
+with his heart&mdash;at her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Go away with you&mdash;don't be silly!" said Bessy, by way of correction,
+pointing at me.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>"Your servant, comrade," cried Muki, becoming aware of my presence.</p>
+
+<p>Then he occupied himself with me no more, but turned towards Bessy and
+tried to remove the handkerchief from the embroidery, which attempt
+Bessy resisted with all her might.</p>
+
+<p>"It's mine, after all, you know," insisted Muki.</p>
+
+<p>"Then wait your turn, and you shall have it on your birthday."</p>
+
+<p>His birthday! A thought flashed through my brain. Muki's name was J&aacute;nos.
+That initial letter was <i>his</i>, not mine.</p>
+
+<p>A dramatic climax. How instantly Muki became the sensible fellow and I
+the blockhead! At that moment I must have cut a somewhat queer figure
+the very type of gaping confusion.</p>
+
+<p>By way of explanation Muki seized Bessy's hand and raised it to his
+lips, and said to me as a matter of form, "Bessy is my betrothed."</p>
+
+<p>And it was for this, then, that all these Sardanapalian accusations had
+been piled upon my head. The sapling of the stage, the flower-garden,
+and my landlord's young ladies were the golden bridge for a retreat.</p>
+
+<p>It was only then that I hit upon more sensible ideas and hastened to
+congratulate them.</p>
+
+<p>And now I made it a point to remain where I was. They shall see that the
+whole matter is of the utmost indifference to me.</p>
+
+<p>"You know, I suppose," said Muki, "what was the cause of my last duel?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>"That famous duel of yours, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was pretty famous, I think. That poor young fellow whom I shot
+was a worthy comrade, but had he been my born brother I would have shot
+him for his disrespectful allusions to my bride."</p>
+
+<p>"Go along with you, you bloodthirsty man!" cried Bessy, with coquettish
+self-satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>And he had the cheek to say all this before me who knew the whole
+history of the duel! How ridiculous I could have made him look, if I had
+told how it had happened! But do it I wouldn't, because I felt that they
+were a worthy pair. I merely said: "I must admit, friend Muki, that in
+the way of imagination you are much greater than I."</p>
+
+<p>"And greater in other things also," said Muki, half drawing his sword.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see about that one of these days in the fencing-school."</p>
+
+<p>"What! That swindling fencing! Wrestling is the thing to test a man's
+mettle. That fashionable gymnastic rubbish is a mere farce. I should
+like to see a fellow do what I can do when I go out on my <i>puszta</i>.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">23</a>
+I have a stout <i>gulg&aacute;sy</i><a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> there, Peter Gyuricza, with whom I am wont
+to wrestle. A stalwart fellow, hard as a stone; he can keep the upper
+hand over a hundred steers. Twice out of three bouts have I floored
+Peter Gyuricza, and Peter Gyuricza has only floored me once."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> The Hungarian steppe or great plain.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Neat-herd, peculiar to Hungary.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<p>"A pretty pastime, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not to be learnt by pen-scribbling or brush-daubing, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>That I had to let pass, for there's no getting over the truth. It is not
+only true that I was no Samson, but it is also true that, compared with
+a hundred oxen, my poor Pegasus was but a sorry beast of draught. But
+Muki Bagotay was not even content with this triumph, he wanted to
+absolutely trample me beneath his feet; and as if he had only just
+observed for the first time the picture of Bessy painted by me, he chose
+to make <i>that</i> the bone of contention.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile, till I possess the original, I appropriate this picture."</p>
+
+<p>Bessy protested. "No, no, I will not part with that."</p>
+
+<p>But Muki thereupon took the picture from the table and held it aloft, so
+that Bessy could not get it out of his hand. She begged, implored,
+raved, but Muki only laughed and said he meant to stick to the picture.</p>
+
+<p>It was then that my ill-humour got the better of me.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said I, laying my hand on his shoulder, "put down that portrait!
+I did not paint it for you."</p>
+
+<p>How scornfully he looked at me over his shoulder! "<i>You</i> would needs try
+conclusions with me&mdash;<i>you</i>, a mere poet!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>And he flung himself upon me with the pious resolve of forcing me out of
+Bessy's boudoir into the ante-chamber. When he saw that I resisted, he
+threw both his arms round my body. I also hugged him, and to work we
+went straightway.</p>
+
+<p>Muki was furious because I would not allow my frame to be smashed so
+easily. Bessy began shrieking, and took refuge in the bow window.
+Suddenly I rallied all my strength and pitched Muki on to the sofa with
+such violence that the back of it cracked and came off.</p>
+
+<p>"I also am a Peter Gyuricza!" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>I would not have exchanged that triumph for all the glory in the world.</p>
+
+<p>At the noise of this great scuffle, the mother and the aunt rushed into
+the room, and great was their indignation when they saw me kneeling on
+Muki's breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me get up, fellow!" said my antagonist.</p>
+
+<p>All that I wanted to do was to take the portrait from the hands of its
+unlawful possessor. Meanwhile the poor portrait had got terribly mauled.
+During the struggle it had fallen to the ground, and the pair of us had
+left the impression of our heels upon it. Bessy burst into tears when
+she saw the wreckage of her own portrait, but her mother lamented over
+the broken sofa.</p>
+
+<p>I comforted Bessy with the assurance that I would make the damaged
+portrait all right again&mdash;there were special colours for that.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>"But she must not sit again," hastily intervened her mother. She was
+afraid I should begin coming to the house again and spoil the good
+match.</p>
+
+<p>"And I haven't got that dress either," said Bessy.</p>
+
+<p>It certainly was a pretty dress. Would that she had never had it!</p>
+
+<p>I assured them, however, that I would be able to put the picture to
+rights at home, all by myself. And with that I put it in my pocket. I
+never went back there again.</p>
+
+<p>The mother and the aunt ostentatiously occupied themselves with Muki,
+expressing all the time their regretful sympathy, at which he was beside
+himself for fury.</p>
+
+<p>I beat a retreat without any attempt to say good-bye. But Bessy ran
+after me, and, overtaking me in the doorway, seized my hand, and
+whispered in an ardent voice, "You'll put <i>me</i> to rights, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>portrait</i>? oh yes!"</p>
+
+<p class="tb">An hour afterwards I was sitting on the steamer and gazing at the
+lingering smoke which hid my native town from my eyes. It was just as if
+I were returning from a funeral.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">WELTSCHMERZ CONDITIONS<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">25</a>&mdash;"REMAIN OR FLY!"</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Vil&aacute;g f&aacute;jdalmas</i> &aacute;llapotok. There is no English
+equivalent of <i>Vil&aacute;g f&aacute;jdalmas</i>.</p></div>
+
+<p>When I got back to Pest, I found two letters awaiting me on my
+writing-table, one from Tony V&aacute;rady, inviting me to stand godfather to
+his new-born son, and the other from Pet&ouml;fi, informing me that he had
+just been married to Julia Szendrey, and that they were having very
+happy days at Teleky's Castle, Kolt&oacute;. Both of these friends were poor
+fellows, like myself; and the ladies who had chosen to be their
+companions through life were girls belonging to wealthy, eminent
+families, accustomed to luxury and splendour, surrounded by obsequious
+wooers, and their mothers loved them as the apples of their eyes. Their
+families opposed the marriages, and the enamoured young ladies,
+handicapped as they were by the weight of their parents' refusal,
+followed their beloveds notwithstanding.</p>
+
+<p>Then true love is no dream after all, but pure gold. And yet when I seek
+this pure gold they call me a crazy alchemist!</p>
+
+<p>And now Pet&ouml;fi begged me by letter to seek out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> a convenient lodging for
+him, where they and I could live together. That a newly-married
+bridegroom should invite his faithful bachelor comrade to be a
+fellow-lodger with him is a fact which belongs to the realm of fairy
+tales.</p>
+
+<p>I immediately hunted up in Tobacco Street a nice
+first-floor-apartment,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> consisting of three chambers and their
+domestic offices; the first room was for the Pet&ouml;fis, the second for me,
+while the intermediate one was to be a common dining-room, and there
+were separate entrances for each of us.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Used here in the French sense of a suite of rooms.</p></div>
+
+<p>The young couple came in during the autumn; they kept one maid, and I
+had an old servant. We had both very primitive furniture. Mrs. Pet&ouml;fi
+had left her father's house without a dowry; she had not so much as a
+fashionable hat to bless herself with; she had sewed herself together a
+sort of head-dress of her own invention, which she never wore. Her hair
+was cut short, so that she looked like a little boy. They had nothing,
+and yet they were very happy! Julia's sole amusement was to learn
+English from Pet&ouml;fi, and afterwards, at dinner (which was sent in from
+"The Eagle"), we spoke English, and laughed at each other's blunders.
+And I had to be a witness of their bliss every day!</p>
+
+<p>It was just as if one were to season hell with piquant pepper.</p>
+
+<p>Just about this time there appeared in <i>Eletk&eacute;pek</i> some very ordinary
+verses entitled "Word-Echoes,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> by one "Aggteleki,"<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> ostensibly
+addressed to a certain actress. I am now able to confess that <i>I</i> was
+the author of those verses. But for all that (though the verses were not
+so bad) I solemnly forbid any one at any time to include these verses
+among my works, for even now, forty years after the event, I am not such
+an old, decrepit, suicidally inclined fellow as Aggteleki was.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Aged Teleki.</p></div>
+
+<p>But, indeed, every one of the works that I wrote at that period breathe
+the same bitter tone. The paroxysms of a crushed spirit, the dreamy
+phantoms of a diseased imagination, self-contempt, a moon-sick view of
+the world in general, characterise all my tales belonging to that
+period. And yet they pleased people then. I even had imitators. I turned
+Pet&ouml;fi himself away from the right path. He himself confessed that his
+novel entitled "H&oacute;h&eacute;r K&ouml;tele"<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> was written under the influence of my
+"Nyomar&eacute;k napl&oacute;ja,"<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">29</a> a literary abortion.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> "The Hangman's Rope." It certainly is a wretched
+performance.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> "The Cripple's Diary."</p></div>
+
+<p>Who knows whither I should have got to with my tower of Babel, had not a
+healthy earthquake brought it to the ground?</p>
+
+<p>One day Pet&ouml;fi caught me in the act of touching up Bessy's portrait. He
+saw from my eyes that I had been weeping. I tried to hide it, for I was
+a bit ashamed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>"<i>It is well that it is so, my son</i>," said he on that occasion; "<i>it is
+men who are unhappy that the world wants now.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>A memorable saying!</p>
+
+<p>It was in those days that he wrote "I dream, I dream of bloody days,"
+and "My Songs," with this final strophe, all blood and fire:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0q">"Wherefore doth this race of thralls endure it?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherefore rise not? Rend your chains and cure it!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Do ye wait, forsooth! till God's good pleasure<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rusts them off, and makes them drop at leisure?"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And then he would lead me into his room. On the walls there, in handsome
+frames, hung the portraits of the chiefs of the French Revolution&mdash;this
+was his only luxury&mdash;Danton, Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins,
+Saint-Juste, Madame Roland. There, too, the parts we were to play were
+distributed; Saint-Juste was designed for me, Madame Roland for Julia.
+And then we spoke of "the bloody days." They were to be no mere dream,
+we were to see them with our eyes wide open. And we were to be among the
+first to feel them.</p>
+
+<p>A healthy-minded man would have been ready after such words as these to
+have left the house by jumping out of the window; but they had a charm
+for me. It suited my peculiar frame of mind just then to set on fire the
+Dejanira robe that was about me, and then rush out among the people and
+set them on fire also.</p>
+
+<p>"Man's fate is woman!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>Had that young lady the last time I held her hand in mine said "Stay!" I
+should certainly have remained. I should have crept into my little nook
+of bliss and never have gazed after the moonshine of fame. In that case
+I should now perhaps have been one of the judicial assessors at the
+Royal Courts, and have joined heartily in the laugh when one or other of
+my colleagues at the end of a friendly banquet might take it into his
+head to quote some monstrous sentences out of my earliest romance, an
+imperfect copy of which turns up now and then as a literary curiosity
+among other antiquarian rubbish.</p>
+
+<p>This is what would have happened if the young lady had said "Stay!"</p>
+
+<p>But if that young lady had said "Fly!" then I should have flown like the
+rest after the falling stars. And, indeed, of those who stood with me on
+the 11th March<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> before the mob on the balcony of the town-hall to
+announce "This is the day of national liberty!" of those my
+youthful-visaged, warm-hearted comrades, three have perished in defence
+of that word "Liberty" then pronounced: those three names are
+"Pet&ouml;fi,"<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> "Vasv&aacute;ry," "Bozzai." And certainly, in that case, the
+four<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> ounces of lead, or the cossack's lance, or the grenade splinter
+which killed them, might have sufficed for me also&mdash;that is, of course,
+if that young lady had said "Fly!" Fate, in fact, confronted me with
+this paradox&mdash;"Either live and be forgotten, or be remembered as one who
+died young!"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> When the Hungarian revolution of 1848 began.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Pet&ouml;fi was most probably killed at the battle of Segesv&aacute;r
+in July, 1849; at any rate he was never seen or heard of afterwards. He
+was only twenty-seven, and in him the world lost one of its great lyric
+poets.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Stay!" or "Fly!"</p>
+
+<p>Then a voice said to me: "Go! but let us go together!"</p>
+
+<p>But it was not the voice of the lady with the eyes like the sea.</p>
+
+<hr class="thoughtbreak" />
+
+<p>One morning Pet&ouml;fi rushed into my room roaring with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha! Do you want to laugh? Just catch hold of that <i>Honder&uuml;</i>."
+And into my hands he thrust the latest number of the opposition paper.</p>
+
+<p>I immediately caught sight of what had made him laugh so much. There was
+a magnificent description from my native town of the wedding which had
+taken place between Mr. J&aacute;nos Nepomuk Bagotay and the world-renowned
+beauty&mdash;I didn't trouble to look at the name. "The happy pair will spend
+their honeymoon at Paris!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha! ha!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">PETER GYURICZA'S CONSORT</p>
+
+
+<p>After the March days, I quitted the Pet&ouml;fis and went into another
+lodging. I had got on so well that I could maintain a bachelor's
+establishment, consisting of two rooms, which I furnished myself.
+Properly speaking, it only became a bachelor's establishment when I
+entered, for before I took it it was occupied by a little old woman who
+kept a registry office for providing respectable families with servants.
+Every one knew "M&aacute;mi," as she was called.... I was very well satisfied
+with my lodging, which quite answered all my requirements. It had this
+one drawback, however, that a whole mob of cooks, parlour-maids, and
+nursery-maids were constantly opening my door under the persuasion that
+I could provide them with places, and they disturbed my work terribly.
+Besides, this constant flow of petticoats towards my door was sufficient
+of itself to bring a young man into disrepute. From the apartments at
+the opposite end of the corridor it was possible to catch a glimpse of
+my door, and it was just in these very apartments that Rosa Laborfalvy
+lived. I was afraid that <i>some one</i> might think ill of me.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>It was no longer the <i>Weltschmerz</i>, but a <i>Privatschmerz</i>,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> that
+afflicted me.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Priv&aacute;t f&aacute;jdalmas</i>&mdash;private anxiety.</p></div>
+
+<p>Again I had applied myself to portrait-painting. A tall, slender girl in
+a white atlas dress, with large black eyes, and coal-black ringlets <i>&agrave;
+l'Anglaise</i> rolling down to her shoulders, was standing on my easel; I
+was just giving it the finishing-touch, I had no need for the original
+to be my model. I have the portrait to this day.</p>
+
+<p>All at once there came a knocking at my door "Come in!" The door opened,
+and in came a stylish young peasant girl. I thought as much; here we
+have another nursery-maid in search of a place.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; go away! The registry-office lady does not live here!" said I
+viciously, for I was busy with my portrait; and perceiving that the
+intruder did not retire even now, I bawled out, not over gently: "In
+Heaven's name, be off, my dear!"</p>
+
+<p>At this the peasant girl began to laugh. Had I not heard that laughing
+voice somewhere before? I turned round and looked at her, and the more I
+looked, the more astonished I felt. It was Bessy!</p>
+
+<p>She wore a bright red gown trimmed with yellowish-green flowers, over
+that a dark blue, double-bordered damask apron, and a black silk bodice
+with puff sleeves. Above the bodice was a bib with beautifully
+embroidered palm flowers; on her head sat a cockscomb like Haube,
+frilled with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> starched thread-lace; on her arm she carried a covered
+basket by the handle.</p>
+
+<p>Her face was ruddy and bronzed from exposure to the sun, and a sort of
+waggish little imp was nestling provocatively in her smiling features. I
+couldn't believe my own eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What! don't you know me?" she cried, with a merry laugh. "I'm Bessy!"</p>
+
+<p>I saw that, but for the life of me I could not conceive what her object
+was in coming masquerading like this through the streets of Buda in
+broad daylight. And to hit upon <i>my</i> lodgings of all places in the
+world!</p>
+
+<p>"Madame de Bagotay?" I stammered in my confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am no longer Madame Bagotay, but Madame Peter Gyuricza!"</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth do you mean? Mrs. Gyuricza! The wife of a herdsman?"</p>
+
+<p>My amazement was so genuine that Bessy clapped her hands together with
+glee.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you actually don't know about it? They haven't written to you from
+home?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a long time since I received a letter from home."</p>
+
+<p>"But this was a scandal which set seven counties in an uproar; there has
+been nothing like it since the French Revolution&mdash;and you call yourself
+the editor of a newspaper!"</p>
+
+<p>"My paper does not meddle with purely family matters."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>Bessy's face was flushed, and she began smoothing it with the palms of
+both hands; she thought, perhaps, that she would brush the tell-tale
+blush away.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heated myself a little on that steep staircase of yours," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>She blamed the staircase for that flaming face of hers.</p>
+
+<p>It then occurred to me that it would only be polite to ask my fair
+visitor to take a seat. I offered her the sofa.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, no! That's only for ladies! This will do quite well enough
+for me." And with that she sat down on my trunk, and put down her basket
+beside it. "I really am quite tired. I have travelled by the corn-boat
+as far as V&aacute;cz,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">33</a> and thence I have walked all the way to Pest."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Waitzen.</p></div>
+
+<p>"But you could have gone by steamer?"</p>
+
+<p>"But my master<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">34</a> could not give me steamboat fare. We are poor people.
+Look! this is my whole provision for the journey."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>i.e.</i>, husband.</p></div>
+
+<p>And with that she lifted the lid of the basket, and showed me what was
+inside it: a piece of black bread, and something wrapped up in greasy
+paper&mdash;a piece of cheese possibly, and a garlic-seasoned sausage.</p>
+
+<p>"I must keep this for my return journey."</p>
+
+<p>The cynicism of the proceeding revolted me.</p>
+
+<p>"But now, if you please, I should very much like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> to know what's the
+meaning of it all. Is it a practical joke you are playing upon me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! certainly not! Pray don't suppose that I have dressed up on
+your account. I am now a real peasant woman, and such I mean to remain.
+It is a serious thing for me, I can tell you, and I've come to you, not
+that you may write about it in your paper, but that you may give me
+advice."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> give <i>you</i> advice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly! Whom else should I ask? The whole world condemns and
+tramples upon me, and yet I have offended nobody, not even in thought.
+You are the only one I have injured, bitterly injured, so it is from you
+that I must seek protection."</p>
+
+<p>Woman's logic with a vengeance! I stood up in front of her, leaning on
+the edge of the table. I was contriving all the time to prevent her from
+seeing the portrait I was painting.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll begin from the very beginning," continued the lady, lowering her
+long eyelashes. "I was married. So much you know. We gave a splendid
+banquet. The whole town, half the county was there. I fancy they
+described it in the newspapers; and why shouldn't they, when the
+richest, best-known, and most handsome girl in the town was married to
+the ideal cavalier? The lady brought a dowry of 100,000 florins, and the
+gentleman conveyed his bride to his ancestral castle in a carriage drawn
+by four fiery horses. The universal envy was a more piquant grace to the
+meal than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> benediction of the priest. The gentlemen envied the
+bridegroom, and the ladies envied the bride, and every one was forced to
+say: 'A couple made for each other.' Alas! the only joy which remained
+in my heart when I came out of church and looked among the crowd was the
+thought, 'Ah! you all envy me, I know!'</p>
+
+<p>"We went straight from church to my husband's castle," continued Bessy.
+"Thirty carriages escorted us. I counted them. A splendid banquet
+followed. That day I changed my dress four times. The fifth time I put
+on a lace <i>n&eacute;glig&eacute;</i>, and the bridesmaids led me to the bridal chamber.
+This room was a veritable masterpiece of upholstery. A Vienna furnisher
+had decorated it most elaborately. I couldn't sleep all night. The voice
+of the bass viol and the clarionet resounded in my ears from the
+banqueting-room, and the noise and uproar of the guests also. I did not
+see my husband till the morning. Then the guests began to disperse. Only
+now and then did a cracked and piping voice mingle with the frantic
+music of the gipsies. Then it was that my husband appeared before me,
+and a pitiable object he looked. He called me his darling little sister,
+and asked me if I could tell him where he lived. Then he undressed
+himself on the sofa and talked such nonsense that at last I couldn't
+help laughing. 'Well,' said I to myself, 'I suppose this is always the
+way when they take leave of their bachelordom.' Then sleep overcame me
+and I dreamed the silliest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> stuff. <i>You</i> were continually in my dreams.
+But why mention such things now?"</p>
+
+<p>With that she readjusted the kerchief which was tied around her
+head-dress and proceeded:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It was afternoon when I awoke. I must have wept a great deal in my
+dreams, for the pillow on which my head lay was quite wet. My husband
+was no longer reposing on the sofa, but sprawling on the floor like a
+stuffed frog. It cost me a great deal of trouble to shake him into life
+again. It was a still greater effort to make him understand in what part
+of the world he was, and in what relations we stood to each other here
+below. After that he insisted upon my crawling with him under the sofa,
+and when I wouldn't hear of it, he began to cry like a child, and
+demanded a pistol from me that he might blow his brains out. Then I
+brought a washing-basin and washed his face for him, and ducked it once
+or twice in cold water. He roared like a baby who is being tubbed, but
+finally recovered his spirits, and allowed himself to be raised from the
+ground. Then he drank out of the water-jug, and his eyes opened, but
+they were as tiny as a mole's, and I now perceived for the first time
+that they were a little crooked."</p>
+
+<p>During this narration Bessy laughed and laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"What a sight the fellow did look! his hair all rumpled, his moustache
+all askew, his clothes soiled and tousled. He had to be dressed all over
+again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> I began to scold him a little, 'A pretty condition of things, I
+must say!' To which he replied that I ought to have seen his comrades,
+Nusi, and Lenezi, and Blekus, and how <i>they</i> had been settled. They had
+all fallen under the table, and he had remained the victor. And he
+yawned so much as he told me this, that I had to beg him not to swallow
+me. At last I got him to sit down on a chair while I did his hair for
+him, and he meanwhile howled and swore continually that every single
+hair pained him as much as if devils were tweaking him with iron
+pincers."</p>
+
+<p>Again the lady stopped to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"That's quite a novel state of things to you, eh? A person who becomes
+the bride of an out-and-out dandy must expect to see something
+extraordinary. But perhaps there was nothing extraordinary in it after
+all. And now the banquet was resumed, commencing with a pick-me-up. I
+presided at the table with a turban on my head. All our guests were
+still drunk. I had to listen to very peculiar anecdotes. At such times
+the best man is he who can pay the new bride the compliment which will
+make her blush the most. The lady guests had all departed in the
+morning, and had come to bid me good-bye one by one. They all wept over
+me&mdash;it is the usual thing. I was the only lady left, and glad was I when
+I managed to get away from the gentlemen. I think that they had been
+awaiting my withdrawal; they could then continue their in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>terrupted
+pastime. Again I could not sleep; my head was throbbing. For the first
+time in my life I recognised the existence of the headache, that
+frightful curse of feminine nerves which I had hitherto always put down
+to affectation or imagination. How good it would have been for me if
+some one had laid a cool, refreshing hand upon my temples! Perhaps a
+single word of comfort would have relieved my pangs! I waited for it in
+vain. I sent a message. He never came to me. Suddenly, while an
+oppressive dream was benumbing my pain, a hellish uproar awoke me. I
+fancied that Pandemonium had been let loose. It was only my husband, but
+he had brought with him the whole of his drunken crew. I saw before me a
+whole legion of them, with guffawing, sardonic, lascivious, distorted
+faces, and amongst them my husband, with the grin of a satyr on his
+idiotic face. I rose in terror from my bed, cast my counterpane around
+me, fled into my waiting-maid's room, and barricaded myself behind the
+door. There he thumped and thundered for some time. I threatened to
+throw myself out of the window if he broke in by force. Thereupon some
+of his comrades, in whom a little human feeling still remained,
+contrived to drag him away, though not without difficulty. Then followed
+a little sulky squabble on both sides. I wouldn't leave my room for
+four-and-twenty hours; he wouldn't come to me. The noise that he made
+over head was sufficient evidence to me that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> hadn't committed
+suicide in the meantime. The third day was passed by the bridal guests
+in a more profitable occupation. They played at cards. The table,
+vigorously punched by their fists, proclaimed their handiwork aloud. It
+was like blacksmiths' apprentices pounding iron on the anvil with
+sledgehammers. Only in the morning did 'my lord and master' turn up
+while I was still only half-dressed. He was sober then, and, what is
+more, ill-tempered. His loss at cards was mirrored in his face like a
+guilty conscience. He frankly told me all about it. He had been peppered
+finely, and his comrades were vile curs.... Such was my wedding."</p>
+
+<p>Bessy covered her face with both her hands. Was she laughing? Was she
+weeping? I cannot say.</p>
+
+<p>All at once she asked me, "Did you ever play at cards?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but only for copper coins."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all one. You ought not to waste your time with it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, really, I only spend that time on it which I do not know how to
+employ otherwise, the time when I am tired of work, and want a rest from
+thinking. Cards are very good things at such times."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what a pity girls also do not learn the science of card-playing at
+school, just as they learn to find out towns on maps, or gather the
+properties of exotic plants and animals from zoological albums; then at
+least a newly-married bride would under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>stand why it is necessary to
+subtract so much from her heritage to sacrifice it to such mythological
+deities as <i>skiz</i> and <i>pag&aacute;t</i>.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> ..."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Terms used in Tarok.</p></div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I didn't interrupt her, but remained standing and looking at
+her with my hands resting on the table. This seemed to put her out.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you smoke a cigar? Don't mind me."</p>
+
+<p>"I would only remind you that you used always to make fun of me because
+I didn't smoke."</p>
+
+<p>"True. Smoking becomes a man. A cigar or a pipe makes his face so
+cosy-looking. Just look at any man who hasn't a pipe stuck into his
+mouth, and tell me if he doesn't look like a judge pronouncing judgment,
+or a priest shriving a penitent? Believe me, that one of the reasons why
+I was faithless to you was that you didn't smoke. Well, at any rate, I
+have got my reward for it.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Muki used to suck Havannahs all day. Yes, nothing but Havannahs;
+but Gyuricza smokes the coarsest tobacco, and even chews pigtail."</p>
+
+<p>I burst out laughing; I couldn't help it. In what ways are a woman's
+graces gained! No, I wouldn't chew pigtail if the favour of the Goddess
+Melpomene herself depended on it.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not weary you with our diversions at Paris. There, I perceived,
+it is the common practice for husband and wife to take their pleasures
+apart. My husband did no more than what other husbands do. It is not
+good form to ask a husband<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> who returns home at dawn where he has been.
+Besides, Muki, with perfect candour, informed me all about these places
+of public entertainment and the joys of <i>les petits soupers</i>; once he
+took me with him to these delights&mdash;I didn't ask to go again.... I was
+very glad when the season was over and we returned to our village, and
+after all the bustling diversions, flirtations, visitings and boredom, I
+could once more be alone and fill my straw hat with forget-me-nots on
+the banks of the river, as of old on the island. You remember my visit
+to your rustic hut, don't you? You remember the golden thrushes who used
+to speak to you? To you they said, 'Silly boy! silly boy!' to me they
+cried, 'What's the good! what's the good!' On returning to his estates
+my husband became quite another man: you would have said that he was a
+changeling. The dainty dandy became an enthusiastic agriculturist. He
+was up early, on horseback all day, went from one <i>puszta</i> to another,
+and brought home ears of barley in his hat. The only things he talked
+about at home were sheepshearing and the diseases of horned cattle. He
+had a stud and a neat-herd, and of the latter he appeared to be
+particularly proud. Sometimes he drove me all over his demesne in a
+light gig. A fine demesne it was. You might drive about it the whole day
+and not see the whole of it. He showed me his herds. He told me that
+herds like them were not to be had in the whole kingdom. I didn't
+understand it. All that I could see was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> that the oxen had very large
+horns. But the form of the herdsman really did surprise me. He was a
+veritable ancient-hero sort of a man, such as we imagine the primeval
+Magyars to have been who wandered hither out of Asia. His bronzed face
+beamed with health, his thick black hair whipped his shoulders with its
+greasy curls, and add to that his sun-defying glance, his stately
+bearing, his long mantle embroidered with tulips and cast lightly across
+his shoulder. His white linen garment fluttered in the breeze, and when
+he raised his arm to take off his cap, the loose fluttering short
+sleeves fell right back and revealed an arm like the arm of the figure
+of an athlete cast in bronze. 'Why, Peter,' said I, 'is it with you that
+your master is wont to wrestle?' The Hercules, thus addressed, timidly
+cast down his eyes and said: 'Yes!' 'But how on earth is your master
+ever able to throw you?' At this question, Peter Gyuricza shifted his
+mantle from one shoulder to the other, and twisting his moustache,
+replied: 'As often as his Excellency throws me I get five florins.' So
+that was the secret of Muki's acrobatic triumphs. After that, the
+herdsman conducted us to the great summer farm, which was a good
+distance from the hut where the calves are put to rest at midday. There,
+a savoury luncheon, prepared by the wife of the herdsman, awaited us.
+She was a buxom, smart young woman, with roguish eyes and radiating
+eyebrows, all life and freshness, a true blossom of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> <i>puszta</i>.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> I
+caught myself looking repeatedly in the mirror, and making comparisons
+between her face and my own. After luncheon we went all round the farm,
+and the herdsman's wife guided us from stable to stable. A thorn got
+into my foot through my slipper. The herdsman's wife bobbed down and
+drew the thorn out. 'You don't feel the thorn now, do you?' she asked,
+flashing a look upon me. 'I do not feel it in my foot,' I replied."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>i.e.</i>, a true heath-flower.</p></div>
+
+<p>Bessy paused for a moment, and smoothed her brows with both hands as if
+to refresh her memory.</p>
+
+<p>"I took another sort of thorn away with me. I began to be suspicious of
+the grand economical zeal of my husband. Such assiduity was not natural.
+Early one morning he again took horse, called to his greyhounds, and
+told me not to wait for him to dinner, he would not be home till
+evening. A certain instinct would not let me rest. I went out into the
+garden, right to the boundary fence and into the stubble beyond, and
+then I went on foot into the <i>puszta</i>, through the turnip fields and the
+Indian corn. Nobody saw me. The vesper-bell was ringing in the village
+when I entered the courtyard of the herdsman. In the stubble I saw the
+two dogs hunting a hare on their own account. Truly, a Cockney sportsman
+who allows his dogs to win their own meat like that! I whistled to them,
+they recognised me and came leaping around me. 'Where's your master?'
+The dogs understood me. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> began yelping and barking, and darted on
+before me helter-skelter, with their heads between their legs as if to
+give me to understand that they would lead me to the spot if I followed
+them. They made straight for the hut. No doubt they fancied they were
+doing something very knowing. When I marched in at the door the little
+servant exclaimed, 'Good gracious!' and let fall the wooden trencher in
+which she was kneading some dough with a large pot-ladle, and when I
+advanced towards the dwelling-room door, she stood in my way, and said,
+'Please don't go in now!' I boxed her ears for her, first on the right
+side and then on the left, pushed her into a cupboard and locked the
+door upon her. Then I opened the door of the dwelling-room. There was
+nobody there. But the door of a little side room, which in peasants'
+houses is, as a rule, always open, was closed. On the table, however, I
+perceived my lord's hat and his riding-whip. I made no disturbance. The
+clothes of the herdsman's wife lay in a heap on a bench. I took off my
+clothes and put on hers carefully, one by one. I was just as you see me
+now."</p>
+
+<p>She stood up before me and turned herself round that I might have a
+better look at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I went into the outer hut again, and picked the ladle from the
+floor which the maid had let fall in her terror. It was a mess of bacon
+dumplings that she had been engaged upon. I kneaded the dough for the
+dumplings, I made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> twelve beautiful little round ones out of it, boiled
+them, beat up a nice garlic sauce with them, and poured the whole lot of
+it into a varnished jug, first tasting to see that it was not over
+salted. Then I tied up the jar in my kerchief, and set off with it
+towards the pasturage. But another idea also occurred to me. I concealed
+behind my apron my husband's riding whip that was reposing on the table,
+and took it away with me.</p>
+
+<p>"The pasturage is pretty far from the hut. It was somewhat late when I
+arrived there. The herdsman was quite impatient, and had climbed up a
+'look-out' tree, and when he saw my striped dress and bright red
+kerchief, he began to bawl out, 'Hillo! Come along, can't you! I'll give
+you what for! I'll teach you something, you cursed blockhead! What have
+you done with my dinner? A pretty time when they're already ringing
+vespers in the village. I suppose you've been carrying on with his
+honour again? Let me catch you at it, that's all, and I'll tickle your
+hide for you with my whip.' When I got up to him and lifted the kerchief
+from my head, he stopped short with his mouth open. 'Well, I never! if
+it isn't her ladyship!'&mdash;'True, Peter!' said I. 'I've cooked your dinner
+for you, and now you see I've brought it to you. Your wife cannot come.
+She's learning French from my husband. I've also brought with me my
+husband's whip. I found it on your table. You may flog with it whomever
+you like, either me or your wife.'"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>Here she stopped short. She evidently meant me to find out the rest of
+the story for myself.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor woman!" I murmured. I was sorry and embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>She burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't pity me, pray! I am perfectly happy. Gyuricza did not strike me
+with his whip. I am now mistress in the herdsman's hut."</p>
+
+<p>And she seemed quite proud of it all!</p>
+
+<p>Then she began to tell me of her new hero with real enthusiasm. He was
+what man was meant to be when first created, all strength and truth;
+there was nothing artificial, nothing false, nothing effeminate about
+him. "When he comes home at night he goes to the fireplace to smoke his
+pipe; then he empties a can of buttermilk to the very dregs. Wine is
+only put upon the table on Sundays. Then he asks, 'Have you any good
+dumpling soup, sweetheart?' 'Of course I have, and cured bacon and groat
+pottage as well.' As soon as it is ready we turn it out and sit down to
+it. We eat with tin spoons out of a large common dish. No invitation is
+needed there. The lady herself fetches the water from the spring. The
+master drinks one half of it and offers the other half to his wife: 'You
+drink too!' And after that they don't go in for much stargazing, nor do
+they care a fig for the world and all its thousand troubles. They sleep
+with open doors, and the four sheep-dogs guard the house.</p>
+
+<p>"At three o'clock in the morning Bessy gets up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> and goes into the stable
+to milk the cows; by dawn it must be all done. The little milking-stool
+is now her throne. She pours the fresh foaming milk into the pails and
+takes them into the cellar with the help of the serving maid. When the
+boy sounds his horn the cows must be driven out; they must be pastured
+apart from the brood-cows. And all this time the master is eating his
+breakfast: peppered bacon and green leeks with good <i>papramorg&oacute;</i>,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">37</a>
+and then he follows his herds out into the pastures. The reason why he
+cracks his whip so loudly is because he knows that some one is standing
+there in the little door and looking after him. Then <i>she</i> has to skim
+the cream from the standing milk, churn the milk, and take the butter to
+market. Then she has to buckle to bread-baking. The maid is sent to heat
+the oven; meanwhile she herself is kneading the dough, then she shovels
+out the burning embers with the oven scoop, and wipes down the inside of
+the oven with a wet kitchen-clout; then the loaves are shot in by means
+of the long baking-shovel (first of all, however, are baked the
+'fire-cakes,' which 'my soul'<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">38</a> loves so much), finally the 'lock-up'
+stone is smeared with clay and placed in front of the oven, and one must
+be ready to an instant to pull the stone from the mouth of the oven
+again and take out the loaves. Meanwhile, she has had time to prepare
+upon the hearth a pottage of millet and smoked bacon, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> carry it
+quickly, pot and all, to the pasturage, so that when the mid-day bell
+rings, the master may have his victuals ready laid on his outspread fur
+pelisse. After dinner, beneath the shadow of the big wild nut-tree, she
+may take a nap with an apron thrown over her face. On returning home she
+gets out her bruised flax and heckles it, so that when the husband
+returns home he finds wife and family sitting by the distaff and singing
+together the spinning songs of the country folk, till the pigs come
+running home with a great grunting and demand their slush.&mdash;Oh, such a
+life as that is pure enjoyment!"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> A sort of <i>eau-de-vie</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Lelkem</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, "My darling."</p></div>
+
+<p>I shook my head dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>"It will bore you one day."</p>
+
+<p>"Bore me! Don't you recollect when I was in your lath hut I painted this
+very life to you as my ideal?&mdash;A hut of rushes and a bed of straw. You
+spoke to me of fame and glory. The lowing of kine, the tinkling of
+sheep-bells, the cracking of whips is my delight. It was so even then.
+Since that time I have learnt to know the great world, but it hasn't
+altered me. I am full of disgust with everything that is to be found in
+palaces. Those demi-men, those Sunday husbands&mdash;those refined and
+exquisitely polite she-sinners, those model sticklers for virtue who sin
+through the whole ten commandments day after day, and vie even with the
+ladies of the ballet, with this difference, however, that the
+ballet-dancers are much more modest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> in private than these great ladies
+are in public&mdash;I am sick and weary of the whole lot of them. I would
+rather have a man who never washes his mouth after he has eaten garlic,
+than a man who returns home from an orgie and pretends he has been to a
+political conference. The famous Hamilton bed, which costs you a hundred
+ducats if you sleep in it for a single night, is wretchedness itself
+compared to the bed of fresh straw on which I sleep. Believe me when I
+tell you that I am perfectly happy."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll believe anything you like, but there's one circumstance I cannot
+understand. How is it that nobody disturbs this sweet idyll of yours? Is
+the one man who is so confoundedly nearly interested in your happiness,
+is that man still alive? Does Muki Bagotay still exist anywhere in the
+wide world?"</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy so."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if he does, I'll only say that what flows through his veins is
+milk, not blood. Is he content to carry the horns of his hundred oxen? A
+rich and powerful landlord, a county magnate, and the master of your
+ideal peasant!&mdash;A thousand lightnings! if I were only in his place!"</p>
+
+<p>Bessy, with a sarcastic smile, folded her hands together above her
+knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, come now! If you were in dear Muki's place what would <i>you</i> do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you. I wouldn't call Peter Gyuricza out, but one fine day I
+would put my democratic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> principles on the shelf, and collecting my
+heydukes and my rustics, I'd give chase to the herdsman, trounce him
+according to his deserts, and kick him out of my employment. I would get
+another herdsman; but as for my wife, I'd tie her to the pummel of my
+saddle, and drag her like that to my castle. That's what <i>I</i> would do,
+were I the husband of Muki Bagotay's wife!"</p>
+
+<p>I had certainly got a little heated. It was only afterwards that I
+reflected, "What's Hecuba to me? Why should I bother my head about Peter
+Gyuricza?"</p>
+
+<p>Bessy, however, laughed most heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha! You'd have done that to me, would you? You'd have tied me
+to your horse's tail and whipped me home, eh? How sorry I am then that I
+did not choose you! What a fine thing it would have been if I could have
+boasted of bearing the impression of your blows on my body! Tell me now,
+have you ever struck any one who was unable to hit you back?"</p>
+
+<p>At this I was fairly put to silence.</p>
+
+<p>"But let that be! You could not be so good a Muki Bagotay as Muki
+Bagotay himself would have been if he could. He actually <i>did</i> try the
+very recipe which you now recommend. The very next day he sent his
+bailiff with the verbal message to Peter Gyuricza to pack himself off
+forthwith, but me the bailiff was to bring straight home. The bailiff
+gave himself airs, and would have used force,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> so I gave him a sound box
+on the ears, which he'll not forget in a hurry; whereupon Peter Gyuricza
+threw him out of the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Next day the wounded honour of the offended husband resorted to still
+stronger measures: six <i>pandurs</i><a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">39</a> appeared upon the scene with swords
+and pistols. Peter and I were outside in the pastures. Thither they came
+after us. But Peter was not a bit put out. He hastily called together
+his young shepherds; there were four of them; they caught up their
+cudgels, and the four sheep dogs took the same side. The six <i>pandurs</i>
+never dreamt we should tackle them. The corporal of the <i>pandurs</i>
+threatened to fire if we offered the least resistance. I immediately
+rushed forward in front of Peter, and said to them, 'Very well! there
+you are! Fire!' There was a pretty rumpus, the dogs began to bark, and
+at last even the stolid steers got mad, and the big old bull rushed out
+of the herd and charged straight at the <i>pandurs</i>, who were thronging
+round the herdsman. They took to their heels straightway, and those who
+did not leave their shakos behind them might think themselves lucky."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> County police.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Why, that was quite an epic poem!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it! But you haven't heard the end of it yet. After the repulse
+of the second assault, Muki began to carry on the war in grim earnest.
+One evening, our maid, who had been sent out as a spy, came back with
+the terrifying news that his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> honour had sent out orders that on the
+following day all his tenants were to assemble in the courtyard of the
+castle armed with cudgels, flails, and pitchforks; to his huntsmen and
+heydukes also he had distributed guns and ammunition. The whole of this
+host was to advance upon us in battle array on the morrow. It would have
+been well, perhaps, to have fled before them while there was yet time.
+But we did not fly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what was the end of it all?"</p>
+
+<p>"A very droll ending indeed. When the danger was greatest, good luck
+sent a deliverer, a good friend, just as usually happens in
+happily-constructed dramas, who intervened with a mighty hand and
+diverted the stroke from our heads."</p>
+
+<p>"And who was this good friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, who else but the bearer of this fine blonde beard!" cried she,
+with an ironical smile, caressing my chin.</p>
+
+<p>"I? Why, I was not in that part of the country at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but poets have long arms, you know. At the very moment when Muki
+was placing firearms in the hands of his peasants, freedom was
+proclaimed at Pest. The rumour spread throughout the kingdom like
+wildfire&mdash;the Revolution had broken out. They say in Pressburg that
+Pet&ouml;fi and you were on the R&aacute;kos<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> at the head of 40,000 peasants,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> that a new D&oacute;zsa<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">41</a> war had begun. The retainers of Muki also
+thronged up to his castle, not to carry me off by force, but to demand
+their liberties. 'We'll work no more!' they cried; 'we'll pay no more
+tithes, and no more hearth-money.'<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">42</a> Freedom had broken out with a
+vengeance! Muki was thereupon so terrified that he fled incontinently
+through the back door in the clothes of his lackey, and never stopped
+till he was safely out of the kingdom. I have heard nothing of him
+since. So you see your mighty hand turned aside the danger that was
+hovering over our heads. We drank your health afterwards in big
+bumpers."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> A plain to the east of Pest, where, from the earliest
+times, elective assemblies were held.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> George D&oacute;zsa, the leader of the Hungarian <i>jacquerie</i> of
+1514, who was finally captured and executed after truly infernal
+torments.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>F&uuml;stpenz</i>&mdash;lit., smoke money, so much on each chimney.</p></div>
+
+<p>I certainly had never calculated upon success of this sort.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "you have certainly disposed of Mr. J&aacute;nos Nepomuk
+Bagotay for a time (though I would call your attention to the fact that
+he will not be very long in perceiving that there is no D&oacute;zsa war in
+Hungary, and will then return with reinforcements), but may I ask what
+her ladyship your mother says to all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should have come to that, even if you had not asked me. In fact, this
+is the very thing which brings me to you. One fine evening when I was
+returning home from the maize fields, with my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> kerchief full of pods, I
+found an official notification nailed on the door of our hut. The
+lawyer's clerk who brought it, delighted to find nobody at home, had
+fastened the document to the door-post and decamped. It gave me to
+understand that Muki was bringing an action against me for adultery. A
+term was fixed, however, within which, according to custom, we might
+appear before the priest at any place we liked and be reconciled if
+possible. After the lapse of six weeks the priest would make another
+attempt to bring about a reconciliation; if this did not succeed, he
+would bid us go to the &mdash;&mdash;! and we should have to appear before the
+judge instead!"</p>
+
+<p>I now began to see to what I was indebted for the pleasure of her visit.
+I should very much have liked to have banged the door in her face with
+the words: "I am not a lawyer, though I have served my terms!" But I let
+her go on.</p>
+
+<p>"I immediately took down the notification from the door," she resumed,
+"and sent my little maid with it to town to my mother's. By way of
+explanation I wrote her a letter, a task not unattended with difficulty,
+as Peter Gyuricza's hut was singularly ill-provided with writing
+materials. First of all I had to manufacture ink from wild juniper
+berries, then I carved a pen from a goose-quill; in place of paper I
+made use of beautifully smooth maize leaves."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as the Egyptians used papyrus?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>"Yes, and if papyrus was good enough for the daughters of the Pharaohs,
+why shouldn't maize-membranes be good enough for me? I wrote and told
+her everything that had happened. I entirely justified my proceedings.
+If there was but one drop of justice in her composition she would be
+bound to acknowledge that my line of action was as clear as the day.
+Muki had made off with the herdsman's wife; I, following the <i>lex
+talionis</i>&mdash;an eye for eye&mdash;had made off with Gyuricza. He had brought an
+action against me; Gyuricza would bring an action against his own wife.
+The pair of us stood on exactly the same legal footing. If the two
+divorces were carried out, I meant to make the man of my choice my
+lawful husband, and would become in name what I already was in fact, the
+wife of Peter Gyuricza. I referred to you also in my letter."</p>
+
+<p>"To me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I argued that there was now no difference between peasants and
+gentlemen, and pointed out that since the 15th March you had omitted the
+privileged '<i>y</i>'<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">43</a> from the end of your name, and had substituted for
+it a simple '<i>i</i>,' and you were a 'glorious patriot,' as every one knew.
+Nobody therefore had any reason to be ashamed of Peter Gyuricza.
+Besides, I did not mean that he should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> remain a herdsman any longer;
+but as soon as my mother handed over to me my patrimony (so much of it I
+mean as Muki had not already squandered away), I meant to purchase a
+farm, and Gyuricza and I would settle down upon it as independent
+proprietors."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> The "<i>y</i>" at the end of Hungarian personal names has much
+the same value as the French <i>de</i> or the German <i>von</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>The matter now really began to amuse me. I could imagine to myself the
+Hogarthian group when the trio of ladies began spelling out syllable by
+syllable the letter that had been written on a maize-leaf.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! and what answer did you get?"</p>
+
+<p>"The answer you may easily have anticipated. My mother replied that she
+repudiated me entirely, that I should not get a farthing from her, and
+that I was never again to presume to show my face in a family which I
+had so utterly disgraced."</p>
+
+<p>"And did Peter know all about this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was obliged to tell him, for my mother had nearly frightened to death
+the bearer of my letter, our little serving maid. She told her that if
+she ever dared to come to town again she would have her seized and tied
+to the pillory (though there wasn't one), and well flogged into the
+bargain; so that neither by cuffs nor entreaties was the wench to be
+persuaded to go to town again. She said as much to Peter. She said she
+would rather lose her place. And yet she ought to have gone every
+market-day to the town with cheese and butter, for these wares were
+Peter's chief means of livelihood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> What was I to do now? I did this. I
+resolved to take the butter and cheese to market myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You? But how?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in a glass carriage, you may be sure. The market is a good two
+hours' journey from our hut, and the direction is marked by the church
+tower. The peasant women, when they pack with wares the baskets which
+they put on their heads, make, first of all, a sort of wreath of rags,
+which they place below the baskets to lighten the pressure and maintain
+the equilibrium."</p>
+
+<p>"And you did the same?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally! It is no greater hardship for me, surely, than for the other
+poor girls who do it. And remember, besides, that this marketing is just
+as great an amusement to the peasant women as a promenade concert is to
+fine ladies. There was only one little nuisance connected with it. Just
+at this time all the irrigation waters had overflowed, and all the
+fields and meadows between our hut and the market town were turned into
+a lake, through which we had to wade."</p>
+
+<p>"What! you waded through the flooded fields?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the water did not really come above my knees. It was only here and
+there, by the side of the streams, that we had to truss up our
+petticoats pretty high, and then we took off our boots and carried them
+tied on to the handles of our baskets. That is how all the women go."</p>
+
+<p>"And you picked your way along like that too?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>"Again and again! I might, indeed, have gone along by the dykes, but
+then I should have had to turn into the village and make a circuit of
+four miles with the mud up to my knees. Along the even marshes, on the
+other hand, it is pleasant going, the soft soil does not hurt your
+heels, and there are no leeches."</p>
+
+<p>"But did no one see you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What did I care? I quite enjoyed my aquatic promenade. It was every bit
+as good as bathing at Trouville, and there I had by no means so ample a
+toilet. On arriving in town, I at once readjusted my clothes, put on my
+boots, and went to sell butter and cheese right in front of my mother's
+house. It was really a capital position that I chose; a corner-house
+between two thoroughfares, opening out upon the market-place."</p>
+
+<p>"And nobody recognised you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't they? Every one recognised me, even the money-collector
+who hires out the standing-rooms. He allowed me my standing-room gratis,
+because I 'belonged to the place.' I was surrounded by quite a crowd of
+my former cavaliers, who bought up all my butter, and I sold my cheese
+by the ounce, at fancy prices; there was quite a run upon it. Never had
+Peter Gyuricza seen so much money as I brought home to him from the sale
+of his butter and cheese."</p>
+
+<p>"And your worthy mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! all that the poor thing could do was to pull<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> down all the blinds
+in broad daylight. I, however, purchased with the proceeds of the butter
+and cheese as much salt and tobacco as we required, packed them all up
+in the basket, and, placing it on my head, returned through the floods
+the same way by which I came."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you do this often?"</p>
+
+<p>"Every market day. Sometimes it was rainy. Then the peasant woman is
+wont to throw her upper garment over her head, that is her umbrella. I
+had to get accustomed to that too. Once, a couple of my former young
+gentlemen acquaintances took it into their heads to play me a practical
+joke. They paddled a canoe out of the Danube into the submerged plain,
+and when I began my wading tour they paddled after me. That did <i>me</i> no
+harm, but it turned out badly for them, for the peasant girls who went
+with me charged upon them like the host of Sisera, wrested the paddles
+from their hands, and left them rocking helplessly to and fro in the
+midst of the waters."</p>
+
+<p>"But hasn't the water all dried up now?" I asked impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how he snaps at me! Of course! Now we can go dry-shod. Only when we
+come to a ditch do we take off our shoes. But, dear heart! how I do go
+on gabbling without ever coming to the point. I must explain why I have
+come all the way hither to you, my dear Mr. Advocate. As I will not
+appear before the priest to further the reconciliation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> project, and my
+husband (my first, I mean) will do so neither, I must, of course, appear
+before the judge! and as, moreover, my mother must be admonished to hand
+over my little property, if you would take my case up for me I should be
+exceedingly obliged to you."</p>
+
+<p>I told her that I did not practise as an advocate, and that I had no
+experience whatever of divorce proceedings, not having been taught the
+subject in the schools.</p>
+
+<p>Then she began to speak in a very solemn voice. She said she had never
+expected me to take up her case, but had sought me out because she had
+been informed that the advocates with whom I had served my articles were
+very eminent practitioners; she would like to entrust her double suit to
+them. As, however, she feared that they would neither receive her nor
+believe her if she appeared before them in her present costume, she
+earnestly begged that I would give her a letter of introduction to the
+firm of Moln&aacute;r &amp; V&eacute;rchovszky for friendship's sake&mdash;or for any other
+price.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can do that for you&mdash;for nothing."</p>
+
+<p>To write this letter I had to sit down at my writing-table.</p>
+
+<p>"May I peep and see what you write about me?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you like."</p>
+
+<p>I could not take offence at her curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll help you!" said she, with na&iuml;ve archness, and went and stood
+behind my back.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>I must say that she had a very odd notion of helping me. She leant right
+over me so that I could feel her burning breath on my face, and the
+throbbing of her heart against my shoulder. I spoiled the first sheet of
+paper by writing last year's date at the top of it. Then I could not
+call to mind the name of my client, and I thought one thing and wrote
+another. Add to that that I made a mess of the simplest sentences, and
+wrote in a style worthy of a pedantic grammarian. Finally I got
+hopelessly involved in the maze of a long-winded phrase which I began
+but could not finish. That's what happens to a man when he has to listen
+to the beating of two hearts!</p>
+
+<p>It was on this self-same table that the picture stood which I have
+already mentioned. I had no time to conceal it in my drawer. And why
+should I have tried to hide it? Was I bound to make a mystery of it
+before her?</p>
+
+<p>Right opposite to my writing-table was a mirror on the wall. On one
+occasion, when I was pursuing an elusive word, I raised my head from my
+writing-desk and saw in the mirror the figure of the woman who was
+standing behind my back. Oh, what a face was that! She was not looking
+into my letter, but at the portrait. The eyes were turned sideways, so
+that the upper parts of the whites were visible; the lips were drawn
+aside, and the teeth clenched.</p>
+
+<p>I saw this from the mirror. And this mirror, too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> had the property of
+making things look green. Viewed in this magic light, the fair lady
+standing behind me appeared like the Iblis of the <i>Thousand-and-one
+Nights</i>, who sucks the blood of her lovers and leads the dances of the
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>I finished the letter to my old chiefs.</p>
+
+<p>Then I dried it with a piece of blotting-paper. Sand I have always
+hated. I also felt, in this respect, like Stephen Szechenyi,<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">44</a> who,
+whenever he received a sanded-letter, used to give it first of all to
+his lackey to be taken out in the hall and dusted. Before enclosing the
+letter, however, I turned round and handed it to her.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Count Stephen Szechenyi, "the greatest of the Magyars,"
+was born in 1791. He brilliantly distinguished himself at the battle of
+Leipsic, and at Tolentino, in 1815, at the head of his Hussars,
+annihilated Murat's cavalry. After the war, he devoted himself to
+domestic politics with a tact, courage, and noble liberality which
+speedily made him the most popular man in Hungary. The Hungarian Academy
+and the Hungarian National Theatre were founded at his initiative and
+mainly at his expense. The breach with Austria in 1848 so preyed upon
+his mind that he went mad, and was confined in an asylum, where he
+destroyed himself in 1860.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>"Would you read it, please?"</p>
+
+<p>The menacing spectre was no longer there. Iblis had changed into a
+smiling young bride.</p>
+
+<p>"And how do you know that I haven't read the letter?" she asked, in her
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"My little finger whispered it to me!"</p>
+
+<p>At this she burst out laughing, and pushed the letter away.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>"I don't mean to read it! I know that you have written no end of good
+things about me."</p>
+
+<p>I folded up my letter, sealed it and wrote the address&mdash;"Joseph Moln&aacute;r
+and Alexander V&eacute;rchovszky, Advocates." Then I handed it to her.</p>
+
+<p>Still she kept standing there in front of my writing-table, twirling the
+letter round and round in her hands, and gazing continually at the
+portrait. Her face had become quite solemn. In her deeply downcast eyes
+there was a suspicious brightness testifying to restrained tear-drops.</p>
+
+<p>She heaved a deep sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"But this is mere folly!" She thrust my letter beneath her bodice, and
+in a voice of real warmth and sincerity, she stammered: "I thank you
+most kindly." Then she added, in a voice half grave, half gay: "But come
+now! You won't write my story in the newspapers, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you it is not my practice."</p>
+
+<p>"And you won't put my stupid story into a novel or a romance, eh? At
+least not while I'm alive?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never! Put your mind at rest on that point."</p>
+
+<p>"No; don't say never. Let it be only as long as I'm alive. But when I
+die, wherever it may be, you shall receive a letter from me, which I
+will write to you at my last hour, authorizing you to write all that you
+know of me."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friend, death is written much more plainly on my brow than on
+yours."</p>
+
+<p>She shuddered. Twice she shuddered. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> she threw her basket over her
+arm, and took her leave. I would have escorted her to the door of the
+ante-chamber, but she held me back.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay where you are. I do not wish any one to see you paying attention
+to a country wench."</p>
+
+<p>When I was by myself again and thinking over the whole scene, it seemed
+to me as if a golden thrush were piping derisively in my ear again&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Foolish fellow! Foolish fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>For the second time I had let slip the opportunity of pilfering
+Paradise, conceded to me by a special and peculiar favour of the gods. I
+candidly confess that I am no saint.... I am a true son of Adam, of real
+flesh and blood. No vow binds me to an ascetic life. Let temptation come
+to me again in the shape of that pretty woman to-day and she shall see
+what I am made of!... All day long these feverish imaginings haunted me.
+In the drawer of my writing-table was the portrait which I once wrested
+in knightly tourney from her bridegroom, and which she herself had given
+me to put to rights. I went again and again to my writing-table in order
+to take out that portrait and have another look at it. But that other
+portrait lay there on my table and would not allow it. It was much
+better to leave the house. I occupied the whole day in strolling about
+the town. Perhaps I may meet her somewhere in the street.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the evening I returned home.</p>
+
+<p>I was alone. My lackey only came to me in the morning.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>I had scarcely lighted my lamp when I heard a knocking at my door. I
+certainly had forgotten to shut the door of my ante-chamber, and so my
+visitor had managed to penetrate so far. Who could it be at such a late
+hour? "Come in!"</p>
+
+<p>The blood flew to my head when the door opened.</p>
+
+<p><i>She</i> had come back!</p>
+
+<p>Then she was here again!</p>
+
+<p>She did not come in, however, but stood with the door-latch in her hand,
+as if she were afraid of me.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not nice of me, I know," she stammered, with a faltering voice,
+"to come here so late. I have been here three times, but you were out. I
+must tell you what I've heard. Don't be angry."</p>
+
+<p>I begged her to come in, and took her by the hand. My heart beat
+feverishly.</p>
+
+<p>"The lawyers received me very well. They were both at home. They took up
+my case and assured me that it was bound to result in my favour, and
+that they would pay the preliminary expenses. They behaved like
+gentlemen. Then the conversation turned upon you. They asked how long we
+had been acquainted. I told them as much as was necessary, and wound up
+by saying that you were the one thoroughly disinterested friend that I
+possessed. Then one of the advocates, the tall dry one I mean, said,
+with perfect good-nature: 'Well, if you are kindly disposed towards our
+young friend, just tell him that <i>the path along which he is now rushing
+so impetuously leads straight to the gallows</i>,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> whereupon the blonde,
+ruddy-faced man added, '<i>or else to suicide.</i>' I felt I must tell you
+that."</p>
+
+<p>And with these words she stepped back from the door.</p>
+
+<p>An icy shudder would have run down the shoulders of any other man at
+these words, but the message regularly set <i>me</i> on fire. It was my pet
+idea they wanted me to give up, the idea which I adored even more than
+my lady-love, the idea of my youth&mdash;the idea of liberty. If any one
+offends my lady-love I will shed his blood, but let not even my
+lady-love interfere with my principles, as for them I am ready to pour
+out my own blood to the last drop.</p>
+
+<p>"Be it so!" I cried passionately; "that has nothing to do with you;" and
+I shut the door in her face. Every fibre of my body quivered with rage.</p>
+
+<p>They threaten me with the gallows, or with the suicidal dagger of a
+Cato! I fear them not.</p>
+
+<hr class="thoughtbreak" />
+
+<p>My poor chiefs! Half a year later they were rushing along the self-same
+path, at the end of which so many monsters were lurking. I only lost my
+hair in the hands of these monsters, but they lost their heads. Their
+own prophecy was fulfilled on them both.</p>
+
+<p>From that day forth I was very wrath with the lady with the eyes like
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">THE WOMAN WHO WENT ALONG WITH ME</p>
+
+
+<p>And now we'll go back to the day which forms so remarkable a
+turning-point in the life of the Hungarian nation, the 15th March, 1848.</p>
+
+<p>It did not come without due preparation. The emancipation of the people,
+a free press and a free soil, equality of taxation and equality before
+the law&mdash;all these splendid ideas had been fought for during the last
+ten years by those great minds which towered above their fellows. The
+time had now arrived, the process had been decided, the judgment lived
+in the heart of every honest patriot. The great sacrifices which the
+metamorphosis required were not demanded, but volunteered. We debated
+about them in the Diet, party against party, with all the fervour of
+conviction.</p>
+
+<p>A melancholy example was before us, which, like that <i>fata Morgana</i> of
+the ocean, the phantom galley overturned, warns the seaman of the danger
+that is hovering over his head. I allude to the events in Galicia the
+year before.</p>
+
+<p>The Polish gentry of Galicia demanded their liberties, and emphasized
+their demands by force of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> arms. There was no need on the part of the
+authorities to set in motion an army corps against this new confederacy,
+the peasantry did the work for them instead. The Galician peasants<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">45</a>
+crushed the Polish gentry. The censorship had prevented the Hungarian
+newspapers from making known the details of this rebellion, but when the
+Diet met, it was impossible to prevent the fiery deputy for Comorn, the
+youthful Denis Pazmandy, from raising his mighty voice on behalf of the
+Poles, and making known the shocking particulars of the bloody massacre
+to the Hungarian nation. There are many sad pages in the history of the
+Polish nation, but none so sad as this. And the hand which wrote that
+page could easily glide over to the next page also, and that next page
+was the history of the Hungarian nation. Here half a million of gentry
+stand face to face with fifteen millions of serfs which serve, suffer,
+pay, carry arms, and are silent. Then the Paris Revolution broke out.
+The French nation overthrew the throne. (By the way, a tatter from the
+canopy over the French throne was brought home by one of our young
+writers, Louis D&oacute;bsa, as a present for Pet&ouml;fi. D&oacute;bsa fought on the
+February barricades.) Serious debates were held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> in the Hungarian Diet.
+But Pressburg<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> was much too cold a field for such things. They wanted
+assistance from Pest. We didn't say Buda-Pest then, Buda<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">47</a> was not
+ours.... Meanwhile the Vienna Revolution broke out. The streets of
+Vienna resounded with the watchword "Freedom," and were painted with the
+blood of the heroes that had fallen for it.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> They were mostly Ruthenians, and racial and religious
+differences had much to do with their antagonism. This inveigling of the
+peasantry against the gentry, generally attributed to Metternich, is one
+of the darkest blots in Austrian history.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> The old coronation city of Hungary, but more of a German
+than a Magyar city then.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> It was an Austrian fortress.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>"<i>So these Vienna people whom we blackguard so much show that they know
+how to shed their blood for freedom while we glorious Magyars sit at our
+firesides!</i>" cried Pet&ouml;fi bitterly. "Let us send no more petitions to
+the Diet," he added, "it is deaf! Let us appeal to the nation: it will
+hear!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he wrote his "Talpra Magyar!"<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">48</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> "Up! Magyar, up!"</p></div>
+
+<p>Early in the morning we assembled in my room by lamplight. There were
+four of us&mdash;Pet&ouml;fi, Paul Vasv&aacute;ry, Julius Bulyovszky, and myself. My
+companions entrusted me with the drawing up of the Pest Articles in a
+short popular form intelligible to everybody. While I was thus occupied,
+they were disputing about what should happen next. The most violent of
+them was Paul Vasv&aacute;ry, who had the figure of a mighty young athlete. In
+his hand was a sword-stick with a horn handle, which he was flourishing
+about in a martial manner, when, all at once, the jolted stiletto flew
+from its case, and turn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>ing a somersault, flew through the air over my
+head and struck the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"A lucky omen!" cried Pet&ouml;fi.</p>
+
+<p>The proclamation was ready. We hastened into the street. We said nothing
+to Madame Pet&ouml;fi. Every one of us had arms of some sort. I pocketed the
+famous duplex pistol already mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Every one knows <i>ad nauseam</i> what followed&mdash;how the human avalanche
+began to move, how it grew, and what speeches we made in the great
+square. But speech-making was not sufficient, we wanted to <i>do</i>
+something. The first thing to be done was to give practical application
+to the doctrine of a free press. We resolved to print the Twelve
+Articles of Pest, the Proclamation, and the "Talpra Magyar" without the
+consent of the censor.</p>
+
+<p>The printing press of Landerer and Heckenast was honoured with this
+compulsory distinction. The printers were naturally not justified in
+printing anything without permission from the authorities, so we turned
+up our sleeves and worked away at the hand-presses ourselves. The name
+of the typesetter who set up the first word of freedom was <i>Potemkin</i>.</p>
+
+<p>While Irinyi and other young authors were working away at the press, it
+was my duty to harangue the mob that thronged the whole length of
+Hatv&aacute;ni Street. I had no idea how to set about it, but it came of its
+own accord.</p>
+
+<p>My worthy and loyal contemporary, Paul Szon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>tagh, occasionally quotes to
+me, even now, some of the heaven-storming phrases which he heard me say
+on that occasion; <i>e.g.</i>, "... No! fellow-citizens; he is not the true
+hero who can <i>die</i> for his country; he who can <i>slay</i> for his country,
+he is the true hero!"</p>
+
+<p>That was the sort of oratory I used to practise in those days!</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the rain began to fall, and rain is the most reactionary
+opponent of every revolution. But my people were not to be dispersed by
+the rain, and all at once the whole street was filled with expanded
+umbrellas.</p>
+
+<p>"What! gentlemen," thundered I from the corner of the street, "if you
+stick up your umbrellas now against mere rain-drops, what will you stick
+up against the bullets which will presently begin to fall?"</p>
+
+<p>It was only then that I noticed that there were not only gentlemen
+around me but ladies also. A pair of them had insinuated themselves
+close to my side. In one of them I recognised "Queen Gertrude."<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">49</a> On
+her head she wore a plumed cap, and was wrapped up in a Persian shawl
+embroidered with palm-tree flowers. Both cap and shawl were dripping
+with rain. I had met the lady once or twice at the Szigligetis'. I
+exhorted the ladies to go home; here they would get dripping-wet, I
+said, and some other accident might befall them.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>i.e.</i>, the actress who took that part.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<p>"We are no worse off here than you are," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>They were determined to wait till the printed broad-sides were ready.</p>
+
+<p>Not very long afterwards Irinyi appeared at the window of the
+printing-office, for to get out of the door was a sheer impossibility.
+He held in his hands the first printed sheets from the free press.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, that scene! when the very first free sheets were distributed from
+hand to hand! I cannot describe it. "Freedom, freedom!" It was the first
+ray of a new and better era!... A free press! the first-fruit of the
+universal tree of knowledge of Paradise. What a tumult arose when they
+actually clutched that forbidden fruit in their hands.... Hail to thee,
+O Freedom of the Press! Thou seven-headed dragon, how many times hast
+thou not bitten me since then! Yet I bless the hour when I first saw
+thee creep out of thy egg and gave thee what little help I could!</p>
+
+<p>Young authors, clerks, advocates, all hot-headed young people, crowded
+around the invisible banner.</p>
+
+<p>A young county official was now seen forcing his way through the dense
+crowd right to the very door of the printing-office, and from thence he
+addressed me. The influential Vice-Lieutenant of the County, Paul Ny&aacute;ry,
+sent word to me that I was to go to him to the town hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Why <i>should</i> I go?" cried I from my point of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> vantage. "I'll be shot
+down with cannon-balls rather! If the Vice-Lieutenant of the County
+wants to speak to us, let him come here. We are the 'mountain' now."</p>
+
+<p>And Mohammed really did come to the "mountain," and with him came a
+group of grave-faced men, the veteran leaders of the camp of freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst them was a dwarfish little oddity of a man, the assistant editor
+of the <i>Eletk&eacute;pek</i>, the gallant little S&uuml;key, who, despite a chronic
+asthma, fought through the whole campaign, musket in hand. Besides being
+a cripple, he was a really extraordinary stammerer. When he saw the
+grave-visaged men making their way to us through the crowd, he scrambled
+along beside them, and with all the force of his lungs bellowed out this
+notable declaration: "D-d-d-don't li-li-li-listen to those
+wi-wi-wi-wiseacres!"</p>
+
+<p>But the wiseacres hadn't come to convert us to wisdom. On the contrary,
+Ny&aacute;ry had come to approve of what we had done hitherto, and then to go
+together with us to the town hall, that they might there, together with
+the town councillors, ratify the Articles of the liberal programme.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine scene. The town hall was crammed to suffocation. Those who
+were called upon to speak stood upon the green table, and remained there
+afterwards, so that at last the whole magistracy of the county, and I
+and all my colleagues were standing on the top of the table. The flames<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+spread! The burgomaster, the worthy Rotterbiller, announced from the
+balcony of the town hall, that the town of Pest had adopted the Twelve
+Articles as its own; and with that the avalanche carried the whole of
+the burgesses along with it. But the matter did not end even there. In
+the evening crowds of workmen inundated the streets. They had got from
+somewhere or other a banner, inscribed with the three sacred words,
+"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!"</p>
+
+<p>... Such a great day must needs have a brilliant close, so the town was
+illuminated in the evening, and a free performance was given at the
+theatre, <i>B&aacute;nk-b&aacute;n</i><a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">50</a> being the piece selected. But the mob, which by
+this time was in a state of ecstasy, had no longer the patience to
+listen to the pious declamations of Ban Peter. It called for "Talpra
+Magyar."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Joseph Katona's celebrated tragedy.</p></div>
+
+<p>What was to be done? The brilliant court of King Andrew II., with the
+Queen and B&aacute;nk-b&aacute;n to boot, had to stand aside and form a group round
+Gabriel Egressy, who, in a simple attila, with a sword by his side,
+stood in the middle of the stage and declaimed with magnificent emphasis
+Pet&ouml;fi's inspiring poem.</p>
+
+<p>That was all very well, but it was not enough.</p>
+
+<p>Then the whole company sang the "Sz&oacute;zato," and the people in the pit and
+the galleries joined in.</p>
+
+<p>That also was soon over.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>What shall we give next?</p>
+
+<p>The band struck up the R&aacute;k&oacute;czy<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">51</a> march. That kindled the excitement,
+instead of extinguishing it. And it was high time that something should
+be done to quench it, for the excited populace was drunk with triumph.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Prohibited in Hungary at this time as being of
+revolutionary tendency.</p></div>
+
+<p>Then a voice from the gallery cried: "Long live T&aacute;ncsis!"<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">52</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Michal T&aacute;ncsis, a prisoner who had been released from the
+citadel of Buda the same morning by the mob.</p></div>
+
+<p>And with that the whole populace suddenly roared with one voice: "Let us
+see T&aacute;ncsis!"</p>
+
+<p>A frightful tumult arose. T&aacute;ncsis was not at hand. He lived some way out
+in the suburb of Ferenczv&aacute;ros. But even had he been near, it would have
+been a cruel thing to have dragged on the stage a worn-out invalid, that
+he might merely bow to the public like a celebrated musician.</p>
+
+<p>But what was to be done?</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my sons," said Ny&aacute;ry, with whom I was standing in the same box,
+"you have awakened this great monster, now see if you can put him to
+sleep again!"</p>
+
+<p>My young friends attempted to address the people one after the other,
+Pet&ouml;fi from the Academy box, Irinyi from the balcony of the Casino club,
+but their voices were drowned in the howling of the mob. The curtain was
+let down, but then the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> tumult was worse than ever; the gallery stamped
+like mad; it was a perfect pandemonium.</p>
+
+<p>Then a thought occurred to me. I could get on to the stage from Ny&aacute;ry's
+box; I rushed in through the side wings.</p>
+
+<p>I cut a pretty figure I must say. I was splashed up to the knees with
+mud from scouring the streets all day. I wore huge, dirty overshoes, my
+tall hat was drenched, so that I could easily have made a crush-hat of
+it and carried it under my arm.</p>
+
+<p>I looked around me and perceived Egressy. I told him to draw up the
+curtain, I wanted to harangue the people from the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Then "Queen Gertrude" came towards me. She smiled upon me with truly
+majestic grace, greeted me and pressed my hand. No sign of fear was to
+be seen in her face. She was wearing the tricoloured cockade<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">53</a> on her
+bosom, and, of her own accord, she took it off and pinned it on my
+breast. Then the curtain was raised.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Red, white, and green, the Hungarian colours.</p></div>
+
+<p>When the mob beheld my drenched and muddy figure, it began to shout
+afresh, and the uproar gradually became a call for every one to hear me.
+When at last I was able to make my voice heard, I came out with the
+following oratorical masterpiece: "Brother citizens! our friend T&aacute;ncsis
+is not here. He is at home in the bosom of his family. Allow the poor
+blind man to taste the joy of <i>seeing</i> his family once more!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>It was only then that I felt I was talking nonsense. How could a
+"<i>blind</i> man" <i>see</i> his family? If the mob began to laugh I should be
+done for!</p>
+
+<p>It was the tricoloured ribbon that saved me.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see," I cried, "this tricoloured cockade on my breast? Let it be
+the badge of this glorious day! Let every man who is Freedom's warrior
+wear it; it will distinguish us from the hireling host of slavery! These
+three colours represent the three sacred words: Liberty, Equality,
+Fraternity! Let every one in whom Hungarian blood and a free spirit
+burns wear them on his breast."</p>
+
+<p>And so the thing was done.</p>
+
+<p>The tricoloured cockade preserved order. Whoever wished to pin on the
+tricoloured cockade had to hurry home first. Ten minutes later the
+theatre was empty, and next day the tricoloured cockade was to be seen
+on every breast, from the paletots of the members of the Casino<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">54</a> to
+the buckram of the populace, and those who went about with mantles on
+wore the cockade in their hats.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> The Nobles' club.</p></div>
+
+<p>In the intoxication of my triumph I hastened after Rosa Laborfalvy as
+soon as this scene was over, and pressed her hand.</p>
+
+<p>With that pressure of our hands our engagement began.</p>
+
+<p>I have recorded the whole of this episode in order to explain how it was
+that <i>that</i> portrait found its way to my table, which was able to
+convert in an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> instant the smiling face of the lady with the eyes like
+the sea into the hideous features of Iblis. Four months had passed away
+since then.</p>
+
+<p>And the honeymoon was in keeping with the engagement. The roar of cannon
+and the clash of swords was the music that played at my wedding.</p>
+
+<p>Oh what a marriage night was that!</p>
+
+<p>At the very moment when the happy bridegroom asks his bride, "Dost thou
+love me as I love thee?" at that very moment there is the roll of drums
+in the streets, and the cry goes forth, "To arms, citizens!" An Italian
+regiment had revolted against the Hungarian Government. Without waiting
+for a kiss or an embrace, I had to snatch up my musket and hurry off to
+the place of meeting, and thence to go straight into fire among the
+flying bullets. We had to storm the K&aacute;roly Barracks. By dawn the
+mutinous regiment had to lay down its weapons, and the bridegroom, with
+his face sooty with smoke, returned home, and again put the question to
+his bride, "Dost thou love me as I love thee?"</p>
+
+<p>And the answer? Ah! the heart alone can feel it, the lips cannot express
+it.</p>
+
+<p>That was our honeymoon. With the shame of lost battles in our hearts,
+and despairing even of divine justice, those who can love under such
+circumstances must love dearly indeed!</p>
+
+<p>And then out into the desolate world, in the midst of a Siberian winter,
+with everything crackling with cold in a night lit only by the blaze of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+artillery, forcing one's way along through the snowy deserts of the
+Alf&ouml;ld<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">55</a> with the retreating Honved<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">56</a> army! Passing the night in an
+inhospitable hut where the closed door had frozen to the ground by
+morning, and the roll of drums and the blare of trumpets aroused us to
+toil on still farther! Those who can love under such circumstances must
+love indeed!</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> The low-land. The name given to the great Hungarian
+plain.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Defending the country. The title of the Hungarian national
+forces.</p></div>
+
+<p>My wife went everywhere with me.</p>
+
+<p>She quitted a comfortable home, sacrificed a fortune, a brilliant
+career, to endure hunger, cold, and hardship with me. And I never heard
+her utter one word of complaint. When I was downhearted, she comforted
+me. And when all <i>my</i> hopes were stifled, she shared <i>her</i> hopes with
+me. At the new seat of the Hungarian Government, Debreczin, we were
+huddled together in a tiny little room, compared with which the hut of
+Peter Gyuricza was a palace from the <i>Thousand-and-one Nights</i>. And my
+queen worked like a slave, like the wife of a Siberian convict. She
+worked not for a joke, not in sheer defiance; she did not <i>play the
+part</i> of a peasant girl, she was a serving-woman in grim earnest.</p>
+
+<p>The hazard of the die of war changed. We advanced. We marched in triumph
+from one battle-field to another. I was present at the storming of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> the
+citadel of Buda. Even in those awful days she never left me, when every
+night the sky seemed about to plunge down upon our heads.</p>
+
+<p>The brilliant days of triumph were again succeeded by misfortune. The
+Northern ogre<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">57</a> threw all his legions upon us. Again we had to fly, to
+leave our happy hut, and continue our marriage tour through desolate
+wildernesses, where savage hordes had devastated whole villages. Our
+night's lodging was four bare sooty walls, our couch a bundle of charred
+straw. Hated by strangers, feared by acquaintances, we were a terror to
+the people from whom we begged a shelter.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Pastliewich, by command of the Tzar, invaded Hungary in
+1849, with 100,000 men.</p></div>
+
+<p>The chaos of war finally parted us. I insisted that she should remain
+away from me. I could not endure to see her suffering any longer. It was
+not right that I should accept such sacrifices. I bade her leave me to
+meet my fate alone.</p>
+
+<p>After the catastrophe of Vilag&oacute;s<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> my life was ended. That mighty
+giant, the famous Hungary of our dreams, collapsed into atoms: her great
+men became grains of dust.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> When the Hungarian Commander-in-chief finally capitulated
+to the Russians.</p></div>
+
+<p>I also became a nameless, weightless, aimless grain of dust.</p>
+
+<p>The end of all things had arrived. The prophecy of the lady with the
+eyes like the sea lay literally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> fulfilled before me. Either the gibbet
+or suicide was to be my fate. I was twenty-four years of age, and a dead
+man. My former chief, the brave Catonian, Joseph Molnar, the president
+of the national court martial, had set me the example. He lay before me
+on the sward of Vilag&oacute;s, slain by his own hand. The last hussar breaking
+his sword was a spectacle he could not bear to survive. Then it was that
+a burning hand seized my hand. It was hers, the hand of the woman who
+loved me. When all was lost, her love was not lost. She came after me.
+She took me with her. She set me free. When all Hungary was already
+subdued, there was still one corner in our native land where the hand of
+authority never came. She discovered that corner, and led me thither
+with her through every hostile camp.</p>
+
+<p>That was "the woman who went along with me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">WHERE THE WORLD IS WALLED UP</p>
+
+
+<p>It required quite a strategical combination to transport me from the
+town of Vilag&oacute;s to where the world is boarded up.</p>
+
+<p>This place was selected for me by my wife while she was already in Pest,
+whence on the approach of the catastrophe she set out from home on a
+peasant's car to seek me up and down the kingdom. For a time she
+travelled with the wife of Alexander K&ouml;r&ouml;sy, who set her on my track. At
+the storming of Szegedin we were all within an ace of being blown into
+the air by the explosion of a powder magazine.</p>
+
+<p>It was a little village called Tordona, deep in the beech forests of
+Borsod, the name of which was not even to be found on the chart of
+Francis Karacs.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">59</a> Here the celebrated comedian and scene-painter of
+the National Theatre, Telepi, had built a house with the intention of
+seeking an asylum there with his family in troublous times. When the
+Russians came, he sent thither his wife and his son Charles, who was
+then a young artist student. Telepi gave my wife this sage piece of
+advice. "When the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> bottom of the world falls out, take your husband
+where nobody will find him." Tordona had taken no part in the
+Revolution.... The journey was quite an Odyssey. In a small covered
+peasant's car a lady conveys water-melons to market; the coachman and
+the footman sit in front together. The footman is myself, the coachman
+J&aacute;nos R&aacute;k&oacute;czy, who only the day before was Kossuth's secretary. The
+price of water-melons was a silver <i>tizes</i><a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">60</a> a-piece. Our heads were
+not worth so much as that. The way from Vilag&oacute;s to Bekes-Gyula is long,
+and the whole way we were going straight towards the advancing Russian
+host. Cossacks, lancers, infantry, artillery, gun-carriages, met us at
+every step, and yet nobody asked us the price of those melons or the
+price of those heads. It was only the two splendid horses in front of
+our car which might have raised suspicions that we were not itinerant
+market-gardeners, although R&aacute;k&oacute;czy wore the genuine blue livery of a
+coachman. When we got into the domain of swamp and rushes, a mounted
+<i>bety&aacute;r</i><a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">61</a> took us under his protection, and guarded us along paths
+where a carriage had never yet gone, where our horses repeatedly waded
+up to their breasts in water, till we fought our way through into the
+endless plain. He would take nothing from us but a "God bless you!"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> The first Hungarian engraver (1769-1838). His celebrated
+map of Hungary was first published in 1813.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> The tenth of a florin.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> A peasant drover.</p></div>
+
+<p>Our dear friend J&aacute;nos R&aacute;k&oacute;czy, as an old country gentleman, was a
+capital coachman so long as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> had only to guide the horses, but that
+part of the stableman's science which deals with harnessing and
+unharnessing he had never learnt. So when we came to a place in the
+sweltering heat of the dog-days after a long drive through the vast
+plain, the very first thing he did was to let the unharnessed horses
+immediately drink their fill at the spring, and then tie them up in the
+stable, in consequence of which the shaft horse caught inflammation of
+the lungs, and expired an hour afterwards. The saddle horse survived as
+by a miracle. Instead of the deceased horse, therefore, we had to
+harness another nag, which we picked up on the road for 100 florins.
+This new horse was a hand and a half smaller than the steed that still
+remained with us. With this slap-dash team nobody would have taken us
+any longer for gentry.</p>
+
+<p>We had still to pass through Miskolcz, where the Russians were
+encamping. Here dwelt my wife's father, the wise and worthy professor
+Benke Laborfalvy. He pointed out to us the road which led into Tordona.
+Five hours long we penetrated through dense forests: not a human
+dwelling place, not a beaten tract was to be seen. A stream cut through
+the winding valley and along its bank, shifting now to the right hand
+and now to the left, a sort of path wound its way naturally, without
+anything like a bridge; for the convenience of foot passengers, huge
+stones at irregular intervals had been cast into the bed of the racing
+stream. There, in a deeply hidden,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> delightful valley, lay the little
+spot which is walled off from the world.</p>
+
+<p>My wife and I descended at the Telepi's house and were heartily welcomed
+by our worthy hostess. R&aacute;k&oacute;czy, with his equipage, had to be lodged in
+another house. Madame Telepi's brother, my tenderly remembered good
+friend, the worthy B&eacute;ni Cs&aacute;nyi, dwelt in a house a little farther off.
+It was he who stabled the horses. Later on I joined him.</p>
+
+<p>He was really a model of a "small country gentleman," such as they ought
+to be nowadays. An accomplished, intelligent man, speaking, besides his
+own language, Latin and German, with a thorough knowledge of the law,
+for which he had been trained, and who, for all that, now went out and
+ploughed his own land with the aid of a man-servant. He ate his
+home-made bread, drank his home-brewed wine, welcomed guests with all
+his heart, and slew a sheep or a pig in their honour. His wife baked and
+brewed, led the way at the spindle, and sewed her children's clothes
+with her own hand. They had three sons, and the little money that flowed
+into the domestic coffers was spent in the schooling of the children.
+Cs&aacute;nyi never borrows, and owes no man anything. His work-room is a
+joiner and wheelwright's shed; when anything breaks in the wagon he
+mends it himself: it is his pet pastime. He has a library also, full of
+such books as Sir Walter Scott's historical work on the French
+Revolutionary Wars. Newspapers he never reads<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>. If, again, a poem
+pleases him, he learns it by heart, and passes it on further by word of
+mouth. He never goes to law with his neighbour, and when two fall out he
+makes peace between them. But when the cry goes forth, "The fatherland
+is in danger! Let us make sacrifices for the commonweal!" then he cuts
+the large silver buttons off his mantle, and lays them on the altar of
+his country.</p>
+
+<p>I owe it for the most part to this worthy man that I did not lose my
+reason altogether in these hard times.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we arrived hither. I was saved. I was no longer a dead man. I
+lived.</p>
+
+<p>But what sort of a life was it? It was the sort of life which belongs to
+a new-born babe: absolute inability to help one's self. R&aacute;k&oacute;czy quitted
+us on the following day. He was off to the Carpathians. There he took
+service as coachman (naturally under an assumed name) in the family of a
+wealthy territorial Count. They were more than contented with him, for
+he was an excellent and honest coachman. But one day a strange
+misadventure befell him. He was taking the Count and his brother-in-law
+out for a drive, when the gentleman began talking of the era of Louis
+XIV., and one of them could not call to mind the name of a celebrated
+statesman of those days. Then the coachman could not help turning round
+towards them, and saying, "Colbert!" The Counts immediately dismounted
+from the coach and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> went home on foot. The learned coachman, however,
+was discharged. It is not good to sleep under the same roof with a
+coachman who knows so much.</p>
+
+<p>My wife and I agreed that <i>she</i> should return to Pest and resume her
+engagement at the National Theatre there till I should get back my
+patrimony. Then we would purchase a little property in the depths of the
+beech forest, close to B&eacute;ni Cs&aacute;nyi, and plough and sow to the end of our
+days. What else <i>could</i> we do? Our country, our nation, our liberty were
+now no more. Our souls had no wings. We stuck fast in the mire.</p>
+
+<p>On the very anniversary of our wedding, which was my wife's birthday as
+well, we parted. Our wedding tour had lasted exactly a year. I wish
+nobody such another, but I would not exchange all the joys in the world
+for the recollection of it.</p>
+
+<p>I remained behind in a vast primeval forest, entombed, forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>The latest rumours I got from worthy B&eacute;ni Cs&aacute;nyi, who had taken my wife
+to Pest, driving his four horses himself all the way from his stable
+door to the capital. They were evil times there. Haynau had appropriated
+even the National Theatre for the German players. But the director,
+worthy J&aacute;nos Simoncsics, formerly a Conservative celebrity, protested
+against the proceedings of the high-handed tyrant, and when Haynau began
+to haggle with the stiff-necked old magistrate as to how many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> days a
+week he would allow the German players to act in the Hungarian National
+Theatre, brave old Simoncsics replied in his own peculiar Buda-German:
+"Wen i reden <i>musz</i>, so sag i: amol; wen i reden <i>darf</i>, so sag i:
+komol."<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">62</a> And "komol"<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">63</a> it remained.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> If I <i>must</i> speak: once; if I <i>may</i> speak: not at all.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Not once.</p></div>
+
+<p>My wife counselled me not to write to her through the post-office, as
+the whole town was full of spies. When she wrote to me she would send
+the letter to her father at Miskolcz, directed to Judith Benke.</p>
+
+<p>Even now I often draw out those <i>love-letters</i> which were written to me
+and began "My dear Juczi."<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">64</a> Even now they light up that endless
+darkness which I call the <i>cancelled</i> portion of my life.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Contraction for Judith.</p></div>
+
+<p>From August to the middle of October I knew absolutely nothing of what
+was going on in the world.</p>
+
+<p>It was a corner of the earth where no visitor ever came, and where the
+inhabitants themselves went nowhere. Now that winter was approaching,
+there would be a sledge drive, and communications would be opened up
+between Tordona and Miskolcz. Then one would be able to convey timber
+into the town. Of timber there was no lack. Cs&aacute;nyi had four hundred
+acres of virgin forest to forty acres of arable land.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>Day after day I rambled up and down these forests that had never heard
+the voice of man. Never did I meet a fellow creature. However many
+heights I might ascend, I saw from thence nothing but the smoking
+chimneys of Tordona. I discovered the source of the stream that sped
+through the valley. "Linden-spring" was the name they gave it. It was
+entirely circled by lindens. I hit upon the childish sport of cutting a
+water-mill out of elder-tree wood, piecing it together, and placing it
+across the little stream. Thus I amused myself.</p>
+
+<p>One day I received a box of water-colours from my wife. I was immensely
+delighted. I now had something to occupy myself with all day. I filled a
+whole album with my landscapes. Then I painted that journey through the
+plain with a horse and a half in the covered car. I painted my own
+portrait on a piece of paper no bigger than a finger-nail, which could
+be inserted in a medallion. I sent it to my wife. B&eacute;ni Cs&aacute;nyi's wife
+asked me to paint her a portrait of her "old man" also. She wanted it
+about the size of a kidney bean; she had a medallion just as large as
+that. This was my only work in that terrible year.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">VALENTINE B&Aacute;LV&Aacute;NYOSSI AND TIHAM&Eacute;R RENGETEGI</p>
+
+
+<p>When the beech-mast began to fall from the trees in the beginning of
+October, unexpected guests came to us at Tordona&mdash;two country gentlemen
+from the beechwood district. They were kinsmen keeping house together,
+whose whole estate consisted of forest, and whose whole economy was an
+enormous herd of swine. They were both jolly thick-set men, with fur
+pelisses of nicely embroidered sheepskins, and boots of red Russian
+leather. They had come to rent the beech-mast district in the Tordona
+forests. Pig just then was an article not quoted in the market.
+Hungarian money there was none. It had all been destroyed. German money
+had not yet been introduced. Pig-rearers were therefore obliged to let
+their herds go into winter quarters. The pigs in question were really
+fine fellows of the good old Szalonta breed, with legs as long as
+stags', red bristles and pointed ears; they were half-savage beasts,
+too, who faced the wolf instead of fleeing from him. They develop but
+slowly, however; only after two years' time do they become as large as
+the Mangalicza swine. But they more than atone for this fault by the
+good quality of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> wanting neither stall nor sty; winter and summer alike
+they camp out in the woods and seek their own food, thus costing their
+masters no more than two florins a head, and three pints of
+<i>palinka</i>,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">65</a> which is the perquisite of the swine-herd. Each of these
+kinsmen had a thousand of such pigs.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Hungarian brandy.</p></div>
+
+<p>And a thousand pigs give a man a lot to think about.</p>
+
+<p>They were good, genial fellows. In fact, they knew not what melancholy
+meant. It was now the season when the new wine was beginning to ferment.
+The two kinsmen used to drink it in that state, and I joined them. It
+went very well with well-peppered swine stew.</p>
+
+<p>They brought a new song with them also, and I learnt it.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0q">"The milk-pail stood behind the door,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Gendarme came, flopped in and swore!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">D&aacute;rum-mad&aacute;rum, d&aacute;rum-mad&aacute;rum!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>From this song I gathered that there was now a being in the world called
+Gendarme,<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> and also that the Magyars had no very great affection for
+him.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> <i>Zsandar.</i> The name as well as the thing was quite new to
+Hungary.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>It was only after supper that the guests began to give me to understand
+that they did not yet know "whom they had the honour of addressing."</p>
+
+<p>My worthy host constrained his honest features, and introduced me under
+the pseudonym by which I was known in the village, "Mr. Albert Benke."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>"Surely not the actress Rosa Laborfalvy's younger brother, Bebus?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Bebus! the very same."</p>
+
+<p>(That might pass very well. Poor Bebus! he had perished in some
+out-of-the-way corner during the war.)</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I knew him quite well! I have a lively recollection of his
+features. Why, 'tis Bebus, of course! And how's your sister? Is it true
+that she's married?"</p>
+
+<p>"So I have heard."</p>
+
+<p>"To a certain Maurus J&oacute;kai, eh? Do you know him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have never spoken to him."</p>
+
+<p>(And this was quite true.)</p>
+
+<p>"You were one of those theatre-fellows, too, I understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I was an actor, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw you once at Miskolcz. What were you playing then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Claude Froll&oacute; in the <i>Tower of Notre Dame</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"And won't you join some other company now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether there is one to be found."</p>
+
+<p>"What! There is a troupe all ready at Miskolcz at the present moment.
+They mean to play at the new theatre during the coming winter, and then
+they are going to Kassa. B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi wants to put new blood into his
+company. You know the director, Valentine B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>I was just on the point of blurting out that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> was from the same
+birthplace as myself. He was, in fact, the person who had coached Bessy
+in the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> which she had to play with me in our second dramatic
+entertainment. All I <i>did</i> say, however, was that I knew him by report.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow, he knows you very well. He asks frequently about you. If he
+only knew that you were loafing about here he would certainly come and
+see you."</p>
+
+<p>It only needed that!</p>
+
+<p>"I was not aware that he was able to collect together another troupe."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, yes! Why, he's got a prima donna now. She is his wife also.
+Such a bonny little bride! She'll turn the heads of all the young
+fellows, I know. But you're in hiding here, are you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"In hiding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I tell you what&mdash;<i>entre nous</i>, of course&mdash;B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi also has
+reason to make himself scarce."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, because he played such a great part in the Revolution."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> never heard anything about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but he might have been a famous man without <i>your</i> hearing anything
+about it. You also were a comedian during the Revolution, weren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>I allowed him to suppose so.</p>
+
+<p>Then the second kinsman took up his parable. He was better informed than
+the first one.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me make things clear to you, <i>amice</i>!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> During the Revolution, the
+theatre director, Valentine B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi, acted under the name of Tiham&eacute;r
+Rengetegi."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! yes, of course, I remember the name."</p>
+
+<p>"Many a nut has he cracked beneath the very noses of the Germans."</p>
+
+<p>The other kinsman confirmed the statement.</p>
+
+<p>"If they can only catch him they'll make the wind cool his heels for
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"But that theatre director is really a most knowing rogue," explained
+the younger kinsman, with a laugh. "During the Revolution, he entered
+the service of the Hungarian Government and rose to be major. They say
+he performed prodigies. But at the same time he took the precaution to
+completely alter his personal appearance. During the Revolution he dyed
+his beautiful fair hair a deep black, and carefully fostered a gigantic
+moustache with whiskers to correspond; in that guise he looked exactly
+like Don C&aelig;sar de Bazan. When, however, things began to go wrong, he
+speedily had his hair shaved off and his beard also, and is now waiting
+in retirement till his original fair hair has grown again. Then he will
+once more come before the world as Valentine B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi; and who will
+dare to say that there was ever such a person as Tiham&eacute;r Rengetegi?"</p>
+
+<p>One really must admit that it was a stroke of genius to serve the
+Revolution with a black-dyed head of hair!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>"When he hears that you are strolling about here he will most certainly
+come and engage you."</p>
+
+<p>It was necessary to put a stop to this forthwith.</p>
+
+<p>"I regret that I shall not remain here very long," I said; "I, too, have
+to go up to Pest."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is your business at Pest?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to look out for some appointment."</p>
+
+<p>At this, both the pig-Cr&#339;suses pulled a very wry face. Whoever went to
+Pest in those days to seek an appointment was looked upon with
+suspicion. It was as well to have as little as possible to do with such
+a person.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">67</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> It was a point of honour with every loyal Hungarian to
+starve rather than to accept any appointment whatsoever from the
+Austrian Government.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Henceforth the pair of them treated me very superciliously.</p>
+
+<p>I, however, continued to go about and paint landscapes in the vast beech
+forests. I have those pictures by me still. What splendid <i>motives</i> I
+had; if only the hand of a true artist had been there to seize them! In
+the midst of the gloomy virgin forest lay the ruin of a Paulinian
+cloister&mdash;gigantic Gothic walls of grey granite; on the friezes of the
+pillars winged angel-heads; the pointed arches terminated in flowers,
+and these stone-flowers were supplemented by the living stone-rose,
+which grew luxuriantly between the mouldings. Behind the vast
+blue-shadowed ruin lay the dark beech forest; in front was a spring,
+which, in wondrous wise,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> bubbled forth from the roots of a huge
+prostrate linden. From the summit of the ruin depended a large and ample
+hazel-nut tree, the foliage of which was now a reddish-brown from the
+autumn frost, while from the windows the dark-green chaplets of the
+wild-rose tree hung down in the midst of cornel-shrubs and
+spindle-plants variegated with scarlet, pink, and vermilion berries. And
+the floor of the ruin is covered with a tangled carpet of brownish-green
+angelica. And there is but one single living figure in this vast and
+silent tableau. From the gloom of the ancient church porch a timidly
+glancing stag peeps forth like the mythical guiding-star of the
+Hunnic-Magyar pagan legends. Alas! thou white-antlered hind of our
+ancient leader Almos, whither hast thou led us? Would that thou hadst
+left us in Asia! There, at any rate, we should not have been obliged to
+learn German!</p>
+
+<p>And then that other picture, the mighty stone of the Holy Ghost. This
+was a rock as large as a tower, which rose from the edge of the
+table-land. Close beside it were two gigantic beech-trees, whose summits
+just reached up to the middle of this rock, and Autumn, that great
+decorative artist, had touched the leaves of one with reddish-brown, and
+the other with golden-yellow. On the very top of this rock are three
+trees rich with verdure: how did they ever get up there?</p>
+
+<p>It is possible to scramble up at the risk of one's neck, and from thence
+one can see fresh pictures to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> paint. From the dizzy height of the rock
+a view into a deep valley opens out. The two lines of hill opposite are
+closed up by a curved and undulating range of other hills. The setting
+sun lights up the hillside, and bathes the whole scene in transparent
+lilac mist, while the forest fringe of the summits projects in sharply
+defined golden lines. Down below, the valley winds along like a
+dark-green ribbon, and on the spot where it is lost in the evening mist
+is to be seen a little hut whose kitchen fire twinkles from the depths
+like a blood-red star. Can any human creature be living there?</p>
+
+<p>But the most magnificent landscape-motive (in which I was happily
+immersed) was the panorama which presented itself from the "Precipice
+Stone." This "Precipice Stone" was the highest point of the beech
+mountain-district. Viewed from Tordona, it was like a projecting
+mountain-spar, but one could get to the top of it by making a long
+circuit. This rock was generally the goal of my wanderings. It took half
+a day to get there and half a day to get back, and at midday I used to
+kindle a fire of twigs and make a princely banquet of toasted bread and
+bacon; and then, sitting down on the dizzy edge of the rock, I would
+tackle the impossible artistic problem&mdash;at least it was impossible to
+me. Beneath my feet, in the foreground, was a dark spot formed by a
+crown of beech-trees, and where this ended there was a smiling little
+nook, and in the midst of it tiny, smoky, stony Tordona, with its
+scattered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> cottages, surrounded by their yellow dice-like vineyards, and
+their hills striped with green corn, above which the still darker green
+beech hills show their heads. Above these crowds the group of the G&ouml;m&ouml;ri
+Hills, whose shadows are now deepening into lilac; but these again are
+dominated by the chain of the Trencs&eacute;ni and Turoczi Hills. These hills
+are of a clouded blue, and above them rises, like a <i>fata Morgana</i>, the
+princely range of the fair Carpathians, as blue as heaven itself, and
+only to be distinguished from it by the dividing line of their
+diamond-like snowy peaks. My skill was, naturally, not equal to such a
+task. If I succumbed when I struggled with it, that was not my fault.</p>
+
+<p>With a mighty lead-loaded oaken staff in my hand, and a sharp
+kitchen-knife in my roomy jack-boots, I deemed myself sufficient to cope
+with any wolf I might meet on the way. As for a musket, those who had
+them took good care to keep them well hidden. Rumour said that to be
+found with a musket was as much as a man's life was worth.</p>
+
+<p>The middle of October had come.</p>
+
+<p>Another guest now arrived at Tordona. This time it was a heartily
+welcome guest, the merry-minded Telepi. He had come to fetch his little
+Charlie that he might take him abroad for his education. He was the
+favourite comic actor of the National Theatre.... He had a round face, a
+round figure, and was all vivacity, with sparkling eyes, pointed
+eyebrows, and tiny pointed moustache;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> it was just as if he had four
+eyebrows and four moustaches: he was Hungarian humour personified.</p>
+
+<p>'Twas he who brought me my first news from the outside world: the
+horrible events of the October days, the inconceivable deeds of horror
+done by a madman,<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> who was not even sufficiently punished by being
+burned alive twice.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Haynau.&mdash;An allusion to the massacre of Hungarian
+prisoners and the brutalities inflicted on their wives.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Fortunately, I heard these things from a joking, smiling,
+devil-may-care, comic mouth! For Telepi knew how to season the tidings
+with so many happy anecdotes and comforting assurances that he quite
+turned the edge off the murderous knife. And then he was so full of
+optimism. "Our time is coming," he would say. "England and France are
+hastening to our assistance. The Turks are arming, the Americans are
+showing their fists." And when I shook my head at all this, he comforted
+me with the assurance that an amnesty was at hand.</p>
+
+<p>But when we were quite alone, and nobody else was listening, then he
+told me everything frankly, and without embellishment.</p>
+
+<p>My wife would have come herself, but she had been ailing; in fact she
+had been very ill. She was better now. As soon as she could leave her
+bed she would hasten to me at Tordona. I might expect her this very
+month. My wife had a plan whereby she hoped to free me completely, so
+that I should not be exposed to persecution any more. What it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> was,
+however, she could not tell me. She only begged <i>one</i> thing of me, but
+<i>that</i> she begged most earnestly, and it was this: until she came to me
+I was to show myself nowhere, hold no communication with anybody, let
+nothing be known of my whereabouts. I was not even to write a letter,
+for they might recognise my handwriting, and then all would be over. So
+I had to solemnly promise that I would go nowhere, and speak to nobody
+whatever but the good and honest men of Tordona. I gave my word upon it.</p>
+
+<p>My wife sent me at the same time a warm winter overcoat, a large fur
+cap, and a pair of double-soled Russia-leather boots. Winter was
+approaching, and I should have to spend it here among the forests.
+Telepi also brought me a little silver money from my wife, for
+bank-notes were of no use here. She also sent me some coffee. That, too,
+was not to be had here, and I am fond of it in the morning. In the
+course of the conversation, Telepi inadvertently let out that my wife
+had sold her emeralds, had gone into pokey lodgings, and was living very
+sparingly. "But what's the good of fretting?" he added. "The God of the
+Magyars is still alive!" I shall never forget that jocose, smiling face,
+when, in the midst of his magnanimous assurances, a tear suddenly rolled
+down his round, red countenance!</p>
+
+<p>Then I gave all the pictures I had painted hitherto to Telepi, that he
+might take them home to my wife.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">THE MEETING AT THE PAGAN ALTAR</p>
+
+
+<p>After Telepi had gone back, a deep melancholy took possession of me.</p>
+
+<p>My wife was ill, and I had never even dreamt of the possibility of such
+a thing. What if she were to die without being able to exchange a last
+adieu? She wants to set me free, she says; but how? She cannot tell me.
+She cannot tell anybody. Why should she have any secrets from me? Ah!
+that green-eyed monster is a bad guide to the imagination. A celebrated
+actress can so readily find protectors. Perhaps they are men in
+authority, who hold life and death in their hands. Oh, eternal darkness,
+do not deprive me of the light of my reason! Suppose I were to gain
+readmittance into the world at such a price as that! This condition of
+mind was becoming absolutely unendurable.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the desire seized me to rush out of the forest, knock at the
+door of the first Commandant I came to, and give up my name: "I am that
+notorious rebel&mdash;take my head, I'll pay the price!"</p>
+
+<p>But my given word, my word of honour, held me back. Ah! a man's word of
+honour must be kept, even though it be only given to his wife.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>I had promised to go nowhere. But surely the forest is nowhere, and that
+Precipice Stone is, indeed, the most out-of-the-way nowhere in the whole
+world. Thither no man ever goes. Thither at least I am free to go.</p>
+
+<p>My first, not very successful, picture of the great panorama I had sent
+to my wife. I would now have another try at it.</p>
+
+<p>One fine autumn morning I again took up my lead-loaded stick, and said
+to my dear good hostess that she was not to expect me home to dinner
+that day, as I was going to scramble up to the Pagan Altar and sketch
+there.</p>
+
+<p>The gentry call this rocky pinnacle the Pagan Altar; the peasants call
+it the Precipice Stone.</p>
+
+<p>"But don't stay long," said Mrs. Cs&aacute;nyi; "suppose your dearest were to
+arrive in the meantime?"</p>
+
+<p>My dearest! As if she thought of seeking me out! They only put me off
+with promises, just as they tell a sick child that he shall have a
+rocking-horse when he gets well. It was exactly seven weeks since she
+had left me. What an endless time!</p>
+
+<p>I made my way at once towards the linden spring, and thence up the
+forest hill-side by the often-trodden familiar path. The nuts came
+showering down; the frost had already tweaked the Cornelian cherries. I
+crammed my knapsack full of both: I shall have a luxurious banquet
+to-day. I also found a large coral-coloured mushroom; roasted in embers,
+it would make a tit-bit worthy of a gourmet.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>It was about ten o'clock when I got up to the Pagan Altar.</p>
+
+<p>When I went out upon the rocky ledge, a truly wondrous scene spread
+itself out before me; it was quite certain that <i>I</i> should never be able
+to paint it. The whole kingdom was under the sea! The autumn mist, like
+a snow-cloud, covered the whole landscape to the very horizon, from
+which towered vast snowy peaks and snowy cupolas; in other places the
+misty mantle resembled frozen waves, out of which here and there rose
+round, blackish islands, the peaks of the higher mountains. It was a
+faithful image of reality: nothingness. There was nothing left now.</p>
+
+<p>I could calculate pretty surely on the mist descending at midday, and
+painting field and forest with frost; but till then I could sketch
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>So I lay down upon the rocky ledge, and marvelled at this motionless,
+huge, white winding-sheet which covered a whole realm. I had no thought
+of eating now. I hung up my knapsack with my bread and bacon on a
+spruce-fir tree, and when I had looked my fill of wonder at the sea of
+mist, I watched the itinerant ants who, following their regular road,
+crept right over my body, never troubling themselves very much about the
+circumstance that a giant, like a mountain range, lay right across their
+path.</p>
+
+<p>At this height not even the thrush's whistle broke the stillness.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>The sun shone down. Not a breeze was stirring. My head was resting on a
+large green mossy stone; I felt like dropping off to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>All at once, as if I really were dreaming, from somewhere not very far
+off a song rang out:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0q">"Lo! on the mountain top<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A valiant man doth stand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And on his trusty weapon rests<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His stalwart good right hand."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It was a man's voice, and I seemed to recognise it.</p>
+
+<p>My first feeling was joy. I was about to meet some old acquaintance in
+that vast wilderness. It only occurred to me afterwards that this would
+be contrary to my compact. I was to meet no man who could possibly
+recognise me.</p>
+
+<p>But it was too late to avoid him now. Only one single path led up to the
+summit of the Precipice Stone, whether one came from Tordona or from
+Malyinka, and my songster was evidently coming from the latter place.</p>
+
+<p>The next verse of the song sounded very much nearer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0q">"Lo! on his <i>kalpag</i><a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">69</a> see<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A blood-red nodding plume;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A mantle black surrounds his neck,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His wild eye lowers with gloom."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> The tall fur hat, generally plumed, which forms part of
+the Hungarian national costume.</p></div>
+
+<p>And now I heard a woman's voice also.</p>
+
+<p>Some one was telling the singer not to sing while climbing.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>So there was a pair of them!</p>
+
+<p>And as the singer gradually mounted higher and higher, his figure also
+became visible from behind the rocky ledge.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0q">"Presumptuous mortal, quake and fear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When thou his awful name dost hear:<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Diavolo, Diavolo, Diavolo!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Yet nobody quaked so much as Fra Diavolo himself, when he perceived a
+human shape stretched before him on the ground as he scaled the very
+summit of the rocky ledge.</p>
+
+<p>And certainly I was not a very reassuring spectacle, as, with my
+sheepskin cap pressed closely to my head, and a large cudgel in my fist,
+I slowly rose from my knees.</p>
+
+<p>I recognised him before he recognised me.</p>
+
+<p>"Your servant, B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi! Why, how did you manage to get here, where
+not even the bird that flies can come?"</p>
+
+<p>Then his terror was turned into joy.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, ha! my poet-friend! What a divine encounter here in Heaven above!"
+With that he hastened up to me and we embraced.</p>
+
+<p>By this time his lady companion had also got the better of the rocky
+zig-zag which led up to the mountain ledge.</p>
+
+<p>It was now the turn of my own heart to stop beating. That female shape
+was Bessy&mdash;the sea-eyed beauty!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>How came they two to be together? How came they to be both here at the
+same time?</p>
+
+<p>But it was no vision. The fair lady recognised me instantly. Her face,
+red already from her mountain scramble, could be no redder at the sight
+of me, nor could her bosom heave more than it was heaving now; but on
+her face there was a sort of holding-back expression.</p>
+
+<p>Friend Valentine perceived the look of amazed inquiry on my face, and
+turning with true histrionic humour towards his lady-companion,
+introduced her to me with the words, "My grandmother!"</p>
+
+<p>At this witticism the lady laughed, and I had sufficient self-control
+not to reply to this introduction with a single word.</p>
+
+<p>"Then come to my bosom, my son, for I am thy grandfather."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very strange we should meet here," I put in.</p>
+
+<p>But my friend's features suddenly darkened as if he were obeying a stage
+direction like, "here he suddenly assumes a grave face."</p>
+
+<p>"First of all, my dear friend," said he, "I demand your word of honour
+not to reveal to any one in the created world that you have seen me. You
+know that I am now Tiham&eacute;r Rengetegi till the old blonde hair grow again
+(what I'm wearing now is a wig); for a heavy price is fixed upon my
+head. A word, and I am lost. Your <i>parole</i> that you'll say nothing about
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"The promise must be mutual, then," I replied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> "I just as solemnly
+require you to say not a word to anybody about me, for I also am in
+hiding here."</p>
+
+<p>At this he began to laugh. It was a stage laugh, for he placed his hand
+on his stomach, crooked his back, and turned upon his heel, choking with
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"And you also are hiding away here from the Germans! Well, that <i>is</i> a
+joke!"</p>
+
+<p>I inquired somewhat brusquely what there was to laugh at.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, at your hiding&mdash;hiding away from the Imperialists. You, of all
+people! Why, don't you know, then, that very many deputies defended
+themselves before the court-martials by declaring themselves former
+contributors to your <i>Esti Lap</i>?<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">70</a> Why, every one knows that you were
+the organ of the peace party at Debreczin. Every one is well aware that
+you were the ally of the Imperialists."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> <i>Evening News</i>.</p></div>
+
+<p>At this I at once flew into a rage.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever seen the <i>Esti Lap</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I've not actually <i>seen</i> it, but it was the general opinion among
+us soldiers that you were higgling with the Imperialists."</p>
+
+<p>At this Bessy intervened by giving a good tug at her friend's collar.</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish! Such rumours are only circulated by pot-house heroes like
+yourself. He certainly was no traitor! Would that all who open their
+mouths so loudly were as good patriots?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>My friend, with sheepish obsequiousness, hastened to readjust his
+opinion to the satisfaction of his "grandmother."</p>
+
+<p>"Good, good! I never believed a word of it myself&mdash;why should I?" said
+he.</p>
+
+<p>"The best proof that I am not what calumny would make me is the fact of
+my meeting you here at the Pagan Altar; and again I beg of you to tell
+nobody that we have met."</p>
+
+<p>Here Bessy again intervened.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll answer for that. I shall now be constantly at the side of this
+honest gentleman, and if his tongue begins to wag, my hand will be ready
+to stop it for him."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Valentine laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"What a woman it is! She really has a most rapid hand. Not a day passes
+but she lets me feel the weight of her palm."</p>
+
+<p>At this I made a very critical face. My good friend could read very well
+from it that I wished to know by what right his cheeks were allowed to
+feel the force of Bessy's rosy palms day by day.</p>
+
+<p>"We met together in camp, and the field-chaplain blessed our union to
+the roaring of guns and the beating of drums."</p>
+
+<p>That was right enough, surely!</p>
+
+<p>Bessy's eyes were raised towards me as if she could add a great deal to
+this short history. Friend Valentine thought it good to become loudly
+enthusiastic.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>"What a woman, my friend! A heroine! A perfect Jeanne d'Arc! We were
+bound together by a whole chain of wonders and exploits. She was not my
+consort&mdash;nay! she was much more, my companion in arms. I'll tell you the
+whole thing one of these days."</p>
+
+<p>"That will do...."</p>
+
+<p>"What? That will do? Are you, then, so poor-spirited? <i>I</i> am ready to
+meet the spectres of the darkness face to face. I'll set in motion the
+avalanche which shall wrench the world from its hinges."</p>
+
+<p>I left him to set his avalanche in motion while I went to gather dry
+twigs and leaves and make a heap of them. Meanwhile Valentine declaimed
+to the clouds.</p>
+
+<p>"What a spectacle! The whole realm a sea! We stand alone, like the
+co-operating Demiurges at the creation, in the face of chaos."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you got your troupe together?" I inquired, thus bringing him down
+at once from his pedestal.</p>
+
+<p>"My troupe? That's just what I am going about now. Brutus must play the
+fool until his day has come. But when once the hour of retribution
+arrives, we will rise as one man and win back our outraged liberties."</p>
+
+<p>"With my bludgeon, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not with that sort of thing," said friend Valentine, with haughty
+condescension. "I have no secret to hide from you. An American hero of
+freedom has invented a weapon which, placed in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> the hand of a simple
+citizen, will give him an irresistible advantage over the hireling
+soldiery. Its English name is 'revolver.' I have one by me. Thanks to my
+acquaintances beyond the ocean, I have managed to provide myself with
+it. Look here!"</p>
+
+<p>With that he produced from his side pocket a pistol, the like of which I
+had never seen before. It was the Colt revolver, for discharging five
+shots. You loaded it in front, and with this object in view, you had to
+shove out the cartridge cylinder and sprinkle powder out of the
+powder-flask in every loop-hole; at the end of the bullet was a nail,
+which had to be made firm with a cork-stopper, then the bullet had to be
+driven into the barrel by means of a hammer and ramrod, then the
+cartridge cylinder had to be fastened down again into its place, and
+pyramids of priming powder piled on the top of it&mdash;while the enemy was
+supposed to be looking on all the time and watching good-naturedly to
+see what would come of it all.</p>
+
+<p>Friend Valentine had immense confidence in his wondrous firearm.</p>
+
+<p>"You can see that I am prepared for every conceivable emergency. My
+faith, I will sell my life dearly! I may tell <i>you</i>, for you will not
+betray me. Beneath this Pagan Altar is a cave, the existence of which is
+known only to the initiated. I have selected it for my hiding-place.
+When the chase against me begins, and a whole brigade of gendarmes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+marches out to seize me, I will creep into this cave; victuals and
+brandy for a whole week are already there for me; let them riot round me
+then as they like."</p>
+
+<p>I could not help laughing at these wise precautions. But friend
+Valentine's explanations became still more fiery.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend! a single narrow little path leads to this cave. The bears
+used possibly to resort thither in the days when bears camped in the
+beech districts. If they attempt to storm me there, I can defend myself
+with this revolver against a whole host."</p>
+
+<p>All this time I had been employed in piling up a nice little heap of dry
+twigs and leaves, which I now set on fire with my flint and steel.</p>
+
+<p>Friend Valentine caught me nervously by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing, my friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lighting a fire, my friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, my friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"To cook bacon with, my friend."</p>
+
+<p>"They will see the blaze of our fire from below."</p>
+
+<p>"How <i>can</i> they see when the mist is so thick there?"</p>
+
+<p>He admitted that I was right, and allowed me to ignite my heap, which
+immediately began to crackle merrily.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, friend Valentine went and stood on the edge of the Precipice
+Stone to watch the mist,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> and from time to time informed me of the
+changes of scene that were going on: now the mists were beginning to
+break, now they were rising, the houses would be visible almost
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p>And all the time I was toasting slices of bread by the fire, and after
+that slices of bacon, allowing the bacon fat to drip gradually down and
+soak through the toast with a deftness that would have done honour to a
+professional cook.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy took it into her head to follow my example.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the bread and bacon out of the knapsack," said she to
+Valentine.</p>
+
+<p>"But what necessity for it is there now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must have it at once."</p>
+
+<p>And with that she went up to him and began rummaging in the knapsack.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what a prosaic nature is yours!" said Valentine reproachfully to
+the lady. "At such a sublime moment, too, in the presence of such a
+glorious spectacle! Just look at that magnificent scene! The whole of
+the cloud of mist is rising like a stage curtain. The gigantic theatre
+appears like magic from behind the hanging cloudy tapestries. Behold the
+sunlit heights, the white shimmering houses. And now a fresh
+mountain-chain emerges crowned with dim forests. Just as if they were of
+massive gold...."</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the bacon, I say."</p>
+
+<p>"My heart, my blood is thine, but ask me not for bacon! Look how the
+earth rises up before us;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> nothing but mountains, mountains, mountains!
+Still nothing to be seen of the dome of Heaven! And that deep divine
+calm around us! Only from the distant forge resounds the measured thud
+of the sledge hammer, as though one heard the throbbing of the heart of
+the universe! And does not thine own heart beat faster in this sublime
+place?"</p>
+
+<p>"It throbs, it throbs! Right sorely does it throb! But we'll look at the
+august spectacle a little later."</p>
+
+<p>"What! Not look when an instant like this is worth a world?"</p>
+
+<p>The natural phenomenon before us really was very fine, as the whole
+misty cloud rose swiftly from the mountains, covering with a deep shadow
+the sky that up to that moment had been shining bright and blue before
+us, and at the same time unfolding before us the muffled panorama of
+hill behind hill beneath our feet; the solar rays, like the broad
+diverging spokes of a huge wheel, shot down from the cloudy rifts with a
+milky sort of glare. It would really have been a majestic scene but for
+the false, disturbing pathos of friend Valentine.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, nay! I cannot view it standing on my feet! Here one should go down
+upon one's knees. Here the gods themselves walk abroad!"</p>
+
+<p>Valentine plumped down upon his knees, and because Bessy would not
+follow his example, he wound his arm around her and clasped her to his
+breast. She, however, was impatient at his insipid vapourings.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>"You are just like that professor," said she, "who held up his oil-lamp
+against the moon that his guests might see her better."</p>
+
+<p>"Elizabeth!" sighed the Celadon bitterly (Bessy was a name which could
+not be emphasized with sighs so well as Elizabeth), "dost thou not
+remember that solemn moment when we said to one another, 'How sweet it
+would be to die together this instant'? Has not our common friend said
+(here he looked at me), 'A good death is better than a bad life'? Come,
+let us verify that saying: wrapped in each other's embrace, heart
+throbbing responsive to heart, a dizziness, a plunge forward from this
+rock, and then a delicious flight whose goal will be the stars!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go away with you! Don't make a fool of yourself! I have no wish to
+plunge into Heaven!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I'll bear thee thither with me like a Valkyrian. And thou, my
+friend, wilt immortalize our final catastrophe in a heroic ballad."</p>
+
+<p>And with that he seized the lady by the arm, and rushed with her upon
+the steep rocky ledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Hast thou said thy prayers to-day, Desdemona?"</p>
+
+<p>Bessy looked towards me with a timid look. I pretended to observe
+nothing. What had I to do with these amorous passages? I was frizzling
+bacon.</p>
+
+<p>"Dost thou doubt me capable of dying with thee at this moment?" cried
+Valentine B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi, with his wig awry over his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then the lady cried with a supplicating voice: "Nay; but help me, dear
+Maurice!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>"Very well, I <i>will</i> help you," thought I; "I did it once before, so you
+say. Poets have long arms."</p>
+
+<p>"Friend Valentine," said I, without rising from my squatting position
+beside the frizzling bacon, "don't you see those two men with muskets
+coming up this way along the mountain path?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wha-a-at, two m-m-men with mus-us-kets?" said the hero, his rumbling
+bass-baritone voice suddenly dwindling into a piping treble. "Where are
+they?" All his longing for death had instantly vanished, and he
+immediately released his victim from his embrace.</p>
+
+<p>I indicated the approaching strangers with my toasting-fork. "There!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he also saw them.</p>
+
+<p>"Br-r-rother, those are gend-end-end-armes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly they <i>are</i> gend-end-armes, for there are two of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Put out the fire at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"I would if I could, but I can't now. And if I did, what good would that
+do? They have seen it already."</p>
+
+<p>"I told you not to make a fire here."</p>
+
+<p>But now Bessy turned furiously upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is your stagey spouting that has saddled us with them. What business
+had you to go declaiming on the mountain tops? The people fancy you are
+murdering some one."</p>
+
+<p>"They are coming straight towards us," gasped friend Valentine. "If they
+get hold of me, I am lost."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>I tried to reassure him: "Come, come! recollect there are two of us;
+with my loaded cudgel and your revolver we shall offer a stubborn
+resistance."</p>
+
+<p>"Br-r-other, they have guns which hit at four hundred yards, while my
+revolver has only a range of thirty, and it doesn't always hit the mark
+even then. We cannot risk so much. It is quite another thing when I am
+in the dark cave, and they are out in the light, for then I can see
+them, but they can't see me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you'll hide away in your cave, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not for my own life's sake, but for the sake of my country, whose
+fate I carry in my bosom. The heels of my boots are full of secret
+despatches from England and Turkey. I am not free to stake everything so
+lightly."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, go and hide yourself, by all means!"</p>
+
+<p>But then Bessy put in a word: "'Tis all very well, but what's to become
+of me. I cannot crawl on all fours into your big bear-garden."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor would I allow it. Is not our common friend here? He will remain
+here. <i>You</i> will not run away, will you? I am sure they don't know you.
+Your portrait has appeared nowhere, but mine has gone from hand to hand.
+A full description of my personal appearance flutters at every street
+corner. If they come, say that it was you who kicked up that row; say
+that she is your wife."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't say that."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>"Then do what you like. I rely upon you, mind!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well," cried Bessy peevishly, "but what will happen
+afterwards? If you remain in your hole, and our good friend goes home,
+what am I to do all alone here by myself on the top of a rock? I shall
+never find my way home through this wood."</p>
+
+<p>Then my friend, with cheap generosity, made this magnanimous offer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Dear friend, take her home with you."</p>
+
+<p>So that was to be the <i>d&eacute;nouement</i> of this odd drama!</p>
+
+<p>"No, my magnanimous friend. Not so! You go and reserve yourself for
+posterity. We two will remain here. One of two things is bound to
+happen. If those two men, armed with muskets, find me painting pictures
+in my album, they will believe either that I am a simple painter (they
+know that K&aacute;roly Telepi is wandering about on a sketching tour here, and
+they'll take me for him, and Bessy for&mdash;my sister); or they'll not
+believe anything of the kind, and in that case they'll escort us both to
+Miskolcz. In the latter case you need have no fear of turning back. If,
+on the other hand, after the lapse of a few hours, you creep out of your
+cave and see me sitting as before, on the rocky ledge, and peaceably
+continuing my sketching, then you will know that the armed invasion has
+passed on further, and you can come back again to the Lady Elizabeth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
+Then I'll give you my blessing, and we'll return from whence we
+came&mdash;you to the east, I to the west."</p>
+
+<p>With this he was satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"But don't betray me!" he murmured, casting a terrified look upon us;
+"even though they hale you off to the block, don't say where I am."</p>
+
+<p>I gave him my word of honour that not even the Spanish boot should
+extort his secret from me, whereupon he went gingerly down upon all
+fours, scrambled up the rocky summit by the corkscrew path, and vanished
+among the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh! I only wish he hadn't taken the bread and bacon along with him!"
+lamented the girl he left behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll share mine with you; there's enough for two."</p>
+
+<p>And with that I seized my crooked clasp-knife, cut the slice of bread in
+two, minced the bacon into little bits, and sprinkled it with salt and
+pepper.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was that all. I rubbed both sides of the toasted bacon with a knob
+of garlic. It was a sort of Oriental language of flowers. I meant to
+remind her that her ideal of a man was one who did not rinse his mouth
+after eating garlic.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we were alone on the summit of the Pagan Altar, crouching together
+beside a fire of burning embers, and dividing a piece of toast and a
+slice of bacon&mdash;I and the former mistress of my heart.</p>
+
+<p>That "former" was not so very long ago. It was scarcely three years
+since the golden thrushes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> mingled their songs with our chats. The
+idyllic contemplation of the matter, however, was considerably disturbed
+by the concrete circumstance that, during these three years, a third
+masterpiece of creation had found in my former paragon the rib that had
+been subtracted from him while he slept. Her first venture was a
+fashionable fop, her second an Antinous of the wilderness, her third was
+now a stage Othello.</p>
+
+<p>And our feelings were still further subdued by the disagreeable tension
+occasioned by the approach towards us of two armed men, who kept on
+popping up before us in the clearings of the forest, now here, now
+there, but continually drawing nearer to the Pagan Altar. There could
+not now be a doubt that they were making towards us.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be as well if I set to work and sketched something in my album
+while they are approaching," said I, "in case they inquire what I am
+doing here."</p>
+
+<p>With that, I sat down on the steep rocky ledge, placed my sketch-book on
+my knee, and designed the contours of my picture on a grand scale.</p>
+
+<p>The lady sat down close beside me, and observed how I looked now on the
+hills and now on my paper&mdash;but never into her fine eyes.</p>
+
+<p>We did not exchange a word with each other, not a single word.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, I grew impatient of the silence, and without looking
+up from my sketch, I said to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> her: "I really thought that by this time
+you and Peter Gyuricza had filled the whole world full of butter and
+cheese."</p>
+
+<p>But then, with both her hands, she seized my sketching hand, so that I
+had to leave off my work, and said, with a mournful voice:</p>
+
+<p>"You have the most sovereign contempt for me now, eh? But if I were to
+tell you what frightful calamities I have gone through since last we
+met, then I am sure you would have compassion on me."</p>
+
+<p>I told her that if she liked to speak, I could now listen, as I had
+plenty of time.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember when last we met, don't you? When you banged the door in
+my face, I mean&mdash;though, God knows, I only meant to do you good then. I
+never meant to make you so angry, and immediately made the best of my
+way home to the hut of Peter Gyuricza. Ah! how sorry I then was that I
+had not pleaded my cause with you better. I had another reason for going
+to you. When the lawyers took up my case, the fair-haired partner
+offered me a little money, which I might repay him, he said, when I
+gained my suit. But I chose to ride the high horse, and rejected the
+proffered money, although I had really nothing about me but three
+<i>huszases</i>,<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">71</a> which I had saved from the proceeds of the butter. That
+was not even enough for the steam-boat. A couple of florins or so would
+have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> done. But, of course, when you drove me out of your room I had to
+do without."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> The <i>husza</i>&mdash;20 kreutzers.</p></div>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry that I did not guess your need."</p>
+
+<p>"Still more sorry was I. I was obliged, in my straits, to climb into the
+cart of a poulterer who was going to Vienna, and who, for two of my
+<i>huszases</i>, found a place for me among the hen-coops. I still had a few
+<i>garashes</i><a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">72</a> for my journey, which were sufficient to pay for the
+straw on which I slept at the inns where we descended. On the third day
+I arrived safely at Uj-Sz&ouml;ny, and by that time I had eaten the last bit
+of bread and cheese in my basket. In front of the inn stood a lame and
+paralysed beggar, who begged alms of me in God's name. I had only two
+kreutzers still left. I kept back one kreutzer from the beggar, for I
+knew that I should have to pay a toll on the bridge. Now, that was your
+fault, look you. You might have inserted a paragraph in the Twelve
+Articles of Pest abolishing the tolls."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> A <i>garash</i>&mdash;3 kreutzers.</p></div>
+
+<p>I was furious. I had to erase half my drawing. Bessy laughed at my
+misfortune, and at her own also. Then she proceeded:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"From thence I had to make my way home on foot. I could go right along
+by the banks of the Danube without entering the town. I did not meet a
+single acquaintance. In front of me I saw a large group of National
+Guards in blue attilas, hastening<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> rapidly towards the fortress amidst
+the beating of drums. It must have been a serious business which
+prevented them from looking at a pretty woman. Then I went nicely and
+quietly along the well-known way. Like the egg-selling woman in the
+fairy-tale, I began to consider what I would do when I got back my
+patrimony. I would go with my Gyuricza right away into Transylvania,
+there I would buy him a property, where he might rear as many cattle as
+he liked. I myself would learn to spin like the P&aacute;kular<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> women: my
+husband should wear clothes of my own weaving. I would adorn my
+bedchamber with embroidered napkins, hang varnished vases all round, and
+there should be rows of pewter dishes on every shelf. We should have our
+plum-orchard too, and from the plums I would make <i>palinka</i>. I would
+keep bees, and make mead, and bake honey-cakes, which Peter loves so
+much when he can get them at the fair. All this time I had never noticed
+that I was getting quite close to the hut. It was drawing towards
+evening, and smoke was coming from the chimney. No doubt the little
+serving-maid was cooking supper according to my directions. How
+surprised Peter would be when I brought his flesh-pot out to him in the
+pastures! When I entered the hut I found by the hearth&mdash;nobody. I went
+into the room. What do I see? My Peter Gyuricza sitting at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+table&mdash;with his wife; and they were supping sweetly together out of the
+same dish, like two turtle-doves!"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> A village in Transylvania, chiefly inhabited by
+Wallachs.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>("Aha!" I murmured, "poetic justice with a vengeance; I myself could not
+have devised a happier <i>d&eacute;nouement</i>.")</p>
+
+<p>"Everything became green and blue before my eyes. My throat contracted.
+I was incapable of uttering a word. But the tongue of the little peasant
+woman wagged all the brisker. No sooner did she see me than she bounced
+from her place, cocked her <i>haube</i> on the side of her head, stuck her
+arms akimbo, and fell foul of me.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah, ha! my dear precious lady! I suppose 'tis Carnival time, since you
+come masquerading hither like that! Perhaps you've come because you've
+lost something here, eh? A shawl, perhaps? A very pretty little
+ladyship, that I <i>will</i> say! Haven't you got a nice enough lord and
+master of your own at home? Must you befool the poor peasant also? Or if
+your lawful husband is not enough for you, can't you go and choose
+another from among the cavaliers of your own rank? You hanker after
+laying your little stuck-up noddle on my patch-pillow, eh? You ought to
+be ashamed of yourself!'</p>
+
+<p>"I was dumbfoundered. This face of a fury, with the eyes sticking out of
+its head, robbed me of all my pluck. In my despair and doubt I looked at
+Peter.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>"He all this time was sitting with his elbows on the table and
+swallowing one dumpling after another.</p>
+
+<p>"'Is this justice, Peter?' stammered I, half-sobbing; 'will you let me
+be treated like this?'</p>
+
+<p>"At this he struck the table with his fist a mighty blow and roared at
+his wife: 'Woman! Shut up! Hold your tongue! Sit down at that table and
+fill your stomach! I'll speak now.'</p>
+
+<p>"The woman sulked in silence, but, even while her husband was speaking,
+she could not forbear putting in a word or two here and there, such as:
+'She has worn out my dress, too!&mdash;I didn't steal that! My lovely chintz
+dress! How she has rumpled it! Just as if she had been tumbling it about
+in every pot-house!'</p>
+
+<p>"But Peter spoke very sagely.</p>
+
+<p>"'My lady, I beg pardon! I know what honour is. I was once a soldier. I
+know my duty. What won't match can't match. A horse and an ox won't draw
+together. A peasant woman's meet for a peasant, a lady's meet for a
+gentleman. Now did I ever so much as raise my little finger to your
+ladyship? You know I didn't. And yet how many times haven't you ruined
+the butter? You never moistened the maize. The pigs wouldn't eat it
+because it set their teeth on edge, for you threw them hard raw grain.
+This won't do, you know! When the cows calve, who'll be there to see to
+them? And who is there to clean out the furnace?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> The mice have gnawed
+away the sleeves of my jacket, it's all in rags. Besides that, I have
+got into the way of saying, "Hie, you Jutka! d'ye hear?" and then she
+knows very well what her duty is; and when I strike her she makes no
+bones about it, either. I couldn't live without thrashing her
+occasionally; it does my back good, which would else grow double; and
+she always knows how to come round me again.'"</p>
+
+<p>I threw my sketch-book and my palette out of my hand, and flung myself
+down on my back, I laughed so much. How could I help laughing? Bessy
+laughed too.</p>
+
+<p>"I can laugh mightily at it now, but situated as I was then, his words
+were so many lashes. At last I flew into a rage and attacked Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"'Can't you say straight out that Muki Bagotay has bribed you to take
+back your wife, whom you drove away on his account?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, I humbly beg your pardon, you must not say that I am bribed. I am
+an upright man. His honour, my lord Bagotay, gave me ten head of oxen as
+a gift, but he didn't bribe me.'</p>
+
+<p>"My heart was ready to break at these words.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten head of oxen indeed! For the sake of this peasant I had sacrificed
+my whole existence, the world in which I had hitherto lived, the respect
+of my acquaintances, my ease and comfort. I had made the earnest resolve
+to become a peasant woman for his sake, to work, do without things,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
+suffer penury, and when once I had recovered my property, to give it all
+to him, make him a gentleman according to <i>his</i> notion of a gentleman,
+and the wretched creature had bartered me for ten oxen!"</p>
+
+<p>I hastened to explain to Bessy that this was really the legally
+appointed fine for adultery in case the affair came to be settled.
+Verb&ouml;czy<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> says: "<i>Raptor solvat decem juvencos.</i>"&mdash;"The seducer must
+pay ten oxen."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> The great Hungarian jurist (1460-1541), and one of the
+most eminent statesmen of his day. His <i>opus magnum</i>, entitled
+"Tripartitum opus juris consultudinarii inclyti regni Hungari&aelig;," was
+first published in 1517.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Bessy then proceeded:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Peter next began to give me counsels worthy of a patriarch.</p>
+
+<p>"'My lady, I've only one thing to say. Go back to his lordship. God's my
+witness that nothing will befall you. Say now, Jutka&mdash;come, on your soul
+be honest&mdash;have I so much as touched you with my little finger since you
+came back? His lordship, too, knows all about it. He will close one eye.
+Let's look upon the matter as if he and I had been wrestling together,
+and first one had had a fall and then the other. One box on the ears
+deserves another. So it is among men of honour!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't make me laugh so, or I cannot go on sketching!" said I to
+Bessy, with the tears in my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you can find to laugh at, I could cry for vexation
+even now."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>"Why, that of itself is enough to make one laugh!"</p>
+
+<p>Bessy continued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But then the woman began talking nicely to me, which was ever so much
+worse. 'Come, come, my dear, good, pretty lady, have respect for your
+nice, handsome, lawful lord. Why, what a fine gentleman it is! Why, if I
+hadn't my Peter ...'</p>
+
+<p>"'You manage to forget that, though, pretty often!' intervened Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"The long and short of it all was that I had to resume the clothes I had
+left behind me, and restore to Jutka the draggle-tail rags which she had
+charged me with spoiling. But what objection could I make? What belongs
+to another is his, so I began to strip off my frock and neckerchief
+before the pair of them straightaway.</p>
+
+<p>"The other woman then got a bit ashamed on my account. 'Let us go into
+the inner room,' said she; and drew me into the little chamber, and took
+out of her wardrobe the lordly raiment I had left there, and then helped
+me to dress. And all the time she was so mild, so friendly, and quite
+lost herself in rustic caresses and flatteries: 'Why, what a nice slim
+waist! What a shame that a mere clown should clasp it round! What lovely
+white shoulders! What a sin to ruin them by carrying about heavy loads!
+And how swollen the little feet are from much walking! Why, they'll
+scarcely go into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> old dress-boot, I do declare! Why fly into such
+tantrums about such trifles! Good gracious me! suppose every lady who
+caught her lord with a little milkmaid were to carry on with the first
+clown that fell in her way! Things like that should not be taken so
+seriously. A man is but a man, especially if he is a gentleman! Why,
+I've seen <i>countesses</i> even, whose husbands went on the loose. You
+expect too much, my dear! Chocolate is the nicest dish in the whole
+world; but if one were to give one's husband nothing but chocolate every
+day, he would soon loathe the very sight of it. Come, come! go home,
+dear heart, my darling ladykin, to your dear good lord and master, and
+you'll see how heartily he'll receive you!'</p>
+
+<p>"I replied that I would never go back to him again. I wept for shame.
+The woman guessed the cause of my tears.</p>
+
+<p>"'Come, come, good heart! Why, my lady, we'll all of us agree to deny
+that this little holiday ever happened. We were talking about it just
+now. We'll lie the thing away, and say that your ladyship only wanted to
+frighten the good gentleman, and that you were hiding the whole time at
+the house of the local magistrate.'</p>
+
+<p>"And how about the flower-selling in the market-place, and the promenade
+through the waters?'</p>
+
+<p>"'We'll say that that was only done out of spite. How should a dirty
+clown like my husband presume to cast his eyes on such a precious
+treasure as your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> ladyship? Why, anybody who could believe such a thing
+would be called a downright fool. We'll put it all to rights finely.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But a separation suit is already going on?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Your ladyship needn't trouble your head about that. His honour has
+withdrawn his complaint. Yes, I declare he has. He told me he was in
+great embarrassment. He had been deprived of his tithes and land tax,
+and did not know whither to turn for money. The gentlemen up at Pest had
+reintroduced the <i>morgatorium</i>, or whatever the plaguy thing is called,
+which as good as said that all the old debts were not to be paid, but
+that no new debts were to be made. Now, if he is divorced from your
+ladyship, he will have to pay you back your 100,000 florins, and then
+he'll be ruined. That's a fact.'</p>
+
+<p>"A light began to dawn upon me. This garrulous little peasant woman had
+let out the secret why my idyll had terminated so abruptly. A very
+pretty twice-two certainly! They receive me back like a pupil returning
+to school after the vacation. For that very reason I resolved I would
+<i>not</i> go back.</p>
+
+<p>"When I was dressed again in my old clothes, she opened the little door
+and readmitted me into the larger apartment. Peter was now tricked out
+in his grandest array. He had donned his Sunday mantle, drawn on his new
+boots, and stood before me hat in hand. He was as humble as a lackey. He
+kissed my hand, and I noticed now for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> first time how very bristly
+his chin was. When he spoke it sounded like the whining voice of a
+burnt-out beggar-man who stands at the stable-door and begs an alms.</p>
+
+<p>"'I kiss your gracious hands, my lady. I humbly beg pardon if I have
+offended you in any way. I didn't mean to do it. Forgive me my fault,
+and I'll never do it again.'</p>
+
+<p>"At this I knew not whether to laugh or to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he got quite touched, and wiped his eyes with the flapping sleeves
+of his shirt.</p>
+
+<p>"Behind the door stood a stout willow-wood stick, which he laid hold of.
+I wondered what he was going to do with it. Would he give it to me as a
+staff for my pilgrimage?</p>
+
+<p>"'Permit me, your ladyship, to accompany you as far as the castle. Some
+evil might befall you on the way. There are bad men about. The dogs
+might bark at you, and the bull is quite savage.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But I am not going to the castle,' I said.</p>
+
+<p>"He gaped at me. 'Whither away, then?'</p>
+
+<p>"'That's my business! The road goes up, and the road goes down. I'll go
+whichever way the wind blows.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then he rallied all the wisdom he possessed, and preached a sermon to
+me with all the unction of an Old Testament patriarch.</p>
+
+<p>"'Don't do that, my dear good lady! Don't grieve your good and loving
+lord! There's not a better man in the world. Allow me to accompany<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> you
+home. I'll keep well behind&mdash;twenty yards if you like.'</p>
+
+<p>"I stamped my foot impatiently, and bawled at him to come away from the
+door and let me go my way.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it was that Peter showed his true colours.</p>
+
+<p>"'My lady, this cannot be! The good and worthy squire, when he gave me
+the ten oxen to take back my wife, said this to me: "Well! Peter
+Gyuricza, if you bring my wife home also, ten young calves shan't stand
+between us."'</p>
+
+<p>(The rocks and woods re-echoed with my laughter. I couldn't keep it
+back.)</p>
+
+<p>"Then my fury boiled over. You know that when I fly into a rage I am a
+perfect lioness, don't you? I snatched the stick from Peter Gyuricza's
+hand. 'Lubber, lout! I'll give you your ten young calves! There you are,
+take them!' I don't know whether I gave him exactly ten blows. I didn't
+count them. And the big lout of a man turned tail, rushed into the room,
+dodged round the table, and roared like a hippopotamus, while I broke
+the stick over his shoulders. His consort thought it best not to
+interfere, but leaped upon the bench and looked on. It was a real luxury
+for her to meet with some one who could thoroughly trounce her tyrant.</p>
+
+<p>"I only wish my previous journey had not fatigued me so much.</p>
+
+<p>"I began to recover a little when I found myself out in the fields, and
+the breeze blew the heat out of my head. My idyll had come to a pretty
+end.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> What was I to do now? One thing was certain, I could not return to
+Muki Bagotay.</p>
+
+<p>"But whither was I to go, then?</p>
+
+<p>"Before me lay the beautiful Danube. The road by the dam ran all the way
+along it. From time to time I leaned against an old willow-tree and
+looked at the great living-water. Now and then a fish would leap up into
+the air with a loud splash. I was not afraid of the water, but of the
+fishes I was afraid. I could not kill myself. I should have rejoiced, if
+that had been true with which they used to frighten us in our childish
+days when we leaned over the bank and looked into the water: Beware of
+the devil who lurks behind you and will push you in! But he didn't push
+me in. The devil can do nothing now. He cannot compete at all with the
+sons of men. But was it really worth while to kill myself for the sake
+of two such men as Muki Bagotay and Peter Gyuricza? No, my death would
+then have been as ridiculous as my life!</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I would go home to my mother. She couldn't exactly turn me
+out of doors. Let her punish me as she will&mdash;I'll humble myself; I'll
+bow down before her; I'll endure her wrath. After all, is she not my
+mother, and am I not her only child? She cannot but love her little one.
+From any one else I could not expect to find pity or love. Why, I even
+hated myself!</p>
+
+<p>"With these thoughts I set off towards the town.</p>
+
+<p>"It was baking hot. A strong south wind was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> blowing, as dry and burning
+as if it had come out of a stove. Clouds of sand covered the whole
+region, and whenever a gust came, I had to take refuge under a
+willow-tree, lest I should be hurled into the dam. I can't say what time
+of the day it was, but I know that it was the forenoon to me, for I had
+eaten nothing yet that day. The Gyuriczas had forgotten to invite me to
+sit down to their dumplings.... To quench my thirst, I descended once or
+twice to the Danube and drank some water out of the palm of my hand. On
+the road-side I found a flower which I thought was a cheese-poppy. I
+tasted it, but it was very nasty. Weary as I was, I must hasten to get
+to the town as soon as possible. I should have been glad even of such a
+piece of bread as I used to distribute to the beggars at home on Friday.</p>
+
+<p>"I was hastening on towards the town, when suddenly a kind of darkness
+rose up before me in the sky, and on looking at it more attentively, I
+was horrified to observe that in the town a fire had broken out, the
+black smoke of which was rolling up into the dust-clouded sky.</p>
+
+<p>"The burning simoon blew back the black smoke upon the town. Great
+Heaven! the whole town will be reduced to ashes.</p>
+
+<p>"And now I began to run. I forgot that I was weary, I forgot that I was
+hungry. Fear lent me fresh strength. The nearer I got to the town the
+higher the smoke rolled up. Now, however, it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> not black, but red.
+Millions of sparks shot flashing upwards, and huge fragments of flaming
+roofs were to be seen flying in the midst of them. When a tiled house
+caught fire, the burning tiles shivered like fiery rockets in every
+direction. A whole street was already in flames when I reached the town.
+Howling heaps of men, carts and carriages in full career, wailing women,
+children half crushed and suffocated, and in the midst of them all
+lowing kine and oxen wildly struggling back into their dark stables at
+the sight of the conflagration&mdash;the whole mass was rushing backwards and
+forwards in aimless confusion. I forced my way into a side street, lest
+I should be crushed to death, with the intention of getting home that
+way. Everywhere I encountered lamenting crowds attempting to drag along
+the streets the things they had saved from their houses. Nobody thought
+of extinguishing the flames. The burning embers fell in torrents. When I
+got to my mother's house I found it already wrapped in flames. It was
+the highest house in the street. A handful of Honveds were attempting to
+extinguish the flames. Others had mounted on the roof, and were throwing
+the furniture out of the windows. I saw a gold-framed picture flying
+through the air&mdash;it was the portrait of my poor father. Oh! he indeed
+used to love me. If he had only lived, I should not be what I am now.
+There were none but strange faces around me. In vain I asked them where
+my mother was. They had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> heard of her. All at once a white-collared
+officer, some major or other I suppose, came up and cried to the
+fire-extinguishing Honveds, 'Why are you putting out that fire? It
+doesn't deserve it. It was there that the colonel lodged who set the
+town on fire! Leave the cursed hole alone, and go and protect the
+hospital!' I knew not whether I had gone mad or not. Why did they curse
+our house? The Honveds began execrating the name of a colonel who had
+often come to our <i>soir&eacute;es</i>. If they recognise me, I thought, perhaps
+they'll pitch me into the fire also. One heavy cart after another
+rattled over my poor father's portrait. I couldn't even save that. I was
+aroused from my benumbing stupor by a frightful yell, the shout of
+thousands and thousands of men: 'Saint Andrew's Church is burning!' One
+of the slender towers of that vast cathedral was already in flames,
+while in the other the alarm-bells were ringing furiously. The mob
+carried me with it. Every one hastened along to save the church. But it
+was already too late. The other tower had also caught fire, the bells
+were silenced, the roof of the church was also ablaze. The beautiful
+church banners, which the guildsmen used to carry all round the town
+with great pomp on Corpus Christi day, were dragged out half charred
+amidst the falling firebrands. The heat was so terrible that one could
+not remain in the market-place. 'The whole town's done for!' cried the
+men. 'Let us fly to the island!' And with that the human flood poured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
+through the narrow streets towards the Danube. The thought occurred to
+me that <i>there</i> was a little villa which belonged to us. Happy thought!
+Perhaps I might find my mother there: she might have fled there for
+refuge. So I went along with the human torrent. By the time we got to
+the island drawbridge, it was impossible to get any farther through the
+densely packed crowd. Why were they coming back? Because the drawbridge
+was also burning. It was a terrible spectacle. The whole Danube shore
+was in flames, and the drawbridge leading to the island carried the
+conflagration still farther. The Danube was hissing with falling red-hot
+beams. Corn-ships, windmills, swam blazing along, and dashed against the
+ice-breakers. A band of armed Honveds posted by the custom-house kept
+the people back from rushing upon the burning bridge. They told us what
+had happened. There was a greater danger even than fire. An Imperial
+regiment had tried to creep quietly into the town. They were already at
+Tat&aacute;. The citizens, however, had found it out, and raised the drawbridge
+against them. The troops, enraged at the failure of their stratagem, had
+set the town on fire. What a cursing there was! I heard one particular
+name branded again and again, the name of the colonel who was to have
+married my mother if the revolution had not intervened."</p>
+
+<p>I could not go on with my drawing. The mist no longer lay upon the
+landscape, but upon my eyes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>The young lady continued circumstantially the history of those
+horrors:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Then three cannon-shots thundered from the fortress. No doubt it was
+only a signal which the troops often give in times of fire. But at this
+roaring of guns the fear of the people became still greater. 'The enemy
+is storming the town!' At this the whole crowd, which had hitherto
+entirely covered the Danube's bank, immediately rushed back again into
+the burning town, through the flaming streets and the burning rafters.
+'To the Waag, to the Waag!'<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">75</a> everybody cried. In that direction there
+was a hope of deliverance. I am only amazed that I was not crushed to
+death. In my terror I seized hold of a boatman's arm, and the worthy
+man, whom I had never seen before, allowed me to cling on to him like
+grim death; assured me that he would take care I was not left behind,
+and dragged me along with him over the backs of the struggling mob."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> A confluent of the Danube.</p></div>
+
+<p>Here she had to pause. The recollections of these horrors stopped her
+breath. Pearls of sweat stood upon her forehead. It was only after a
+very long pause that she was able to resume.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall never forget that day. The alarm-bells were still pealing from
+a single tower, the tower of the Calvinist church. All the other church
+towers were in ashes, this one alone remained. The wind was blowing in a
+contrary direction. The fire had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> not yet extended to that part of the
+town. Every one hastened in the direction of the Calvinist church tower.
+The streets in the vicinity of the fortress were barred against the
+flying crowd by the Honved regiments; the only street by which it was
+possible to get to the Waag was Sunday Street. This also was half in
+flames, but from where Great St. Michael Street cuts across it, it still
+remained untouched. Your house was the border building beyond which the
+fire had not yet extended, but the inn at the opposite corner was burned
+to the ground. Oh, that dear familiar house, with those cool corridors,
+and those red marble columns, on the iron cross-bars of which you, as a
+boy, so often used to show off your acrobatic feats before me! The
+thought occurred to me of seeking sanctuary there in my great extremity.
+At one time I was wont to be heartily welcomed there. It is true that I
+had sinned grievously against that house, and the lady had reproached me
+with it to my face. I <i>had laughed at her son</i>, and that laughter had
+driven him out into the world. But in seasons of great calamity wrath is
+forgotten. I would seek a refuge there with your mother. Such were my
+thoughts when I saw your mother's house. That sight I shall never
+forget. There stood the good old lady on the threshold of her house, in
+that very brown dress, that very frilled turban in which you painted her
+portrait. Whenever she recognised anybody among the flying crowd, she
+stopped him, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> asked, 'Have you not seen my son?' and when he
+replied, 'I have not!' she would wring her hands and sob bitterly, 'Oh,
+Holy Father! why is not my son here?'"</p>
+
+<p>Alas! what was the matter with my eyes? They suddenly filled with
+something.</p>
+
+<p>The young lady continued her story:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"When I heard your mother saying these words, I was possessed with fresh
+horror. It never occurred to me that you had an elder brother who was
+the guardian of the orphan wards of the town, and that his proper place
+then was in the Town Hall, with the roof blazing over his head, trying
+to save the property of the orphans. I dared not go along that side of
+the street; I crossed over to the other side. Suppose she were to seize
+me also and ask: 'What have you done with my son? But for those
+accursed, colour-shifting eyes of yours, he would now be beside me, he
+would never have left me all alone!' I dared not, I dared not meet her
+eye. I would rather endure the sight of my own mother's angry face than
+the tearful look of your mother. I hid my face in my hands, and hurried
+past."</p>
+
+<p>She could say no more. She let her face fall on my breast, and sobbed
+aloud.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT</p>
+
+
+<p>When she again lifted up her face, her eyes were like a somnambulist's
+gazing fixedly in the moonlight. They appeared absolutely dark-blue, so
+much were the irises distended. Her voice was quite low.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole picture is still vividly before my eyes. The greater part of
+the town was in flames. It must have been evening. The sound of the
+clock in the Calvinist church tower mingled with the peal of the
+alarm-bells. The clock struck eight, the alarm-bells five. The people
+counted the strokes: exactly thirteen. The sun shone no longer, but the
+whole vault of heaven was alight; the fiery reflection of the thick
+clouds of smoke made a hellish daylight, and in the midst of this
+terrible illumination, like some dread idol, rose the tower of the
+Calvinist church, with its large copper roof, and its spire with the
+great gold ball and star. Star and ball glowed like phantoms from the
+world beyond the grave. The crackling of the fire roared down the
+howling of the beasts and the cries of ten thousand terrified men. In
+that part of the town<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> where the carters dwelt, carts, horses and oxen,
+and their owners were all huddled together in one dense mass. To move
+was an impossibility. Then upon this howling, cursing, blaspheming
+multitude came pouring that mass of men which had fought its way from
+the banks of the Danube through the burning town, with the terrifying
+cry, 'The enemy has attacked the town!' By this time the alarming rumour
+had gained such proportions that there were those who said they had
+actually seen the enemy's soldiers entering the town. 'They are burning,
+they are plundering&mdash;fly! fly!' Some even exclaimed, 'They are about to
+bombard the captured town from the fortress!' All at once the whole
+street, as far as the Waag bridge, was filled with flying vehicles. In
+my terror I had clutched hold of the mud-splasher of one of these
+vehicles as it came tearing along, and ran along after it till there was
+scarcely a breath left in my body. My light buskins were completely worn
+off my feet and full of gravel. I had no time to stop and empty them.
+This particular carriage had excellent horses in it, and the coachman
+did not spare his whip. Two women, dressed in peasants' hoods, were
+sitting in this carriage. I was astonished that they should wrap
+themselves up so closely in their hoods, and cover their heads with big
+kerchiefs, when such an infernal heat was blazing all around us, from
+the earth, from the sky, and from every side of us.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>"The coachman reached the Waag bridge safely before the other fugitive
+carriages had blocked up the way. At the entrance they had to stop, for
+there the custom-house officers demanded the bridge-tolls. That the
+whole town was in flames mattered not a button to them, all they wanted
+was their tolls. One of the women handed them an Austrian bank-note for
+100 florins. The toll-collector could not give change. A queer sort of
+peasant woman, truly, who had no smaller change than a bank-note for 100
+florins! While they were haggling about it, it occurred to me that I was
+now wearing my genteel clothes, and that in the pockets there was sure
+to be a silver <i>tizes</i><a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> for any beggar I might chance to meet on my
+way. So I went up and said to the peasant women: 'I've got a <i>tizes</i>
+which I'll give to the toll-collector; all that I ask is that you will
+take me in your carriage&mdash;there's room for me beside the coachman. I
+don't mind where you take me.' At this, one of the women called to the
+coachman: 'Don't let that girl get up, we won't have her.' Then they
+told the toll-collector that he might keep the 100-florin note if he
+couldn't give them change, if only he would let their coachman go on. I
+was horrified at such inhumanity. What a heartless woman it must be who,
+in such a time of peril, could refuse a fugitive girl a place in her
+carriage, and who, rather than do so, preferred to sacrifice a bank-note
+for 100 florins, peasant though she was! In my indigna<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>tion I tore the
+big muffling clout from the head of the peasant woman and discovered her
+face. And now my blood froze to ice. I recognised my own mother!
+'Mother, dear mother!' I cried, 'don't you know me? I am your own little
+girl, Bessy!' Then my mother, pulling up the collar of her mantle over
+her face, said, in a simulated peasant voice: 'Be off! Don't bother us!
+I don't know the girl. I'm not your mother. Let go my kerchief!'</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> The tenth part of a florin.</p></div>
+
+<p>"I thought I was going mad. My own mother wouldn't know me! She wouldn't
+let me get into her carriage. Like lightning the thought flashed through
+my mind that she it was whom the people were cursing so. No doubt they
+were cursing her unjustly, but in such times as these that mattered
+little. Whomsoever the popular fury points out is condemned already. I
+could not betray my own mother. I hastily threw my silver coin to the
+toll-collector that they might let the carriage go on. I thought that if
+once we got beyond the bridge, and my mother had no further fear of
+pursuit, she would take me into the carriage. So catching hold of the
+back part of the vehicle, I ran on beside the carriage till we had got
+beyond the trenches of the fortress and out upon the highway. Then I
+again began to supplicate, so far as my gasping voice would allow me:
+'Mother, dear, good mother! take me into the carriage; I am dropping. I
+can go no farther.' They would not hear me. They only cursed and
+scolded: 'Be off! Decamp!' And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> when I still persisted in clinging on,
+they at last seized my fingers, which were still clutching the splasher,
+violently wrenched them off, and gave me a rough push so that I fell at
+full length into the highway. Then the carriage rolled on farther.</p>
+
+<p>"I had held out till then, but now my strength failed me. I trembled so
+that I could no longer stand upon my legs. Utterly crushed in mind and
+body by the sufferings of that terrible day, I dragged myself on my
+knees to the edge of the wayside ditch. My instinctive fear of death
+told me that I must avoid the middle of the road if I didn't want to be
+trampled to death. There then I lay clinging to a roadside poplar,
+gazing apathetically at the dreadful scene. The fugitive vehicles dashed
+madly along the highway in threes and fours, colliding every moment. The
+cursing and swearing were something awful. Every now and then one
+conveyance overturned another into the ditch, and the women who were
+sitting in them screamed and cried most piteously. One coachman hit upon
+the foolhardy idea of forcing his way through the ditch into the open
+field, and others followed his example. They came so close to me as to
+all but run over me, and I had not sufficient strength left to draw up
+my legs out of reach of their revolving wheels.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the blast of trumpets mingled with the hurly-burly. A regiment of
+Hussars was trying to cut its way through the fugitive carriages with a
+convoy of hay-waggons, which, as was explained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> to me later on, the
+Commandant of the fortress was transferring from the burning town to the
+village of Izsa across the Waag. The commanding officer was cursing and
+swearing, and striking all the coachmen he met with the flat of his
+sword for stopping his soldiers' way. 'Damned rascals! instead of
+putting out the fire, you all take to your heels. What the devil is the
+matter with you? There's no enemy behind you! Would that the souls of
+your ancestors could revivify you!'</p>
+
+<p>"The voice seemed familiar to me, but the face I had never seen before.
+A spiral moustache, a French beard, a Hussar uniform, and a plumed
+hat&mdash;I had never seen <i>that</i> figure before.</p>
+
+<p>"Thus he appeared before me like the dragon-slaying hero of a fairy
+tale.</p>
+
+<p>"Hitherto, of all those who scurried past me, not one had noticed the
+wretched creature lying in the ditch. Some girl or other quite past
+help, they thought, perhaps. Nobody took any notice of me.</p>
+
+<p>"This officer <i>did</i> notice me. In the midst of the greatest turmoil he
+perceived a woman lying beneath his horse's feet. He hastily reined in
+his charger, and called me by my name. 'My lady Elizabeth! how ever did
+you come here? In Heaven's name, what has befallen you?'</p>
+
+<p>"I recognised him by his mode of addressing me. There was only one man
+who used to address me in this way, the man who taught me my <i>r&ocirc;le</i> at
+those famous amateur theatricals that you remember.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>"'Mr. B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi! Mr. Director!' I stammered, in my joy.</p>
+
+<p>"'No, no! Captain Rengetegi is my name. Why, where is your mother? Run
+away? She did well. Get up, my lady, into my carriage, and I'll take you
+now to a place of safety.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I cannot get up.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then he hastily dismounted from his horse, gave his bridle to his
+orderly, went up to me, raised me in his arms, carried me to his
+carriage, and laid me down there among sweet-smelling hay.</p>
+
+<p>"I felt just as if I had been placed in Paradise.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he threw his mantle over me. It was cold outside now, and a strong
+wind was blowing.</p>
+
+<p>"But his care for me went even further than that.</p>
+
+<p>"'There is food in my knapsack, lady Elizabeth. I suppose you have had
+no supper to-day? Take whatever you find there. There's some drink, too,
+in my flask. It will do you good. You have nothing more to fear. The
+finger-pointing virgin still stands there on the bastions of our
+fortress.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then he mounted his horse again, and continued commanding his men
+loudly and authoritatively to force their way through the crush of carts
+and carriages with their convoy of hay. I fancied that I saw before me
+an archangel.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't wait to be asked twice. As soon as I was able to get hold of
+the knapsack of victuals, I stuffed myself indiscriminately with all it
+con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>tained&mdash;ham, cake, rolls. I gorged like a wild beast broken loose
+from a menagerie. I verily believe that if my bliss in Heaven had
+depended upon it, I would have renounced it for that couch of soft straw
+and those greedily devoured delicacies.</p>
+
+<p>"When I had satisfied my appetite as I had never done before, I
+unscrewed the top of the flask and put it to my mouth. I didn't taste
+what was in it, but I gulped and gulped so long as I had any breath in
+my body, as much as my thirst craved. I fancy it must have been brandy.
+When I couldn't drink any more I looked all about me. The burning town
+was a grand illumination; in the midst of it was the Calvinist church
+tower&mdash;only it was now not one tower, but three. The silly thing was
+dancing a <i>pas seul</i>, and wagging its head now to the right, and now to
+the left, and all the people, and the horses, and the coachmen, and the
+hay-carts were leaping and dancing, like wedding-guests considerably the
+worse for liquor.</p>
+
+<p>"When next day I awoke out of a twenty-hours' sleep, I found myself in
+the room of a peasant's house. Two men were holding a consultation over
+me&mdash;the camp-surgeon and 'he.' 'How do you find yourself, lady
+Elizabeth? You are in my little room.'</p>
+
+<p>"So ever since then I have been the lady Elizabeth."</p>
+
+<p>With these words Bessy rushed to the edge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> the steep rock, crossed
+her two hands over her breast, and looked over her shoulder at me.</p>
+
+<p>"I have now told you everything, and you must judge me. You have no need
+to push me. Give but a signal with your finger and I'll put an end to
+myself!"</p>
+
+<p>Horrified, I grasped her hand, and snatched her away from the dizzying
+rocky ledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not tempt God! Be reasonable!" And, not without some little force, I
+made her sit down by the hot embers.</p>
+
+<p>"But do you call this <i>life</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, calm yourself! Look, these armed men are close upon us!"</p>
+
+<p>They were not gendarmes. They were two worthy foresters belonging to the
+domain of the Forests of Diosgy&ouml;r&mdash;a grey-bearded old man with a
+youthful assistant.</p>
+
+<p>No hostile intentions had brought them thither. They could see, too,
+that our picnic beside the fire was a very innocent diversion. In the
+album left upon the rock was my unfinished landscape.</p>
+
+<p>They greeted us cordially, and I returned their greeting in like manner.
+I asked the elder man whether I was injuring any one's proprietorial
+rights by making a fire with other people's wood. If so, I said, I would
+make good the trespass. To which the old man replied that he had no
+quarrel with me on that score. The stuff was there for the poor man to
+gather, and he cited the classical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> German ballad in which the
+evil-minded forester robbed the peasant of his bundle of faggots. He
+must needs be a lover of letters, then!</p>
+
+<p>Then he told us why they had come.</p>
+
+<p>"We perceived the smoke from below, and knew, therefore, that there were
+visitors on the Precipice Stone. We thought it our duty to come up.
+Wolves are about in the forest. We wished to tell you so."</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you for your great kindness; but, from what I am told, wolves
+will not attack a man."</p>
+
+<p>"But they've become very aggressive since they discovered that the
+Government has confiscated all muskets, leaving only a pair or two with
+us. They avoid men in the day time, I know; but at dark or in a
+snowstorm they are very impudent."</p>
+
+<p>"We do not intend to remain here till evening. I only wanted to finish
+the drawing, for the sake of which I scrambled up hither."</p>
+
+<p>"But I would call your attention, sir, to the fact that we shall have a
+fall of snow here before night. I know the signs of the weather. When
+such a vast mist lies over the country in the morning, and then rises
+suddenly, and is quickly followed by darkness, then we may expect a
+snowstorm the same day. That is an old experience of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"We will hasten home."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you live at Tordona, or at Malyinka?"</p>
+
+<p>"I live at Tordona."</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, sir. I know every one there."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>He didn't ask who I was. We shook hands, and with that the pair of them
+went on their way.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it worth while creeping into the cave for this?" said Bessy, when
+the foresters had withdrawn.</p>
+
+<p>"There are men who can face a great danger and hide away from a little
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"And you think, then, that our friend there is a fire-eater?&mdash;I thought
+so too for a long time. It was no unexampled thing in those
+extraordinary times for men to become suddenly transformed. Those who
+were looked upon as mere carpet knights became veritable heroes; lawyers
+became colonels: war has an ennobling influence on so many types of
+character. I really believed that Rengetegi had changed his whole nature
+with his name. When others had to be aroused, there was no such orator
+as he. I was absolutely proud that we belonged to each other. When the
+Austrian troops invested the fortress, and hurled the first bomb into
+the market-place, the whole of our social life was suddenly turned
+upside down. There was now no such thing as etiquette. The families of
+great magnates left their houses (those, that is, whose houses were not
+burnt down already), pitched their tents in the Gipsy-field and dwelt
+there. The guns of the Monostor batteries did not carry so far as that.
+In the barracks, moral law disappeared. An officer was a great personage
+then, and to walk about the streets leaning on his arm was a
+much-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>coveted glory. Whether the lady on his arm was his wife was not
+the question&mdash;he was a fine fellow, a gallant fellow. That was the main
+thing. And if I met an acquaintance I introduced Rengetegi as my future
+husband. Every one knew that I had begun a suit against Muki Bagotay.
+But where were the courts, the advocates, the judges?&mdash;every one was
+either wearing a sword or serving a gun. When people asked me where I
+lived, I said 'in the fortress!' To dwell in the fortress was an
+enviable position. The rooms there were fire-proof. I really think that
+there were more who envied than pitied my fate. I also got familiar with
+the ways of a soldier's life. They gave concerts, and I fiddled while
+Rengetegi declaimed. When the enemy was hurling away his bombs at the
+fortress, we took our band out on the ramparts, and there, with a great
+flourish of trumpets, we danced <i>cs&aacute;rd&aacute;ses</i>. How that did aggravate the
+Germans! I had a great reputation as a <i>rak&eacute;t&aacute;s</i><a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">77</a> dancer."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Rocket-dance.</p></div>
+
+<p>I must frankly admit that I was not much edified by this turn in the
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy perceived that I was not well pleased with her doings in camp.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, my dear friend!" she said, "don't fancy by any means that this
+episode of my life consisted entirely of rioting and revelry, there was
+a little intermezzo in it also. You know, of course, that, during the
+winter, things at Comorn were very bad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> indeed. The Commandant had not
+the capacity for the problem before him, which included the defence of
+such an important fortress. The garrison was lazy and mutinous. Whispers
+of treachery arose, and the chief of the artillery was deprived of his
+post. It was necessary to inform the Hungarian Government at Debreczin
+of the dangerous state of things at Comorn, and to beg for a new
+Commandant who should be a distinguished officer. But how was it
+possible to carry a message from Comorn to Debreczin? Who would
+undertake the risky enterprise of carrying the despatch from Comorn,
+through so many hostile armies, and bringing back the reply to it again?
+They had sent one messenger already, but he had been unable to get back.
+It was a joke which might cost a man his head.</p>
+
+<p>"One evening, Rengetegi came to my little room in the barracks, and
+said: 'Elizabeth, the hour has come for us to part!'</p>
+
+<p>"I immediately thought that he was tipsy.</p>
+
+<p>"'You haven't played me away at cards, I hope?'</p>
+
+<p>"'It is not you, but my own head that I have lost. I have accepted the
+mission to Debreczin. I've run my head against a wall, I know. It's neck
+or nothing now. And they've pressed a thousand florins into my hand to
+make the way before me quite secure.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And you have lost it all at cards this evening?'</p>
+
+<p>"'How did you find that out?'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>"'I have made it my study. I know well those Hippocratic countenances.
+Well, and what are you going to do now?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Save my honour! I'll go on my way without money.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Listen to me! I believe that you would be very glad to get out of this
+bombarded fortress&mdash;but I've no very ardent belief that you'll ever come
+back again. I tell you what: give me the official despatch which has to
+be taken, and I'll take care that it reaches the hands of the
+Government.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But how?' inquired Rengetegi, immensely delighted.</p>
+
+<p>"'That I shall not tell you. I've been turning the matter over for some
+time. You have only a passive part to play here. You hide yourself in
+the village of Izsa, which the enemy has not occupied, because it lies
+within the range of the guns of the fortress, and wait for me there till
+I return from Debreczin with the answer of the Government.'"</p>
+
+<p>"And Rengetegi actually accepted the proposal?" I inquired. I now began
+to admire this woman.</p>
+
+<p>"He jumped at it. He gave me soul-stirring examples of the heroic women
+of history, who had gone to the wars along with their husbands.... He
+vowed that if I ever returned in safety from my mission he would
+henceforth call me 'Queen Zenobia.'</p>
+
+<p>"By the evening of the same day I was ready for the enterprise. I made
+Rengetegi dye his hair,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> moustache, and beard black, so that it was
+almost impossible to recognise him."</p>
+
+<p>"So that was your idea!" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I stowed him away in a peasant's hut at Het&eacute;ny, with strict
+instructions not to emerge from his prison till I tapped at the door.
+Next I set to work to thoroughly disguise my own person. I was to be the
+leader of a gipsy band. Ah! if you could only have painted my portrait!
+Then, indeed, I really was lovely! I smeared my face with the juice of
+green walnut-shells till it was so black that I could pass for a gipsy
+among the gipsies themselves; I clipped my hair till it only reached
+down to my shoulders; I put on a jacket which some gentleman or other
+had worn threadbare before giving it away; hose that certainly were
+never intended for me, and a shirt that had never been washed: and so I
+transformed myself into as filthy a shape as ever led a wandering gipsy
+band."</p>
+
+<p>Here I could not forbear from pressing her hand. What sacrifices will
+not a woman make for her country and for her lover!</p>
+
+<p>"But all this was a mere joke to what followed. I now had to get
+together a band. If they catch a gipsy alone they arrest him as a spy;
+but if he be one of a quartet he may go on his way rejoicing. I provided
+myself with a violoncellist, a clarinet-player, and a contra-bass. It
+was easy to persuade them to quit the bombarded town, into which the
+gentry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> who had robbed them of their poor hovels had forced them to go.
+Bread and meat were getting dearer and dearer, and there was nothing to
+be earned. Who had the heart to pay for music amidst such a frightful
+carnival?</p>
+
+<p>"Thus, with my little band of three, I set out upon my long and
+uncertain journey on foot. Gipsies only ride in sledges when a magnate
+sends for them, and there was no such magnate in the whole district. If
+on our way we fell in with a cart laden with dried reeds taken out of
+the swamps for firewood, we would ask for a lift in it. But our legs
+nearly froze there, and we were glad to get down again and walk.</p>
+
+<p>"In the very first village we came to, O-Gyalla, we fell in with a
+division of the Austrian investing army, German cuirassiers. The patrol
+brought us to the major in command. He was indeed a merciless personage.
+He roared at us, and asked us how we dared to leave the town. We
+naturally did not understand a word of German, and all four of us, in
+true gipsy fashion, began to raise objections at the same time: we could
+not remain in the town, the Honveds posted us right in front of the
+bombs, and made us play music at the very top of the bastions; all the
+cannons had fired at us, and that was a thing that gipsies couldn't
+stand. '<i>Was sagen die Spitzbuben?</i>' inquired the major of his auditor.
+The auditor understood Hungarian, and expounded unto him: 'Nix da, you
+rascals! You are spies, and must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> be searched. Come! you must undress.'
+I was not a little alarmed, I can tell you. Not on account of the
+despatches I had with me, I had put them in a place where they couldn't
+be found; but they would discover that I was a woman, and that while my
+face and hands were gipsy, the rest of me was European&mdash;and then I
+should be lost. I hastily said something to the gipsies, and in an
+instant they out with their instruments and rattled off <i>con fuoco</i> the
+fine hymn '<i>Gott erhalte!</i>' At this the frosty face of the old martinet
+thawed somewhat. 'Well, well, you rascals,' said he, 'as you know what's
+proper and decent, I won't have you flogged this time, but be off at
+once and don't remain in the village here. You mustn't play here for
+anybody. Whoever has an itch for dancing just let him tell me, and I'll
+give him dancing enough. There's the whipping-post!' Now the
+clarinet-player was a merry wag, and could not hide his light. 'Devil
+bless your honour,' said he, 'you pay with big bank-notes.' '<i>Was sagt
+der Karl?</i>' asked the major. He says, 'Gott soll segnen den grossen
+Herren, der zahlt mit grossen <i>Bank</i><a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">78</a>-noten!' At this his honour also
+laughed. 'But for all that you must pack yourselves off at once. You
+mustn't stop till you reach Ersekuvar, but there you may play as long as
+you like.' We kissed his hands and feet, and asked him to let us stay
+the night there. We were half frozen, we said. We had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> a morsel in
+our stomachs: for a whole week we had only eaten ice and drunk water.
+But he knew no pity. They blindfolded us, packed us into a sledge, and a
+patrol of horse escorted us out of the village. Now, of course, it was
+my very dearest desire to get as soon as possible beyond the iron girdle
+by which the besieged fortress was girt about. If only he can get out
+into the wide world, the gipsy has no fear of going astray. He can
+fiddle his way through the whole of Europe if only he gives his mind to
+it. And so we made our way along the Danube, from one town to the other,
+and enjoyed to the full all the romantic adventures of a wandering
+gipsy's life which abound in winter especially."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> "God bless the great gentleman, he pays with big
+<i>bang</i>-notes!"&mdash;a poor jest.</p></div>
+
+<p>"But," interrupted I, "didn't you come across G&ouml;rgey's Hungarian army,
+under whose protection you might have continued your journey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I did, but my instructions were to deliver my despatches to
+the head of the Hungarian Government, and nobody else, not even to a
+general. It is true that I might have gone on farther with the gallant
+Magyar army, where gipsy-music is always heartily welcomed. The Honveds,
+too, never lose their good humour; but, on the other hand, the main
+Magyar army was going towards Slavonia, whereas it was my object to get
+to Debreczin as soon as possible. So there was nothing for it but to go
+straight through the enemy's lines till we reached the banks of the
+Theiss, when we could be once more in a friendly world."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>"But where did you conceal the despatches?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I stuck them inside the belly of my fiddle. Who would break the fiddle
+of a poor gipsy with which he earns his daily bread? The money we earned
+in one town was sufficient to hire a sledge to convey us to the next.
+Gipsies dwell on the skirts of every town. We made ourselves at home
+there, and they never asked us whence we came; but if we were
+cross-examined at any place, then we lied to such a degree that the
+difficulty was to find anybody to believe us. You recollect what a
+terrible winter it was last year?"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember it very well. I was out all through it with my wife," I
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"How fine it would have been had we run across each other unexpectedly.
+I would have played a nocturne beneath your window. Ha, ha, ha!&mdash;The
+bitterest stage of the journey was from Kecskemet to the Theiss. There
+lay Jellachich,<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">79</a> with all his army, occupying the towns of the great
+Hungarian plain one after the other. Here we had to creep through as
+best we could. As for me, I had the good fortune to play every evening
+before his Excellency the valiant Ban. He was very pleased with me. With
+my little band I managed to play the famous Croatian march, '<i>Szl&aacute;va,
+szl&aacute;va, mu, mu, mu, Jelacsicsu nas omu</i>,' in quite a superior manner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> I
+also knew the tune of the fine 'Kolo' dance, and absolutely won his
+Excellency's heart with the melodious 'Fanny Schneider' polka. I might
+say that I was really quite spoiled. There was plenty of money and wine,
+and, despite my black face and my predominating odour of garlic, the
+enthusiasm rose so high that all the officers kissed me one after the
+other."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> The Ban of Croatia, who sided with the Austrians against
+Hungary.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Bessy had no sooner uttered these words than she buried her face in her
+hands. Again I came to her rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"Those kisses don't count; you were a man then."</p>
+
+<p>"It was quite a gipsy paradise, but the mischief was we did not know how
+to escape from it. The chivalrous Ban told us not to try to run away,
+for in that case he would court-martial and shoot the lot of us. At
+night, when our duties were done, he locked us up in a little out-house,
+and placed an armed sentry before the door.</p>
+
+<p>"One night we escaped up the chimney and over the roof of the
+neighbouring house; that is to say, three of us managed to get away, I
+and the clarinet-player and the contra-bass. The violoncello, however,
+could not be got out of the chimney, and the violoncellist declared that
+he would rather be stretched on the rack than leave his instrument in
+the lurch. So there we left him&mdash;to pay the piper. Besides, I had now
+not much need of my band; the Theiss was only a four hours' journey
+off.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>"I had heard from the officers that in the willow woods of the Theiss,
+in the neighbourhood of the 'Szikra' inn, some Hungarian guerillas were
+encamping. If only we could get among them!</p>
+
+<p>"It was a good thing for us that sentinel duty was very laxly ordered in
+the camp of the Ban of Croatia. At the end of the town was a <i>putri</i>, or
+semi-subterranean clay hut of the kind in which field-labourers pass the
+night during the summer. The soldiers who had been sent out on forepost
+duty were sitting in this hut, and their muskets were all leaning
+against the door. One of the gipsies said: 'Let us steal the muskets!'
+The other said: 'Steal your grandfather; I play with clarinets, not with
+muskets.' I urged them to press forward. We were near to the sand-hills.
+Before us lay a savage, rugged plain, where one sand-hill followed hard
+upon another. Some of these hills were half hollowed out by the wind,
+and the hollows between them sparsely dotted with dwarf fir-trees. A
+ghostly region. The sides of these sand-hills were white, and the
+snow-fall on the top of them was still whiter; and every tree-trunk
+there is also white with its pendant branches<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> bending down beneath
+the hoar-frost. We dodged up and down among these sand-hills, turning
+aside from the regular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> high road so that we might crouch down in case
+we were pursued. Along the whole length of the plain the broom of the
+wind swept our footprints over with snow.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> To-day this former waste of shifting sand-hills has been
+converted into a splendid vineyard, which the Hungarian Government has
+planted with vines from America proof against the <i>Phylloxera</i>.&mdash;<span class="smcap">J&oacute;kai.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>"'If only we don't come across wolves!' said the contra-bass, with
+chattering teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"'How can they be here when so many soldiers are about?' said I, by way
+of encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>"'Nay, but they like to prowl about camps, because carrion is always to
+be found there.'</p>
+
+<p>"Where the sand-hills ended, a far-extending flat began, and in the
+distance was a direful-looking object, resembling a ruin. A light mist
+covered the whole district, in which mist every object seemed as large
+again; the full moon shone wanly, like a huge broad halo in the misty
+heavens."</p>
+
+<p>Here I explained to Bessy that this district was the famous plain of
+Alpar, where the ancient Magyars fought the decisive battle against
+Zal&aacute;n, which gave them possession of the land; the ruin was the wall of
+the desert church of St. Laurence.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! and I may add that this desert is memorable to me also. While
+we were waddling along as fast as we could, with our short mantles
+turned against the wind, the contra-bass, who was going on leisurely in
+front, exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"'Devil take all these crows! Why don't they all go to sleep in the
+tower of the Calvinist church?'</p>
+
+<p>"I inquired why the crows ought to go to sleep on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> the top of the
+Calvinist church of all places in the world.</p>
+
+<p>"'Let the Calvinist crow stick to the top of the Calvinist church, and
+the Papist crow to the top of the Papist church, as is meet and right,'
+he explained.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not understand this sectarian distinction among crows, but the
+gipsy made it quite plain to me.</p>
+
+<p>"'One sort of crow is ashen grey, another sort black. The grey sort eats
+no flesh, but only grain; that is the Papist crow. The black sort lives
+on flesh, whether it be earthworms or fallen horse; that is the
+Calvinist crow, for it keeps no fast-days.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then he called my attention to the fact that on the hill there straight
+before us, a whole army of crows was making a great commotion. At one
+moment they rose high into the air with loud croakings, at another they
+descended upon the self-same spot from which they had risen. 'There must
+be carrion,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>"When we got to the top of the hill, we saw, to our great consternation,
+that the evil foreboding of the gipsy was correct.</p>
+
+<p>"On the highway below, by the side of the ditch, lay a big black mass,
+the carcase of a fallen horse, and fighting over what remained of it was
+a whole army of crows and ravens and five large <i>wolves</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"We were about five hundred paces from the terrible beasts.</p>
+
+<p>"They immediately perceived us, and, leaving the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> carcase, forthwith
+began scudding towards us, spurring each other on with their nasty short
+sharp yelps.</p>
+
+<p>"'Alas, alas! It is all up with us now!' wailed the contra-bass. 'The
+wolves will eat us up.'</p>
+
+<p>"Even in that hour of mortal peril the clarinetist was true to his gipsy
+humour. 'Then we shall have a very queer shape at the resurrection,'
+said he.</p>
+
+<p>"I bade them leave off wailing, and hasten to clamber up into a
+willow-tree, whither the monsters could not follow us.</p>
+
+<p>"It was an old pollard willow, the branches of which were cut off every
+year, so that only the crown of it remained, surrounded by young shoots.
+I, who had never learnt the art of tree-climbing, was hoisted up by the
+gipsies first of all, and then they hastily scrambled up after me.</p>
+
+<p>"When we had got to the top of the tree we discovered that in the middle
+of it was a large hole&mdash;the whole inside of the tree was hollow, and
+could contain a man.</p>
+
+<p>"'Leader,' said the contra-bass, 'your loss would be most serious, creep
+down into that hole.' I took him at his word, and glided down from the
+crown of the tree into the deep hollow trunk. First of all, however, I
+tied my long cotton neckerchief to a little branch, that I might be able
+to hoist myself up again in case of need, for the hole in the willow
+went right down to its very roots. At the side of the tree, too, close
+to an old branch, there was an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> orifice as large as one's fist, through
+which one could look as through an attic window.</p>
+
+<p>"The five wolves were not long in arriving.</p>
+
+<p>"They did not come quite near at first, but reconnoitred. Whenever one
+of them sneaked up a little nearer, the clarinet-player aimed at it with
+his instrument, which the wolf took for a musket. Then the beast would
+back a little and scratch up the snow with his hind legs. They say the
+creature is wont to do this when he sees a man stand on the defensive;
+he tries to blind him with snow.</p>
+
+<p>"When, however, the wolves at last discovered that we had no fire-arms,
+they sent up the ugliest howls, and began the siege of the willow. They
+took tremendous leaps in the air to reach the crown of the tree, but it
+was too high for them.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it occurred to the gipsies that they had often heard that wolves
+had a strong penchant for music, and they began giving them a clarinet
+and fiddle concert.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true that the nasty brutes left off the siege, sat round the
+willow, and began to howl in concert with the music, at the same time
+raising their horrid jaws towards the moon, and lashing their sides with
+their ragged brush-like tails; and for a short time I was quite amused
+at the scene. But suddenly our double danger occurred to my mind.</p>
+
+<p>"'Hey! gipsies. Stop, I say! Is the devil in you? Your music will bring
+the pickets of the Croats upon us, and they will flay us alive.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>"At this they stopped their music.</p>
+
+<p>"This appeared to make the wolves still more savage, and now they tried
+a fresh stratagem.</p>
+
+<p>"They had found out that the willow leaned a little to one side, and
+rushing at it from a little distance, they attempted to scale the
+sloping side of the tree. This man&#339;uvre was likely to have succeeded. It
+was then that I saw what a powerful beast the wolf really is, and how
+much more cunning than any species of dog. Scrambling up at full tilt,
+they managed to reach the crown of the willow, but there the brave
+contra-bass was awaiting them, and gave them such a kick on the snout
+with his iron-heeled boots that the attacking beasts fell head over
+heels backwards.</p>
+
+<p>"This they repeated ten or twelve times.</p>
+
+<p>"And there was this remarkable circumstance about it, that every time an
+attacking wolf was prostrated by a kick from the gipsy, the others
+rushed upon him as he fell, and worried him as if to punish him for his
+failure.</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly they left off, and went and sat down in a heap just in front
+of my window. Their tongues lolled out of their panting mouths; their
+hot, bestial breath rose into the cold air before me. They appeared to
+be taking counsel together. The biggest of them seemed to be their
+leader. If one of the younger ones yelped too much, he would snap at his
+neck as if to say 'shut up!'</p>
+
+<p>"At last they appeared to have hatched their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> stratagem. The whole lot
+of them got up and shuffled farther off, squinting over their shoulders
+all the time towards the willow-tree.</p>
+
+<p>"My gipsies fancied they were saved.</p>
+
+<p>"'You shall have no roast gipsy this time!' bawled the clarinet-player
+after them derisively from his sure stronghold, as he fancied it.</p>
+
+<p>"All at once the wolves returned and stormed onwards like race-horses,
+each one being about a wolf's tail ahead of the other.</p>
+
+<p>"The first of them rushed straight up the tree, and while the
+contra-bass was kicking him in the head, the second wolf leaped across
+the first wolf's back and seized the man's leg.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard a despairing shriek:</p>
+
+<p>"'Don't let me go, comrade!'</p>
+
+<p>"The second musician tried to free his down-falling friend from the jaws
+of the wild beast, and in doing so lost his balance, and the pair of
+them fell down from the tree.</p>
+
+<p>"What happened after that is more than I can tell you. It is enough that
+I should have had to live through that mortal struggle of the two
+luckless victims with those filthy brutes. How many times have I not
+dreamt it all over again! I believe that even if I had committed all the
+seven deadly sins, I should have more than expiated them all in that
+awful hour. I hid my face in the crumbling rottenness of the hollow
+tree, that I might hear and see nothing. It seemed an eternity to me
+while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> the bestial howling lasted which the wolves made as they shared
+together their accursed banquet in my very presence.</p>
+
+<p>"I dared not stir, lest they might find out that I also was there. Great
+Heaven! What horrors I had to endure!</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly a sort of growling and snarling began close beside me. The old
+wolf was running sniffing round the hollow tree. He had discovered that
+there was still booty inside it.</p>
+
+<p>"He began to scrape the earth at the root of the tree. He evidently
+meant to dig a hole beneath the tree through which he might get at me.
+Fortunately for me, it was not sandy soil, but stony, hard-frozen turf.
+He could not succeed that way.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he caught sight of the hole in the side of the tree. At one time,
+perhaps, a branch had been sawed off at this spot, and the bark had
+rotted away. The wolf began to enlarge this opening, tore it with his
+claws, and gnawed and worried the rotten wood with his grinders. He had
+soon so far enlarged the hole as to be able to stick his head into it. I
+saw the green glare of his fiery eyes; I felt his stinking breath; I
+heard the gnashing of his teeth. Then despair made me foolhardy. I drew
+my crooked knife out of the leg of my boot, with the other hand I seized
+the wolf by the ear, and cut it off at a single twirl.</p>
+
+<p>"At this the beast, with a furious howl, drew back his head from the
+hole, and began to howl and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> run away like a whipped cur. The others
+followed after him. With the wolf's ear remaining in my hand as a
+trophy, I sank back against the hollow trunk; I could not sink right
+down, because the hollow space was too narrow."</p>
+
+<p>I felt a cold shudder run all over me at this ghastly narrative. Bessy
+herself was quite exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! I am quite worn out. I tremble at the very thought of it. You are
+the second person to whom I have told it. But how pale you are all at
+once!"</p>
+
+<p>I suppose I <i>had</i> turned very pallid. It had suddenly flashed through my
+brain that just at that very time my wife was on her journey through an
+uninhabited valley, and the foresters told me that wolves strayed about
+there.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy sighed deeply, raised her drooping head, and then continued her
+story:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Thus I had freed myself from the wolves; but I was not left very long
+in the belief that shame at my depriving their leader of one of his ears
+was the cause of it. No! Wolves are not so shamefaced as all that. A
+troop of horsemen was approaching from behind the sand-hills. There were
+six men on horseback and one man on assback.</p>
+
+<p>"One terror had been supplanted by another.</p>
+
+<p>"Peering through the hole in the tree, I recognised the uniforms of the
+horsemen by the light of the moon&mdash;they were Jellachich's hussars. And
+that there might be no doubt about their coming after us, I recognised
+as they came near the face<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> of the ass-rider. It was my bass-viol
+player, whom I had left behind me.</p>
+
+<p>"It was very easy to see what had happened. The gipsy, to save his own
+skin, or, perhaps, at the flogging-post itself, had confessed that the
+band had come from Comorn, and was hired by me to go as far as
+Debreczin. Hence it was not very difficult to conclude that I was only a
+false gipsy, who was carrying despatches from the beleaguered fortress
+to the Hungarian Government.</p>
+
+<p>"The horsemen had brought the gipsy with them that he might put them on
+my track. Once discovered, and I was lost.</p>
+
+<p>"On the snow field, lit up by the moonlight, the scene of the hideous
+struggle was plain to the newcomers. The long lines of blood, fragments
+of torn garments, a foot sticking out of a boot in the snow&mdash;Ugh! May I
+never see such a sight again!</p>
+
+<p>"The horsemen galloped quickly up over the crackling snow.</p>
+
+<p>"The violoncellist had to dismount from his ass.</p>
+
+<p>"The good creature howled and groaned from the bottom of his throat,
+bewailing his comrades in the gipsy tongue, and cursing the monsters who
+had devoured them.</p>
+
+<p>"The leader of the patrol was a sergeant. He ordered the gipsy about in
+Croatian, and the gipsy has the peculiar virtue of understanding what is
+said to him in a language of which he is perfectly ignorant. He replied
+in Hungarian.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>"'Oh, woe, woe! Those accursed wolves have devoured our leader! There's
+his boot! They've only left his boot. I recognise it well. He bought it
+only last week at Czegled. He gave six florins for it. A brand-new boot!
+And this is his foot.'</p>
+
+<p>"It was plain to me that the gipsy had guessed that I was hidden
+somewhere, and there was enough of the gipsy in him, even amidst the
+greatest horrors, to induce him to make fools of my pursuers. He
+betrayed me first of all because he couldn't help it; he saved me
+finally because he <i>could</i>. He knew very well that I had given my new
+boots to the contra-bass. My boots were of Russian leather.</p>
+
+<p>"'Look there!' cried the sergeant, and he pointed with his finger.
+'<i>Jeden, dwa! Jak sza tri?</i>'<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">81</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Croatian&mdash;"One, two! Where's the third?"</p></div>
+
+<p>"The gipsy swore by all that was holy that that was the third.</p>
+
+<p>"'Then where's the first?'</p>
+
+<p>"'That's the first, of course!'</p>
+
+<p>"There was no dinning into his head the arithmetical truism that if you
+take two from three one remains.</p>
+
+<p>"The sergeant thereupon ordered one of the hussars to dismount from his
+horse, at the same time pointing at the willow-tree with his sword,
+whence I concluded that he was about to examine the tree to see if
+anybody was hidden in its hollow trunk.</p>
+
+<p>"I now veritably believed that the time had come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> for me to turn my
+crooked knife against my own throat.</p>
+
+<p>"All at once a crackle of musketry resounded from the brushwood, and a
+company of guerilla horse dashed out, crying, 'Forward, Magyars!' The
+Jellachich hussars didn't see the joke of this at all, hastily turned
+their horses' heads and galloped off in the direction of the town. The
+violoncellist also mounted his long-eared beast, and ambled gently off
+in a third direction midway between the two belligerents. He had no
+desire to take any part in the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>"The guerillas, who were numerous, sent a few volleys after the enemy,
+but from such a distance that the bullets couldn't possibly hit the
+fugitives, and then returned in triumph. Then I, hearing them speak
+Hungarian, quickly hoisted myself up out of the hole into the top of the
+tree, and began so far as my hoarse voice would allow me, to give them
+indications of my existence.</p>
+
+<p>"The gallant warriors immediately hastened to the willow-tree and helped
+me down from my dangerous perch. Their leader, a handsome,
+chivalrous-looking young man, with a true Hungarian face, began to
+cross-question me, and asked me whence I came and whither I was going.
+Perceiving that I was among Hungarian soldiers, I frankly told them that
+I had come from Comorn, and had been sent to Debreczin with despatches
+for the Hungarian Government.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>"The guerilla captain was a suspicious man.</p>
+
+<p>"'Oho! I daresay! That's easily said, but difficult to believe. What!
+confide such a mission to a gipsy! A likely tale!'</p>
+
+<p>"I told him that I was no gipsy, though my face was painted so, but that
+I lived at Comorn and belonged to the place.</p>
+
+<p>"'Then, if you are an inhabitant, tell me if you know one Maurus J&oacute;kai
+there&mdash;and what you know of him?'</p>
+
+<p>"I was very pleased to answer such a question. 'I know him very well,' I
+said, 'and I can tell you this much about him, that he went to the High
+School at Kecskemet, where he completed his legal studies&mdash;or rather
+learnt how to paint in oils from a worthy comrade of his there.'</p>
+
+<p>"Without more ado he clapped his hand in mine: 'That worthy comrade of
+his was no other than myself.'</p>
+
+<p>"So you see," she said, turning towards me, "you were of assistance to
+me, even here."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't that old schoolfellow of mine called Jansci?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's what they called him. With him was another young man, with
+quite a girlish face, and him they called J&oacute;zsi; he inquired about you
+most particularly. When you gave your artistic representations at
+Kecskemet, he used to play the girl's parts."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite true," I said, "so it was."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>"So you see I must have been there or I should have known nothing about
+these things. The guerillas told me all about it as they took me with
+them. They were very attentive. One of them gave me his mantle, another
+let me mount his nag, and so they took me to the 'Szikra' inn, where
+they made me drink punch with them, regaled me with veal, and then made
+me a bed on the straw with their mantles that I might sleep off my
+exhaustion. The Jellachich hussars gave us no trouble. They could not
+come back till morning, when the whole regiment would doubtless turn out
+to capture the guerillas, who would, by that time, be on the other side
+of the Theiss. The sledges were all ready to start, and would scour back
+across the frozen river at the first signal to Czibakhaza, where were
+the foreposts of the Hungarian army under Damjanich.</p>
+
+<p>"But for a long time I could not sleep. Constantly before my eyes
+flitted the horrible death-struggle between the two unhappy men and the
+wild beasts, and amidst the howling and shrieking resounded the gay song
+of the guerillas:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0sq">'The hut's ablaze, the rush-roof crackles,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Press thy brown maid to thy breast!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In my dream this tune was mingled with the howling of the wolves, and at
+one moment the wolves were singing, 'The hut's ablaze,' and at another
+the Croats were howling at the gipsies sitting on the branch. Towards
+morning I was awakened by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> two cannon-shots. I rejoiced to be delivered
+from my spectres. The lieutenant of the guerillas hurried me into the
+sledge, as a regiment of hostile horse was approaching from Kecskemet.</p>
+
+<p>"It took us ten minutes to dash across the frozen Theiss. On the
+opposite bank the foreposts of the Honveds were encamping. The business
+of the guerillas was to harass the enemy, capture their forage waggons,
+and then bring word of their movements to the main army.</p>
+
+<p>"They took me straight to General Damjanich.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">82</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Made Commander-in-chief of the 3rd Hungarian Army Corps in
+consequence of his brilliant exploits at Alibunar and Lagerdorf; he
+annihilated Karger's brigade at the great battle of Szolnok, and was
+elected to represent that town in the Hungarian Diet. After fresh
+exploits he was made War Minister, and, after the war, was
+court-marshalled at Arad by the Austrians and shot. He had not the
+military genius of G&ouml;rgey perhaps, but as a general of division was
+admirable.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>"I was now no longer obliged to keep my despatch hidden, so I split up
+my fiddle, took out of it the documents that were gummed to it, and
+their production was my best credentials.</p>
+
+<p>"The approving, smiling glance of the powerful, heroic-looking General I
+shall never forget. At the sight of him I quite forgot that I was
+personating a man, and would have liked to have fallen down before him
+and kissed his hand. Indeed, I was so agitated that I could not utter a
+word.</p>
+
+<p>"The General filled a little glass full of <i>szil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>vorium</i>.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">83</a> 'Drink, my
+son!' said he, 'it will loosen your throat.'</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> A spirit made from plums.</p></div>
+
+<p>"My throat was hoarse; I had a voice as deep as a man's. I told him I
+had come from Comorn, and I was sent to Lazar M&eacute;sz&aacute;ros, the War
+Minister.</p>
+
+<p>"'You will seek old K&oacute;ficz<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">84</a> in vain at Debreczin, my son, he commands
+there no more. So you Comorn folks don't know what's going on outside,
+eh? Another is at the head of the War Department now. I will give you a
+letter of introduction to him.'</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> This Hungarian War Minister had said in one of his reports
+that the motions of the Opposition in the Diet would turn to nothing but
+<i>K&oacute;ficz</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, water-gruel). The name stuck to him ever
+after.&mdash;<span class="smcap">J&oacute;kai.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>"Then he sat down and wrote me a couple of lines to a General with a
+German name, which is expressed in Hungarian by the word <i>Bacsi</i>.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">85</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> Cousin.&mdash;Vetter was the General in question.</p></div>
+
+<p>"He said, while he was writing this letter, that this General with a
+German name was the life and soul of our military organization.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, by the General's command, I received a nice clean Honved uniform
+(I had to retain my brown countenance for some time longer), and besides
+that I had an open passport enjoining upon all to give me every facility
+to reach Debreczin as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"On the evening of the following day I arrived at Debreczin, and on
+descending from my sledge, proceeded at once to the General's. He was a
+mild,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> soft-featured gentleman, with a close-clipped beard and
+moustache. He didn't even wear a General's uniform. Nobody would have
+guessed his rank from the look of him. After reading through my letter
+of introduction, he looked me straight and sharply in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"'You are Captain Tiham&eacute;r Rengetegi, eh?'</p>
+
+<p>"If I had only been intent on my own interest, I might have told him
+quite frankly that I had no right either to the name or the uniform of a
+soldier; but how could I betray my faithful consort who was smuggled
+away in the hovel at Het&eacute;ny?</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, General, I am.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Who made you captain?'</p>
+
+<p>"'The War Minister.'</p>
+
+<p>"'For deeds of valour?'</p>
+
+<p>"'During the siege of Vienna I twice carried despatches through the
+besieging camp from the Hungarian Government to General Bem.'"</p>
+
+<p>Here I intervened: "That is not true; I know very well through whom the
+Hungarian Government got those despatches."</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow, my friend boasted of it as his own deed," said Bessy; after
+which she resumed her narration.</p>
+
+<p>"'Good!' said the General; 'now give me the despatch.'</p>
+
+<p>"The information was written in a secret cipher.</p>
+
+<p>"'I must decipher this first. There will be a meeting to-night of the
+Committee of National<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> Defence. Early to-morrow morning you will appear
+before me. Now go to the "White Horse." Speak to nobody. Keep your
+room!'</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, an hour afterwards he sent for me.</p>
+
+<p>"He led me into his inner room, for he allowed himself the luxury of a
+double-roomed apartment at Debreczin. Two other ministers, Paul Ny&aacute;ry
+and Joseph Patay, were not so fortunate. They had to be content with a
+double room between them.</p>
+
+<p>"The General was now very gentle with me. He made me sit down at table,
+and poured me out some tea. He offered me a cigar too, and although I
+ought not to have done so, I lighted it. It nipped my tongue a good
+deal, but I had to show them that I was a man.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he made me tell them how I had got out of the fortress, and how I
+had forced my way through the hostile camp. My relation made a great
+impression. When I was dismissed, they pressed my hand and assured me
+that my good and boldly executed service should be rewarded. They
+further commanded me to come to them early the next day.</p>
+
+<p>"I appeared next day at his headquarters in full parade, and they
+admitted me before any one else.</p>
+
+<p>"Again they made me sit down in the inner apartment, and drew the bolt
+before the door of the outer room.</p>
+
+<p>"Stretched out on the table was a large military map which embraced
+Upper Hungary and Galicia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> 'You have brought very important information
+with you from Comorn,' said he, in a low voice. 'Considering the time
+when you set out, you have arrived here with astonishing rapidity. You
+must now take the reply back, which will contain the directions of the
+Council of War and the appointment of the new Commandant, who will be
+gazetted to-night. Can you make your way back to the fortress with this
+despatch?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I'll try.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You must get back without fail. What's your plan?'</p>
+
+<p>"'To go back by the same road in the same manner and the same disguise
+is impossible. The wolves tore two of my comrades to pieces, the Croats
+captured the third, and as he may have confessed everything, they would
+recognise me at once if I appeared before their eyes as I am now.
+Besides, there is no conceivable reason why gipsies should wish to leave
+the open plain in order to get into a bombarded town. This despatch can
+only be conveyed to Comorn by a woman who is <i>obliged</i> to go there on
+some unimpeachable business, and is provided with an Austrian
+safe-conduct.'</p>
+
+<p>"The General clapped his hands together in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"'And do you know of any woman who would undertake such a thing?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Certainly I do.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Where? What's her name?'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>"'That's my secret, General. The difficulty of getting into the fortress
+is also very much increased by the fact that the appointment of Richard
+Guyon as the new Commandant has already become generally known.'</p>
+
+<p>"The General leaped furiously from his seat.</p>
+
+<p>"'Who, then, has made this public?'</p>
+
+<p>"'It is here in the official gazette,' I replied, drawing out of my
+pocket that morning's issue of the <i>K&ouml;zl&ouml;ny</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"The General tugged his short moustache still shorter.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, well! I see that we Magyars have yet to learn the art of keeping
+a secret. The enemy knows it now, but the Comorn folks do <i>not</i> know
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I have already hit upon a good idea of enabling the mandate of the
+Council of War to reach their hands.'</p>
+
+<p>"'By a carrier-pigeon or a balloon, I suppose?'</p>
+
+<p>"'A foreign passport is necessary for my plan.'</p>
+
+<p>"'That you shall have&mdash;an English passport <i>vis&eacute;d</i> by the Embassy. In
+whose name?'</p>
+
+<p>"'In the lady's.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then you must give us the lady's name.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then I gave him my real name as the lawful wife of Muki Bagotay.</p>
+
+<p>"'And you? Will you get into the fortress?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Possibly, as that lady's coachman&mdash;possibly not at all; but the
+despatch will get in, anyhow.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And how will this lady of yours manage to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> hide the despatch? I can
+tell you beforehand, that even if your lady were provided with a
+safe-conduct from the Princess Windischgr&auml;tz<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">86</a> herself, and so got
+right through the hostile camp into the invested fortress, the Austrians
+would indeed welcome her most courteously; but they would at the same
+time say to her: "Would your little ladyship be so good as to step into
+that side-chamber; there you will find a complete set of lady's clothes,
+would you be so kind as to put them on&mdash;if they are a little more
+abundant than your own, that doesn't matter? The toilet you have brought
+with you may remain here, down even to the shoes and stockings; whenever
+you like to come back again, you can re-exchange your clothes." For they
+know that it is possible to write on chemises with invisible ink and
+reproduce the writing by means of chemical re-agents. It is also
+possible for the heels of your boots to have secret openings, in which a
+letter written on straw-paper might be inserted. They might also retain
+the comb with which you fasten up your hair, for a valuable message
+might be written thereupon in microscopic letters.'</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> The wife of the Austrian Commander-in-chief.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>"'All this they may do if they like, and yet this lady of mine will
+convey the despatch into the fortress.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I should like to know her secret.'</p>
+
+<p>"''Tis a very simple one. She will learn the whole despatch by heart
+from beginning to end.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>"The General began to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"'Oho ho! My dear friend, you don't suppose that we would entrust our
+couriers with a despatch in good Hungarian for the enemy to snap it up
+on the way, and thus learn all about our military operations. It may
+also be deliberately betrayed. In the times in which we now live men are
+quick enough to discover excuses for <i>changing their saddles</i>. This
+despatch contains all our secrets: where we are strong, where we are
+weak, where we want to assume the offensive, where we are obliged to
+stand on the defensive. Such a despatch would be worth 200,000 florins
+to the enemy at the very least.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I can assure you, General, that neither I nor this lady will betray
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You couldn't if you would, for the whole despatch is in cipher. Take
+it, and look at it. Do you understand a word of it? Can any one possibly
+learn it by heart?'</p>
+
+<p>"The writing which he placed in my hand was composed of a jumble of
+letters grouped into words&mdash;characters whose contents could scarcely be
+called language at all. I nevertheless assured the General that this
+lady of mine would learn the despatch off by heart all the same.</p>
+
+<p>"''Tis impossible.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Nothing is impossible. Once, when we were actors ...'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then you were actors? And this lady was an actress too, eh?'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>"'Yes. Once our whole company went to Eszek, and there we acted a whole
+piece in the Croatian tongue without understanding a word of its
+meaning. A man is like a starling. If he repeats a thing a hundred times
+it remains in his head although he does not understand it.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Look here, then! Read but two lines of this despatch a hundred times
+over, half an hour will do, and see if it remains in your head.'</p>
+
+<p>"I consented. A quarter of an hour had not yet elapsed when I said that
+I was ready. I gave the General the despatch back again, and asked for
+ink and paper. And then slowly, meditatively, I wrote down the contents
+of those two lines letter by letter.</p>
+
+<p>"'You've got a marvellous headpiece,' said the General, in amazement.
+'And has that lady of yours just such a marvellously retentive capacity
+as you have?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Just the same.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then I consider the stratagem as feasible.'"</p>
+
+<p>Here I could not help leaping to my feet. "What!" cried I, "you actually
+undertook to learn by heart a whole despatch written in cipher?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my sweet friend! I won't deceive you as I deceived that other man.
+The whole thing was a delusion. The cryptograms which reached the
+Commandant of the fortress were entrusted to Rengetegi, that he might
+unpod them with a secret key. He communicated this key to me. One had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>
+only to know a single word whose consecutive letters repeat all the
+characters of the alphabet in different series. The whole thing only
+required a little calculation; there was no need to rack one's brains
+about it. With the assistance of the secret key I first of all
+deciphered the cipher, and then I retransferred it into its original
+rigmarole."</p>
+
+<p>"But are you aware," I interrupted, "that if the General had found you
+out, he would have had you shot on the spot?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suspected as much. But he suspected nothing. He was really a good,
+worthy man. He said that things being as they were, he could safely
+confide the despatch to my hands.</p>
+
+<p>"After that he pointed out to me on the military map the route I ought
+to take through Galicia, by which I should possibly avoid falling in
+with the enemy's squadrons. My passport in the name of Madame J&aacute;nos
+Bagotay he filled up with his own hand. I begged him to leave a blank
+space for the personal description of my travelling companion.</p>
+
+<p>"When this was ready he gave me a portfolio full of Austrian bank-notes,
+besides a hundred louis d'ors and a handful of silver money.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he pressed my hand, and said: 'The last line of this despatch
+announces the promotion of Captain Rengetegi to the rank of major.'"</p>
+
+<p>At this both Bessy and I laughed heartily, and then she merrily resumed
+her story as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My return journey was in a much more lordly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> fashion. Everywhere relays
+were waiting for me. In a couple of days I reached Vienna. While still
+in Comorn, I had learnt that my mother had gone there for refuge, and
+still kept up her intimacy with a certain high official in the Imperial
+army. He was in the service of the War Minister there. It was not
+difficult to find him. I will leave you to picture to yourself the scene
+of our meeting. My mother loves acting, but she is a bad player, she
+never knows her part. She would have liked to have cried and fainted
+when I came rushing in, but she got no further than sobbing. I was all
+the better able to play my part. I hastened to excuse her for her
+behaviour at our last meeting. I took all the blame on myself. I ought
+to have remembered, I said, that it was not the proper thing to cling on
+to my mother's carriage when the infuriated populace was seeking her
+life. Then I went on to the motive of my coming there. The Hungarian
+Governmental Commission at Comorn had ordered that every Austrian
+bank-note which could be laid hands upon was to be burnt in the middle
+of the market-place. My mother had 40,000 florins in bank-notes, which
+the Orphanage Fund had retained from my patrimony. This amount had been
+lent out to various persons at interest. These persons, as soon as they
+heard of the order of the Governmental Commission, had hastened to
+deposit their German bank-notes&mdash;not in the fortress, but in the town
+bank, that they might at least get back their securities; and thus it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
+was <i>our</i> money that would be burnt. That was why I had come at such a
+break-neck pace, I said. If my mother would give me a power of attorney
+for the purpose, I would immediately return, and as I had great
+influence with the Commandant, I would so manage that our money instead
+of being burnt should be handed over to me. After that I would settle
+with my mother. She also had money locked up there which I would get
+handed over to me.</p>
+
+<p>"This proposition made an impression.</p>
+
+<p>"I had already informed my mother by letter of all this when
+communications were freer than now, but she, as all nervous people do
+with their letters, the moment she recognised my handwriting in the
+address, put it away without opening it. She fancied it was full of
+maudlin penitence. Now, however, when I called her attention to this
+letter, she took it out and opened it, and almost fainted with terror
+when she saw the annexed official communication of the Governmental
+Commission, and learnt therefrom that the term fixed for the bonfire of
+the Austrian bank-notes would be reached in three days.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there was such a scampering to her good friend the high official,
+and to all sorts of high commanding officers, in order to procure for me
+a safe-conduct; then she got me a power of attorney neatly written out,
+by means of which I could reclaim her money, and then she said: 'Now,
+don't wait a moment, my darling girl, but jump into a fiacre and gallop
+off to Comorn.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>"I found my journey back much freer from obstacles than my coming away.
+The self-same major of cuirassiers who would have had me flogged as a
+gipsy leader was now full of courtesy towards me. After reading my
+letter of introduction, in which the object of my journey was mentioned,
+he could not have the slightest doubt that I was about purely private
+business which was very pressing. He did not even have me searched. I
+could have smuggled into the fortress anything I liked.</p>
+
+<p>"When I had passed through the besieging lines, I turned off from the
+highway in the direction of Het&eacute;ny, that I might seek out my captive.</p>
+
+<p>"After the first delights of meeting each other again were over, I told
+him the whole story which I have just been telling you. I must say that
+I had a much more appreciative audience than you are. At the sensational
+scenes, he flung himself on the ground ... and with folded, uplifted
+hands implored the wolves not to devour me. He swore that if he caught
+the Ban of Croatia he would dance the life out of him for making me
+fiddle so unmercifully. When I dictated to him the despatch I had learnt
+by heart, by means of the secret key, the last lines of which contained
+his promotion to the rank of major, he exclaimed, with an irresistible
+burst of grateful emotion: 'My Queen! my Zenobia!' I had made him a
+major; he made me a queen. We were quits.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>"'And now let us hasten to the fortress,' I said, 'for I have urgent
+business there. I want to save my property. Our house has been burnt
+already; if our money is burnt too, we shall be beggars.' This made him
+hasten.</p>
+
+<p>"'I must, however,' said he, 'devise something to round off my
+expedition, something of the quality of a heroic deed.'</p>
+
+<p>"And by the time we reached the fortress he <i>had</i> devised something.</p>
+
+<p>"The return of the courier with the despatch of the Hungarian
+Commander-in-chief created an extraordinary sensation in the fortress
+and spread even to the town. The Commandant immediately proclaimed that
+Captain Tiham&eacute;r Rengetegi had been promoted to the rank of Major by the
+Hungarian War Minister for extraordinary services.</p>
+
+<p>"A banquet in honour of the returning hero followed. All the officers
+were present. The ladies also took part in it. I was there too. Never
+had I seen B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi (I beg his pardon, Rengetegi) play his part in so
+masterly a manner as on that evening. He was the gipsy leader who, with
+three others, fiddled his way right through every hostile camp. And what
+amusing adventures befell him on the road! I believe he laid under
+contribution every book of gipsy anecdote that was ever published. And
+when he came to that ghastly scene with the wolves&mdash;that was indeed a
+drastic description. The reality was nothing like so horrible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> as his
+account of it. The ladies swooned, the men were horror-stricken, only I
+was inclined to laugh. And when the guerillas turned up, how valiant my
+Rengetegi became all at once! He took horse and started off in pursuit
+of the cuirassiers. (To him they were cuirassiers!) It would have been
+beneath his dignity to have chased mere hussars.... By way of climax
+came the splendid description of how he cut his way through the
+besieging host. In the dark night, amidst a blinding blackness of
+midnight snow-storm, he cut his way on horseback through the Austrian
+foreposts, leaping over trenches and earth-works, with the bullets
+skimming about his ears right and left. His horse was shot dead beneath
+him, but ever equal to the occasion, he hastily fastened on his skates,
+and skated with the rapidity of lightning over the frozen Zsitva and the
+Csiliz, and two other rivers the names of which I never heard of before.
+Thus at last he reached the fortress. Every one was enchanted with the
+narration. The ladies rose <i>en masse</i> and kissed him, and improvised a
+laurel-wreath for his brows out of muscatel leaves.</p>
+
+<p>"To save appearances, I also went up to him that I might condole with
+and congratulate him upon all the exploits and sufferings he had gone
+through, when all at once my friend turned quite stiff and rigid, gave
+me a cold bow, pursed his lips, and turned up the whites of his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"'Madame!' said he, 'I have a word or two to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> say to you also. Where
+were you, may I ask, while I was jeopardizing my life a hundred times
+every day for my country? Can you tell me how you were occupying your
+days all this while?'</p>
+
+<p>"I was confounded. Language died away on my lips. The blood rushed to my
+face. I felt that every one was now looking at me. Naturally nobody in
+Comorn had seen me all this time.</p>
+
+<p>"'If what the world whispers turns out to be true, and you have in the
+meantime been to Vienna&mdash;but no! I will not believe it.'</p>
+
+<p>"His magnanimity offended me even more than his indictment.</p>
+
+<p>"'What is it to you whence I come or whither I go?' I replied, turning
+my back upon him and beginning to talk to the young officers, like one
+who has nothing to be ashamed of.</p>
+
+<p>"Shortly afterwards I quitted the banqueting-room. I hadn't reached the
+end of the long pavilion corridor in the fortress when Rengetegi came
+running after me.</p>
+
+<p>"'What on earth possessed you to calumniate and accuse me before the
+whole company,' I said to him, 'just as if I were a traitor, or I don't
+know what?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Tsitt! Zenobia, my Queen. Let us understand each other. It was in your
+own interest that I had to feign jealousy and rage. Let us go into my
+room and I'll explain everything.'</p>
+
+<p>"When we were alone together he locked the door and then explained
+things nicely.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>"'It concerns your money.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Aha!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Amidst all this laudation, appreciation, and ovation, and all the
+other flummery, I did not lose sight of the <i>main chance</i>. I told the
+Governor privately that if he wished to reward me in any way, he might
+do me the favour not to give to the flames the property deposited in the
+bank to the credit of the damsel who was so near to my heart, but allow
+me to bring it back to her. The austere patriot was as inexorable as
+Brutus. "Never!" said he. "We will burn what we have laid hands upon,
+even though it were the property of my own father. We can make no
+exception. What would those poor devils say whose paltry ten or twenty
+florins we surrender to the flames of the <i>auto-da-f&eacute;</i> if we allowed the
+forty or fifty thousand florins of the rich to fly away? Burn they
+shall!" This he said with a very wrathful voice. Then he added in a
+milder tone: "However, I'll confide the burning of them to you."'</p>
+
+<p>"Now I began to understand.</p>
+
+<p>"'A quarrel between us therefore has become an absolute necessity. We
+must fly into a rage with each other. The <i>auto-da-f&eacute;</i> will take place
+in a couple of days. The bonfire will be in the centre of the public
+square. I shall throw the bundles of bank-notes one by one among the
+spluttering faggots. You must be close by the booths of the
+bread-sellers, and break out into curses. You remember the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> cursing
+scene from <i>Deborah</i>? Very well, it may be useful. After the
+<i>auto-da-f&eacute;</i> there must be a lively scene between us. We must cast our
+mutual souvenirs at each other's feet. I'll throw at you the embroidered
+cushion which you worked for my birthday, and inside it will be the
+money belonging to you and your mamma which I have rescued. Then be off
+as quick as you can to Vienna.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But how about the packet that you have to burn?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Leave that to me; a few copies of the <i>Comorn News</i> will give every
+bit as brisk a flame.'</p>
+
+<p>"Everything happened according to his instructions. I saved our
+property, and you must admit that my friend and I displayed considerable
+prudence on this occasion. We did nobody any wrong: I only recovered
+what was my own.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we fell out together publicly, as preconcerted. My friend
+Rengetegi played Othello in a masterly manner. Then as our acquaintances
+could not succeed in reconciling us, we solemnly separated and I went
+back to Vienna.</p>
+
+<p>"On the way back I again fell in with the Austrian major. I showed him
+the money I brought with me, naturally without letting him know how I
+came by it. He became so friendly as even to entrust me with a letter to
+an old acquaintance of his in Vienna, who was none other than my
+mother's colonel....</p>
+
+<p>"You may imagine the friendly reception which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> awaited me when I
+returned to Vienna and gave my mother her money. She folded me in her
+arms, covered me with kisses, bedewed me with tears, and called me her
+darling child. What still remained to me of my patrimony, about 40,000
+florins, I placed in the Vienna savings-bank. The rest of my dower was
+in the hands of Muki Bagotay, with the exception of what we spent while
+we lived together. This also I contrived to get back again&mdash;but how?</p>
+
+<p>"In the spring, when the fortune of the war changed, Comorn was
+relieved, and I hastened off home again. I told my mother that I was
+urgently bent upon building up again our burnt house&mdash;only the roof had
+been burnt off, the walls remained standing. She approved of my
+resolution, and was very proud of having such a sensible and
+enterprising daughter. I immediately set about rebuilding our house,
+taking advantage of the time which elapsed from the raising of the first
+to the beginning of the second siege. During my stay at Vienna I moved
+continually in military circles, and I saw quite plainly what was
+coming. But why reopen my wounds? All my illusions were over. I had
+learnt to know my hero at close quarters, behind the scenes, I might
+say. This 'lord of creation' used to whine before his tailor for a
+respite with his account till next pay-day, and immediately afterwards
+would ascend his triumphal car drawn by captive kings and declaim to the
+populace of conquered Constantinople. But in one particular thing Major
+Rengetegi really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> extorted my admiration, I mean by his strategical
+science."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" cried I.</p>
+
+<p>"You may well say 'ah!' I have read the campaigns of Napoleon I., I have
+read the campaigns of Charles XII., but in none of them could I discover
+so many ruses of war as my hero invented in order to triumphantly solve
+the problem&mdash;how a man in his capacity of superior officer may
+constantly be taking part in the most ticklish skirmishes without
+allowing his person to get into the way of any wandering bullet. He
+always knew how to hit upon some mission whereby he might manage to
+skedaddle out of danger. And if I now and then fluttered the red rag of
+<i>self-esteem</i> before his eyes, he would reply: 'I have duties towards
+art; if they shoot away half my leg, how shall I be able to act on the
+stage again?' Yet, when the battle was over, who so great a hero as he!
+Others only mowed down the enemy, he thrashed them afterwards with a
+flail. 'Tis a dreadful thing when a woman discovers that her hero is a
+habitual liar, lying with the fiery burning conviction that no man will
+dare to doubt him, so that she has to make him swear to the truth of
+every word he utters.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile, I continued my house-building. Every sort of building
+material was very dear, and there was plenty of money too. Whence did
+all this money come? I'll tell you. The Russian hosts had already
+invaded the kingdom. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> speculator-species perceived that the national
+cause was declining. The Hungarian armies were everywhere falling back.
+Then Klapka, by a brilliant victory, raised the second siege of Comorn
+and was within an ace of capturing the besieging host. The region was
+instantly alive with people, and a whole series of triumphs followed one
+after another. And now there flocked to Comorn from every part of the
+kingdom quite a tribe of panic-stricken speculators and jobbers, with
+bags full of Hungarian bank-notes, and bought everything that was for
+sale, at whatever price the sellers liked to ask. My Muki also took
+advantage of this lucky period to regulate his finances. He sold his
+herds at four times their real value, and paid the price, in Hungarian
+bank-notes, into the deposit bank at Comorn. It was my dowry paid back,
+he said. The bank hastened to place the amount in my hands; and I
+hastened to satisfy therewith my architects and builders, who did not
+let the money stick to their hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't this remind you of the round game we used to play as children,
+when we lit a straw, and, sitting in a circle, passed it round from hand
+to hand; whoever was the last to hold it till the fire burned his hands,
+him we used to thump unmercifully&mdash;that was the forfeit? Just such a
+burning straw was the dowry paid back to me by my husband. The roof of
+my father's house was the straw end which remained in my hands. The
+amount which I deposited in the Vienna bank is all I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> left in the
+world&mdash;except Tiham&eacute;r Rengetegi. But not even he has remained mine, for
+he has changed into B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi. And now here we are together. The
+playing of a common part unites us. From morn to eve every word we say
+to one another is a lie. It is not even true that any one is pursuing
+Rengetegi, for at the capitulation of Comorn he received his
+safe-conduct which guarantees his life and liberty. That is not what
+distresses him. But he wishes to deny the whole part he played during
+the Revolution, that as B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi, the theatre-director, he may get
+the necessary concession. He is continually urging me to go to Miskolcz
+to the Government Commissioner and settle the business for him."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't. It is none of those interventions which we see in
+romances and dramas, when a pretty woman goes to move a mighty tyrant
+with her tears, and sacrifice her charms to him as the price of the life
+and liberty of her persecuted husband. Oh no! my hero is no plagiarist!
+His ideas are all original. He wants me to go to the mighty gentleman
+and tell him that the Debreczin expedition, which has given rise to the
+whole of this heroic poem, is not his '<i>crime</i>,' but mine. I was the
+gipsy leader who played before the Ban Jellachich, and then escaped. It
+was I who carried the despatch to the Hungarian Government. In a word: I
+am to sacrifice myself on his account!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>"Fie! fie! And still you love this man!"</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to do? I have nobody but him in the wide world; and besides,
+he is such a droll, amusing character. All day long we are either
+fighting or frolicking, and it is this variation which makes life so
+charming."</p>
+
+<p>But for all that, she flung herself on the ground and hid her face in
+the green moss. She was in such a good humour!</p>
+
+<p>"Sha'n't we give our friend a signal to come out of his hole?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is quite comfortable&mdash;don't disturb him."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder you don't hit upon the very obvious idea of putting an end to
+this pantomimic game of hide and seek. You have a foreign passport. You
+could enter your friend in it under some such description as major-domo
+or travelling companion. You could take him with you to Naples or to
+Paris, and you could live without care on the interest of the fund
+deposited at the Vienna bank."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why not do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I don't choose."</p>
+
+<p>And as she said this she looked strangely at me with her enigmatically
+mysterious eyes, in which heaven and hell were blended together like
+starlight in darkness!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">THE DEMON'S BAIT</p>
+
+
+<p>I said in the last chapter that the lady was looking straight into my
+eyes with the glance of Circe. Then she shrugged her shoulders, flung
+herself down beside the fire-ashes, and began to blow the cinders so as
+to entice a flame from the smouldering embers.</p>
+
+<p>"It's useless to give advice to me, for I always do exactly the
+contrary. Let us rather have a chat together. What is your fate, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"The fate of the grub when it is in its chrysalis."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it was not without cause that I went to you that evening when you
+shut your door in my face? And yet I only said what I did because I
+feared that either the gibbet or suicide awaited you on the path you
+chose to take."</p>
+
+<p>Here her voice trembled, her chin, her lips twitched convulsively, and
+her eyes filled with tears.</p>
+
+<p>A lady in tears is dangerous!</p>
+
+<p>I did <i>not</i> hasten to dry her tears. On the contrary, I replied with
+cool cynicism:</p>
+
+<p>"Every career has its own peculiar <i>maleficium</i>&mdash;drowning awaits the
+sailor, shooting the soldier; the doctor may fall a victim to an
+epidemic; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> glass-maker suffers from caries; choke-damp kills the
+miner; and he who meddles with politics runs a chance of being hanged or
+guillotined."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! They shall not do it!" she cried hoarsely, seizing my hand in
+both her own.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not want them to do it," I said, "and that is why I am hiding
+myself here at the back of beyond."</p>
+
+<p>"But how long is this to go on? What future do you see before you?"</p>
+
+<p>"For the present I am like the convalescent beggar whose promenading
+does not go beyond the house-door. I thought of beginning a little
+farming in this valley and forgetting all my dreams of glory. I shall
+become an agriculturist."</p>
+
+<p>"Very nice! And your wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"She will join me."</p>
+
+<p>"And you seriously think so? You think she'll come and settle down with
+you in a hut with a clay floor and a straw roof, like the one you are
+living in now."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a palace compared with what we lived in in our Debreczin days.
+When my wife did the cooking&mdash;for we had no servant&mdash;we loved each other
+better than ever. In a little house loving hearts are nearer to each
+other than in a large palace."</p>
+
+<p>"It was possible then, no doubt. I have experienced the same thing. But
+this is quite different. When a man has such brilliant hopes, want is no
+affliction. It will be over soon, he thinks. But to enter upon misery
+with the knowledge that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> it will last till death, is beyond the power of
+resignation. And particularly with a woman! Believe me, I know my own
+sex. Your wife, who now stands at the summit of her artistic fame,
+cannot quit her brilliant career. No! If you were an angel she could
+not."</p>
+
+<p>I could not defend my point of view against her. Stern reality was on
+her side; on my side were only faith and imagination.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe in my wife's promise to deliver me out of my difficult
+position."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't imagine how. She cannot do what I can do for B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi&mdash;in
+other words, accuse herself and say: 'It was not he who proclaimed
+freedom on March 15th. It was not he who wrote those heart-stirring
+articles to the nation. It was not he who edited those newspapers; not
+he who went to battle with the armies; not he who inspired the Honveds
+at the siege of Buda: but I.' Your wife cannot take your fault on her
+shoulders."</p>
+
+<p>I couldn't help laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"I would not let her."</p>
+
+<p>"But let us suppose that a great <i>artiste</i>, a renowned beauty, might
+perhaps manage by some means or other to procure an amnesty for her
+hidden husband" (and as she said this she discharged murderous,
+envenomed darts at me from the corners of her eyes), "what will be your
+subsequent lot when you return to Pest as a rebel amnestied at the
+intercession of his wife? The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> earth and the sky which you used to adore
+have vanished. No poet, no newspaper, no publisher: what will you do?
+Will you enter a lawyer's office again to copy deeds, issue summonses,
+and serve writs at so much a day? Or will you translate comedies (under
+official protection) at fifty florins each for the National Theatre; or
+paint fashionable portraits of butchers' wives at five florins apiece?
+Or, perhaps, you'll do nothing at all, but live simply under the wing of
+your wife as 'the actress's husband,' and see a woman bending beneath
+the load of sustaining a household&mdash;accomplishing the most exhausting
+work; coming home after her day's acting is over, tired to death,
+excited, unstrung. See her, poorly though she be, hurry from one
+provincial town to another, acting uncongenial parts, so as to scrape
+together a little money wherewith to satisfy the Jews with whom she has
+to haggle for the material for her costumes. And the husband must look
+on at all this with his arms folded, or, if he does anything at all, may
+perhaps paint the flowers for her costumes, which she herself will then
+sew on with her own hands."</p>
+
+<p>"It will not last for ever&mdash;other times will come."</p>
+
+<p>"Other times! You think other times will come, eh? Now, that is what I
+fear most of all. I know you well. You are not the sort of man who can
+content himself with the thought&mdash;what is past is over! You will never
+forget what you used to be, still less what you meant to be. The glory
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> fame is not forgotten as easily as a pawned jewel. You will again
+fall into those straits from which you have been set free."</p>
+
+<p>And the woman saw right into my soul. My face is so maladroit that it
+never could keep a secret. You can read my features like an open book.
+When I am frightened, it is vain for me to pretend that I am plucky.
+When I'm in a rage, it is useless for me to affect calmness&mdash;nobody is
+taken in by it. I cannot even haggle over a bargain properly, people can
+read from my face what I have to give. This woman could see where my
+soul was wandering in secret, far, far away, in a gloriously arisen
+Hungary of the future. And she regarded this talk of turning farmer as
+little more than the incoherent delirium of a fevered visionary.</p>
+
+<p>"Let it be as you say," I said.... "If I live I will build a tower out
+of the ruins of my country's glory; if I die, my grave will become an
+altar. Vainly does this coward flesh of mine tremble in every nerve. I
+am neither a hero nor a giant. The report of a gun makes me tremble; I
+grow pale in the presence of death; grief draws tears from me&mdash;but I
+will not depart from my set path. If I cannot write under my own name, I
+will write under the name of my landlord's dog. I will be 'Saj&oacute;.'<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">87</a>
+We'll bark if we can't speak, but we'll not be silent."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> My works "<i>Forradalmi &eacute;s csatakepek</i>," "<i>Bujdos&oacute; napl&oacute;ja</i>"
+were written under the pseudonym <i>Saj&oacute;</i>.&mdash;<span class="smcap">J&oacute;kai.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></span></p></div>
+
+<p>The lady, in terror, seized me by both arms.</p>
+
+<p>"For Heaven's sake, take care! A step backwards, and you'll fall over
+the rock."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't mean to take a step backwards."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me quietly. Don't fly into a rage. Sit down beside me. You
+need have no great fear of me. I am not a luring demon. I have not a
+word to say against what you've said. Do whatever your soul bids you. I
+ask for nothing more. Don't you believe that I've a good heart also?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that you've a little too much heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps all that my heart led me to do was sinful. I was mad. I was
+blind. Passion got hold of me; but the feeling I had for you would not
+have been out of place in heaven itself. When I am alone, I am always
+with you; and when I think of anything I think of you. I wish you to go
+onwards and upwards along the rugged path that you have entered upon;
+but can you do it here, with a leaden weight on your feet, a padlock on
+your mouth, and a strait jacket on your body?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis because it <i>is</i> heavy that I must needs carry my burden."</p>
+
+<p>"But how much more brilliant would be the success of your struggle if
+you could continue it on a foreign soil&mdash;in free France, for instance!
+Just think! If you were now to appear in Paris, the leaders of the
+French literature would receive you with open arms. The French public
+would enrol you among its great writers, and then you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> might write of
+the glory, the sufferings, and the heroic struggles of Hungary, and of
+the amiable qualities of its people; you might write all this with
+perfect freedom, from the very bottom of your heart, and millions and
+millions, the whole round world, would read your writings, and not
+merely a handful of people, as here at home. There you would be a rich
+man, here you are only a day-labourer. Here you might sing like a
+Tyrt&aelig;us, and the world outside would hear nothing of it; but if you
+raised your voice abroad in the midst of a great nation and a
+cosmopolitan capital, your voice would be like the horns of Joshua
+before the walls of Jericho."</p>
+
+<p>Ah! how luring was the panorama.... To become a great French writer! To
+be raised aloft on the shoulders of the most glorious of nations! What
+here at home was but the crack of a whip in my hands, would there be a
+thunderbolt!</p>
+
+<p>"But it is impossible," I objected. "How could I possibly force my way
+to the frontiers of France from the depths of Tordona, through my own
+country, through Austria, through Germany, without a passport, without
+money, in a semi-Asiatic garb? Just as well might I cast myself down
+from the mountain-top in the belief that I could fly."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, come now, I have a very good plan to suggest to you. I've got an
+English passport. Have I not told you exactly how I got it? None
+be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>sides yourself knows that I have it, except, of course, the officials
+who have <i>vis&eacute;d</i> it on the way. In this passport the blank for my
+travelling companion has not yet been filled up. You asked me just now
+why I did not insert the name and description of B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi. Now, I'll
+tell you. Nobody is pursuing him. I always intended to fill up that
+blank with your name. You won't have to sacrifice much beyond that
+little moustache and beard of yours, and resigning yourself to speak
+nothing abroad but French and German. I appoint you my secretary. I
+myself am an English lady. We mustn't go <i>vi&acirc;</i> Vienna. But the way is
+clear in the direction of Breslau. I have quite enough money for us
+both. I still retain the hundred ducats which I received at Debreczin.
+We shall do sumptuously with this till we get to Paris. My capital in
+the Vienna bank I can leave where it is, or I may have it sent after me,
+and the interest from it will suffice for your modest needs at the
+beginning of your residence at Paris, so that you will not have to
+resort to the emigrants' fund. When once you have won a position for
+yourself in Continental literature you will need no further assistance
+from anybody. You will be able to refund to me what I advanced to you as
+a loan. Only as a loan remember, not as a gift; still less do I expect
+anything in exchange, not even a warm pressure of the hand. I am simply
+your proselyte whose mission it is to make straight the way of the
+prophet."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>It was a seductive picture, and still more seductive was she who
+presented it to me.</p>
+
+<p>To be free! To be able to pronounce my name boldly in the face of every
+one who met me! Not to tremble at the pattering of every footstep at my
+door! To fight for great ideas in the company of great and noble minds!</p>
+
+<p>And how her <i>eyes</i> sparkled as she said these words, like the parhelia
+in the glowing girdle of a solar halo! And her face was as open as a
+child's. I could have sworn that she was an artless virgin opening her
+heart for the first time to a true sentiment. Her hands were folded as
+if in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Had I wavered but a hair's-breadth, I must have plunged down into the
+abyss.</p>
+
+<p>Ah! what a different man I should have become. Had I fled with her, I
+should now be the grand master of the Realists, for there is as much
+erotic flame, satiric vein, and luxurious fancy in me as in them; but I
+have not used these qualities, because I write for a Hungarian public.
+Had I flown with her, millions would have read my works, and fathers and
+mothers would have cursed me as the corrupter of their children. And I
+should have laughed at them, and tapped the fat paunch, which as an
+idealistic writer I have never been able to acquire.</p>
+
+<p>And whither would this reinless, bridleless passion have hurried me had
+I been swayed by such a fascinating Calypso, whose every movement was a
+charm, whose every word was a snare, who was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> herself the personified
+joy of a Mohammedan paradise? For, remember, I was then only
+four-and-twenty!</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, a sober thought still remained in my head.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to remain in my own land," I said abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not forsake those who arose at my word. If they lie on the
+earth, I also will lie down beside them. I will take my share of the
+suffering of which I was the cause."</p>
+
+<p>"You won't remain out in the cold for ever, of course. Haven't you,
+then, the hope that those who have sought refuge abroad will one day
+return in triumph? Then you also will return home at the head of the
+reprieved."</p>
+
+<p>Even this weapon she managed to turn against me! Oh, what a weak coat of
+mail it was that defended me&mdash;only a single word!</p>
+
+<p>"I have given my word that I'll not depart from hence," I said softly.</p>
+
+<p>"To whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"To her who gave me her word that she would come and seek me here."</p>
+
+<p>"Your wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And if she seeks you, what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"She will bring me liberty."</p>
+
+<p>"How? In what way?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>"I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know, and yet you believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe with my whole heart."</p>
+
+<p>"And you never think what may be the price of such freedom?"</p>
+
+<p>"I spurn such a thought as often as it arises."</p>
+
+<p>"You believe in a woman's loyalty, a woman's virtue?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are a very happy man!"</p>
+
+<p>During this conversation I continued my drawing, and she called my
+attention to several objects in the landscape which had escaped me.
+Shortly after that she began a very ordinary conversation about the
+weather.</p>
+
+<p>"Look! the prophecy of the old forester is well-nigh fulfilled. The sky
+is quite overcast. The snowstorm will surprise us here."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, perhaps, it may be as well to call our friend out of his
+hiding-place?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that will be very easy! I need only give him one signal. He himself
+selected it from the romance 'Ivanhoe'&mdash;the note of the hero's
+horn&mdash;'Wasa h&oacute;a!' At this signal he will appear immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can scarcely see to sketch any more, it is so dark."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are determined to go to that little village down there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>"No news from the world will ever penetrate thither."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be all the better for me."</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard nothing of what is going on outside all this time, I
+suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing pleasant."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a dreadful world. How would the women manage to live if they
+couldn't chatter?"</p>
+
+<p>"They could sew their children's clothes."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you haven't heard that Pet&ouml;fi's widow has married again?"</p>
+
+<p>Ah, that was indeed a murderous thrust! A calculated, well-aimed,
+poisonous dart where there was a weak joint in my coat of mail.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say?" cried I, in a perfect passion.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a fact known to everybody."</p>
+
+<p>"Pet&ouml;fi's wife! Then what has become of Pet&ouml;fi?"</p>
+
+<p>"He fell at the battle of Segesv&aacute;r."</p>
+
+<p>"Who saw him fall?"</p>
+
+<p>"A Honved officer who testified to the fact. This was quite enough for
+his widow. She immediately went to the altar with another young writer,
+who was not perhaps such a knightly hero as your friend, but who is a
+pleasant young man in a good official position, moving in the best
+society, and who is able to assure his wife a comfortable existence."</p>
+
+<p>Every one of this woman's words went right through my heart.</p>
+
+<p>Now, indeed, after years have elapsed, I can say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> that poor Julia did
+well to confide her fate to a good and worthy man. She had a child, and
+had duties towards that child. But at that moment a heavier blow could
+not have descended upon my head. The death of our martyrs, let it be
+never so cruel, was not nearly such terrible news to me as the news that
+the martyrs had been forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>That any woman could ever forget Pet&ouml;fi! The woman whom the poet had
+encompassed with the rays of his soul of flame! That the poet should be
+able to make himself immortal to the whole world and not to her whom he
+had worshipped!</p>
+
+<p>No doubt the widow was right, she will be blessed in the next world, and
+there Pet&ouml;fi himself will justify her&mdash;the righteous are always just;
+but to me this news seemed to open the very gates of hell. If the grass
+can grow so quickly over my overthrown idol, what am I, I should like to
+know? A frog enclosed in a tree, whose calling it is to live for a
+hundred years&mdash;beneath the bark!</p>
+
+<p>"I won't believe it! I won't believe it! I won't believe it!"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed at me. "Now wriggle away!" she seemed to say.</p>
+
+<p>From the crown of my head to the heel of my foot I was full of
+bitterness. If such a thing as this could happen, why shouldn't that
+other thing happen, too? Why shouldn't another fallen writer forget the
+promise he had made to his wife, seize the hand of his former ideal, and
+fly away with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> her out into the world? That would be tit for tat.</p>
+
+<p>Her two eyes flamed as she looked at me and laughed. It was just as if
+she knew she had wounded me and would fain stir me up to vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>She had destroyed my idol: belief in a woman's heart.</p>
+
+<p>Women were all alike!</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no! My wife is not like other women."</p>
+
+<p>I sat down on the edge of the precipitous rock, made a speaking-trumpet
+of the palms of both hands, and called loudly down into the valley "Wasa
+h&oacute;a!"</p>
+
+<p>The echo repeated my words. And not long afterwards could be heard from
+below the proud refrain:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0q">"Whom he meets upon his way<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Him he cruelly doth slay;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But if a pretty girl draw near,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah, then what gayer cavalier!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tremble and quake ye tongues that lie,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And speak his name all whisp'ringly:<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Diavolo, diavolo, diavolo!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>As the song drew nearer, I packed up my traps and clasped my stick all
+ready to say good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>"Forget what we have been speaking about!"</p>
+
+<p>I said this.</p>
+
+<p>"Have we been speaking about anything, then? I didn't know!" replied the
+lady with the eyes like the sea.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>"Adieu!"</p>
+
+<p>"Adieu!"</p>
+
+<p>I was quite persuaded that we should never meet again.</p>
+
+<p>I did not wait till my friend had climbed up again out of his hole. They
+would easily find one another. The snow had already begun to fall in
+thick flakes. I set off homewards.</p>
+
+<p>The snowstorm drove full against me as I proceeded. I had very nearly
+lost myself in the forest. The evening had fallen early; by the time I
+had descended from the hill it was quite dark.</p>
+
+<p>But still darker was what I carried with me in my brain&mdash;the black
+thought that there was now no such thing as love or loving remembrance
+in the world. Where we fall, there we lie, and none cares. Some of us
+die, and there is none to mourn us; the rest of us remain alive, and
+mourn over ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>How fair is the fate of a fallen tree. There it lies, and the ground-ivy
+covers it.</p>
+
+<p>If the wild beasts were to tear me to pieces now, nobody would know
+where I had perished.</p>
+
+<p>At last I stumbled upon the linden spring.</p>
+
+<p>This was a good guide. The stream flows right along beside the house of
+the Cs&aacute;nyis; one can get home by keeping near its banks, even in the
+dark.</p>
+
+<p>My soul blamed me for having passed so much time by the Pagan Altar with
+that "other" woman.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>The snow now completely covered the fields, and through it in serpentine
+flight darted the threefold stream. The autumn leaves were still on the
+trees, their crowns bent down beneath loads of snow. The whole landscape
+was sombre, but it was not more sombre than my soul.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, like a ray of hope, the window-light of the little house in
+which I was lodging flashed out before me. It stood at the end of the
+village, and was the last house of all.</p>
+
+<p>I was utterly wearied both in body and soul when I arrived at last at
+the little dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>It had neither courtyard nor enclosure. It stood right out upon the
+road. The carts and ploughs stood there beneath a shed. There are no
+thieves here.</p>
+
+<p>The door of the house is never bolted, and it opens out upon a little
+passage. On the right-hand side of this passage lie kitchen and
+store-room; on the left the living-rooms, and a side chamber, which
+served me as a bedroom, and the rest of the family as a sort of
+withdrawing-room. It is the only room in the house which has a deal
+floor, all the other floors are of clay.</p>
+
+<p>The kitchen door was also open, and a large fire was blazing on the open
+hearth. My hostess with her serving-maid was busy baking and boiling.</p>
+
+<p>When I bade her good evening, she glanced at me with a roguish smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Ei, ei! A nice time to come home, I must say!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> But go into the
+room&mdash;supper will be ready presently."</p>
+
+<p>I went into the room.</p>
+
+<p>By the lighted stove sat my wife!</p>
+
+<p>Rapturous joy drove every other thought out of my soul.</p>
+
+<p>I don't know what I said. I wouldn't believe she was there till I had
+caught her in my arms and embraced her tightly.</p>
+
+<p>'Tis true, 'tis true, 'tis true&mdash;loyalty, love, sweet remembrance still
+belong to this world!</p>
+
+<p>She told me afterwards&mdash;very briefly&mdash;how ill she had been. She had
+wanted to come before, but couldn't; as it was, she had left Pest by
+stealth, and had come with a passport made out under a false name. She
+had suffered much on the way. She had gone astray in the snowstorm in
+the beech woods, and it had been as much as she could do to find her way
+again. She had been terrified by the wolves, whose howls even now
+resounded from the woods.</p>
+
+<p>And all the while I suffered the mental torture of a man who hears the
+person who <i>is</i> talking to him and the person who <i>has been</i> talking to
+him at the same time. I saw the one figure and I saw the other also.</p>
+
+<p>Our good host, worthy Beno Cs&aacute;nyi, as he sat by the table, kept on
+mumbling in his beard: "That's something like a woman&mdash;that <i>is</i> a wife,
+if you like!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>Well, now that we are both together again, what does it all matter?</p>
+
+<p>Yes, but how long shall we be together again?</p>
+
+<p>My wife must go back the day after to-morrow. Only grudgingly had the
+director of the theatre allowed her a four days' leave. On the fifth day
+she must play.</p>
+
+<p>But my captivity was soon to draw to a close.</p>
+
+<p>My wife took a carefully concealed piece of paper from her breast; it
+was a tiny little grey schedule, but that little schedule was in those
+days a great treasure. It was the guarantee of my liberation&mdash;a Comorn
+passport.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very simple method of deliverance, as simple as the egg of
+Columbus.</p>
+
+<p>When the fortress of Comorn capitulated, each of the officers of the
+garrison there received a passport which guaranteed his life and
+liberty, and also dispensed him from enrolment in the Austrian army. My
+wife managed to procure me such a passport in the simplest way in the
+world. There was a brother of Szigligeti's in the Comorn garrison,
+Vincent Szathmary (Szathmary was their family name), who wrote my name
+down in the list of the capitulating officers as a Honved lieutenant,
+and handed the passport bearing my name to my wife.</p>
+
+<p>This was the reason why I was obliged to remain in concealment in the
+meantime.</p>
+
+<p>Thus my dove had brought me two leaves of the olive-branch, namely, life
+and liberty; but how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> about the third? I had still to wait for that. I
+was not free to come forth till I got it. I should have to wait till she
+came back for me a second time. I no longer ran any risk of being
+condemned, but I might still run the risk of being interned at my native
+place, Comorn, and that would have been a fresh torment for me.</p>
+
+<p>Then my wife asked me: "Have you been thinking of me also all this
+time?"</p>
+
+<p>And if I had not been able to answer, "Always of thee!" and if, while
+saying this, I had not been able to look her honestly in the face, she
+would have been amply justified in tearing the passport to pieces and
+flinging the fragments in my face.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">MARVELS NOT TO BE SEEN FOR MONEY</p>
+
+
+<p>It was now four years since I had made friends with the beech woods. For
+two years I was "Saj&oacute;," but after that I was again able to practise the
+art of letters in my own name.</p>
+
+<p>My wife and I saw nobody, and nobody came to see us. We had both of us
+quite enough to do without paying visits. My wife was an actress, and I
+an author. And let nobody suppose that actresses and authors live in the
+land of Cockaigne.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">88</a> Both have very hard work to do, and rest is their
+dearest recreation.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Lit., a sky full of fiddles.</p></div>
+
+<p>Unfortunately I was engaged in publishing and editing. Nominally,
+indeed, the director of the National Theatre was the responsible editor
+and publisher of the belle-lettristic and artistic journal <i>D&eacute;libab</i>,
+for my name was still under police supervision; but, in reality, I wrote
+and edited the whole paper, corrected the proofs, and folded up,
+directed, and despatched the copies of it to the subscribers&mdash;and got
+into trouble for it besides.</p>
+
+<p>My only assistant was a worthy, semi-rustic, very pronounced Hungarian
+lad, called Coloman Igl&oacute;di,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> who had served as lieutenant under the
+banner of the red-capped Honveds in our Utopian days.<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">89</a> At the battle
+of Tarczal he had received three bullets, one in the face, the second in
+the arm, and the third in the leg, and these wounds he had to thank for
+his dismissal as a genuine invalid. So he joined me as messenger,
+secretary, and door-keeper, and a worthy, honest fellow he was.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> <i>i.e.</i>, during the war.</p></div>
+
+<p>One afternoon "clerk Coloman" (that was his familiar epithet) opened the
+door of my working-room. "I beg pardon, sir," said he, "but a cuirassier
+is here."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a cuirassier?"</p>
+
+<p>"A senior lieutenant."</p>
+
+<p>"What does he want with me, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>In the fifties the visit of an officer was tantamount to a challenge.
+Those were the days of the famous political duels in which Coloman
+Tisza,<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">90</a> Julius Szapary,<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">91</a> and Francis Beniczky fought with the
+delegated officers.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> The late Prime Minister of Hungary and leader of the
+Liberal party there.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> The present Prime Minister.&mdash;Since this note was written,
+Szapary has given way to Weckerle.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Admit him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Call me, please, if necessary," said clerk Coloman confidentially,
+making at the same time a significant movement with the paper-knife.</p>
+
+<p>Then the visitor entered.</p>
+
+<p>In figure he was half a head taller than me at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> the very least. He was a
+strong, broad-shouldered fellow. His bony face wore quite a stony
+expression by reason of a powerful eagle nose and a broad double chin.
+On the other hand this sternness was somewhat contradicted by a pair of
+honest, bright-blue eyes, a little mouth, and offensively light hair,
+though his eyebrows, moustache, and whiskers were even lighter.</p>
+
+<p>My visitor, as he advanced from my door to my writing-table, took those
+three short mazurka steps which, with men, are generally the
+preliminaries to a military salute; he held, close pressed to his thigh,
+his beautiful helmet, with the golden lions and the black-yellow plumes;
+and when he stood in front of me, he clashed his spurs together and
+introduced himself in Hungarian.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Wenceslaus Kvatopil, senior lieutenant of dragoons."</p>
+
+<p>He had the peculiar habit of accompanying every word with an explanatory
+movement of his hand, so that a stone-deaf person could have understood
+perfectly what he meant. The deprecatory movement of his hand
+meant&mdash;Wenceslaus Kvatopil; the indication of the twin stars on his
+collar meant that he was a lieutenant; the slight elevation of his
+helmet signified that he was a dragoon, and the simultaneous sweep of
+the hand towards his breast gave me to understand that he was <i>not</i> a
+cuirassier.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to see you," I said; "how can I be of service?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>"I should like to have a long conversation with you, sir, if you will
+let me."</p>
+
+<p>At this I would have offered him a chair, but on no account in the world
+would he suffer me to do so, but helped himself to one, and then once
+more apologised for the trouble he was giving before he sat down
+opposite to me.</p>
+
+<p>I begged him to address me in German, as I was quite capable of making
+myself understood in that tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"No! no! En <i>akarom</i> magyariul besz&eacute;lni"<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">92</a>&mdash;and at the same time he
+made as though he were ducking the head of a refractory urchin in a
+basin of soapsuds.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> "I want to talk in Hungarian."</p></div>
+
+<p>"<i>Akarok</i>," I good-humouredly corrected him.</p>
+
+<p>"No! no! <i>Akarok</i> is the <i>indefinite</i> mood, <i>akarom the definite</i> mood;
+and I want to speak Hungarian <i>definitely</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I was forced to acknowledge to myself that his logic was stronger than
+his grammar.</p>
+
+<p>"I was born in Leutomischl"<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">93</a>&mdash;here he let his head fall regretfully
+on his breast.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> A Bohemian town. He meant by this that he belonged to
+Czech officials who had been forced upon Hungary.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>I with corresponding pantomime replied that that need not make any
+difference between us.</p>
+
+<p>"My father was"&mdash;here with both hands he took aim with an imaginary gun.</p>
+
+<p>It now occurred to me <i>why</i> he made all these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> gestures. Such is often
+the way with those who have taught themselves a foreign language without
+a master, and cannot find quickly enough the word they want. I hastened
+to his assistance.</p>
+
+<p>"A forester?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a forester. He had sons"&mdash;he lifted up both hands, and then one
+finger.</p>
+
+<p>"Eleven?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, eleven. I myself was"&mdash;he held the palm of his hand quite low down
+towards the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"The youngest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the youngest."</p>
+
+<p>"My father gave me"&mdash;here followed a very suggestive gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a <i>very rigorous</i> education."</p>
+
+<p>"But it was all"&mdash;he lightly tapped the hollow of his hand, as much as
+to say "No good!"</p>
+
+<p>"He wanted me to be"&mdash;he laid the palms of his hands together as if in
+prayer.</p>
+
+<p>"A priest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right! I wouldn't"&mdash;a snap of the fingers, and then a lizard-like
+dart into the palm of the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to say you took French leave of the Seminary?"</p>
+
+<p>At this we both laughed. The gesture next following&mdash;a smack on the palm
+of the hand illustrated by a little equitation on the back of a
+chair&mdash;gave me to understand that my visitor had then become a soldier.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>"At four-and-twenty I was a lieutenant. I lay at Cracow for two years. I
+served in the Hungarian war from beginning to end. I am now thirty-four
+years old. And still I am only a lieutenant. Curious, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>I agreed with him that it was certainly most surprising.</p>
+
+<p>"My other comrades&mdash;no, not <i>comrades</i>, that's a French word."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Bajtarsai?</i>"<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">94</a> I suggested.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> "Your comrades"&mdash;the Hungarian equivalent.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course! my other <i>bajtarsai</i> all became captains and majors,
+and have got decorations. I've nothing! Nothing, I tell you! And I'm
+pretty plucky too. I'm a good horseman&mdash;I've never given offence&mdash;I
+understand my duties. What do you think the cause is?"</p>
+
+<p>I really was curious myself to know the cause of this misadventure.</p>
+
+<p>"All through the war I was interned at Temesvar with my squadron. No
+occasion for displaying valour. Cavalry behind trenches. My comrades all
+on the battle-field"&mdash;he made a swift motion with his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"And fought bravely?" said I, completing the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they fought bravely, whilst we horsemen besieged in the fortress
+might"&mdash;here he put the tips of his thumbs between his teeth and puffed
+out his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>"Smoke your pipes?" I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we smoked our pipes."</p>
+
+<p>Here we both gave way to merriment once more. Again I urged upon my
+visitor to speak in German, and we could then perhaps get along more
+easily, but he only replied, "<i>Muszaj!</i>"<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">95</a> Well, if he knows even that
+<i>Hungarian</i> word, I thought, he <i>must</i> have his own way, that's all.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> A corruption of the German <i>mussen</i>, but as used in
+Hungarian it expresses the most emphatic necessity. When all other
+arguments fail, the word <i>muszaj</i> is supposed to carry everything before
+it.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>"Yes, I <i>must</i> speak Hungarian, by command of the highest authority."</p>
+
+<p>"The highest?"</p>
+
+<p>With that he seized the lappets of my coat with both hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, now! Do you know who is the greatest tyrant in the whole world?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dionysius of Syracuse."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha! Young blood! 'Tis this!"&mdash;and with his index finger he
+tapped himself between his fourth and fifth ribs on the left-hand side.</p>
+
+<p>"The heart, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"You're right. The heart. 'Tis the greatest tyrant. <i>It</i> commands me to
+speak Hungarian."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are in love, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>A gesture with the palm of his hand right up to the chin was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Up to the neck, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, over head and ears."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>"With a lovely Hungarian damsel?"</p>
+
+<p>He raised his three fingers closely pressed together to his lips, which
+were pointed as if to receive a kiss, thereby explaining that she was
+<i>very</i> lovely.</p>
+
+<p>Then he passed his extended palms softly over his face, then, joining
+them together beneath his chin, affirmed, so far as I understood him,
+that she was also young and charming.</p>
+
+<p>Then he pressed his waist with both hands, which meant "slim as a lily
+stalk."</p>
+
+<p>After that he cracked his fingers right in front of his eyes, which
+meant "What eyes!"</p>
+
+<p>Finally he crossed his arms, and immediately afterwards disengaged them
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"In a word, a ravishing beauty," said I. "I congratulate you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you may."</p>
+
+<p>"Your tender sentiment is naturally reciprocated?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" and he caught hold of the flat of his sword.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean to insinuate the contrary," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally."</p>
+
+<p>Then he was silent, and began to fumble about his stiff cravat. I saw
+that he wanted me to ask him some more questions.</p>
+
+<p>"A maiden lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then a widow lady?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>"Ah, no!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then it can't be a lady at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! What are you thinking of?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then what is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"A lady who has a husband, but yet is not a married lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! A <i>divorc&eacute;e</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the relations between you are quite legitimate."</p>
+
+<p>At this, my lieutenant of dragoons rose from his chair and stood before
+me in quite a magisterial position. I also stood up.</p>
+
+<p>"The lady desires you to be her ..."&mdash;here the word he wanted would not
+occur to him. He raised the three first fingers of his right hand above
+his head, like one who is taking an oath. I guessed his meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"A witness to her marriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not that. She used another word."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she meant I was to give her away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is it. How I do forget!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then is the chosen of your heart an acquaintance of mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally. If I were only to mention her first name you would remember
+at once. Bessy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Bessy!"</p>
+
+<p>"How red you've got! You were in love with her once yourself. I know!
+She told me. Well, will you give her away?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>"With pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>"Really?"</p>
+
+<p>"With all my heart."</p>
+
+<p>Then he caught hold of my hand with both his hands; squeezed my hand
+violently, and his eyes grew quite tiny with sheer rapture. I believed
+he would have liked to kiss me; but he had a big nose, and I had a big
+nose, too, so we could not very well have managed it.</p>
+
+<p>"Then will you allow me to bring in my bride?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whence?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is waiting outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Not on the staircase?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. On the staircase. She won't come in till she's quite sure
+you'll give her away. She's a bit shy."</p>
+
+<p>I immediately hastened to open the door for my hesitating visitor.</p>
+
+<p>It really was Bessy.</p>
+
+<p>It was winter time just then, and she had all sorts of furry garments
+upon her, and a furred cap on her head; she looked just like a fair
+Muscovite.</p>
+
+<p>There really seemed to be some sort of coquettish bashfulness in her
+face.</p>
+
+<p>I couldn't imagine why. I had seen her face before under many similar
+circumstances, and after Muki Bagotay, Peter Gyuricza, and Tiham&eacute;r
+Rengetegi, Wenceslaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement.</p>
+
+<p>The bridegroom remained in the room while I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> admitted the lady. Then he
+first craved permission to kiss her hand, and then begged her pardon for
+kissing it. After that there was absolutely no getting him to take a
+seat, but he persisted in standing on one spot, leaning over the back of
+the arm-chair in which his lady sat.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you grasped what my hero has told you?" inquired Bessy, when she
+had got over her first embarrassment. "Just fancy! he has given me his
+word as a gentleman that henceforth he'll never address a word to any
+Hungarian except in the Hungarian language. And he tortures his
+Hungarian orderly to death with it to begin with."</p>
+
+<p>"A most laudable resolve," I was obliged to answer.</p>
+
+<p>"But now, first of all, let me explain to you why I ask you to put
+yourself to the inconvenience of giving me away."</p>
+
+<p>I assured her that to give her away was not an inconvenience, but a
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"After our last meeting you never anticipated, perhaps, that we should
+meet again in this life?"</p>
+
+<p>I lifted my head and looked at her with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! we can say anything before <i>him</i>" (here she pointed at her
+bridegroom). "He's as nice and good a boy as ever lived. I could twist
+him round my little finger if I liked. You can say anything before him.
+You know my story, I think, up to the time when I had to go into hiding
+with B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> after the Revolution. I shouldn't like you to imagine
+that I quitted that man from pure lightness of heart. Just fancy! he had
+the impudence to commit that act of baseness which I mentioned to you:
+he told the Imperial Commissioner the whole story of the conveying of
+those despatches, cleared himself from the accusation of that heroic
+deed, and at the same time denounced me. He justified himself to me on
+the ground that it was necessary to '<i>purify</i> himself,' in order that he
+might obtain a theatrical licence, and that they would not <i>impute</i> this
+little joke to me because I was a woman. But they <i>did</i> impute it! They
+arrested me, they imprisoned me, and they severely cross-examined me.
+And I have to thank this worthy young fellow alone for getting off
+scot-free. He took my part. But for him I should have had to pay most
+dearly for my heroic exploit. Shouldn't I, Wenzy?"</p>
+
+<p>The lieutenant hinted, with a deprecatory wave of his hand, that no more
+need be said about the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Hence our acquaintance began," continued the lady, "and this, perhaps,
+will justify me in your eyes for selecting a foreigner, a foreign
+officer, as my <i>fianc&eacute;</i>. I had very strong reasons, you must admit, for
+growing cold towards my former hero."</p>
+
+<p>The fair lady did not appear to be satisfied with the impression that
+her eyes had made upon me; at least, I had some reason to believe that
+the following commentary was intended not so much for the delight of her
+bridegroom as for my own edification.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>"Believe me (I am perfectly serious about it), I am not merely grateful
+to Kvatopil because he has rescued me from my great difficulties, and,
+what is more, from any further improprieties on the part of that
+Barabbas B&aacute;lv&aacute;nyossi;&mdash;no, I also esteem him as a noble nature worthy of
+all respect; from the crown of his head to the tip of his toe he is full
+of the love of truth, not even in jest would he tell a lie. He is
+valiant and strong-minded, and at the same time affectionate and
+tender-hearted. A man of his word, in fact, who does not lightly give
+his word either. A really model man."</p>
+
+<p>A pencil was in my hand, and before me was a blank sheet of paper, and I
+involuntarily scribbled on this piece of paper "Number 4."</p>
+
+<p>The lady grasped the import of my hieroglyphic and shook her head, but
+she smiled a little too.</p>
+
+<p>"But he is not like the others," she insisted; "he is the direct
+opposite of what <i>ladies' men</i> think a man should be. It will sound
+incredible, I know, but it is the simple fact that he has been my
+visitor these three years. He has come to see me nearly every day during
+that period, and never has he permitted himself a single bold advance or
+a single unbecoming expression. Every day I have to tell him, just as if
+it were the first time, to take a seat, put down his helmet, and place
+his sword in the corner, and our conversation has never gone beyond the
+criticism of Schiller's verses."</p>
+
+<p>I was bound to admit that this was really an extraordinary case.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>"I couldn't help rallying him about it," continued the lady; "you know
+that I am not accustomed to a wooer who imitates the statue of Memnon;
+and then Kvatopil confessed, with perfect simplicity, that he was
+<i>afraid</i> of me. 'If I were as timid on the battle-field,' said he, 'as I
+am in your presence, His Majesty would only give me my deserts by
+dismissing me from his service.'"</p>
+
+<p>The lieutenant signified by a nod of his head that his words had been
+correctly reported.</p>
+
+<p>"Finally," continued Bessy, "I had to ask for his hand&mdash;hadn't I, my
+friend?"</p>
+
+<p>The bridegroom replied that such had indeed been the case.</p>
+
+<p>"Even then he was quite coy. He pleaded his humble rank. He begged time
+for consideration. Now, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I did."</p>
+
+<p>"I had to remove his scruples one by one, till at last I brought him to
+a definite declaration, and he said he would take me to wife. Never have
+I met with such an officer before."</p>
+
+<p>Bessy read from my face the expression, "Why bother me with all this?" I
+never asked about it, and I didn't care a fig about her affairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Look now," continued she, in an almost supplicating voice, "I don't
+tell you all these things to amuse you, but because I have an earnest
+request to make of you."</p>
+
+<p>"So the lieutenant informed me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>"I don't mean about giving me away&mdash;that is <i>not</i> a serious request. You
+would do that to oblige any servant of yours. I have a much greater
+request than that to make. I wish to ask you to be my guardian, my
+foster-father."</p>
+
+<p>"I? Your <i>foster-father</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't put so much emphasis on the word <i>father</i>. You are four years
+older than I am, remember."</p>
+
+<p>"What does a married woman want with a guardian?"</p>
+
+<p>"I assume the case of a married woman who mismanages her property."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you believe, then, that <i>I</i> am such a great financier?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that you are my sincere friend, anyhow. You are my only real
+friend in the round world who neither asks nor expects anything for his
+kindness to me. I know it from experience. You have heard, no doubt (and
+if you haven't heard, you might easily have guessed it), that my
+relations have shaken me off. They deny that they ever knew me. My
+mother has married again and removed to Prague. Every one in whom I
+would confide tries to get something out of me&mdash;either money, or what is
+more precious than money. Whosoever would attach himself to me is either
+a swindler, or a seducer, or a parasite. As for myself, I am a stupid,
+credulous creature, who will never have any brains to bless herself
+with. I need a strong hand over me, some one to look after my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> material
+interests and save me from bankruptcy, some one in whose good-will I may
+confide. I know very well I might find a more <i>experienced</i> guardian
+than you, even if I went no further than the civic magistrates; but I
+could endure dictation from nobody&mdash;but you. Your dictation I could put
+up with. For Heaven's sake do not let me perish!"</p>
+
+<p>I could not help being sorry for her. I perceived also that she forbore
+to take my hand. Still, it is a rather ticklish position to become the
+guardian of a pretty woman, especially a pretty woman of this kind.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I don't mind. But let us consider the whole business
+seriously. I suppose the lieutenant agrees to it?"</p>
+
+<p>Wenceslaus Kvatopil assured me that he had no will of his own in the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, let us consider the merits of the case. Have you still got
+the money which you deposited in the Vienna savings bank?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and as soon as you are my guardian, I mean to draw it out and
+deposit it in the bank at Pest."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better, it will be more convenient for the quarterly
+payments of interest. And then, too, you will have to pay out of this
+amount the usual caution-money required of every officer about to
+marry."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know. Six thousand florins."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, you might also mortgage your father's house to this
+amount."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>"Whichever you think best."</p>
+
+<p>"I think the latter way will be best, for I foresee that you will get
+very little profit from your houses, and I want to save as much of your
+ready money as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Save</i>, do you say?" cried Bessy, opening her eyes very wide at this
+word.</p>
+
+<p>I scratched my head all over (I had lots of hair to scratch in those
+days). It was my duty as guardian to express my views with perfect
+candour. At last I found the requisite formula.</p>
+
+<p>"Look now, my sweet ward Bessy, and you also, respected lieutenant, I
+have seen all sorts of wonders in my lifetime. I have seen a one-legged
+ballet-dancer who could turn the most difficult pirouettes; I have seen
+a painter without hands who painted masterly pictures with his feet; I
+have seen a blind actor who played Hamlet right to the very end. But
+what I never have seen yet is a cavalry officer without debts."</p>
+
+<p>At this, the pair of them burst into a loud ha! ha! ha!</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" cried the bridegroom, "I am not such a wonder as that!"</p>
+
+<p>I now begged him, since we had become so confidential, to be so good as
+to draw his chair close to the table and put down his beautiful helmet
+with the black and yellow plumes and go into figures.</p>
+
+<p>"How much do your debts amount to?"</p>
+
+<p>And a very pretty little amount he made of it.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>The bridegroom could read from my face that I thought the amount a
+trifle extravagant for a lieutenant; for that amount Bessy could have
+got a major at least. He hastened to explain matters.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not incur this large debt myself, the culprit was another
+lieutenant, a friend of mine, a rich and distinguished young fellow. He
+got me to write my name to a bill as guarantor of the amount. He was
+still a minor. I wrote my name, of course&mdash;what did I know about it?
+Suddenly, when my young friend got over head and ears in difficulties,
+he blew his brains out. His father refused to pay the bill, and so I
+inherited it from his creditors. Since then I have been paying and
+paying, but the debt, instead of diminishing, increases, and the
+terrible <i>boa conscriptor</i> winds itself tighter and tighter round my
+body."</p>
+
+<p>A boa conscriptor indeed, was this gigantic conscriptor<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">96</a> serpent!</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> A translation of the Hungarian word <i>Osszeiro</i>, which
+means a conscript or schedule of anything, <i>here</i> a schedule of debts.</p></div>
+
+<p>At this we all three laughed again, which was rather odd, for there was
+nothing at all to laugh at.</p>
+
+<p>The long and the short of it all was that after discharging her lover's
+debts, and depositing the caution-money, my ward Bessy still had
+twenty-five thousand florins left.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said she, "that's just why I asked you to be my guardian,
+for if the money remains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> in my hands, every bit of it will vanish by
+the end of the year."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder you've kept it so long."</p>
+
+<p>"The wonder is owing to the fact that my mother inhibited the payment of
+the amount to me, and this embargo can only be removed when I am married
+to a man of rank and honour."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to be very economical in your housekeeping," I said, "not
+to exceed your income."</p>
+
+<p>"There's Kvatopil's pay, too, and as a cavalry officer he is entitled to
+free unfurnished quarters."</p>
+
+<p>"And you'll be able to put up with an officer's free quarters?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"You know very well that to such things" ... (I saw that she meant to
+say, "I am used to such things," and I pulled a wry face. She rightly
+understood from my pantomime that it would be scarcely <i>proper</i> to
+mention the events of "Anno Rengetegi" in the presence of her Royal and
+Imperial<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">97</a> bridegroom, so, with theatrical <i>savoir-faire</i>, she passed
+in an instant from the impudent nonchalance of a <i>vivandi&egrave;re</i> to the
+tender cooing of a turtle-dove) ... "true love is always ready to
+sacrifice itself." And with an enchanting smile she extended her hand to
+her bridegroom, who raised it with tender enthusiasm to his lips. They
+were just like turtle-doves.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Royal as belonging to the service of the King of Hungary,
+Imperial as serving the Emperor of Austria.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Eh, Wenzy?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>"Yes, Eliza!"</p>
+
+<p>I felt no particular pleasure in this version of Romeo and Juliet,
+indeed I was half-inclined to hiss the performers.</p>
+
+<p>"Before giving you my paternal blessing, my dear children," said I, "I
+have one question to ask you. Most honoured Mr. Lieutenant, as I
+understand that you were originally intended for a priest, I presume
+that you are a Catholic?"</p>
+
+<p>"A Roman Catholic, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"During the time you spent in the Seminary, then, have you not so much
+as learnt that a Catholic is not free to marry a Calvinist woman whom
+the civil tribunals have divorced from her husband; for, according to
+Catholic dogma, marriage is a sacrament which the secular power cannot
+dissolve?"</p>
+
+<p>At this the bridegroom looked very much amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"Neither of us thought of this certainly."</p>
+
+<p>Bessy suddenly cast a basilisk look at me. Huh! what lightnings flashed
+in those sea-like eyes!</p>
+
+<p>"Then how are we to get over that?" inquired the bridegroom of me, with
+childlike helplessness.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, by your becoming a Calvinist, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"A <i>Calvi</i> ..." he was already outside the door when he said the ...
+"<i>nist</i>!" He caught up his helmet and bolted without saying good-bye to
+any one. Clerk Coloman told me afterwards he had never seen a dragoon in
+such a hurry.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy he left behind on my hands.</p>
+
+<p>The young lady was in a terrible rage.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>"It was pure malice on your part," cried she, "to do me out of my
+bridegroom like that! What do you mean by it? To serve me such a nasty
+trick as that!"</p>
+
+<p>I justified myself as best I could.</p>
+
+<p>"He would have had to know it sooner or later. The priest would have
+refused to unite you."</p>
+
+<p>"You should have left that to me. If once I had paid his debts, his
+honour as a gentleman would have bound him to make this sacrifice for
+me; he could not have got out of it then."</p>
+
+<p>I was forced to admit that I had acted very clumsily. I humbly begged
+her pardon. I would never do it again. Her next bridegroom might be a
+Mohammedan, for all that I cared.</p>
+
+<p>"You never could speak sensibly to me. No matter! I'll bring Wenceslaus
+Kvatopil back here one of these days."</p>
+
+<p>And off she went in a huff.</p>
+
+<p>This interruption had annoyed me. I had lots to do. I had to write the
+addresses of our subscribers on the covers of the neatly folded
+newspapers. This was not an ideal occupation, especially when one had to
+paste on the wrappers as well, which it was also <i>my</i> business to do.
+Some proof-sheets were also awaiting me with a lot of printers' errors.
+It was a realization of the proverb, "When the church is poor, the
+parson tolls the bell himself." In my leisure hours, however&mdash;my time of
+repose&mdash;I went on with my romance, "A Hungarian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> Nabob"; the idea of the
+principal character I had borrowed from a story of my wife's.</p>
+
+<p>A couple of weeks elapsed. One evening, when I was hesitating whether I
+should go and see about my oil-lamp myself, or wait till clerk Coloman
+returned home from the post, or the chamber-maid from the theatre,
+whither she had gone to carry my consort her costume in a basket, a
+violent ringing began outside. I had to go and open the door myself.</p>
+
+<p>To my great surprise, I saw Bessy before me with her lieutenant on her
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>Wenceslaus Kvatopil was bubbling over with affability.</p>
+
+<p>"Here I am again, sir. They have arrested me, and put me in chains. I
+must surrender."</p>
+
+<p>Yes, I thought, when the starving garrison is reduced to horse-flesh.</p>
+
+<p>"The siege was vigorous. Such batteries. Look! Those eyes! Congreve
+rockets are nothing in comparison. The star battery is already taken."</p>
+
+<p>"The firing must have been terrible indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"And now I must ask you once more to be my witness."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean your bride's witness?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, mine. First you must come with me to the priest to inform him that
+I have renounced the Catholic faith."</p>
+
+<p>"What, already?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and from conviction."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>"Would you take a chair, please?"</p>
+
+<p>"From absolute conviction."</p>
+
+<p>"Bessy is a more clever arguer than any missionary; an energetic
+propagandist."</p>
+
+<p>"And if I were to be damned on the spot, if I were to lose my hope of
+eternal salvation, I should be ready to sacrifice that also for those
+dear, lovely eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, Mr. Lieutenant," I said, "pray don't talk so wildly."</p>
+
+<p>"But I mean what I say&mdash;I am ready to become a Mohammedan for her sake."</p>
+
+<p>"I can quite believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will be my witness at the priest's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me. 'Tis a serious matter. I honour my own religion as much as
+other sects honour theirs, yet I am no proselytizer. Do you wish to
+become a Calvinist from sincere conviction?"</p>
+
+<p>At this word he leaped furiously from his seat.</p>
+
+<p>"A Calvinist? Certainly not! Heaven forbid!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then what do you want to be?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to be a Lutheran."</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis all one."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil it is! We at Leutomischl hold the Calvinists to be infidels."</p>
+
+<p>"Your bride might have told you, I think, that this is not true."</p>
+
+<p>At this, Bessy again intervened. She implored me prettily not to deny
+her this little kindness. Kvatopil had only consented to be converted
+because they have crosses in the Lutheran churches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> and believe in the
+sacraments, so that by joining them a man does not risk losing his
+heavenly hopes so much, and the Commander-in-chief would not be down
+upon him so fiercely as if he were to go over to the Calvinist
+Kuruczes.<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">98</a> The end of it all was that I, a Calvinist presbyter, had
+to introduce a newly-converted soul into the Lutheran Church.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> <i>Kurucz</i>, a name originally given to the Transylvanian
+insurgents under Francis R&aacute;k&oacute;czy; they were mostly Protestants.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>I really must have been a very good sort of fellow formerly, that is to
+say, before my heart was hardened.</p>
+
+<p>At last every obstacle was overcome. I consented to give away my ward,
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil's bride. Bessy received from her excellent mother
+(who was now a general's wife) intimation that she had withdrawn her
+sequestration from the money in the Vienna bank; the caution-money was
+deposited, the boa conscriptors were satisfied, and nothing hindered us
+from going to church.</p>
+
+<p>The marriage party, besides the bride and bridegroom, consisted of two
+witnesses; the bridegroom's witness was a battalion commander, a major
+who brought his wife with him.</p>
+
+<p>And here, perhaps, every one will ask me why the wife of the <i>other</i>
+witness was not there also?</p>
+
+<p>It is an awkward question.</p>
+
+<p>I might, I know, summarily dispose of the whole matter by saying that my
+wife had just gone, by special invitation, to act at Szabadka; she had
+been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> invited, but could not come. But this answer, I know, is
+unsatisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>I would, however, first of all, lay down this axiom: "An honourable
+husband should give his wife <i>no occasion</i> for jealousy; but neither
+ought he to make her jealous <i>without occasion</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The sacred truth is that I had never mentioned Bessy's name in my wife's
+hearing. ("Slipper-hero!") Did she know of her? I don't know. She was
+much too proud to have ever shown it if she did.</p>
+
+<p>I had Bessy's portrait, and it was in the drawer of my writing-table. It
+was there even when I got married. And if it had found its way into any
+one's hands, I could not have said that it was the portrait of my
+grandmother. But this is what did happen. When the Russian armies broke
+into the kingdom, I, foreseeing the end of the unequal struggle,
+shouldered my musket, tied on my sword, fastened my knapsack round my
+neck, took leave of my wife, and went forth to seek the camp of
+G&ouml;rgey&mdash;on foot. On my way I met Paul Ny&aacute;ry. "Whither away so armed to
+the teeth, brother Maurice?" said he. "I am going to die for my
+country," I replied, with tragic pathos. "And what have you got in your
+knapsack?" "A ham." "Well, before dying for your country, let us have a
+bit of that ham of yours together." With that he helped me up into his
+car, and in the car beside him was already sitting Joseph Patay&mdash;two
+members of the Hungary Government<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> at Debreczin, in fact. I was curious
+enough to inquire whither we were going, whereupon Ny&aacute;ry replied:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0q">"The dog that bolts to Szeged town<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">T'wards Buda lets his tail hang down."<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">99</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> Buda and Szeged being in diametrically opposite
+directions.</p></div>
+
+<p>Even with the danger of instant death hanging over his head, his bitter
+irony never forsook him. So I went on with Ny&aacute;ry to Szeged. A week
+afterwards my wife followed me. Our house she had entrusted to poor old
+Dame Kovacs. The clever comic actress had no need to fear the Cossacks.
+When, however, the Russians occupied Buda-Pest, and the rigorous order
+was issued that all arms, uniforms, and Hungarian bank-notes were to be
+given up, whilst every one in possession of a prohibited object or a
+revolutionary proclamation was to be tried by court-martial and shot,
+then indeed the good old dame ransacked all the drawers of my
+writing-table, and crumpling up into a heap all she found there,
+including Pet&ouml;fi's correspondence, a letter of Klapka's, the whole of my
+diary which I had written during the Revolution, with innumerable and
+invaluable data, pitched the whole behind the fire, and so they
+disappeared. In this great <i>auto-da-f&eacute;</i> Bessy's portrait was also
+reduced to ashes. I therefore have my suspicions that something was
+known about it, but nothing was ever said to me on the subject.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>So that, you see, was why <i>only I</i> was present at Bessy's wedding.</p>
+
+<p>The rendezvous took place in her apartments. Here I had the opportunity
+of making the acquaintance of my fellow-witness, the major of dragoons,
+and a very genial man he was. He was a good copy of a genuine Hungarian
+lord-lieutenant of a county. Nothing but cordial hilarity and jovial
+merriment, you would never have taken him for a soldier, least of all
+for an Austrian soldier. He blackguarded the "Bach<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">100</a>-hussars," but
+had nothing but praise for the Hungarians. He had not been shut up in
+Temesvar like the lieutenant, but had been fighting in Italy, and had
+only just come hither. He had the habit of seasoning his discourse with
+Hungarian proverbs and pithy aphorisms. He introduced his wife to me
+also. "My domestic dragon," he said; he could not dispense with his
+jesting even then. The lady, however, clearly did not belong to the
+dragon species. On the contrary, she was a remarkably pleasant woman, in
+the prime of life, with really handsome features. One thing I will say
+of her: when once she began to talk she never knew when to leave off.
+Her conversation knew neither rest nor pause. In my eyes, however, this
+is an advantage, for it is my invariable practice to entertain my lady
+friends by letting them talk to their hearts' content, while I listen.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> The reactionary Austrian Minister who was mainly
+responsible for the attempted denationalization of Hungary.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></span></p></div>
+
+<p>When the bride was still in her boudoir, the major's lady made me
+thoroughly acquainted with the family affairs of all the officers' wives
+in the regiment. When the bride appeared in all her bridal glory,
+accompanied by the bridegroom, who held his helmet in one hand and a
+gigantic bouquet of camellias in the other, the exchange of notes
+between the witness of the bridegroom and the witness of the bride took
+place with all the usual formalities.</p>
+
+<p>Towards me the major acted with the studied courtesy of a high
+Government official, but towards the lieutenant he acted the part of a
+senior officer from beginning to end. He ordered him about as if he were
+sitting on horseback and on the point of setting out for scout duty. And
+the lieutenant obeyed him like a machine. In fact, the bridegroom quite
+gave me the impression of a man sitting in his saddle at the head of his
+squadron. The small arms were beginning to fire, the musket balls were
+piping about his ears, the hissing grenades strike the ground in front
+of him, and he cannot so much as move his head aside till the liberating
+command sounds: "Forward! March! Draw your swords! On 'em! Cut, slash!"
+Stop! What am I saying? Here was no question of cutting and slashing!
+No; press her to your breast, rather! Is she not your bride?</p>
+
+<p>Finally, at the word of command, we reached the altar.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>It was all over. I had given Bessy away. She was married.</p>
+
+<p>She bore up very gallantly; but then, of course, she had had a deal of
+practice.</p>
+
+<p>But as for the bridegroom, every one of his movements had to be by
+order; he was accustomed to have it so. He was so moved indeed that he
+could scarcely draw off his glove, and would have forced the bride to
+stand on the right hand, whereas the priest wished her to pass to the
+left; and when the ceremony was over, he turned towards his own witness
+with the expression of a delinquent condemned to death who has now no
+hope left save in the mercy of the Court of Appeal.</p>
+
+<p>"We have been married with our left hands," he stammered.</p>
+
+<p>His best man reassured him: "Have no fear of that, my son. 'Tis the
+usual thing. The bride always stands on the left, but your right hands
+were duly placed within each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>Worthy Kvatopil did not seem to know which was his right hand and which
+was his left.</p>
+
+<p>On the way home the happy bride and bridegroom sat together in a little
+coach.</p>
+
+<p>A splendid banquet awaited the guests in Bessy's lodgings. The table was
+already spread.</p>
+
+<p>When the happy husband had conducted his darling yoke-fellow into the
+midst of us, he, without more ado, flung himself on the sofa, and,
+hiding his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> face in the palms of both hands, began to weep bitterly.
+Such a wonder as that is surely not to be seen for either love or money!
+That a bridegroom should weep fit to break his heart immediately after
+the marriage ceremony, and bewail the loss of his bachelordom in floods
+of bitter tears!</p>
+
+<p>The two ladies, however, took him in hand between them, and began to
+entreat and console him, but he could not stifle this outburst of
+feeling. The major also reassured him very prettily: "Come, come, my
+dear friend, you need not take it so tragically. Look at me now! I've
+been through it all! Look how well I get on with my domestic dragon!"
+This, however, was poor balm to him in his great affliction. At last the
+major fairly lost his temper. "A thousand Turkish skulls! What's this,
+lieutenant? Do you wish to regale us with a specimen of the higher
+morality? Bombs and grenades! Embrace your wife, sir, immediately!"</p>
+
+<p>Bessy looked at me as if she were on the point of weeping. I pitied her
+from the bottom of my heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Lieutenant," I said, "have you ever learnt English?"</p>
+
+<p>The newly-married husband was amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"From Ollendorf's grammar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you recollect exercise No. 2: '<i>Why does the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> Captain weep?&mdash;Because
+the Englishman has no bread.</i>'&mdash;Well, then, let us <i>give</i> the Englishman
+some bread."</p>
+
+<p>At this every one burst out laughing. The lieutenant also laughed.</p>
+
+<p>And so this scene came to an end. We sat down to table, and amidst the
+merry ring of glasses we made a good deal of fun out of the odd and
+mystical question of Ollendorf's, "Why does the Captain weep?" and the
+still more curious answer, "Because the Englishman has no bread."</p>
+
+<p>The lieutenant's frame of mind remained an inexplicable enigma to me. In
+after years I discovered its true solution.</p>
+
+<p>The cause of his weeping was altogether different from what Ollendorf
+had supposed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">SOLDIERING</p>
+
+
+<p>The idyll did not last very long, and was quickly followed by the epic.</p>
+
+<p>War broke out, not among the young married folks, but among the European
+Powers. This only so far concerned my ward as Kvatopil was also
+mobilized; with his dragoon regiment he went towards the eastern
+frontier. Bessy, naturally, went with him.</p>
+
+<p>We parted abruptly. They both came to me to say good-bye. Kvatopil's
+face was radiant with joy, and the reflection of it was visible in the
+smiling face of the lady. There will be war. The soldier's harvest will
+now ripen.</p>
+
+<p>For the purpose of sending her her quarterly allowance it was absolutely
+indispensable that I should know their place of sojourning.</p>
+
+<p>"Our title for the present will be&mdash;'An Ihre hochwohlgeboren Frau
+Oberlieutenantin Elisabeth von Kvatopil!' For the present, I say. Later
+on we shall no doubt advance <i>farther</i> and <i>higher</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Farther</i> towards the frontier, and <i>higher</i> in the scale of rank, I
+suppose?" said I, by way of solving the rebus.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>My ward (she was four years younger than I) was very pleased with my
+polite elucidation, and the pair of them parted from me in the best
+humour in the world.</p>
+
+<p>After that I received a letter from my ward every week. There is
+absolutely nothing in the most intricately combined knights' moves of
+the severest chess problems which can be compared with their peripatetic
+zigzagings. Now towards the south, a week afterwards towards the west,
+then up again towards the north, retreating, advancing, then back again;
+knocking about in such utterly unknown hamlets, that one could only
+discover them on the best charts by means of microscopes. Finally, the
+war took a flying leap into Wallachia and Moldavia, skipped about Jassy
+and Bucharest, and then leaped across and all along the Pruth, and at
+last settled down in Czernovicz, till it had to move on farther to
+Przemysl, whence again it happily doubled back by way of Stry, Munk&aacute;cs,
+Tokaj, Miskolcz, Kecskemet, and through Kalocsa again to Buda-Pest.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy accompanied her husband everywhere. All the vicissitudes of the
+seasons which naturally abounded in such a martial pleasure trip she
+patiently endured with him. The letters which she sent to me during this
+period would make a very interesting chapter in a history of camp life.
+<i>Opportunist</i> reasons restrain me from making them public&mdash;they might
+deter our young persons (I allude, of course, to the female sex) from
+following Bessy's example.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>Often and often I thought how accurately this young woman had foretold
+all these things of herself when we sat beside each other in my little
+wooden hut on the Comorn islet. In a straw-hut, in a cow-stall, in a
+besieged fortress, in a bare barrack, in the tent of an itinerant
+player, at the bivouac of an out-camping soldier&mdash;anywhere and
+everywhere, it is Love that makes us happy, and its sweet illusion can
+conjure up fairy palaces out of these wretched surroundings. And
+remember, too, that an officer in the field is by no means an amiable
+husband. Plagued, worried, chicaned by his official superiors; flouted
+by the weather; looking at the enemy with wolf's eyes, and kept back
+from falling upon him; eternally bickering with an unfriendly
+population; a guest beheld with evil eyes; and his wife (if he have one)
+like an iron chain hanging to his neck&mdash;it requires no small amount of
+love on the lady's part for her to follow him everywhere, and put up
+with his ill-humour.</p>
+
+<p>And she had prophesied all this beforehand. What was to be the end of it
+all?</p>
+
+<p>But there had been no advance whatever up the ladder of rank. My last
+letter was still addressed to a lieutenant's lady.</p>
+
+<p>When the great universal war was over, which left behind it so much
+bitter disillusion, Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil again came tapping at
+my door.</p>
+
+<p>Clerk Coloman was no longer with me. The <i>D&eacute;libab</i> had come to grief. I
+now edited the <i>Vas&aacute;r<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>napi Ujs&aacute;g</i>, in the place of the publicly
+advertised and responsible editor Albert Pakh, who was lying ill at
+Graefenberg. My new name was "Kakas M&aacute;rtin."<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">101</a> Eh, what a popular man
+I was then! There were Kakas M&aacute;rtin meerschaum pipes and Kakas M&aacute;rtin
+clays, with bowls in the shape of cock-headed men. I really was in the
+mouth of the nation in those days. <i>O tempi passati!</i></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> Martin Cock.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Ah! 'tis you, brother, eh?" said I.</p>
+
+<p>"So you still recognise me, then?"</p>
+
+<p>I must admit that his physiognomy had considerably changed. During the
+campaign the officers were permitted to grow absolutely
+counter-regulationary beard-pieces. Wenceslaus was now bearded <i>&agrave; la
+Haynau</i>, that is to say, the beard was shaved so as to run into the
+moustache, till the two seemed one, which contributed not a little to
+the formidability of the whole face. But a still more notable correction
+of the features was due to his nose, which had grown quite red,&mdash;a piece
+of ruby.</p>
+
+<p>He began by laying his index finger on the bridge of his nose.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see that? My sole booty from the Russo-Turkish war is this red
+nose. Last winter, while we were encamping on the Galician frontier, I
+happened to be out in the open field the whole of one night, and got in
+the way of a villainous Russian blast. The wind drove the powdered snow
+into my face, and each flake stung me like a red-hot needle-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>point. I
+was not even able to turn my back upon it. In the morning my nose was
+just as you see it now. That same week twenty of my men were frozen to
+death in their saddles, half of my regiment was down in the hospital
+with inflammation of the lungs, scurvy, and hunger-typhus. Of my whole
+squadron I only brought forty men home&mdash;and this blood-red nose as a
+trophy."</p>
+
+<p>At this I did not know whether to condole with or congratulate him.</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't have minded so much if only we had been able to fight with
+some one; but to go through a six-months' campaign without having
+anything else to do with one's sword than lay the flat of the blade
+about the shoulders of stubborn peasants during our requisitions for
+hay, that I <i>do</i> call hard. Sometimes our foreposts were so close to the
+enemy that we could <i>see</i> each other's breath, and yet we were not
+allowed to attack. At one time we were face to face with the Turks, at
+another time with the Muscovites. It would have been all one to me whom
+I pitched into, so long as I could pitch into some one. No such luck!
+Just when I was fancying that now we really were going to begin the
+battle, the order came again, 'Sheathe your swords!' and we marched
+somewhere else. I would have preferred storming trenches with cavalry to
+this sort of thing. And then that cursed maize-bread! Nothing but
+maize-bread, and not always enough of that. Half-roasted horse-flesh,
+too! Thank you for nothing!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>"But, thank Heaven, it is all over now!" said I encouragingly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is over, certainly. But what have I gained by it?"</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to his collar. There certainly were only two stars there
+still.</p>
+
+<p>"No promotion. I am just where I was before. And yet our major has
+retired. He was obliged to go, poor fellow; every limb was full of
+rheumatism. Our senior captain was promoted to his place, our second
+captain into the first captain's place. His place is now empty. I am the
+senior lieutenant, but there's not a word said about me. It is enough to
+make a fellow blow his brains out!"</p>
+
+<p>I earnestly begged him not to think of such a thing. He had other
+duties. With such an amiable consort too!</p>
+
+<p>"True, brother! She really is an angel. I dare not think what that woman
+has gone through during these bitter times. She was with me everywhere;
+but for her, perhaps, I should have gone to the bad. Ah, my friend, you
+don't know what bliss it is when, after going one's rounds through a
+biting snowstorm, one returns to one's quarters to find there an angel
+awaiting you with a bowl of steaming-hot punch."</p>
+
+<p>"I do know, for I've tried it."</p>
+
+<p>"The punch never failed. If rum was to be had for money, she got it from
+somewhere. I have known her, sir, get into her sledge and drive a day's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>
+journey into town to get rum for me. A diamond-hearted woman, I say! And
+then her love, too! Despite this ruby nose of mine, she loves me. She
+says it suits me very well. Nay, she is not even hurt at remaining
+simply the wife of a senior lieutenant. But for her I should have sent a
+bullet through my head long ago."</p>
+
+<p>I tried to comfort him with the assurance that a senior lieutenant in
+active service was worth ever so much more in the world's estimation
+than a general on the retired list.</p>
+
+<p>He wound up by inviting me to have a glass of punch with him in the
+evening as soon as his lodgings were ready to receive me.</p>
+
+<p>I didn't go.</p>
+
+<p>Frequently did he invite me, by letter in his wife's name even, and yet
+I never went to drink punch with them. When we met together afterwards,
+I always invented some excuse. On the first occasion I said my head
+ached; on the second occasion I said I was too busy; on the third
+occasion unexpected country cousins had looked in upon me, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>Every time I met him, however, friend Wenceslaus always wound up with
+the bitter exclamation: "I shall have to blow my brains out. Still no
+promotion!"</p>
+
+<p>At last I was tired of telling so many lies, so I told my friend the
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>Now, there are three sorts of truths in the world.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>The first sort of truth is that which pleases my friend, but doesn't
+please me.</p>
+
+<p>The second sort of truth is that which pleases me, but doesn't please my
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>The third sort of truth is that which pleases neither my friend nor
+myself, and which brings us to loggerheads at once. Let me illustrate
+what I mean.</p>
+
+<p>To take number one first, I might have said to friend Kvatopil: "My dear
+comrade, a constitutional regime prevails in my house: my wife reigns,
+but I am <i>responsible</i>, and I could never obtain her majesty's consent
+to a bill authorizing me to go and have tea once a week with your pretty
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>But this truth I did <i>not</i> tell him.</p>
+
+<p>But supposing I had said to him: "My dear lieutenant, I move in a
+completely different sphere to you. I should be infinitely honoured by
+your society, but I should not know what to talk to your colleagues
+about," that would have been the second sort of truth.</p>
+
+<p>But I did not tell him that.</p>
+
+<p>I told him the third sort of truth. I said: "My dear Kvatopil, if you
+want to know the reason why you don't get promotion, I'll tell you. It
+is because you are so friendly with me. I am a <i>persona ingrata</i> in the
+eyes of the authorities. Only yesterday the police paid me a visit,
+packed up every scrap of paper they could lay their hands on, and
+carried it off; they even took my pictures out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> the frames. Then
+Police-inspector Prottman came and worried me for half a day by asking
+me what I knew about Kossuth's proclamation and the dollar notes. If you
+keep on visiting me and writing to me, and if I were to go and amuse
+myself among your brother officers, they would think it gospel truth
+that you were also concerned in the conspiracy. Fortunately, I always
+burn your letters of invitation, or Prottman would now be engaged in
+docketting them."</p>
+
+<p>My friend was startled.</p>
+
+<p>"I only invited you to a glass of punch!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Punch here and punch there! The police would be sure to read it
+'<i>putsch</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">102</a> And look ye, comrade, to be perfectly candid with you,
+I think it would be better for you if you left off all this
+punch-drinking, for 'tis that which makes your nose so red."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> A riot or sedition.</p></div>
+
+<p>Now <i>that</i> was the truth which pleased neither of us.</p>
+
+<p>"You think so, eh? By Jove, you're right! It has often seemed to me when
+I swallow down a glass of punch as if my nose were assuming enormous
+dimensions and diffusing a radiance all about me. From this day forth
+I'll drink no more punch. My word upon it! What's to-day? January 23rd?
+Note it in your diary: 'On January 23rd, Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil
+gave me his word of honour as a gentleman that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> he would never drink
+punch again.'"&mdash;And he left me no peace till I had entered it in my
+diary.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, more than that, no kind of brandy, or schnaps, or wine, or beer;
+in a word, no sort of spirituous liquor whatever."</p>
+
+<p>All this I had to make a note of.</p>
+
+<p>"And now for a whole year and a day we'll watch the result. Nothing else
+now but pure water."</p>
+
+<p>For a whole year after that I saw nothing of Kvatopil, nor did I hear
+anything of Bessy.</p>
+
+<p>One day, however, my lieutenant suddenly invaded me again; he was still
+the wearer of two stars only.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, if it isn't really enough to make a fellow blow his brains out!
+Again they have passed me over. I went straight to the Colonel. 'Your
+Excellency,' I said, 'here have I been in the service for the last
+twelve years. I have faithfully performed my duties. I have never used
+bad language. I know the regulations. I am at the head of the riding
+school&mdash;and still I am set aside. I want to know what objection they
+have against me.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Manly conduct on your part, comrade," I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you know what answer I got? You were quite right, after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Your suspicious intimacy with me, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, no! Who the devil cares for your chatter about the police? Not
+you it is, but this red nose! Here it is still, and it stands in my
+way."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> And he viciously tugged at the object that stood in his way as if
+it were some stubborn remount.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll make you. The Colonel replied to my interpellation with
+perfect candour. 'My dear Kvatopil,' said he, 'you have indeed the very
+best good-conduct report. There's but one fault which weighs heavily in
+the scale against you: you are too much devoted to drink.' 'What? I?
+Given to drink? Why, for more than a year I have been drinking nothing
+but water.' 'Impossible!' cried the Colonel&mdash;'just look at your red
+nose!' 'I acquired that while campaigning out.' The Colonel shook his
+head incredulously. 'But I assure your Excellency that I am speaking the
+truth, I have written testimony to the fact.' 'Then I should very much
+like to see it.' So that is why I have come straight to you. My dear
+friend, I adjure you by your hope of heavenly bliss, if you love me, if
+you ever loved Bessy, if you would save the life of a human creature, to
+give me that note-book in which, a year ago, you entered the vow that I
+made on my honour as a gentleman, that I may show it to the Colonel."</p>
+
+<p>I energetically resisted this proposal.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friend, all sorts of ticklish items have been entered in this
+note-book of mine which absolutely cannot be read by anybody but
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>But he solemnly assured me that he would never while he was alive suffer
+the little book to leave his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> hands, and would only show to his superior
+that one page relating to his solemn engagement, so that at last I was
+obliged to submit to his discretion. He promised to return in an hour's
+time.</p>
+
+<p>And he kept his word. In an hour he returned, gave me back my little
+book, embraced me and pressed me to his breast.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend, you have made me a happy man. I have obtained my object. His
+Excellency, on reading the oath recorded in your note-book, laughed to
+such an extent that I could count at least four of his teeth that were
+stopped with gold. Great Heaven! he eats gold with gold, while I have to
+gnaw bones with bone! When he had somewhat recovered from his outburst
+of hilarity, he smacked me on the shoulder, and said: 'Mr. Lieutenant, a
+great injustice has been done you. You are not a drunkard. There has
+been a mistake. This must be seen to. And I promise you that at the very
+first vacancy you shall obtain your third star.'"</p>
+
+<p>This promise raised my friend into the seventh heaven of delight. Hope
+gave him back the desire of life.</p>
+
+<p>This now is the speciality of a soldier's life. We poor civilians can
+have no idea of the joy he felt, especially if we be nothing but
+simple-minded authors. For an author has only one star, and that is high
+above his head. If he can get it, he may keep it, 'tis his. If he cannot
+get it himself, nobody in the world can get it for him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">TEMPTATION</p>
+
+
+<p>The most beautiful comet I ever saw was the comet of 1858. It was
+visible in the sky for a whole fortnight, from October 1st to 15th, and
+all the time the weather was as fine as could be, not a cloud in the
+sky. And meanwhile the comet drew steadily nearer to the earth, growing
+bigger and bigger, and in shape it exactly resembled a Turkish scimitar;
+at last it was quite visible in broad daylight.</p>
+
+<p>I had very good cause for remembering this comet so well. In September
+of the same year I was seized with h&aelig;morrhage of the lungs, an alarming
+symptom in a young man. Our doctor, Sebastian Andrew Kovacs of blessed
+memory, said that it was not medicine that I wanted, but change of air.</p>
+
+<p>I submitted to his directions, and at the beginning of the autumn I
+undertook an audacious expedition&mdash;to visit the Western Carpathian Alps
+on horseback. Our good old friend Gabriel T&ouml;r&ouml;k (he had been a
+Government Commissioner during the Revolution) and his two sons were my
+guides, for they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> had been all through those beautiful regions<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">103</a>
+before. Five to six hours in the saddle every day for a fortnight,
+through pathless forests, up and down steep rocky precipices, wading
+through streams and mountain torrents, dancing of an evening at the
+balls frequently given in our honour, in the big-heeled boots that we
+had worn on horseback during the day, gobbling bacon as we stopped to
+rest on the fresh grass, and washing it down with a gurgling drink out
+of our brandy-flasks&mdash;that is what I call a radical cure for
+inflammation of the lungs.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> J&oacute;kai has immortalized these wonderful landscapes in <i>Az
+Erdelyi ar&aacute;ny K&oacute;ra</i>, perhaps his best descriptive romance.</p></div>
+
+<p>It cured me, anyhow.</p>
+
+<p>With my suite, which gradually swelled into ten strong, I visited Bihar,
+and found out the rocky grave beneath which reposes my good friend Paul
+Vasv&aacute;ry, who died such a heroic death.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">104</a> I also saw the Hungarian
+California, the gold-diggings of Abrudbanya and Verespatak. I painted
+that marvellous basalt hill Deton&aacute;t&aacute;, than which it is impossible to
+imagine a more interesting formation. I was in <i>Cset&aacute;tye M&aacute;r&eacute;</i>, that
+overwhelming relic of the Roman power, a gigantic gold-producing hill
+entirely hollowed out by the slavish hands of a subjugated race. When
+they would have dug still deeper, the top of the scooped-out mountain
+fell in and buried beneath it both slaves and slave-holders. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> there
+it stands now, a gaping chasm, like one of the circular Mountains of the
+Moon.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> One of the victims of the Revolution.</p></div>
+
+<p>I love to look back on this delightful tour; and the lovely comet
+accompanied me in the sky all the time.</p>
+
+<p>The result of my journey was that I returned home with perfectly healthy
+lungs. From the comet, moreover, I borrowed the idea of starting a
+weekly comic paper under the title of <i>Ust&ouml;k&ouml;s</i>.<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">105</a> And this paper
+gave me something to do for the next fifteen years. During all that time
+it had great influence. With a preliminary and a supplementary
+censureship to deal with, it was only possible to say a word of truth or
+a word of encouragement in verse or by way of anecdote. Sometimes a
+printer's error served our turn instead. For instance, to the question,
+"What shall a Hungarian man do now?" the answer was, "<i>V&aacute;rjon &eacute;s
+t&uuml;rj&ouml;n</i>" ("Wait and suffer"); but by a printer's error the "<i>t&uuml;rj&ouml;n</i>"
+became "<i>t&uuml;rr j&ouml;n</i>," which the reader, in his own mind, would read as
+"<i>T&uuml;rr j&ouml;n</i>" ("Let T&uuml;rr come"), and associate it at once with the
+popular ballad sung from one end of the kingdom to the other, and which
+begins, "<i>Hoz T&uuml;rr Pizta pusk&aacute;t!</i>" ("Pizta T&uuml;rr he brings his musket!")</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> This comic paper still exists, but M. J&oacute;kai is no longer
+its editor.</p></div>
+
+<p>But the comet had another signification also.</p>
+
+<p>In those days war was our universal prayer. And the following year
+actually brought it.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon III.'s historical new year's greeting settled the dread destiny
+of the year.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>One day my lieutenant again came to see me; I was still his guardian.
+His face beamed with joy.</p>
+
+<p>"God be with you, my friend!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange beginning.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you've got your promotion in your pocket?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that, but an order to march. Our whole regiment goes to Lombardy,
+and perhaps even farther. There will be war with Italy, but pray don't
+say anything about it. 'Tis a State secret."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it long ago."</p>
+
+<p>"From whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"From the Chief of the Police himself. One day he summoned before him
+all the newspaper editors in Buda-Pest and sternly commanded them not to
+write a single letter as <i>to the preparations</i> for the impending war.
+And thus we heard all about the coming campaign from the very best
+authority."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they certainly might have acted more discreetly than that."</p>
+
+<p>"Where, then, shall I send you your remittances in the immediate
+future?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nowhere at all, dear friend. Bessy will remain here. Nobody is allowed
+to take his wife with him, not even the Colonel; whilst from the very
+day on which the war begins I shall receive double pay. So give the
+money to Bessy."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll <i>send</i> it to her."</p>
+
+<p>"I say <i>give</i> it to her. Take it yourself personally."</p>
+
+<p>"I am much obliged for your confidence."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>"It is more than confidence. I wish you, while I am away, to go and see
+her: be her guest every day, and make yourself quite at home."</p>
+
+<p>"The deuce! Do you consider me, then, one of those ninnies to whom one
+can confide a pretty woman <i>&agrave; l'outrance</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Au contraire!</i> I am convinced of the contrary. I know that in such
+matters no reliance can be placed upon mere honour. The only thing a man
+expects from his worthy comrades is discretion. I am well informed of
+everything. My wife has confessed everything to me: the little wooden
+hut on the Comorn island, and then the visit in your private room, the
+meeting at the Pagan Altar.... He, he, he! we know all the circumstances
+quite well!"</p>
+
+<p>(It was an unheard of case. To think that a pretty woman should become
+the trumpet of her own notoriety!)</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear comrade, on my word of honour ..."</p>
+
+<p>"Here we have nothing to do with words of honour. You were in love with
+her once, and I need have no further fear of any one who <i>used</i> to love
+Bessy. Jupiter was the chief of the gods, and had the loveliest of women
+for his wife, yet <i>he</i> didn't keep the ten commandments. 'Twill be
+better to pour pure wine into our glasses, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"But, I repeat, I don't want to pour any wine at all into my glass."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>"Stuff and nonsense! We know all about that. Bessy makes a fool of every
+man, and showers contempt on her worshippers. Of you alone does she
+always speak with rapture. Whenever your name is mentioned she sighs
+deeply, and says, 'Ah, and I might have been his, too!'"</p>
+
+<p>"That proves all the more that our relations have been purely Platonic."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good indeed! What I like about you best of all is the serious face
+with which you are always able to defend your point of view. Another man
+in your place would rejoice at his good fortune; you nobly deny
+yourself. You will compromise nobody. You have that advantage over all
+my other good friends. I would rather entrust her to you than to
+anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"But why not rather trust her to herself? Foster within her the
+sentiment of fidelity. Write to her every day from the camp."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, my friend, a letter won't do. I can't be always scribbling and
+raving to her. Bessy is not one of the romantic sort. You know all her
+various temperaments."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I know nothing of the sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I do then. I know that the moment I've cast my right foot over my
+horse's back she will be unfaithful to me. It is as much her nature to
+be so as it is my nature to fight and yours to write. When I can't sit
+on horseback I'm ill, when you can't write a romance you're ill, and
+when a pretty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> woman is not flirting she gets the <i>migraine</i>. Your hand
+upon it that you will visit my Bessy while I am far away and comfort
+her!" And the tears really started to his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Now, here was a situation which is not to be found in any romance, and
+which the reader will, I know, only accept as true under protest. A
+soldier departing for the wars forcibly compels his good friend to try
+and comfort the pretty wife he leaves behind him. But that that friend
+should kick and struggle with all his might against such a marvellous
+piece of good fortune is a fact which I am sure I shall never get the
+enlightened public to believe anyhow.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend," said Kvatopil finally, drying the tears from his eyes and
+violently pressing one of my hands in one of his, "you know that we
+valiant horsemen, dragoons and uhlans, are going down to Italy; the
+hussars have gone already. The volunteers will take our place here in
+garrison-duty. During our absence down there they will be raging
+furiously here. If I thought that mine would be the shame to see my
+place here taken by one of those red-braided, chicory hussars, I should
+be capable of blowing out first my wife's brains and then my own. Don't
+allow such a thing to happen. If one of those cockatoos were to see your
+astrachan pelisse with the large chalcedon buttons of yours hanging up
+in my ante-chamber, he would be scared into flight at once."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>At this we both laughed heartily.</p>
+
+<p>We took leave of each other very prettily. Kvatopil with the fairest
+hopes followed the glorious career which promised him fame and
+promotion.</p>
+
+<p>The whole kingdom waited for news from the seat of war with rapt
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>Our parting had taken place at the end of April. In May, the official
+newspapers gave us a brief account of the battle of Montebello. It was
+not a regular pitched battle, but a forced reconnaissance by the
+Austrian general with a jumble of some 12,000 men of all arms. Both the
+Austrians and the French fought bravely. The official <i>communiqu&eacute;</i> did
+not give further details.</p>
+
+<p>I, however, through the kind offices of a courier sent from the seat of
+war to the Commandant of Buda, also received a private letter from the
+field of battle. Kvatopil wrote thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I hasten to write to you after the battle. The whole
+of our regiment was under fire, repulsed the French
+chasseurs and pursued them into Montebello. <i>I received
+a slight wound in the forehead, which did not, however,
+prevent my further fighting. The Commander-in-chief
+immediately promoted me to the rank of captain, and
+praised my valour in front of the regiment. Make known
+the joyous news to my dear wife. I am not able to write
+to her. A thousand kisses to the pair of you.</i></p>
+
+<p class="rightalign">"<span class="smcap">Wenceslaus Kvatopil</span>, Captain."</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>But there was a postscript also.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"P.S.&mdash;Show this letter to nobody, and don't let it out
+of your hand. Destroy it when you have read it through,
+for, if it were discovered, it would bring me into the
+greatest trouble, as it is absolutely forbidden to
+write letters from the camp. That is why I have
+addressed it to you instead of to my wife, for I can
+count upon your discretion. In her triumph she would
+show the letter everywhere. But you burn it.&mdash;W.&nbsp;K."</p></div>
+
+<p>Now, this letter made it my positive duty to visit Bessy, for I could
+only tell her about it by word of mouth. I might indeed have destroyed
+Kvatopil's letter, then written its entire purport to his wife in a
+letter of my own, but in that case she would certainly have carried my
+letter from pillar to post, and the mischief would have been the same.</p>
+
+<p>If I went to her in broad daylight, every one would see me. I could not
+go <i>incognito</i>, for I was as well known as a bit of bad money. Besides
+that, the Hungarian national costume was in fashion just then. Every one
+who wore it might expect to have his name bawled after him in the street
+for a week afterwards at the very least. If, on the other hand, I were
+to go to Bessy when it was dark, and they were lighting the gas-lamps,
+that would only make matters worse.</p>
+
+<p>And again, it would be an inconceivable absurdity not to suppose that
+one or other of Bessy's fair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> neighbours would not be looking out of the
+windows of the house opposite, with the most persistent curiosity, to
+see who was going in at the gate. And if but one of them saw me, the
+whole theatre would know all about it on the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>A husband with a conscience (and there <i>are</i> such husbands) ought in
+such cases to stand before his wife with a demure countenance, and say
+to her honestly and openly: "My dear angel, I am obliged to pay a
+disagreeable visit to this or that lady, and I don't half like it; I
+wish you would come too." Whereupon the wife will naturally be quite
+magnanimous and say: "Go along by yourself, my dear; you know that I am
+not a bit jealous."</p>
+
+<p>But my wife happened, just then, to be away acting at Szeged, and would
+not be back for a week. That would be an aggravating circumstance in the
+case of a visit.</p>
+
+<p>While I was thus debating with myself, a smart little maid-servant came
+to my door. She had a covered market-basket on her arm, and she drew out
+of it a neatly-folded little <i>billet-doux</i>, which she placed in my hand.
+The note smelt of celery, under which it had been put. I recognised the
+handwriting of the address, it was Bessy's. I opened and read it. The
+maid stood there and waited. At last she grew impatient of the long
+delay, and said: "I am waiting for an answer."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, so you're still there? Stop a bit!"</p>
+
+<p>I read the letter once more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Guardian</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"Very serious business makes me send to you. Come and
+see me. As your honoured wife is now engaged on a
+provincial tour, can't you come and dine with me
+to-day? We shall be all by ourselves.</p>
+
+<p class="rightalign">"<span class="smcap">Bessy.</span>"</p></div>
+
+<p>Was there ever an odder reason?&mdash;"<i>As your honoured wife is now engaged
+on a provincial tour</i>"! No doubt she found that out in the <i>F&ouml;v&aacute;rosi
+Lapok</i>.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">106</a> But the conclusion: "<i>therefore</i> you can come and dine with
+me to-day"! And finally: "We shall be all by ourselves"! If that wasn't
+a temptation, I don't know what is.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> <i>News of the Capital</i>, a popular newspaper of the
+period.</p></div>
+
+<p>I began to walk up and down.</p>
+
+<p>The maid waited to see if I was going to count how many paces it was
+from the window to the door. At last she grew importunate.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any answer, please? I have to go home and cook the dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, of course! Greet your mistress from me, and tell her that I'll
+come and see her in the forenoon to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"But I want to know whether you are coming to dinner, that I may arrange
+my cooking accordingly."</p>
+
+<p>"True! Then say I'll come to dinner."</p>
+
+<p>In Bessy's house the custom seemed to prevail for the mistress to dine
+six days of the week with Duke Humphrey, and then on the seventh, her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>
+at-home day, to make a great parade before her guests.</p>
+
+<p>I was now running into the very centre of danger.</p>
+
+<p>I could not possibly back out of this engagement.</p>
+
+<p>"A serious business, eh?" I know it was serious enough to me.</p>
+
+<p>An ideal of my youth, and lovelier now than ever, with a husband of her
+own too, and that husband a fine manly fellow. So far from being
+jealous, he had openly entrusted me with the consolation of his
+sorrowing spouse. And I am the last person in the world to be enrolled
+in the Order of Anchorites.</p>
+
+<p>I candidly admit that I am not a bit better than my neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>So I tricked myself out finely. I put on my new coffee-coloured clothes
+with the antique buttons; I neatly tied my embroidered cravat; I drew on
+my Kordofan-leather boots with the silver spurs; I fastened a crane's
+plume in my new spiral hat.</p>
+
+<p>This was the audacious fashion of the year, and within a twelvemonth
+this costume was worn in the whole kingdom. And after that, I went to
+the barber's and he twisted my thick blonde hair into masterly ringlets.
+Aggravating circumstances, the whole lot of them!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">A COLD DOUCHE</p>
+
+
+<p>How my heart beat when I set forth on my expedition!</p>
+
+<p>On the way from my dwelling to Bessy's lodgings my ill fate brought me
+face to face with all the veteran actresses of the National Theatre, and
+they all stopped me and asked where I was going. They all remarked that
+I was very stylishly got up, and they all shook their fingers at me, and
+said: "Fie, fie! you straw-widower!"</p>
+
+<p>The devil must really have been in me to make me take the trouble to
+have my hair so prettily frizzled.</p>
+
+<p>I was just about to dash hastily up the staircase of Bessy's dwelling,
+when whom should I run into but T&oacute;ni S&aacute;gi. It only needed that. He came
+from the same town as I did, was a common friend of all my friends, and
+was about as reticent of news as a town-crier.</p>
+
+<p>"Your servant, friend! Why, you're quite a stranger. I've just come from
+Bessy. The young lady is in a very bad humour. She as good as pitched me
+out of doors. She must be expecting some one. Perhaps you are the very
+man, eh?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>It was all up with me now! To-morrow every newspaper in the town will
+report my visit here. For "quod licet <i>bovi</i>, non licet <i>Jovi</i>."</p>
+
+<p>If I were to turn back now, it would only make matters worse.</p>
+
+<p>I hastened up the steps. Bessy lived on the third floor.... To get to
+her rooms I had to follow the open corridor which led down to the
+courtyard. I passed on my way the lodgings of a milliner, a female
+pawnbroker, and a lady who supplied families with servant-maids, and all
+three poked their heads out of their windows and watched me disappear.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching Bessy's number, I found, tugging at the bell-rope, a
+red-peluched young coxcomb. The door was about a fourth part open, and
+the face of the vicious looking cook was protruding out of it. She
+dismissed the visitor with curt ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>"My mistress is not at home!"</p>
+
+<p>We nearly trod each other's spurs off as we cannoned against each other
+in the narrow corridor.</p>
+
+<p>A minute afterwards the countenance of the self-same cook, rounded into
+complete amiability, again appeared, and she said to me:</p>
+
+<p>"Would you do us the honour to walk in?"</p>
+
+<p>And she held the door wide open for me.</p>
+
+<p>You should have seen the face which my red furbelowed gentleman made at
+this. It was not enough for him to open his eyes and mouth at me; he
+stuck his <i>pince-nez</i> on the bridge of his nose as well.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>That will mean a duel for me to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, however, I was master of the situation.</p>
+
+<p>I had to go through the kitchen to get to Bessy's room. The kitchen was
+also the ante-chamber; you hung up your overcoat there. Her cook was her
+only servant, parlour-maid, chamber-maid, everything.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you kindly walk into the saloon?" urged the servant.</p>
+
+<p>"But announce me beforehand. Here's my card."</p>
+
+<p>"Beg pardon, but I can't take it; both my hands are doughy." (She was in
+the middle of kneading some dough cake or other with butter.) "Would you
+kindly put your card between my teeth?"</p>
+
+<p>Thus, like a retriever, she carried in my card between her teeth. A
+moment afterwards she cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Come in now, please!"</p>
+
+<p>I entered the room which the servant had called a saloon.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody was there. I looked around me. I found nothing there of the
+luxurious splendour which had surrounded the young lady formerly in her
+mother's house; but for all that everything was neat and pretty.
+Embroideries, a music-stand with songs upon it, and a fiddle,
+flower-pots, a cage with exotic birds, Wallachian <i>Katrinczas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">107</a>
+Szekler pottery, a few handsomely bound books&mdash;all these were so
+disposed as to fill the mind with a sense of refined elegance combined
+with the utmost simplicity.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> Aprons.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<p>A curtained door led from the saloon into another room&mdash;possibly a
+bed-chamber.</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes this door opened and the fair lady fluttered in.</p>
+
+<p>It did not escape my attention that the moment she entered she turned
+her head on one side, and contracted her eyebrows as if to bid some one
+else remaining behind there to keep quiet. The momentary opening of the
+door also permitted me to see that in the direction in which she had
+looked was a tall tester bed with the curtains drawn close.</p>
+
+<p>The moment, however, that she had shut the door behind her and turned
+towards me, the face of the lovely lady became all amiability. She
+hastened up to me and pressed my hand.</p>
+
+<p>"It was very nice of you to come and see me. Don't be angry with me for
+giving you the trouble."</p>
+
+<p>The lady was now more amiable than ever.</p>
+
+<p>She was in the simplest stay-at-home toilet. The only ornament on her
+head was her own bright silky hair, twisted up into a knot and tied at
+the top with a ribbon.</p>
+
+<p>She looked just as she was ten years before, a little girl of sixteen.</p>
+
+<p>Her whole being recalled to me her childish days. There was the same
+candid, guileless look; those open eyes through which you could read
+into her very soul; the same artless mouth.</p>
+
+<p>She invited me to sit down. She took my hat and laid it on the table.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>"I suppose you'll remain to dinner? I have told the cook to prepare your
+favourite dish."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you know what it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course! <i>Beans with pig's ear.</i> Why, all your admirers
+throughout the kingdom know that."</p>
+
+<p>I had now good reason to be proud! My nation, then, has some regard for
+me, after all. To others it presents <i>bays</i>, to me&mdash;<i>beans</i>.<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">108</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> In Hungarian the resemblance is closer still, <i>babo</i>
+meaning bean, and <i>bab&eacute;r</i>, laurel.</p></div>
+
+<p>"In that case I'll remain," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"In Kvatopil's time I was never permitted to cook beans, for he
+maintained that they make a man stupid."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary. Pythagoras assures us that the bean contains the same
+component parts as the human brain."</p>
+
+<p>Having thus rehabilitated the bean, I reverted to the real motive of my
+visit there.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have come to visit you to-day even without a special
+invitation."</p>
+
+<p>"Was there any special reason, then, why I should occupy a place in your
+thoughts?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have received a letter from Italy, the contents of which will greatly
+interest you."</p>
+
+<p>At these words she looked at me as coldly as if she had become an
+alabaster statue.</p>
+
+<p>"Interest <i>me</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"So I believe. On the 20th instant there was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> battle on the Mincio, at
+which your husband distinguished himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Really?" said the lady mechanically.</p>
+
+<p>("Really?"&mdash;In that tone? It was rather odd. However, I went on.)</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, in the heat of the combat he was even wounded."</p>
+
+<p>(I calculated surely on the dramatic effect of these words. I fancied
+that the tender spouse would leap to her feet, pale, ready to faint,
+wringing her hands, till at last, amidst sobs, the name of the adored
+husband would burst forth from her lips: "Oh! my Wenceslaus! Oh! my
+Kvatopil!" But she did not so much as turn her head round.)</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" she said, with complete <i>sangfroid</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Just as if it were an every-day occurrence for a beloved husband to be
+wounded in battle.</p>
+
+<p>I was offended. Such ungrateful indifference I had never met with
+before. How was I to go on? I had calculated that when the despairing
+consort had wept and sobbed her fill, I should hasten to console her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true," said I, "that his wound is not sufficiently dangerous to
+prevent him from continuing in the field."</p>
+
+<p>"I can easily believe it," replied the lady, with a shrug of the
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Now this was a want of feeling worthy of an alligator! Surely she had
+the nerves of a rhinoceros! I was not prepared for this reception. "I
+can easily believe it!" Was that all?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>Well, then, if our tender feelings are so hermetically sealed, we must
+try what more drastic means will do. We must appeal to other sentiments.
+Vanity, for instance, is a sentiment which never can be blunted.</p>
+
+<p>So I moved forward my heavy artillery.</p>
+
+<p>"Lieutenant Kvatopil," I said, "was called to the front and made a
+captain straight off for heroic valour in the field."</p>
+
+<p>But even at this the lovely lady did not fling herself on my neck. She
+did not even utter a sound, but contracted the corners of her mouth.
+What did that mean? When you tell a lieutenant's wife that from to-day
+she has a right to the title Mrs. Captain; that every one who meets her
+in the street and congratulates her will address her as, "Frau
+Rittmeisterin," while the other lieutenants' wives naturally burn with
+secret envy; that she may now print her corresponding rank on her
+visiting cards&mdash;when you tell her all this, and even then no impression
+is produced, and the cherry lips do <i>not</i> expand with joy, revealing the
+sparkling, pearly teeth and the dimples on the sunbright face; when,
+instead of that, she purses up her mouth so nastily and gives herself a
+double chin&mdash;what <i>are</i> you to think? There is nothing so hideous as a
+pretty woman with a double chin. A double chin makes a woman look
+absolutely old.</p>
+
+<p>I was quite confused. What am I to do to amuse her now? Should I talk
+about the weather?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>"May I congratulate you?" I said, seizing her hand.</p>
+
+<p>But not only did she <i>not</i> press my hand in return, as she ought to have
+done; on the contrary, she irritably drew it back and turned aside her
+head.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a light flashed through my brain, a light kindled by my
+immeasurable self-conceit. "Why go on praising the distant husband,"
+said I to myself, "when you yourself are present? Do you think she
+invited you to dinner to sing the praises of Wenceslaus Kvatopil?"</p>
+
+<p>I drew my chair nearer to the sofa on which Bessy was sitting, and
+airily passed my hand through my frizzled locks.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy observed the movement, and quickly turned her face towards me. A
+mocking smile suddenly lighted up her face, a smile from which a man can
+read a whole chapter in a moment. That is something like stenography.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha, sir! then we have come thither with that thought, have we? We
+have had our hair frizzled, eh? We have decked ourselves out to be
+irresistible, I know?"</p>
+
+<p>A thousand mocking fish-tailed nixies were wriggling about in those
+sea-like eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was a murderous sort of smile.</p>
+
+<p>I was conscious of having been taken down pretty considerably. Here was
+I (quite contrary to my usual custom) tricked and furbished up like a
+"<i>petit ma&icirc;tre</i>," while she, the lady, received me in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> simplest
+barracan house-dress, without any finery, and with a smile she
+discharged at me the saying of the great poet:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0q">"O Vanity! thy name is woman!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But why, then, had she sent for me?</p>
+
+<p>Why had she driven away one visitor and denied herself to another if not
+for my sake?</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps for the sake of a third party who had already arrived? When she
+came out of her boudoir she seemed to me to be signalling with her
+eyebrows at some one.</p>
+
+<p>I quickly pulled myself together. I fancy I must have been very red in
+the face, and I certainly had good reason to be ashamed of myself.</p>
+
+<p>I saw that I had not been able to reap laurels in the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of Don
+Juan, so I began to take up the part of Tartuffe. Let us play the
+righteous judge!</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I have not come at a very convenient time?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, I <i>asked</i> you to come at this time."</p>
+
+<p>"On a serious business, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"A serious business for me."</p>
+
+<p>"But isn't what I've just been saying to you serious?"</p>
+
+<p>"Apparently."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you received it with a very queer face."</p>
+
+<p>"I listened seriously enough."</p>
+
+<p>"But the affair had its cheerful aspect also, surely?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>The fair dame made a contemptuous clicking with her tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you feel any interest, then, in Kvatopil's heroism, wounds,
+distinction, and promotion?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" she replied resolutely, almost snapping my sentence in two. Her
+eyes sparkled like burning naphtha lakes.</p>
+
+<p>"No?" I repeated, in my amazement. "You take no interest in your
+husband's fate whether it be bad or good? You feel neither hot nor cold
+on the subject?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>("No!" again).</p>
+
+<p>"But you parted in the greatest affection when he went to the wars?"</p>
+
+<p>"True."</p>
+
+<p>"And it is scarcely a month since then."</p>
+
+<p>"Only twenty-nine days, I've counted them."</p>
+
+<p>"And meanwhile winter has come?"</p>
+
+<p>"It has."</p>
+
+<p>After that she began to laugh maliciously. She leaped to her feet and
+rumpled my frizzly hair with her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's leave the matter till after dinner; then I'll tell you
+everything. But don't let us spoil a good dinner in the meantime. You
+are quite horrified at me now, and fancy that I've laid a trap for you.
+You will see later on that this serious business of mine is not a joke.
+Let us leave it till after the black coffee."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>I revived again. The lady was capricious, and it suited her.</p>
+
+<p>"I was determined to give you a good dinner. I owe you your revenge. It
+is a long time since we dined together. Last time I was your guest.
+Don't you remember? At the Pagan Altar. I never ate so heartily. What
+splendid toast you had! And the bacon, too, broiled on a stick! Why,
+I've got the taste of that good red pepper of yours in my mouth to this
+day! And now I mean to give you hospitality that you will remember for a
+long time!"</p>
+
+<p>This again was delightfully reassuring! She was of the true cat
+species&mdash;she purrs and fondles, but one must be continually on one's
+guard against her claws.</p>
+
+<p>"Come now, help me to lay the table! My cook has enough to do without
+that."</p>
+
+<p>So I had to help her lay the table, for the saloon was the dining-room
+also. One had only to remove the books, porcelain vases, and china
+knick-knacks from the table in front of the sofa, and then cover it with
+the table-cloth.</p>
+
+<p>I was curious to see how many she would lay for. Only for two. Two
+plates, two knives, forks and spoons, and two glasses.</p>
+
+<p>But how about that third person, that person in the bedroom yonder? Or
+had I rightly interpreted that peculiar expression of hers? I was
+beginning to think the whole thing was pure hallucination on my part.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>Suddenly the scraping of a cautiously-moved chair sounded from the
+boudoir.</p>
+
+<p>I saw that the lady was considerably put out, and felt decidedly
+uncomfortable. She wrathfully pressed her lips together.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any one in the next room?" I inquired, in a stern, judicial
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I have!" she replied defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame!" I exclaimed, in virtuous high dudgeon.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to know who <i>is</i> inside?" she cried, in an offended
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, no! I'm not a bit curious," said I, and began looking about
+for my hat and stick.</p>
+
+<p>"But I <i>wish</i> you to know," she cried indignantly, barring my way, and,
+seizing my hand, she led me to the door of the bedroom, and hastily
+flung it open. In the room a blonde young lady stood before me gazing at
+me with wondering large blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy introduced this lady to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Wenceslaus Kvatopil, from Cracow."</p>
+
+<p>Then she pulled aside the bed-curtains, and on the bed was lying a
+little girl about eleven years of age.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Wenceslaus Kvatopil's daughter. Poor things! let us leave them
+alone!"</p>
+
+<p>For at least a minute I felt as if some magic power were whirling me
+round and round the globe with it from the North Pole to the Equator,
+and back again.</p>
+
+<p>How I got out of that room into the other I really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> cannot say. Before
+me continually were the faces of that large-eyed, timid-looking woman
+and the little girl.</p>
+
+<p>I heard the sound of weeping behind me.</p>
+
+<p>It was Bessy. She had hidden her face in her hands, and was sobbing.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how I loved that man! How good, how perfect I thought him! I
+fancied him a model man! Even now I cannot accuse him. It was not his
+fault, but mine alone. His sin is my crime. Oh, what folly! Let us speak
+of the situation seriously. You know now, I suppose, why I wanted to see
+you. I wished to ask your advice."</p>
+
+<p>I sat down beside her.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy dried her eyes, and then began to speak quite soberly.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole world judges me wrongly. They fancy I am full of levity. But
+if anything pains me, the pain lasts a long, long time. Since <i>he</i> went
+away I have been nowhere, and seen nobody. If any of my old
+acquaintances came to see me, I told them that the whole place was
+topsy-turvy, and there was not even a chair to sit down upon. My servant
+had orders to say to every one who called&mdash;<i>with one exception</i>&mdash;that I
+was not visible. Who was this exception? Yourself! She could easily
+guess whom I meant, and if she didn't guess it, it didn't much matter.
+When <i>he</i> had to go away so suddenly, he was in a very tender mood. He
+wanted to make me swear that I would not be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> faithless while he was
+away. He even brought me a crucifix for the purpose, and when he saw
+that I laughed at him, he besought me, if I really must deceive him, at
+least not to bestow my favours upon the first ragamuffin that turned up;
+nay, he even took the trouble to indicate a worthy man to me, of whom he
+could not be jealous; whereupon I told him, very seriously, that the man
+he meant was capable of <i>killing</i> anybody who stood in the way of <i>his</i>
+love, but was altogether incapable of <i>filching</i> love from anybody
+else!"</p>
+
+<p>(At this my face grew very red indeed.)</p>
+
+<p>"Then he suddenly assumed a mystic mood, he knew my weak side. He said:
+'If you deceive me for the sake of any other man, at that same moment I
+shall die. Day and night I stand where death is meted out every instant,
+and the moment a kiss from your lips touches the lips of another man, at
+that self-same moment, I say, the bullet which is lying in wait for me
+will fly straight to my heart!' A horrible saying! It would not let me
+sleep, and rose up before me in my dreams. When one or other of my lady
+friends came to visit me and we fell a-chatting and began to laugh and
+joke, a sort of cold shiver would suddenly run all down my body. While I
+am smiling, I thought, perhaps he is dying a death of torments beneath
+the horses' hoofs. Every savoury morsel sticks in my throat when I
+think&mdash;perhaps he is now suffering hunger and thirst; and when the blast
+shakes my windows,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> I think&mdash;now he is standing defenceless amidst the
+tempest and freezing. And I unable to protect him!</p>
+
+<p>"In short, this threat of his made me quite a somnambulist. At last I
+denied myself even to my lady friends. I became quite morbid. I fancied
+I had no right to be gay. Ten times a day I went to the crucifix by
+which he had wished me to swear and knelt down before it to pray. I made
+all sorts of vows provided he were preserved and brought back safely to
+me. And yet I am a Calvinist! But that crucifix was <i>his</i>. He remained
+faithful to it through all his change of faith. In fact, I was in a fair
+way of becoming a Pietist. I began to think a life of virtue very
+beautiful. I should very much have liked to see you now and again, if
+only to show you that I could be just as moral as you. I would have
+praised your wife to you, and you would have returned the compliment by
+praising my husband. This would have been my ambition."</p>
+
+<p>It was the cook who interrupted this burst of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I bring in the stew, madame?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, bring it in, if it is ready."</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned to me to explain the circumstances of the case.</p>
+
+<p>"I have to let these ladies have their food cooked separately, for
+Magyar dishes would make them mortally ill. That is why I don't lay the
+table for three. <i>Your</i> favourite dishes would be death to these
+Germans."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>The cook now brought in the stewed chicken.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy tasted it first with a little spoon to see if it were salted
+enough, and also to see whether the cook had put parsley in it by
+mistake, for the doctor who was attending the little girl had forbidden
+every sort of seasoning ingredients in her food. Then she herself sliced
+up a roll of the best white bread for the little girl, poured some water
+for her into a glass, and warmed it a little by holding it tightly for a
+while between the palms of her hands instead of popping a live coal into
+it, as thoughtful mothers often do for their sick children. For the
+mother of the child, however, she had a bottle of Pilsener beer
+uncorked, and sent to her.</p>
+
+<p>Only when they had dined was our dinner served.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, we did not resume our interrupted conversation; the servant
+was constantly passing in and out, and we could not speak before her.
+Then, after that, when we sat down to dinner (and a bitter meal it was
+to me) the thread of our conversation was broken as often as the cook
+came in with a new dish or to change a plate, and all that time she
+played the part of the amiable hostess, inviting me to fall to in good
+old Hungarian style.</p>
+
+<p>"One morning," she said, "while I was doing my hair, my servant came and
+told me that a shabby-looking woman was outside, with a biggish girl,
+making inquiries about the lieutenant. I went out to them into the
+kitchen. I saw before me a blonde, blue-eyed woman, of about the same
+age as myself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> and clinging to her arm was a lanky slip of a growing
+girl about ten or eleven years of age. In the woman's hand was a
+travelling-bag and an umbrella. She was in bourgeois costume, without
+the fashionable crinoline, and on her head was a simple felt cap; her
+girl was dressed in just the same way. They both wore their hair quite
+smooth and combed back from the forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"The woman wished me good-day in German.</p>
+
+<p>"I asked her what she wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"The woman replied that she wanted her husband, Mr. Wenceslaus Kvatopil.</p>
+
+<p>"'The lieutenant?'</p>
+
+<p>"'When he left me he was only a lieutenant.'</p>
+
+<p>"I quickly caught her by the hand and led her out of the kitchen into
+the saloon. My servant, fortunately, did not understand German.</p>
+
+<p>"I led them right into my bedroom. I invited them both to be seated.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah, that will do us good,' said the woman, 'for we have come a long
+way. We have come here from Cracow.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Surely not on foot?'</p>
+
+<p>"'On foot all the way. We couldn't afford to come by rail.'</p>
+
+<p>"Just fancy! The very thought is terrible! To come on foot all those
+hundred miles hither from Cracow with a growing girl! Can one's
+imagination realize such a thing?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>"'Are you the wife of Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil?' I inquired of the
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>"'I am, and this is his daughter, Marianna.'</p>
+
+<p>"And by way of proving her assertion she drew from her travelling-bag
+her marriage lines, extracted from the registers of the cathedral of
+Cracow, to wit:&mdash;'Bridegroom: Wenceslaus Kvatopil, Sub-Lieutenant in the
+*** Dragoons. Bride: Anna Dunkircher. Witnesses: Babolescky, Colonel,
+and Kolmarscky, shopkeeper. Officiating clergyman: Stanislaus Lubousky.
+Dated, Feb. 16th, 1846.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then she showed me the baptismal certificate of the daughter.
+'Marianna, born in lawful wedlock, June 19th, 1846. Father:
+Sub-Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil. Mother: Anna Dunkircher. Officiating
+clergyman: Stanislaus Lubousky. Godparents: the above-mentioned
+marriage-witnesses.'</p>
+
+<p>"A marriage contract, duly attested, was also among the documents."</p>
+
+<p>All at once Bessy burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>The cook came in and brought the soup.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha! Do you know why, according to Ollendorf, the Captain
+weeps?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because the Englishman has no bread."</p>
+
+<p>"Look, Susy, you've forgotten to give my guardian some bread! Give him a
+crusty bit, he likes that!"</p>
+
+<p>The servant apologised, but said that she didn't think the soup required
+bread.</p>
+
+<p>It was excellent soup, made of cream and eggs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> and rice and
+finely-chopped chicken. Bessy filled my plate with it.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, that will be enough."</p>
+
+<p>When the servant went out we resumed our conversation. And here, I may
+remark, by the way, that there is no more pleasant <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> in the
+world than that which is interrupted every ten minutes or so by the
+incursions of the servants.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we know," said I, "what was the cause of the extraordinary
+phenomenon of a happy bridegroom beginning to sob bitterly immediately
+after his marriage. It was his deserted wife and child that the poor
+fellow was thinking about."</p>
+
+<p>"True, but don't let your soup cool on that account. Would you like a
+little Parmesan with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, but I like it much better without."</p>
+
+<p>"Wenceslaus Kvatopil liked his <i>with</i> Parmesan."</p>
+
+<p>Then we settled down to our soup.</p>
+
+<p>"Wenceslaus Kvatopil always had a second serving of rice soup."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, but I never take a second serving of any dish."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that, and I also know that it is your habit to leave the best
+bit at the side of your plate."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you come to know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I first observed it when I was a little girl and you sometimes came to
+dine with us. They say that it is a species of superstition; the tit-bit
+placed at the side of the plate signifies that our distant true love is
+suffering from hunger."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>"It is no superstition, but a simple rule of health to leave off eating
+and drinking while your appetite is still at its best."</p>
+
+<p>Thus we continued our dietetic discussions as if we had no other desire
+in the world than to live a ripe old age and be free from gout.</p>
+
+<p>I have already mentioned that there was chopped-up chicken in the soup,
+and that portion of the chicken fell to Bessy's lot which is known as
+the spur-bone.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is a well-known custom among young unmarried ladies in
+confidential conclave, when one of them gets such a spur-bone, for her
+to invite her fair colleague to crack the bone with her. One of them
+then takes one end of the spur-bone and the other takes the other end,
+and they pull away in different directions till the bone comes in two.
+Whichever of them gets the spur portion will be married soonest. That is
+a fantastic sort of superstition, if you like.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy laughed and said:</p>
+
+<p>"When we ate our first dinner together, a spur-bone of this sort fell
+into my hands. I stretched it out towards Anna. 'Pull,' I said, 'and see
+which of us is to have Kvatopil.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you got to be good friends pretty quickly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't we? Hadn't we both the same husband? I naturally kept
+them here with me. I don't know what would have become of them if I
+hadn't taken them in. At this moment they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> haven't got a farthing. They
+travelled the whole distance on coffee only. They had no other upper
+garments but what they were actually wearing on their bodies.... My
+first duty was to get them properly dressed. My clothes fitted the woman
+very well, and I bought some for the child in Kerepesi Street. But the
+little one had to take to her bed immediately, for she had a bad
+headache and was very feverish. I sent for a doctor, and he gave her
+some medicine which sent her to sleep. She and her mother have slept in
+my bed ever since, and I sleep on the sofa.&mdash;Won't you have a little
+liver?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you. Pray, go on!"</p>
+
+<p>"When the poor lady saw that I received her kindly, her heart melted;
+she fell upon my neck, and our tears flowed like spring showers. We knew
+that one of us would be the death of the other, but which was to be the
+victim? Then we quickly told each other our experiences of our common
+husband, and how we first met him. I could make a strange dramatic scene
+out of it.</p>
+
+<p>"I inquired: 'Come now, Anna, tell me, how did you first meet with
+Kvatopil, and how could you remain absent from him for thirteen years?'
+Anna replied: 'It is a strange story. Do you happen to know, Bessy, the
+history of the Cracow Republic?'</p>
+
+<p>"I: 'No, dear, I never heard of the poor thing.'</p>
+
+<p>"Anna: 'Then you must know that it is a large Polish town where the
+Polish kings were formerly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> crowned and buried when they died. I am a
+native of that city. My father was a famous glove-maker in Cracow, whose
+goods were sold far and wide. Our town was the last free Polish Republic
+when Poland was finally partitioned. Its territory consisted of
+twenty-two square miles.'"</p>
+
+<p>("Less than Debreczin," I interrupted.)</p>
+
+<p>Bessy went on with Anna's narrative:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'When I was a little girl ten years of age a fresh Polish insurrection
+broke out. The united forces of the Austrians, Russians, and Prussians
+again put it down, and the care of the Cracow Republic was entrusted to
+Austria. The old Polish customs and assemblies remained in force, but
+Austrian soldiers garrisoned the citadel continually. When I was sixteen
+years old my mother died, and I had to take her place behind the
+counter. Here I made the acquaintance of Kvatopil. He was a young
+sub-lieutenant, and he generally came to our shop to buy his gloves.
+Would that he had stopped short at gloves! Can any one justly give a bad
+name to a young girl because she is confiding? I believed in him! And he
+really had such a good heart. When he saw that I had only to choose
+between shame and death, he went to my father and begged for my hand.
+Naturally they gave us to each other. It was never the custom among the
+Poles when a girl married a soldier for her to go and ask permission
+first of all from the military authorities, and deposit a terribly big
+sum by way of caution-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>money; the priest simply united us without any
+questionings. We had not been man and wife a week when the Revolution
+again broke out. Cracow was the centre of the Polish rising. At first
+the Polish rebels fought with great success. I saw the Polish scythemen
+drive my husband's cavalry regiment from one end of the street to the
+other. My husband had not even time to say good-bye to me.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then you are a Pole?' said I.</p>
+
+<p>"'Why shouldn't I be?' replied Anna. 'Surely I may be a Pole though I
+have a German name? Dark days followed. My little girl was born. Twice a
+day I felt bound to go to church&mdash;the first time to pray that my country
+might triumph, and the second time to pray that my husband might return
+to me. A mad idea, wasn't it? Surely it is impossible for Deity even to
+grant two diametrically opposite prayers at the same time? My husband
+returned indeed to Cracow, but the Polish cause was crushed. The
+champions of freedom fled in all directions, and the garrison troops
+returned. It was a sad meeting. After that catastrophe Cracow ceased to
+be a republic, and was incorporated with the Austrian hereditary
+possessions as a simple city. My father wept, but I rejoiced because I
+had got my husband back. But very soon I was punished for my criminal
+joy. My husband informed me that things were going badly with us.
+Hitherto the Austrian officers in Cracow had not been wont<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> to ask the
+permission of their general to marry. Now, however, when Cracow had been
+joined to Austria, the military regulations of the rest of the empire
+had been extended to us, and a lieutenant's wife had to pay down
+caution-money to the amount of 7,000 florins. My father was incapable of
+raising such a sum. He had another daughter besides me, and could not
+withdraw so large a sum from his business. Danger threatened us if my
+husband's superiors discovered his marriage, for in such a case Kvatopil
+would have been degraded to the ranks. My father suggested that Kvatopil
+should quit the profession of arms and settle down to some sort of
+profession. But it was an impossible idea. Who would give employment in
+Cracow to an Austrian officer who had taken up arms against the Poles?</p>
+
+<p>"'Just about this time, too, Kvatopil was promoted to the rank of senior
+lieutenant. This at once inflamed our hearts with the joyous hope that
+he would rapidly scale the ladder of promotion, and we knew that if once
+he became a major he would not have to deposit his matrimonial
+caution-money, and we might then fearlessly publish the fact that we
+were man and wife. Nobody knew of it hitherto except our friends and
+relations.</p>
+
+<p>"'So we agreed to keep it quiet, and immediately afterwards Kvatopil and
+his regiment were transferred to Hungary.</p>
+
+<p>"'Since the revolution broke out in Hungary I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> have heard nothing more
+of Kvatopil. I know not where he is, or what has become of him, or
+whether he is alive or dead: no tidings of him whatever. In times of war
+they make a mystery of the whereabouts of this or that regiment.</p>
+
+<p>"'Once we read from a bulletin that my husband's regiment had taken part
+in a battle in the Banat. My poor father then resolved to go personally
+to the Banat and inquire of the colonel whether my husband was still
+alive. Just as he got there, they were burying the colonel with great
+pomp. He had died of typhus fever. He had been the witness of our
+marriage, and was the only one of the officers who knew anything about
+it. He had kept his secret well, for his officiating as a witness at an
+irregular ceremony might have cost him his place also. All that the
+lieutenant-colonel could tell us of Kvatopil was, that his company had
+been detached on some expedition, and had not come back. Possibly the
+Hungarian insurgents had eaten them all up.</p>
+
+<p>"'I could thus very well put on and wear mourning, and till the end of
+the war I heard not a word about my husband.'</p>
+
+<p>"So far spoke Anna; but now I began to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"'You didn't hear of him, because all through the campaign he was
+closely invested in the besieged Temesvar with his company, and no news
+could come out of that place till the end of the year.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>"'But why couldn't he let me hear from him when Temesvar was free again?
+He could at least have written that he was still alive?'</p>
+
+<p>"'The cause of that is easy to find. So far as he was concerned, the
+whole campaign was sterile of glory. As a cavalry officer he was unable
+to be of any service to the besieged city. At the end of the campaign he
+still remained a senior lieutenant, whilst all the others had reached
+the rank of captain. Bitter disappointment was all that remained to him.
+An officer who is passed over is worse off than if he were dead. He
+cannot even say, "Thank God, I am still alive!"'</p>
+
+<p>"'But subsequently? In all these latter years? Why didn't he write to me
+all these three or four years, if but a line to say that he was still
+alive and thinking of me, and of the child whom he loved so much?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I can tell you the reason of that also,' I said. 'To save a frivolous
+comrade, he got into debt, and fell into the hands of unmerciful
+usurers, who immediately dragged him deeper into the mire. An officer in
+such a vexatious position is certainly not very much inclined to fetter
+himself with a wife and child as well. It is now not only the want of
+the caution-money which separates him from you, but also that nasty bog
+called Debt. This bog he cannot wade through. If under such
+circumstances he thinks of his wife and child, that only increases his
+despair. If he wrote you a letter at all, it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> only contain these
+lines: "By the time you read these lines I shall have ceased to exist."'</p>
+
+<p>"Anna was curious to know how far into debt Kvatopil had actually got. I
+immediately mentioned the neat little sum it amounted to.</p>
+
+<p>"You should have seen what a long face my friend pulled.</p>
+
+<p>"She asked me in consternation whether this immense load of debt still
+remained upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"The situation was so droll that, despite all its bitterness, I couldn't
+help laughing. I could read from the poor simple creature's face that if
+I were to say to her, 'My dear, sweet friend, debt is the one thing in
+this earth which the tooth of time never nibbles, Kvatopil's bills still
+live' (this was quite true, but they were living in my strong box), she
+would have been capable, poor, unhappy lady! of taking her little girl
+by the hand and walking all the way back to Cracow. But I was sorry for
+the poor thing. I told her the pure naked truth. Four years long her
+husband had told her nothing of his goings on because of his creditors,
+but after that time because of me. I made his acquaintance; I did not
+know that he was married; I fell in love with him, and&mdash;offered him my
+hand. I was bound to acknowledge that he had hesitated to accept it. He
+made all sorts of excuses except the unexceptionable one that he had a
+wife already. But as he was already up to his eyes in hot water he had
+had no choice but to blow his brains out or commit bigamy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> Apparently
+he had regarded the latter alternative as the less unpleasant one.</p>
+
+<p>"Anna herself admitted that it was very much wiser of Kvatopil to have
+chosen the latter course. What a good, affectionate creature the woman
+was!</p>
+
+<p>"I then satisfied her that I had paid off all worthy Kvatopil's debts
+before his marriage. I even showed her the bills preserved in my strong
+box, explaining to her besides that they had now expired, but that I did
+not mean to proceed against Kvatopil for the amount in spite of our
+altered relations. At this the good soul fell down at my feet, shedding
+tears of gratitude. She even kissed my knees, and assured me that she
+would bless my memory to the very day of her death. Ever since this
+comforting reassurance on my part, her tender inclination for the
+beloved Kvatopil was perfectly re-established.</p>
+
+<p>"I put the finishing touch to my kind-heartedness by describing to her
+the scene when Kvatopil, as bridegroom, fell to weeping bitterly after
+the wedding; there could be no doubt that those bitter tears were shed
+on account of his forsaken wife and daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"This quite overcame poor Anna. 'Look now, what a good heart poor
+Kvatopil has!' said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we began quoting to each other the various noble traits that we
+had mutually discovered in Kvatopil's character....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>"</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;"Well, did you find the pig's ears with beans to your liking, sir?"
+inquired the cook of me at that moment, as she came in to change the
+dishes.</p>
+
+<p>"On my word of honour as a poet, I have never tasted such pig's ears and
+beans," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>An apricot pasty followed, of which&mdash;I confess it freely&mdash;I am also
+fond.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy then continued her story:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I went to my lawyer, put my case before him, and asked him what he
+advised me to do in my situation. I applied to him first (a dry, prosaic
+man, with his mental vision bounded by the law); after that, I wanted to
+lay the matter before you, that you might judge between us."</p>
+
+<p>"Between whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Between me and my lawyer, for we are of diametrically opposite views as
+to what I ought to do next."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have a view on the subject, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I have; but listen first to the view of the man learned in
+the law, and before you do that, let us drink to the health of those we
+love, and those who love us."</p>
+
+<p>We drank the toast accordingly, but we mentioned no names.</p>
+
+<p>"And now listen to the opinion of the lawyer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'It is a great misfortune, certainly,' he said, 'but the only person to
+suffer will be Anna Dunkircher. If we lived in ordinary peaceful times,
+the business might be settled by the military authorities com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>pelling
+Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil to renounce his rank by marrying contrary
+to the regulations. In that case the marriage contracted with Anna
+Dunkircher would remain valid. On the other hand, according to the tenor
+of the Austrian criminal law, Mr. Kvatopil would then have the pleasant
+prospect of two years' imprisonment for the subsequently committed crime
+of bigamy. Nevertheless, under our present circumstances, when the army
+of Lombardy has great need of every valiant and experienced officer, the
+Cracow wife would, undoubtedly, get this answer for her trouble: "Your
+marriage has been contracted illegally, and is consequently null and
+void." The parson who joined them would be sent for a twelvemonth to a
+monastery, by way of penitential discipline; but Wenceslaus Kvatopil
+would remain a lieutenant, or even, if he distinguished himself, become
+a captain. You, consequently, will be Mrs. Lieutenant, and perhaps Mrs.
+Captain, for the annulling of the former marriage will restore to you
+all your rights.'</p>
+
+<p>"Those were the lawyer's words. I laid them to heart. Now, do you know
+anything of martial law?"</p>
+
+<p>"I frankly confess that martial law occupies a most prominent place
+among those sciences which I do <i>not</i> know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll tell you what I replied to him. 'Good!' I said, 'the laws,
+the circumstances, the position of things, everything, in fact, proves
+and proves to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> demonstration that Anna Dunkircher has forfeited all her
+marital rights; but has not the law of the human heart also its
+validity? Do I express myself in proper legal phraseology?'"</p>
+
+<p>At this I couldn't help laughing, but she proceeded with her story.</p>
+
+<p>"My lawyer was very far indeed from laughing. 'What!' said he, 'do you
+imagine that Wenceslaus Kvatopil's heart still beats for his first wife
+whom he deserted&mdash;to whom he did not write of set purpose, not even when
+he could, lest he might thus have supplied some written testimony to the
+fact of her really having been Wenceslaus Kvatopil's lawful spouse, and
+not merely some betrayed girl with whom he had, at some time or other,
+unlawfully cohabited? Do you fancy that Wenceslaus Kvatopil, thirteen
+years after the event, is still so romantic as to ask for his dismissal
+from the service in the middle of a campaign, on the very field of
+battle, and desert the standard of his Sovereign, whom he has sworn to
+obey, simply to enable Anna Dunkircher to save her matronly dignity? Do
+you fancy that Wenceslaus Kvatopil will throw up his career at the very
+moment when it is full of the most brilliant hopes for him, and allow
+himself to be shut up as a felon for a couple of years, at the end of
+which time he will be discharged a branded beggar, simply to live for
+the rest of his life as the lawful husband of a beggar woman even more
+beggarly than himself? And finally, do you imagine that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> Wenceslaus
+Kvatopil has so completely lost the use of his five senses as to be
+capable of spurning away from him, and exposing to the contempt of the
+whole world, a young and lovely consort like yourself, a rich and noble
+lady who can keep him in comfort for the rest of his days&mdash;and all for
+what? for the sake of taking back a faded, withered woman, whose face is
+wrinkled with care, who is the daughter of an honest glover, to whom it
+would be no advantage to stick the name of Kvatopil on his sign-board
+instead of the time-honoured firm of Dunkircher? No, madam. That he is
+such a good-hearted man as all that I do not for one moment believe. I
+would as soon believe in sea-maidens with finny tails&mdash;upon my word I
+would.'</p>
+
+<p>"I did not interrupt my lawyer. I allowed him to have his say out. But
+when he made a brief pause, I said to him: 'I am not speaking of
+Kvatopil's heart, but of my own.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Your own?' cried he, in amazement. 'What has <i>your</i> heart got to do
+with it?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I have my own notion of settling this painful business,' I said. 'I
+propose to transfer to Anna Dunkircher the surety-money which I
+deposited on the occasion of our marriage, and then she will have
+satisfied the conditions imposed on officers who marry&mdash;and may she and
+her husband be happy. I can easily disappear somewhere in the crowd. The
+world is large.'</p>
+
+<p>"At this the lawyer flew into a passion. 'If you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> do that,' he cried,
+'you are only fit to be locked up in a lunatic asylum at D&ouml;bling.'</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," concluded Bessy, "it is my serious and fixed resolve to
+do so."</p>
+
+<p>I could not help laying my hand on hers. What true, what noble
+sentiments were slumbering in that heart! If only she had had some one
+to awaken them! What an excellent lady might have been made out of this
+woman, if she had only met with a husband who, in the most ordinary
+acceptance of the word, had been a good fellow, as is really the case
+with about <i>nine</i> men out of every ten. Why should she have always
+managed to draw the unlucky <i>tenth</i> out of the urn of destiny?</p>
+
+<p>She guessed my thoughts during that moment of silence. Those large, deep
+fiery eyes slowly filled with tears. The fire of a diamond is nothing to
+be compared with the fiery sparkle of those tears. How lovely she was at
+that moment!</p>
+
+<p>Her lips began to quiver, and she could scarcely pronounce the words:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>That other woman had a child.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>And at this she began to sob convulsively, covering her face with one
+hand, and squeezing my hand violently with the other.</p>
+
+<p>My heart was so touched that, a very little more, and I should have
+mingled my tears with hers.</p>
+
+<p>When she had wept out her bitter mood, she sighed deeply, and dried her
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you know why I asked you to come here,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> said she. "Be you the
+judge in this matter. Which is right, the reason or the heart? Am I to
+do what my lawyer advises, or what my own feelings suggest?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a difficult matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us see," I said, "can't we hit upon some middle course? I advise
+you neither to do what your lawyer advises nor what you yourself
+propose. Wait a bit. The great war is still going on, more than a
+million of warriors are standing face to face. Not a fifth part of that
+number will return to their homes when the war is over. In this war your
+Kvatopil will either fall or remain alive. If he falls, you can both go
+into mourning. You need not quarrel about the widow's veil. If, however,
+Kvatopil survives the end of the war, a brave and ambitious officer like
+him will undoubtedly have mounted higher on the ladder of promotion&mdash;the
+battle-field is the forcing house of advancement! He will have become a
+major, and as major he will not be required to deposit<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">109</a> any
+matrimonial caution-money. He can then take his Anna Dunkircher, and you
+will have no need to surrender your guarantee money, which you want very
+much yourself."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> I say this of past times.&mdash;M.&nbsp;J.</p></div>
+
+<p>"I thank you," said the lady. "'Tis every bit as simple as the egg of
+Columbus. Then we'll wait, Anna and I, till the war is over, and till
+then we'll make one family."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>"Let me call your attention to one thing, however. For the present it
+would be well if you were to hide yourself somewhere, in some little
+town, for instance, where nobody knows you. Here, in this capital, you
+will quickly find yourself in an awkward and untenable position. The
+story of the first wife will very quickly be known by all the world. The
+title of <i>straw-widow</i> would do pretty well perhaps, but the title of
+<i>straw-wife</i> won't do at all. Pack up your traps, I say, go straight off
+to the country to-morrow, and take your guests along with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do so."</p>
+
+<p>We had scarcely finished speaking when the doctor knocked at the door.
+When there's sickness in the house one cannot deny oneself to the
+doctor. The doctor, too, was an old acquaintance of mine. He had a very
+extensive practice, and he was a hom&#339;opathist. I could take it as
+absolutely certain that when he went his rounds among his patients on
+the morrow, he would let them have, in addition to their <i>nux vomica</i>,
+or whatever else it might be, the very latest bit of scandal&mdash;to wit,
+that he had found me closeted with the pretty lady, and both of us in
+our cups&mdash;tea-cups of course.</p>
+
+<p>I waited till he came back from his little patient. He satisfied us that
+there was now no danger, and she might leave her bed.</p>
+
+<p>Bessy asked whether the girl might be taken into the country.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span>"Yes, it will do her good."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor and I left at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>I had no sooner got out of the door than I again stumbled upon T&oacute;ni
+S&aacute;gi.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Corpo di Bacco!</i> And you have been sitting all this time with that
+pretty young lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"And you have been walking all the time in front of the door, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>The window of the house opposite was full of inquisitive female faces. I
+rushed into a coach and had myself driven to the railway station. The
+same evening I was at Szeged. There I remained for three days, and
+stayed with my wife till her provincial engagement was over. On every
+one of these three days one or two anonymous letters reached my wife
+from Buda-Pest of the following import: "My poor dear friend,&mdash;Your
+husband passes whole nights and days with his former lady-love, the
+lieutenant's wife. Our hearts bleed for you. The whole town knows all
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>How we did laugh at these letters! But what if I had <i>not</i> traversed the
+intentions of our <i>dear friends</i>?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader"><span class="smcap">Esaias Medv&eacute;si</span><a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">110</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> Bearish.</p></div>
+
+<p>It fared with Wenceslaus Kvatopil as I had predicted.</p>
+
+<p>I am very sorry, but I really can't help it. Willingly would I bring him
+back a full major if it depended on me; but it was written in the book
+of fate that the worthy officer was to end his heroic career on the
+battle-field. He had at least the consolation of falling in a famous
+battle. While MacMahon at Solferino broke through the mass of Schlick's
+forces, Benedek on the right wing pressed victoriously forwards and
+drove the Piedmontese army under Victor Emmanuel as far back as San
+Martino, and there it was that a mortal bullet struck Captain Kvatopil
+through the heart. Yet I am able to say that at that moment the kisses
+of his lovely wife pressed the lips of nobody but his own deserted
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p>The two widows could now share the widow's veil between them in peace.</p>
+
+<p>The bigamy became known, but of course they could not bring an action
+for it against a dead man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> The events of those great days quickly
+obliterated all recollection of the petty scandal. Both Anna and Bessy
+could now assume the title of Widow Kvatopil, and nobody could have a
+word to say against it. There was this little difference, however, that
+while the one might style herself Mrs. Captain Kvatopil, the other had
+only the right to Mrs. Lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>By the intervention of her lawyer, and with my consent as her guardian,
+Bessy recovered her deposited caution-money. One thousand florins of it
+she gave as a gift to Anna, who returned with it to Cracow to her
+father's. The rest of the money Bessy invested in a pretty little house,
+in the village where she was stopping, surrounded by a pleasant garden.
+I was now quite easy in my mind as to her subsequent fate. She had now
+her own house, an honourable title&mdash;"<i>&Ouml;zvegy Kapit&aacute;nyn&eacute;</i>,"<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">111</a> and a
+certain regular income. In the little village where she was she could
+play a leading part. In her present situation, moreover, she was
+completely protected against all the snares of the evil world, for in
+this particular village every man was virtuous, and the women ruled them
+with a rod of iron. To stumble, make a <i>faux pas</i>, and fall into sin was
+not possible, because it was not allowed.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> Lit., The widowed Captain's lady.</p></div>
+
+<p>I could now be quite easy as to Bessy's prospects. A woman who had
+learnt such bitter experience at her own cost could not help drawing
+conclusions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> from the past; and if ever she were to make her choice
+again she certainly would not allow herself to be led astray by
+superficial graces, but would judge him whom she might definitely and
+finally select as the partner of her destiny by his inner worth alone. I
+even took the trouble, with the true solicitude of a guardian, to write
+this beautiful and sensible phrase to her in a letter. I also impressed
+upon her not to give herself away to any official "for the time being,"
+or any other kind of dog-headed Tartar, for such a husband could only be
+provisional.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">112</a> She gave me her word that she would not do so.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> Towards this period it was plain that the Austrian
+domination of Hungary could not last much longer, and that the foreign
+officials who had been appointed by the Vienna Court must speedily
+go.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>For nearly four years I heard nothing more of Bessy. She had fallen into
+the ranks of those women who do nothing to make people talk about them,
+and this category is the best of all. Every year I sent her the interest
+on her money; she acknowledged the receipt of it with thanks, and&mdash;that
+was all.</p>
+
+<p>But I, too, had cause enough not to think of those lovely but dangerous
+Eyes like the Sea.</p>
+
+<p>My evil stars were in the ascendant.</p>
+
+<p>Not a year passed without a heavy blow descending on my head. At one
+time it was a dear dead friend whom I had to bury; at another time I had
+to go through a severe illness which brought me to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> the very brink of
+death; I had scarcely recovered when my wife also fell dangerously ill.
+Through the conduct of persons whom I had regarded as my friends I very
+nearly became bankrupt; I had to work day and night at my writing-table
+to draw myself out of the mire. Then my publisher bolted to America;
+then came a year of calamity, when nobody cared a fig for either books
+or newspapers; then I had to fight a duel through no fault of my own;
+and all along there was the wretched fate of my country, which demanded
+my help. The whole plan of winning back our confiscated liberties was
+<i>my</i> secret; I was the organ of the Committee, the organ that was
+tormented, persecuted, insulted by a derisive tyranny. Life under such
+conditions was like a dreadful dream&mdash;an incoherent, continually
+shifting vision of hope, an eternal nightmare; and when I awoke from
+this nightmare I found I was quite bald.</p>
+
+<p>One fine spring the Fairy Queen of my fantastic dreams locked me up in
+prison by way of variation. Nobody can escape his fate. I had founded a
+political journal. I was its responsible editor and publisher. My
+assistants were the votadores of the Liberal party. We soon had a large
+public. I had quite enough to do. It was my business to write romances
+for this paper, and leading articles too. Once an admirably elaborated
+article was sent to me, signed by one of the most illustrious names
+among the Hungarian magnate families. Without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> more ado I published it.
+It was a loyal, patriotic article on purely constitutional lines,
+showing in the most matter of fact way in the world the justice and the
+necessity of a constitutional government for Hungary. On account of this
+article, the Governor brought both the Count who wrote it and the editor
+who inserted it before a court-martial. He signified to the pair of us
+beforehand that he meant to lock us up for three months for it.</p>
+
+<p>The court-martial consisted of a colonel, a major, a captain, a senior
+and a junior lieutenant, a sergeant, a corporal, and a private; the last
+four were Bohemians. Before this Areopagus I delivered a powerful
+defence in German, to which they naturally replied "March!" The tribunal
+condemned me and my comrade the Count to twelve months hard labour in
+irons, on bread and water, with enforced fasting, loss of nobility, and
+a fine of a thousand florins.</p>
+
+<p>When the sentence was read out, I said to the President:</p>
+
+<p>"This is very strange. The Governor promised us only three months."</p>
+
+<p>To this the President replied with a smile:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, three months for the incriminated article, but nine more for your
+high-flying defence."</p>
+
+<p>Our sentence was for no offence against the press-laws. Oh dear, no! We
+were condemned for inciting to a breach of the peace. The Count and I
+had been throwing stones at the windows, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> breaking the gas-lamps in
+Kerepesi Street! It was as public brawlers that we were sent to cool our
+heels in jail!</p>
+
+<p>The reader must not expect me, however, to weave a martyr's crown for
+myself, or describe the tortures of the Venetian dungeons.... The whole
+of my life in prison was a pure joke and diversion. The Commandant of
+the place, with whom I lived, used to come every day to tell and be told
+anecdotes, and then took me out for country walks. He had my
+writing-table, my books, and my carpentering tools brought into my
+dungeon, and it was there that I turned out a bust of my wife. The
+Commandant also was passionately fond of carpenter's work, so we worked
+away together at our lathes as if for a wager. There was no talk
+whatever of chains or fetters, and I was allowed to have with my bread
+and water the best that money could purchase from the inn. In the
+afternoons my friends from the Pest Club came to play cards with me, so
+that when, on one occasion, one of my most radical acquaintances,
+Beniczky, entered my apartment and looked around, he exclaimed with
+contemptuous indignation: "Call this a dungeon! Why, there's no romance
+at all about this sort of thing!"</p>
+
+<p>Once I took my fellow-prisoner and my jailer to my villa at Svabhegy,
+where my wife had made ready for us a splendid supper. I tapped my new
+wine, and we amused ourselves to such a very late hour that when we
+returned they would hardly let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> us into prison again. Fortunately we had
+the Provost with us, and with our assistance he managed to force his way
+in.</p>
+
+<p>And then my visitors!</p>
+
+<p>In the whole course of my life I never received so many visitors as
+during the <i>month</i> that my <i>year's</i> captivity lasted. In the following
+month, by the way, I had to make room for the editor of the <i>officious</i>
+government, who was also condemned by the court-martial for disturbing
+the public peace.</p>
+
+<p>I was sought out in my dungeon by all sorts of good friends, who came
+from far&mdash;lords and ladies, countesses and actresses. It happened once
+that a magnate's wife, who was a great invalid, and therefore could not
+ascend to the second flight where our prison was, begged us to come down
+to her carriage, and there we received our visitor in the street&mdash;poor
+slaves that we were!</p>
+
+<p>In fact, I had too much of a good thing.</p>
+
+<p>How could I work when my admirers were crowding at my latch all day
+long? At last I had to beg my jailer, with tears in my eyes, to sentence
+me to <i>solitary</i> confinement for a couple of hours every day, and write
+on my door the hours when I was free to receive company. "Wasn't I in
+prison?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>I had an honest Bohemian lad as my servant. His name was Wenceslaus. We
+soon got to understand each other very well.</p>
+
+<p>I explained to him that at certain hours when I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> was sitting down to
+work nobody was to be admitted&mdash;except when a pretty woman came to see
+me.</p>
+
+<p><i>Honi soit qui mal y pense!</i></p>
+
+<p>And singularly enough, one cannot imagine a more convenient place for an
+assignation than such a dungeon as mine. I only wonder that our
+<i>bon-viveurs</i> have not grasped the fact. And what a capital place for an
+afternoon nap such a locality really is! The best advice I can give to
+any one who suffers from sleeplessness is&mdash;get yourself locked up! Is it
+not a special mercy of Providence that slaves can sleep so soundly?</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon Wenceslaus aroused me from my sweet afternoon nap with the
+intimation that a pretty woman wanted to speak to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Really pretty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, yes!"</p>
+
+<p>It was indeed "oh yes!" for it was Bessy.</p>
+
+<p>She was dressed in complete mourning, with a black silk veil over her
+head. I saw from her eyes that she was in mourning for my fate.</p>
+
+<p>I anticipated her by making her a compliment.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how nice you look, my dear ward! The country air seems to agree
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>With this I put a stop to her tearful anxiety on my account.</p>
+
+<p>"I see that the air of a dungeon has not done you much harm, either."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>"And how did you get in here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not very easily, I can tell you. They would hardly let me in. They said
+that the prisoner was confined to his room. I thought of giving the
+warder a box on the ears, and then perhaps they would have shut me up
+along with you by way of punishment."</p>
+
+<p>"That would have, indeed, been a <i>heavy</i> chain to bear."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand the allusion. My figure <i>has</i> become a little sturdy, I
+know. What else has a person to do in a little country town but grow
+fat?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a sign of peace of mind," I said.</p>
+
+<p>I offered her my arm-chair, and in this act of politeness she read
+another allusion.</p>
+
+<p>"It has good strong legs, I hope?" said she, as she sat down in it.</p>
+
+<p>I must candidly admit that her figure had grown pronouncedly rotund, but
+this by no means injured her beauty. She really looked quite appetizing!
+I was very glad, too, to see her again.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't take my remarks amiss," I said; "it is so good for the poor slave
+when a smiling lady's face lights up the gloom of his dungeon. A sweet,
+melodious woman's voice sounds so consolingly amidst the clanking of his
+fetters."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to see that you preserve your good humour, for I have come to
+you on a very serious business."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>"What! Then it was <i>not</i> tender sympathy for the poor captive that
+brought you hither?"</p>
+
+<p>"That also&mdash;I may even say principally. Every day I read in the
+<i>F&ouml;v&aacute;rosi Lapok</i> how many and what sort of visitors you receive&mdash;noble
+ladies, pretty actresses, and what not. Well, thought I, if they may go
+and see him, it is only my duty to go too. At the same time there are
+other circumstances which have brought me here."</p>
+
+<p>At this she furtively looked around her.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't they hear what we are talking about through that door?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have no fear. That room is empty. My fellow-prisoner is provided with a
+separate apartment."</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to inform you of something. I have petitioned the office of
+wards to relieve you from your guardianship."</p>
+
+<p>"And you've very good cause, too, I think, seeing that I myself have
+been under guardianship for some time."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not my reason, however. But my position has now become such as
+to make it indispensable for me to have the free disposal of my money."</p>
+
+<p>"May I guess the cause? Another misfortune has happened. We have lost
+our heart again, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Bessy covered her blushing face with her silk veil.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh, but how you do always detect a thing at once! You would have made a
+capital magistrate."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>"But it is such a natural thing to suppose. You are so young, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I am well advanced in the thirties."</p>
+
+<p>"You are only four years over thirty. I ought to know, for I was at your
+christening. Then you have once more discovered your ideal?"</p>
+
+<p>"This time I most solemnly believe that I really have found him."</p>
+
+<p>"But no provisional person, I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't insult me, please."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm above such a thing. But, as your guardian, I would not have given
+my consent to it; so I was bound to suppose that that was why you wanted
+to be freed from my guardianship."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all! In future also I mean to take your advice as though it came
+from my own father. Scold me as much as you like when you catch me
+tripping. I will continue to be your obedient ward if only you don't
+shut the door in my face. All I want is my money. Believe me when I say
+I will do nothing frivolous with it. The sum will remain to my credit,
+but I wish to be free to use it as I like in the future."</p>
+
+<p>"I presume your bridegroom is some squire to whom the amount will be of
+service?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is <i>not</i> a squire."</p>
+
+<p>"Then perhaps he is a merchant? That also is an honourable walk in life.
+In good commercial hands the amount will yield a nice income."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not a merchant."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>"Then perhaps he is a manufacturer, the proprietor of a saw-mill or a
+steam-mill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither the one nor the other."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what on earth is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"My bridegroom is a worthy and eminent schoolmaster, whose name is
+Esaias Medv&eacute;si."</p>
+
+<p>"Esaias Medv&eacute;si! But what the deuce does a village schoolmaster want
+with twenty-five thousand florins?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you presently. But I must go a little farther back first.
+Have you the time to listen to my story?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I have: I remain at home all day."</p>
+
+<p>"Will nobody interrupt us?"</p>
+
+<p>"My servant is a very sensible fellow, he knows the rules of the place."</p>
+
+<p>"But won't they lock the door of the prison behind me?"</p>
+
+<p>An ordinary person would have replied to this question that it would
+have been no great harm if they did; but I pulled out the drawer of my
+writing-table and showed the fair lady that I had <i>my own key</i> for
+opening my prison door. At this she laughed and seemed quite satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll begin by telling you how I made his acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"What, your Ezzy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, but you must always pronounce the name in full, or
+you will aggravate its owner. He is very particular about giving to
+every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> one his full name and corresponding titles; never breaks that
+rule himself, and constantly addresses me as 'Worthy dame Captain!' It
+is in vain to call me 'Madame' in his presence, for he roundly maintains
+that such a title belongs to the consort of the Prince of Transylvania
+only. His motto is '<i>suum cuique</i>.' Oh, I've learnt such a lot of Latin
+since I made his acquaintance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then you have been taking Latin lessons from him, and so the
+acquaintance began?"</p>
+
+<p>"No irony, please! It didn't begin that way at all. I suppose you know
+that in our little town there is a very well attended Calvinist church?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know it pretty well."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am a very zealous church goer?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I did <i>not</i> know."</p>
+
+<p>"With us the laudable custom prevails of going to church every Sunday
+for the purpose of devotion."</p>
+
+<p>"And to show off your new bonnets."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't make fun of me, please. Esaias is not only the schoolmaster, but
+the cantor and the organist as well. He has a splendid bass voice. When
+he intones the verse&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0sq">'How blest the man whose walk in life ...'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>the whole podium trembles. It was that wondrously beautiful voice which
+first enthralled me."</p>
+
+<p>"But I should have thought that the organ would have drowned the sound
+of the hymn?"</p>
+
+<p>"But not only in church have I had the opportunity of hearing him, but
+at funerals also."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>"Then you condescend to go to funerals too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not as a habit. But you must know that most of the people there beg me
+to act as sponsor to their new-born children. Now, two-thirds of our
+children seem only born to die, and I am obliged to always go to the
+funerals of my little <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;s</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Then Esaias is in the habit of speaking and singing over them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and what beautiful speeches they are too, all in verse."</p>
+
+<p>"So Esaias is a poet into the bargain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he really makes most beautiful verses."</p>
+
+<p>"And I've no doubt he wrote a nice onomasticon on St. Elizabeth's Day?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did nothing of the kind. He's not that sort of man. It is not his
+habit to flatter anybody; on the contrary, he always tells them the
+truth to their faces."</p>
+
+<p>"That is generally the distinguishing characteristic of all Calvinist
+schoolmasters."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, but let us keep to the point. I left off at the funerals, I
+think. I was struck by the frequent mortality among our little ones, and
+set in movement a project among the ladies of the town for starting a
+<i>cr&egrave;che</i>. The idea found zealous partisans. We soon found a large
+meeting-room; the ladies supplied linen in large quantities; milk and
+other necessary aliments were provided by public subscription; money we
+resolved to collect in the usual way."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>"By a charitable concert?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see that you are a practical man. A charitable concert was indeed
+arranged, and a committee of seven appointed to manage it. The sessions
+of this committee were held in my house; mine was the most convenient
+locality, and I had a piano besides. Each member of the committee had
+her part assigned to her: one was to recite, another to sing a solo, a
+third to give a comic reading, a fourth to play a piece on the piano, a
+fifth to dance a Hungarian dance; I was to fiddle, Esaias was to sing
+the high priest's aria from the opera of <i>Nabucco</i>: 'He who trusts in
+the Lord!'&mdash;You know the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I do. At the first meeting of the committee one of the
+members had a slight misunderstanding with another member, at the second
+meeting a second member had a second misunderstanding, and by the time
+the fifth meeting was held Esaias and yourself were left to practise
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>"That is, word for word, what did happen, with this little difference,
+that we never had any practice at all. On the fifth occasion, four of
+the six members of the committee sent letters of excuse. Every one of
+them was ill. It was a veritable epidemic. Only the dancing master found
+no excuse for himself. As he was the only dancing-master in the town he
+could not go and lie that he had sprained his foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Esaias walked three times up and down in front of my house, puffing
+away at his big pipe. Every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> time he passed he looked up at the window,
+and, seeing nobody there, went on farther.</p>
+
+<p>"At last the dancing-master came <i>chass&eacute;</i>-ing up; I could see from his
+grinning face that he had some ill-tidings to tell me. Only people who
+have found some excuse for covering their retreat come smiling like
+that.</p>
+
+<p>"'My lady! I am inconsolable'&mdash;('I know all about <i>that</i>!' thought
+I)&mdash;'but I can't come to the concert. Our gipsy musicians have gone to
+Pest.' ('What do they want there?' I asked.) 'All the gipsy bands in the
+kingdom have assembled together for a grand competition.... Now, without
+gipsy music I can't dance. Who can play me the "<i>Bihari Keserg&oacute;</i>," I
+should like to know?' ('I will!' I said.) 'Ha! ha! ha! that wouldn't do
+at all! What? <i>one</i> dancer and <i>one</i> violin-player!&mdash;it would be a mere
+farce.'</p>
+
+<p>"Hereupon Esaias popped in. Seeing through the window that I was no
+longer alone, he took heart and came in. He had not dared to do so
+before."</p>
+
+<p>Here I intervened: "If I am not very much mistaken, I know this dear
+Esaias of yours. It once happened to him, while still a student, that he
+sat beside the priest's daughter at supper. He did not dare to say a
+word to her; but in the afternoon he went up the church tower and
+courted the young lady from one of the windows."</p>
+
+<p>"It is possible that it was he. I, however, made both the gentlemen
+stay, that at least the coffee and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> 'cowl-skippers'<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">113</a> might not be
+wasted. They did not wait to be asked twice, but ate with right good
+will. During the meal we fully discussed the best means of helping
+forward the stranded concert. Suddenly the dancing-master looked at his
+watch: 'Gracious me, if it isn't six o'clock! I must be off to give the
+children of the chief magistrate a dancing-lesson'&mdash;and with that he
+jumped up, kissed my hand, and pirouetted off.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> A sort of dumpling.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Then Esaias also rose from the table, brushed the crumbs of the
+cowl-skippers from his coat, and said: 'Blessing and peace be with
+you!'&mdash;This was always his parting formula. Such a salutation as 'Your
+humble servant!' or 'I commend myself to your protection!' nobody has
+ever heard from his lips&mdash;no, not even his superintendent; for Esaias is
+not <i>humble</i> and not <i>your servant</i>, and does not commend himself to
+anybody, nor will he tell a lie even as a matter of form.</p>
+
+<p>"'What! must you go too?' I replied to his 'blessing and peace.' 'You
+have no six-o'clock school this evening.'</p>
+
+<p>"'No; but why should I stay here if there's to be no practice?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Must I, then, begin singing in my own house before a man?'</p>
+
+<p>"'It depends upon the man,' replied Esaias.</p>
+
+<p>"'What am I to understand by that?' I inquired, much astonished.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span>"'What are you to understand by that?' said he, striking the leg of his
+boot repeatedly with his pipe stem&mdash;'what are you to understand by that?
+It is not very hard to understand, I should think. If a lawyer, a
+doctor, or a squire were to come to see you and amuse himself here with
+or without music, not a dog in the village would have anything to bark
+at; but if they saw the schoolmaster come here at six o'clock in the
+afternoon&mdash;if they saw him, I say, remain here last of all when the
+other guests were gone, then there would be such a stir in Israel that
+men would be ready to stone me.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Do I stand, then, in such evil odour as all that?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I did not say that you were in any evil odour at all.'</p>
+
+<p>"'It is true,' he continued, 'that there are as many names written in
+your album as in Charles Trattner's almanack. That, however, does a
+pretty woman no harm. But me the Church would not forgive. If I get into
+evil odour, if I overstep the line, I shall be sent packing.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then celibacy obtains among the Calvinists also?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Not celibacy, but we have the canonical prescriptions. A canonical
+offence is a very serious business for a Calvinist priest or
+schoolmaster. Let a man be a veritable John Chrysostom, and it will
+avail him nothing if he commit a canonical offence.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And <i>you</i> have <i>never</i> committed a canonical offence?' I said to him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>"'Never!' he replied resolutely. And he grew quite red in the face. He
+was so proud of his virtue."</p>
+
+<p>"Why surely this is quite a new thing?" I interrupted&mdash;"a thing never
+known in the world before: a man who is virtuous, and not ashamed to
+confess it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite unique, isn't it? When I heard this I seized his hand and would
+not let him leave me. I could read from his eyes that it was the first
+time he had ever felt the pressure of a lady's hand. 'You have been
+candid,' I said to him, 'I will be candid also. You would never approach
+a woman whom you had not led to the altar. I know it. Then you shall
+lead <i>me</i> to the altar!'</p>
+
+<p>"Even this did not seem to surprise him. His face remained as motionless
+as a statue.</p>
+
+<p>"'That is soon done,' said he; 'but <i>respice finem</i>! Man proposes, but
+'tis an old dog that holds on. I am not like other men. I am a very
+difficult man to get on with. You can't deal with me as with those who
+look through their fingers at the goings-on of their spouses. If I take
+you to wife, there must be an end to all this dancing and prancing and
+gadding about, and flirting and ogling. My wife will not have to go
+fasting, but she won't be allowed any junketing. I don't understand a
+joke. Do you see this cherry-wood pipe-stem? If I catch my wife at any
+piece of trickery, I'll break this cherry-stem across her back&mdash;take my
+word for it.'"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>I couldn't help smiling at this. "And you, my dear, pretty ward, have
+actually taken the schoolmaster to husband, cherry-stem and all?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to have taken him, but he didn't surrender himself so
+easily. I assured him that I would submit myself to the most stringent
+discipline of virtue, and if I transgressed against him, I should not
+mind his beating me. But even that did not vanquish him. By no means
+whatever could he be brought to sit down beside me on the sofa. He even
+pushed back the chair on which he was sitting, when he saw that I was
+besieging him. At last he brought his big guns to bear upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"'Look now, my dear dame, I know very well that humorous habit of yours
+of never remaining long in one nest. You deal with your sweethearts on a
+sort of give-and-take system. You are here to-day and off to-morrow.
+Supposing now, that in the exercise of my marital authority, I were to
+inflict an edifying chastisement upon you for your flightiness, you
+might easily take it into your head to bolt, and there should I be left
+in the lurch for the finger of scorn to point at. A Calvinist
+schoolmaster cannot submit to the fate of an ordinary man. If my wife
+were to leave me, I should be expelled from the Church with contumely.
+Then I should have to flee. I should be as good as excluded from human
+society. Now, I am very well satisfied with my present condition. I have
+a fixed salary of six hundred florins in good hard cash, and my
+perquisites<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> amount to about as much again. I live honourably, you see,
+and I cannot afford to stake everything on a throw of the dice.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then I talked big also.</p>
+
+<p>"'Listen to me!' I said. 'I have capital sufficient to bring me in as
+much as your yearly income&mdash;that is to say, twenty-five thousand
+florins. I will make over the whole amount to you by way of a dower, and
+I am ready to forfeit it all in case I am unfaithful to you.'"</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't your Esaias capitulate even then?" I inquired of Bessy.</p>
+
+<p>"He asked for three days to think about it. I immediately hastened to
+you to signify my desire that your guardianship might cease."</p>
+
+<p>"Then Esaias has still two days' grace," I said. "I hope and trust he
+may be inwardly illuminated to say no!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not approve of my determination?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a friend of truth, and I understand a little about prophecy too.
+It doesn't matter to me if you surrender all your capital as a sort of
+shrift-money, and your house as well."</p>
+
+<p>"Such a man as he is worthy of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take your word for it. You are something of an expert in such
+matters! But one thing I strongly advise you to do: keep the garden
+attached to the house at your own disposition."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"That you may have it planted full of cherry-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>trees. I know the natural
+history of the Calvinist-schoolmaster species. I know that what once he
+has promised he always performs. I also know the natural history of the
+lady with the eyes like the sea, and it is my belief that you will
+frequently give occasion for the employment of cherry-tree stems."</p>
+
+<p>At this the fair lady sprang from her chair, boiling over with rage.</p>
+
+<p>"What a gross monster it is! Poet indeed! A pedantic lout is what I call
+you! They've done very well to lock you up. This is the last time that
+we shall ever talk to each other."</p>
+
+<p>And with that she went, or rather flounced, away.</p>
+
+<p>But I gave a great sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"May she keep her word, and never, never come back again!" I said.</p>
+
+<hr class="thoughtbreak" />
+
+<p>One of the first things I saw, on my release from prison, was the
+announcement in the newspapers of the solemnization of the marriage. The
+bank also informed me by letter that the amount there standing to the
+credit of my ward had been transferred to her husband's name.</p>
+
+<p>Well, at last Bessy had got the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of husbands. For,
+really, the man who has reached his two-and-thirtieth year without
+sinning against the canonical prescriptions must indeed be a superlative
+treasure in the eyes of a lady who knows how to appreciate the value of
+such renunciation.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">CONFESSION</p>
+
+
+<p>Well, the long and short of it is, confess I must, that I have a
+sweetheart for whose sake I have been unfaithful, not only to my wife,
+but to my muse also&mdash;a sweetheart who has immeshed me in her spider's
+web, and sucked my heart's blood dry, who has appropriated my best
+ideas, made me scamper after her from one end of the kingdom to the
+other, and whose slave I was and still am. Often have I wasted half my
+fortune upon her, and rushed blindly into misfortune to please her. For
+her have I patiently endured insult, ridicule, and reprobation. For her
+sake I have staked life and liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, when I have felt the pinch of her tyranny, I have tried to
+escape from her; but she has enticed me back again and would not let me
+go.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if she had been some pretty young damsel, there might have been
+some excuse for me. But she was a nasty, old, painted figure-head of a
+beldame; a flirting, faithless, fickle, foul-mouthed, scandal-mongering
+old liar, whom the whole world courts, who makes fools of all her
+wooers, and changes her lover as often as she changes her dress.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span>Her name is <i>Politica</i>,<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">114</a> and may the plague take her.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> Politics.</p></div>
+
+<p>There was one particular year in which I was over head and ears in love
+with her, and did absolutely everything she wanted. On her account I
+fell out with a good friend of mine who was the very right hand of my
+newspaper. I fought (also on her account) a duel with pistols with
+another good friend of mine, who had no more offended me than I had ever
+offended him, in fact, we had always respected each other most highly.
+But Politica insisted upon it, and so we banged away at each other. Then
+she hounded me on against a third good friend of mine, who was an
+excellent fellow, and a Hungarian Minister of State to boot, and induced
+me to endeavour to thwart his election. And I actually <i>did</i> make this
+excellent fellow's election fall through, this good friend whom I
+respected, loved and honoured. Politica demanded it. What a parade she
+made when she dragged me along after her triumphal car! She actually
+made me believe that I was now the most famous man in the whole kingdom!
+And she made me <i>pay</i> for her precious favours, too! What <i>petits
+soupers</i> for five hundred men at a time! What hundreds of carriages!
+What toilets!... But in those days I was quite wrapped up in her.</p>
+
+<p>After my great triumph a torrent of congratulatory letters and telegrams
+showered down upon me. I had actually upset a Cabinet Minister! That
+<i>was</i> a triumph! Every one who, at any time, or under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> any
+circumstances, had been acquainted with me, called upon me after my
+brilliant success. Old school-fellows with whom I had formerly fought in
+the playground now recollected me. There was a brisk demand for my
+autograph. I was proud of it all. I was not even surprised, therefore,
+when one afternoon they brought into me a visiting card with the name
+"Mrs. Esaias Medv&eacute;si" upon it.</p>
+
+<p>It was very natural that she also should visit me. The sunbeams of my
+glory had melted the ice of her displeasure. Six years had now passed
+since I had seen her. I could imagine how she had filled out in the
+meantime. Well taken care of, with no vexations to worry her, harassed
+by no passions, what other fate could possibly await my fair ideal
+than&mdash;to grow fat?</p>
+
+<p>All the more startled was I, therefore, when I <i>did</i> see her.</p>
+
+<p>She had grown quite gaunt. Her old-fashioned dress, which had been made
+to fit fuller forms, hung loosely about her. Her face, once so rosy and
+gay, was now lean and haggard; sombre wrinkles, which met together
+beneath her chin, had taken the place of her roguish dimples. Only by
+her eyes could I recognise her: they were still the eyes of yore.</p>
+
+<p>When she saw me she forced a smile, but I could see how much it cost
+her.</p>
+
+<p>I have never thought it a proper question to ask any one whose face has
+altered a good deal, "Are you ill?" but she herself led up to it.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span>"I have greatly changed, haven't I? 'Tis a wonder that you recognise me.
+I have been very ill. I have just come from the doctor. I have been
+suffering from a quartan ague, which our country doctors could not drive
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"But otherwise you are all right, I trust?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am not. I fancy that my physical ailment is only as stubborn as
+it is, because my mind also is not as it should be."</p>
+
+<p>I asked her what was the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come on purpose to tell you. You always gave me good advice, and
+I never took it. It may be that I wouldn't take it even now; but at
+least it would relieve my mind to tell you all about it. I have a secret
+desire which is destroying my whole soul: I go to sleep with it, and I
+wake up with it."</p>
+
+<p>"What desire can it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you but look at my face, you can easily see that it is no sinful
+affection."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet it must be kept secret?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for I go about day and night with the thought of becoming a
+Catholic."</p>
+
+<p>I was so startled by this, that in my amazement I knew not what to say
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my fixed resolution. The only thing that can give to my soul
+peace on earth and salvation in heaven is conversion to the Roman
+Catholic Church."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you come by this resolution? There is no Catholic church in the
+town where you reside."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span>"But there is a monastery quite close to it, a sweet, quiet, pleasant
+place. I am wont to go there when they are not watching me. A mere
+accident moved me at first. Curiosity led me into the church when I
+heard the holy chants through the door; but now it is devotion which
+leads me there. Ah! how much more sublime a place it is than our bald,
+bare place of worship. Wherever I look I see groups of holy figures who
+bless and beckon me. And those sublime chants, which seem to come from
+the angelic chorus of heaven, and ravish my soul away to a world
+unknown&mdash;but oh, how ardently desired! And then the deep silence, which
+is scarcely broken by the solemn sanctus-bell; and then the form of the
+priest himself, who, like a supernatural being, speaks before the altar
+in a language which men may not, but God does, understand. When I come
+out of such a church it seems to me as if I have been speaking to God."</p>
+
+<p>I began thinking what would be the end of it all. The lady became
+insistent.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you advise? What shall I do? My soul compels me to it."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friend," I replied, "you know that I am a Protestant&mdash;and as a
+Protestant I am liberally and indulgently inclined towards every other
+creed. I <i>advise</i> nobody to change his religion, neither do I dissuade
+him from so doing. I have a real veneration for the Catholic faith. I
+consider its ritual majestic and sublime, and its ceremonies are
+un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>doubtedly imposing and touching. Had I been born a Catholic, I should
+have been an ardent champion of my Church. But how can I approve of the
+conversion of a person in your position? Do you not reflect that your
+husband is an officer of the Calvinist communion?"</p>
+
+<p>"But it is the very prosaic nature of this communion which offends me.
+For in what a dull manner do our elders and deacons perform their sacred
+functions! Prayer, sermon, hymns&mdash;everything is with them a mere matter
+of enforced routine. How can they inspire others who have not themselves
+the gift of grace? Such people can only mock at and speak scornfully of
+their neighbours' faith because they have no real faith of their own."</p>
+
+<p>"But pray recollect that a Protestant schoolmaster loses his post if his
+wife changes her religion."</p>
+
+<p>"He may lose his material comforts, but I lose the repose of my soul."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Bessy, I can imagine that a woman with extraordinarily
+sensitive nerves may find no consolation in Puritan simplicity. If you
+would seek refuge in true devotion, procure Allach's prayer-book&mdash;the
+manual of Catholic prayers, you know. In that book you'll find
+everything that is sublime, majestic, and heavenly in Catholic theology.
+Pray out of that book when you are alone and nobody sees you."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not enough for me. Religion does not consist in prayers and
+singing alone."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span>"Then perhaps it is the pomp of the external ceremonies which has such
+an effect on your mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"That affects me least of all. But there is in the Catholic Church an
+institution as sublime as it is comforting, an institution sufficient of
+itself to spread the Catholic religion all over the round world wherever
+there are hearts that bleed, wherever there are those who suffer from
+other than merely material aches and pains. That institution is
+<i>confession</i>. It was a gross blunder of John Calvin not to have retained
+that institution for the faithful. He did not know the heart, especially
+the female heart. There is no greater torture in this world than to
+carry about in one's soul night and day an evil thought which harasses
+and pursues, and be unable to tell it to anybody. A Catholic woman can
+always find a word of consolation for her despair, a hand stretched out
+to raise her when she falls; <i>she</i> has a refuge against the accusations
+of her own conscience; if she has sinned, she can beg for absolution,
+and her soul is lightened of its load. But who can absolve me? To whom
+can I tell that which tortures me within?"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes were fixed and staring like the eyes of a somnambulist who sees
+nothing before her but a visionary world which others do not see, and at
+the same time she raised her index finger and laid it on her parched and
+cracking lips, as if to keep back the moanings of her dumb distress.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>I was deeply grieved for her. She had no need to tell me what she felt;
+her features spoke for themselves, and said how much she must have
+suffered since the last change in her life.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friend," I said at last, "you have now known me for a long
+time, and you know that I have always been your well-wisher. If you have
+any bitter thought which oppresses you, confess it to me. <i>Amongst
+Protestants every man is a priest.</i> That is our fundamental dogma.
+Confess to me!"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled strangely; just as a sick man smiles when the doctor tries to
+persuade him that he really is well, while he himself is thinking all
+the time: "Just you wait a bit, and I'll turn the joke against you
+and&mdash;die!"</p>
+
+<p>"You will receive my confession, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and rest assured that I'll keep the solemn secret as sacred as a
+consecrated priest."</p>
+
+<p>"As long as I am alive, at any rate. After I am dead, I don't care what
+you do. You may then proclaim it to the world if you like. When I am
+dead, I authorize you to write a romance about me, a romance like mine
+you have never written yet. But <i>till</i> then, not a word to any one of
+what you will now hear from me. To nobody, not even to your wife!
+Promise me that! Your word of honour on it!"</p>
+
+<p>"My friend, there is a crypt within my breast for buried secrets. Your
+secret shall repose among the rest."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>She bent down to my ear, her burning breath scorched my face, and she
+whispered: "I confess to you that I wish <i>to kill my husband</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Horrified, I looked into her eyes, they flashed up at me like the eyes
+of devils. That wish of hers was a real living wish.</p>
+
+<p>"And what I've said, I'll do"&mdash;and she pressed her lips together till
+they were quite thin, and her eyes distended into orbs filled with
+threatening fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens! what thought is this?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me with a malicious smile.</p>
+
+<p>"There, you see you are no priest, and can give no absolution."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor would a priest give you absolution either. A priest can impose
+penance for sin repented of, but he cannot give indulgence beforehand
+for a meditated crime. A priest could only say to you what I say now:
+'Fly to God and cleanse your soul from this dark thought!' How could you
+ever have suffered it to enter your soul, that good and gentle soul of
+yours that used always to love and never to hate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, such I ever was, was I not? I was indeed a loving fool. You once
+wrote a tale which I remember reading when a child. In this tale a
+distracted heart relates how many ways there are of extinguishing life.
+Amongst other things written there is this: that if honey is allowed to
+stand till it rots, it turns into the deadliest venom. This is quite
+true as to the honey with which the heart of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> a poor credulous woman is
+full, but it is <i>not</i> true with regard to the honey of the field. I have
+tried and found that it is not true."</p>
+
+<p>"Believe me, neither case is true. In married life there is no such sea
+of bitterness as cannot be made sweet again by a single drop of love."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! what I suffer exceeds even the power of your imagination.
+Contempt, degradation, is my daily bread. Insult follows upon every step
+I take. When I speak, my words are misinterpreted; when I am silent, I
+am chided; when I weep, I am bullied and brow-beaten."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that perhaps your husband suspects your intention of
+changing your faith?"</p>
+
+<p>"So much he knows, that I frequently visit the monastery, and often have
+talks with one of the monks. I solemnly swear that I've talked to him
+about nothing but religion and holy things. He, however, accuses me of
+the nastiest things. Then when we sit together at table, he poisons
+every dish I eat by singing the most derisive songs he can think of
+about those women who rave about cowls and cassocks; in fact, he is
+<i>always</i> singing such songs in my presence."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear friend, you take these things too tragically. These
+derisive songs have been sung time out of mind. Your husband has not
+invented them for your special aggravation. Laugh at him to his face,
+and he'll hold his tongue."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then. Let what he does to ridicule<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> <i>me</i> be forgiven. But
+ever since he has begun to suspect my spiritual condition, he leaves no
+stone unturned to disturb my devotions. If in the afternoon or evening,
+when the chiming of the cloister bell is wafted over to us, I
+involuntarily join my hands together, he laughs at me: 'Ha! ha! ha! they
+are ringing the bells to call you to prayer, are they?' Now, the
+Calvinists do not ring for evening prayers, neither do they sound the
+Angelus, and this is a great grief to me. It is like rolling my bread in
+the mud and then making me eat it. This continual ridiculing clings to
+me like tar; it chokes, it nauseates. I feel just as if I were swimming
+in a sea of glue. He relates to me the most villainous anecdotes about
+the holy images. Last Saturday it rained the whole morning, and I could
+not go to town. He saw my impatience, and said to me derisively, 'Never
+mind, <i>thou female</i>, it will clear up this afternoon, for the Virgin
+Mary wants to dry her son's little shirt for Sunday!' It was well for
+him that he left the room that instant, for I was very near driving my
+knife into his heart!"</p>
+
+<p>I tried to quiet the excited creature by saying that though this was no
+very reverent jest, yet it was not an invention of Esaias's. This jest
+about the breaking out of the sunshine on Saturday afternoon was a
+common saying among the Hungarian country folk, and, taken seriously,
+had really nothing impious about it, representing, indeed, that sacred
+figure, whom all of us are bound to reverence, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> a provident mother
+from the homely, rustic point of view.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like to hear <i>that</i> name on <i>his</i> lips. Why, I sent away an old
+servant of mine called Marcsa for no other reason than because her
+master was always calling her Maria, and every such time it was as if a
+dagger were piercing my heart."</p>
+
+<p>I saw that the woman was really suffering. It was a case where a heroic
+remedy was required.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friend," I said, "I cannot blame your husband. Your religious
+extravagance, which has been not a little stimulated by the irritability
+of your nerves and the nostrums which the provincial doctors have made
+you drink, is a question of 'to be or not to be' for your husband. If
+you cling to the saints, poor Esaias will feel the earth giving way
+beneath him. You are bound to one another, remember. If you go and seek
+heaven in another church, you will only install hell in your own house.
+Believe me, if your husband discovers your design, he will fly into a
+fury and tear you to pieces. If I were you I should go to some medicinal
+watering place and get your nerves braced up a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"I see&mdash;I see. You do not understand what is the matter with me. You
+think it is a mere feminine ailment, which is, generally, half
+affectation. Look at that recipe. The most famous doctor in the capital
+prescribed it for me. I went to him, he diagnosed me. He said that the
+country doctors had not treated my case properly. They had stuffed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> me
+full of quinine, he said, and it was not the medicament that I wanted.
+So he prescribed me another. Read it!"</p>
+
+<p>I looked at the prescription and saw it was arsenic.</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor prescribed six drops for the first day, and a drop more
+every other day up to twenty drops, and then back by single drops to six
+again. Then my fever will return no more. But he cautioned me to keep
+most strictly to his prescription, as the remedy was a very dangerous
+one. Is that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is."</p>
+
+<p>"I have had it made up in the J&oacute;zsefv&aacute;ros dispensary." And with that she
+drew out the flask from her pocket and showed it me.</p>
+
+<p>"That will do for me. I will now go with this prescription to all the
+ten apothecaries in the town and have it made up by every one of them.
+<i>Ten times the strength will certainly do for him.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Horrified, I seized her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Miserable woman, what wouldst thou do? Surely not commit murder?
+Wouldst thou poison thy husband's body and my soul? Every time I have
+thought of thee I have seen thee before me in the idealized form of my
+pure love of early days, and wilt thou now put horror and aversion in
+the place of it? Give me that prescription!"</p>
+
+<p>With terrified, staring eyes, and trembling in every nerve, the woman
+fell down on her knees before me, and when I said to her: "Hitherto thou
+hast always had a place in my prayers, dost thou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> wish me to cast thee
+forth from my remembrance with curses?" she began to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>'Tis the first time in your life that you have 'thou'd' me.</i> Let me
+then return the compliment. But no, I cannot <i>thou</i> thee. The word
+<i>thou</i> cannot come out of my mouth. Don't lift me up. Let me kneel
+before you. I fain would only weep, but no tears will flow. Here is the
+prescription. Destroy it if you like. I was mad. I knew not what I said.
+'Tis true. If life be grievous to me, 'tis I who ought to die."</p>
+
+<p>"What you now say is also a sin. Heaven does not give us that divine
+spark, the spirit, only that we may fling it back again. Learn to bear
+your sorrows in silence. Every one of us has his cross which God has
+laid upon him that he may carry it ... If you would believe in the
+saints, follow their example. <i>Be</i> a martyr, if God so wills it&mdash;that is
+the <i>real</i> Catholic faith...."</p>
+
+<p>She began to sob, but after some little difficulty I contrived to pacify
+her. I also provided her with all sorts of good homely counsels. "A good
+wife," I said, "ought to humour her husband, and not sit in judgment on
+his faults." I told her to bring him to me and introduce me to him.
+Perhaps I might make some impression on him, and prevail upon him not to
+press his crotchets too far. It was even possible that I might find him
+some work to do, something relating to spiritual subjects which might
+occupy his mind, kindle his ambition, and make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> him peel off his cynical
+husk. No doubt he was a good and worthy man, who only needed to be
+properly taken in hand to get on very well.</p>
+
+<p>The lady with the eyes like the sea listened with many shakes of the
+head, but she had gradually grown much more quiet. Those eyes of hers,
+how they could express gratitude! It really seemed as if, beneath the
+influence of my words, her face was recovering the rosy hue that it had
+lost.</p>
+
+<p>Alas, no! Vain thought! 'Twas not my words, but something else.</p>
+
+<p>She arose and rallied her spirits.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well! I'll take your advice. I will endure. I will be patient. I
+will down with every evil thought. I will show that I can be a good
+wife. You shall be satisfied with me. But one thing I'll tell you. My
+husband has threatened to strike me. If ever he does that, then God be
+merciful both to him and me."</p>
+
+<p>Now I knew why her face had turned so red&mdash;"If my husband dishonours me
+by a single blow, I swear that I'll seize a gun and shoot him dead!" And
+with that she rushed out of the room. I felt as if I ought to call after
+her: "Don't go home, wretched woman!"</p>
+
+<p>It was too late. She was already outside the door. She had vanished like
+a vision of the night.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<p class="chapterheader">MARIA NOSTRA.</p>
+
+
+<p>Ah! what an ocean of time has passed since this happened. It must be
+twenty years, at least. It makes me giddy when I look back upon it. But
+how many evil years there were, how many days that I do not love to
+think about! How many have been torn from my side to whom life was a joy
+and on whom the future smiled! And I still remain! Only here and there,
+now and again, perhaps, do I encounter a grey-headed shape like myself,
+a relic from that brilliant time, and what a joy it then is to look back
+upon those old days and say: "It is not so good now as it was then!"</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago I was on a visit of inspection among our large national
+State prisons. I happened to be at Szamosujv&aacute;r and Illava, where the
+aristocracy of crime is collected together, persons condemned to a term
+of imprisonment exceeding ten years, all of them criminals once under
+sentence of death, but reprieved by an act of grace. Here were
+interesting studies of the night side of human nature.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span>I also visited the Maria Nostra. Here the female criminals resided, and
+nuns were the warders.</p>
+
+<p>This house of correction can only be visited by special permission of
+the Ministry.</p>
+
+<p>There the discipline is strict, but the prisoners are very well treated.</p>
+
+<p>Last of all we visited the day-room, where the prisoners were at work.</p>
+
+<p>They all sat in a long room, and were sewing. Those who could do the
+finer sort of work were at little tables of their own. I stopped before
+one of such tables; a woman was sewing some sort of child's garment. It
+is the rule that when a visitor stops before the table of one of the
+felons, she shall immediately rise from her seat and, whether asked or
+unasked, say what her crime is and how long her term of imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>She arose when I stood before her table.</p>
+
+<p>Her hair was as white as autumn gossamers, but her eyes still flashed
+with their old varying fires&mdash;they were still, as of old, the flaming
+eyes like the sea! In a dull monotone she told me her crime and her
+sentence: "I killed my husband. I am condemned to imprisonment for
+life."</p>
+
+<p>For life!&mdash;and life so long!</p>
+
+<p>"Can I not use my interest in your favour?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you, but it is well with me here. I wish for nothing more in
+this world."</p>
+
+<p>And with that she returned to her place and went on with her work.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>Poor little Bessy!</p>
+
+<p>Last year I received a letter announcing her death. It was her last wish
+that I, but nobody else, should be informed of it.</p>
+
+
+<p class="theend">THE END.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chapterbreak" />
+
+<h2>EYES LIKE THE SEA.</h2>
+
+<p class="bigtype center"><span class="smcap">By</span> MAURUS J&Oacute;KAI</p>
+
+<p class="center">12MO, CLOTH</p>
+
+<p class="bigtype center">A FEW COMMENTS OF THE ENGLISH PRESS</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Half autobiographical, dramatic, and at the same time
+humorous, J&oacute;kai's novel, crowned by the Hungarian
+Academy in 1860, is a delightful exception to the
+tendency which is fast making fiction a branch of
+science instead of art.&mdash;<i>Morning Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is a strikingly original and powerful story ... The
+great charm of the book is the manner in which J&oacute;kai
+analyses Bessie's character. All through the story
+indeed we feel ourselves in the presence of a master of
+the human heart, and again and again we come upon
+sentences pregnant with that wisdom which it is the lot
+of but few to acquire.&mdash;<i>Speaker.</i></p>
+
+<p>From beginning to end "Eyes like the Sea" teems with
+entertaining matter and the English version is highly
+creditable to Mr. Nisbet Bain the translator of this
+sprightly autobiographical novel.&mdash;<i>Daily Telegraph.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Eyes Like the Sea" is an alluring book into which to
+dip at random ...&mdash;<i>Academy.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Eyes like the Sea" is one of those rare books that
+break all rules and defy criticism by justifying their
+irregularities.&mdash;<i>Guardian.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is good to know too that fiction in Hungary has a
+master so hearty, so human, and so free at once from
+priggishness and <i>naturalism</i>.&mdash;<i>Saturday Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>In some respects the heroine reminds us of Becky Sharp
+and in others of Manon Lescaut, and in feminine
+dexterity and sexual eccentricities is no unworthy mate
+for either.&mdash;<i>Athen&aelig;um.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is truly, as Mr. Bain remarks in his preface, a
+brilliant example of the now rare novel of incident and
+adventure ... The vigor of the book is
+astonishing.&mdash;<i>World.</i></p>
+
+<p>The charm of the original as a work of art loses a good
+deal in the translation ... none the less the book is
+extremely interesting. It is a sketchy and vivacious
+summary of the more salient incidents in the political
+and literary career of the eminent Hungarian poet and
+romancist, its author.&mdash;<i>Literary World.</i></p></div>
+
+<p class="center">
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br />
+NEW YORK AND LONDON</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chapterbreak" />
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the
+original edition have been corrected.</p>
+
+<p>In the Preface, "pronouned preference" was changed to "pronounced
+preference".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter I, a missing period was added after "Valsez l&agrave;".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter II, "would have withrawn" was changed to "would have
+withdrawn", and a missing quotation mark was added before "you ought
+really to be a tamer of animals!".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter III, a missing period was added after "after her wedding".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter IV, a quotation mark was added before "They are all in a very
+good humour to-day".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter VI, "amongst us at the, Table of Public Opinion" was changed
+to "amongst us at the Table of Public Opinion".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter VIII a missing quotation mark was added after "skiz and
+pag&aacute;t...."</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter X a missing period was added after "Newspapers he never
+reads".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XIII, "beleagured fortress" was changed to "beleaguered
+fortress", "hide yourself in the village of Isza" was changed to "hide
+yourself in the village of Izsa", a missing period was added after
+"glass full of szilvorium", and an extraneous quotation mark was deleted
+after "the hovel at Het&eacute;ny".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XIV, a quotation mark was added before "Forget what we have
+been speaking about!"</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XV, "Wencesclaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement" was
+changed to "Wenceslaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XVI, "Kakas M&aacute;rtin," was changed to "Kakas M&aacute;rtin."</p>
+
+<p>The ellipses in Chapter XVII both contained an extra dot (a period plus
+four dots at the end of a sentence, and four dots following an
+incomplete sentence). The extra dots have been removed. Also, a missing
+period has been added after "her various temperaments".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XVIII, a missing quotation mark was added after "mutually
+discovered in Kvatopil's character....". In Chapter XIX, "&Ouml;zvegy
+Kapit&aacute;uyn&eacute;" was changed to "&Ouml;zvegy Kapit&aacute;nyn&eacute;", a period was changed to
+a colon after "said to the President", a missing quotation mark was
+added after "left to practise alone", and "piroutted off" was changed to
+"pirouetted off".</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XX, "turn the jok against you" was changed to "turn the joke
+against you", "the J&oacute;zsefvarose dispensary" was changed to "the
+J&oacute;zsefv&aacute;ros dispensary", "the real Ca holic faith" was changed to "the
+real Catholic faith", and a misplaced quotation mark was move from after
+"taken in hand to get on very well" to after "sit in judgment on his
+faults".</p>
+
+<p>Numerous Hungarian words have been spelled inconsistently, sometimes
+with an accent and sometimes without, and some words have been
+inconsistently hyphenated. Each occurrence has been left as it appeared
+in the original text, except as follows: "F&ouml;varosi" has been changed to
+"F&ouml;v&aacute;rosi", "Heteny" to "Het&eacute;ny", "Honv&eacute;d" to "Honved", "Jokai" to
+"J&oacute;kai", "Rak&oacute;czy" to "R&aacute;k&oacute;czy", "Sagi" to "S&aacute;gi", "Segesvar" to
+"Segesv&aacute;r", "Valy" to "V&aacute;ly", "Vasvary" to "Vasv&aacute;ry", and "Verchovszky"
+to "V&eacute;rchovszky".</p>
+
+<p>Also, the section titled "A Few Comments of the English Press" has been
+moved from the front of the book to the back.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eyes Like the Sea, by M�r J�kai
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Eyes Like the Sea, by M�r J�kai
+
+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: Eyes Like the Sea
+
+Author: M�r J�kai
+
+Translator: R. Nisbet Bain
+
+Release Date: March 14, 2010 [EBook #31642]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EYES LIKE THE SEA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: EYES LIKE THE SEA.]
+
+
+
+
+EYES LIKE THE SEA
+
+A NOVEL
+By MAURUS JOKAI
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN
+BY R. NISBET BAIN
+
+NEW YORK
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+27 AND 29 WEST 23D ST
+1894
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                                PAGE
+PREFACE                                                           ix
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SEA-EYES--MONSIEUR GALIFARD--THE FIRST NEEDLE-PRICK                1
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MY FIRST DISTINCTION--MY FIRST GRIEVANCE--THE DAMENWALZER--THE
+FRIGHTFUL MONSTER--THE READJUSTED SCARF--THE SECOND NEEDLE-PRICK   7
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MY MASTERPIECE AND MY HUT                                         24
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PETOFI WITH US--PLANS FOR THE FUTURE--THE RAPE OF THE
+BRIDES--AMATEUR THEATRICALS--MY MENSHIKOV                         40
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OLYMPIAN STRIVINGS                                                54
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+AN ODD DUEL--THE FATEFUL LETTER J.--I ALSO BECOME A
+PETER GYURICZA                                                    60
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WELTSCHMERZ CONDITIONS--"REMAIN OR FLY!"                          74
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+PETER GYURICZA'S CONSORT                                          80
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE WOMAN WHO WENT ALONG WITH ME                                 117
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+WHERE THE WORLD IS WALLED UP                                     132
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+VALENTINE BALVANYOSSI AND TIHAMER RENGETEGI                      140
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE MEETING AT THE PAGAN ALTAR                                   151
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT                                         190
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE DEMON'S BAIT                                                 247
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+MARVELS NOT TO BE SEEN FOR MONEY                                 266
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+SOLDIERING                                                       297
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+TEMPTATION                                                       309
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A COLD DOUCHE!                                                   321
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+ESAIAS MEDVESI                                                   357
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+CONFESSION                                                       379
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+MARIA NOSTRA                                                     394
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The pessimistic tone of Continental fiction, and its pronounced
+preference for minute and morbid analysis, are quite revolutionizing the
+modern novel. Fiction is ceasing to be a branch of art, and fast
+becoming, instead, a branch of science. The aim of the novelist,
+apparently, is to lecture instead of to amuse his readers. Plot,
+incident, and description are being sacrificed more and more to the
+dissection of peculiar and abnormal types of character, and the story is
+too often lost in physiological details or psychological studies. The
+wave of _Naturalism_, as it is called (though nothing could really be
+more unnatural), has spread from France all over Europe. The Spanish and
+Italian novels are but pale reflections of the French novel. The German
+Naturalists have all the qualities of the French School, minus its
+grace. In Holland, the so-called _Sensitivists_ are at great pains to
+combine a coarse materialism with a sickly sentimentality. Much more
+original, but equally depressing, is the new school of Scandinavian
+novelists represented by such names as Garborg, Strindberg, Jacobsen,
+Loffler, Hamsun, and Bjornson (at least in his later works), all of whom
+are more or less under the influence of Ibsenism, which may be roughly
+defined as a radical revolt against conventionality. In point of
+thoroughness some of these Northern worthies are not a whit behind their
+fellow craftsmen in France. The novel of the year in Norway for 1891 was
+a loathsomely circumstantial account of slow starvation. There is a lady
+novelist in the same country who could give points to Zola himself; and
+nearly every work of Strindberg's has scandalized a large portion of the
+public in Sweden. Nay, even remote Finland has been reached at last by
+the wave of _Naturalism_ in fiction, and Respectability there is still
+in tears at the perversion of the most gifted of Finnish novelists,
+Juhani Aho. In the Slavonic countries also the pessimistic, analytical
+novel is paramount, though considerably chastened by Slavonic mysticism,
+and modified by peculiar political and social conditions. Though much
+nobler in sentiment, the novel in Poland, Russia, and Bohemia is quite
+as melancholy in character as the general run of fiction elsewhere. A
+minor key predominates them all. There is no room for humour in the
+mental vivisection which now passes for _Belles-lettres_. We may learn
+something, no doubt, from these _fin de siecle_ novelists, but to get a
+single healthy laugh out of any one of them is quite impossible.
+
+There is, however, one country which is a singular exception to this
+general rule. In Hungary the good old novel of incident and adventure is
+still held in high honour, and humour is of the very essence of the
+national literature. This curious isolated phenomenon is due, in great
+measure, to the immense influence of the veteran novelist, Maurus Jokai,
+who may be said to have created the modern Hungarian novel,[1] and who
+has already written more romances than any man can hope to read in a
+life-time. Jokai is a great poet. He possesses a gorgeous fancy, an
+all-embracing imagination, and a constructive skill unsurpassed in
+modern fiction; but his most delightful quality is his humour, a humour
+of the cheeriest, heartiest sort, without a single _soupcon_ of
+ill-nature about it, a quality precious in any age, and doubly so in an
+overwrought, supercivilized age like our own. Lovers of literature must
+always regret, however, that the great Hungarian romancer has been so
+prodigal of his rare gifts. He has written far too much, and his works
+vary immensely. Between such masterpieces, for instance, as "_Karpathy
+Zoltan_" and "_Az arany ember_" on the one hand, and such pot-boilers as
+"_Nincsen Ordog_," or even "_Szerelem Bolondjai_," on the other, the
+interval is truly abysmal. But that such a difference is due not to
+exhaustion, but simply to excessive exuberance, is evident from the
+story which we now present for the first time to English readers. "_A
+tengerszemu holgy_" is certainly the most brilliant of Jokai's later,
+and perhaps[2] the most humorous of all his works. It was justly
+crowned by the Hungarian Academy as the best Magyar novel of the year
+1890, and well sustains the long-established reputation of the master.
+Apart from the intensely dramatic incidents of the story, and the
+originality and vividness of the characterization, "_A tengerszemu
+holgy_" is especially interesting as being, to a very great extent,
+autobiographical. It is not indeed a _professed_ record of the author's
+life-like "_Emlekeim_" (My Memoirs) for instance. It professes to be a
+novel, and a most startling novel it is. Yet in none of Jokai's other
+novels does he tell us so much about himself, his home, and his early
+struggles both as an author and a patriot; _he_ is one of the chief
+characters in his own romance. Of the heroine, Bessy, I was about to say
+that she stood alone in fiction, but there is a certain superficial
+resemblance, purely accidental of course, between her and that other
+delightful and original rogue of romance, Mrs. Desborough, in Mr. Robert
+Louis Stevenson's "More New Arabian Nights," though all who have had the
+privilege of making the acquaintance of both ladies will feel bound to
+admit that Jokai's Bessy, with her five husbands, is even more piquant,
+stimulating, and fascinating than Mr. Stevenson's charming and elusive
+heroine.
+
+R. NISBET BAIN.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: I do not forget _Karman_, _Josika_, and _Eotvos_, but the
+former was an imitator of Richardson, and the two latter of Walter
+Scott.]
+
+[Footnote 2: I say "perhaps," as I can only claim to have read
+twenty-five out of Jokai's one hundred and fifty novels.]
+
+
+
+
+EYES LIKE THE SEA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SEA-EYES--MONSIEUR GALIFARD--THE FIRST NEEDLE-PRICK
+
+
+Never in my life have I seen such wonderful eyes! One might construct a
+whole astronomy out of them. Every changeful mood was there reflected;
+so I have called them "Eyes like the Sea."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When first I met pretty Bessy, we were both children. She was twelve
+years old, I was a hobbledehoy of sixteen. We were learning dancing
+together. A Frenchman had taken up his quarters in our town, an
+itinerant dancing-master, who set the whole place in a whirl. His name
+was Monsieur Galifard. He had an extraordinarily large head, a bronzed
+complexion, eyebrows running into each other, and short legs; and on the
+very tip of his large aquiline nose was a big wart. Yet, for all that,
+he was really charming. Whenever he danced or spoke, he instantly
+became irresistible. All our womankind came thither on his account; all
+of them I say, from nine years old and upwards to an age that was quite
+incalculable. I recall the worthy man with the liveliest gratitude. I
+have to thank him for the waltz and the quadrille, as well as for the
+art of picking up a fallen fan without turning my back upon the lady.
+
+Bessy was the master's greatest trouble. She would never keep time; she
+would never take to the elegant "_pli_," and he could never wean her
+from her wild and frolicsome ways. Woe to the dancer who became her
+partner!
+
+I, however, considered all this perfectly natural. When any one is
+lovely, rich, and well-born, she has the right to be regarded as the
+exception to every rule. That she was lovely you could tell at the very
+first glance; that she was rich anybody could tell from the silver coach
+in which she rode; and by combining the fact that every one called her
+mother "Your Ladyship" with the fact that even the "country people"
+kissed her hand, you easily arrived at the conclusion that she must be
+well-born. Her lady-mother and her companion, a gentlewoman of a certain
+age, were present at every dancing lesson, as also was the girl's aunt,
+a major's widow in receipt of a pension. Thus Bessy was under a
+threefold inspection, the natural consequence of which was that she
+could do just as she liked, for every one of her guardians privately
+argued, "Why should I take the trouble of looking after this little girl
+when the other two are doing the same thing?" and so all three were
+always occupied with their own affairs.
+
+The mother was a lady who loved to bask on the sunny side of life; her
+widowhood pined for consolation. She had her officially recognised
+wooers, with more or less serious intentions, graduated according to
+rank and quality.
+
+The companion was the scion of a noble family. All her brothers were
+officers. Her father was a Chamberlain at Court; his _own_ chamber was
+about the last place in the world to seek him in. The young lady's
+toilets were of the richest; she also had the reputation of being a
+beauty, and was famed for her finished dancing. Still, time had already
+called her attention to the seriousness of her surroundings; for Bessy,
+the daughter of the house, had begun to shoot up in the most alarming
+manner, and four or five summers more might make a rival of her. Her
+occupation during the dancing hour was therefore of such a nature as to
+draw her somewhat aside lest people should observe with whom and in what
+manner she was diverting herself, for there is many an evil feminine eye
+that can read all sorts of things in a mere exchange of glances or a
+squeeze of the hand, and then, of course, such things are always talked
+to death.
+
+But it was the aunt most of all who sought for pretexts to vanish from
+the dancing-room. She wanted to taste every dish and pasty in the
+buffet before any one else, and well-grounded investigators said of her,
+besides, that she was addicted to the dark pleasure of taking snuff,
+which naturally demanded great secrecy. When, however, she was in the
+dancing-room, she would sit down beside some kindred gossiper, and then
+they both got so engrossed in the delight of running down all their
+acquaintances, that they had not a thought for anything else.
+
+So Bessy could do what she liked. She could dance _csardas_[3] figures
+in the Damensolo; smack her _vis-a-vis_ on the hands in the _tour de
+mains_, and tell anecdotes in such a loud voice that they could be heard
+all over the room; and when she laughed she would press both hands
+between her knees in open defiance of Monsieur Galifard's repeated
+expostulations.
+
+[Footnote 3: The national dance of Hungary.]
+
+One evening there was a grand practice in the dancing-room. With the
+little girls came big girls, and with the big girls big lads. Such
+lubbers seem to think that they have a covenanted right to cut out
+little fellows like me. Luckily, worthy Galifard was a good-natured
+fellow, who would not allow his _proteges_ to be thrust to the wall.
+
+"Nix cache-cache spielen, Monsieur Maurice. Allons! Walzer geht an. Nur
+courage. Ne cherchez pas toujours das allerschlekteste Tanzerin! Fangen
+sie Fraulein Erzsike par la main. Valsez la."[4] And with that he
+seized my hand, led me up to Bessy, placed my hand in hers, and then
+"ein, zwei."
+
+[Footnote 4: "Don't play hide-and-seek, Master Maurice. Off you go! 'Tis
+a waltz, remember. Come, come! courage. Don't always pick out the worst
+partner. Take Miss Bessy by the hand. Waltz away!"]
+
+Now, the waltzes of those days were very different from the waltzes we
+dance now. The waltz of to-day is a mere joke; but waltzing then was a
+serious business. Both partners kept the upper parts of their bodies as
+far apart as possible, whilst their feet were planted close together.
+Then the upper parts went moving off to the same time, and the legs were
+obliged to slide as quickly as they could after the flying bodies. It
+was a dance worthy of will-o'-the-wisps.
+
+The master kept following us all the time, and never ceased his
+stimulating assurances: "Tres bien, Monsieur Maurice! Ca va
+ausgezeiknet! 'Alten sie brav la demoiselle! Nix auf die Fusse schauen.
+Regardez aux yeux. Das ist riktig. Embrassiren ist besser als
+embarrasiren! Pouah! Da liegst schon alle beide!"[5]
+
+[Footnote 5: "Very good, Master Maurice! That's capital! Hold the lady
+nicely! Don't look at your feet. Look at her eyes. That's right! To
+embrace is better than to embarrass. Pooh! There, they both are
+together!"]
+
+No, not quite so bad as that! I had foreseen the inevitable tumble, and
+in order to save my partner I sacrificed myself by falling on my knees,
+_she_ scarcely touched the floor with the tip of her finger. My knee
+was not much the worse for the fall, but I split my pantaloons just
+above the knee. I was annihilated. A greater blow than that can befall
+no man.
+
+Bessy laughed at my desperate situation, but the next moment she had
+compassion upon me.
+
+"Wait a bit," said she, "and I'll sew it up with my darning-needle."
+Then she fished up a darning-needle from one of the many mysterious
+folds of her dress, and, kneeling down before me, hastily darned up the
+rent in my dove-coloured pantaloons, and in her great haste she pricked
+me to the very quick with the beneficent but dangerous implement.
+
+"I didn't prick you, did I?" she asked, looking at me with those large
+eyes of hers which seemed to speak of such goodness of heart.
+
+"No," I said; yet I felt the prick of that needle even then.
+
+Then we went on dancing. I distinguished myself marvellously. With a
+needle-prick in my knee, and another who knows where, I whirled Bessy
+three times round the room, so that when I brought her back to the
+_garde des dames_, it seemed to me as if three-and-thirty mothers,
+aunts, and companions were revolving around me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MY FIRST DISTINCTION--MY FIRST GRIEVANCE--THE DAMENWALZER--THE FRIGHTFUL
+MONSTER--THE READJUSTED SCARF--THE SECOND NEEDLE-PRICK
+
+
+I am really most grateful to Monsieur Galifard. I have to thank him for
+the first distinction I ever enjoyed in my life. This was the
+never-to-be-forgotten circumstance that when my colleagues, the young
+hopefuls of the Academy of Jurisprudence at Kecskemet, gave a lawyers'
+ball, they unanimously chose me to be the _elotanczos_.[6] To this day I
+am proud of that distinction; what must I have been then? On the heels
+of this honour speedily came a second. The very same year, the Hungarian
+Academy of Sciences, on the occasion of the competition for the Teleki
+prize, honourably mentioned my tragedy, "The Jew Boy," and there were
+even two competent judges, Vorosmarty and Bajza,[7] who considered it
+worthy of the prize.... When, therefore, I returned to my native town,
+after an absence of three years, I found that a certain _renommee_ had
+preceded me. I had also very good reasons for returning home. The legal
+curriculum in my time embraced four years. The third year was given to
+the _patveria_, the fourth year to the _jurateria_.[8] Every respectable
+man goes through the patveria in his own country, but the _jurateria_ at
+Buda-Pest.
+
+[Footnote 6: The dancer who leads off the ball.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Two of the most eminent Hungarian poets.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Different branches of Hungarian law.]
+
+And I had something else to boast of, too. In my leisure hours I painted
+portraits, miniatures in oil. So well did I hit off the Judge of Osziny
+(and he did not give me a sitting either) that every one recognised him;
+but a still greater sensation was caused by my portrait of the wife of
+the Procurator Fiscal, who passed for one of the prettiest women in the
+town.
+
+And yet, despite all this, when in the following Shrovetide the Lord
+Lieutenant gave a ball to the county (they were something like Lord
+Lieutenants in those days), I was _not_ called upon to open the ball!
+Ungrateful fatherland!
+
+And who was it, pray, who caused me this bitter slight? A dandy, who did
+not belong to our town at all; a certain Muki Bagotay, of whom the world
+only knew that he had been to Paris, and was a good match. In my rage I
+had resolved not to dance at the Lord Lieutenant's ball, although I had
+received an invitation. Moreover, my indignation was increased by the
+circumstance that rumour had already designated Bessy as the
+semi-official partner of the opener of the ball.
+
+However, Nemesis overtook the pair of them.
+
+At this ball Bessy wore a frisure _a l'Anglaise_, which did not suit her
+face at all; and I rejoiced beforehand at the misadventure I clearly
+foresaw, for I was certain that her flying dishevelled hair would catch
+in the buttons of her partner's dress-coat.
+
+As for Muki Bagotay himself, the first time we cast eyes upon him, my
+young brother and I immediately agreed that it was an absolute
+impertinence to be so handsome. Only a romance-writer has the right to
+produce such perfect figures; they have no business to exist in reality.
+I comforted myself with the reflection that such a handsome fellow
+_must_ be a blockhead. I didn't know then that dulness was fashionable.
+Why, even _gold_ has a dull ring!
+
+But I was a very inexperienced youngster in those days. I had no down on
+my face, I did not know how to smoke, I would not have drunk wine for
+worlds, and had never even looked a lady in the face.
+
+But, as I said before, Nemesis overtook them.
+
+The dance opened with a waltz. If _I_ had been master of the ceremonies,
+I should have started with a _kormagyar_.[9] Ah! that _kormagyar_. That
+is something like a dance. It requires enthusiasm to dance _that_, and
+you want eight or sixteen couples to dance it properly, and all
+thirty-two dancers must dance it with histrionic precision, and that was
+not an easy thing to do, I can tell you. But, then, Bagotay was all for
+waltzes. The "Pecsovics"![10]
+
+[Footnote 9: An old Hungarian round dance.]
+
+[Footnote 10: One who preferred foreign and especially Austrian customs
+to Hungarian.]
+
+But there's a Nemesis!
+
+It was the regular custom then for the band to play ten or twelve bars
+of each dance before it began, and then stop for a few moments so that
+the public might know whether the next dance was to be a polka,
+quadrille, or waltz. Muki Bagotay did not know this (what did he know,
+forsooth?), so when the band gave the usual signal, he took his partner
+on his arm and started off with her in a fine whirl, till the band
+suddenly stopped, and they found themselves high and dry at the other
+end of the room with no music for their feet to dance to; so they had to
+sneak back shamefacedly to the place from whence they had started. Bessy
+was furious, and Muki was full of excuses; you would have taken them for
+a married couple of six months' standing. Serve them right!
+
+I did not watch them dance any more, but sat down in a corner and
+sketched caricatures on the back of my invitation card. Then I made my
+way to the buffet to drink almond-tea, and gathered round me two or
+three _blase_ young men, like myself weary of existence. Let the gay
+company inside there try and amuse themselves without our assistance if
+they could!
+
+Suddenly some one tapped me on the shoulder with a fan, then I
+recognised a voice; it was Bessy. "What," she said, "not content with
+flying from the dancing-room yourself, must you keep away other dancers
+also! Come back, sir! A _Damenwalzer_ is beginning."
+
+For the privilege of a _Damenwalzer_ I capitulated unconditionally of
+course. Having completed the turn round the room with my partner, I led
+Bessy back to her mother, and thanked her for the never-to-be-forgotten
+distinction. She had to be off again almost immediately, for the voice
+of the master of the ceremonies announced a cotillon. The couples flew
+round with the velocity of will-o'-the-wisp. But her mother remained
+where she was, and there was an empty chair beside her.
+
+"You are quite forgetting your old acquaintances," said she, breathing
+heavily (she was stout and suffered from asthma). "You don't trouble
+your head about us now you have become a famous man."
+
+A famous man! What! then does _she_ also know that the Academy of
+Sciences honourably mentioned my tragedy? No, no! My other fame it was
+that had reached her--my pictorial successes.
+
+"We have seen the lovely portrait that you painted. Yes, it was Madame
+Muller to the life--just as she looked fifteen years ago. Why did you
+not rather paint her daughter, she is much prettier? But you don't like
+painting girls, do you--you are afraid it is a losing game, eh?"
+
+The lady had certainly very peculiar expressions.
+
+Of course I could only reply that I was not a bit afraid, and that if
+they would let me, I should have the greatest pleasure in painting Miss
+Bessy.
+
+She was gracious enough to give her consent. The only thing was to fix
+when it should be. It could not be at once, as for some days after a
+ball young ladies do not look their best. Then they had to get ready for
+another dancing party, or were busy, and on Sundays they went to church.
+At last, however, after much calculation, a day was hunted up on which
+Bessy was free to sit to me.
+
+Then there was another question for consideration: was the portrait to
+be painted on ivory with water-colours, or on linen with oils? "Ivory is
+better," I insinuated, "because one can always wipe off a portrait in
+water-colours with a wet sponge whenever one likes."
+
+The lady remarked the self-reproach, and was gracious enough to
+neutralize it by a contradiction.
+
+"Then I declare for oils, for we wish to keep the picture for ever."
+
+I felt that I could have done anything for her.
+
+Meanwhile the cotillon had come to an end. Bessy returned to her mother,
+and the companion also resumed her place. The chair which I had
+appropriated belonged to her, and resigning it to its lawful possessor,
+I would have withdrawn, but the lady considered it her duty to present
+me to the ruling planet of the day, Muki Bagotay, who was escorting back
+his partner. She immediately acquainted him with my artistic
+qualifications, and made it generally known that I was going in a few
+days to paint her daughter's portrait.
+
+On the afternoon of the day appointed I appeared at Bessy's house. I had
+sent on beforehand my easel and my canvas by our servant. I found not a
+single soul of a lackey either in the passage or the ante-chamber. I was
+obliged to stand there and wait till some one came to announce me, and
+in the meantime I could not help overhearing the conversation in the
+adjoining room.
+
+"You are a good-for-nothing rascal yourself--a shameful, impertinent
+fellow!"
+
+I recognised the voice of the mistress of the house.
+
+In reply came a protesting shriek.
+
+"Where is there a stick?" cried the lady.
+
+And at the same instant a hoarse voice replied: "Madame, vous etes une
+friponne!"
+
+A pretty conversation truly. I had certainly arrived at the wrong time.
+
+Meanwhile the door opened, and the flunkey came in rubbing one of his
+hands with the other; he was evidently in pain.
+
+"Have you been beaten?" cried I, in amazement; to which he angrily
+replied: "No! I have been _bitten_."
+
+What, actually bitten the footman!
+
+"Would you kindly walk in, sir; they are waiting for you."
+
+The moment I entered the room this enigmatical state of things was
+immediately plain to me. The personage to whom her ladyship was meting
+out these offensive epithets, and who was returning her such
+contemptuous replies, was a grey parrot who had just bitten the lackey
+in the finger and been chastised for this misdeed. The whole company was
+in the utmost excitement. There was a large assembly both of ladies and
+gentlemen; amongst the latter my eye immediately caught sight of Muki
+Bagotay. But the chief personage was the parrot. He was a grey-liveried,
+red-tailed, big-billed monster, and he stood in the middle of the
+tea-table in a threatening attitude. Somehow or other he had contrived
+to open the door of his bronze cage, and in a twinkling he stood in the
+midst of the tea-things on the covered table. "Oh, I only hope he won't
+get on my head!" cried a somewhat elderly lady, holding on to her
+chignon with both hands. Nobody dared to assume the offensive. The
+footman who had attempted to seize the fugitive had already been laid
+_hors de combat_ by the winged rebel, while the parlour-maid declared
+that she would not go near him if they gave her the whole house. The
+lady of the house meanwhile was making little dabs at the bird with a
+small Spanish cane, and calling it all sorts of abusive names; but the
+warlike pet always grasped the end of the cane with its strong beak,
+while he repaid with interest the injurious epithets bestowed upon him.
+
+When I joined the company I was scarcely noticed and the lady of the
+house, in reply to my salutation, "I kiss your hand," said, "You
+infamous scoundrel!" though she immediately added, "I did not mean
+you."--"You're one yourself," retorted the bird.
+
+"Come now, find a rhyme to that, Mr. Rhymster!" said Mr. Muki Bagotay.
+The wretch was apostrophizing me.--Rhymster, indeed!
+
+"Don't go near it!" cried Bessy; "he might bite your hand, and then you
+would not be able to paint me."
+
+They'd terrify me, eh? It only needed that. I instantly went straight
+for the bird. I would have done so had it been the double-headed Russian
+eagle itself. Was it divination which made me hit upon the proper word
+to say to such a human-voiced monster? "Give me your head!" said I. And
+at that word the terrible wretch bobbed down his head till he was
+actually standing on his curved beak, while I scratched his head with my
+index finger, which gratified him so much that he began to flutter his
+wings.
+
+Then I hazarded a second command.
+
+"Give me your foot!"
+
+And then, to the general amazement, the parrot raised its formidable
+three-pronged foot and clasped me tightly round the index finger with
+its claws; then it seized my thumb with its other foot, and allowed me
+to lift it from the table. Nor was that all. While I held it on my hand,
+just as the mediaeval huntsmen held their falcons, the parrot bent its
+head over my hand and began to distribute kisses; but finally he went
+through every variation of the kiss till it was a perfect scandal. The
+ladies laughed. "Who ever could have taught him?"
+
+"I got the bird during the lifetime of my late lamented husband,"
+explained the lady of the house, with some confusion.
+
+Finally, the conquered sphinx affectionately confided to me his name:
+"Little Koko! Darling Koko!" But I transferred Koko from my fist to his
+cage, and put him on to the swinging ring, which he seized, and began to
+climb upwards with his beak. He was a veritable triped! On settling
+comfortably in his ring, he made me a low bow, and cried with a naive
+inflexion of voice--"Your humble servant!"
+
+"Positively marvellous!" gasped the lady-mother; "you ought really to be
+a tamer of animals!"
+
+"I mean to be."
+
+"Indeed! And what sort of beasts will you tame?"
+
+"Men!"
+
+Not one of them understood me.
+
+"Well, Mr. Poet," joked Muki Bagotay, "the ballad was a success; now let
+us see whether the picture also will be superlative."
+
+"How do you want to see it?"
+
+"So!" and with that he stuck his eye-glass into the corner of his nose.
+
+"Then you're just mistaken!" said I, "for when I paint a portrait nobody
+is allowed in the room except myself and the sitter."
+
+The whole company was amazed. Every one fancied that it would have been
+a public exhibition, and so they had all congregated together to see how
+a person's eye, mouth and ear came out. A large round table had been
+prepared for me, in order that a whole lot of them might sit around it
+with their hands on their elbows, and give me general directions as I
+went along: That eye a bit higher! that ringlet a little lower! A little
+more red here, and a little more white there! However, I declared
+plainly that I would not paint before a crowd; it was the rule in
+painting, I said. When portraits were being painted, nobody must be in
+the atelier but the painter and his model. Barabas,[11] too, always made
+that a rule.
+
+[Footnote 11: Michael Barabas, a famous Hungarian painter, born at
+Markosfalu in 1810.]
+
+My resolution produced an imposing effect on the company. It's a very
+nice thing when a man can do something which nobody else can! They had
+to agree that Bessy and I should sit alone in a little side room, which
+had only one window, and the lower part of even this window had to be
+covered by a Spanish screen so as to get a proper light. And nobody was
+to disturb us so long as the sitting lasted.
+
+The first sitting did not last long. In oil painting, the image should
+first of all be painted _under_, that is to say, with dull neutral
+colours. In those days I had never heard of such a thing as a first
+coating; while it is in this stage the picture is not fit to be looked
+at. It is absolutely hideous, and the better the likeness, the worse it
+looks. I allowed nobody to look at it, not even Bessy. I locked up the
+first essay in my painter's knapsack; it was a miniature. At this stage
+it was quite sufficient if the _insetting_ had succeeded, with the
+figure in profile, but the countenance quite _en face_; the shadows
+piled up, but the background merely thrown out tentatively, and the
+fundamental colours of the dress just insinuated. Every one will see
+that this last part is the hardest of all.
+
+The company was very much deceived in its expectations when it was
+informed that I had nothing to show it. Every one had expected that in
+an hour and a half I should have finished the eye or the mouth at any
+rate; they now thought to themselves that nothing at all would come of
+it.
+
+"Well, but will Bessy look pretty in this dress?" asked her mother.
+
+What could I do at such a question as this but look silly? As if I knew
+whether Bessy had had a pretty dress on or not! All I knew was that I
+had had to use for it a little "English lake," some "Neapolitan yellow,"
+"Venetian white," and just a scrinch of "burnt ochre."
+
+"I can tell you that it was a very tiresome amusement," said Bessy. "The
+face a little more that way--Not so serious--Not so smiling--Don't sit
+so stiffly--Raise your finger--Don't move about so much.--And you've
+laid so much licorice-juice on my portrait that they'll fancy I'm a
+gipsy girl."
+
+I hastened to assure her that this was only laying the ground work, and
+that on the morrow it would be a much merrier business.
+
+The next day I was there again after an early dinner. In the forenoon I
+was with my chief at the office. Thus before dinner I was a lawyer, and
+after dinner I was artist, poet, and reciter.
+
+This time there was no company. The picture proceeded briskly, and the
+members of the family were allowed to come in from time to time, one by
+one, and have a peep at it.
+
+I had now begun to study the face more in detail. It was an interesting
+head. The face was almost heart-shaped, terminating below in a little
+chin which was delicately divided by a single dimple. There were
+spiral-like lips of dazzling red enamel; a slightly _retrousse_ nose,
+with vibrating nostrils; round, rosy-red cheeks, with little beauty
+spots here and there, which I christened "black stars in the ruddy
+dawning heavens!" Her densely thick hair curled naturally, and gleamed
+like golden enamel, diminishing, after the manner of Phidias' ideal
+Venus, the smoothest of foreheads, and fluttering the most roguish of
+little ringlets over the blue-veined temples. (How could I help learning
+by heart such minute details when every one of them passed beneath my
+brush?) But what my brush could not possibly reproduce was her
+marvellous pair of eyes. They drove me entirely to despair. I really
+believe that even if I had been a true artist instead of a wretched
+dilettante, I should never have been able to conjure forth their
+secrets. Just when I was thinking I had fixed them, her eyes would
+flash, and my whole work was thrown away. At last I had to be content
+with a dreamy expression, which pleased _me_, at any rate, best. The
+inspecting family trio said that they had never seen such an expression
+on Bessy's face; nevertheless they acknowledged, with one voice, that it
+was a speaking likeness.
+
+The head was now ready, the dress was to remain till to-morrow.
+
+On that day there was a _preference_ party in town at the General's.
+Bessy's mother was an enthusiastic _preference_ player.... Consequently
+she was not at home. The aunt alone remained as the guardian of maidens,
+and she used generally to take a nap in the afternoon, or play patience.
+I don't know who presided over Bessy's toilet on this occasion, perhaps
+nobody. That clean-cut, pale pink bodice on other days had given full
+scope to her charming figure; but on this particular day it was more
+insinuating than ever. It seemed to me as if the frill of English tulle
+had crept considerably lower down the shoulder, nay, lower still.
+
+One cannot imagine a lovelier masterpiece of a creative hand than that
+bust. And it is a painter's right, nay, his duty, not merely to look,
+but to observe. A dangerous privilege. My hand trembled, I seemed to
+freeze, and yet beads of sweat stood out upon my forehead.... She, too,
+seemed to remark my agitation. A roguish flame sparkled in her eye. She
+was now not a bit like her yesterday's portrait. She seemed to be
+flouting me. And I was putting that treacherous frill of tulle to rights
+in the picture, putting it where it _ought_ to have been. That is what I
+really call "_corriger la fortune_."
+
+At this sitting the face was completely finished, and the dress also was
+painted. I thanked the fair self-sacrificing victim, and told her that
+she might now look at the picture; it was ready. The girl rose from her
+chair and peeped over my shoulder. She looked at the picture and laughed
+in my face.
+
+"Why, you've readjusted the frill of my dress, haven't you?" said she.
+
+"So you wore it like that purposely, eh?"
+
+"Then was there something you didn't want to see?"
+
+"There was something I didn't want other people to see."
+
+"Well, now, I've been looking at you for days and days, and I've
+observed something _on you_ which is very nasty, and which I don't like
+at all."
+
+"I had no idea you gave me so much of your attention."
+
+"It is only a mere speck, no bigger than the eye of a bean."
+
+"What can it be?"
+
+"The wart on your right hand."
+
+And, indeed, on my right hand, just below the thumb, was a not very
+ornamental excrescence, which everybody could see when I was writing or
+painting.
+
+"I cannot cut it out, because it is just above the artery. I showed it
+to a doctor, and he said it would be a rather dangerous operation."
+
+"What does the doctor know about it? I'll destroy it for you; it won't
+hurt you. I learned it at school from my school-fellows. I'll destroy it
+in a moment."
+
+"By incantations, eh?"
+
+"Oh, dear no! It will smart dreadfully. But if a girl can stand it, you
+can."
+
+I consented.
+
+She lit a candle forthwith, and placed it on the table beside me. Then
+she produced a darning-needle from somewhere (I thought of the other
+darning-needle), took firm hold of it, shoved it right down to the very
+roots of the wart, held up my hand, and placed the head of the needle in
+the candle flame till it was heated to a white heat. And all the time
+her wondrous eyes were opened round and wide, and looked straight into
+my eyes with irises turned downwards. It is thus that the demons of hell
+must look upon those whom they are roasting!
+
+"Does it hurt?" she hissed between her teeth. She appeared to be in a
+state of ecstatic delight.
+
+"It hurts, but it is not the needle."
+
+"Well, now you can take your wart away with you."
+
+Two days after, the calcined wart fell from my hand, leaving behind it a
+little speck no bigger than a lentil; and that speck is there still, and
+is of a whiteness which contrasts strongly with the colour of the rest
+of the hand. And every day I set to work writing, I must needs look at
+this little white spot, and when I have looked at it long, it seems to
+me as if _her_ face were appearing before me in the midst of this tiny
+circle just as it looked then; and then that face runs through all its
+variations down to that last shape of all, which still startles me from
+my slumbers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MY MASTERPIECE AND MY HUT
+
+
+In the later stages of the painting we could converse. Indeed,
+conversation is necessary for completing one's study of one's subject,
+and prevents, besides, the constraint of sitting from becoming too
+tiresome.
+
+"Have you read the poems of Petofi?"[12]
+
+[Footnote 12: The Burns of Hungary.]
+
+"Oh, at our house we read nothing."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because those who come to see us bring no books with them."
+
+"Then don't you get any newspaper?"
+
+"Oh, yes, the _Journal des Demoiselles_; but it's a frightful bore."
+
+"A Hungarian paper would be better, the _Pesti Divatlap_, for instance."
+
+"I'll tell my mother to order it. You write for it sometimes, don't
+you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What?"
+
+"The description of a desert island among the sedges."
+
+"Have you ever been on this desert island?"
+
+"No; I only imagine it."
+
+"What's the good of that?"
+
+"It's part of a romance I'm working at."
+
+"Ah, so you write romances! Will you put us into them?"
+
+"Oh, no! Romance writing does not consist in merely copying down all
+that one sees and hears about one."
+
+"I should like to know how you set about it?"
+
+"First of all I think out the end of the story."
+
+"What, you begin at the end?"
+
+"Yes. Then I create the characters of the story. Then I deal out to
+these characters the parts they must play, and the vicissitudes they
+must go through down to the very end of the story."
+
+"Then, according to that, none of it is true?"
+
+"It is not real, perhaps, but it may be true, for all that."
+
+"I don't understand. And how much time do you take to write a story? I
+suppose it will come out?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Ah, yes, 'tis an easy thing for you to do! You have a rich aunt at O
+Gyalla, and you've only got to say a word to her and she'll get your
+book printed for you. I suppose you've only got to ask her?"
+
+"I shall not tell my rich aunt a word about it."
+
+"Then you'll get your book printed at Fani Weinmuller's, I suppose. Now
+listen, that won't do at all. I knew an author who published his own
+book and went from village to village, and persuaded every landed
+proprietor to buy a copy from him. That is a rugged path."
+
+"My romance will not be one of those which the author himself has to
+carry from door to door; it will be one of those for which the publisher
+pays the author an honorarium."
+
+She absolutely laughed in my face.
+
+And after all, when you come to think about it, surely it is somewhat
+comical when a person comes forward and barefacedly says, "Here, I've
+written something in which there is not one word of truth, and
+nevertheless I insist upon people reading it, and paying me for writing
+it."
+
+"Do you fancy, Miss Bessy, that Petofi was not paid for his poems? He
+got two hundred florins for 'Love's Pearls.'"
+
+"'Love's Pearls'! And pray what are they?"
+
+"Lovely poems to a beautiful girl."
+
+"And did he get the girl?"
+
+"No, he did not."
+
+"Well, now, that _is_ a nice thing. A fellow courts a girl, puts his
+feelings into verse, finally gets a basket[13] from her, and then
+demands that this basket should be filled for him with silver pieces."
+
+[Footnote 13: The Hungarian "Kosarat kapni," like the German "einen Korb
+bekommen" (to get a basket), is the equivalent of our "to get a flea in
+one's ear," _i.e._, "a rejection."]
+
+The same day I sent her Petofi's "Love's Pearls," and his "Cypress
+Leaves" also.
+
+I resumed my portrait painting three days afterwards, and immediately
+asked her whether she had taken up "Love's Pearls."
+
+"Oh, yes; I took them up to dry flowers in them."
+
+"But I suppose you've just dipped into the 'Cypress Leaves'?"
+
+"I don't like such things. I always burst into tears; and then my nose
+gets quite red."
+
+I did not pursue the subject further.
+
+Miss Bessy hastened, however, to sweeten my bitter disappointment with
+the delightful intelligence that, at my suggestion, mamma had at once
+subscribed to the _Pesti Divatlap_, and for six months, too.
+
+I was there when the postman brought the first four copies of the paper.
+In those days every paper had to be sent through the post in an
+envelope, postage stamps had not yet been invented....
+
+After the solemnity of breaking open the envelope, the assembled
+womankind naturally looked to see if there were any pictures, especially
+pictures of the fashions.
+
+Was it not called "Divatlap"?[14] And a fashionable journal it really
+was. That worthy, high-souled patriot, Emericus Vahot, was labouring
+with iron determination to make fashion a national affair.
+
+[Footnote 14: Fashionable journal.]
+
+"Well, whoever wore that might exhibit herself for money!" That was the
+universal verdict of the ladies. They alluded to one of the fashion
+patterns.
+
+The illustrated supplement to the second number was Gabriel Egressy as
+Richard III., in the dream scene, surrounded by spectres; the picture
+was sketched by our countryman Valentine Kiss.
+
+Her ladyship asked me which was the head of the principal figure, and
+which the feet. And I must confess that I myself could not quite make
+out how Richard III. had got his head between his knees.
+
+With the illustrated supplement to the third number, however, they were
+quite satisfied. It was Rosa Laborfalvy[15] as Queen Gertrude, by
+Barabas, a work of real artistic merit. This interested the ladies
+greatly.
+
+[Footnote 15: Jokai's future wife, as will be seen in the sequel.]
+
+"They say she has such wonderful eyes that there's nothing like them
+anywhere," said Miss Bessy.
+
+The logical consequence of this should have been a contradiction
+accompanied by a flattering compliment on my part; but all at once it
+was as if something so squeezed my throat that I absolutely could not
+get the courtly expression out anyhow. "I have never seen her," I
+replied.
+
+At the end of the fourth number was a lithograph representing a slim,
+youthful figure, and beneath it was written the name, Alexander Petofi.
+It was one of the best sketches of Barabas. It is the one absolutely
+faithful portrait of the immortal poet. As such he was known by all
+those who lived with him, that eye gazing forth into the far distance,
+that mouth opened prophetically, those hands crossed behind him as if he
+would hide something in them. The whole portrait seems to say, "I _will_
+be Petofi"; all the other portraits say, "I _am_ Petofi."
+
+This picture produced a great impression upon the ladies, for the
+appearance of a lithographed portrait in a journal was a great event. In
+those days there were none of the beneficent penny papers, whose right
+of existence is considered amply justified if the frontispiece
+represents some one battering an old woman's head in with an axe. Only
+great and famous patriots enjoyed the distinction of figuring on
+title-pages, and photography was not yet invented.... The appearance,
+then, of Petofi's portrait in an illustrated supplement of the
+_Divatlap_ created quite a sensation.... The companion at once undertook
+to read the book of verses which had been sent to the house by me.
+Bessy, on the other hand, desired to know whether she would find
+anything of mine in the portion of the journal devoted to the
+Belles-Lettres. Immediately afterwards she actually hit upon it. It was
+a portion of my romance, which appeared there under the title of "Az
+ingovany oaza"--"The Oasis of the Fens."
+
+"Well, I mean to read this at once."
+
+I gave her plenty of time to do so, for I only appeared again after the
+lapse of several days.
+
+She really _had_ read it. It was the first thing she told me.
+
+"Now I am curious to know," she added, "what was the beginning of the
+story and what will be the end? You know, don't you?"
+
+"How can I help knowing?"
+
+"But I don't understand the title. Where does the 'oiseau'[16] come in?"
+
+[Footnote 16: The Hungarian _oaza_ (oasis) and the French _oiseau_ are
+pronounced so very much alike, that the ill-instructed Bessy, who had
+never heard of the former, not unnaturally confounded them.]
+
+I explained to her that the "_oaz_" was not a flying fowl, but a plot of
+verdure concealed in the desert.
+
+"Then why don't you write 'island'?"
+
+She was right there.
+
+"Apropos of island," she continued, "I often see you from the verandah
+of our island summer-house walking up and down in front of our garden;
+yet you never give us so much as a glance, though we make noise enough."
+
+"That is quite possible. At such times I am immersed."
+
+"Immersed in what?"
+
+"In working at my romance."
+
+"Working and walking at the same time?"
+
+"Such is my habit. I work out the whole scene in my head first of all,
+down to the smallest details, so that when I sit down it is a mere
+mechanical a-b-c sort of business."
+
+"Then according to that, when you are marching with rapid strides up and
+down that long path, you neither hear nor see anything?"
+
+"Pardon me, I see grass, trees, flowers, birds, stumps of trees, and
+huts of reeds overgrown with brambles. Amongst all these I weave my
+thoughts like the meshes of a spider's web. And I hear, too. I hear the
+piping of the yellow-hammer, the twittering of the titmouse, the notes
+of the horn from distant ships, the humming of the gnats, and they all
+have something to whisper to me, something to tell me. A buzzing wasp
+lends wings to my imagination; but if I meet a human face, the whole
+thing flies out of my thoughts, and a single 'your humble servant' will
+dissolve utterly my _fata Morgana_, until I turn back and reconstruct
+the ends of my spider's-web among the freshly-discovered reed-built
+huts, tree-trunks and trailing flowers, when the well-known voices of
+the dwellers in the wilderness bring back to me again my scattered
+ideas; then I retreat into the little wooden summer-house in our garden,
+and there, disturbed by nobody, I transfer to paper the images which
+stand before my mind."
+
+And Bessy, contrary to my expectation, didn't laugh at this
+elucidation. On the contrary, she had grown quite serious. The
+expression of her eyes now resembled the expression which I had given
+them in her portrait.
+
+"And this gives you pleasure?" she whispered. "It is just as if a man
+were to set off dreaming after taking care beforehand that all his
+dreams should turn out beautiful."
+
+"Mr. Muki Bagotay," announced the footman.
+
+I took up my hat. I could not endure that fellow. He had already enjoyed
+everything in reality which existed for me only in imagination....
+
+The little wooden hut there in the orchard on the Danubian islet
+(whether it is still there I know not) was the most splendid palace in
+which I ever dwelt. 'Twas there I wrote my first romance. It is true
+that it had to put up with a lot of criticism, that first romance. What,
+indeed, did a young mind which knew nothing of men or of the world
+understand about romance writing? And yet I loved my first work, just as
+much as a man loves his first-born, though it may be deformed by all
+sorts of physical and spiritual defects. How plainly I still see before
+me those large, wide-spreading _Reineclaude_ trees, crammed with fruit
+ripe to bursting, which covered the little hut. A little farther off was
+an apple-tree covered with blood-red fruit, and then a second with
+taffety white, and a third with velvety apples. From the open door of
+the hut one could see right along the overgrown path, which was bordered
+on both sides by bowery vines. When the warm blood-red rays of summer
+pierced through the meshes of the foliage, it seemed as if every shadow
+was of green-gold. Far away on the banks of the Danube could be heard
+the delusive echoes from the military band in the "English Garden,"
+whilst closer at hand the yellow-hammer piped, and a frog here and there
+croaked in the irrigating trenches. I was writing the hardest part of my
+romance--the love part, that most undiscoverable of all unknown worlds.
+One may write down a description of the marsh world from the
+imagination, but not a description of the world of love. If the heart
+has not already discovered it, the head can tell us nothing at all about
+it.
+
+All at once the green-gold shadows were lit up by something bright.
+_She_ was standing there in the door of my hut, dressed in a white
+frock, with a straw hat fastened to two blue ribbons hanging upon her
+arm, and her dishevelled locks floating down her shoulders. For a moment
+I fancied that the dream-shapes of my imagination had taken bodily form.
+Then her ringing peal of laughter assured me that a living person stood
+before me.
+
+"How did you come here?"
+
+"How? Why, by walking over the soft grass, of course."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Alone! Why not? Whom _should_ I have brought with me, I should like to
+know? I suppose I may come to a neighbour's garden unattended?"
+
+It was quite true that our gardens were only about a hundred feet apart,
+lying one on each side of the common path, which ran right through the
+island.
+
+"You don't seem to give me a very hearty reception," pouted she, as she
+entered my hut.
+
+My head began to swim.
+
+"On the contrary, I am overjoyed at the honour you do me, and I'll
+gather for you at once some of our princely plums."
+
+Nobody else had such plums then, and it was a good excuse, besides, for
+quitting the hut.
+
+"I did not come for the sake of your princely plums; I filch them long
+before you ever taste them. I have come now to see how you make up your
+romance."
+
+I pointed out to her that here was the paper and there the pen, and all
+a man had to do was to take up the pen, and it went on writing of its
+own accord.
+
+"Then you don't peep into any book first of all?"
+
+"You can see that I am provided with no tools of that sort."
+
+"Well, now, sit down, and I'll sit down beside you and see how you
+write."
+
+And then, not waiting for an invitation, she sat down at the end of my
+sofa, driving me into the dilemma of sitting down by the table,
+willy-nilly, likewise. I may mention that my hut was so narrow that the
+table reached from the door to the window.
+
+"I can't write a word, though, at this moment," said I.
+
+"Why? Because I'm here?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"Then read me what you have just written."
+
+"There's a lot of it."
+
+"So much the better. I can remain here all the longer."
+
+"Won't they miss you at home?"
+
+"They know that I am sure to turn up again."
+
+Vanity is the horn by which one may always catch hold of a man. It
+flattered me to read what I had written, whoever the listener might be.
+In other parts of the kingdom I had already gained applause with my
+recitations, but nobody in my own narrow little town had ever heard me
+speak. _Nemo profeta in patria._
+
+And Bessy was a very appreciative audience. You could read from her face
+the effect I produced and the interest she took. She rested her face on
+her hand, smoothed down her hair, and fixed her attention that she might
+listen the better. She seemed quite frightened at the exciting scenes,
+her eyes and lips opened wide. I do not say this to praise myself, but
+simply as a justification of the fact that in those days I could recite
+with considerable emphasis. In one place, however, my voice began to
+falter.
+
+"Well, what is it? Can't you read your own writing?"
+
+"Yes--no, I mean. I think we had better leave off here?"
+
+"Why? You've come to the most interesting part."
+
+"I don't want to read it to you."
+
+"Why? Do you mean to say you write such things as a girl ought not to
+know?"
+
+"No, no! Anybody may read it except myself--before you."
+
+The girl laughed, but there was something bitter in her laugh too.
+
+"Oh, don't be anxious on my account, pray! We read, at school, things of
+which you have no idea. It is an old institution among us that every
+girl when she marries shall write a letter to her school friends on the
+very day after her wedding. We have a whole collection of such letters."
+
+"And do you mean to tell me that _you_ have promised to increase this
+collection?" I cried, with all the indignation of my youthful mind.
+
+The girl must have guessed my anger from my face, for she cast down her
+eyes and said, in a low voice: "It depends upon whose I shall be."
+
+Immediately afterwards she laughed uproariously: "You may read your
+love-scene before me."
+
+I answered more firmly than ever: "I will not read it before you."
+
+She understood and stared at me.
+
+"You fear, perhaps, that I shall take it for a declaration? You think,
+perhaps, that I shall laugh at you in consequence?"
+
+"No! You will not laugh at me."
+
+"Then what are you afraid of?"
+
+"I do not fear, I wait."
+
+"Wait! For what?"
+
+"I am waiting till I count for something in the world; at present I am a
+mere cipher."
+
+"One who is born a man can never be a mere cipher."
+
+"Look now! This wooden booth is at present the whole of my property,
+this little pile of paper my whole claim upon the world; but in my soul
+there is a vigorous flame to which I can give no name. This flame would
+suffice to make a man a pretender to a throne, but it is not sufficient
+to make him propose to a girl."
+
+"But you know that I am rich."
+
+"And I am still richer, for I dine deliciously off a crust of bread, and
+I sleep sweetly on a bed of straw."
+
+"Well, and that pleases me too. _I_ like a crust of bread and a bed of
+straw. You do not know me. A man might make a she-devil of me, though he
+built a temple in my name straight off, enshrined me on the altar, and
+knelt down before me. But he whom I truly loved might make an angel of
+me. I could be happy anywhere: in a shepherd's hut, a strolling player's
+tent, at a soldier's bivouac, in a schoolmaster's clay cabin. I would
+dream of luxury on my bed of straw."
+
+And with that, she threw herself at full length on my bare sofa, and
+clasped her hands above her head.
+
+Oh, what distracting loveliness!
+
+Was it a blessing or a chastisement on the part of guiding Providence
+that I was able, at that moment, to see with my soul as well as with my
+eyes? This girl had in a few words unfolded before me the whole of her
+coming destiny.... I sat down at her feet by the side of the bare old
+sofa, and looked into her eyes.
+
+Very softly I said to her: "She whom I love will not be my slave, but my
+queen. I will not filch my happiness, but win it. And she to whom I
+shall dedicate my heart shall be crowned by me with an aureola of glory,
+just as the rich of this world load _their_ darlings with pearls and
+diamonds. The lady of my heart must be honoured by all the world--but
+most of all by myself."
+
+At these words the half-closed eyelids opened. The girl began to sob
+violently, leaped to her feet, threw her arms round my neck, kissed me,
+and ran away.
+
+And I looked after her like one that dreams, while the shrubs and the
+vine-leaves concealed her vanishing form. The yellow-hammer cried in my
+ear, "Silly boy, silly boy!" And immediately there occurred to my mind
+the story of the young man whose confessor gave him a bundle of hay to
+eat as a penance for a sin unachieved.
+
+And now, too, when I stand before the big silly bookcase, which is
+filled with nothing but my own works, I often think, would it not have
+been better if they had none of them been ever thought out? And instead
+of writing so much for the whole world, would it not have been better if
+I had written for my own private use, just so much as would go within
+the inside cover of a family Bible? Nowadays, a whole street in my
+native town is called after my name: would it not have been better if
+all I had there were a simple hut?
+
+But no! I willed it so, and if it were possible for me to go back to the
+diverging cross-roads of my opening life, I would tread once more in the
+self-same footprints that I have left so long behind me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PETOFI WITH US--PLANS FOR THE FUTURE--THE RAPE OF THE BRIDES--AMATEUR
+THEATRICALS--MY MENSHIKOV
+
+
+I really imagined that I loved and was beloved. I was always a welcome
+guest at her ladyship's house, and was a regular visitor on her "at
+home" days. On such occasions I learnt to know Bessy from another point
+of view. She was a musician also. She could play the fiddle. Whether she
+played artistically I really cannot say, for I don't understand music,
+and couldn't tell the difference between Paul Racz[17] and Sarasate; but
+so much is certain, she knew all the cunning tricks and poses which I
+admired so much in the famous musicians of a later day. She could make
+arpeggios and pizzicatos like Ole Bull, _fughe di diavolo_ like Remenyi,
+and pianissimos like Sarasate. She could make her fiddle weep softly
+like Milanollo and Miss Terezina Tua, and she could lash it savagely
+with her fiddle-bow like the Russian Princess Olga Korinshka, or play
+with the instrument close up to ear like a gipsy _primas_.[18] When she
+played she had the beauty of a demon; every limb was set in motion, her
+shoulders marked time, her bosom heaved, her body waved to and fro, her
+mouth smiled provocatively, her eyes sparkled; at one moment she softly
+caressed the fiddle with her bow, at another she flogged the strings
+unmercifully, and at the end of the performance she stood there with the
+pose of a triumphant Toreadrix. At such moments every one was fascinated
+by her; why, then, should I have been an exception?
+
+[Footnote 17: A famous gipsy musician.]
+
+[Footnote 18: The leader of a gipsy band.]
+
+One day I got a letter from Petofi, in which he informed me he was going
+to call upon us the following Sunday. I naturally skipped off to town at
+once, and showed the letter to all my acquaintances. It was a great
+event in our little town. Petofi's popularity in those days was great
+indeed; he was worshipped from one end of the kingdom to the other. His
+visit was regarded as an extraordinary distinction. On Sunday afternoon,
+therefore, half the population of the town had assembled on the island,
+where the landing-stage of the steamers now is. Bessy's family was also
+there. All the religious persuasions were represented by the presence of
+the Benedictine priests and the Calvinist and Lutheran ministers. The
+captain of the civic train bands, with two lackeys in gold liveries;
+represented the magistracy; and Muki Bagotay was there on behalf of the
+county (he held some petty office or other), and maintained that he knew
+Petofi very well. Congratulatory speeches had been got ready, and
+lovely hands were to present handsome bouquets to the coming guest.
+Petofi, however, when he had crossed over the steamship bridge to the
+other side, troubled himself not one bit about the congratulatory mob,
+left in the lurch the lovely ladies with their bouquets, and the
+distinguished gentlemen with their speeches, and, dressed as he was in
+his short _carbonari_ mantle, rushed straight towards me, threw his arms
+round my neck, knocked my hat from my head, and cried, "Why, Marksi! Is
+it you, you old scoundrel, Marksi!" (he never would call me by my proper
+name), and, with that, wrapping me in one-half of his mantle, he dragged
+me with him towards the town just as if he knew the way quite well (he
+had never been there before in his life). The windows of the chief
+thoroughfares of the town were adorned with flowers and with fair
+damsels, who had tricked themselves out in Petofi's honour, which, when
+he perceived, he thrust me down a side street, and so we got at last to
+our house by roundabout by-paths, on which we met not a single soul. My
+worthy mother received our dear guest most heartily, not because he was
+such a famous poet, but because he was my good friend. I had known him
+ever since we had been students together at Papa, when they had called
+him "Petrovics." Now, however, they added a syllable to his name, and
+called him "Petrekovics." Nothing used to put Petofi into such a rage
+as when anybody called him by his rejected family name. But even this
+he took in good part from my mother. He never even tried to put her
+right. "Let me always remain Petrekovics in your house!" he would say to
+her, as he kissed her hand. This was by no means his usual custom, the
+only other person whose hand he used to kiss was his own mother. The
+first question after that naturally was about his favourite dish. My
+mother herself looked after the _cuisine_, and the following day the
+whole family assembled to dinner--my brother Charles, my sister Esther,
+and my brother-in-law Francis Valy included.
+
+We had scarcely risen from the table when a lackey in silver livery
+arrived from Bessy's mother with a gold-edged letter for Petofi, in
+which her ladyship invited him to her "at home" that evening. The
+entertainment was arranged in his honour. All the beauties and the
+notabilities of the town would be there together. I had naturally
+received a similar invitation some days before.
+
+'Twas thus that Petofi answered the messenger--his words are recorded in
+the family records: "Tell her ladyship that I am inconsolable at the
+impossibility of coming to her reception this evening; but this time I
+have come specially to visit my beloved Marksi, and will go nowhere
+else."
+
+The astonished lackey could scarcely grasp the meaning of this terrible
+reply. But my mother understood it right well, and said, "Noble young
+fellow!"
+
+But I said nothing, for I candidly confess that in those days I
+worshipped a pretty girl far, far more than any man however famous, or
+any friend however good.
+
+I tried, therefore, to explain the situation to my good friend. "I tell
+you what, though; that pretty girl is there about whom I wrote to you."
+
+"Then give _yourself_ up to that pretty girl, but don't sacrifice _me_
+to her likewise."
+
+"If you could only hear how splendidly she plays the fiddle."
+
+"Fiddle, do you say? Then don't give yourself up to her either! You know
+there are three things in this world that I hate--horse-radish with
+milk, the critics, and after that, music." (He could never be persuaded
+to listen to an opera.)
+
+"But Tony Varady also plays the fiddle!" (I should explain that this
+young lawyer shared Petofi's room with him.)
+
+"He fiddles, it is true, but it is useful to me."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"In our neighbourhood dwells a rascally card-player, who comes home
+every night between two and three, and begins to sing. I immediately
+wake Tony and say to him, 'Rise, and fiddle away at that fellow there!'
+Then he begins to fiddle in a way that makes your hair stand on end, and
+your blood run cold, and in ten minutes our neighbour, falling upon his
+knees, sobs for mercy, and declares that he will leave off singing.
+However, from to-day I live no longer with Tony."
+
+"Have you quarrelled?"
+
+"On the contrary, we are the best of friends. But I'll tell you about
+that later on; let us now talk about serious things. What have you been
+doing since I last saw you?"
+
+I showed him the MS. of "Hetkoznapok."[19] It was just ready.
+
+[Footnote 19: "Every-day Days." One of the best, if not _the_ best, of
+Jokai's earlier works.]
+
+"Why do you call it 'Hetkoznapok'?"
+
+"In order that nobody may expect anything extraordinary in it."
+
+He turned over the leaves, but only read the headings of the chapters.
+
+"Well, that was an original idea of yours, I must say, to choose mottoes
+from popular ballads for your chapter headings. I'll take this with me
+to Pest, and get it published."
+
+"Nobody knows me."
+
+"You're wrong. Bajza and Vorosmarty are inquiring about you. Your
+specimen composition has been much approved. I've squeezed twelve
+florins for it out of Emericus Vahot. Frankenburg was more liberal. He
+sends you fifteen for 'The Island Nepean.'"
+
+And Petofi counted out the twenty-seven silver florins on to the table.
+It was my first honorarium. I fancied myself a Rothschild.
+
+"This romance now shall be published by Hartleben."
+
+"Are you on good terms with him?"
+
+"I don't know the German fellow, but he's the publisher of Ignatius
+Nagy's romances, and Nagy shall recommend it to him."
+
+"But will Ignatius Nagy like to do it?"
+
+"What! When I bring him such work as yours! He is a great enemy of mine,
+I know, but he is a man of honour."
+
+And with that he thrust my manuscript into his knapsack, but without
+locking it.
+
+"And what else have you written?"
+
+I produced another heap of papers.
+
+"A play entitled _Two Guardians_."
+
+"And what do you want to do with it?"
+
+"To compete for the Academy prize."
+
+"Don't do that! I won't allow you. You competed once, and they did not
+give you the prize, and yet two Academicians were on your side; don't
+give them any more. Give your pieces to the theatre."
+
+I had nothing for it but to surrender.
+
+"Now, I'll take your piece to Szigligeti.[20] He will at once recognise
+in you a dangerous rival, and for that very reason will have your piece
+brought out instantly. That's the sort of man he is!"
+
+[Footnote 20: Pseudonym of the eminent Hungarian dramatist, Joseph
+Szathmary.]
+
+I entrusted my piece to his care.
+
+"And try to get up to Pest as soon as possible. Don't go loafing about
+all your days in a village!"
+
+"As soon as I have got through with my _patvaria_ I'll hasten to join
+you."
+
+"Get ready to go away at once. To-morrow I'll take you with me to Gran."
+
+I was greatly astonished.
+
+"To Gran! Why, what business have we there?"
+
+"We go not to do business, but to _rob_. We must steal away Tony
+Varady's bride for him. That is why we no longer live together."
+
+But now the members of my family had also a word to say.
+
+Petofi then related, quite calmly, that our common friend, the worthy
+lawyer, wished to take to wife the daughter of a landed proprietor at
+Gran. The girl's parents were Catholics, the bridegroom was a Calvinist,
+they therefore would not permit the marriage. But the young people
+really loved each other. So there was nothing for it but to steal the
+bride.
+
+The thing was quite clear. I could make no objection. When a man is poet
+and Protestant, girl-stealing in such a situation becomes a duty. Just
+then a great parliamentary strife was going on concerning mixed
+marriages. It was Guelph and Ghibelline over again. One had to choose
+one's party.
+
+So on the following day I really did set out with Petofi to steal a girl
+for the benefit of a third friend. The affair succeeded beyond all
+expectation. We had no need of the darkness of midnight and scaling
+ladders, the mere appearance of Petofi and myself at the bride's house
+was sufficient; the parents gave way, and the priest united the two
+lovers. Yet for all that we always made much of our damsel-robbing
+adventure. And, indeed, it seemed likely to turn out a dangerous
+precedent. Example is contagious.
+
+But I returned home with the guilty consciousness that I had absolutely
+spoiled the _soiree_. I expected that I should be pretty severely taken
+to task for it. How should I put things to rights again?
+
+I discovered how to make amends, but it was not without great artfulness
+that I succeeded.
+
+Our city was not only the capital of the county, but a fortress.
+Consequently one might frequently come upon vehicles in our streets
+which consisted of little more than a round chest on two wheels, crammed
+full of water-butts from the Danube, ammunition, bread, and sacks of
+meal, and between the poles of these conveyances were fastened a couple
+of human beings in garments of grey baize, with twenty-pound chains
+fastened to their legs. The creatures were called in plain
+Hungarian--slaves.[21] You could hear the rattling of their fetters
+from afar. On certain days while the self-same creatures were suffering
+the flogging with sticks, which was part of their sentence, their woful
+cries resounded through the whole town. Thus the rattling of chains and
+the howls of woe were a sort of speciality in our town. And the sight of
+those starved faces too! From my childish years upwards this slave-life
+used to disturb my dreams.
+
+[Footnote 21: They were prisoners condemned to penal servitude.]
+
+I got up an agitation among the more enthusiastic of the youths and
+maidens of our town on behalf of the poor slaves. If the affair had
+succeeded, I should of course never have bragged about it; but as I
+failed in it, I may as well make a clean breast of it.
+
+It was determined, at my suggestion, to invite Bessy's mother to be the
+president of our philanthropic society. A deputation set off at once to
+her house, and, naturally, I was its spokesman. The distinction thus
+conferred upon her quite wiped out my former offence, and I was again
+taken into favour.
+
+The first problem in any case was to establish our beneficent scheme on
+a sound, financial basis, and the simplest way of getting funds was by
+means of an amateur entertainment. Of this, too, I was the manager. With
+very great difficulty the programme was finally settled. Overture:
+_Beatrice di Tenda_.--"What's the watchword? Death, torture, ruin, to
+the betrayers of the fatherland!" rendered by the glee club of the
+College. After that a flute duet from _Lucia di Lammermoor_, piped by
+the local musical society and a young lawyer. That was to be followed by
+a humorous recitation of my own: "Gregory Sonkolyi"; then came an
+exhibition of legerdemain by Muki Bagotay; and last of all, as _piece de
+resistance_, Bessy's fiddling.
+
+It was a terrible business to bring all this about. We had rehearsals
+every day at Bessy's house. I was very busy just then. I ought to have
+been working as an articled clerk, but I'm quite sure I never looked at
+a law-book. At last, however, it was possible to fix the day on which
+the concert would come off.
+
+Meanwhile, the time was approaching when I ought to have passed my
+_patvaria_, and gone through my _jurateria_. My elder brother Charles
+wrote to a well-known lawyer at Pest, who had a large practice, to take
+me into his office as a juratus. And as winter was also drawing nigh,
+and I was about to go far, far away into a strange world, my good and
+ever-blessed mother was busying herself about my outfit. Nowadays people
+will regard it as a fable, but say it I must, that all the linen I wore
+during the time when I was a juratus was spun by my mother's own hands.
+I verily believe that that shirt, spun by a mother's hand, and worn by
+me, was the magic web which turned aside so many of the blows of fate.
+
+A tailor and a weaver lived in some of the smaller houses we possessed;
+we had no need of the help of strangers. My mother also provided me with
+a good winter overcoat.
+
+It was really a capital overcoat, which covered me down to the very
+heels, a real Menshikov overcoat, very fashionable forty years later,
+but in those days worn by nobody but the porters of the Benedictine
+Order.
+
+When I appeared at the amateur rehearsals at Bessy's house in this
+prematurely born Menshikov, a circle was instantly formed round me, and
+every one asked me, with ironical congratulations, where I had had it
+made. Was it possible to get the fellow of it? Bessy even remarked that
+there was room for two in it, and I was not a bit offended with her.
+
+When I withdrew (a letter, just arrived from Pest, called me home), I
+scarcely had time to close the door behind me, when I heard an outburst
+of merriment inside. When, however, I had got out into the street and
+turned round to have a last look at the house I had left behind me, lo
+and behold! all the windows were filled with groups of smiling faces,
+amongst which I saw Bessy's face also. "They are all in a very good
+humour to-day," I thought to myself.
+
+Hastening home, I found there the letter from the Pest lawyer, in which
+he informed me, with official brevity, that there was a vacant place for
+a juratus in his office, which I might occupy. If, however, I did not
+come and claim it within three days, the vacant place would be given to
+some one else. The amateur entertainment had been fixed for Sunday, and
+it was now Tuesday. If I am not there by Friday, another will sit in my
+place. But what will become of the concert? Ought I to leave Bessy in
+the lurch--so faithlessly?
+
+And how about the poor slaves?
+
+Perhaps the lawyer at Pest would make a bargain with me and give me a
+couple of days' grace? I sat down to reply to him: "Worshipful Mr.
+Advocate--I feel in duty bound to say, in reply to your honourable
+communication----" Yes, but what? I must tell him some lie or other.
+Nay, not a lie, only a freak of fancy. A sudden illness? No, that's no
+joke. An uncompleted piece of law business, which I must finish for my
+old chief? The Pest lawyer will never believe that. What pretext could I
+hit upon to steal a little more time?
+
+While I was still biting my pen, my mother came into the room, and said
+to me: "Where have you been, my dear son?"
+
+I said I had been at Bessy's house.
+
+Then she said: "Now, tell me, my darling, why do you run after these
+great people? Don't you see that they are only making fun of you?"
+
+Something like a cold ague fit ran down my back.
+
+Hadn't I myself seen and heard them laugh at me, and didn't know it? and
+here was my mother who had neither seen nor heard it, and yet _she_ knew
+it!
+
+Not another word did I say, but I went on with my letter ... "that I
+will come to Pest at once to-morrow morning, and take the place of
+juratus offered by you."
+
+I then showed my mother both letters, whereupon she rewarded me with
+that blessed smile of hers which has made her face so unforgettable to
+me.
+
+She immediately packed up my belongings and placed in my hand what
+little money she had put by, so that I might not want for anything in
+the expensive capital. I wanted to write to Bessy with an apology for my
+sudden departure.
+
+"Don't go scribbling to them," said my mother; "I'll go myself to-morrow
+to her ladyship and tell her what has happened."
+
+The following afternoon I was sitting on the steamer, and in three days
+I arrived at Pest.... And for this sudden change of fortune I had to
+thank my Menshikov alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V[22]
+
+OLYMPIAN STRIVINGS
+
+
+[Footnote 22: This chapter is somewhat condensed.]
+
+It was Petofi who introduced me to my associates of the "Table of Public
+Opinion" (as the long table close to the counter in the Cafe Pillwax was
+called), and who got me a place there. "This is a true Frenchman!" said
+Petofi, as he presented me to his young army of _literati_ who were
+assembled there. In those days this was the highest conceivable praise.
+The face of every liberty-loving nation was turned towards France, and
+from thence we expected the dawn of the new era. We read nothing but
+French books. Lamartine's "History of the Girondists" and Tocqueville's
+"Democracy" were our bibles. Petofi worshipped Beranger, I had found my
+ideal in Victor Hugo.... This school might easily have become dangerous
+to us had not its influence fortunately coincided with the opening up of
+a new and hitherto unexplored field--popular literature. Hitherto it had
+been the endeavour of Hungarian writers to write in a style which was
+distinct from the language of ordinary life. Our group, on the other
+hand, started the idea that it was just those very constructions,
+expressions, and modes of thought employed in every-day life that
+Hungarian writers ought to take as the fundamental principle of their
+writing; nay, that they should even develop the ideally beautiful,
+poetry itself, from the life of the common people.... As belonging to
+this camp of ours I must also reckon Sigismund Czako, who acclimatized
+the modern drama to our stage with marked success; and finally Anthony
+Csengery, the editor of the _Pesti Hirlap_, who wrote nothing in the way
+of _belles lettres_ himself, but whose immense erudition and thorough
+knowledge of literature enabled him to exercise a most beneficial
+influence over the whole of our group. Amongst our older writers also,
+Vorosmarty and Bajza watched over us with stimulating encouragement; but
+it was Ignatius Nagy in particular who befriended us, and of him I have
+the most pleasant recollections.... At this time he was a cripple. He
+was rarely to be seen in the street, and then only on his wife's arm. He
+stopped at home all day at his writing-table, writing those life-like
+sketches of the little world of Buda-Pest which testify to such a serene
+good-humour. The first time I saw him was when I went to speak to him
+about my novel, "Hetkoznapok." He had a most embarrassing face covered
+with dark-red spots right up to his astonishingly lofty forehead, whose
+shiny baldness was half cut in two, as it were, by a bright black
+peruke. He had also an inconceivably big red nose, at which, however,
+you had no time to be amazed, so instantly were you spell-bound by a
+couple of squinting eyes, one of which glared as fixedly at you as if it
+were made wholly of stone. His voice, on the other hand, was as the
+voice of a sick child. And within this repulsive frame dwelt the noblest
+of souls, in this crippled body the most energetic of characters. From
+no strange face did I ever get a kinder glance than I got from those
+stiff fishy eyes, and that sick voice announced to me my first great
+piece of good news. Upon his recommendation, the publisher Hartleben
+agreed to publish my first romance, and gave me for it 360 silver
+florins. In those days that was an immense fortune to me. I had no
+further need to go scribbling all day long in a lawyer's office at six
+florins a month. And his fatherly solicitude for me went still further.
+He introduced me to Frankenburg as a dramatic critic. The editor of the
+_Eletkepek_ had just parted with his dramatic critic (he had been a
+little too unmerciful to the artistes), and was looking out for a new
+colleague. By way of honorarium he offered me a free seat at the
+theatre, and ten florins a month. But my year of office came to an end
+the very first week. To make amends for the sins of my predecessor, I
+lauded every artist to the skies, according to the dictates of my
+youthful enthusiasm. And I can honestly say that I wrote it all from my
+very heart. It was then that I saw a ballet for the first time in my
+life. It was my solemn conviction that I was bound by a debt of
+gratitude to the excellent damsel who exhibited her natural charms to
+the public eye with such magnanimous frankness. And a pretty lecture
+Frankenburg read me for it too! "Delightful Sylphid indeed! A clumsy
+stork, I should say!" Still, _that_ might have passed. But it was my
+magnifying of Lilla Szilagyi who took the part of Smike in the _Beggars
+of London_ which did the business for me. I said of her that she was "a
+lovely sapling!" and promised her a brilliant future in her dramatic
+career. "Leave her where you found her! She has got no heart that's
+certain!" said the editor. "Then she'll get one!" said I. "But you'll
+never get to be a critic," said he.
+
+And so, for Lilla Szilagyi's sake, I laid down my _role_ of critic, and
+yet I was right after all, for, as Madame Bulyovszky, she really did
+become a great artiste. Now, however, I bless my fate that things fell
+out as they did. Terrible thought: fancy if I now only had the
+reputation of a famous--critic!
+
+A few days after that, a new career suddenly opened before me. Paul
+Kiralyi invited me to join his newspaper, the _Jelenkor_, as a
+correspondent. He offered me a salary of thirty-five florins a month. Of
+course I jumped at it. Newspaper writing was a very grateful task in
+those days. The paper appeared thrice a week. That was quite sufficient
+to give us all the news. It is different now. Nowadays more murders,
+suicides, and burglaries occur in the twenty-four hours than occurred in
+a whole twelvemonth then.
+
+And a newspaper contributor was then a personage of some importance. Let
+me give an example:--
+
+I lived with the dramatist, Szigligeti. In the summer we occupied a
+whole flat in a brand-new house in Pipe Street, and there I had a room
+of my own, with an exit opening on the staircase. The other flats were
+empty. The Szigligetis flitted during the summer to the suburbs of Buda.
+Thus I had the whole of the first floor of the new house at my disposal,
+to my great satisfaction, for I could work away quite undisturbed. In
+the autumn, however, the Szigligetis returned, and the adjoining flats
+at the same time got new tenants. The very next night I discovered, to
+my horror, with whom I was living under the same roof. It was the wife
+of the possessor of a flower-garden, who also kept a dancing academy.
+What afternoons, what nights I passed!
+
+At last I could stand it no longer, and I implored Szigligeti to appeal
+most energetically to the authorities against the nuisance. Szigligeti
+fully shared my indignation himself, so he posted off at once to the
+Town Captain to lay his complaint.
+
+"Sir," said he, "the proprietress of a flower-garden has settled down in
+my immediate neighbourhood."
+
+"But flowers must bloom somewhere, I suppose?"
+
+"But the people dance the livelong night."
+
+"That doesn't injure any one, surely?"
+
+"But after dancing they sit down to rest."
+
+"That is very natural."
+
+"But they take their rest and recreation very noisily."
+
+The Town Captain shrugged his shoulders, he could do nothing in the
+matter; it was a ticklish business to interfere in; it did not fall
+within his jurisdiction, etc., etc.
+
+But when, finally, Szigligeti said: "My lodger, the correspondent of the
+_Jelenkor_, cannot sleep all night because of them," then, indeed, the
+Town Captain suddenly leaped from his chair, set all his myrmidons in
+motion, and by the next day the whole flower-garden and dancing academy
+was transferred to another forcing bed. Such in those days was the
+authority of a newspaper correspondent.... I was therefore no longer a
+mere cipher. I was a something now. And, more than that, I was a
+somebody also. For it was in those days that I passed my legal
+examination, and became a certificated lawyer in the ordinary and
+commercial courts. My diploma, indeed, was not _praeclarus_, but at any
+rate it was _laudibilis_. The oral _rigorosum_ I passed through
+brilliantly, but in the _scripturistik_ (there's a fine dog Latin word
+for you!) my _Hungarian style_ was not considered satisfactory.
+
+The publication of my legal diploma in the county court was a
+sufficiently dignified excuse for a visit to my native town. With head
+erect I could now enter the presence of the fairy damsel with the
+sparkling "eyes like the sea."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AN ODD DUEL--THE FATEFUL LETTER J.--I ALSO BECOME A PETER GYURICZA
+
+
+Emericus Vahot had discovered a youthful humorist whom he attached to
+the staff of his newspaper. Ultimately he became a most eminent writer,
+but at first he was quite a savage genius. He knew no languages but
+Hungarian and Latin. He was really after all a very worthy young fellow.
+He, too, took his place amongst us at the "Table of Public Opinion,"
+and even brought a pair of friends with him. One of the friends was a
+wry-shouldered critic, who judged the stage from a philological point of
+view, but the other was Muki Bagotay. He was not a writer, but a mere
+figure head. As, however, he drank with us, he considered himself as one
+of us.
+
+One afternoon the humorist and Muki fell out. Muki had thought good to
+boast of a certain conquest of his, the humorist had made a joke of it;
+a squabble ensued, and from words they came to blows. I was not there,
+but I heard all about it from those who were. There could not be a doubt
+that the end of it would be a duel. Late in the evening, just as I was
+preparing to go to bed, the wry-shouldered critic rushed into my room.
+His face was even more portentous than usual.
+
+"I have to communicate a secret to you, but you must give me your word
+as a gentleman not to let the matter go any further."
+
+"I give you my word upon it."
+
+"Our friend is going to fight Muki Bagotay to-morrow, I am his second."
+
+"That's all right."
+
+"Would you be so good as to lend us the weapons?"
+
+"My friend, I only possess one pistol, and that is a double-barrelled
+one."
+
+"That will just do!"
+
+"What the deuce? I suppose one of them will fire with it first, and if
+he does not hit his man he'll hand it over to the other, and he'll fire
+back with it?"
+
+"Precisely!"
+
+The crooked critic said this with such a solemn face that it was
+impossible not to believe him. This was quite a novel mode of duelling,
+and not a bad idea either.
+
+Early next morning, before I had got up, the second again appeared
+before me. He brought back the fatal pistol.
+
+"It is over," said he, with mournful dignity.
+
+"What was the result?"
+
+"Our poor friend was hit!"
+
+"Dangerously?"
+
+"The bullet penetrated his arm. But it has been taken out now."
+
+The news excited all my sympathy.
+
+I threw on my clothes and made my way to the Pillwax coffee-house. I
+found my good friends already at the "Table of Public Opinion," and
+every one of them shared my compassion. The critic related the mournful
+details to us.
+
+All at once two of our comrades, Degre and Lauka, rushed excitedly into
+the coffee-house. "The whole duel was a swindle!" they cried. "There was
+no harm done to any one. He was not even wounded. He is lying in bed
+with his arm tied up, and a bloody shirt; they are giving him ice
+cataplasms--the whole thing is a pure farce!"
+
+The second, however, solemnly maintained that his principal had been
+wounded.
+
+"We will convince ourselves of the fact."
+
+"Surely you would not want them to tear the bandages from the gaping
+wound?" This I also resolutely opposed, and, taking the part of my
+colleague, devised another expedient.
+
+"Who was the doctor who bound up the wound?"
+
+The critic mentioned the doctor's name.
+
+"We'll go to the doctor, then."
+
+Dr. K----y was a worthy, honest, high-spirited fellow, who well deserved
+the public respect.
+
+We rushed upon him in a body.
+
+"Tell us, now," we said, "is there a wound on the arm of the humorist?"
+
+"There is," replied the doctor.
+
+"Is it true that you took a bullet out of it?"
+
+"It is true."
+
+"On your professional reputation?"
+
+"On my professional reputation."
+
+With that my friends were bound to be satisfied. No further inquiries
+could be made.
+
+When, however, my two friends had withdrawn, I remained behind with the
+doctor, and I said to him, "My dear doctor, you have answered the
+question, did you take a bullet out of our friend's arm? but now answer
+me this question, who put that bullet in?"
+
+"Egad! egad! egad!" growled the doctor, "you imaginative people are
+really sad scamps!"
+
+The fact was that our humorist and Muki Bagotay had fought an American
+duel: whoever drew the black ball had--well, not to die, but to get Dr.
+K----y to make a wound in his arm. The doctor, with his lancet, made an
+incision about two centimetres in length and four millemetres in depth,
+in the epidermis just below the biceps; into this wound he insinuated a
+bullet, then took it out, sewed up the wound, and so wounded honour was
+amply satisfied. And I'll not say a single word against this being the
+most correct mode of procedure imaginable.
+
+Then I went home to my native town, ostensibly to advertise my legal
+diploma, but really to look once more upon her from whom I had been so
+long absent.
+
+I was very well received in the bosom of my family; the whole clan came
+together for dinner at my mother's, and for supper at the house of my
+brother-in-law, Francis Valy. The two Calvinist ministers were also
+invited, and one of them toasted me as "the ward of one guardian and the
+guardian of two wards" (an allusion to my father's profession and my new
+drama, _The Two Wards_); it was the first toast that made me blush.
+
+The next day was the meeting of the county board, at the end of which,
+with open doors, my diploma was promulgated. On that self-same day my
+dear mother gave me my father's silver-mounted sword, and the cornelian
+signet-ring, with the old family crest engraved upon it, which he used
+to wear. Democrat as I am, I frankly confess that to me there was a
+soul-steeling thought in the reflection that with this sword my worthy
+ancestors, who were much better men than myself, had defended their
+nation, country, laws, and constitution of yore, and that this
+signet-ring had put the seal upon their covenanted rights for all time.
+According to ancient custom, the sword and signet-ring of the father
+belonged of right to the _younger_ son; my father had given my elder
+brother a ring and sword of his own when he brought home _his_ diploma.
+
+After that, I had to pay visits of ceremony to the county and municipal
+authorities; I called upon my principal also, and a pretty little girl
+was there whose features I had perpetuated in a portrait; she still went
+to the convent school. This little girl, I may add, never had her
+romance; she died young, and thus found her true bliss.
+
+It was only in the afternoon that I was able to get to Bessy's.
+
+Among all earthly joys, is there one that can be compared with that
+heart-throbbing which a young man feels when he again approaches, after
+a long absence, the woman whom he idolises, with the thought that she
+also has been dreaming of him all the time? It is true that our parting
+had been somewhat abrupt, and a hill of thorns had risen up between us
+perhaps in consequence; but, on the other hand, my absence had had a
+definite, deliberate aim--I went to win for myself name and fame, and a
+worldly position. And lo! but six months had passed and all this was
+already accomplished. I was an author. I had the right to speak of
+myself in the plural "we," like a king; nay, I had even a _better_
+right, for the king can only lay the peasantry under contribution, but I
+could make the gentry pay up as well, and that right was also "_Dei
+gratia_." I fancied the whole world was mine, and that triumphs would go
+before and follow after me whithersoever I went.
+
+I was dressed according to the latest fashion. The famous firm of
+tailors, "Martinek and Korsinek," had performed a masterpiece upon me:
+my feet were shod with varnished dress-shoes, I had a whale-bone cane
+with a gold-headed handle, I wore Jaquemar gloves. I no longer singed my
+hair with heated hair-tongs as in the days when I was a patvarist, but a
+hairdresser had twisted it into ringlets; and now, too, I had a sprucely
+twisted moustache and a beard.
+
+I really must make the most of all these glories to emphasize the
+dramatic climax.
+
+I found Bessy's mother and her aunt in the well-known reception room;
+the companion was on a visit to her relations. After the ceremonial
+kissing of hands, my first question was, "And Miss Bessy?"
+
+"She is in her own room, yonder."
+
+"May I go there?"
+
+"Oh, by all means!"
+
+It was that memorable room in which I had painted her portrait.
+
+The girl was alone, seated by her little table, and was bending over her
+embroidery frame. She really must have been very much absorbed in her
+work, as otherwise she must certainly have seen through the window that
+I was coming to her. It was a sort of pearl embroidery that she was busy
+over, meant apparently for the cover of a portfolio. On perceiving me
+enter, she hastily covered it with her handkerchief, but for all that,
+my eyes caught a momentary glimpse of a large letter "J." on the
+embroidery. What else could it be but the initial letter of my surname?
+I was confirmed in this belief by the circumstance that on the same
+little table stood my portrait of her on a gorgeous stand.
+
+She greeted me kindly, but I could detect a certain hostile sentiment in
+her smile. It is only in the eyes that one can read such things, and
+practised swordsmen always can tell from the expression of their
+opponents' eyes how they are going to lunge.
+
+She questioned me about everything, and I replied with great precision;
+but these questions and answers were mere feints: the points of the
+swords were so far only twirling around each other.
+
+All at once she lunged straight at my head with her sword.
+
+"And pray what is the _amiable little sapling_ doing?"
+
+In my first amazement I absolutely did not know what she was alluding
+to.
+
+"What sapling?"
+
+"Why, that darling little stage fairy, of course, who kindled you to
+such enthusiasm."
+
+So it turned up again now! Even here they cast it in my teeth! Was it
+not enough to have smarted once in my life for pretty Lilla's sake? In
+vain did I assure her that never in my life had I seen the young artiste
+except on the stage; that there indeed she had earned my admiration, but
+that I had never felt any tender sentiment either for her or for any
+other mortal maiden in the whole of Buda-Pest.
+
+"Let that go, then!" said Bessy mockingly. "We are well informed of
+everything that goes on. How about your landlord's three pretty
+daughters?"
+
+"Pardon me, but the eldest of them is only nine years old."
+
+"And your gay neighbours, the flower-garden ladies?"
+
+Well, this was simply appalling. How could I tell her the whole story?
+And yet I was the very person who had got them removed.
+
+"Whom the Town Captain was forced to interfere with? Oh, we know all
+about it! My little finger has whispered it to me."
+
+I was quite confused. Who could have been tittle-tattling about me so?
+
+And all the time her eyes were flashing sparks at me!
+
+But I was not to remain in doubt long. A new visitor arrived, his voice
+was already heard in the ante-chamber. It was Muki Bagotay.
+
+It was plain to me now that it was he who had whispered all these things
+to Bessy.
+
+Into the room he rushed. He certainly was infamously handsome. My head
+of curls was quite dwarfed by his. His dress was much more fashionable
+than mine. And what a cocksure air he had! I dared not so much as press
+Bessy's hand, while he knelt down before her and laid his hat--together
+with his heart--at her feet.
+
+"Go away with you--don't be silly!" said Bessy, by way of correction,
+pointing at me.
+
+"Your servant, comrade," cried Muki, becoming aware of my presence.
+
+Then he occupied himself with me no more, but turned towards Bessy and
+tried to remove the handkerchief from the embroidery, which attempt
+Bessy resisted with all her might.
+
+"It's mine, after all, you know," insisted Muki.
+
+"Then wait your turn, and you shall have it on your birthday."
+
+His birthday! A thought flashed through my brain. Muki's name was Janos.
+That initial letter was _his_, not mine.
+
+A dramatic climax. How instantly Muki became the sensible fellow and I
+the blockhead! At that moment I must have cut a somewhat queer figure
+the very type of gaping confusion.
+
+By way of explanation Muki seized Bessy's hand and raised it to his
+lips, and said to me as a matter of form, "Bessy is my betrothed."
+
+And it was for this, then, that all these Sardanapalian accusations had
+been piled upon my head. The sapling of the stage, the flower-garden,
+and my landlord's young ladies were the golden bridge for a retreat.
+
+It was only then that I hit upon more sensible ideas and hastened to
+congratulate them.
+
+And now I made it a point to remain where I was. They shall see that the
+whole matter is of the utmost indifference to me.
+
+"You know, I suppose," said Muki, "what was the cause of my last duel?"
+
+"That famous duel of yours, eh?"
+
+"Yes, it was pretty famous, I think. That poor young fellow whom I shot
+was a worthy comrade, but had he been my born brother I would have shot
+him for his disrespectful allusions to my bride."
+
+"Go along with you, you bloodthirsty man!" cried Bessy, with coquettish
+self-satisfaction.
+
+And he had the cheek to say all this before me who knew the whole
+history of the duel! How ridiculous I could have made him look, if I had
+told how it had happened! But do it I wouldn't, because I felt that they
+were a worthy pair. I merely said: "I must admit, friend Muki, that in
+the way of imagination you are much greater than I."
+
+"And greater in other things also," said Muki, half drawing his sword.
+
+"We'll see about that one of these days in the fencing-school."
+
+"What! That swindling fencing! Wrestling is the thing to test a man's
+mettle. That fashionable gymnastic rubbish is a mere farce. I should
+like to see a fellow do what I can do when I go out on my _puszta_.[23]
+I have a stout _gulgasy_[24] there, Peter Gyuricza, with whom I am wont
+to wrestle. A stalwart fellow, hard as a stone; he can keep the upper
+hand over a hundred steers. Twice out of three bouts have I floored
+Peter Gyuricza, and Peter Gyuricza has only floored me once."
+
+[Footnote 23: The Hungarian steppe or great plain.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Neat-herd, peculiar to Hungary.]
+
+"A pretty pastime, certainly."
+
+"It is not to be learnt by pen-scribbling or brush-daubing, anyhow."
+
+That I had to let pass, for there's no getting over the truth. It is not
+only true that I was no Samson, but it is also true that, compared with
+a hundred oxen, my poor Pegasus was but a sorry beast of draught. But
+Muki Bagotay was not even content with this triumph, he wanted to
+absolutely trample me beneath his feet; and as if he had only just
+observed for the first time the picture of Bessy painted by me, he chose
+to make _that_ the bone of contention.
+
+"Meanwhile, till I possess the original, I appropriate this picture."
+
+Bessy protested. "No, no, I will not part with that."
+
+But Muki thereupon took the picture from the table and held it aloft, so
+that Bessy could not get it out of his hand. She begged, implored,
+raved, but Muki only laughed and said he meant to stick to the picture.
+
+It was then that my ill-humour got the better of me.
+
+"Sir," said I, laying my hand on his shoulder, "put down that portrait!
+I did not paint it for you."
+
+How scornfully he looked at me over his shoulder! "_You_ would needs try
+conclusions with me--_you_, a mere poet!"
+
+And he flung himself upon me with the pious resolve of forcing me out of
+Bessy's boudoir into the ante-chamber. When he saw that I resisted, he
+threw both his arms round my body. I also hugged him, and to work we
+went straightway.
+
+Muki was furious because I would not allow my frame to be smashed so
+easily. Bessy began shrieking, and took refuge in the bow window.
+Suddenly I rallied all my strength and pitched Muki on to the sofa with
+such violence that the back of it cracked and came off.
+
+"I also am a Peter Gyuricza!" I cried.
+
+I would not have exchanged that triumph for all the glory in the world.
+
+At the noise of this great scuffle, the mother and the aunt rushed into
+the room, and great was their indignation when they saw me kneeling on
+Muki's breast.
+
+"Let me get up, fellow!" said my antagonist.
+
+All that I wanted to do was to take the portrait from the hands of its
+unlawful possessor. Meanwhile the poor portrait had got terribly mauled.
+During the struggle it had fallen to the ground, and the pair of us had
+left the impression of our heels upon it. Bessy burst into tears when
+she saw the wreckage of her own portrait, but her mother lamented over
+the broken sofa.
+
+I comforted Bessy with the assurance that I would make the damaged
+portrait all right again--there were special colours for that.
+
+"But she must not sit again," hastily intervened her mother. She was
+afraid I should begin coming to the house again and spoil the good
+match.
+
+"And I haven't got that dress either," said Bessy.
+
+It certainly was a pretty dress. Would that she had never had it!
+
+I assured them, however, that I would be able to put the picture to
+rights at home, all by myself. And with that I put it in my pocket. I
+never went back there again.
+
+The mother and the aunt ostentatiously occupied themselves with Muki,
+expressing all the time their regretful sympathy, at which he was beside
+himself for fury.
+
+I beat a retreat without any attempt to say good-bye. But Bessy ran
+after me, and, overtaking me in the doorway, seized my hand, and
+whispered in an ardent voice, "You'll put _me_ to rights, won't you?"
+
+"The _portrait_? oh yes!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour afterwards I was sitting on the steamer and gazing at the
+lingering smoke which hid my native town from my eyes. It was just as if
+I were returning from a funeral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WELTSCHMERZ CONDITIONS[25]--"REMAIN OR FLY!"
+
+
+[Footnote 25: _Vilag fajdalmas_ allapotok. There is no English
+equivalent of _Vilag fajdalmas_.]
+
+When I got back to Pest, I found two letters awaiting me on my
+writing-table, one from Tony Varady, inviting me to stand godfather to
+his new-born son, and the other from Petofi, informing me that he had
+just been married to Julia Szendrey, and that they were having very
+happy days at Teleky's Castle, Kolto. Both of these friends were poor
+fellows, like myself; and the ladies who had chosen to be their
+companions through life were girls belonging to wealthy, eminent
+families, accustomed to luxury and splendour, surrounded by obsequious
+wooers, and their mothers loved them as the apples of their eyes. Their
+families opposed the marriages, and the enamoured young ladies,
+handicapped as they were by the weight of their parents' refusal,
+followed their beloveds notwithstanding.
+
+Then true love is no dream after all, but pure gold. And yet when I seek
+this pure gold they call me a crazy alchemist!
+
+And now Petofi begged me by letter to seek out a convenient lodging for
+him, where they and I could live together. That a newly-married
+bridegroom should invite his faithful bachelor comrade to be a
+fellow-lodger with him is a fact which belongs to the realm of fairy
+tales.
+
+I immediately hunted up in Tobacco Street a nice
+first-floor-apartment,[26] consisting of three chambers and their
+domestic offices; the first room was for the Petofis, the second for me,
+while the intermediate one was to be a common dining-room, and there
+were separate entrances for each of us.
+
+[Footnote 26: Used here in the French sense of a suite of rooms.]
+
+The young couple came in during the autumn; they kept one maid, and I
+had an old servant. We had both very primitive furniture. Mrs. Petofi
+had left her father's house without a dowry; she had not so much as a
+fashionable hat to bless herself with; she had sewed herself together a
+sort of head-dress of her own invention, which she never wore. Her hair
+was cut short, so that she looked like a little boy. They had nothing,
+and yet they were very happy! Julia's sole amusement was to learn
+English from Petofi, and afterwards, at dinner (which was sent in from
+"The Eagle"), we spoke English, and laughed at each other's blunders.
+And I had to be a witness of their bliss every day!
+
+It was just as if one were to season hell with piquant pepper.
+
+Just about this time there appeared in _Eletkepek_ some very ordinary
+verses entitled "Word-Echoes," by one "Aggteleki,"[27] ostensibly
+addressed to a certain actress. I am now able to confess that _I_ was
+the author of those verses. But for all that (though the verses were not
+so bad) I solemnly forbid any one at any time to include these verses
+among my works, for even now, forty years after the event, I am not such
+an old, decrepit, suicidally inclined fellow as Aggteleki was.
+
+[Footnote 27: Aged Teleki.]
+
+But, indeed, every one of the works that I wrote at that period breathe
+the same bitter tone. The paroxysms of a crushed spirit, the dreamy
+phantoms of a diseased imagination, self-contempt, a moon-sick view of
+the world in general, characterise all my tales belonging to that
+period. And yet they pleased people then. I even had imitators. I turned
+Petofi himself away from the right path. He himself confessed that his
+novel entitled "Hoher Kotele"[28] was written under the influence of my
+"Nyomarek naploja,"[29] a literary abortion.
+
+[Footnote 28: "The Hangman's Rope." It certainly is a wretched
+performance.--TR.]
+
+[Footnote 29: "The Cripple's Diary."]
+
+Who knows whither I should have got to with my tower of Babel, had not a
+healthy earthquake brought it to the ground?
+
+One day Petofi caught me in the act of touching up Bessy's portrait. He
+saw from my eyes that I had been weeping. I tried to hide it, for I was
+a bit ashamed.
+
+"_It is well that it is so, my son_," said he on that occasion; "_it is
+men who are unhappy that the world wants now._"
+
+A memorable saying!
+
+It was in those days that he wrote "I dream, I dream of bloody days,"
+and "My Songs," with this final strophe, all blood and fire:--
+
+    "Wherefore doth this race of thralls endure it?
+    Wherefore rise not? Rend your chains and cure it!
+    Do ye wait, forsooth! till God's good pleasure
+    Rusts them off, and makes them drop at leisure?"
+
+And then he would lead me into his room. On the walls there, in handsome
+frames, hung the portraits of the chiefs of the French Revolution--this
+was his only luxury--Danton, Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins,
+Saint-Juste, Madame Roland. There, too, the parts we were to play were
+distributed; Saint-Juste was designed for me, Madame Roland for Julia.
+And then we spoke of "the bloody days." They were to be no mere dream,
+we were to see them with our eyes wide open. And we were to be among the
+first to feel them.
+
+A healthy-minded man would have been ready after such words as these to
+have left the house by jumping out of the window; but they had a charm
+for me. It suited my peculiar frame of mind just then to set on fire the
+Dejanira robe that was about me, and then rush out among the people and
+set them on fire also.
+
+"Man's fate is woman!"
+
+Had that young lady the last time I held her hand in mine said "Stay!" I
+should certainly have remained. I should have crept into my little nook
+of bliss and never have gazed after the moonshine of fame. In that case
+I should now perhaps have been one of the judicial assessors at the
+Royal Courts, and have joined heartily in the laugh when one or other of
+my colleagues at the end of a friendly banquet might take it into his
+head to quote some monstrous sentences out of my earliest romance, an
+imperfect copy of which turns up now and then as a literary curiosity
+among other antiquarian rubbish.
+
+This is what would have happened if the young lady had said "Stay!"
+
+But if that young lady had said "Fly!" then I should have flown like the
+rest after the falling stars. And, indeed, of those who stood with me on
+the 11th March[30] before the mob on the balcony of the town-hall to
+announce "This is the day of national liberty!" of those my
+youthful-visaged, warm-hearted comrades, three have perished in defence
+of that word "Liberty" then pronounced: those three names are
+"Petofi,"[31] "Vasvary," "Bozzai." And certainly, in that case, the
+four ounces of lead, or the cossack's lance, or the grenade splinter
+which killed them, might have sufficed for me also--that is, of course,
+if that young lady had said "Fly!" Fate, in fact, confronted me with
+this paradox--"Either live and be forgotten, or be remembered as one who
+died young!"
+
+[Footnote 30: When the Hungarian revolution of 1848 began.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Petofi was most probably killed at the battle of Segesvar
+in July, 1849; at any rate he was never seen or heard of afterwards. He
+was only twenty-seven, and in him the world lost one of its great lyric
+poets.]
+
+"Stay!" or "Fly!"
+
+Then a voice said to me: "Go! but let us go together!"
+
+But it was not the voice of the lady with the eyes like the sea.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One morning Petofi rushed into my room roaring with laughter.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Do you want to laugh? Just catch hold of that _Honderu_."
+And into my hands he thrust the latest number of the opposition paper.
+
+I immediately caught sight of what had made him laugh so much. There was
+a magnificent description from my native town of the wedding which had
+taken place between Mr. Janos Nepomuk Bagotay and the world-renowned
+beauty--I didn't trouble to look at the name. "The happy pair will spend
+their honeymoon at Paris!"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! ha!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PETER GYURICZA'S CONSORT
+
+
+After the March days, I quitted the Petofis and went into another
+lodging. I had got on so well that I could maintain a bachelor's
+establishment, consisting of two rooms, which I furnished myself.
+Properly speaking, it only became a bachelor's establishment when I
+entered, for before I took it it was occupied by a little old woman who
+kept a registry office for providing respectable families with servants.
+Every one knew "Mami," as she was called.... I was very well satisfied
+with my lodging, which quite answered all my requirements. It had this
+one drawback, however, that a whole mob of cooks, parlour-maids, and
+nursery-maids were constantly opening my door under the persuasion that
+I could provide them with places, and they disturbed my work terribly.
+Besides, this constant flow of petticoats towards my door was sufficient
+of itself to bring a young man into disrepute. From the apartments at
+the opposite end of the corridor it was possible to catch a glimpse of
+my door, and it was just in these very apartments that Rosa Laborfalvy
+lived. I was afraid that _some one_ might think ill of me.
+
+It was no longer the _Weltschmerz_, but a _Privatschmerz_,[32] that
+afflicted me.
+
+[Footnote 32: _Privat fajdalmas_--private anxiety.]
+
+Again I had applied myself to portrait-painting. A tall, slender girl in
+a white atlas dress, with large black eyes, and coal-black ringlets _a
+l'Anglaise_ rolling down to her shoulders, was standing on my easel; I
+was just giving it the finishing-touch, I had no need for the original
+to be my model. I have the portrait to this day.
+
+All at once there came a knocking at my door "Come in!" The door opened,
+and in came a stylish young peasant girl. I thought as much; here we
+have another nursery-maid in search of a place.
+
+"No, no; go away! The registry-office lady does not live here!" said I
+viciously, for I was busy with my portrait; and perceiving that the
+intruder did not retire even now, I bawled out, not over gently: "In
+Heaven's name, be off, my dear!"
+
+At this the peasant girl began to laugh. Had I not heard that laughing
+voice somewhere before? I turned round and looked at her, and the more I
+looked, the more astonished I felt. It was Bessy!
+
+She wore a bright red gown trimmed with yellowish-green flowers, over
+that a dark blue, double-bordered damask apron, and a black silk bodice
+with puff sleeves. Above the bodice was a bib with beautifully
+embroidered palm flowers; on her head sat a cockscomb like Haube,
+frilled with starched thread-lace; on her arm she carried a covered
+basket by the handle.
+
+Her face was ruddy and bronzed from exposure to the sun, and a sort of
+waggish little imp was nestling provocatively in her smiling features. I
+couldn't believe my own eyes.
+
+"What! don't you know me?" she cried, with a merry laugh. "I'm Bessy!"
+
+I saw that, but for the life of me I could not conceive what her object
+was in coming masquerading like this through the streets of Buda in
+broad daylight. And to hit upon _my_ lodgings of all places in the
+world!
+
+"Madame de Bagotay?" I stammered in my confusion.
+
+"Oh, I am no longer Madame Bagotay, but Madame Peter Gyuricza!"
+
+"What on earth do you mean? Mrs. Gyuricza! The wife of a herdsman?"
+
+My amazement was so genuine that Bessy clapped her hands together with
+glee.
+
+"Then you actually don't know about it? They haven't written to you from
+home?"
+
+"It is a long time since I received a letter from home."
+
+"But this was a scandal which set seven counties in an uproar; there has
+been nothing like it since the French Revolution--and you call yourself
+the editor of a newspaper!"
+
+"My paper does not meddle with purely family matters."
+
+Bessy's face was flushed, and she began smoothing it with the palms of
+both hands; she thought, perhaps, that she would brush the tell-tale
+blush away.
+
+"I have heated myself a little on that steep staircase of yours," she
+said.
+
+She blamed the staircase for that flaming face of hers.
+
+It then occurred to me that it would only be polite to ask my fair
+visitor to take a seat. I offered her the sofa.
+
+"Oh, dear, no! That's only for ladies! This will do quite well enough
+for me." And with that she sat down on my trunk, and put down her basket
+beside it. "I really am quite tired. I have travelled by the corn-boat
+as far as Vacz,[33] and thence I have walked all the way to Pest."
+
+[Footnote 33: Waitzen.]
+
+"But you could have gone by steamer?"
+
+"But my master[34] could not give me steamboat fare. We are poor people.
+Look! this is my whole provision for the journey."
+
+[Footnote 34: _i.e._, husband.]
+
+And with that she lifted the lid of the basket, and showed me what was
+inside it: a piece of black bread, and something wrapped up in greasy
+paper--a piece of cheese possibly, and a garlic-seasoned sausage.
+
+"I must keep this for my return journey."
+
+The cynicism of the proceeding revolted me.
+
+"But now, if you please, I should very much like to know what's the
+meaning of it all. Is it a practical joke you are playing upon me?"
+
+"Oh, no! certainly not! Pray don't suppose that I have dressed up on
+your account. I am now a real peasant woman, and such I mean to remain.
+It is a serious thing for me, I can tell you, and I've come to you, not
+that you may write about it in your paper, but that you may give me
+advice."
+
+"_I_ give _you_ advice?"
+
+"Certainly! Whom else should I ask? The whole world condemns and
+tramples upon me, and yet I have offended nobody, not even in thought.
+You are the only one I have injured, bitterly injured, so it is from you
+that I must seek protection."
+
+Woman's logic with a vengeance! I stood up in front of her, leaning on
+the edge of the table. I was contriving all the time to prevent her from
+seeing the portrait I was painting.
+
+"I'll begin from the very beginning," continued the lady, lowering her
+long eyelashes. "I was married. So much you know. We gave a splendid
+banquet. The whole town, half the county was there. I fancy they
+described it in the newspapers; and why shouldn't they, when the
+richest, best-known, and most handsome girl in the town was married to
+the ideal cavalier? The lady brought a dowry of 100,000 florins, and the
+gentleman conveyed his bride to his ancestral castle in a carriage drawn
+by four fiery horses. The universal envy was a more piquant grace to the
+meal than the benediction of the priest. The gentlemen envied the
+bridegroom, and the ladies envied the bride, and every one was forced to
+say: 'A couple made for each other.' Alas! the only joy which remained
+in my heart when I came out of church and looked among the crowd was the
+thought, 'Ah! you all envy me, I know!'
+
+"We went straight from church to my husband's castle," continued Bessy.
+"Thirty carriages escorted us. I counted them. A splendid banquet
+followed. That day I changed my dress four times. The fifth time I put
+on a lace _neglige_, and the bridesmaids led me to the bridal chamber.
+This room was a veritable masterpiece of upholstery. A Vienna furnisher
+had decorated it most elaborately. I couldn't sleep all night. The voice
+of the bass viol and the clarionet resounded in my ears from the
+banqueting-room, and the noise and uproar of the guests also. I did not
+see my husband till the morning. Then the guests began to disperse. Only
+now and then did a cracked and piping voice mingle with the frantic
+music of the gipsies. Then it was that my husband appeared before me,
+and a pitiable object he looked. He called me his darling little sister,
+and asked me if I could tell him where he lived. Then he undressed
+himself on the sofa and talked such nonsense that at last I couldn't
+help laughing. 'Well,' said I to myself, 'I suppose this is always the
+way when they take leave of their bachelordom.' Then sleep overcame me
+and I dreamed the silliest stuff. _You_ were continually in my dreams.
+But why mention such things now?"
+
+With that she readjusted the kerchief which was tied around her
+head-dress and proceeded:--
+
+"It was afternoon when I awoke. I must have wept a great deal in my
+dreams, for the pillow on which my head lay was quite wet. My husband
+was no longer reposing on the sofa, but sprawling on the floor like a
+stuffed frog. It cost me a great deal of trouble to shake him into life
+again. It was a still greater effort to make him understand in what part
+of the world he was, and in what relations we stood to each other here
+below. After that he insisted upon my crawling with him under the sofa,
+and when I wouldn't hear of it, he began to cry like a child, and
+demanded a pistol from me that he might blow his brains out. Then I
+brought a washing-basin and washed his face for him, and ducked it once
+or twice in cold water. He roared like a baby who is being tubbed, but
+finally recovered his spirits, and allowed himself to be raised from the
+ground. Then he drank out of the water-jug, and his eyes opened, but
+they were as tiny as a mole's, and I now perceived for the first time
+that they were a little crooked."
+
+During this narration Bessy laughed and laughed again.
+
+"What a sight the fellow did look! his hair all rumpled, his moustache
+all askew, his clothes soiled and tousled. He had to be dressed all over
+again. I began to scold him a little, 'A pretty condition of things, I
+must say!' To which he replied that I ought to have seen his comrades,
+Nusi, and Lenezi, and Blekus, and how _they_ had been settled. They had
+all fallen under the table, and he had remained the victor. And he
+yawned so much as he told me this, that I had to beg him not to swallow
+me. At last I got him to sit down on a chair while I did his hair for
+him, and he meanwhile howled and swore continually that every single
+hair pained him as much as if devils were tweaking him with iron
+pincers."
+
+Again the lady stopped to laugh.
+
+"That's quite a novel state of things to you, eh? A person who becomes
+the bride of an out-and-out dandy must expect to see something
+extraordinary. But perhaps there was nothing extraordinary in it after
+all. And now the banquet was resumed, commencing with a pick-me-up. I
+presided at the table with a turban on my head. All our guests were
+still drunk. I had to listen to very peculiar anecdotes. At such times
+the best man is he who can pay the new bride the compliment which will
+make her blush the most. The lady guests had all departed in the
+morning, and had come to bid me good-bye one by one. They all wept over
+me--it is the usual thing. I was the only lady left, and glad was I when
+I managed to get away from the gentlemen. I think that they had been
+awaiting my withdrawal; they could then continue their interrupted
+pastime. Again I could not sleep; my head was throbbing. For the first
+time in my life I recognised the existence of the headache, that
+frightful curse of feminine nerves which I had hitherto always put down
+to affectation or imagination. How good it would have been for me if
+some one had laid a cool, refreshing hand upon my temples! Perhaps a
+single word of comfort would have relieved my pangs! I waited for it in
+vain. I sent a message. He never came to me. Suddenly, while an
+oppressive dream was benumbing my pain, a hellish uproar awoke me. I
+fancied that Pandemonium had been let loose. It was only my husband, but
+he had brought with him the whole of his drunken crew. I saw before me a
+whole legion of them, with guffawing, sardonic, lascivious, distorted
+faces, and amongst them my husband, with the grin of a satyr on his
+idiotic face. I rose in terror from my bed, cast my counterpane around
+me, fled into my waiting-maid's room, and barricaded myself behind the
+door. There he thumped and thundered for some time. I threatened to
+throw myself out of the window if he broke in by force. Thereupon some
+of his comrades, in whom a little human feeling still remained,
+contrived to drag him away, though not without difficulty. Then followed
+a little sulky squabble on both sides. I wouldn't leave my room for
+four-and-twenty hours; he wouldn't come to me. The noise that he made
+over head was sufficient evidence to me that he hadn't committed
+suicide in the meantime. The third day was passed by the bridal guests
+in a more profitable occupation. They played at cards. The table,
+vigorously punched by their fists, proclaimed their handiwork aloud. It
+was like blacksmiths' apprentices pounding iron on the anvil with
+sledgehammers. Only in the morning did 'my lord and master' turn up
+while I was still only half-dressed. He was sober then, and, what is
+more, ill-tempered. His loss at cards was mirrored in his face like a
+guilty conscience. He frankly told me all about it. He had been peppered
+finely, and his comrades were vile curs.... Such was my wedding."
+
+Bessy covered her face with both her hands. Was she laughing? Was she
+weeping? I cannot say.
+
+All at once she asked me, "Did you ever play at cards?"
+
+"Yes, but only for copper coins."
+
+"It's all one. You ought not to waste your time with it."
+
+"Well, really, I only spend that time on it which I do not know how to
+employ otherwise, the time when I am tired of work, and want a rest from
+thinking. Cards are very good things at such times."
+
+"Then what a pity girls also do not learn the science of card-playing at
+school, just as they learn to find out towns on maps, or gather the
+properties of exotic plants and animals from zoological albums; then at
+least a newly-married bride would understand why it is necessary to
+subtract so much from her heritage to sacrifice it to such mythological
+deities as _skiz_ and _pagat_.[35] ..."
+
+[Footnote 35: Terms used in Tarok.]
+
+Meanwhile I didn't interrupt her, but remained standing and looking at
+her with my hands resting on the table. This seemed to put her out.
+
+"Why don't you smoke a cigar? Don't mind me."
+
+"I would only remind you that you used always to make fun of me because
+I didn't smoke."
+
+"True. Smoking becomes a man. A cigar or a pipe makes his face so
+cosy-looking. Just look at any man who hasn't a pipe stuck into his
+mouth, and tell me if he doesn't look like a judge pronouncing judgment,
+or a priest shriving a penitent? Believe me, that one of the reasons why
+I was faithless to you was that you didn't smoke. Well, at any rate, I
+have got my reward for it.
+
+"Now, Muki used to suck Havannahs all day. Yes, nothing but Havannahs;
+but Gyuricza smokes the coarsest tobacco, and even chews pigtail."
+
+I burst out laughing; I couldn't help it. In what ways are a woman's
+graces gained! No, I wouldn't chew pigtail if the favour of the Goddess
+Melpomene herself depended on it.
+
+"I will not weary you with our diversions at Paris. There, I perceived,
+it is the common practice for husband and wife to take their pleasures
+apart. My husband did no more than what other husbands do. It is not
+good form to ask a husband who returns home at dawn where he has been.
+Besides, Muki, with perfect candour, informed me all about these places
+of public entertainment and the joys of _les petits soupers_; once he
+took me with him to these delights--I didn't ask to go again.... I was
+very glad when the season was over and we returned to our village, and
+after all the bustling diversions, flirtations, visitings and boredom, I
+could once more be alone and fill my straw hat with forget-me-nots on
+the banks of the river, as of old on the island. You remember my visit
+to your rustic hut, don't you? You remember the golden thrushes who used
+to speak to you? To you they said, 'Silly boy! silly boy!' to me they
+cried, 'What's the good! what's the good!' On returning to his estates
+my husband became quite another man: you would have said that he was a
+changeling. The dainty dandy became an enthusiastic agriculturist. He
+was up early, on horseback all day, went from one _puszta_ to another,
+and brought home ears of barley in his hat. The only things he talked
+about at home were sheepshearing and the diseases of horned cattle. He
+had a stud and a neat-herd, and of the latter he appeared to be
+particularly proud. Sometimes he drove me all over his demesne in a
+light gig. A fine demesne it was. You might drive about it the whole day
+and not see the whole of it. He showed me his herds. He told me that
+herds like them were not to be had in the whole kingdom. I didn't
+understand it. All that I could see was that the oxen had very large
+horns. But the form of the herdsman really did surprise me. He was a
+veritable ancient-hero sort of a man, such as we imagine the primeval
+Magyars to have been who wandered hither out of Asia. His bronzed face
+beamed with health, his thick black hair whipped his shoulders with its
+greasy curls, and add to that his sun-defying glance, his stately
+bearing, his long mantle embroidered with tulips and cast lightly across
+his shoulder. His white linen garment fluttered in the breeze, and when
+he raised his arm to take off his cap, the loose fluttering short
+sleeves fell right back and revealed an arm like the arm of the figure
+of an athlete cast in bronze. 'Why, Peter,' said I, 'is it with you that
+your master is wont to wrestle?' The Hercules, thus addressed, timidly
+cast down his eyes and said: 'Yes!' 'But how on earth is your master
+ever able to throw you?' At this question, Peter Gyuricza shifted his
+mantle from one shoulder to the other, and twisting his moustache,
+replied: 'As often as his Excellency throws me I get five florins.' So
+that was the secret of Muki's acrobatic triumphs. After that, the
+herdsman conducted us to the great summer farm, which was a good
+distance from the hut where the calves are put to rest at midday. There,
+a savoury luncheon, prepared by the wife of the herdsman, awaited us.
+She was a buxom, smart young woman, with roguish eyes and radiating
+eyebrows, all life and freshness, a true blossom of the _puszta_.[36] I
+caught myself looking repeatedly in the mirror, and making comparisons
+between her face and my own. After luncheon we went all round the farm,
+and the herdsman's wife guided us from stable to stable. A thorn got
+into my foot through my slipper. The herdsman's wife bobbed down and
+drew the thorn out. 'You don't feel the thorn now, do you?' she asked,
+flashing a look upon me. 'I do not feel it in my foot,' I replied."
+
+[Footnote 36: _i.e._, a true heath-flower.]
+
+Bessy paused for a moment, and smoothed her brows with both hands as if
+to refresh her memory.
+
+"I took another sort of thorn away with me. I began to be suspicious of
+the grand economical zeal of my husband. Such assiduity was not natural.
+Early one morning he again took horse, called to his greyhounds, and
+told me not to wait for him to dinner, he would not be home till
+evening. A certain instinct would not let me rest. I went out into the
+garden, right to the boundary fence and into the stubble beyond, and
+then I went on foot into the _puszta_, through the turnip fields and the
+Indian corn. Nobody saw me. The vesper-bell was ringing in the village
+when I entered the courtyard of the herdsman. In the stubble I saw the
+two dogs hunting a hare on their own account. Truly, a Cockney sportsman
+who allows his dogs to win their own meat like that! I whistled to them,
+they recognised me and came leaping around me. 'Where's your master?'
+The dogs understood me. They began yelping and barking, and darted on
+before me helter-skelter, with their heads between their legs as if to
+give me to understand that they would lead me to the spot if I followed
+them. They made straight for the hut. No doubt they fancied they were
+doing something very knowing. When I marched in at the door the little
+servant exclaimed, 'Good gracious!' and let fall the wooden trencher in
+which she was kneading some dough with a large pot-ladle, and when I
+advanced towards the dwelling-room door, she stood in my way, and said,
+'Please don't go in now!' I boxed her ears for her, first on the right
+side and then on the left, pushed her into a cupboard and locked the
+door upon her. Then I opened the door of the dwelling-room. There was
+nobody there. But the door of a little side room, which in peasants'
+houses is, as a rule, always open, was closed. On the table, however, I
+perceived my lord's hat and his riding-whip. I made no disturbance. The
+clothes of the herdsman's wife lay in a heap on a bench. I took off my
+clothes and put on hers carefully, one by one. I was just as you see me
+now."
+
+She stood up before me and turned herself round that I might have a
+better look at her.
+
+"Then I went into the outer hut again, and picked the ladle from the
+floor which the maid had let fall in her terror. It was a mess of bacon
+dumplings that she had been engaged upon. I kneaded the dough for the
+dumplings, I made twelve beautiful little round ones out of it, boiled
+them, beat up a nice garlic sauce with them, and poured the whole lot of
+it into a varnished jug, first tasting to see that it was not over
+salted. Then I tied up the jar in my kerchief, and set off with it
+towards the pasturage. But another idea also occurred to me. I concealed
+behind my apron my husband's riding whip that was reposing on the table,
+and took it away with me.
+
+"The pasturage is pretty far from the hut. It was somewhat late when I
+arrived there. The herdsman was quite impatient, and had climbed up a
+'look-out' tree, and when he saw my striped dress and bright red
+kerchief, he began to bawl out, 'Hillo! Come along, can't you! I'll give
+you what for! I'll teach you something, you cursed blockhead! What have
+you done with my dinner? A pretty time when they're already ringing
+vespers in the village. I suppose you've been carrying on with his
+honour again? Let me catch you at it, that's all, and I'll tickle your
+hide for you with my whip.' When I got up to him and lifted the kerchief
+from my head, he stopped short with his mouth open. 'Well, I never! if
+it isn't her ladyship!'--'True, Peter!' said I. 'I've cooked your dinner
+for you, and now you see I've brought it to you. Your wife cannot come.
+She's learning French from my husband. I've also brought with me my
+husband's whip. I found it on your table. You may flog with it whomever
+you like, either me or your wife.'"
+
+Here she stopped short. She evidently meant me to find out the rest of
+the story for myself.
+
+"Poor woman!" I murmured. I was sorry and embarrassed.
+
+She burst out laughing.
+
+"Don't pity me, pray! I am perfectly happy. Gyuricza did not strike me
+with his whip. I am now mistress in the herdsman's hut."
+
+And she seemed quite proud of it all!
+
+Then she began to tell me of her new hero with real enthusiasm. He was
+what man was meant to be when first created, all strength and truth;
+there was nothing artificial, nothing false, nothing effeminate about
+him. "When he comes home at night he goes to the fireplace to smoke his
+pipe; then he empties a can of buttermilk to the very dregs. Wine is
+only put upon the table on Sundays. Then he asks, 'Have you any good
+dumpling soup, sweetheart?' 'Of course I have, and cured bacon and groat
+pottage as well.' As soon as it is ready we turn it out and sit down to
+it. We eat with tin spoons out of a large common dish. No invitation is
+needed there. The lady herself fetches the water from the spring. The
+master drinks one half of it and offers the other half to his wife: 'You
+drink too!' And after that they don't go in for much stargazing, nor do
+they care a fig for the world and all its thousand troubles. They sleep
+with open doors, and the four sheep-dogs guard the house.
+
+"At three o'clock in the morning Bessy gets up and goes into the stable
+to milk the cows; by dawn it must be all done. The little milking-stool
+is now her throne. She pours the fresh foaming milk into the pails and
+takes them into the cellar with the help of the serving maid. When the
+boy sounds his horn the cows must be driven out; they must be pastured
+apart from the brood-cows. And all this time the master is eating his
+breakfast: peppered bacon and green leeks with good _papramorgo_,[37]
+and then he follows his herds out into the pastures. The reason why he
+cracks his whip so loudly is because he knows that some one is standing
+there in the little door and looking after him. Then _she_ has to skim
+the cream from the standing milk, churn the milk, and take the butter to
+market. Then she has to buckle to bread-baking. The maid is sent to heat
+the oven; meanwhile she herself is kneading the dough, then she shovels
+out the burning embers with the oven scoop, and wipes down the inside of
+the oven with a wet kitchen-clout; then the loaves are shot in by means
+of the long baking-shovel (first of all, however, are baked the
+'fire-cakes,' which 'my soul'[38] loves so much), finally the 'lock-up'
+stone is smeared with clay and placed in front of the oven, and one must
+be ready to an instant to pull the stone from the mouth of the oven
+again and take out the loaves. Meanwhile, she has had time to prepare
+upon the hearth a pottage of millet and smoked bacon, and carry it
+quickly, pot and all, to the pasturage, so that when the mid-day bell
+rings, the master may have his victuals ready laid on his outspread fur
+pelisse. After dinner, beneath the shadow of the big wild nut-tree, she
+may take a nap with an apron thrown over her face. On returning home she
+gets out her bruised flax and heckles it, so that when the husband
+returns home he finds wife and family sitting by the distaff and singing
+together the spinning songs of the country folk, till the pigs come
+running home with a great grunting and demand their slush.--Oh, such a
+life as that is pure enjoyment!"
+
+[Footnote 37: A sort of _eau-de-vie_.]
+
+[Footnote 38: _Lelkem_, _i.e._, "My darling."]
+
+I shook my head dubiously.
+
+"It will bore you one day."
+
+"Bore me! Don't you recollect when I was in your lath hut I painted this
+very life to you as my ideal?--A hut of rushes and a bed of straw. You
+spoke to me of fame and glory. The lowing of kine, the tinkling of
+sheep-bells, the cracking of whips is my delight. It was so even then.
+Since that time I have learnt to know the great world, but it hasn't
+altered me. I am full of disgust with everything that is to be found in
+palaces. Those demi-men, those Sunday husbands--those refined and
+exquisitely polite she-sinners, those model sticklers for virtue who sin
+through the whole ten commandments day after day, and vie even with the
+ladies of the ballet, with this difference, however, that the
+ballet-dancers are much more modest in private than these great ladies
+are in public--I am sick and weary of the whole lot of them. I would
+rather have a man who never washes his mouth after he has eaten garlic,
+than a man who returns home from an orgie and pretends he has been to a
+political conference. The famous Hamilton bed, which costs you a hundred
+ducats if you sleep in it for a single night, is wretchedness itself
+compared to the bed of fresh straw on which I sleep. Believe me when I
+tell you that I am perfectly happy."
+
+"I'll believe anything you like, but there's one circumstance I cannot
+understand. How is it that nobody disturbs this sweet idyll of yours? Is
+the one man who is so confoundedly nearly interested in your happiness,
+is that man still alive? Does Muki Bagotay still exist anywhere in the
+wide world?"
+
+"I fancy so."
+
+"Well, if he does, I'll only say that what flows through his veins is
+milk, not blood. Is he content to carry the horns of his hundred oxen? A
+rich and powerful landlord, a county magnate, and the master of your
+ideal peasant!--A thousand lightnings! if I were only in his place!"
+
+Bessy, with a sarcastic smile, folded her hands together above her
+knees.
+
+"Well, come now! If you were in dear Muki's place what would _you_ do?"
+
+"I'll tell you. I wouldn't call Peter Gyuricza out, but one fine day I
+would put my democratic principles on the shelf, and collecting my
+heydukes and my rustics, I'd give chase to the herdsman, trounce him
+according to his deserts, and kick him out of my employment. I would get
+another herdsman; but as for my wife, I'd tie her to the pummel of my
+saddle, and drag her like that to my castle. That's what _I_ would do,
+were I the husband of Muki Bagotay's wife!"
+
+I had certainly got a little heated. It was only afterwards that I
+reflected, "What's Hecuba to me? Why should I bother my head about Peter
+Gyuricza?"
+
+Bessy, however, laughed most heartily.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! You'd have done that to me, would you? You'd have tied me
+to your horse's tail and whipped me home, eh? How sorry I am then that I
+did not choose you! What a fine thing it would have been if I could have
+boasted of bearing the impression of your blows on my body! Tell me now,
+have you ever struck any one who was unable to hit you back?"
+
+At this I was fairly put to silence.
+
+"But let that be! You could not be so good a Muki Bagotay as Muki
+Bagotay himself would have been if he could. He actually _did_ try the
+very recipe which you now recommend. The very next day he sent his
+bailiff with the verbal message to Peter Gyuricza to pack himself off
+forthwith, but me the bailiff was to bring straight home. The bailiff
+gave himself airs, and would have used force, so I gave him a sound box
+on the ears, which he'll not forget in a hurry; whereupon Peter Gyuricza
+threw him out of the house.
+
+"Next day the wounded honour of the offended husband resorted to still
+stronger measures: six _pandurs_[39] appeared upon the scene with swords
+and pistols. Peter and I were outside in the pastures. Thither they came
+after us. But Peter was not a bit put out. He hastily called together
+his young shepherds; there were four of them; they caught up their
+cudgels, and the four sheep dogs took the same side. The six _pandurs_
+never dreamt we should tackle them. The corporal of the _pandurs_
+threatened to fire if we offered the least resistance. I immediately
+rushed forward in front of Peter, and said to them, 'Very well! there
+you are! Fire!' There was a pretty rumpus, the dogs began to bark, and
+at last even the stolid steers got mad, and the big old bull rushed out
+of the herd and charged straight at the _pandurs_, who were thronging
+round the herdsman. They took to their heels straightway, and those who
+did not leave their shakos behind them might think themselves lucky."
+
+[Footnote 39: County police.]
+
+"Why, that was quite an epic poem!"
+
+"Wasn't it! But you haven't heard the end of it yet. After the repulse
+of the second assault, Muki began to carry on the war in grim earnest.
+One evening, our maid, who had been sent out as a spy, came back with
+the terrifying news that his honour had sent out orders that on the
+following day all his tenants were to assemble in the courtyard of the
+castle armed with cudgels, flails, and pitchforks; to his huntsmen and
+heydukes also he had distributed guns and ammunition. The whole of this
+host was to advance upon us in battle array on the morrow. It would have
+been well, perhaps, to have fled before them while there was yet time.
+But we did not fly."
+
+"Then what was the end of it all?"
+
+"A very droll ending indeed. When the danger was greatest, good luck
+sent a deliverer, a good friend, just as usually happens in
+happily-constructed dramas, who intervened with a mighty hand and
+diverted the stroke from our heads."
+
+"And who was this good friend?"
+
+"Why, who else but the bearer of this fine blonde beard!" cried she,
+with an ironical smile, caressing my chin.
+
+"I? Why, I was not in that part of the country at all."
+
+"Ah! but poets have long arms, you know. At the very moment when Muki
+was placing firearms in the hands of his peasants, freedom was
+proclaimed at Pest. The rumour spread throughout the kingdom like
+wildfire--the Revolution had broken out. They say in Pressburg that
+Petofi and you were on the Rakos[40] at the head of 40,000 peasants,
+and that a new Dozsa[41] war had begun. The retainers of Muki also
+thronged up to his castle, not to carry me off by force, but to demand
+their liberties. 'We'll work no more!' they cried; 'we'll pay no more
+tithes, and no more hearth-money.'[42] Freedom had broken out with a
+vengeance! Muki was thereupon so terrified that he fled incontinently
+through the back door in the clothes of his lackey, and never stopped
+till he was safely out of the kingdom. I have heard nothing of him
+since. So you see your mighty hand turned aside the danger that was
+hovering over our heads. We drank your health afterwards in big
+bumpers."
+
+[Footnote 40: A plain to the east of Pest, where, from the earliest
+times, elective assemblies were held.]
+
+[Footnote 41: George Dozsa, the leader of the Hungarian _jacquerie_ of
+1514, who was finally captured and executed after truly infernal
+torments.]
+
+[Footnote 42: _Fustpenz_--lit., smoke money, so much on each chimney.]
+
+I certainly had never calculated upon success of this sort.
+
+"Well," said I, "you have certainly disposed of Mr. Janos Nepomuk
+Bagotay for a time (though I would call your attention to the fact that
+he will not be very long in perceiving that there is no Dozsa war in
+Hungary, and will then return with reinforcements), but may I ask what
+her ladyship your mother says to all this?"
+
+"I should have come to that, even if you had not asked me. In fact, this
+is the very thing which brings me to you. One fine evening when I was
+returning home from the maize fields, with my kerchief full of pods, I
+found an official notification nailed on the door of our hut. The
+lawyer's clerk who brought it, delighted to find nobody at home, had
+fastened the document to the door-post and decamped. It gave me to
+understand that Muki was bringing an action against me for adultery. A
+term was fixed, however, within which, according to custom, we might
+appear before the priest at any place we liked and be reconciled if
+possible. After the lapse of six weeks the priest would make another
+attempt to bring about a reconciliation; if this did not succeed, he
+would bid us go to the ----! and we should have to appear before the
+judge instead!"
+
+I now began to see to what I was indebted for the pleasure of her visit.
+I should very much have liked to have banged the door in her face with
+the words: "I am not a lawyer, though I have served my terms!" But I let
+her go on.
+
+"I immediately took down the notification from the door," she resumed,
+"and sent my little maid with it to town to my mother's. By way of
+explanation I wrote her a letter, a task not unattended with difficulty,
+as Peter Gyuricza's hut was singularly ill-provided with writing
+materials. First of all I had to manufacture ink from wild juniper
+berries, then I carved a pen from a goose-quill; in place of paper I
+made use of beautifully smooth maize leaves."
+
+"Just as the Egyptians used papyrus?"
+
+"Yes, and if papyrus was good enough for the daughters of the Pharaohs,
+why shouldn't maize-membranes be good enough for me? I wrote and told
+her everything that had happened. I entirely justified my proceedings.
+If there was but one drop of justice in her composition she would be
+bound to acknowledge that my line of action was as clear as the day.
+Muki had made off with the herdsman's wife; I, following the _lex
+talionis_--an eye for eye--had made off with Gyuricza. He had brought an
+action against me; Gyuricza would bring an action against his own wife.
+The pair of us stood on exactly the same legal footing. If the two
+divorces were carried out, I meant to make the man of my choice my
+lawful husband, and would become in name what I already was in fact, the
+wife of Peter Gyuricza. I referred to you also in my letter."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"Yes. I argued that there was now no difference between peasants and
+gentlemen, and pointed out that since the 15th March you had omitted the
+privileged '_y_'[43] from the end of your name, and had substituted for
+it a simple '_i_,' and you were a 'glorious patriot,' as every one knew.
+Nobody therefore had any reason to be ashamed of Peter Gyuricza.
+Besides, I did not mean that he should remain a herdsman any longer;
+but as soon as my mother handed over to me my patrimony (so much of it I
+mean as Muki had not already squandered away), I meant to purchase a
+farm, and Gyuricza and I would settle down upon it as independent
+proprietors."
+
+[Footnote 43: The "_y_" at the end of Hungarian personal names has much
+the same value as the French _de_ or the German _von_--TR.]
+
+The matter now really began to amuse me. I could imagine to myself the
+Hogarthian group when the trio of ladies began spelling out syllable by
+syllable the letter that had been written on a maize-leaf.
+
+"Well! and what answer did you get?"
+
+"The answer you may easily have anticipated. My mother replied that she
+repudiated me entirely, that I should not get a farthing from her, and
+that I was never again to presume to show my face in a family which I
+had so utterly disgraced."
+
+"And did Peter know all about this?"
+
+"I was obliged to tell him, for my mother had nearly frightened to death
+the bearer of my letter, our little serving maid. She told her that if
+she ever dared to come to town again she would have her seized and tied
+to the pillory (though there wasn't one), and well flogged into the
+bargain; so that neither by cuffs nor entreaties was the wench to be
+persuaded to go to town again. She said as much to Peter. She said she
+would rather lose her place. And yet she ought to have gone every
+market-day to the town with cheese and butter, for these wares were
+Peter's chief means of livelihood. What was I to do now? I did this. I
+resolved to take the butter and cheese to market myself."
+
+"You? But how?"
+
+"Not in a glass carriage, you may be sure. The market is a good two
+hours' journey from our hut, and the direction is marked by the church
+tower. The peasant women, when they pack with wares the baskets which
+they put on their heads, make, first of all, a sort of wreath of rags,
+which they place below the baskets to lighten the pressure and maintain
+the equilibrium."
+
+"And you did the same?"
+
+"Naturally! It is no greater hardship for me, surely, than for the other
+poor girls who do it. And remember, besides, that this marketing is just
+as great an amusement to the peasant women as a promenade concert is to
+fine ladies. There was only one little nuisance connected with it. Just
+at this time all the irrigation waters had overflowed, and all the
+fields and meadows between our hut and the market town were turned into
+a lake, through which we had to wade."
+
+"What! you waded through the flooded fields?"
+
+"Oh, the water did not really come above my knees. It was only here and
+there, by the side of the streams, that we had to truss up our
+petticoats pretty high, and then we took off our boots and carried them
+tied on to the handles of our baskets. That is how all the women go."
+
+"And you picked your way along like that too?"
+
+"Again and again! I might, indeed, have gone along by the dykes, but
+then I should have had to turn into the village and make a circuit of
+four miles with the mud up to my knees. Along the even marshes, on the
+other hand, it is pleasant going, the soft soil does not hurt your
+heels, and there are no leeches."
+
+"But did no one see you?"
+
+"What did I care? I quite enjoyed my aquatic promenade. It was every bit
+as good as bathing at Trouville, and there I had by no means so ample a
+toilet. On arriving in town, I at once readjusted my clothes, put on my
+boots, and went to sell butter and cheese right in front of my mother's
+house. It was really a capital position that I chose; a corner-house
+between two thoroughfares, opening out upon the market-place."
+
+"And nobody recognised you?"
+
+"Why shouldn't they? Every one recognised me, even the money-collector
+who hires out the standing-rooms. He allowed me my standing-room gratis,
+because I 'belonged to the place.' I was surrounded by quite a crowd of
+my former cavaliers, who bought up all my butter, and I sold my cheese
+by the ounce, at fancy prices; there was quite a run upon it. Never had
+Peter Gyuricza seen so much money as I brought home to him from the sale
+of his butter and cheese."
+
+"And your worthy mother?"
+
+"Alas! all that the poor thing could do was to pull down all the blinds
+in broad daylight. I, however, purchased with the proceeds of the butter
+and cheese as much salt and tobacco as we required, packed them all up
+in the basket, and, placing it on my head, returned through the floods
+the same way by which I came."
+
+"And did you do this often?"
+
+"Every market day. Sometimes it was rainy. Then the peasant woman is
+wont to throw her upper garment over her head, that is her umbrella. I
+had to get accustomed to that too. Once, a couple of my former young
+gentlemen acquaintances took it into their heads to play me a practical
+joke. They paddled a canoe out of the Danube into the submerged plain,
+and when I began my wading tour they paddled after me. That did _me_ no
+harm, but it turned out badly for them, for the peasant girls who went
+with me charged upon them like the host of Sisera, wrested the paddles
+from their hands, and left them rocking helplessly to and fro in the
+midst of the waters."
+
+"But hasn't the water all dried up now?" I asked impatiently.
+
+"Oh, how he snaps at me! Of course! Now we can go dry-shod. Only when we
+come to a ditch do we take off our shoes. But, dear heart! how I do go
+on gabbling without ever coming to the point. I must explain why I have
+come all the way hither to you, my dear Mr. Advocate. As I will not
+appear before the priest to further the reconciliation project, and my
+husband (my first, I mean) will do so neither, I must, of course, appear
+before the judge! and as, moreover, my mother must be admonished to hand
+over my little property, if you would take my case up for me I should be
+exceedingly obliged to you."
+
+I told her that I did not practise as an advocate, and that I had no
+experience whatever of divorce proceedings, not having been taught the
+subject in the schools.
+
+Then she began to speak in a very solemn voice. She said she had never
+expected me to take up her case, but had sought me out because she had
+been informed that the advocates with whom I had served my articles were
+very eminent practitioners; she would like to entrust her double suit to
+them. As, however, she feared that they would neither receive her nor
+believe her if she appeared before them in her present costume, she
+earnestly begged that I would give her a letter of introduction to the
+firm of Molnar & Verchovszky for friendship's sake--or for any other
+price.
+
+"Well, I can do that for you--for nothing."
+
+To write this letter I had to sit down at my writing-table.
+
+"May I peep and see what you write about me?"
+
+"If you like."
+
+I could not take offence at her curiosity.
+
+"I'll help you!" said she, with naive archness, and went and stood
+behind my back.
+
+I must say that she had a very odd notion of helping me. She leant right
+over me so that I could feel her burning breath on my face, and the
+throbbing of her heart against my shoulder. I spoiled the first sheet of
+paper by writing last year's date at the top of it. Then I could not
+call to mind the name of my client, and I thought one thing and wrote
+another. Add to that that I made a mess of the simplest sentences, and
+wrote in a style worthy of a pedantic grammarian. Finally I got
+hopelessly involved in the maze of a long-winded phrase which I began
+but could not finish. That's what happens to a man when he has to listen
+to the beating of two hearts!
+
+It was on this self-same table that the picture stood which I have
+already mentioned. I had no time to conceal it in my drawer. And why
+should I have tried to hide it? Was I bound to make a mystery of it
+before her?
+
+Right opposite to my writing-table was a mirror on the wall. On one
+occasion, when I was pursuing an elusive word, I raised my head from my
+writing-desk and saw in the mirror the figure of the woman who was
+standing behind my back. Oh, what a face was that! She was not looking
+into my letter, but at the portrait. The eyes were turned sideways, so
+that the upper parts of the whites were visible; the lips were drawn
+aside, and the teeth clenched.
+
+I saw this from the mirror. And this mirror, too had the property of
+making things look green. Viewed in this magic light, the fair lady
+standing behind me appeared like the Iblis of the _Thousand-and-one
+Nights_, who sucks the blood of her lovers and leads the dances of the
+dead.
+
+I finished the letter to my old chiefs.
+
+Then I dried it with a piece of blotting-paper. Sand I have always
+hated. I also felt, in this respect, like Stephen Szechenyi,[44] who,
+whenever he received a sanded-letter, used to give it first of all to
+his lackey to be taken out in the hall and dusted. Before enclosing the
+letter, however, I turned round and handed it to her.
+
+[Footnote 44: Count Stephen Szechenyi, "the greatest of the Magyars,"
+was born in 1791. He brilliantly distinguished himself at the battle of
+Leipsic, and at Tolentino, in 1815, at the head of his Hussars,
+annihilated Murat's cavalry. After the war, he devoted himself to
+domestic politics with a tact, courage, and noble liberality which
+speedily made him the most popular man in Hungary. The Hungarian Academy
+and the Hungarian National Theatre were founded at his initiative and
+mainly at his expense. The breach with Austria in 1848 so preyed upon
+his mind that he went mad, and was confined in an asylum, where he
+destroyed himself in 1860.--TR.]
+
+"Would you read it, please?"
+
+The menacing spectre was no longer there. Iblis had changed into a
+smiling young bride.
+
+"And how do you know that I haven't read the letter?" she asked, in her
+astonishment.
+
+"My little finger whispered it to me!"
+
+At this she burst out laughing, and pushed the letter away.
+
+"I don't mean to read it! I know that you have written no end of good
+things about me."
+
+I folded up my letter, sealed it and wrote the address--"Joseph Molnar
+and Alexander Verchovszky, Advocates." Then I handed it to her.
+
+Still she kept standing there in front of my writing-table, twirling the
+letter round and round in her hands, and gazing continually at the
+portrait. Her face had become quite solemn. In her deeply downcast eyes
+there was a suspicious brightness testifying to restrained tear-drops.
+
+She heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"But this is mere folly!" She thrust my letter beneath her bodice, and
+in a voice of real warmth and sincerity, she stammered: "I thank you
+most kindly." Then she added, in a voice half grave, half gay: "But come
+now! You won't write my story in the newspapers, will you?"
+
+"I assure you it is not my practice."
+
+"And you won't put my stupid story into a novel or a romance, eh? At
+least not while I'm alive?"
+
+"Never! Put your mind at rest on that point."
+
+"No; don't say never. Let it be only as long as I'm alive. But when I
+die, wherever it may be, you shall receive a letter from me, which I
+will write to you at my last hour, authorizing you to write all that you
+know of me."
+
+"My dear friend, death is written much more plainly on my brow than on
+yours."
+
+She shuddered. Twice she shuddered. Then she threw her basket over her
+arm, and took her leave. I would have escorted her to the door of the
+ante-chamber, but she held me back.
+
+"Stay where you are. I do not wish any one to see you paying attention
+to a country wench."
+
+When I was by myself again and thinking over the whole scene, it seemed
+to me as if a golden thrush were piping derisively in my ear again--
+
+"Foolish fellow! Foolish fellow!"
+
+For the second time I had let slip the opportunity of pilfering
+Paradise, conceded to me by a special and peculiar favour of the gods. I
+candidly confess that I am no saint.... I am a true son of Adam, of real
+flesh and blood. No vow binds me to an ascetic life. Let temptation come
+to me again in the shape of that pretty woman to-day and she shall see
+what I am made of!... All day long these feverish imaginings haunted me.
+In the drawer of my writing-table was the portrait which I once wrested
+in knightly tourney from her bridegroom, and which she herself had given
+me to put to rights. I went again and again to my writing-table in order
+to take out that portrait and have another look at it. But that other
+portrait lay there on my table and would not allow it. It was much
+better to leave the house. I occupied the whole day in strolling about
+the town. Perhaps I may meet her somewhere in the street.
+
+Late in the evening I returned home.
+
+I was alone. My lackey only came to me in the morning.
+
+I had scarcely lighted my lamp when I heard a knocking at my door. I
+certainly had forgotten to shut the door of my ante-chamber, and so my
+visitor had managed to penetrate so far. Who could it be at such a late
+hour? "Come in!"
+
+The blood flew to my head when the door opened.
+
+_She_ had come back!
+
+Then she was here again!
+
+She did not come in, however, but stood with the door-latch in her hand,
+as if she were afraid of me.
+
+"It is not nice of me, I know," she stammered, with a faltering voice,
+"to come here so late. I have been here three times, but you were out. I
+must tell you what I've heard. Don't be angry."
+
+I begged her to come in, and took her by the hand. My heart beat
+feverishly.
+
+"The lawyers received me very well. They were both at home. They took up
+my case and assured me that it was bound to result in my favour, and
+that they would pay the preliminary expenses. They behaved like
+gentlemen. Then the conversation turned upon you. They asked how long we
+had been acquainted. I told them as much as was necessary, and wound up
+by saying that you were the one thoroughly disinterested friend that I
+possessed. Then one of the advocates, the tall dry one I mean, said,
+with perfect good-nature: 'Well, if you are kindly disposed towards our
+young friend, just tell him that _the path along which he is now rushing
+so impetuously leads straight to the gallows_,' whereupon the blonde,
+ruddy-faced man added, '_or else to suicide._' I felt I must tell you
+that."
+
+And with these words she stepped back from the door.
+
+An icy shudder would have run down the shoulders of any other man at
+these words, but the message regularly set _me_ on fire. It was my pet
+idea they wanted me to give up, the idea which I adored even more than
+my lady-love, the idea of my youth--the idea of liberty. If any one
+offends my lady-love I will shed his blood, but let not even my
+lady-love interfere with my principles, as for them I am ready to pour
+out my own blood to the last drop.
+
+"Be it so!" I cried passionately; "that has nothing to do with you;" and
+I shut the door in her face. Every fibre of my body quivered with rage.
+
+They threaten me with the gallows, or with the suicidal dagger of a
+Cato! I fear them not.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My poor chiefs! Half a year later they were rushing along the self-same
+path, at the end of which so many monsters were lurking. I only lost my
+hair in the hands of these monsters, but they lost their heads. Their
+own prophecy was fulfilled on them both.
+
+From that day forth I was very wrath with the lady with the eyes like
+the sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE WOMAN WHO WENT ALONG WITH ME
+
+
+And now we'll go back to the day which forms so remarkable a
+turning-point in the life of the Hungarian nation, the 15th March, 1848.
+
+It did not come without due preparation. The emancipation of the people,
+a free press and a free soil, equality of taxation and equality before
+the law--all these splendid ideas had been fought for during the last
+ten years by those great minds which towered above their fellows. The
+time had now arrived, the process had been decided, the judgment lived
+in the heart of every honest patriot. The great sacrifices which the
+metamorphosis required were not demanded, but volunteered. We debated
+about them in the Diet, party against party, with all the fervour of
+conviction.
+
+A melancholy example was before us, which, like that _fata Morgana_ of
+the ocean, the phantom galley overturned, warns the seaman of the danger
+that is hovering over his head. I allude to the events in Galicia the
+year before.
+
+The Polish gentry of Galicia demanded their liberties, and emphasized
+their demands by force of arms. There was no need on the part of the
+authorities to set in motion an army corps against this new confederacy,
+the peasantry did the work for them instead. The Galician peasants[45]
+crushed the Polish gentry. The censorship had prevented the Hungarian
+newspapers from making known the details of this rebellion, but when the
+Diet met, it was impossible to prevent the fiery deputy for Comorn, the
+youthful Denis Pazmandy, from raising his mighty voice on behalf of the
+Poles, and making known the shocking particulars of the bloody massacre
+to the Hungarian nation. There are many sad pages in the history of the
+Polish nation, but none so sad as this. And the hand which wrote that
+page could easily glide over to the next page also, and that next page
+was the history of the Hungarian nation. Here half a million of gentry
+stand face to face with fifteen millions of serfs which serve, suffer,
+pay, carry arms, and are silent. Then the Paris Revolution broke out.
+The French nation overthrew the throne. (By the way, a tatter from the
+canopy over the French throne was brought home by one of our young
+writers, Louis Dobsa, as a present for Petofi. Dobsa fought on the
+February barricades.) Serious debates were held in the Hungarian Diet.
+But Pressburg[46] was much too cold a field for such things. They wanted
+assistance from Pest. We didn't say Buda-Pest then, Buda[47] was not
+ours.... Meanwhile the Vienna Revolution broke out. The streets of
+Vienna resounded with the watchword "Freedom," and were painted with the
+blood of the heroes that had fallen for it.
+
+[Footnote 45: They were mostly Ruthenians, and racial and religious
+differences had much to do with their antagonism. This inveigling of the
+peasantry against the gentry, generally attributed to Metternich, is one
+of the darkest blots in Austrian history.--TR.]
+
+[Footnote 46: The old coronation city of Hungary, but more of a German
+than a Magyar city then.--TR.]
+
+[Footnote 47: It was an Austrian fortress.--TR.]
+
+"_So these Vienna people whom we blackguard so much show that they know
+how to shed their blood for freedom while we glorious Magyars sit at our
+firesides!_" cried Petofi bitterly. "Let us send no more petitions to
+the Diet," he added, "it is deaf! Let us appeal to the nation: it will
+hear!"
+
+Then he wrote his "Talpra Magyar!"[48]
+
+[Footnote 48: "Up! Magyar, up!"]
+
+Early in the morning we assembled in my room by lamplight. There were
+four of us--Petofi, Paul Vasvary, Julius Bulyovszky, and myself. My
+companions entrusted me with the drawing up of the Pest Articles in a
+short popular form intelligible to everybody. While I was thus occupied,
+they were disputing about what should happen next. The most violent of
+them was Paul Vasvary, who had the figure of a mighty young athlete. In
+his hand was a sword-stick with a horn handle, which he was flourishing
+about in a martial manner, when, all at once, the jolted stiletto flew
+from its case, and turning a somersault, flew through the air over my
+head and struck the wall.
+
+"A lucky omen!" cried Petofi.
+
+The proclamation was ready. We hastened into the street. We said nothing
+to Madame Petofi. Every one of us had arms of some sort. I pocketed the
+famous duplex pistol already mentioned.
+
+Every one knows _ad nauseam_ what followed--how the human avalanche
+began to move, how it grew, and what speeches we made in the great
+square. But speech-making was not sufficient, we wanted to _do_
+something. The first thing to be done was to give practical application
+to the doctrine of a free press. We resolved to print the Twelve
+Articles of Pest, the Proclamation, and the "Talpra Magyar" without the
+consent of the censor.
+
+The printing press of Landerer and Heckenast was honoured with this
+compulsory distinction. The printers were naturally not justified in
+printing anything without permission from the authorities, so we turned
+up our sleeves and worked away at the hand-presses ourselves. The name
+of the typesetter who set up the first word of freedom was _Potemkin_.
+
+While Irinyi and other young authors were working away at the press, it
+was my duty to harangue the mob that thronged the whole length of
+Hatvani Street. I had no idea how to set about it, but it came of its
+own accord.
+
+My worthy and loyal contemporary, Paul Szontagh, occasionally quotes to
+me, even now, some of the heaven-storming phrases which he heard me say
+on that occasion; _e.g._, "... No! fellow-citizens; he is not the true
+hero who can _die_ for his country; he who can _slay_ for his country,
+he is the true hero!"
+
+That was the sort of oratory I used to practise in those days!
+
+Meanwhile the rain began to fall, and rain is the most reactionary
+opponent of every revolution. But my people were not to be dispersed by
+the rain, and all at once the whole street was filled with expanded
+umbrellas.
+
+"What! gentlemen," thundered I from the corner of the street, "if you
+stick up your umbrellas now against mere rain-drops, what will you stick
+up against the bullets which will presently begin to fall?"
+
+It was only then that I noticed that there were not only gentlemen
+around me but ladies also. A pair of them had insinuated themselves
+close to my side. In one of them I recognised "Queen Gertrude."[49] On
+her head she wore a plumed cap, and was wrapped up in a Persian shawl
+embroidered with palm-tree flowers. Both cap and shawl were dripping
+with rain. I had met the lady once or twice at the Szigligetis'. I
+exhorted the ladies to go home; here they would get dripping-wet, I
+said, and some other accident might befall them.
+
+[Footnote 49: _i.e._, the actress who took that part.]
+
+"We are no worse off here than you are," was the reply.
+
+They were determined to wait till the printed broad-sides were ready.
+
+Not very long afterwards Irinyi appeared at the window of the
+printing-office, for to get out of the door was a sheer impossibility.
+He held in his hands the first printed sheets from the free press.
+
+Ah, that scene! when the very first free sheets were distributed from
+hand to hand! I cannot describe it. "Freedom, freedom!" It was the first
+ray of a new and better era!... A free press! the first-fruit of the
+universal tree of knowledge of Paradise. What a tumult arose when they
+actually clutched that forbidden fruit in their hands.... Hail to thee,
+O Freedom of the Press! Thou seven-headed dragon, how many times hast
+thou not bitten me since then! Yet I bless the hour when I first saw
+thee creep out of thy egg and gave thee what little help I could!
+
+Young authors, clerks, advocates, all hot-headed young people, crowded
+around the invisible banner.
+
+A young county official was now seen forcing his way through the dense
+crowd right to the very door of the printing-office, and from thence he
+addressed me. The influential Vice-Lieutenant of the County, Paul Nyary,
+sent word to me that I was to go to him to the town hall.
+
+"Why _should_ I go?" cried I from my point of vantage. "I'll be shot
+down with cannon-balls rather! If the Vice-Lieutenant of the County
+wants to speak to us, let him come here. We are the 'mountain' now."
+
+And Mohammed really did come to the "mountain," and with him came a
+group of grave-faced men, the veteran leaders of the camp of freedom.
+
+Amongst them was a dwarfish little oddity of a man, the assistant editor
+of the _Eletkepek_, the gallant little Sukey, who, despite a chronic
+asthma, fought through the whole campaign, musket in hand. Besides being
+a cripple, he was a really extraordinary stammerer. When he saw the
+grave-visaged men making their way to us through the crowd, he scrambled
+along beside them, and with all the force of his lungs bellowed out this
+notable declaration: "D-d-d-don't li-li-li-listen to those
+wi-wi-wi-wiseacres!"
+
+But the wiseacres hadn't come to convert us to wisdom. On the contrary,
+Nyary had come to approve of what we had done hitherto, and then to go
+together with us to the town hall, that they might there, together with
+the town councillors, ratify the Articles of the liberal programme.
+
+It was a fine scene. The town hall was crammed to suffocation. Those who
+were called upon to speak stood upon the green table, and remained there
+afterwards, so that at last the whole magistracy of the county, and I
+and all my colleagues were standing on the top of the table. The flames
+spread! The burgomaster, the worthy Rotterbiller, announced from the
+balcony of the town hall, that the town of Pest had adopted the Twelve
+Articles as its own; and with that the avalanche carried the whole of
+the burgesses along with it. But the matter did not end even there. In
+the evening crowds of workmen inundated the streets. They had got from
+somewhere or other a banner, inscribed with the three sacred words,
+"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!"
+
+... Such a great day must needs have a brilliant close, so the town was
+illuminated in the evening, and a free performance was given at the
+theatre, _Bank-ban_[50] being the piece selected. But the mob, which by
+this time was in a state of ecstasy, had no longer the patience to
+listen to the pious declamations of Ban Peter. It called for "Talpra
+Magyar."
+
+[Footnote 50: Joseph Katona's celebrated tragedy.]
+
+What was to be done? The brilliant court of King Andrew II., with the
+Queen and Bank-ban to boot, had to stand aside and form a group round
+Gabriel Egressy, who, in a simple attila, with a sword by his side,
+stood in the middle of the stage and declaimed with magnificent emphasis
+Petofi's inspiring poem.
+
+That was all very well, but it was not enough.
+
+Then the whole company sang the "Szozato," and the people in the pit and
+the galleries joined in.
+
+That also was soon over.
+
+What shall we give next?
+
+The band struck up the Rakoczy[51] march. That kindled the excitement,
+instead of extinguishing it. And it was high time that something should
+be done to quench it, for the excited populace was drunk with triumph.
+
+[Footnote 51: Prohibited in Hungary at this time as being of
+revolutionary tendency.]
+
+Then a voice from the gallery cried: "Long live Tancsis!"[52]
+
+[Footnote 52: Michal Tancsis, a prisoner who had been released from the
+citadel of Buda the same morning by the mob.]
+
+And with that the whole populace suddenly roared with one voice: "Let us
+see Tancsis!"
+
+A frightful tumult arose. Tancsis was not at hand. He lived some way out
+in the suburb of Ferenczvaros. But even had he been near, it would have
+been a cruel thing to have dragged on the stage a worn-out invalid, that
+he might merely bow to the public like a celebrated musician.
+
+But what was to be done?
+
+"Well, my sons," said Nyary, with whom I was standing in the same box,
+"you have awakened this great monster, now see if you can put him to
+sleep again!"
+
+My young friends attempted to address the people one after the other,
+Petofi from the Academy box, Irinyi from the balcony of the Casino club,
+but their voices were drowned in the howling of the mob. The curtain was
+let down, but then the tumult was worse than ever; the gallery stamped
+like mad; it was a perfect pandemonium.
+
+Then a thought occurred to me. I could get on to the stage from Nyary's
+box; I rushed in through the side wings.
+
+I cut a pretty figure I must say. I was splashed up to the knees with
+mud from scouring the streets all day. I wore huge, dirty overshoes, my
+tall hat was drenched, so that I could easily have made a crush-hat of
+it and carried it under my arm.
+
+I looked around me and perceived Egressy. I told him to draw up the
+curtain, I wanted to harangue the people from the stage.
+
+Then "Queen Gertrude" came towards me. She smiled upon me with truly
+majestic grace, greeted me and pressed my hand. No sign of fear was to
+be seen in her face. She was wearing the tricoloured cockade[53] on her
+bosom, and, of her own accord, she took it off and pinned it on my
+breast. Then the curtain was raised.
+
+[Footnote 53: Red, white, and green, the Hungarian colours.]
+
+When the mob beheld my drenched and muddy figure, it began to shout
+afresh, and the uproar gradually became a call for every one to hear me.
+When at last I was able to make my voice heard, I came out with the
+following oratorical masterpiece: "Brother citizens! our friend Tancsis
+is not here. He is at home in the bosom of his family. Allow the poor
+blind man to taste the joy of _seeing_ his family once more!"
+
+It was only then that I felt I was talking nonsense. How could a
+"_blind_ man" _see_ his family? If the mob began to laugh I should be
+done for!
+
+It was the tricoloured ribbon that saved me.
+
+"Do you see," I cried, "this tricoloured cockade on my breast? Let it be
+the badge of this glorious day! Let every man who is Freedom's warrior
+wear it; it will distinguish us from the hireling host of slavery! These
+three colours represent the three sacred words: Liberty, Equality,
+Fraternity! Let every one in whom Hungarian blood and a free spirit
+burns wear them on his breast."
+
+And so the thing was done.
+
+The tricoloured cockade preserved order. Whoever wished to pin on the
+tricoloured cockade had to hurry home first. Ten minutes later the
+theatre was empty, and next day the tricoloured cockade was to be seen
+on every breast, from the paletots of the members of the Casino[54] to
+the buckram of the populace, and those who went about with mantles on
+wore the cockade in their hats.
+
+[Footnote 54: The Nobles' club.]
+
+In the intoxication of my triumph I hastened after Rosa Laborfalvy as
+soon as this scene was over, and pressed her hand.
+
+With that pressure of our hands our engagement began.
+
+I have recorded the whole of this episode in order to explain how it was
+that _that_ portrait found its way to my table, which was able to
+convert in an instant the smiling face of the lady with the eyes like
+the sea into the hideous features of Iblis. Four months had passed away
+since then.
+
+And the honeymoon was in keeping with the engagement. The roar of cannon
+and the clash of swords was the music that played at my wedding.
+
+Oh what a marriage night was that!
+
+At the very moment when the happy bridegroom asks his bride, "Dost thou
+love me as I love thee?" at that very moment there is the roll of drums
+in the streets, and the cry goes forth, "To arms, citizens!" An Italian
+regiment had revolted against the Hungarian Government. Without waiting
+for a kiss or an embrace, I had to snatch up my musket and hurry off to
+the place of meeting, and thence to go straight into fire among the
+flying bullets. We had to storm the Karoly Barracks. By dawn the
+mutinous regiment had to lay down its weapons, and the bridegroom, with
+his face sooty with smoke, returned home, and again put the question to
+his bride, "Dost thou love me as I love thee?"
+
+And the answer? Ah! the heart alone can feel it, the lips cannot express
+it.
+
+That was our honeymoon. With the shame of lost battles in our hearts,
+and despairing even of divine justice, those who can love under such
+circumstances must love dearly indeed!
+
+And then out into the desolate world, in the midst of a Siberian winter,
+with everything crackling with cold in a night lit only by the blaze of
+artillery, forcing one's way along through the snowy deserts of the
+Alfold[55] with the retreating Honved[56] army! Passing the night in an
+inhospitable hut where the closed door had frozen to the ground by
+morning, and the roll of drums and the blare of trumpets aroused us to
+toil on still farther! Those who can love under such circumstances must
+love indeed!
+
+[Footnote 55: The low-land. The name given to the great Hungarian
+plain.]
+
+[Footnote 56: Defending the country. The title of the Hungarian national
+forces.]
+
+My wife went everywhere with me.
+
+She quitted a comfortable home, sacrificed a fortune, a brilliant
+career, to endure hunger, cold, and hardship with me. And I never heard
+her utter one word of complaint. When I was downhearted, she comforted
+me. And when all _my_ hopes were stifled, she shared _her_ hopes with
+me. At the new seat of the Hungarian Government, Debreczin, we were
+huddled together in a tiny little room, compared with which the hut of
+Peter Gyuricza was a palace from the _Thousand-and-one Nights_. And my
+queen worked like a slave, like the wife of a Siberian convict. She
+worked not for a joke, not in sheer defiance; she did not _play the
+part_ of a peasant girl, she was a serving-woman in grim earnest.
+
+The hazard of the die of war changed. We advanced. We marched in triumph
+from one battle-field to another. I was present at the storming of the
+citadel of Buda. Even in those awful days she never left me, when every
+night the sky seemed about to plunge down upon our heads.
+
+The brilliant days of triumph were again succeeded by misfortune. The
+Northern ogre[57] threw all his legions upon us. Again we had to fly, to
+leave our happy hut, and continue our marriage tour through desolate
+wildernesses, where savage hordes had devastated whole villages. Our
+night's lodging was four bare sooty walls, our couch a bundle of charred
+straw. Hated by strangers, feared by acquaintances, we were a terror to
+the people from whom we begged a shelter.
+
+[Footnote 57: Pastliewich, by command of the Tzar, invaded Hungary in
+1849, with 100,000 men.]
+
+The chaos of war finally parted us. I insisted that she should remain
+away from me. I could not endure to see her suffering any longer. It was
+not right that I should accept such sacrifices. I bade her leave me to
+meet my fate alone.
+
+After the catastrophe of Vilagos[58] my life was ended. That mighty
+giant, the famous Hungary of our dreams, collapsed into atoms: her great
+men became grains of dust.
+
+[Footnote 58: When the Hungarian Commander-in-chief finally capitulated
+to the Russians.]
+
+I also became a nameless, weightless, aimless grain of dust.
+
+The end of all things had arrived. The prophecy of the lady with the
+eyes like the sea lay literally fulfilled before me. Either the gibbet
+or suicide was to be my fate. I was twenty-four years of age, and a dead
+man. My former chief, the brave Catonian, Joseph Molnar, the president
+of the national court martial, had set me the example. He lay before me
+on the sward of Vilagos, slain by his own hand. The last hussar breaking
+his sword was a spectacle he could not bear to survive. Then it was that
+a burning hand seized my hand. It was hers, the hand of the woman who
+loved me. When all was lost, her love was not lost. She came after me.
+She took me with her. She set me free. When all Hungary was already
+subdued, there was still one corner in our native land where the hand of
+authority never came. She discovered that corner, and led me thither
+with her through every hostile camp.
+
+That was "the woman who went along with me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+WHERE THE WORLD IS WALLED UP
+
+
+It required quite a strategical combination to transport me from the
+town of Vilagos to where the world is boarded up.
+
+This place was selected for me by my wife while she was already in Pest,
+whence on the approach of the catastrophe she set out from home on a
+peasant's car to seek me up and down the kingdom. For a time she
+travelled with the wife of Alexander Korosy, who set her on my track. At
+the storming of Szegedin we were all within an ace of being blown into
+the air by the explosion of a powder magazine.
+
+It was a little village called Tordona, deep in the beech forests of
+Borsod, the name of which was not even to be found on the chart of
+Francis Karacs.[59] Here the celebrated comedian and scene-painter of
+the National Theatre, Telepi, had built a house with the intention of
+seeking an asylum there with his family in troublous times. When the
+Russians came, he sent thither his wife and his son Charles, who was
+then a young artist student. Telepi gave my wife this sage piece of
+advice. "When the bottom of the world falls out, take your husband
+where nobody will find him." Tordona had taken no part in the
+Revolution.... The journey was quite an Odyssey. In a small covered
+peasant's car a lady conveys water-melons to market; the coachman and
+the footman sit in front together. The footman is myself, the coachman
+Janos Rakoczy, who only the day before was Kossuth's secretary. The
+price of water-melons was a silver _tizes_[60] a-piece. Our heads were
+not worth so much as that. The way from Vilagos to Bekes-Gyula is long,
+and the whole way we were going straight towards the advancing Russian
+host. Cossacks, lancers, infantry, artillery, gun-carriages, met us at
+every step, and yet nobody asked us the price of those melons or the
+price of those heads. It was only the two splendid horses in front of
+our car which might have raised suspicions that we were not itinerant
+market-gardeners, although Rakoczy wore the genuine blue livery of a
+coachman. When we got into the domain of swamp and rushes, a mounted
+_betyar_[61] took us under his protection, and guarded us along paths
+where a carriage had never yet gone, where our horses repeatedly waded
+up to their breasts in water, till we fought our way through into the
+endless plain. He would take nothing from us but a "God bless you!"
+
+[Footnote 59: The first Hungarian engraver (1769-1838). His celebrated
+map of Hungary was first published in 1813.]
+
+[Footnote 60: The tenth of a florin.]
+
+[Footnote 61: A peasant drover.]
+
+Our dear friend Janos Rakoczy, as an old country gentleman, was a
+capital coachman so long as he had only to guide the horses, but that
+part of the stableman's science which deals with harnessing and
+unharnessing he had never learnt. So when we came to a place in the
+sweltering heat of the dog-days after a long drive through the vast
+plain, the very first thing he did was to let the unharnessed horses
+immediately drink their fill at the spring, and then tie them up in the
+stable, in consequence of which the shaft horse caught inflammation of
+the lungs, and expired an hour afterwards. The saddle horse survived as
+by a miracle. Instead of the deceased horse, therefore, we had to
+harness another nag, which we picked up on the road for 100 florins.
+This new horse was a hand and a half smaller than the steed that still
+remained with us. With this slap-dash team nobody would have taken us
+any longer for gentry.
+
+We had still to pass through Miskolcz, where the Russians were
+encamping. Here dwelt my wife's father, the wise and worthy professor
+Benke Laborfalvy. He pointed out to us the road which led into Tordona.
+Five hours long we penetrated through dense forests: not a human
+dwelling place, not a beaten tract was to be seen. A stream cut through
+the winding valley and along its bank, shifting now to the right hand
+and now to the left, a sort of path wound its way naturally, without
+anything like a bridge; for the convenience of foot passengers, huge
+stones at irregular intervals had been cast into the bed of the racing
+stream. There, in a deeply hidden, delightful valley, lay the little
+spot which is walled off from the world.
+
+My wife and I descended at the Telepi's house and were heartily welcomed
+by our worthy hostess. Rakoczy, with his equipage, had to be lodged in
+another house. Madame Telepi's brother, my tenderly remembered good
+friend, the worthy Beni Csanyi, dwelt in a house a little farther off.
+It was he who stabled the horses. Later on I joined him.
+
+He was really a model of a "small country gentleman," such as they ought
+to be nowadays. An accomplished, intelligent man, speaking, besides his
+own language, Latin and German, with a thorough knowledge of the law,
+for which he had been trained, and who, for all that, now went out and
+ploughed his own land with the aid of a man-servant. He ate his
+home-made bread, drank his home-brewed wine, welcomed guests with all
+his heart, and slew a sheep or a pig in their honour. His wife baked and
+brewed, led the way at the spindle, and sewed her children's clothes
+with her own hand. They had three sons, and the little money that flowed
+into the domestic coffers was spent in the schooling of the children.
+Csanyi never borrows, and owes no man anything. His work-room is a
+joiner and wheelwright's shed; when anything breaks in the wagon he
+mends it himself: it is his pet pastime. He has a library also, full of
+such books as Sir Walter Scott's historical work on the French
+Revolutionary Wars. Newspapers he never reads. If, again, a poem
+pleases him, he learns it by heart, and passes it on further by word of
+mouth. He never goes to law with his neighbour, and when two fall out he
+makes peace between them. But when the cry goes forth, "The fatherland
+is in danger! Let us make sacrifices for the commonweal!" then he cuts
+the large silver buttons off his mantle, and lays them on the altar of
+his country.
+
+I owe it for the most part to this worthy man that I did not lose my
+reason altogether in these hard times.
+
+Thus we arrived hither. I was saved. I was no longer a dead man. I
+lived.
+
+But what sort of a life was it? It was the sort of life which belongs to
+a new-born babe: absolute inability to help one's self. Rakoczy quitted
+us on the following day. He was off to the Carpathians. There he took
+service as coachman (naturally under an assumed name) in the family of a
+wealthy territorial Count. They were more than contented with him, for
+he was an excellent and honest coachman. But one day a strange
+misadventure befell him. He was taking the Count and his brother-in-law
+out for a drive, when the gentleman began talking of the era of Louis
+XIV., and one of them could not call to mind the name of a celebrated
+statesman of those days. Then the coachman could not help turning round
+towards them, and saying, "Colbert!" The Counts immediately dismounted
+from the coach and went home on foot. The learned coachman, however,
+was discharged. It is not good to sleep under the same roof with a
+coachman who knows so much.
+
+My wife and I agreed that _she_ should return to Pest and resume her
+engagement at the National Theatre there till I should get back my
+patrimony. Then we would purchase a little property in the depths of the
+beech forest, close to Beni Csanyi, and plough and sow to the end of our
+days. What else _could_ we do? Our country, our nation, our liberty were
+now no more. Our souls had no wings. We stuck fast in the mire.
+
+On the very anniversary of our wedding, which was my wife's birthday as
+well, we parted. Our wedding tour had lasted exactly a year. I wish
+nobody such another, but I would not exchange all the joys in the world
+for the recollection of it.
+
+I remained behind in a vast primeval forest, entombed, forgotten.
+
+The latest rumours I got from worthy Beni Csanyi, who had taken my wife
+to Pest, driving his four horses himself all the way from his stable
+door to the capital. They were evil times there. Haynau had appropriated
+even the National Theatre for the German players. But the director,
+worthy Janos Simoncsics, formerly a Conservative celebrity, protested
+against the proceedings of the high-handed tyrant, and when Haynau began
+to haggle with the stiff-necked old magistrate as to how many days a
+week he would allow the German players to act in the Hungarian National
+Theatre, brave old Simoncsics replied in his own peculiar Buda-German:
+"Wen i reden _musz_, so sag i: amol; wen i reden _darf_, so sag i:
+komol."[62] And "komol"[63] it remained.
+
+[Footnote 62: If I _must_ speak: once; if I _may_ speak: not at all.]
+
+[Footnote 63: Not once.]
+
+My wife counselled me not to write to her through the post-office, as
+the whole town was full of spies. When she wrote to me she would send
+the letter to her father at Miskolcz, directed to Judith Benke.
+
+Even now I often draw out those _love-letters_ which were written to me
+and began "My dear Juczi."[64] Even now they light up that endless
+darkness which I call the _cancelled_ portion of my life.
+
+[Footnote 64: Contraction for Judith.]
+
+From August to the middle of October I knew absolutely nothing of what
+was going on in the world.
+
+It was a corner of the earth where no visitor ever came, and where the
+inhabitants themselves went nowhere. Now that winter was approaching,
+there would be a sledge drive, and communications would be opened up
+between Tordona and Miskolcz. Then one would be able to convey timber
+into the town. Of timber there was no lack. Csanyi had four hundred
+acres of virgin forest to forty acres of arable land.
+
+Day after day I rambled up and down these forests that had never heard
+the voice of man. Never did I meet a fellow creature. However many
+heights I might ascend, I saw from thence nothing but the smoking
+chimneys of Tordona. I discovered the source of the stream that sped
+through the valley. "Linden-spring" was the name they gave it. It was
+entirely circled by lindens. I hit upon the childish sport of cutting a
+water-mill out of elder-tree wood, piecing it together, and placing it
+across the little stream. Thus I amused myself.
+
+One day I received a box of water-colours from my wife. I was immensely
+delighted. I now had something to occupy myself with all day. I filled a
+whole album with my landscapes. Then I painted that journey through the
+plain with a horse and a half in the covered car. I painted my own
+portrait on a piece of paper no bigger than a finger-nail, which could
+be inserted in a medallion. I sent it to my wife. Beni Csanyi's wife
+asked me to paint her a portrait of her "old man" also. She wanted it
+about the size of a kidney bean; she had a medallion just as large as
+that. This was my only work in that terrible year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+VALENTINE BALVANYOSSI AND TIHAMER RENGETEGI
+
+
+When the beech-mast began to fall from the trees in the beginning of
+October, unexpected guests came to us at Tordona--two country gentlemen
+from the beechwood district. They were kinsmen keeping house together,
+whose whole estate consisted of forest, and whose whole economy was an
+enormous herd of swine. They were both jolly thick-set men, with fur
+pelisses of nicely embroidered sheepskins, and boots of red Russian
+leather. They had come to rent the beech-mast district in the Tordona
+forests. Pig just then was an article not quoted in the market.
+Hungarian money there was none. It had all been destroyed. German money
+had not yet been introduced. Pig-rearers were therefore obliged to let
+their herds go into winter quarters. The pigs in question were really
+fine fellows of the good old Szalonta breed, with legs as long as
+stags', red bristles and pointed ears; they were half-savage beasts,
+too, who faced the wolf instead of fleeing from him. They develop but
+slowly, however; only after two years' time do they become as large as
+the Mangalicza swine. But they more than atone for this fault by the
+good quality of wanting neither stall nor sty; winter and summer alike
+they camp out in the woods and seek their own food, thus costing their
+masters no more than two florins a head, and three pints of
+_palinka_,[65] which is the perquisite of the swine-herd. Each of these
+kinsmen had a thousand of such pigs.
+
+[Footnote 65: Hungarian brandy.]
+
+And a thousand pigs give a man a lot to think about.
+
+They were good, genial fellows. In fact, they knew not what melancholy
+meant. It was now the season when the new wine was beginning to ferment.
+The two kinsmen used to drink it in that state, and I joined them. It
+went very well with well-peppered swine stew.
+
+They brought a new song with them also, and I learnt it.
+
+    "The milk-pail stood behind the door,
+    The Gendarme came, flopped in and swore!
+      Darum-madarum, darum-madarum!"
+
+From this song I gathered that there was now a being in the world called
+Gendarme,[66] and also that the Magyars had no very great affection for
+him.
+
+[Footnote 66: _Zsandar._ The name as well as the thing was quite new to
+Hungary.--TR.]
+
+It was only after supper that the guests began to give me to understand
+that they did not yet know "whom they had the honour of addressing."
+
+My worthy host constrained his honest features, and introduced me under
+the pseudonym by which I was known in the village, "Mr. Albert Benke."
+
+"Surely not the actress Rosa Laborfalvy's younger brother, Bebus?"
+
+"Yes, Bebus! the very same."
+
+(That might pass very well. Poor Bebus! he had perished in some
+out-of-the-way corner during the war.)
+
+"Why, I knew him quite well! I have a lively recollection of his
+features. Why, 'tis Bebus, of course! And how's your sister? Is it true
+that she's married?"
+
+"So I have heard."
+
+"To a certain Maurus Jokai, eh? Do you know him?"
+
+"I have never spoken to him."
+
+(And this was quite true.)
+
+"You were one of those theatre-fellows, too, I understand?"
+
+"Yes, I was an actor, certainly."
+
+"I saw you once at Miskolcz. What were you playing then?"
+
+"Claude Frollo in the _Tower of Notre Dame_."
+
+"And won't you join some other company now?"
+
+"I don't know whether there is one to be found."
+
+"What! There is a troupe all ready at Miskolcz at the present moment.
+They mean to play at the new theatre during the coming winter, and then
+they are going to Kassa. Balvanyossi wants to put new blood into his
+company. You know the director, Valentine Balvanyossi, don't you?"
+
+I was just on the point of blurting out that he was from the same
+birthplace as myself. He was, in fact, the person who had coached Bessy
+in the _role_ which she had to play with me in our second dramatic
+entertainment. All I _did_ say, however, was that I knew him by report.
+
+"Anyhow, he knows you very well. He asks frequently about you. If he
+only knew that you were loafing about here he would certainly come and
+see you."
+
+It only needed that!
+
+"I was not aware that he was able to collect together another troupe."
+
+"Oh dear, yes! Why, he's got a prima donna now. She is his wife also.
+Such a bonny little bride! She'll turn the heads of all the young
+fellows, I know. But you're in hiding here, are you not?"
+
+"In hiding?"
+
+"Yes, and I tell you what--_entre nous_, of course--Balvanyossi also has
+reason to make himself scarce."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why, because he played such a great part in the Revolution."
+
+"_I_ never heard anything about it."
+
+"Ah! but he might have been a famous man without _your_ hearing anything
+about it. You also were a comedian during the Revolution, weren't you?"
+
+I allowed him to suppose so.
+
+Then the second kinsman took up his parable. He was better informed than
+the first one.
+
+"Let me make things clear to you, _amice_! During the Revolution, the
+theatre director, Valentine Balvanyossi, acted under the name of Tihamer
+Rengetegi."
+
+"Ah! yes, of course, I remember the name."
+
+"Many a nut has he cracked beneath the very noses of the Germans."
+
+The other kinsman confirmed the statement.
+
+"If they can only catch him they'll make the wind cool his heels for
+him."
+
+"But that theatre director is really a most knowing rogue," explained
+the younger kinsman, with a laugh. "During the Revolution, he entered
+the service of the Hungarian Government and rose to be major. They say
+he performed prodigies. But at the same time he took the precaution to
+completely alter his personal appearance. During the Revolution he dyed
+his beautiful fair hair a deep black, and carefully fostered a gigantic
+moustache with whiskers to correspond; in that guise he looked exactly
+like Don Caesar de Bazan. When, however, things began to go wrong, he
+speedily had his hair shaved off and his beard also, and is now waiting
+in retirement till his original fair hair has grown again. Then he will
+once more come before the world as Valentine Balvanyossi; and who will
+dare to say that there was ever such a person as Tihamer Rengetegi?"
+
+One really must admit that it was a stroke of genius to serve the
+Revolution with a black-dyed head of hair!
+
+"When he hears that you are strolling about here he will most certainly
+come and engage you."
+
+It was necessary to put a stop to this forthwith.
+
+"I regret that I shall not remain here very long," I said; "I, too, have
+to go up to Pest."
+
+"And what is your business at Pest?"
+
+"I want to look out for some appointment."
+
+At this, both the pig-Croesuses pulled a very wry face. Whoever went to
+Pest in those days to seek an appointment was looked upon with
+suspicion. It was as well to have as little as possible to do with such
+a person.[67]
+
+[Footnote 67: It was a point of honour with every loyal Hungarian to
+starve rather than to accept any appointment whatsoever from the
+Austrian Government.--TR.]
+
+Henceforth the pair of them treated me very superciliously.
+
+I, however, continued to go about and paint landscapes in the vast beech
+forests. I have those pictures by me still. What splendid _motives_ I
+had; if only the hand of a true artist had been there to seize them! In
+the midst of the gloomy virgin forest lay the ruin of a Paulinian
+cloister--gigantic Gothic walls of grey granite; on the friezes of the
+pillars winged angel-heads; the pointed arches terminated in flowers,
+and these stone-flowers were supplemented by the living stone-rose,
+which grew luxuriantly between the mouldings. Behind the vast
+blue-shadowed ruin lay the dark beech forest; in front was a spring,
+which, in wondrous wise, bubbled forth from the roots of a huge
+prostrate linden. From the summit of the ruin depended a large and ample
+hazel-nut tree, the foliage of which was now a reddish-brown from the
+autumn frost, while from the windows the dark-green chaplets of the
+wild-rose tree hung down in the midst of cornel-shrubs and
+spindle-plants variegated with scarlet, pink, and vermilion berries. And
+the floor of the ruin is covered with a tangled carpet of brownish-green
+angelica. And there is but one single living figure in this vast and
+silent tableau. From the gloom of the ancient church porch a timidly
+glancing stag peeps forth like the mythical guiding-star of the
+Hunnic-Magyar pagan legends. Alas! thou white-antlered hind of our
+ancient leader Almos, whither hast thou led us? Would that thou hadst
+left us in Asia! There, at any rate, we should not have been obliged to
+learn German!
+
+And then that other picture, the mighty stone of the Holy Ghost. This
+was a rock as large as a tower, which rose from the edge of the
+table-land. Close beside it were two gigantic beech-trees, whose summits
+just reached up to the middle of this rock, and Autumn, that great
+decorative artist, had touched the leaves of one with reddish-brown, and
+the other with golden-yellow. On the very top of this rock are three
+trees rich with verdure: how did they ever get up there?
+
+It is possible to scramble up at the risk of one's neck, and from thence
+one can see fresh pictures to paint. From the dizzy height of the rock
+a view into a deep valley opens out. The two lines of hill opposite are
+closed up by a curved and undulating range of other hills. The setting
+sun lights up the hillside, and bathes the whole scene in transparent
+lilac mist, while the forest fringe of the summits projects in sharply
+defined golden lines. Down below, the valley winds along like a
+dark-green ribbon, and on the spot where it is lost in the evening mist
+is to be seen a little hut whose kitchen fire twinkles from the depths
+like a blood-red star. Can any human creature be living there?
+
+But the most magnificent landscape-motive (in which I was happily
+immersed) was the panorama which presented itself from the "Precipice
+Stone." This "Precipice Stone" was the highest point of the beech
+mountain-district. Viewed from Tordona, it was like a projecting
+mountain-spar, but one could get to the top of it by making a long
+circuit. This rock was generally the goal of my wanderings. It took half
+a day to get there and half a day to get back, and at midday I used to
+kindle a fire of twigs and make a princely banquet of toasted bread and
+bacon; and then, sitting down on the dizzy edge of the rock, I would
+tackle the impossible artistic problem--at least it was impossible to
+me. Beneath my feet, in the foreground, was a dark spot formed by a
+crown of beech-trees, and where this ended there was a smiling little
+nook, and in the midst of it tiny, smoky, stony Tordona, with its
+scattered cottages, surrounded by their yellow dice-like vineyards, and
+their hills striped with green corn, above which the still darker green
+beech hills show their heads. Above these crowds the group of the Gomori
+Hills, whose shadows are now deepening into lilac; but these again are
+dominated by the chain of the Trencseni and Turoczi Hills. These hills
+are of a clouded blue, and above them rises, like a _fata Morgana_, the
+princely range of the fair Carpathians, as blue as heaven itself, and
+only to be distinguished from it by the dividing line of their
+diamond-like snowy peaks. My skill was, naturally, not equal to such a
+task. If I succumbed when I struggled with it, that was not my fault.
+
+With a mighty lead-loaded oaken staff in my hand, and a sharp
+kitchen-knife in my roomy jack-boots, I deemed myself sufficient to cope
+with any wolf I might meet on the way. As for a musket, those who had
+them took good care to keep them well hidden. Rumour said that to be
+found with a musket was as much as a man's life was worth.
+
+The middle of October had come.
+
+Another guest now arrived at Tordona. This time it was a heartily
+welcome guest, the merry-minded Telepi. He had come to fetch his little
+Charlie that he might take him abroad for his education. He was the
+favourite comic actor of the National Theatre.... He had a round face, a
+round figure, and was all vivacity, with sparkling eyes, pointed
+eyebrows, and tiny pointed moustache; it was just as if he had four
+eyebrows and four moustaches: he was Hungarian humour personified.
+
+'Twas he who brought me my first news from the outside world: the
+horrible events of the October days, the inconceivable deeds of horror
+done by a madman,[68] who was not even sufficiently punished by being
+burned alive twice.
+
+[Footnote 68: Haynau.--An allusion to the massacre of Hungarian
+prisoners and the brutalities inflicted on their wives.--TR.]
+
+Fortunately, I heard these things from a joking, smiling,
+devil-may-care, comic mouth! For Telepi knew how to season the tidings
+with so many happy anecdotes and comforting assurances that he quite
+turned the edge off the murderous knife. And then he was so full of
+optimism. "Our time is coming," he would say. "England and France are
+hastening to our assistance. The Turks are arming, the Americans are
+showing their fists." And when I shook my head at all this, he comforted
+me with the assurance that an amnesty was at hand.
+
+But when we were quite alone, and nobody else was listening, then he
+told me everything frankly, and without embellishment.
+
+My wife would have come herself, but she had been ailing; in fact she
+had been very ill. She was better now. As soon as she could leave her
+bed she would hasten to me at Tordona. I might expect her this very
+month. My wife had a plan whereby she hoped to free me completely, so
+that I should not be exposed to persecution any more. What it was,
+however, she could not tell me. She only begged _one_ thing of me, but
+_that_ she begged most earnestly, and it was this: until she came to me
+I was to show myself nowhere, hold no communication with anybody, let
+nothing be known of my whereabouts. I was not even to write a letter,
+for they might recognise my handwriting, and then all would be over. So
+I had to solemnly promise that I would go nowhere, and speak to nobody
+whatever but the good and honest men of Tordona. I gave my word upon it.
+
+My wife sent me at the same time a warm winter overcoat, a large fur
+cap, and a pair of double-soled Russia-leather boots. Winter was
+approaching, and I should have to spend it here among the forests.
+Telepi also brought me a little silver money from my wife, for
+bank-notes were of no use here. She also sent me some coffee. That, too,
+was not to be had here, and I am fond of it in the morning. In the
+course of the conversation, Telepi inadvertently let out that my wife
+had sold her emeralds, had gone into pokey lodgings, and was living very
+sparingly. "But what's the good of fretting?" he added. "The God of the
+Magyars is still alive!" I shall never forget that jocose, smiling face,
+when, in the midst of his magnanimous assurances, a tear suddenly rolled
+down his round, red countenance!
+
+Then I gave all the pictures I had painted hitherto to Telepi, that he
+might take them home to my wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE MEETING AT THE PAGAN ALTAR
+
+
+After Telepi had gone back, a deep melancholy took possession of me.
+
+My wife was ill, and I had never even dreamt of the possibility of such
+a thing. What if she were to die without being able to exchange a last
+adieu? She wants to set me free, she says; but how? She cannot tell me.
+She cannot tell anybody. Why should she have any secrets from me? Ah!
+that green-eyed monster is a bad guide to the imagination. A celebrated
+actress can so readily find protectors. Perhaps they are men in
+authority, who hold life and death in their hands. Oh, eternal darkness,
+do not deprive me of the light of my reason! Suppose I were to gain
+readmittance into the world at such a price as that! This condition of
+mind was becoming absolutely unendurable.
+
+Sometimes the desire seized me to rush out of the forest, knock at the
+door of the first Commandant I came to, and give up my name: "I am that
+notorious rebel--take my head, I'll pay the price!"
+
+But my given word, my word of honour, held me back. Ah! a man's word of
+honour must be kept, even though it be only given to his wife.
+
+I had promised to go nowhere. But surely the forest is nowhere, and that
+Precipice Stone is, indeed, the most out-of-the-way nowhere in the whole
+world. Thither no man ever goes. Thither at least I am free to go.
+
+My first, not very successful, picture of the great panorama I had sent
+to my wife. I would now have another try at it.
+
+One fine autumn morning I again took up my lead-loaded stick, and said
+to my dear good hostess that she was not to expect me home to dinner
+that day, as I was going to scramble up to the Pagan Altar and sketch
+there.
+
+The gentry call this rocky pinnacle the Pagan Altar; the peasants call
+it the Precipice Stone.
+
+"But don't stay long," said Mrs. Csanyi; "suppose your dearest were to
+arrive in the meantime?"
+
+My dearest! As if she thought of seeking me out! They only put me off
+with promises, just as they tell a sick child that he shall have a
+rocking-horse when he gets well. It was exactly seven weeks since she
+had left me. What an endless time!
+
+I made my way at once towards the linden spring, and thence up the
+forest hill-side by the often-trodden familiar path. The nuts came
+showering down; the frost had already tweaked the Cornelian cherries. I
+crammed my knapsack full of both: I shall have a luxurious banquet
+to-day. I also found a large coral-coloured mushroom; roasted in embers,
+it would make a tit-bit worthy of a gourmet.
+
+It was about ten o'clock when I got up to the Pagan Altar.
+
+When I went out upon the rocky ledge, a truly wondrous scene spread
+itself out before me; it was quite certain that _I_ should never be able
+to paint it. The whole kingdom was under the sea! The autumn mist, like
+a snow-cloud, covered the whole landscape to the very horizon, from
+which towered vast snowy peaks and snowy cupolas; in other places the
+misty mantle resembled frozen waves, out of which here and there rose
+round, blackish islands, the peaks of the higher mountains. It was a
+faithful image of reality: nothingness. There was nothing left now.
+
+I could calculate pretty surely on the mist descending at midday, and
+painting field and forest with frost; but till then I could sketch
+nothing.
+
+So I lay down upon the rocky ledge, and marvelled at this motionless,
+huge, white winding-sheet which covered a whole realm. I had no thought
+of eating now. I hung up my knapsack with my bread and bacon on a
+spruce-fir tree, and when I had looked my fill of wonder at the sea of
+mist, I watched the itinerant ants who, following their regular road,
+crept right over my body, never troubling themselves very much about the
+circumstance that a giant, like a mountain range, lay right across their
+path.
+
+At this height not even the thrush's whistle broke the stillness.
+
+The sun shone down. Not a breeze was stirring. My head was resting on a
+large green mossy stone; I felt like dropping off to sleep.
+
+All at once, as if I really were dreaming, from somewhere not very far
+off a song rang out:--
+
+    "Lo! on the mountain top
+      A valiant man doth stand,
+    And on his trusty weapon rests
+      His stalwart good right hand."
+
+It was a man's voice, and I seemed to recognise it.
+
+My first feeling was joy. I was about to meet some old acquaintance in
+that vast wilderness. It only occurred to me afterwards that this would
+be contrary to my compact. I was to meet no man who could possibly
+recognise me.
+
+But it was too late to avoid him now. Only one single path led up to the
+summit of the Precipice Stone, whether one came from Tordona or from
+Malyinka, and my songster was evidently coming from the latter place.
+
+The next verse of the song sounded very much nearer:--
+
+    "Lo! on his _kalpag_[69] see
+      A blood-red nodding plume;
+    A mantle black surrounds his neck,
+      His wild eye lowers with gloom."
+
+    [Footnote 69: The tall fur hat, generally plumed, which
+    forms part of the Hungarian national costume.]
+
+And now I heard a woman's voice also.
+
+Some one was telling the singer not to sing while climbing.
+
+So there was a pair of them!
+
+And as the singer gradually mounted higher and higher, his figure also
+became visible from behind the rocky ledge.
+
+    "Presumptuous mortal, quake and fear
+    When thou his awful name dost hear:
+        Diavolo, Diavolo, Diavolo!"
+
+Yet nobody quaked so much as Fra Diavolo himself, when he perceived a
+human shape stretched before him on the ground as he scaled the very
+summit of the rocky ledge.
+
+And certainly I was not a very reassuring spectacle, as, with my
+sheepskin cap pressed closely to my head, and a large cudgel in my fist,
+I slowly rose from my knees.
+
+I recognised him before he recognised me.
+
+"Your servant, Balvanyossi! Why, how did you manage to get here, where
+not even the bird that flies can come?"
+
+Then his terror was turned into joy.
+
+"Ah, ha! my poet-friend! What a divine encounter here in Heaven above!"
+With that he hastened up to me and we embraced.
+
+By this time his lady companion had also got the better of the rocky
+zig-zag which led up to the mountain ledge.
+
+It was now the turn of my own heart to stop beating. That female shape
+was Bessy--the sea-eyed beauty!
+
+How came they two to be together? How came they to be both here at the
+same time?
+
+But it was no vision. The fair lady recognised me instantly. Her face,
+red already from her mountain scramble, could be no redder at the sight
+of me, nor could her bosom heave more than it was heaving now; but on
+her face there was a sort of holding-back expression.
+
+Friend Valentine perceived the look of amazed inquiry on my face, and
+turning with true histrionic humour towards his lady-companion,
+introduced her to me with the words, "My grandmother!"
+
+At this witticism the lady laughed, and I had sufficient self-control
+not to reply to this introduction with a single word.
+
+"Then come to my bosom, my son, for I am thy grandfather."
+
+"It is very strange we should meet here," I put in.
+
+But my friend's features suddenly darkened as if he were obeying a stage
+direction like, "here he suddenly assumes a grave face."
+
+"First of all, my dear friend," said he, "I demand your word of honour
+not to reveal to any one in the created world that you have seen me. You
+know that I am now Tihamer Rengetegi till the old blonde hair grow again
+(what I'm wearing now is a wig); for a heavy price is fixed upon my
+head. A word, and I am lost. Your _parole_ that you'll say nothing about
+me?"
+
+"The promise must be mutual, then," I replied. "I just as solemnly
+require you to say not a word to anybody about me, for I also am in
+hiding here."
+
+At this he began to laugh. It was a stage laugh, for he placed his hand
+on his stomach, crooked his back, and turned upon his heel, choking with
+laughter.
+
+"And you also are hiding away here from the Germans! Well, that _is_ a
+joke!"
+
+I inquired somewhat brusquely what there was to laugh at.
+
+"Why, at your hiding--hiding away from the Imperialists. You, of all
+people! Why, don't you know, then, that very many deputies defended
+themselves before the court-martials by declaring themselves former
+contributors to your _Esti Lap_?[70] Why, every one knows that you were
+the organ of the peace party at Debreczin. Every one is well aware that
+you were the ally of the Imperialists."
+
+[Footnote 70: _Evening News_.]
+
+At this I at once flew into a rage.
+
+"Have you ever seen the _Esti Lap_?"
+
+"No, I've not actually _seen_ it, but it was the general opinion among
+us soldiers that you were higgling with the Imperialists."
+
+At this Bessy intervened by giving a good tug at her friend's collar.
+
+"Rubbish! Such rumours are only circulated by pot-house heroes like
+yourself. He certainly was no traitor! Would that all who open their
+mouths so loudly were as good patriots?"
+
+My friend, with sheepish obsequiousness, hastened to readjust his
+opinion to the satisfaction of his "grandmother."
+
+"Good, good! I never believed a word of it myself--why should I?" said
+he.
+
+"The best proof that I am not what calumny would make me is the fact of
+my meeting you here at the Pagan Altar; and again I beg of you to tell
+nobody that we have met."
+
+Here Bessy again intervened.
+
+"I'll answer for that. I shall now be constantly at the side of this
+honest gentleman, and if his tongue begins to wag, my hand will be ready
+to stop it for him."
+
+Mr. Valentine laughed.
+
+"What a woman it is! She really has a most rapid hand. Not a day passes
+but she lets me feel the weight of her palm."
+
+At this I made a very critical face. My good friend could read very well
+from it that I wished to know by what right his cheeks were allowed to
+feel the force of Bessy's rosy palms day by day.
+
+"We met together in camp, and the field-chaplain blessed our union to
+the roaring of guns and the beating of drums."
+
+That was right enough, surely!
+
+Bessy's eyes were raised towards me as if she could add a great deal to
+this short history. Friend Valentine thought it good to become loudly
+enthusiastic.
+
+"What a woman, my friend! A heroine! A perfect Jeanne d'Arc! We were
+bound together by a whole chain of wonders and exploits. She was not my
+consort--nay! she was much more, my companion in arms. I'll tell you the
+whole thing one of these days."
+
+"That will do...."
+
+"What? That will do? Are you, then, so poor-spirited? _I_ am ready to
+meet the spectres of the darkness face to face. I'll set in motion the
+avalanche which shall wrench the world from its hinges."
+
+I left him to set his avalanche in motion while I went to gather dry
+twigs and leaves and make a heap of them. Meanwhile Valentine declaimed
+to the clouds.
+
+"What a spectacle! The whole realm a sea! We stand alone, like the
+co-operating Demiurges at the creation, in the face of chaos."
+
+"Have you got your troupe together?" I inquired, thus bringing him down
+at once from his pedestal.
+
+"My troupe? That's just what I am going about now. Brutus must play the
+fool until his day has come. But when once the hour of retribution
+arrives, we will rise as one man and win back our outraged liberties."
+
+"With my bludgeon, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, not with that sort of thing," said friend Valentine, with haughty
+condescension. "I have no secret to hide from you. An American hero of
+freedom has invented a weapon which, placed in the hand of a simple
+citizen, will give him an irresistible advantage over the hireling
+soldiery. Its English name is 'revolver.' I have one by me. Thanks to my
+acquaintances beyond the ocean, I have managed to provide myself with
+it. Look here!"
+
+With that he produced from his side pocket a pistol, the like of which I
+had never seen before. It was the Colt revolver, for discharging five
+shots. You loaded it in front, and with this object in view, you had to
+shove out the cartridge cylinder and sprinkle powder out of the
+powder-flask in every loop-hole; at the end of the bullet was a nail,
+which had to be made firm with a cork-stopper, then the bullet had to be
+driven into the barrel by means of a hammer and ramrod, then the
+cartridge cylinder had to be fastened down again into its place, and
+pyramids of priming powder piled on the top of it--while the enemy was
+supposed to be looking on all the time and watching good-naturedly to
+see what would come of it all.
+
+Friend Valentine had immense confidence in his wondrous firearm.
+
+"You can see that I am prepared for every conceivable emergency. My
+faith, I will sell my life dearly! I may tell _you_, for you will not
+betray me. Beneath this Pagan Altar is a cave, the existence of which is
+known only to the initiated. I have selected it for my hiding-place.
+When the chase against me begins, and a whole brigade of gendarmes
+marches out to seize me, I will creep into this cave; victuals and
+brandy for a whole week are already there for me; let them riot round me
+then as they like."
+
+I could not help laughing at these wise precautions. But friend
+Valentine's explanations became still more fiery.
+
+"My friend! a single narrow little path leads to this cave. The bears
+used possibly to resort thither in the days when bears camped in the
+beech districts. If they attempt to storm me there, I can defend myself
+with this revolver against a whole host."
+
+All this time I had been employed in piling up a nice little heap of dry
+twigs and leaves, which I now set on fire with my flint and steel.
+
+Friend Valentine caught me nervously by the hand.
+
+"What are you doing, my friend?"
+
+"Lighting a fire, my friend."
+
+"Why, my friend?"
+
+"To cook bacon with, my friend."
+
+"They will see the blaze of our fire from below."
+
+"How _can_ they see when the mist is so thick there?"
+
+He admitted that I was right, and allowed me to ignite my heap, which
+immediately began to crackle merrily.
+
+Meanwhile, friend Valentine went and stood on the edge of the Precipice
+Stone to watch the mist, and from time to time informed me of the
+changes of scene that were going on: now the mists were beginning to
+break, now they were rising, the houses would be visible almost
+immediately.
+
+And all the time I was toasting slices of bread by the fire, and after
+that slices of bacon, allowing the bacon fat to drip gradually down and
+soak through the toast with a deftness that would have done honour to a
+professional cook.
+
+Bessy took it into her head to follow my example.
+
+"Give me the bread and bacon out of the knapsack," said she to
+Valentine.
+
+"But what necessity for it is there now?"
+
+"I must have it at once."
+
+And with that she went up to him and began rummaging in the knapsack.
+
+"Why, what a prosaic nature is yours!" said Valentine reproachfully to
+the lady. "At such a sublime moment, too, in the presence of such a
+glorious spectacle! Just look at that magnificent scene! The whole of
+the cloud of mist is rising like a stage curtain. The gigantic theatre
+appears like magic from behind the hanging cloudy tapestries. Behold the
+sunlit heights, the white shimmering houses. And now a fresh
+mountain-chain emerges crowned with dim forests. Just as if they were of
+massive gold...."
+
+"Give me the bacon, I say."
+
+"My heart, my blood is thine, but ask me not for bacon! Look how the
+earth rises up before us; nothing but mountains, mountains, mountains!
+Still nothing to be seen of the dome of Heaven! And that deep divine
+calm around us! Only from the distant forge resounds the measured thud
+of the sledge hammer, as though one heard the throbbing of the heart of
+the universe! And does not thine own heart beat faster in this sublime
+place?"
+
+"It throbs, it throbs! Right sorely does it throb! But we'll look at the
+august spectacle a little later."
+
+"What! Not look when an instant like this is worth a world?"
+
+The natural phenomenon before us really was very fine, as the whole
+misty cloud rose swiftly from the mountains, covering with a deep shadow
+the sky that up to that moment had been shining bright and blue before
+us, and at the same time unfolding before us the muffled panorama of
+hill behind hill beneath our feet; the solar rays, like the broad
+diverging spokes of a huge wheel, shot down from the cloudy rifts with a
+milky sort of glare. It would really have been a majestic scene but for
+the false, disturbing pathos of friend Valentine.
+
+"Nay, nay! I cannot view it standing on my feet! Here one should go down
+upon one's knees. Here the gods themselves walk abroad!"
+
+Valentine plumped down upon his knees, and because Bessy would not
+follow his example, he wound his arm around her and clasped her to his
+breast. She, however, was impatient at his insipid vapourings.
+
+"You are just like that professor," said she, "who held up his oil-lamp
+against the moon that his guests might see her better."
+
+"Elizabeth!" sighed the Celadon bitterly (Bessy was a name which could
+not be emphasized with sighs so well as Elizabeth), "dost thou not
+remember that solemn moment when we said to one another, 'How sweet it
+would be to die together this instant'? Has not our common friend said
+(here he looked at me), 'A good death is better than a bad life'? Come,
+let us verify that saying: wrapped in each other's embrace, heart
+throbbing responsive to heart, a dizziness, a plunge forward from this
+rock, and then a delicious flight whose goal will be the stars!"
+
+"Go away with you! Don't make a fool of yourself! I have no wish to
+plunge into Heaven!"
+
+"But I'll bear thee thither with me like a Valkyrian. And thou, my
+friend, wilt immortalize our final catastrophe in a heroic ballad."
+
+And with that he seized the lady by the arm, and rushed with her upon
+the steep rocky ledge.
+
+"Hast thou said thy prayers to-day, Desdemona?"
+
+Bessy looked towards me with a timid look. I pretended to observe
+nothing. What had I to do with these amorous passages? I was frizzling
+bacon.
+
+"Dost thou doubt me capable of dying with thee at this moment?" cried
+Valentine Balvanyossi, with his wig awry over his eyes.
+
+Then the lady cried with a supplicating voice: "Nay; but help me, dear
+Maurice!"
+
+"Very well, I _will_ help you," thought I; "I did it once before, so you
+say. Poets have long arms."
+
+"Friend Valentine," said I, without rising from my squatting position
+beside the frizzling bacon, "don't you see those two men with muskets
+coming up this way along the mountain path?"
+
+"Wha-a-at, two m-m-men with mus-us-kets?" said the hero, his rumbling
+bass-baritone voice suddenly dwindling into a piping treble. "Where are
+they?" All his longing for death had instantly vanished, and he
+immediately released his victim from his embrace.
+
+I indicated the approaching strangers with my toasting-fork. "There!"
+
+Then he also saw them.
+
+"Br-r-rother, those are gend-end-end-armes!"
+
+"Possibly they _are_ gend-end-armes, for there are two of them."
+
+"Put out the fire at once!"
+
+"I would if I could, but I can't now. And if I did, what good would that
+do? They have seen it already."
+
+"I told you not to make a fire here."
+
+But now Bessy turned furiously upon him.
+
+"It is your stagey spouting that has saddled us with them. What business
+had you to go declaiming on the mountain tops? The people fancy you are
+murdering some one."
+
+"They are coming straight towards us," gasped friend Valentine. "If they
+get hold of me, I am lost."
+
+I tried to reassure him: "Come, come! recollect there are two of us;
+with my loaded cudgel and your revolver we shall offer a stubborn
+resistance."
+
+"Br-r-other, they have guns which hit at four hundred yards, while my
+revolver has only a range of thirty, and it doesn't always hit the mark
+even then. We cannot risk so much. It is quite another thing when I am
+in the dark cave, and they are out in the light, for then I can see
+them, but they can't see me."
+
+"Then you'll hide away in your cave, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, not for my own life's sake, but for the sake of my country, whose
+fate I carry in my bosom. The heels of my boots are full of secret
+despatches from England and Turkey. I am not free to stake everything so
+lightly."
+
+"Well, go and hide yourself, by all means!"
+
+But then Bessy put in a word: "'Tis all very well, but what's to become
+of me. I cannot crawl on all fours into your big bear-garden."
+
+"Nor would I allow it. Is not our common friend here? He will remain
+here. _You_ will not run away, will you? I am sure they don't know you.
+Your portrait has appeared nowhere, but mine has gone from hand to hand.
+A full description of my personal appearance flutters at every street
+corner. If they come, say that it was you who kicked up that row; say
+that she is your wife."
+
+"I won't say that."
+
+"Then do what you like. I rely upon you, mind!"
+
+"That's all very well," cried Bessy peevishly, "but what will happen
+afterwards? If you remain in your hole, and our good friend goes home,
+what am I to do all alone here by myself on the top of a rock? I shall
+never find my way home through this wood."
+
+Then my friend, with cheap generosity, made this magnanimous offer:--
+
+"Dear friend, take her home with you."
+
+So that was to be the _denouement_ of this odd drama!
+
+"No, my magnanimous friend. Not so! You go and reserve yourself for
+posterity. We two will remain here. One of two things is bound to
+happen. If those two men, armed with muskets, find me painting pictures
+in my album, they will believe either that I am a simple painter (they
+know that Karoly Telepi is wandering about on a sketching tour here, and
+they'll take me for him, and Bessy for--my sister); or they'll not
+believe anything of the kind, and in that case they'll escort us both to
+Miskolcz. In the latter case you need have no fear of turning back. If,
+on the other hand, after the lapse of a few hours, you creep out of your
+cave and see me sitting as before, on the rocky ledge, and peaceably
+continuing my sketching, then you will know that the armed invasion has
+passed on further, and you can come back again to the Lady Elizabeth.
+Then I'll give you my blessing, and we'll return from whence we
+came--you to the east, I to the west."
+
+With this he was satisfied.
+
+"But don't betray me!" he murmured, casting a terrified look upon us;
+"even though they hale you off to the block, don't say where I am."
+
+I gave him my word of honour that not even the Spanish boot should
+extort his secret from me, whereupon he went gingerly down upon all
+fours, scrambled up the rocky summit by the corkscrew path, and vanished
+among the bushes.
+
+"Ugh! I only wish he hadn't taken the bread and bacon along with him!"
+lamented the girl he left behind him.
+
+"I'll share mine with you; there's enough for two."
+
+And with that I seized my crooked clasp-knife, cut the slice of bread in
+two, minced the bacon into little bits, and sprinkled it with salt and
+pepper.
+
+Nor was that all. I rubbed both sides of the toasted bacon with a knob
+of garlic. It was a sort of Oriental language of flowers. I meant to
+remind her that her ideal of a man was one who did not rinse his mouth
+after eating garlic.
+
+Thus we were alone on the summit of the Pagan Altar, crouching together
+beside a fire of burning embers, and dividing a piece of toast and a
+slice of bacon--I and the former mistress of my heart.
+
+That "former" was not so very long ago. It was scarcely three years
+since the golden thrushes mingled their songs with our chats. The
+idyllic contemplation of the matter, however, was considerably disturbed
+by the concrete circumstance that, during these three years, a third
+masterpiece of creation had found in my former paragon the rib that had
+been subtracted from him while he slept. Her first venture was a
+fashionable fop, her second an Antinous of the wilderness, her third was
+now a stage Othello.
+
+And our feelings were still further subdued by the disagreeable tension
+occasioned by the approach towards us of two armed men, who kept on
+popping up before us in the clearings of the forest, now here, now
+there, but continually drawing nearer to the Pagan Altar. There could
+not now be a doubt that they were making towards us.
+
+"It would be as well if I set to work and sketched something in my album
+while they are approaching," said I, "in case they inquire what I am
+doing here."
+
+With that, I sat down on the steep rocky ledge, placed my sketch-book on
+my knee, and designed the contours of my picture on a grand scale.
+
+The lady sat down close beside me, and observed how I looked now on the
+hills and now on my paper--but never into her fine eyes.
+
+We did not exchange a word with each other, not a single word.
+
+At last, however, I grew impatient of the silence, and without looking
+up from my sketch, I said to her: "I really thought that by this time
+you and Peter Gyuricza had filled the whole world full of butter and
+cheese."
+
+But then, with both her hands, she seized my sketching hand, so that I
+had to leave off my work, and said, with a mournful voice:
+
+"You have the most sovereign contempt for me now, eh? But if I were to
+tell you what frightful calamities I have gone through since last we
+met, then I am sure you would have compassion on me."
+
+I told her that if she liked to speak, I could now listen, as I had
+plenty of time.
+
+"You remember when last we met, don't you? When you banged the door in
+my face, I mean--though, God knows, I only meant to do you good then. I
+never meant to make you so angry, and immediately made the best of my
+way home to the hut of Peter Gyuricza. Ah! how sorry I then was that I
+had not pleaded my cause with you better. I had another reason for going
+to you. When the lawyers took up my case, the fair-haired partner
+offered me a little money, which I might repay him, he said, when I
+gained my suit. But I chose to ride the high horse, and rejected the
+proffered money, although I had really nothing about me but three
+_huszases_,[71] which I had saved from the proceeds of the butter. That
+was not even enough for the steam-boat. A couple of florins or so would
+have done. But, of course, when you drove me out of your room I had to
+do without."
+
+[Footnote 71: The _husza_--20 kreutzers.]
+
+"I am very sorry that I did not guess your need."
+
+"Still more sorry was I. I was obliged, in my straits, to climb into the
+cart of a poulterer who was going to Vienna, and who, for two of my
+_huszases_, found a place for me among the hen-coops. I still had a few
+_garashes_[72] for my journey, which were sufficient to pay for the
+straw on which I slept at the inns where we descended. On the third day
+I arrived safely at Uj-Szony, and by that time I had eaten the last bit
+of bread and cheese in my basket. In front of the inn stood a lame and
+paralysed beggar, who begged alms of me in God's name. I had only two
+kreutzers still left. I kept back one kreutzer from the beggar, for I
+knew that I should have to pay a toll on the bridge. Now, that was your
+fault, look you. You might have inserted a paragraph in the Twelve
+Articles of Pest abolishing the tolls."
+
+[Footnote 72: A _garash_--3 kreutzers.]
+
+I was furious. I had to erase half my drawing. Bessy laughed at my
+misfortune, and at her own also. Then she proceeded:--
+
+"From thence I had to make my way home on foot. I could go right along
+by the banks of the Danube without entering the town. I did not meet a
+single acquaintance. In front of me I saw a large group of National
+Guards in blue attilas, hastening rapidly towards the fortress amidst
+the beating of drums. It must have been a serious business which
+prevented them from looking at a pretty woman. Then I went nicely and
+quietly along the well-known way. Like the egg-selling woman in the
+fairy-tale, I began to consider what I would do when I got back my
+patrimony. I would go with my Gyuricza right away into Transylvania,
+there I would buy him a property, where he might rear as many cattle as
+he liked. I myself would learn to spin like the Pakular[73] women: my
+husband should wear clothes of my own weaving. I would adorn my
+bedchamber with embroidered napkins, hang varnished vases all round, and
+there should be rows of pewter dishes on every shelf. We should have our
+plum-orchard too, and from the plums I would make _palinka_. I would
+keep bees, and make mead, and bake honey-cakes, which Peter loves so
+much when he can get them at the fair. All this time I had never noticed
+that I was getting quite close to the hut. It was drawing towards
+evening, and smoke was coming from the chimney. No doubt the little
+serving-maid was cooking supper according to my directions. How
+surprised Peter would be when I brought his flesh-pot out to him in the
+pastures! When I entered the hut I found by the hearth--nobody. I went
+into the room. What do I see? My Peter Gyuricza sitting at the
+table--with his wife; and they were supping sweetly together out of the
+same dish, like two turtle-doves!"
+
+[Footnote 73: A village in Transylvania, chiefly inhabited by
+Wallachs.--TR.]
+
+("Aha!" I murmured, "poetic justice with a vengeance; I myself could not
+have devised a happier _denouement_.")
+
+"Everything became green and blue before my eyes. My throat contracted.
+I was incapable of uttering a word. But the tongue of the little peasant
+woman wagged all the brisker. No sooner did she see me than she bounced
+from her place, cocked her _haube_ on the side of her head, stuck her
+arms akimbo, and fell foul of me.
+
+"'Ah, ha! my dear precious lady! I suppose 'tis Carnival time, since you
+come masquerading hither like that! Perhaps you've come because you've
+lost something here, eh? A shawl, perhaps? A very pretty little
+ladyship, that I _will_ say! Haven't you got a nice enough lord and
+master of your own at home? Must you befool the poor peasant also? Or if
+your lawful husband is not enough for you, can't you go and choose
+another from among the cavaliers of your own rank? You hanker after
+laying your little stuck-up noddle on my patch-pillow, eh? You ought to
+be ashamed of yourself!'
+
+"I was dumbfoundered. This face of a fury, with the eyes sticking out of
+its head, robbed me of all my pluck. In my despair and doubt I looked at
+Peter.
+
+"He all this time was sitting with his elbows on the table and
+swallowing one dumpling after another.
+
+"'Is this justice, Peter?' stammered I, half-sobbing; 'will you let me
+be treated like this?'
+
+"At this he struck the table with his fist a mighty blow and roared at
+his wife: 'Woman! Shut up! Hold your tongue! Sit down at that table and
+fill your stomach! I'll speak now.'
+
+"The woman sulked in silence, but, even while her husband was speaking,
+she could not forbear putting in a word or two here and there, such as:
+'She has worn out my dress, too!--I didn't steal that! My lovely chintz
+dress! How she has rumpled it! Just as if she had been tumbling it about
+in every pot-house!'
+
+"But Peter spoke very sagely.
+
+"'My lady, I beg pardon! I know what honour is. I was once a soldier. I
+know my duty. What won't match can't match. A horse and an ox won't draw
+together. A peasant woman's meet for a peasant, a lady's meet for a
+gentleman. Now did I ever so much as raise my little finger to your
+ladyship? You know I didn't. And yet how many times haven't you ruined
+the butter? You never moistened the maize. The pigs wouldn't eat it
+because it set their teeth on edge, for you threw them hard raw grain.
+This won't do, you know! When the cows calve, who'll be there to see to
+them? And who is there to clean out the furnace? The mice have gnawed
+away the sleeves of my jacket, it's all in rags. Besides that, I have
+got into the way of saying, "Hie, you Jutka! d'ye hear?" and then she
+knows very well what her duty is; and when I strike her she makes no
+bones about it, either. I couldn't live without thrashing her
+occasionally; it does my back good, which would else grow double; and
+she always knows how to come round me again.'"
+
+I threw my sketch-book and my palette out of my hand, and flung myself
+down on my back, I laughed so much. How could I help laughing? Bessy
+laughed too.
+
+"I can laugh mightily at it now, but situated as I was then, his words
+were so many lashes. At last I flew into a rage and attacked Peter.
+
+"'Can't you say straight out that Muki Bagotay has bribed you to take
+back your wife, whom you drove away on his account?'
+
+"'Oh, I humbly beg your pardon, you must not say that I am bribed. I am
+an upright man. His honour, my lord Bagotay, gave me ten head of oxen as
+a gift, but he didn't bribe me.'
+
+"My heart was ready to break at these words.
+
+"Ten head of oxen indeed! For the sake of this peasant I had sacrificed
+my whole existence, the world in which I had hitherto lived, the respect
+of my acquaintances, my ease and comfort. I had made the earnest resolve
+to become a peasant woman for his sake, to work, do without things,
+suffer penury, and when once I had recovered my property, to give it all
+to him, make him a gentleman according to _his_ notion of a gentleman,
+and the wretched creature had bartered me for ten oxen!"
+
+I hastened to explain to Bessy that this was really the legally
+appointed fine for adultery in case the affair came to be settled.
+Verboczy[74] says: "_Raptor solvat decem juvencos._"--"The seducer must
+pay ten oxen."
+
+[Footnote 74: The great Hungarian jurist (1460-1541), and one of the
+most eminent statesmen of his day. His _opus magnum_, entitled
+"Tripartitum opus juris consultudinarii inclyti regni Hungariae," was
+first published in 1517.--TR.]
+
+Bessy then proceeded:--
+
+"Peter next began to give me counsels worthy of a patriarch.
+
+"'My lady, I've only one thing to say. Go back to his lordship. God's my
+witness that nothing will befall you. Say now, Jutka--come, on your soul
+be honest--have I so much as touched you with my little finger since you
+came back? His lordship, too, knows all about it. He will close one eye.
+Let's look upon the matter as if he and I had been wrestling together,
+and first one had had a fall and then the other. One box on the ears
+deserves another. So it is among men of honour!'"
+
+"Oh, don't make me laugh so, or I cannot go on sketching!" said I to
+Bessy, with the tears in my eyes.
+
+"I don't know what you can find to laugh at, I could cry for vexation
+even now."
+
+"Why, that of itself is enough to make one laugh!"
+
+Bessy continued:--
+
+"But then the woman began talking nicely to me, which was ever so much
+worse. 'Come, come, my dear, good, pretty lady, have respect for your
+nice, handsome, lawful lord. Why, what a fine gentleman it is! Why, if I
+hadn't my Peter ...'
+
+"'You manage to forget that, though, pretty often!' intervened Peter.
+
+"The long and short of it all was that I had to resume the clothes I had
+left behind me, and restore to Jutka the draggle-tail rags which she had
+charged me with spoiling. But what objection could I make? What belongs
+to another is his, so I began to strip off my frock and neckerchief
+before the pair of them straightaway.
+
+"The other woman then got a bit ashamed on my account. 'Let us go into
+the inner room,' said she; and drew me into the little chamber, and took
+out of her wardrobe the lordly raiment I had left there, and then helped
+me to dress. And all the time she was so mild, so friendly, and quite
+lost herself in rustic caresses and flatteries: 'Why, what a nice slim
+waist! What a shame that a mere clown should clasp it round! What lovely
+white shoulders! What a sin to ruin them by carrying about heavy loads!
+And how swollen the little feet are from much walking! Why, they'll
+scarcely go into the old dress-boot, I do declare! Why fly into such
+tantrums about such trifles! Good gracious me! suppose every lady who
+caught her lord with a little milkmaid were to carry on with the first
+clown that fell in her way! Things like that should not be taken so
+seriously. A man is but a man, especially if he is a gentleman! Why,
+I've seen _countesses_ even, whose husbands went on the loose. You
+expect too much, my dear! Chocolate is the nicest dish in the whole
+world; but if one were to give one's husband nothing but chocolate every
+day, he would soon loathe the very sight of it. Come, come! go home,
+dear heart, my darling ladykin, to your dear good lord and master, and
+you'll see how heartily he'll receive you!'
+
+"I replied that I would never go back to him again. I wept for shame.
+The woman guessed the cause of my tears.
+
+"'Come, come, good heart! Why, my lady, we'll all of us agree to deny
+that this little holiday ever happened. We were talking about it just
+now. We'll lie the thing away, and say that your ladyship only wanted to
+frighten the good gentleman, and that you were hiding the whole time at
+the house of the local magistrate.'
+
+"And how about the flower-selling in the market-place, and the promenade
+through the waters?'
+
+"'We'll say that that was only done out of spite. How should a dirty
+clown like my husband presume to cast his eyes on such a precious
+treasure as your ladyship? Why, anybody who could believe such a thing
+would be called a downright fool. We'll put it all to rights finely.'
+
+"'But a separation suit is already going on?'
+
+"'Your ladyship needn't trouble your head about that. His honour has
+withdrawn his complaint. Yes, I declare he has. He told me he was in
+great embarrassment. He had been deprived of his tithes and land tax,
+and did not know whither to turn for money. The gentlemen up at Pest had
+reintroduced the _morgatorium_, or whatever the plaguy thing is called,
+which as good as said that all the old debts were not to be paid, but
+that no new debts were to be made. Now, if he is divorced from your
+ladyship, he will have to pay you back your 100,000 florins, and then
+he'll be ruined. That's a fact.'
+
+"A light began to dawn upon me. This garrulous little peasant woman had
+let out the secret why my idyll had terminated so abruptly. A very
+pretty twice-two certainly! They receive me back like a pupil returning
+to school after the vacation. For that very reason I resolved I would
+_not_ go back.
+
+"When I was dressed again in my old clothes, she opened the little door
+and readmitted me into the larger apartment. Peter was now tricked out
+in his grandest array. He had donned his Sunday mantle, drawn on his new
+boots, and stood before me hat in hand. He was as humble as a lackey. He
+kissed my hand, and I noticed now for the first time how very bristly
+his chin was. When he spoke it sounded like the whining voice of a
+burnt-out beggar-man who stands at the stable-door and begs an alms.
+
+"'I kiss your gracious hands, my lady. I humbly beg pardon if I have
+offended you in any way. I didn't mean to do it. Forgive me my fault,
+and I'll never do it again.'
+
+"At this I knew not whether to laugh or to cry.
+
+"Then he got quite touched, and wiped his eyes with the flapping sleeves
+of his shirt.
+
+"Behind the door stood a stout willow-wood stick, which he laid hold of.
+I wondered what he was going to do with it. Would he give it to me as a
+staff for my pilgrimage?
+
+"'Permit me, your ladyship, to accompany you as far as the castle. Some
+evil might befall you on the way. There are bad men about. The dogs
+might bark at you, and the bull is quite savage.'
+
+"'But I am not going to the castle,' I said.
+
+"He gaped at me. 'Whither away, then?'
+
+"'That's my business! The road goes up, and the road goes down. I'll go
+whichever way the wind blows.'
+
+"Then he rallied all the wisdom he possessed, and preached a sermon to
+me with all the unction of an Old Testament patriarch.
+
+"'Don't do that, my dear good lady! Don't grieve your good and loving
+lord! There's not a better man in the world. Allow me to accompany you
+home. I'll keep well behind--twenty yards if you like.'
+
+"I stamped my foot impatiently, and bawled at him to come away from the
+door and let me go my way.
+
+"Then it was that Peter showed his true colours.
+
+"'My lady, this cannot be! The good and worthy squire, when he gave me
+the ten oxen to take back my wife, said this to me: "Well! Peter
+Gyuricza, if you bring my wife home also, ten young calves shan't stand
+between us."'
+
+(The rocks and woods re-echoed with my laughter. I couldn't keep it
+back.)
+
+"Then my fury boiled over. You know that when I fly into a rage I am a
+perfect lioness, don't you? I snatched the stick from Peter Gyuricza's
+hand. 'Lubber, lout! I'll give you your ten young calves! There you are,
+take them!' I don't know whether I gave him exactly ten blows. I didn't
+count them. And the big lout of a man turned tail, rushed into the room,
+dodged round the table, and roared like a hippopotamus, while I broke
+the stick over his shoulders. His consort thought it best not to
+interfere, but leaped upon the bench and looked on. It was a real luxury
+for her to meet with some one who could thoroughly trounce her tyrant.
+
+"I only wish my previous journey had not fatigued me so much.
+
+"I began to recover a little when I found myself out in the fields, and
+the breeze blew the heat out of my head. My idyll had come to a pretty
+end. What was I to do now? One thing was certain, I could not return to
+Muki Bagotay.
+
+"But whither was I to go, then?
+
+"Before me lay the beautiful Danube. The road by the dam ran all the way
+along it. From time to time I leaned against an old willow-tree and
+looked at the great living-water. Now and then a fish would leap up into
+the air with a loud splash. I was not afraid of the water, but of the
+fishes I was afraid. I could not kill myself. I should have rejoiced, if
+that had been true with which they used to frighten us in our childish
+days when we leaned over the bank and looked into the water: Beware of
+the devil who lurks behind you and will push you in! But he didn't push
+me in. The devil can do nothing now. He cannot compete at all with the
+sons of men. But was it really worth while to kill myself for the sake
+of two such men as Muki Bagotay and Peter Gyuricza? No, my death would
+then have been as ridiculous as my life!
+
+"I thought I would go home to my mother. She couldn't exactly turn me
+out of doors. Let her punish me as she will--I'll humble myself; I'll
+bow down before her; I'll endure her wrath. After all, is she not my
+mother, and am I not her only child? She cannot but love her little one.
+From any one else I could not expect to find pity or love. Why, I even
+hated myself!
+
+"With these thoughts I set off towards the town.
+
+"It was baking hot. A strong south wind was blowing, as dry and burning
+as if it had come out of a stove. Clouds of sand covered the whole
+region, and whenever a gust came, I had to take refuge under a
+willow-tree, lest I should be hurled into the dam. I can't say what time
+of the day it was, but I know that it was the forenoon to me, for I had
+eaten nothing yet that day. The Gyuriczas had forgotten to invite me to
+sit down to their dumplings.... To quench my thirst, I descended once or
+twice to the Danube and drank some water out of the palm of my hand. On
+the road-side I found a flower which I thought was a cheese-poppy. I
+tasted it, but it was very nasty. Weary as I was, I must hasten to get
+to the town as soon as possible. I should have been glad even of such a
+piece of bread as I used to distribute to the beggars at home on Friday.
+
+"I was hastening on towards the town, when suddenly a kind of darkness
+rose up before me in the sky, and on looking at it more attentively, I
+was horrified to observe that in the town a fire had broken out, the
+black smoke of which was rolling up into the dust-clouded sky.
+
+"The burning simoon blew back the black smoke upon the town. Great
+Heaven! the whole town will be reduced to ashes.
+
+"And now I began to run. I forgot that I was weary, I forgot that I was
+hungry. Fear lent me fresh strength. The nearer I got to the town the
+higher the smoke rolled up. Now, however, it was not black, but red.
+Millions of sparks shot flashing upwards, and huge fragments of flaming
+roofs were to be seen flying in the midst of them. When a tiled house
+caught fire, the burning tiles shivered like fiery rockets in every
+direction. A whole street was already in flames when I reached the town.
+Howling heaps of men, carts and carriages in full career, wailing women,
+children half crushed and suffocated, and in the midst of them all
+lowing kine and oxen wildly struggling back into their dark stables at
+the sight of the conflagration--the whole mass was rushing backwards and
+forwards in aimless confusion. I forced my way into a side street, lest
+I should be crushed to death, with the intention of getting home that
+way. Everywhere I encountered lamenting crowds attempting to drag along
+the streets the things they had saved from their houses. Nobody thought
+of extinguishing the flames. The burning embers fell in torrents. When I
+got to my mother's house I found it already wrapped in flames. It was
+the highest house in the street. A handful of Honveds were attempting to
+extinguish the flames. Others had mounted on the roof, and were throwing
+the furniture out of the windows. I saw a gold-framed picture flying
+through the air--it was the portrait of my poor father. Oh! he indeed
+used to love me. If he had only lived, I should not be what I am now.
+There were none but strange faces around me. In vain I asked them where
+my mother was. They had not heard of her. All at once a white-collared
+officer, some major or other I suppose, came up and cried to the
+fire-extinguishing Honveds, 'Why are you putting out that fire? It
+doesn't deserve it. It was there that the colonel lodged who set the
+town on fire! Leave the cursed hole alone, and go and protect the
+hospital!' I knew not whether I had gone mad or not. Why did they curse
+our house? The Honveds began execrating the name of a colonel who had
+often come to our _soirees_. If they recognise me, I thought, perhaps
+they'll pitch me into the fire also. One heavy cart after another
+rattled over my poor father's portrait. I couldn't even save that. I was
+aroused from my benumbing stupor by a frightful yell, the shout of
+thousands and thousands of men: 'Saint Andrew's Church is burning!' One
+of the slender towers of that vast cathedral was already in flames,
+while in the other the alarm-bells were ringing furiously. The mob
+carried me with it. Every one hastened along to save the church. But it
+was already too late. The other tower had also caught fire, the bells
+were silenced, the roof of the church was also ablaze. The beautiful
+church banners, which the guildsmen used to carry all round the town
+with great pomp on Corpus Christi day, were dragged out half charred
+amidst the falling firebrands. The heat was so terrible that one could
+not remain in the market-place. 'The whole town's done for!' cried the
+men. 'Let us fly to the island!' And with that the human flood poured
+through the narrow streets towards the Danube. The thought occurred to
+me that _there_ was a little villa which belonged to us. Happy thought!
+Perhaps I might find my mother there: she might have fled there for
+refuge. So I went along with the human torrent. By the time we got to
+the island drawbridge, it was impossible to get any farther through the
+densely packed crowd. Why were they coming back? Because the drawbridge
+was also burning. It was a terrible spectacle. The whole Danube shore
+was in flames, and the drawbridge leading to the island carried the
+conflagration still farther. The Danube was hissing with falling red-hot
+beams. Corn-ships, windmills, swam blazing along, and dashed against the
+ice-breakers. A band of armed Honveds posted by the custom-house kept
+the people back from rushing upon the burning bridge. They told us what
+had happened. There was a greater danger even than fire. An Imperial
+regiment had tried to creep quietly into the town. They were already at
+Tata. The citizens, however, had found it out, and raised the drawbridge
+against them. The troops, enraged at the failure of their stratagem, had
+set the town on fire. What a cursing there was! I heard one particular
+name branded again and again, the name of the colonel who was to have
+married my mother if the revolution had not intervened."
+
+I could not go on with my drawing. The mist no longer lay upon the
+landscape, but upon my eyes.
+
+The young lady continued circumstantially the history of those
+horrors:--
+
+"Then three cannon-shots thundered from the fortress. No doubt it was
+only a signal which the troops often give in times of fire. But at this
+roaring of guns the fear of the people became still greater. 'The enemy
+is storming the town!' At this the whole crowd, which had hitherto
+entirely covered the Danube's bank, immediately rushed back again into
+the burning town, through the flaming streets and the burning rafters.
+'To the Waag, to the Waag!'[75] everybody cried. In that direction there
+was a hope of deliverance. I am only amazed that I was not crushed to
+death. In my terror I seized hold of a boatman's arm, and the worthy
+man, whom I had never seen before, allowed me to cling on to him like
+grim death; assured me that he would take care I was not left behind,
+and dragged me along with him over the backs of the struggling mob."
+
+[Footnote 75: A confluent of the Danube.]
+
+Here she had to pause. The recollections of these horrors stopped her
+breath. Pearls of sweat stood upon her forehead. It was only after a
+very long pause that she was able to resume.
+
+"I shall never forget that day. The alarm-bells were still pealing from
+a single tower, the tower of the Calvinist church. All the other church
+towers were in ashes, this one alone remained. The wind was blowing in a
+contrary direction. The fire had not yet extended to that part of the
+town. Every one hastened in the direction of the Calvinist church tower.
+The streets in the vicinity of the fortress were barred against the
+flying crowd by the Honved regiments; the only street by which it was
+possible to get to the Waag was Sunday Street. This also was half in
+flames, but from where Great St. Michael Street cuts across it, it still
+remained untouched. Your house was the border building beyond which the
+fire had not yet extended, but the inn at the opposite corner was burned
+to the ground. Oh, that dear familiar house, with those cool corridors,
+and those red marble columns, on the iron cross-bars of which you, as a
+boy, so often used to show off your acrobatic feats before me! The
+thought occurred to me of seeking sanctuary there in my great extremity.
+At one time I was wont to be heartily welcomed there. It is true that I
+had sinned grievously against that house, and the lady had reproached me
+with it to my face. I _had laughed at her son_, and that laughter had
+driven him out into the world. But in seasons of great calamity wrath is
+forgotten. I would seek a refuge there with your mother. Such were my
+thoughts when I saw your mother's house. That sight I shall never
+forget. There stood the good old lady on the threshold of her house, in
+that very brown dress, that very frilled turban in which you painted her
+portrait. Whenever she recognised anybody among the flying crowd, she
+stopped him, and asked, 'Have you not seen my son?' and when he
+replied, 'I have not!' she would wring her hands and sob bitterly, 'Oh,
+Holy Father! why is not my son here?'"
+
+Alas! what was the matter with my eyes? They suddenly filled with
+something.
+
+The young lady continued her story:--
+
+"When I heard your mother saying these words, I was possessed with fresh
+horror. It never occurred to me that you had an elder brother who was
+the guardian of the orphan wards of the town, and that his proper place
+then was in the Town Hall, with the roof blazing over his head, trying
+to save the property of the orphans. I dared not go along that side of
+the street; I crossed over to the other side. Suppose she were to seize
+me also and ask: 'What have you done with my son? But for those
+accursed, colour-shifting eyes of yours, he would now be beside me, he
+would never have left me all alone!' I dared not, I dared not meet her
+eye. I would rather endure the sight of my own mother's angry face than
+the tearful look of your mother. I hid my face in my hands, and hurried
+past."
+
+She could say no more. She let her face fall on my breast, and sobbed
+aloud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT
+
+
+When she again lifted up her face, her eyes were like a somnambulist's
+gazing fixedly in the moonlight. They appeared absolutely dark-blue, so
+much were the irises distended. Her voice was quite low.
+
+"The whole picture is still vividly before my eyes. The greater part of
+the town was in flames. It must have been evening. The sound of the
+clock in the Calvinist church tower mingled with the peal of the
+alarm-bells. The clock struck eight, the alarm-bells five. The people
+counted the strokes: exactly thirteen. The sun shone no longer, but the
+whole vault of heaven was alight; the fiery reflection of the thick
+clouds of smoke made a hellish daylight, and in the midst of this
+terrible illumination, like some dread idol, rose the tower of the
+Calvinist church, with its large copper roof, and its spire with the
+great gold ball and star. Star and ball glowed like phantoms from the
+world beyond the grave. The crackling of the fire roared down the
+howling of the beasts and the cries of ten thousand terrified men. In
+that part of the town where the carters dwelt, carts, horses and oxen,
+and their owners were all huddled together in one dense mass. To move
+was an impossibility. Then upon this howling, cursing, blaspheming
+multitude came pouring that mass of men which had fought its way from
+the banks of the Danube through the burning town, with the terrifying
+cry, 'The enemy has attacked the town!' By this time the alarming rumour
+had gained such proportions that there were those who said they had
+actually seen the enemy's soldiers entering the town. 'They are burning,
+they are plundering--fly! fly!' Some even exclaimed, 'They are about to
+bombard the captured town from the fortress!' All at once the whole
+street, as far as the Waag bridge, was filled with flying vehicles. In
+my terror I had clutched hold of the mud-splasher of one of these
+vehicles as it came tearing along, and ran along after it till there was
+scarcely a breath left in my body. My light buskins were completely worn
+off my feet and full of gravel. I had no time to stop and empty them.
+This particular carriage had excellent horses in it, and the coachman
+did not spare his whip. Two women, dressed in peasants' hoods, were
+sitting in this carriage. I was astonished that they should wrap
+themselves up so closely in their hoods, and cover their heads with big
+kerchiefs, when such an infernal heat was blazing all around us, from
+the earth, from the sky, and from every side of us.
+
+"The coachman reached the Waag bridge safely before the other fugitive
+carriages had blocked up the way. At the entrance they had to stop, for
+there the custom-house officers demanded the bridge-tolls. That the
+whole town was in flames mattered not a button to them, all they wanted
+was their tolls. One of the women handed them an Austrian bank-note for
+100 florins. The toll-collector could not give change. A queer sort of
+peasant woman, truly, who had no smaller change than a bank-note for 100
+florins! While they were haggling about it, it occurred to me that I was
+now wearing my genteel clothes, and that in the pockets there was sure
+to be a silver _tizes_[76] for any beggar I might chance to meet on my
+way. So I went up and said to the peasant women: 'I've got a _tizes_
+which I'll give to the toll-collector; all that I ask is that you will
+take me in your carriage--there's room for me beside the coachman. I
+don't mind where you take me.' At this, one of the women called to the
+coachman: 'Don't let that girl get up, we won't have her.' Then they
+told the toll-collector that he might keep the 100-florin note if he
+couldn't give them change, if only he would let their coachman go on. I
+was horrified at such inhumanity. What a heartless woman it must be who,
+in such a time of peril, could refuse a fugitive girl a place in her
+carriage, and who, rather than do so, preferred to sacrifice a bank-note
+for 100 florins, peasant though she was! In my indignation I tore the
+big muffling clout from the head of the peasant woman and discovered her
+face. And now my blood froze to ice. I recognised my own mother!
+'Mother, dear mother!' I cried, 'don't you know me? I am your own little
+girl, Bessy!' Then my mother, pulling up the collar of her mantle over
+her face, said, in a simulated peasant voice: 'Be off! Don't bother us!
+I don't know the girl. I'm not your mother. Let go my kerchief!'
+
+[Footnote 76: The tenth part of a florin.]
+
+"I thought I was going mad. My own mother wouldn't know me! She wouldn't
+let me get into her carriage. Like lightning the thought flashed through
+my mind that she it was whom the people were cursing so. No doubt they
+were cursing her unjustly, but in such times as these that mattered
+little. Whomsoever the popular fury points out is condemned already. I
+could not betray my own mother. I hastily threw my silver coin to the
+toll-collector that they might let the carriage go on. I thought that if
+once we got beyond the bridge, and my mother had no further fear of
+pursuit, she would take me into the carriage. So catching hold of the
+back part of the vehicle, I ran on beside the carriage till we had got
+beyond the trenches of the fortress and out upon the highway. Then I
+again began to supplicate, so far as my gasping voice would allow me:
+'Mother, dear, good mother! take me into the carriage; I am dropping. I
+can go no farther.' They would not hear me. They only cursed and
+scolded: 'Be off! Decamp!' And when I still persisted in clinging on,
+they at last seized my fingers, which were still clutching the splasher,
+violently wrenched them off, and gave me a rough push so that I fell at
+full length into the highway. Then the carriage rolled on farther.
+
+"I had held out till then, but now my strength failed me. I trembled so
+that I could no longer stand upon my legs. Utterly crushed in mind and
+body by the sufferings of that terrible day, I dragged myself on my
+knees to the edge of the wayside ditch. My instinctive fear of death
+told me that I must avoid the middle of the road if I didn't want to be
+trampled to death. There then I lay clinging to a roadside poplar,
+gazing apathetically at the dreadful scene. The fugitive vehicles dashed
+madly along the highway in threes and fours, colliding every moment. The
+cursing and swearing were something awful. Every now and then one
+conveyance overturned another into the ditch, and the women who were
+sitting in them screamed and cried most piteously. One coachman hit upon
+the foolhardy idea of forcing his way through the ditch into the open
+field, and others followed his example. They came so close to me as to
+all but run over me, and I had not sufficient strength left to draw up
+my legs out of reach of their revolving wheels.
+
+"Then the blast of trumpets mingled with the hurly-burly. A regiment of
+Hussars was trying to cut its way through the fugitive carriages with a
+convoy of hay-waggons, which, as was explained to me later on, the
+Commandant of the fortress was transferring from the burning town to the
+village of Izsa across the Waag. The commanding officer was cursing and
+swearing, and striking all the coachmen he met with the flat of his
+sword for stopping his soldiers' way. 'Damned rascals! instead of
+putting out the fire, you all take to your heels. What the devil is the
+matter with you? There's no enemy behind you! Would that the souls of
+your ancestors could revivify you!'
+
+"The voice seemed familiar to me, but the face I had never seen before.
+A spiral moustache, a French beard, a Hussar uniform, and a plumed
+hat--I had never seen _that_ figure before.
+
+"Thus he appeared before me like the dragon-slaying hero of a fairy
+tale.
+
+"Hitherto, of all those who scurried past me, not one had noticed the
+wretched creature lying in the ditch. Some girl or other quite past
+help, they thought, perhaps. Nobody took any notice of me.
+
+"This officer _did_ notice me. In the midst of the greatest turmoil he
+perceived a woman lying beneath his horse's feet. He hastily reined in
+his charger, and called me by my name. 'My lady Elizabeth! how ever did
+you come here? In Heaven's name, what has befallen you?'
+
+"I recognised him by his mode of addressing me. There was only one man
+who used to address me in this way, the man who taught me my _role_ at
+those famous amateur theatricals that you remember.
+
+"'Mr. Balvanyossi! Mr. Director!' I stammered, in my joy.
+
+"'No, no! Captain Rengetegi is my name. Why, where is your mother? Run
+away? She did well. Get up, my lady, into my carriage, and I'll take you
+now to a place of safety.'
+
+"'I cannot get up.'
+
+"Then he hastily dismounted from his horse, gave his bridle to his
+orderly, went up to me, raised me in his arms, carried me to his
+carriage, and laid me down there among sweet-smelling hay.
+
+"I felt just as if I had been placed in Paradise.
+
+"Then he threw his mantle over me. It was cold outside now, and a strong
+wind was blowing.
+
+"But his care for me went even further than that.
+
+"'There is food in my knapsack, lady Elizabeth. I suppose you have had
+no supper to-day? Take whatever you find there. There's some drink, too,
+in my flask. It will do you good. You have nothing more to fear. The
+finger-pointing virgin still stands there on the bastions of our
+fortress.'
+
+"Then he mounted his horse again, and continued commanding his men
+loudly and authoritatively to force their way through the crush of carts
+and carriages with their convoy of hay. I fancied that I saw before me
+an archangel.
+
+"I didn't wait to be asked twice. As soon as I was able to get hold of
+the knapsack of victuals, I stuffed myself indiscriminately with all it
+contained--ham, cake, rolls. I gorged like a wild beast broken loose
+from a menagerie. I verily believe that if my bliss in Heaven had
+depended upon it, I would have renounced it for that couch of soft straw
+and those greedily devoured delicacies.
+
+"When I had satisfied my appetite as I had never done before, I
+unscrewed the top of the flask and put it to my mouth. I didn't taste
+what was in it, but I gulped and gulped so long as I had any breath in
+my body, as much as my thirst craved. I fancy it must have been brandy.
+When I couldn't drink any more I looked all about me. The burning town
+was a grand illumination; in the midst of it was the Calvinist church
+tower--only it was now not one tower, but three. The silly thing was
+dancing a _pas seul_, and wagging its head now to the right, and now to
+the left, and all the people, and the horses, and the coachmen, and the
+hay-carts were leaping and dancing, like wedding-guests considerably the
+worse for liquor.
+
+"When next day I awoke out of a twenty-hours' sleep, I found myself in
+the room of a peasant's house. Two men were holding a consultation over
+me--the camp-surgeon and 'he.' 'How do you find yourself, lady
+Elizabeth? You are in my little room.'
+
+"So ever since then I have been the lady Elizabeth."
+
+With these words Bessy rushed to the edge of the steep rock, crossed
+her two hands over her breast, and looked over her shoulder at me.
+
+"I have now told you everything, and you must judge me. You have no need
+to push me. Give but a signal with your finger and I'll put an end to
+myself!"
+
+Horrified, I grasped her hand, and snatched her away from the dizzying
+rocky ledge.
+
+"Do not tempt God! Be reasonable!" And, not without some little force, I
+made her sit down by the hot embers.
+
+"But do you call this _life_?"
+
+"Come, come, calm yourself! Look, these armed men are close upon us!"
+
+They were not gendarmes. They were two worthy foresters belonging to the
+domain of the Forests of Diosgyor--a grey-bearded old man with a
+youthful assistant.
+
+No hostile intentions had brought them thither. They could see, too,
+that our picnic beside the fire was a very innocent diversion. In the
+album left upon the rock was my unfinished landscape.
+
+They greeted us cordially, and I returned their greeting in like manner.
+I asked the elder man whether I was injuring any one's proprietorial
+rights by making a fire with other people's wood. If so, I said, I would
+make good the trespass. To which the old man replied that he had no
+quarrel with me on that score. The stuff was there for the poor man to
+gather, and he cited the classical German ballad in which the
+evil-minded forester robbed the peasant of his bundle of faggots. He
+must needs be a lover of letters, then!
+
+Then he told us why they had come.
+
+"We perceived the smoke from below, and knew, therefore, that there were
+visitors on the Precipice Stone. We thought it our duty to come up.
+Wolves are about in the forest. We wished to tell you so."
+
+"I thank you for your great kindness; but, from what I am told, wolves
+will not attack a man."
+
+"But they've become very aggressive since they discovered that the
+Government has confiscated all muskets, leaving only a pair or two with
+us. They avoid men in the day time, I know; but at dark or in a
+snowstorm they are very impudent."
+
+"We do not intend to remain here till evening. I only wanted to finish
+the drawing, for the sake of which I scrambled up hither."
+
+"But I would call your attention, sir, to the fact that we shall have a
+fall of snow here before night. I know the signs of the weather. When
+such a vast mist lies over the country in the morning, and then rises
+suddenly, and is quickly followed by darkness, then we may expect a
+snowstorm the same day. That is an old experience of mine."
+
+"We will hasten home."
+
+"Do you live at Tordona, or at Malyinka?"
+
+"I live at Tordona."
+
+"God bless you, sir. I know every one there."
+
+He didn't ask who I was. We shook hands, and with that the pair of them
+went on their way.
+
+"Was it worth while creeping into the cave for this?" said Bessy, when
+the foresters had withdrawn.
+
+"There are men who can face a great danger and hide away from a little
+one."
+
+"And you think, then, that our friend there is a fire-eater?--I thought
+so too for a long time. It was no unexampled thing in those
+extraordinary times for men to become suddenly transformed. Those who
+were looked upon as mere carpet knights became veritable heroes; lawyers
+became colonels: war has an ennobling influence on so many types of
+character. I really believed that Rengetegi had changed his whole nature
+with his name. When others had to be aroused, there was no such orator
+as he. I was absolutely proud that we belonged to each other. When the
+Austrian troops invested the fortress, and hurled the first bomb into
+the market-place, the whole of our social life was suddenly turned
+upside down. There was now no such thing as etiquette. The families of
+great magnates left their houses (those, that is, whose houses were not
+burnt down already), pitched their tents in the Gipsy-field and dwelt
+there. The guns of the Monostor batteries did not carry so far as that.
+In the barracks, moral law disappeared. An officer was a great personage
+then, and to walk about the streets leaning on his arm was a
+much-coveted glory. Whether the lady on his arm was his wife was not
+the question--he was a fine fellow, a gallant fellow. That was the main
+thing. And if I met an acquaintance I introduced Rengetegi as my future
+husband. Every one knew that I had begun a suit against Muki Bagotay.
+But where were the courts, the advocates, the judges?--every one was
+either wearing a sword or serving a gun. When people asked me where I
+lived, I said 'in the fortress!' To dwell in the fortress was an
+enviable position. The rooms there were fire-proof. I really think that
+there were more who envied than pitied my fate. I also got familiar with
+the ways of a soldier's life. They gave concerts, and I fiddled while
+Rengetegi declaimed. When the enemy was hurling away his bombs at the
+fortress, we took our band out on the ramparts, and there, with a great
+flourish of trumpets, we danced _csardases_. How that did aggravate the
+Germans! I had a great reputation as a _raketas_[77] dancer."
+
+[Footnote 77: Rocket-dance.]
+
+I must frankly admit that I was not much edified by this turn in the
+conversation.
+
+Bessy perceived that I was not well pleased with her doings in camp.
+
+"Ah, my dear friend!" she said, "don't fancy by any means that this
+episode of my life consisted entirely of rioting and revelry, there was
+a little intermezzo in it also. You know, of course, that, during the
+winter, things at Comorn were very bad indeed. The Commandant had not
+the capacity for the problem before him, which included the defence of
+such an important fortress. The garrison was lazy and mutinous. Whispers
+of treachery arose, and the chief of the artillery was deprived of his
+post. It was necessary to inform the Hungarian Government at Debreczin
+of the dangerous state of things at Comorn, and to beg for a new
+Commandant who should be a distinguished officer. But how was it
+possible to carry a message from Comorn to Debreczin? Who would
+undertake the risky enterprise of carrying the despatch from Comorn,
+through so many hostile armies, and bringing back the reply to it again?
+They had sent one messenger already, but he had been unable to get back.
+It was a joke which might cost a man his head.
+
+"One evening, Rengetegi came to my little room in the barracks, and
+said: 'Elizabeth, the hour has come for us to part!'
+
+"I immediately thought that he was tipsy.
+
+"'You haven't played me away at cards, I hope?'
+
+"'It is not you, but my own head that I have lost. I have accepted the
+mission to Debreczin. I've run my head against a wall, I know. It's neck
+or nothing now. And they've pressed a thousand florins into my hand to
+make the way before me quite secure.'
+
+"'And you have lost it all at cards this evening?'
+
+"'How did you find that out?'
+
+"'I have made it my study. I know well those Hippocratic countenances.
+Well, and what are you going to do now?'
+
+"'Save my honour! I'll go on my way without money.'
+
+"'Listen to me! I believe that you would be very glad to get out of this
+bombarded fortress--but I've no very ardent belief that you'll ever come
+back again. I tell you what: give me the official despatch which has to
+be taken, and I'll take care that it reaches the hands of the
+Government.'
+
+"'But how?' inquired Rengetegi, immensely delighted.
+
+"'That I shall not tell you. I've been turning the matter over for some
+time. You have only a passive part to play here. You hide yourself in
+the village of Izsa, which the enemy has not occupied, because it lies
+within the range of the guns of the fortress, and wait for me there till
+I return from Debreczin with the answer of the Government.'"
+
+"And Rengetegi actually accepted the proposal?" I inquired. I now began
+to admire this woman.
+
+"He jumped at it. He gave me soul-stirring examples of the heroic women
+of history, who had gone to the wars along with their husbands.... He
+vowed that if I ever returned in safety from my mission he would
+henceforth call me 'Queen Zenobia.'
+
+"By the evening of the same day I was ready for the enterprise. I made
+Rengetegi dye his hair, moustache, and beard black, so that it was
+almost impossible to recognise him."
+
+"So that was your idea!" I cried.
+
+"Then I stowed him away in a peasant's hut at Heteny, with strict
+instructions not to emerge from his prison till I tapped at the door.
+Next I set to work to thoroughly disguise my own person. I was to be the
+leader of a gipsy band. Ah! if you could only have painted my portrait!
+Then, indeed, I really was lovely! I smeared my face with the juice of
+green walnut-shells till it was so black that I could pass for a gipsy
+among the gipsies themselves; I clipped my hair till it only reached
+down to my shoulders; I put on a jacket which some gentleman or other
+had worn threadbare before giving it away; hose that certainly were
+never intended for me, and a shirt that had never been washed: and so I
+transformed myself into as filthy a shape as ever led a wandering gipsy
+band."
+
+Here I could not forbear from pressing her hand. What sacrifices will
+not a woman make for her country and for her lover!
+
+"But all this was a mere joke to what followed. I now had to get
+together a band. If they catch a gipsy alone they arrest him as a spy;
+but if he be one of a quartet he may go on his way rejoicing. I provided
+myself with a violoncellist, a clarinet-player, and a contra-bass. It
+was easy to persuade them to quit the bombarded town, into which the
+gentry who had robbed them of their poor hovels had forced them to go.
+Bread and meat were getting dearer and dearer, and there was nothing to
+be earned. Who had the heart to pay for music amidst such a frightful
+carnival?
+
+"Thus, with my little band of three, I set out upon my long and
+uncertain journey on foot. Gipsies only ride in sledges when a magnate
+sends for them, and there was no such magnate in the whole district. If
+on our way we fell in with a cart laden with dried reeds taken out of
+the swamps for firewood, we would ask for a lift in it. But our legs
+nearly froze there, and we were glad to get down again and walk.
+
+"In the very first village we came to, O-Gyalla, we fell in with a
+division of the Austrian investing army, German cuirassiers. The patrol
+brought us to the major in command. He was indeed a merciless personage.
+He roared at us, and asked us how we dared to leave the town. We
+naturally did not understand a word of German, and all four of us, in
+true gipsy fashion, began to raise objections at the same time: we could
+not remain in the town, the Honveds posted us right in front of the
+bombs, and made us play music at the very top of the bastions; all the
+cannons had fired at us, and that was a thing that gipsies couldn't
+stand. '_Was sagen die Spitzbuben?_' inquired the major of his auditor.
+The auditor understood Hungarian, and expounded unto him: 'Nix da, you
+rascals! You are spies, and must be searched. Come! you must undress.'
+I was not a little alarmed, I can tell you. Not on account of the
+despatches I had with me, I had put them in a place where they couldn't
+be found; but they would discover that I was a woman, and that while my
+face and hands were gipsy, the rest of me was European--and then I
+should be lost. I hastily said something to the gipsies, and in an
+instant they out with their instruments and rattled off _con fuoco_ the
+fine hymn '_Gott erhalte!_' At this the frosty face of the old martinet
+thawed somewhat. 'Well, well, you rascals,' said he, 'as you know what's
+proper and decent, I won't have you flogged this time, but be off at
+once and don't remain in the village here. You mustn't play here for
+anybody. Whoever has an itch for dancing just let him tell me, and I'll
+give him dancing enough. There's the whipping-post!' Now the
+clarinet-player was a merry wag, and could not hide his light. 'Devil
+bless your honour,' said he, 'you pay with big bank-notes.' '_Was sagt
+der Karl?_' asked the major. He says, 'Gott soll segnen den grossen
+Herren, der zahlt mit grossen _Bank_[78]-noten!' At this his honour also
+laughed. 'But for all that you must pack yourselves off at once. You
+mustn't stop till you reach Ersekuvar, but there you may play as long as
+you like.' We kissed his hands and feet, and asked him to let us stay
+the night there. We were half frozen, we said. We had not a morsel in
+our stomachs: for a whole week we had only eaten ice and drunk water.
+But he knew no pity. They blindfolded us, packed us into a sledge, and a
+patrol of horse escorted us out of the village. Now, of course, it was
+my very dearest desire to get as soon as possible beyond the iron girdle
+by which the besieged fortress was girt about. If only he can get out
+into the wide world, the gipsy has no fear of going astray. He can
+fiddle his way through the whole of Europe if only he gives his mind to
+it. And so we made our way along the Danube, from one town to the other,
+and enjoyed to the full all the romantic adventures of a wandering
+gipsy's life which abound in winter especially."
+
+[Footnote 78: "God bless the great gentleman, he pays with big
+_bang_-notes!"--a poor jest.]
+
+"But," interrupted I, "didn't you come across Gorgey's Hungarian army,
+under whose protection you might have continued your journey?"
+
+"Of course I did, but my instructions were to deliver my despatches to
+the head of the Hungarian Government, and nobody else, not even to a
+general. It is true that I might have gone on farther with the gallant
+Magyar army, where gipsy-music is always heartily welcomed. The Honveds,
+too, never lose their good humour; but, on the other hand, the main
+Magyar army was going towards Slavonia, whereas it was my object to get
+to Debreczin as soon as possible. So there was nothing for it but to go
+straight through the enemy's lines till we reached the banks of the
+Theiss, when we could be once more in a friendly world."
+
+"But where did you conceal the despatches?" I asked.
+
+"I stuck them inside the belly of my fiddle. Who would break the fiddle
+of a poor gipsy with which he earns his daily bread? The money we earned
+in one town was sufficient to hire a sledge to convey us to the next.
+Gipsies dwell on the skirts of every town. We made ourselves at home
+there, and they never asked us whence we came; but if we were
+cross-examined at any place, then we lied to such a degree that the
+difficulty was to find anybody to believe us. You recollect what a
+terrible winter it was last year?"
+
+"I remember it very well. I was out all through it with my wife," I
+said.
+
+"How fine it would have been had we run across each other unexpectedly.
+I would have played a nocturne beneath your window. Ha, ha, ha!--The
+bitterest stage of the journey was from Kecskemet to the Theiss. There
+lay Jellachich,[79] with all his army, occupying the towns of the great
+Hungarian plain one after the other. Here we had to creep through as
+best we could. As for me, I had the good fortune to play every evening
+before his Excellency the valiant Ban. He was very pleased with me. With
+my little band I managed to play the famous Croatian march, '_Szlava,
+szlava, mu, mu, mu, Jelacsicsu nas omu_,' in quite a superior manner. I
+also knew the tune of the fine 'Kolo' dance, and absolutely won his
+Excellency's heart with the melodious 'Fanny Schneider' polka. I might
+say that I was really quite spoiled. There was plenty of money and wine,
+and, despite my black face and my predominating odour of garlic, the
+enthusiasm rose so high that all the officers kissed me one after the
+other."
+
+[Footnote 79: The Ban of Croatia, who sided with the Austrians against
+Hungary.--TR.]
+
+Bessy had no sooner uttered these words than she buried her face in her
+hands. Again I came to her rescue.
+
+"Those kisses don't count; you were a man then."
+
+"It was quite a gipsy paradise, but the mischief was we did not know how
+to escape from it. The chivalrous Ban told us not to try to run away,
+for in that case he would court-martial and shoot the lot of us. At
+night, when our duties were done, he locked us up in a little out-house,
+and placed an armed sentry before the door.
+
+"One night we escaped up the chimney and over the roof of the
+neighbouring house; that is to say, three of us managed to get away, I
+and the clarinet-player and the contra-bass. The violoncello, however,
+could not be got out of the chimney, and the violoncellist declared that
+he would rather be stretched on the rack than leave his instrument in
+the lurch. So there we left him--to pay the piper. Besides, I had now
+not much need of my band; the Theiss was only a four hours' journey
+off.
+
+"I had heard from the officers that in the willow woods of the Theiss,
+in the neighbourhood of the 'Szikra' inn, some Hungarian guerillas were
+encamping. If only we could get among them!
+
+"It was a good thing for us that sentinel duty was very laxly ordered in
+the camp of the Ban of Croatia. At the end of the town was a _putri_, or
+semi-subterranean clay hut of the kind in which field-labourers pass the
+night during the summer. The soldiers who had been sent out on forepost
+duty were sitting in this hut, and their muskets were all leaning
+against the door. One of the gipsies said: 'Let us steal the muskets!'
+The other said: 'Steal your grandfather; I play with clarinets, not with
+muskets.' I urged them to press forward. We were near to the sand-hills.
+Before us lay a savage, rugged plain, where one sand-hill followed hard
+upon another. Some of these hills were half hollowed out by the wind,
+and the hollows between them sparsely dotted with dwarf fir-trees. A
+ghostly region. The sides of these sand-hills were white, and the
+snow-fall on the top of them was still whiter; and every tree-trunk
+there is also white with its pendant branches[80] bending down beneath
+the hoar-frost. We dodged up and down among these sand-hills, turning
+aside from the regular high road so that we might crouch down in case
+we were pursued. Along the whole length of the plain the broom of the
+wind swept our footprints over with snow.
+
+[Footnote 80: To-day this former waste of shifting sand-hills has been
+converted into a splendid vineyard, which the Hungarian Government has
+planted with vines from America proof against the _Phylloxera_.--JOKAI.]
+
+"'If only we don't come across wolves!' said the contra-bass, with
+chattering teeth.
+
+"'How can they be here when so many soldiers are about?' said I, by way
+of encouragement.
+
+"'Nay, but they like to prowl about camps, because carrion is always to
+be found there.'
+
+"Where the sand-hills ended, a far-extending flat began, and in the
+distance was a direful-looking object, resembling a ruin. A light mist
+covered the whole district, in which mist every object seemed as large
+again; the full moon shone wanly, like a huge broad halo in the misty
+heavens."
+
+Here I explained to Bessy that this district was the famous plain of
+Alpar, where the ancient Magyars fought the decisive battle against
+Zalan, which gave them possession of the land; the ruin was the wall of
+the desert church of St. Laurence.
+
+"Indeed! and I may add that this desert is memorable to me also. While
+we were waddling along as fast as we could, with our short mantles
+turned against the wind, the contra-bass, who was going on leisurely in
+front, exclaimed:
+
+"'Devil take all these crows! Why don't they all go to sleep in the
+tower of the Calvinist church?'
+
+"I inquired why the crows ought to go to sleep on the top of the
+Calvinist church of all places in the world.
+
+"'Let the Calvinist crow stick to the top of the Calvinist church, and
+the Papist crow to the top of the Papist church, as is meet and right,'
+he explained.
+
+"I did not understand this sectarian distinction among crows, but the
+gipsy made it quite plain to me.
+
+"'One sort of crow is ashen grey, another sort black. The grey sort eats
+no flesh, but only grain; that is the Papist crow. The black sort lives
+on flesh, whether it be earthworms or fallen horse; that is the
+Calvinist crow, for it keeps no fast-days.'
+
+"Then he called my attention to the fact that on the hill there straight
+before us, a whole army of crows was making a great commotion. At one
+moment they rose high into the air with loud croakings, at another they
+descended upon the self-same spot from which they had risen. 'There must
+be carrion,' he said.
+
+"When we got to the top of the hill, we saw, to our great consternation,
+that the evil foreboding of the gipsy was correct.
+
+"On the highway below, by the side of the ditch, lay a big black mass,
+the carcase of a fallen horse, and fighting over what remained of it was
+a whole army of crows and ravens and five large _wolves_.
+
+"We were about five hundred paces from the terrible beasts.
+
+"They immediately perceived us, and, leaving the carcase, forthwith
+began scudding towards us, spurring each other on with their nasty short
+sharp yelps.
+
+"'Alas, alas! It is all up with us now!' wailed the contra-bass. 'The
+wolves will eat us up.'
+
+"Even in that hour of mortal peril the clarinetist was true to his gipsy
+humour. 'Then we shall have a very queer shape at the resurrection,'
+said he.
+
+"I bade them leave off wailing, and hasten to clamber up into a
+willow-tree, whither the monsters could not follow us.
+
+"It was an old pollard willow, the branches of which were cut off every
+year, so that only the crown of it remained, surrounded by young shoots.
+I, who had never learnt the art of tree-climbing, was hoisted up by the
+gipsies first of all, and then they hastily scrambled up after me.
+
+"When we had got to the top of the tree we discovered that in the middle
+of it was a large hole--the whole inside of the tree was hollow, and
+could contain a man.
+
+"'Leader,' said the contra-bass, 'your loss would be most serious, creep
+down into that hole.' I took him at his word, and glided down from the
+crown of the tree into the deep hollow trunk. First of all, however, I
+tied my long cotton neckerchief to a little branch, that I might be able
+to hoist myself up again in case of need, for the hole in the willow
+went right down to its very roots. At the side of the tree, too, close
+to an old branch, there was an orifice as large as one's fist, through
+which one could look as through an attic window.
+
+"The five wolves were not long in arriving.
+
+"They did not come quite near at first, but reconnoitred. Whenever one
+of them sneaked up a little nearer, the clarinet-player aimed at it with
+his instrument, which the wolf took for a musket. Then the beast would
+back a little and scratch up the snow with his hind legs. They say the
+creature is wont to do this when he sees a man stand on the defensive;
+he tries to blind him with snow.
+
+"When, however, the wolves at last discovered that we had no fire-arms,
+they sent up the ugliest howls, and began the siege of the willow. They
+took tremendous leaps in the air to reach the crown of the tree, but it
+was too high for them.
+
+"Then it occurred to the gipsies that they had often heard that wolves
+had a strong penchant for music, and they began giving them a clarinet
+and fiddle concert.
+
+"It is true that the nasty brutes left off the siege, sat round the
+willow, and began to howl in concert with the music, at the same time
+raising their horrid jaws towards the moon, and lashing their sides with
+their ragged brush-like tails; and for a short time I was quite amused
+at the scene. But suddenly our double danger occurred to my mind.
+
+"'Hey! gipsies. Stop, I say! Is the devil in you? Your music will bring
+the pickets of the Croats upon us, and they will flay us alive.'
+
+"At this they stopped their music.
+
+"This appeared to make the wolves still more savage, and now they tried
+a fresh stratagem.
+
+"They had found out that the willow leaned a little to one side, and
+rushing at it from a little distance, they attempted to scale the
+sloping side of the tree. This manoeuvre was likely to have succeeded. It
+was then that I saw what a powerful beast the wolf really is, and how
+much more cunning than any species of dog. Scrambling up at full tilt,
+they managed to reach the crown of the willow, but there the brave
+contra-bass was awaiting them, and gave them such a kick on the snout
+with his iron-heeled boots that the attacking beasts fell head over
+heels backwards.
+
+"This they repeated ten or twelve times.
+
+"And there was this remarkable circumstance about it, that every time an
+attacking wolf was prostrated by a kick from the gipsy, the others
+rushed upon him as he fell, and worried him as if to punish him for his
+failure.
+
+"Suddenly they left off, and went and sat down in a heap just in front
+of my window. Their tongues lolled out of their panting mouths; their
+hot, bestial breath rose into the cold air before me. They appeared to
+be taking counsel together. The biggest of them seemed to be their
+leader. If one of the younger ones yelped too much, he would snap at his
+neck as if to say 'shut up!'
+
+"At last they appeared to have hatched their stratagem. The whole lot
+of them got up and shuffled farther off, squinting over their shoulders
+all the time towards the willow-tree.
+
+"My gipsies fancied they were saved.
+
+"'You shall have no roast gipsy this time!' bawled the clarinet-player
+after them derisively from his sure stronghold, as he fancied it.
+
+"All at once the wolves returned and stormed onwards like race-horses,
+each one being about a wolf's tail ahead of the other.
+
+"The first of them rushed straight up the tree, and while the
+contra-bass was kicking him in the head, the second wolf leaped across
+the first wolf's back and seized the man's leg.
+
+"I heard a despairing shriek:
+
+"'Don't let me go, comrade!'
+
+"The second musician tried to free his down-falling friend from the jaws
+of the wild beast, and in doing so lost his balance, and the pair of
+them fell down from the tree.
+
+"What happened after that is more than I can tell you. It is enough that
+I should have had to live through that mortal struggle of the two
+luckless victims with those filthy brutes. How many times have I not
+dreamt it all over again! I believe that even if I had committed all the
+seven deadly sins, I should have more than expiated them all in that
+awful hour. I hid my face in the crumbling rottenness of the hollow
+tree, that I might hear and see nothing. It seemed an eternity to me
+while the bestial howling lasted which the wolves made as they shared
+together their accursed banquet in my very presence.
+
+"I dared not stir, lest they might find out that I also was there. Great
+Heaven! What horrors I had to endure!
+
+"Suddenly a sort of growling and snarling began close beside me. The old
+wolf was running sniffing round the hollow tree. He had discovered that
+there was still booty inside it.
+
+"He began to scrape the earth at the root of the tree. He evidently
+meant to dig a hole beneath the tree through which he might get at me.
+Fortunately for me, it was not sandy soil, but stony, hard-frozen turf.
+He could not succeed that way.
+
+"Then he caught sight of the hole in the side of the tree. At one time,
+perhaps, a branch had been sawed off at this spot, and the bark had
+rotted away. The wolf began to enlarge this opening, tore it with his
+claws, and gnawed and worried the rotten wood with his grinders. He had
+soon so far enlarged the hole as to be able to stick his head into it. I
+saw the green glare of his fiery eyes; I felt his stinking breath; I
+heard the gnashing of his teeth. Then despair made me foolhardy. I drew
+my crooked knife out of the leg of my boot, with the other hand I seized
+the wolf by the ear, and cut it off at a single twirl.
+
+"At this the beast, with a furious howl, drew back his head from the
+hole, and began to howl and run away like a whipped cur. The others
+followed after him. With the wolf's ear remaining in my hand as a
+trophy, I sank back against the hollow trunk; I could not sink right
+down, because the hollow space was too narrow."
+
+I felt a cold shudder run all over me at this ghastly narrative. Bessy
+herself was quite exhausted.
+
+"Alas! I am quite worn out. I tremble at the very thought of it. You are
+the second person to whom I have told it. But how pale you are all at
+once!"
+
+I suppose I _had_ turned very pallid. It had suddenly flashed through my
+brain that just at that very time my wife was on her journey through an
+uninhabited valley, and the foresters told me that wolves strayed about
+there.
+
+Bessy sighed deeply, raised her drooping head, and then continued her
+story:--
+
+"Thus I had freed myself from the wolves; but I was not left very long
+in the belief that shame at my depriving their leader of one of his ears
+was the cause of it. No! Wolves are not so shamefaced as all that. A
+troop of horsemen was approaching from behind the sand-hills. There were
+six men on horseback and one man on assback.
+
+"One terror had been supplanted by another.
+
+"Peering through the hole in the tree, I recognised the uniforms of the
+horsemen by the light of the moon--they were Jellachich's hussars. And
+that there might be no doubt about their coming after us, I recognised
+as they came near the face of the ass-rider. It was my bass-viol
+player, whom I had left behind me.
+
+"It was very easy to see what had happened. The gipsy, to save his own
+skin, or, perhaps, at the flogging-post itself, had confessed that the
+band had come from Comorn, and was hired by me to go as far as
+Debreczin. Hence it was not very difficult to conclude that I was only a
+false gipsy, who was carrying despatches from the beleaguered fortress
+to the Hungarian Government.
+
+"The horsemen had brought the gipsy with them that he might put them on
+my track. Once discovered, and I was lost.
+
+"On the snow field, lit up by the moonlight, the scene of the hideous
+struggle was plain to the newcomers. The long lines of blood, fragments
+of torn garments, a foot sticking out of a boot in the snow--Ugh! May I
+never see such a sight again!
+
+"The horsemen galloped quickly up over the crackling snow.
+
+"The violoncellist had to dismount from his ass.
+
+"The good creature howled and groaned from the bottom of his throat,
+bewailing his comrades in the gipsy tongue, and cursing the monsters who
+had devoured them.
+
+"The leader of the patrol was a sergeant. He ordered the gipsy about in
+Croatian, and the gipsy has the peculiar virtue of understanding what is
+said to him in a language of which he is perfectly ignorant. He replied
+in Hungarian.
+
+"'Oh, woe, woe! Those accursed wolves have devoured our leader! There's
+his boot! They've only left his boot. I recognise it well. He bought it
+only last week at Czegled. He gave six florins for it. A brand-new boot!
+And this is his foot.'
+
+"It was plain to me that the gipsy had guessed that I was hidden
+somewhere, and there was enough of the gipsy in him, even amidst the
+greatest horrors, to induce him to make fools of my pursuers. He
+betrayed me first of all because he couldn't help it; he saved me
+finally because he _could_. He knew very well that I had given my new
+boots to the contra-bass. My boots were of Russian leather.
+
+"'Look there!' cried the sergeant, and he pointed with his finger.
+'_Jeden, dwa! Jak sza tri?_'[81]
+
+[Footnote 81: Croatian--"One, two! Where's the third?"]
+
+"The gipsy swore by all that was holy that that was the third.
+
+"'Then where's the first?'
+
+"'That's the first, of course!'
+
+"There was no dinning into his head the arithmetical truism that if you
+take two from three one remains.
+
+"The sergeant thereupon ordered one of the hussars to dismount from his
+horse, at the same time pointing at the willow-tree with his sword,
+whence I concluded that he was about to examine the tree to see if
+anybody was hidden in its hollow trunk.
+
+"I now veritably believed that the time had come for me to turn my
+crooked knife against my own throat.
+
+"All at once a crackle of musketry resounded from the brushwood, and a
+company of guerilla horse dashed out, crying, 'Forward, Magyars!' The
+Jellachich hussars didn't see the joke of this at all, hastily turned
+their horses' heads and galloped off in the direction of the town. The
+violoncellist also mounted his long-eared beast, and ambled gently off
+in a third direction midway between the two belligerents. He had no
+desire to take any part in the struggle.
+
+"The guerillas, who were numerous, sent a few volleys after the enemy,
+but from such a distance that the bullets couldn't possibly hit the
+fugitives, and then returned in triumph. Then I, hearing them speak
+Hungarian, quickly hoisted myself up out of the hole into the top of the
+tree, and began so far as my hoarse voice would allow me, to give them
+indications of my existence.
+
+"The gallant warriors immediately hastened to the willow-tree and helped
+me down from my dangerous perch. Their leader, a handsome,
+chivalrous-looking young man, with a true Hungarian face, began to
+cross-question me, and asked me whence I came and whither I was going.
+Perceiving that I was among Hungarian soldiers, I frankly told them that
+I had come from Comorn, and had been sent to Debreczin with despatches
+for the Hungarian Government.
+
+"The guerilla captain was a suspicious man.
+
+"'Oho! I daresay! That's easily said, but difficult to believe. What!
+confide such a mission to a gipsy! A likely tale!'
+
+"I told him that I was no gipsy, though my face was painted so, but that
+I lived at Comorn and belonged to the place.
+
+"'Then, if you are an inhabitant, tell me if you know one Maurus Jokai
+there--and what you know of him?'
+
+"I was very pleased to answer such a question. 'I know him very well,' I
+said, 'and I can tell you this much about him, that he went to the High
+School at Kecskemet, where he completed his legal studies--or rather
+learnt how to paint in oils from a worthy comrade of his there.'
+
+"Without more ado he clapped his hand in mine: 'That worthy comrade of
+his was no other than myself.'
+
+"So you see," she said, turning towards me, "you were of assistance to
+me, even here."
+
+"Wasn't that old schoolfellow of mine called Jansci?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, that's what they called him. With him was another young man, with
+quite a girlish face, and him they called Jozsi; he inquired about you
+most particularly. When you gave your artistic representations at
+Kecskemet, he used to play the girl's parts."
+
+"Quite true," I said, "so it was."
+
+"So you see I must have been there or I should have known nothing about
+these things. The guerillas told me all about it as they took me with
+them. They were very attentive. One of them gave me his mantle, another
+let me mount his nag, and so they took me to the 'Szikra' inn, where
+they made me drink punch with them, regaled me with veal, and then made
+me a bed on the straw with their mantles that I might sleep off my
+exhaustion. The Jellachich hussars gave us no trouble. They could not
+come back till morning, when the whole regiment would doubtless turn out
+to capture the guerillas, who would, by that time, be on the other side
+of the Theiss. The sledges were all ready to start, and would scour back
+across the frozen river at the first signal to Czibakhaza, where were
+the foreposts of the Hungarian army under Damjanich.
+
+"But for a long time I could not sleep. Constantly before my eyes
+flitted the horrible death-struggle between the two unhappy men and the
+wild beasts, and amidst the howling and shrieking resounded the gay song
+of the guerillas:
+
+    'The hut's ablaze, the rush-roof crackles,
+    Press thy brown maid to thy breast!'
+
+In my dream this tune was mingled with the howling of the wolves, and at
+one moment the wolves were singing, 'The hut's ablaze,' and at another
+the Croats were howling at the gipsies sitting on the branch. Towards
+morning I was awakened by two cannon-shots. I rejoiced to be delivered
+from my spectres. The lieutenant of the guerillas hurried me into the
+sledge, as a regiment of hostile horse was approaching from Kecskemet.
+
+"It took us ten minutes to dash across the frozen Theiss. On the
+opposite bank the foreposts of the Honveds were encamping. The business
+of the guerillas was to harass the enemy, capture their forage waggons,
+and then bring word of their movements to the main army.
+
+"They took me straight to General Damjanich.[82]
+
+[Footnote 82: Made Commander-in-chief of the 3rd Hungarian Army Corps in
+consequence of his brilliant exploits at Alibunar and Lagerdorf; he
+annihilated Karger's brigade at the great battle of Szolnok, and was
+elected to represent that town in the Hungarian Diet. After fresh
+exploits he was made War Minister, and, after the war, was
+court-marshalled at Arad by the Austrians and shot. He had not the
+military genius of Gorgey perhaps, but as a general of division was
+admirable.--TR.]
+
+"I was now no longer obliged to keep my despatch hidden, so I split up
+my fiddle, took out of it the documents that were gummed to it, and
+their production was my best credentials.
+
+"The approving, smiling glance of the powerful, heroic-looking General I
+shall never forget. At the sight of him I quite forgot that I was
+personating a man, and would have liked to have fallen down before him
+and kissed his hand. Indeed, I was so agitated that I could not utter a
+word.
+
+"The General filled a little glass full of _szilvorium_.[83] 'Drink, my
+son!' said he, 'it will loosen your throat.'
+
+[Footnote 83: A spirit made from plums.]
+
+"My throat was hoarse; I had a voice as deep as a man's. I told him I
+had come from Comorn, and I was sent to Lazar Meszaros, the War
+Minister.
+
+"'You will seek old Koficz[84] in vain at Debreczin, my son, he commands
+there no more. So you Comorn folks don't know what's going on outside,
+eh? Another is at the head of the War Department now. I will give you a
+letter of introduction to him.'
+
+[Footnote 84: This Hungarian War Minister had said in one of his reports
+that the motions of the Opposition in the Diet would turn to nothing but
+_Koficz_ (_i.e._, water-gruel). The name stuck to him ever
+after.--JOKAI.]
+
+"Then he sat down and wrote me a couple of lines to a General with a
+German name, which is expressed in Hungarian by the word _Bacsi_.[85]
+
+[Footnote 85: Cousin.--Vetter was the General in question.]
+
+"He said, while he was writing this letter, that this General with a
+German name was the life and soul of our military organization.
+
+"Then, by the General's command, I received a nice clean Honved uniform
+(I had to retain my brown countenance for some time longer), and besides
+that I had an open passport enjoining upon all to give me every facility
+to reach Debreczin as quickly as possible.
+
+"On the evening of the following day I arrived at Debreczin, and on
+descending from my sledge, proceeded at once to the General's. He was a
+mild, soft-featured gentleman, with a close-clipped beard and
+moustache. He didn't even wear a General's uniform. Nobody would have
+guessed his rank from the look of him. After reading through my letter
+of introduction, he looked me straight and sharply in the face.
+
+"'You are Captain Tihamer Rengetegi, eh?'
+
+"If I had only been intent on my own interest, I might have told him
+quite frankly that I had no right either to the name or the uniform of a
+soldier; but how could I betray my faithful consort who was smuggled
+away in the hovel at Heteny?
+
+"'Yes, General, I am.'
+
+"'Who made you captain?'
+
+"'The War Minister.'
+
+"'For deeds of valour?'
+
+"'During the siege of Vienna I twice carried despatches through the
+besieging camp from the Hungarian Government to General Bem.'"
+
+Here I intervened: "That is not true; I know very well through whom the
+Hungarian Government got those despatches."
+
+"Anyhow, my friend boasted of it as his own deed," said Bessy; after
+which she resumed her narration.
+
+"'Good!' said the General; 'now give me the despatch.'
+
+"The information was written in a secret cipher.
+
+"'I must decipher this first. There will be a meeting to-night of the
+Committee of National Defence. Early to-morrow morning you will appear
+before me. Now go to the "White Horse." Speak to nobody. Keep your
+room!'
+
+"Nevertheless, an hour afterwards he sent for me.
+
+"He led me into his inner room, for he allowed himself the luxury of a
+double-roomed apartment at Debreczin. Two other ministers, Paul Nyary
+and Joseph Patay, were not so fortunate. They had to be content with a
+double room between them.
+
+"The General was now very gentle with me. He made me sit down at table,
+and poured me out some tea. He offered me a cigar too, and although I
+ought not to have done so, I lighted it. It nipped my tongue a good
+deal, but I had to show them that I was a man.
+
+"Then he made me tell them how I had got out of the fortress, and how I
+had forced my way through the hostile camp. My relation made a great
+impression. When I was dismissed, they pressed my hand and assured me
+that my good and boldly executed service should be rewarded. They
+further commanded me to come to them early the next day.
+
+"I appeared next day at his headquarters in full parade, and they
+admitted me before any one else.
+
+"Again they made me sit down in the inner apartment, and drew the bolt
+before the door of the outer room.
+
+"Stretched out on the table was a large military map which embraced
+Upper Hungary and Galicia. 'You have brought very important information
+with you from Comorn,' said he, in a low voice. 'Considering the time
+when you set out, you have arrived here with astonishing rapidity. You
+must now take the reply back, which will contain the directions of the
+Council of War and the appointment of the new Commandant, who will be
+gazetted to-night. Can you make your way back to the fortress with this
+despatch?'
+
+"'I'll try.'
+
+"'You must get back without fail. What's your plan?'
+
+"'To go back by the same road in the same manner and the same disguise
+is impossible. The wolves tore two of my comrades to pieces, the Croats
+captured the third, and as he may have confessed everything, they would
+recognise me at once if I appeared before their eyes as I am now.
+Besides, there is no conceivable reason why gipsies should wish to leave
+the open plain in order to get into a bombarded town. This despatch can
+only be conveyed to Comorn by a woman who is _obliged_ to go there on
+some unimpeachable business, and is provided with an Austrian
+safe-conduct.'
+
+"The General clapped his hands together in amazement.
+
+"'And do you know of any woman who would undertake such a thing?'
+
+"'Certainly I do.'
+
+"'Where? What's her name?'
+
+"'That's my secret, General. The difficulty of getting into the fortress
+is also very much increased by the fact that the appointment of Richard
+Guyon as the new Commandant has already become generally known.'
+
+"The General leaped furiously from his seat.
+
+"'Who, then, has made this public?'
+
+"'It is here in the official gazette,' I replied, drawing out of my
+pocket that morning's issue of the _Kozlony_.
+
+"The General tugged his short moustache still shorter.
+
+"'Well, well! I see that we Magyars have yet to learn the art of keeping
+a secret. The enemy knows it now, but the Comorn folks do _not_ know
+it.'
+
+"'I have already hit upon a good idea of enabling the mandate of the
+Council of War to reach their hands.'
+
+"'By a carrier-pigeon or a balloon, I suppose?'
+
+"'A foreign passport is necessary for my plan.'
+
+"'That you shall have--an English passport _vised_ by the Embassy. In
+whose name?'
+
+"'In the lady's.'
+
+"'Then you must give us the lady's name.'
+
+"Then I gave him my real name as the lawful wife of Muki Bagotay.
+
+"'And you? Will you get into the fortress?'
+
+"'Possibly, as that lady's coachman--possibly not at all; but the
+despatch will get in, anyhow.'
+
+"'And how will this lady of yours manage to hide the despatch? I can
+tell you beforehand, that even if your lady were provided with a
+safe-conduct from the Princess Windischgratz[86] herself, and so got
+right through the hostile camp into the invested fortress, the Austrians
+would indeed welcome her most courteously; but they would at the same
+time say to her: "Would your little ladyship be so good as to step into
+that side-chamber; there you will find a complete set of lady's clothes,
+would you be so kind as to put them on--if they are a little more
+abundant than your own, that doesn't matter? The toilet you have brought
+with you may remain here, down even to the shoes and stockings; whenever
+you like to come back again, you can re-exchange your clothes." For they
+know that it is possible to write on chemises with invisible ink and
+reproduce the writing by means of chemical re-agents. It is also
+possible for the heels of your boots to have secret openings, in which a
+letter written on straw-paper might be inserted. They might also retain
+the comb with which you fasten up your hair, for a valuable message
+might be written thereupon in microscopic letters.'
+
+[Footnote 86: The wife of the Austrian Commander-in-chief.--TR.]
+
+"'All this they may do if they like, and yet this lady of mine will
+convey the despatch into the fortress.'
+
+"'I should like to know her secret.'
+
+"''Tis a very simple one. She will learn the whole despatch by heart
+from beginning to end.'
+
+"The General began to laugh.
+
+"'Oho ho! My dear friend, you don't suppose that we would entrust our
+couriers with a despatch in good Hungarian for the enemy to snap it up
+on the way, and thus learn all about our military operations. It may
+also be deliberately betrayed. In the times in which we now live men are
+quick enough to discover excuses for _changing their saddles_. This
+despatch contains all our secrets: where we are strong, where we are
+weak, where we want to assume the offensive, where we are obliged to
+stand on the defensive. Such a despatch would be worth 200,000 florins
+to the enemy at the very least.'
+
+"'I can assure you, General, that neither I nor this lady will betray
+it.'
+
+"'You couldn't if you would, for the whole despatch is in cipher. Take
+it, and look at it. Do you understand a word of it? Can any one possibly
+learn it by heart?'
+
+"The writing which he placed in my hand was composed of a jumble of
+letters grouped into words--characters whose contents could scarcely be
+called language at all. I nevertheless assured the General that this
+lady of mine would learn the despatch off by heart all the same.
+
+"''Tis impossible.'
+
+"'Nothing is impossible. Once, when we were actors ...'
+
+"'Then you were actors? And this lady was an actress too, eh?'
+
+"'Yes. Once our whole company went to Eszek, and there we acted a whole
+piece in the Croatian tongue without understanding a word of its
+meaning. A man is like a starling. If he repeats a thing a hundred times
+it remains in his head although he does not understand it.'
+
+"'Look here, then! Read but two lines of this despatch a hundred times
+over, half an hour will do, and see if it remains in your head.'
+
+"I consented. A quarter of an hour had not yet elapsed when I said that
+I was ready. I gave the General the despatch back again, and asked for
+ink and paper. And then slowly, meditatively, I wrote down the contents
+of those two lines letter by letter.
+
+"'You've got a marvellous headpiece,' said the General, in amazement.
+'And has that lady of yours just such a marvellously retentive capacity
+as you have?'
+
+"'Just the same.'
+
+"'Then I consider the stratagem as feasible.'"
+
+Here I could not help leaping to my feet. "What!" cried I, "you actually
+undertook to learn by heart a whole despatch written in cipher?"
+
+"No, my sweet friend! I won't deceive you as I deceived that other man.
+The whole thing was a delusion. The cryptograms which reached the
+Commandant of the fortress were entrusted to Rengetegi, that he might
+unpod them with a secret key. He communicated this key to me. One had
+only to know a single word whose consecutive letters repeat all the
+characters of the alphabet in different series. The whole thing only
+required a little calculation; there was no need to rack one's brains
+about it. With the assistance of the secret key I first of all
+deciphered the cipher, and then I retransferred it into its original
+rigmarole."
+
+"But are you aware," I interrupted, "that if the General had found you
+out, he would have had you shot on the spot?"
+
+"I suspected as much. But he suspected nothing. He was really a good,
+worthy man. He said that things being as they were, he could safely
+confide the despatch to my hands.
+
+"After that he pointed out to me on the military map the route I ought
+to take through Galicia, by which I should possibly avoid falling in
+with the enemy's squadrons. My passport in the name of Madame Janos
+Bagotay he filled up with his own hand. I begged him to leave a blank
+space for the personal description of my travelling companion.
+
+"When this was ready he gave me a portfolio full of Austrian bank-notes,
+besides a hundred louis d'ors and a handful of silver money.
+
+"Then he pressed my hand, and said: 'The last line of this despatch
+announces the promotion of Captain Rengetegi to the rank of major.'"
+
+At this both Bessy and I laughed heartily, and then she merrily resumed
+her story as follows:--
+
+"My return journey was in a much more lordly fashion. Everywhere relays
+were waiting for me. In a couple of days I reached Vienna. While still
+in Comorn, I had learnt that my mother had gone there for refuge, and
+still kept up her intimacy with a certain high official in the Imperial
+army. He was in the service of the War Minister there. It was not
+difficult to find him. I will leave you to picture to yourself the scene
+of our meeting. My mother loves acting, but she is a bad player, she
+never knows her part. She would have liked to have cried and fainted
+when I came rushing in, but she got no further than sobbing. I was all
+the better able to play my part. I hastened to excuse her for her
+behaviour at our last meeting. I took all the blame on myself. I ought
+to have remembered, I said, that it was not the proper thing to cling on
+to my mother's carriage when the infuriated populace was seeking her
+life. Then I went on to the motive of my coming there. The Hungarian
+Governmental Commission at Comorn had ordered that every Austrian
+bank-note which could be laid hands upon was to be burnt in the middle
+of the market-place. My mother had 40,000 florins in bank-notes, which
+the Orphanage Fund had retained from my patrimony. This amount had been
+lent out to various persons at interest. These persons, as soon as they
+heard of the order of the Governmental Commission, had hastened to
+deposit their German bank-notes--not in the fortress, but in the town
+bank, that they might at least get back their securities; and thus it
+was _our_ money that would be burnt. That was why I had come at such a
+break-neck pace, I said. If my mother would give me a power of attorney
+for the purpose, I would immediately return, and as I had great
+influence with the Commandant, I would so manage that our money instead
+of being burnt should be handed over to me. After that I would settle
+with my mother. She also had money locked up there which I would get
+handed over to me.
+
+"This proposition made an impression.
+
+"I had already informed my mother by letter of all this when
+communications were freer than now, but she, as all nervous people do
+with their letters, the moment she recognised my handwriting in the
+address, put it away without opening it. She fancied it was full of
+maudlin penitence. Now, however, when I called her attention to this
+letter, she took it out and opened it, and almost fainted with terror
+when she saw the annexed official communication of the Governmental
+Commission, and learnt therefrom that the term fixed for the bonfire of
+the Austrian bank-notes would be reached in three days.
+
+"Then there was such a scampering to her good friend the high official,
+and to all sorts of high commanding officers, in order to procure for me
+a safe-conduct; then she got me a power of attorney neatly written out,
+by means of which I could reclaim her money, and then she said: 'Now,
+don't wait a moment, my darling girl, but jump into a fiacre and gallop
+off to Comorn.'
+
+"I found my journey back much freer from obstacles than my coming away.
+The self-same major of cuirassiers who would have had me flogged as a
+gipsy leader was now full of courtesy towards me. After reading my
+letter of introduction, in which the object of my journey was mentioned,
+he could not have the slightest doubt that I was about purely private
+business which was very pressing. He did not even have me searched. I
+could have smuggled into the fortress anything I liked.
+
+"When I had passed through the besieging lines, I turned off from the
+highway in the direction of Heteny, that I might seek out my captive.
+
+"After the first delights of meeting each other again were over, I told
+him the whole story which I have just been telling you. I must say that
+I had a much more appreciative audience than you are. At the sensational
+scenes, he flung himself on the ground ... and with folded, uplifted
+hands implored the wolves not to devour me. He swore that if he caught
+the Ban of Croatia he would dance the life out of him for making me
+fiddle so unmercifully. When I dictated to him the despatch I had learnt
+by heart, by means of the secret key, the last lines of which contained
+his promotion to the rank of major, he exclaimed, with an irresistible
+burst of grateful emotion: 'My Queen! my Zenobia!' I had made him a
+major; he made me a queen. We were quits.
+
+"'And now let us hasten to the fortress,' I said, 'for I have urgent
+business there. I want to save my property. Our house has been burnt
+already; if our money is burnt too, we shall be beggars.' This made him
+hasten.
+
+"'I must, however,' said he, 'devise something to round off my
+expedition, something of the quality of a heroic deed.'
+
+"And by the time we reached the fortress he _had_ devised something.
+
+"The return of the courier with the despatch of the Hungarian
+Commander-in-chief created an extraordinary sensation in the fortress
+and spread even to the town. The Commandant immediately proclaimed that
+Captain Tihamer Rengetegi had been promoted to the rank of Major by the
+Hungarian War Minister for extraordinary services.
+
+"A banquet in honour of the returning hero followed. All the officers
+were present. The ladies also took part in it. I was there too. Never
+had I seen Balvanyossi (I beg his pardon, Rengetegi) play his part in so
+masterly a manner as on that evening. He was the gipsy leader who, with
+three others, fiddled his way right through every hostile camp. And what
+amusing adventures befell him on the road! I believe he laid under
+contribution every book of gipsy anecdote that was ever published. And
+when he came to that ghastly scene with the wolves--that was indeed a
+drastic description. The reality was nothing like so horrible as his
+account of it. The ladies swooned, the men were horror-stricken, only I
+was inclined to laugh. And when the guerillas turned up, how valiant my
+Rengetegi became all at once! He took horse and started off in pursuit
+of the cuirassiers. (To him they were cuirassiers!) It would have been
+beneath his dignity to have chased mere hussars.... By way of climax
+came the splendid description of how he cut his way through the
+besieging host. In the dark night, amidst a blinding blackness of
+midnight snow-storm, he cut his way on horseback through the Austrian
+foreposts, leaping over trenches and earth-works, with the bullets
+skimming about his ears right and left. His horse was shot dead beneath
+him, but ever equal to the occasion, he hastily fastened on his skates,
+and skated with the rapidity of lightning over the frozen Zsitva and the
+Csiliz, and two other rivers the names of which I never heard of before.
+Thus at last he reached the fortress. Every one was enchanted with the
+narration. The ladies rose _en masse_ and kissed him, and improvised a
+laurel-wreath for his brows out of muscatel leaves.
+
+"To save appearances, I also went up to him that I might condole with
+and congratulate him upon all the exploits and sufferings he had gone
+through, when all at once my friend turned quite stiff and rigid, gave
+me a cold bow, pursed his lips, and turned up the whites of his eyes.
+
+"'Madame!' said he, 'I have a word or two to say to you also. Where
+were you, may I ask, while I was jeopardizing my life a hundred times
+every day for my country? Can you tell me how you were occupying your
+days all this while?'
+
+"I was confounded. Language died away on my lips. The blood rushed to my
+face. I felt that every one was now looking at me. Naturally nobody in
+Comorn had seen me all this time.
+
+"'If what the world whispers turns out to be true, and you have in the
+meantime been to Vienna--but no! I will not believe it.'
+
+"His magnanimity offended me even more than his indictment.
+
+"'What is it to you whence I come or whither I go?' I replied, turning
+my back upon him and beginning to talk to the young officers, like one
+who has nothing to be ashamed of.
+
+"Shortly afterwards I quitted the banqueting-room. I hadn't reached the
+end of the long pavilion corridor in the fortress when Rengetegi came
+running after me.
+
+"'What on earth possessed you to calumniate and accuse me before the
+whole company,' I said to him, 'just as if I were a traitor, or I don't
+know what?'
+
+"'Tsitt! Zenobia, my Queen. Let us understand each other. It was in your
+own interest that I had to feign jealousy and rage. Let us go into my
+room and I'll explain everything.'
+
+"When we were alone together he locked the door and then explained
+things nicely.
+
+"'It concerns your money.'
+
+"'Aha!'
+
+"'Amidst all this laudation, appreciation, and ovation, and all the
+other flummery, I did not lose sight of the _main chance_. I told the
+Governor privately that if he wished to reward me in any way, he might
+do me the favour not to give to the flames the property deposited in the
+bank to the credit of the damsel who was so near to my heart, but allow
+me to bring it back to her. The austere patriot was as inexorable as
+Brutus. "Never!" said he. "We will burn what we have laid hands upon,
+even though it were the property of my own father. We can make no
+exception. What would those poor devils say whose paltry ten or twenty
+florins we surrender to the flames of the _auto-da-fe_ if we allowed the
+forty or fifty thousand florins of the rich to fly away? Burn they
+shall!" This he said with a very wrathful voice. Then he added in a
+milder tone: "However, I'll confide the burning of them to you."'
+
+"Now I began to understand.
+
+"'A quarrel between us therefore has become an absolute necessity. We
+must fly into a rage with each other. The _auto-da-fe_ will take place
+in a couple of days. The bonfire will be in the centre of the public
+square. I shall throw the bundles of bank-notes one by one among the
+spluttering faggots. You must be close by the booths of the
+bread-sellers, and break out into curses. You remember the cursing
+scene from _Deborah_? Very well, it may be useful. After the
+_auto-da-fe_ there must be a lively scene between us. We must cast our
+mutual souvenirs at each other's feet. I'll throw at you the embroidered
+cushion which you worked for my birthday, and inside it will be the
+money belonging to you and your mamma which I have rescued. Then be off
+as quick as you can to Vienna.'
+
+"'But how about the packet that you have to burn?'
+
+"'Leave that to me; a few copies of the _Comorn News_ will give every
+bit as brisk a flame.'
+
+"Everything happened according to his instructions. I saved our
+property, and you must admit that my friend and I displayed considerable
+prudence on this occasion. We did nobody any wrong: I only recovered
+what was my own.
+
+"Then we fell out together publicly, as preconcerted. My friend
+Rengetegi played Othello in a masterly manner. Then as our acquaintances
+could not succeed in reconciling us, we solemnly separated and I went
+back to Vienna.
+
+"On the way back I again fell in with the Austrian major. I showed him
+the money I brought with me, naturally without letting him know how I
+came by it. He became so friendly as even to entrust me with a letter to
+an old acquaintance of his in Vienna, who was none other than my
+mother's colonel....
+
+"You may imagine the friendly reception which awaited me when I
+returned to Vienna and gave my mother her money. She folded me in her
+arms, covered me with kisses, bedewed me with tears, and called me her
+darling child. What still remained to me of my patrimony, about 40,000
+florins, I placed in the Vienna savings-bank. The rest of my dower was
+in the hands of Muki Bagotay, with the exception of what we spent while
+we lived together. This also I contrived to get back again--but how?
+
+"In the spring, when the fortune of the war changed, Comorn was
+relieved, and I hastened off home again. I told my mother that I was
+urgently bent upon building up again our burnt house--only the roof had
+been burnt off, the walls remained standing. She approved of my
+resolution, and was very proud of having such a sensible and
+enterprising daughter. I immediately set about rebuilding our house,
+taking advantage of the time which elapsed from the raising of the first
+to the beginning of the second siege. During my stay at Vienna I moved
+continually in military circles, and I saw quite plainly what was
+coming. But why reopen my wounds? All my illusions were over. I had
+learnt to know my hero at close quarters, behind the scenes, I might
+say. This 'lord of creation' used to whine before his tailor for a
+respite with his account till next pay-day, and immediately afterwards
+would ascend his triumphal car drawn by captive kings and declaim to the
+populace of conquered Constantinople. But in one particular thing Major
+Rengetegi really extorted my admiration, I mean by his strategical
+science."
+
+"Ah!" cried I.
+
+"You may well say 'ah!' I have read the campaigns of Napoleon I., I have
+read the campaigns of Charles XII., but in none of them could I discover
+so many ruses of war as my hero invented in order to triumphantly solve
+the problem--how a man in his capacity of superior officer may
+constantly be taking part in the most ticklish skirmishes without
+allowing his person to get into the way of any wandering bullet. He
+always knew how to hit upon some mission whereby he might manage to
+skedaddle out of danger. And if I now and then fluttered the red rag of
+_self-esteem_ before his eyes, he would reply: 'I have duties towards
+art; if they shoot away half my leg, how shall I be able to act on the
+stage again?' Yet, when the battle was over, who so great a hero as he!
+Others only mowed down the enemy, he thrashed them afterwards with a
+flail. 'Tis a dreadful thing when a woman discovers that her hero is a
+habitual liar, lying with the fiery burning conviction that no man will
+dare to doubt him, so that she has to make him swear to the truth of
+every word he utters.
+
+"Meanwhile, I continued my house-building. Every sort of building
+material was very dear, and there was plenty of money too. Whence did
+all this money come? I'll tell you. The Russian hosts had already
+invaded the kingdom. The speculator-species perceived that the national
+cause was declining. The Hungarian armies were everywhere falling back.
+Then Klapka, by a brilliant victory, raised the second siege of Comorn
+and was within an ace of capturing the besieging host. The region was
+instantly alive with people, and a whole series of triumphs followed one
+after another. And now there flocked to Comorn from every part of the
+kingdom quite a tribe of panic-stricken speculators and jobbers, with
+bags full of Hungarian bank-notes, and bought everything that was for
+sale, at whatever price the sellers liked to ask. My Muki also took
+advantage of this lucky period to regulate his finances. He sold his
+herds at four times their real value, and paid the price, in Hungarian
+bank-notes, into the deposit bank at Comorn. It was my dowry paid back,
+he said. The bank hastened to place the amount in my hands; and I
+hastened to satisfy therewith my architects and builders, who did not
+let the money stick to their hands.
+
+"Doesn't this remind you of the round game we used to play as children,
+when we lit a straw, and, sitting in a circle, passed it round from hand
+to hand; whoever was the last to hold it till the fire burned his hands,
+him we used to thump unmercifully--that was the forfeit? Just such a
+burning straw was the dowry paid back to me by my husband. The roof of
+my father's house was the straw end which remained in my hands. The
+amount which I deposited in the Vienna bank is all I have left in the
+world--except Tihamer Rengetegi. But not even he has remained mine, for
+he has changed into Balvanyossi. And now here we are together. The
+playing of a common part unites us. From morn to eve every word we say
+to one another is a lie. It is not even true that any one is pursuing
+Rengetegi, for at the capitulation of Comorn he received his
+safe-conduct which guarantees his life and liberty. That is not what
+distresses him. But he wishes to deny the whole part he played during
+the Revolution, that as Balvanyossi, the theatre-director, he may get
+the necessary concession. He is continually urging me to go to Miskolcz
+to the Government Commissioner and settle the business for him."
+
+"I understand."
+
+"No, you don't. It is none of those interventions which we see in
+romances and dramas, when a pretty woman goes to move a mighty tyrant
+with her tears, and sacrifice her charms to him as the price of the life
+and liberty of her persecuted husband. Oh no! my hero is no plagiarist!
+His ideas are all original. He wants me to go to the mighty gentleman
+and tell him that the Debreczin expedition, which has given rise to the
+whole of this heroic poem, is not his '_crime_,' but mine. I was the
+gipsy leader who played before the Ban Jellachich, and then escaped. It
+was I who carried the despatch to the Hungarian Government. In a word: I
+am to sacrifice myself on his account!"
+
+"Fie! fie! And still you love this man!"
+
+"What am I to do? I have nobody but him in the wide world; and besides,
+he is such a droll, amusing character. All day long we are either
+fighting or frolicking, and it is this variation which makes life so
+charming."
+
+But for all that, she flung herself on the ground and hid her face in
+the green moss. She was in such a good humour!
+
+"Sha'n't we give our friend a signal to come out of his hole?"
+
+"He is quite comfortable--don't disturb him."
+
+"I wonder you don't hit upon the very obvious idea of putting an end to
+this pantomimic game of hide and seek. You have a foreign passport. You
+could enter your friend in it under some such description as major-domo
+or travelling companion. You could take him with you to Naples or to
+Paris, and you could live without care on the interest of the fund
+deposited at the Vienna bank."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"Then why not do it?"
+
+"Because I don't choose."
+
+And as she said this she looked strangely at me with her enigmatically
+mysterious eyes, in which heaven and hell were blended together like
+starlight in darkness!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE DEMON'S BAIT
+
+
+I said in the last chapter that the lady was looking straight into my
+eyes with the glance of Circe. Then she shrugged her shoulders, flung
+herself down beside the fire-ashes, and began to blow the cinders so as
+to entice a flame from the smouldering embers.
+
+"It's useless to give advice to me, for I always do exactly the
+contrary. Let us rather have a chat together. What is your fate, now?"
+
+"The fate of the grub when it is in its chrysalis."
+
+"Then it was not without cause that I went to you that evening when you
+shut your door in my face? And yet I only said what I did because I
+feared that either the gibbet or suicide awaited you on the path you
+chose to take."
+
+Here her voice trembled, her chin, her lips twitched convulsively, and
+her eyes filled with tears.
+
+A lady in tears is dangerous!
+
+I did _not_ hasten to dry her tears. On the contrary, I replied with
+cool cynicism:
+
+"Every career has its own peculiar _maleficium_--drowning awaits the
+sailor, shooting the soldier; the doctor may fall a victim to an
+epidemic; the glass-maker suffers from caries; choke-damp kills the
+miner; and he who meddles with politics runs a chance of being hanged or
+guillotined."
+
+"No, no! They shall not do it!" she cried hoarsely, seizing my hand in
+both her own.
+
+"I do not want them to do it," I said, "and that is why I am hiding
+myself here at the back of beyond."
+
+"But how long is this to go on? What future do you see before you?"
+
+"For the present I am like the convalescent beggar whose promenading
+does not go beyond the house-door. I thought of beginning a little
+farming in this valley and forgetting all my dreams of glory. I shall
+become an agriculturist."
+
+"Very nice! And your wife?"
+
+"She will join me."
+
+"And you seriously think so? You think she'll come and settle down with
+you in a hut with a clay floor and a straw roof, like the one you are
+living in now."
+
+"It's a palace compared with what we lived in in our Debreczin days.
+When my wife did the cooking--for we had no servant--we loved each other
+better than ever. In a little house loving hearts are nearer to each
+other than in a large palace."
+
+"It was possible then, no doubt. I have experienced the same thing. But
+this is quite different. When a man has such brilliant hopes, want is no
+affliction. It will be over soon, he thinks. But to enter upon misery
+with the knowledge that it will last till death, is beyond the power of
+resignation. And particularly with a woman! Believe me, I know my own
+sex. Your wife, who now stands at the summit of her artistic fame,
+cannot quit her brilliant career. No! If you were an angel she could
+not."
+
+I could not defend my point of view against her. Stern reality was on
+her side; on my side were only faith and imagination.
+
+"I believe in my wife's promise to deliver me out of my difficult
+position."
+
+"I can't imagine how. She cannot do what I can do for Balvanyossi--in
+other words, accuse herself and say: 'It was not he who proclaimed
+freedom on March 15th. It was not he who wrote those heart-stirring
+articles to the nation. It was not he who edited those newspapers; not
+he who went to battle with the armies; not he who inspired the Honveds
+at the siege of Buda: but I.' Your wife cannot take your fault on her
+shoulders."
+
+I couldn't help laughing.
+
+"I would not let her."
+
+"But let us suppose that a great _artiste_, a renowned beauty, might
+perhaps manage by some means or other to procure an amnesty for her
+hidden husband" (and as she said this she discharged murderous,
+envenomed darts at me from the corners of her eyes), "what will be your
+subsequent lot when you return to Pest as a rebel amnestied at the
+intercession of his wife? The earth and the sky which you used to adore
+have vanished. No poet, no newspaper, no publisher: what will you do?
+Will you enter a lawyer's office again to copy deeds, issue summonses,
+and serve writs at so much a day? Or will you translate comedies (under
+official protection) at fifty florins each for the National Theatre; or
+paint fashionable portraits of butchers' wives at five florins apiece?
+Or, perhaps, you'll do nothing at all, but live simply under the wing of
+your wife as 'the actress's husband,' and see a woman bending beneath
+the load of sustaining a household--accomplishing the most exhausting
+work; coming home after her day's acting is over, tired to death,
+excited, unstrung. See her, poorly though she be, hurry from one
+provincial town to another, acting uncongenial parts, so as to scrape
+together a little money wherewith to satisfy the Jews with whom she has
+to haggle for the material for her costumes. And the husband must look
+on at all this with his arms folded, or, if he does anything at all, may
+perhaps paint the flowers for her costumes, which she herself will then
+sew on with her own hands."
+
+"It will not last for ever--other times will come."
+
+"Other times! You think other times will come, eh? Now, that is what I
+fear most of all. I know you well. You are not the sort of man who can
+content himself with the thought--what is past is over! You will never
+forget what you used to be, still less what you meant to be. The glory
+of fame is not forgotten as easily as a pawned jewel. You will again
+fall into those straits from which you have been set free."
+
+And the woman saw right into my soul. My face is so maladroit that it
+never could keep a secret. You can read my features like an open book.
+When I am frightened, it is vain for me to pretend that I am plucky.
+When I'm in a rage, it is useless for me to affect calmness--nobody is
+taken in by it. I cannot even haggle over a bargain properly, people can
+read from my face what I have to give. This woman could see where my
+soul was wandering in secret, far, far away, in a gloriously arisen
+Hungary of the future. And she regarded this talk of turning farmer as
+little more than the incoherent delirium of a fevered visionary.
+
+"Let it be as you say," I said.... "If I live I will build a tower out
+of the ruins of my country's glory; if I die, my grave will become an
+altar. Vainly does this coward flesh of mine tremble in every nerve. I
+am neither a hero nor a giant. The report of a gun makes me tremble; I
+grow pale in the presence of death; grief draws tears from me--but I
+will not depart from my set path. If I cannot write under my own name, I
+will write under the name of my landlord's dog. I will be 'Sajo.'[87]
+We'll bark if we can't speak, but we'll not be silent."
+
+[Footnote 87: My works "_Forradalmi es csatakepek_," "_Bujdoso naploja_"
+were written under the pseudonym _Sajo_.--JOKAI.]
+
+The lady, in terror, seized me by both arms.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, take care! A step backwards, and you'll fall over
+the rock."
+
+"But I don't mean to take a step backwards."
+
+"Listen to me quietly. Don't fly into a rage. Sit down beside me. You
+need have no great fear of me. I am not a luring demon. I have not a
+word to say against what you've said. Do whatever your soul bids you. I
+ask for nothing more. Don't you believe that I've a good heart also?"
+
+"I believe that you've a little too much heart."
+
+"Perhaps all that my heart led me to do was sinful. I was mad. I was
+blind. Passion got hold of me; but the feeling I had for you would not
+have been out of place in heaven itself. When I am alone, I am always
+with you; and when I think of anything I think of you. I wish you to go
+onwards and upwards along the rugged path that you have entered upon;
+but can you do it here, with a leaden weight on your feet, a padlock on
+your mouth, and a strait jacket on your body?"
+
+"'Tis because it _is_ heavy that I must needs carry my burden."
+
+"But how much more brilliant would be the success of your struggle if
+you could continue it on a foreign soil--in free France, for instance!
+Just think! If you were now to appear in Paris, the leaders of the
+French literature would receive you with open arms. The French public
+would enrol you among its great writers, and then you might write of
+the glory, the sufferings, and the heroic struggles of Hungary, and of
+the amiable qualities of its people; you might write all this with
+perfect freedom, from the very bottom of your heart, and millions and
+millions, the whole round world, would read your writings, and not
+merely a handful of people, as here at home. There you would be a rich
+man, here you are only a day-labourer. Here you might sing like a
+Tyrtaeus, and the world outside would hear nothing of it; but if you
+raised your voice abroad in the midst of a great nation and a
+cosmopolitan capital, your voice would be like the horns of Joshua
+before the walls of Jericho."
+
+Ah! how luring was the panorama.... To become a great French writer! To
+be raised aloft on the shoulders of the most glorious of nations! What
+here at home was but the crack of a whip in my hands, would there be a
+thunderbolt!
+
+"But it is impossible," I objected. "How could I possibly force my way
+to the frontiers of France from the depths of Tordona, through my own
+country, through Austria, through Germany, without a passport, without
+money, in a semi-Asiatic garb? Just as well might I cast myself down
+from the mountain-top in the belief that I could fly."
+
+"Well, come now, I have a very good plan to suggest to you. I've got an
+English passport. Have I not told you exactly how I got it? None
+besides yourself knows that I have it, except, of course, the officials
+who have _vised_ it on the way. In this passport the blank for my
+travelling companion has not yet been filled up. You asked me just now
+why I did not insert the name and description of Balvanyossi. Now, I'll
+tell you. Nobody is pursuing him. I always intended to fill up that
+blank with your name. You won't have to sacrifice much beyond that
+little moustache and beard of yours, and resigning yourself to speak
+nothing abroad but French and German. I appoint you my secretary. I
+myself am an English lady. We mustn't go _via_ Vienna. But the way is
+clear in the direction of Breslau. I have quite enough money for us
+both. I still retain the hundred ducats which I received at Debreczin.
+We shall do sumptuously with this till we get to Paris. My capital in
+the Vienna bank I can leave where it is, or I may have it sent after me,
+and the interest from it will suffice for your modest needs at the
+beginning of your residence at Paris, so that you will not have to
+resort to the emigrants' fund. When once you have won a position for
+yourself in Continental literature you will need no further assistance
+from anybody. You will be able to refund to me what I advanced to you as
+a loan. Only as a loan remember, not as a gift; still less do I expect
+anything in exchange, not even a warm pressure of the hand. I am simply
+your proselyte whose mission it is to make straight the way of the
+prophet."
+
+It was a seductive picture, and still more seductive was she who
+presented it to me.
+
+To be free! To be able to pronounce my name boldly in the face of every
+one who met me! Not to tremble at the pattering of every footstep at my
+door! To fight for great ideas in the company of great and noble minds!
+
+And how her _eyes_ sparkled as she said these words, like the parhelia
+in the glowing girdle of a solar halo! And her face was as open as a
+child's. I could have sworn that she was an artless virgin opening her
+heart for the first time to a true sentiment. Her hands were folded as
+if in prayer.
+
+Had I wavered but a hair's-breadth, I must have plunged down into the
+abyss.
+
+Ah! what a different man I should have become. Had I fled with her, I
+should now be the grand master of the Realists, for there is as much
+erotic flame, satiric vein, and luxurious fancy in me as in them; but I
+have not used these qualities, because I write for a Hungarian public.
+Had I flown with her, millions would have read my works, and fathers and
+mothers would have cursed me as the corrupter of their children. And I
+should have laughed at them, and tapped the fat paunch, which as an
+idealistic writer I have never been able to acquire.
+
+And whither would this reinless, bridleless passion have hurried me had
+I been swayed by such a fascinating Calypso, whose every movement was a
+charm, whose every word was a snare, who was herself the personified
+joy of a Mohammedan paradise? For, remember, I was then only
+four-and-twenty!
+
+Fortunately, a sober thought still remained in my head.
+
+"I mean to remain in my own land," I said abruptly.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I will not forsake those who arose at my word. If they lie on the
+earth, I also will lie down beside them. I will take my share of the
+suffering of which I was the cause."
+
+"You won't remain out in the cold for ever, of course. Haven't you,
+then, the hope that those who have sought refuge abroad will one day
+return in triumph? Then you also will return home at the head of the
+reprieved."
+
+Even this weapon she managed to turn against me! Oh, what a weak coat of
+mail it was that defended me--only a single word!
+
+"I have given my word that I'll not depart from hence," I said softly.
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"To her who gave me her word that she would come and seek me here."
+
+"Your wife?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And if she seeks you, what then?"
+
+"She will bring me liberty."
+
+"How? In what way?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You don't know, and yet you believe?"
+
+"I believe with my whole heart."
+
+"And you never think what may be the price of such freedom?"
+
+"I spurn such a thought as often as it arises."
+
+"You believe in a woman's loyalty, a woman's virtue?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then you are a very happy man!"
+
+During this conversation I continued my drawing, and she called my
+attention to several objects in the landscape which had escaped me.
+Shortly after that she began a very ordinary conversation about the
+weather.
+
+"Look! the prophecy of the old forester is well-nigh fulfilled. The sky
+is quite overcast. The snowstorm will surprise us here."
+
+"Then, perhaps, it may be as well to call our friend out of his
+hiding-place?"
+
+"Oh, that will be very easy! I need only give him one signal. He himself
+selected it from the romance 'Ivanhoe'--the note of the hero's
+horn--'Wasa hoa!' At this signal he will appear immediately."
+
+"Well, I can scarcely see to sketch any more, it is so dark."
+
+"Then you are determined to go to that little village down there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"No news from the world will ever penetrate thither."
+
+"That will be all the better for me."
+
+"You have heard nothing of what is going on outside all this time, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Nothing pleasant."
+
+"It is a dreadful world. How would the women manage to live if they
+couldn't chatter?"
+
+"They could sew their children's clothes."
+
+"Perhaps you haven't heard that Petofi's widow has married again?"
+
+Ah, that was indeed a murderous thrust! A calculated, well-aimed,
+poisonous dart where there was a weak joint in my coat of mail.
+
+"What do you say?" cried I, in a perfect passion.
+
+"It is a fact known to everybody."
+
+"Petofi's wife! Then what has become of Petofi?"
+
+"He fell at the battle of Segesvar."
+
+"Who saw him fall?"
+
+"A Honved officer who testified to the fact. This was quite enough for
+his widow. She immediately went to the altar with another young writer,
+who was not perhaps such a knightly hero as your friend, but who is a
+pleasant young man in a good official position, moving in the best
+society, and who is able to assure his wife a comfortable existence."
+
+Every one of this woman's words went right through my heart.
+
+Now, indeed, after years have elapsed, I can say that poor Julia did
+well to confide her fate to a good and worthy man. She had a child, and
+had duties towards that child. But at that moment a heavier blow could
+not have descended upon my head. The death of our martyrs, let it be
+never so cruel, was not nearly such terrible news to me as the news that
+the martyrs had been forgotten.
+
+That any woman could ever forget Petofi! The woman whom the poet had
+encompassed with the rays of his soul of flame! That the poet should be
+able to make himself immortal to the whole world and not to her whom he
+had worshipped!
+
+No doubt the widow was right, she will be blessed in the next world, and
+there Petofi himself will justify her--the righteous are always just;
+but to me this news seemed to open the very gates of hell. If the grass
+can grow so quickly over my overthrown idol, what am I, I should like to
+know? A frog enclosed in a tree, whose calling it is to live for a
+hundred years--beneath the bark!
+
+"I won't believe it! I won't believe it! I won't believe it!"
+
+She laughed at me. "Now wriggle away!" she seemed to say.
+
+From the crown of my head to the heel of my foot I was full of
+bitterness. If such a thing as this could happen, why shouldn't that
+other thing happen, too? Why shouldn't another fallen writer forget the
+promise he had made to his wife, seize the hand of his former ideal, and
+fly away with her out into the world? That would be tit for tat.
+
+Her two eyes flamed as she looked at me and laughed. It was just as if
+she knew she had wounded me and would fain stir me up to vengeance.
+
+She had destroyed my idol: belief in a woman's heart.
+
+Women were all alike!
+
+"No, no, no! My wife is not like other women."
+
+I sat down on the edge of the precipitous rock, made a speaking-trumpet
+of the palms of both hands, and called loudly down into the valley "Wasa
+hoa!"
+
+The echo repeated my words. And not long afterwards could be heard from
+below the proud refrain:--
+
+    "Whom he meets upon his way
+    Him he cruelly doth slay;
+    But if a pretty girl draw near,
+    Ah, then what gayer cavalier!
+    Tremble and quake ye tongues that lie,
+    And speak his name all whisp'ringly:
+        Diavolo, diavolo, diavolo!"
+
+As the song drew nearer, I packed up my traps and clasped my stick all
+ready to say good-bye.
+
+"Forget what we have been speaking about!"
+
+I said this.
+
+"Have we been speaking about anything, then? I didn't know!" replied the
+lady with the eyes like the sea.
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+I was quite persuaded that we should never meet again.
+
+I did not wait till my friend had climbed up again out of his hole. They
+would easily find one another. The snow had already begun to fall in
+thick flakes. I set off homewards.
+
+The snowstorm drove full against me as I proceeded. I had very nearly
+lost myself in the forest. The evening had fallen early; by the time I
+had descended from the hill it was quite dark.
+
+But still darker was what I carried with me in my brain--the black
+thought that there was now no such thing as love or loving remembrance
+in the world. Where we fall, there we lie, and none cares. Some of us
+die, and there is none to mourn us; the rest of us remain alive, and
+mourn over ourselves.
+
+How fair is the fate of a fallen tree. There it lies, and the ground-ivy
+covers it.
+
+If the wild beasts were to tear me to pieces now, nobody would know
+where I had perished.
+
+At last I stumbled upon the linden spring.
+
+This was a good guide. The stream flows right along beside the house of
+the Csanyis; one can get home by keeping near its banks, even in the
+dark.
+
+My soul blamed me for having passed so much time by the Pagan Altar with
+that "other" woman.
+
+The snow now completely covered the fields, and through it in serpentine
+flight darted the threefold stream. The autumn leaves were still on the
+trees, their crowns bent down beneath loads of snow. The whole landscape
+was sombre, but it was not more sombre than my soul.
+
+Suddenly, like a ray of hope, the window-light of the little house in
+which I was lodging flashed out before me. It stood at the end of the
+village, and was the last house of all.
+
+I was utterly wearied both in body and soul when I arrived at last at
+the little dwelling.
+
+It had neither courtyard nor enclosure. It stood right out upon the
+road. The carts and ploughs stood there beneath a shed. There are no
+thieves here.
+
+The door of the house is never bolted, and it opens out upon a little
+passage. On the right-hand side of this passage lie kitchen and
+store-room; on the left the living-rooms, and a side chamber, which
+served me as a bedroom, and the rest of the family as a sort of
+withdrawing-room. It is the only room in the house which has a deal
+floor, all the other floors are of clay.
+
+The kitchen door was also open, and a large fire was blazing on the open
+hearth. My hostess with her serving-maid was busy baking and boiling.
+
+When I bade her good evening, she glanced at me with a roguish smile.
+
+"Ei, ei! A nice time to come home, I must say! But go into the
+room--supper will be ready presently."
+
+I went into the room.
+
+By the lighted stove sat my wife!
+
+Rapturous joy drove every other thought out of my soul.
+
+I don't know what I said. I wouldn't believe she was there till I had
+caught her in my arms and embraced her tightly.
+
+'Tis true, 'tis true, 'tis true--loyalty, love, sweet remembrance still
+belong to this world!
+
+She told me afterwards--very briefly--how ill she had been. She had
+wanted to come before, but couldn't; as it was, she had left Pest by
+stealth, and had come with a passport made out under a false name. She
+had suffered much on the way. She had gone astray in the snowstorm in
+the beech woods, and it had been as much as she could do to find her way
+again. She had been terrified by the wolves, whose howls even now
+resounded from the woods.
+
+And all the while I suffered the mental torture of a man who hears the
+person who _is_ talking to him and the person who _has been_ talking to
+him at the same time. I saw the one figure and I saw the other also.
+
+Our good host, worthy Beno Csanyi, as he sat by the table, kept on
+mumbling in his beard: "That's something like a woman--that _is_ a wife,
+if you like!"
+
+Well, now that we are both together again, what does it all matter?
+
+Yes, but how long shall we be together again?
+
+My wife must go back the day after to-morrow. Only grudgingly had the
+director of the theatre allowed her a four days' leave. On the fifth day
+she must play.
+
+But my captivity was soon to draw to a close.
+
+My wife took a carefully concealed piece of paper from her breast; it
+was a tiny little grey schedule, but that little schedule was in those
+days a great treasure. It was the guarantee of my liberation--a Comorn
+passport.
+
+It was a very simple method of deliverance, as simple as the egg of
+Columbus.
+
+When the fortress of Comorn capitulated, each of the officers of the
+garrison there received a passport which guaranteed his life and
+liberty, and also dispensed him from enrolment in the Austrian army. My
+wife managed to procure me such a passport in the simplest way in the
+world. There was a brother of Szigligeti's in the Comorn garrison,
+Vincent Szathmary (Szathmary was their family name), who wrote my name
+down in the list of the capitulating officers as a Honved lieutenant,
+and handed the passport bearing my name to my wife.
+
+This was the reason why I was obliged to remain in concealment in the
+meantime.
+
+Thus my dove had brought me two leaves of the olive-branch, namely, life
+and liberty; but how about the third? I had still to wait for that. I
+was not free to come forth till I got it. I should have to wait till she
+came back for me a second time. I no longer ran any risk of being
+condemned, but I might still run the risk of being interned at my native
+place, Comorn, and that would have been a fresh torment for me.
+
+Then my wife asked me: "Have you been thinking of me also all this
+time?"
+
+And if I had not been able to answer, "Always of thee!" and if, while
+saying this, I had not been able to look her honestly in the face, she
+would have been amply justified in tearing the passport to pieces and
+flinging the fragments in my face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MARVELS NOT TO BE SEEN FOR MONEY
+
+
+It was now four years since I had made friends with the beech woods. For
+two years I was "Sajo," but after that I was again able to practise the
+art of letters in my own name.
+
+My wife and I saw nobody, and nobody came to see us. We had both of us
+quite enough to do without paying visits. My wife was an actress, and I
+an author. And let nobody suppose that actresses and authors live in the
+land of Cockaigne.[88] Both have very hard work to do, and rest is their
+dearest recreation.
+
+[Footnote 88: Lit., a sky full of fiddles.]
+
+Unfortunately I was engaged in publishing and editing. Nominally,
+indeed, the director of the National Theatre was the responsible editor
+and publisher of the belle-lettristic and artistic journal _Delibab_,
+for my name was still under police supervision; but, in reality, I wrote
+and edited the whole paper, corrected the proofs, and folded up,
+directed, and despatched the copies of it to the subscribers--and got
+into trouble for it besides.
+
+My only assistant was a worthy, semi-rustic, very pronounced Hungarian
+lad, called Coloman Iglodi, who had served as lieutenant under the
+banner of the red-capped Honveds in our Utopian days.[89] At the battle
+of Tarczal he had received three bullets, one in the face, the second in
+the arm, and the third in the leg, and these wounds he had to thank for
+his dismissal as a genuine invalid. So he joined me as messenger,
+secretary, and door-keeper, and a worthy, honest fellow he was.
+
+[Footnote 89: _i.e._, during the war.]
+
+One afternoon "clerk Coloman" (that was his familiar epithet) opened the
+door of my working-room. "I beg pardon, sir," said he, "but a cuirassier
+is here."
+
+"What sort of a cuirassier?"
+
+"A senior lieutenant."
+
+"What does he want with me, I wonder?"
+
+In the fifties the visit of an officer was tantamount to a challenge.
+Those were the days of the famous political duels in which Coloman
+Tisza,[90] Julius Szapary,[91] and Francis Beniczky fought with the
+delegated officers.
+
+[Footnote 90: The late Prime Minister of Hungary and leader of the
+Liberal party there.]
+
+[Footnote 91: The present Prime Minister.--Since this note was written,
+Szapary has given way to Weckerle.]
+
+"Admit him!"
+
+"Call me, please, if necessary," said clerk Coloman confidentially,
+making at the same time a significant movement with the paper-knife.
+
+Then the visitor entered.
+
+In figure he was half a head taller than me at the very least. He was a
+strong, broad-shouldered fellow. His bony face wore quite a stony
+expression by reason of a powerful eagle nose and a broad double chin.
+On the other hand this sternness was somewhat contradicted by a pair of
+honest, bright-blue eyes, a little mouth, and offensively light hair,
+though his eyebrows, moustache, and whiskers were even lighter.
+
+My visitor, as he advanced from my door to my writing-table, took those
+three short mazurka steps which, with men, are generally the
+preliminaries to a military salute; he held, close pressed to his thigh,
+his beautiful helmet, with the golden lions and the black-yellow plumes;
+and when he stood in front of me, he clashed his spurs together and
+introduced himself in Hungarian.
+
+"I am Wenceslaus Kvatopil, senior lieutenant of dragoons."
+
+He had the peculiar habit of accompanying every word with an explanatory
+movement of his hand, so that a stone-deaf person could have understood
+perfectly what he meant. The deprecatory movement of his hand
+meant--Wenceslaus Kvatopil; the indication of the twin stars on his
+collar meant that he was a lieutenant; the slight elevation of his
+helmet signified that he was a dragoon, and the simultaneous sweep of
+the hand towards his breast gave me to understand that he was _not_ a
+cuirassier.
+
+"I am glad to see you," I said; "how can I be of service?"
+
+"I should like to have a long conversation with you, sir, if you will
+let me."
+
+At this I would have offered him a chair, but on no account in the world
+would he suffer me to do so, but helped himself to one, and then once
+more apologised for the trouble he was giving before he sat down
+opposite to me.
+
+I begged him to address me in German, as I was quite capable of making
+myself understood in that tongue.
+
+"No! no! En _akarom_ magyariul beszelni"[92]--and at the same time he
+made as though he were ducking the head of a refractory urchin in a
+basin of soapsuds.
+
+[Footnote 92: "I want to talk in Hungarian."]
+
+"_Akarok_," I good-humouredly corrected him.
+
+"No! no! _Akarok_ is the _indefinite_ mood, _akarom the definite_ mood;
+and I want to speak Hungarian _definitely_."
+
+I was forced to acknowledge to myself that his logic was stronger than
+his grammar.
+
+"I was born in Leutomischl"[93]--here he let his head fall regretfully
+on his breast.
+
+[Footnote 93: A Bohemian town. He meant by this that he belonged to
+Czech officials who had been forced upon Hungary.--TR.]
+
+I with corresponding pantomime replied that that need not make any
+difference between us.
+
+"My father was"--here with both hands he took aim with an imaginary gun.
+
+It now occurred to me _why_ he made all these gestures. Such is often
+the way with those who have taught themselves a foreign language without
+a master, and cannot find quickly enough the word they want. I hastened
+to his assistance.
+
+"A forester?"
+
+"Yes, a forester. He had sons"--he lifted up both hands, and then one
+finger.
+
+"Eleven?"
+
+"Yes, eleven. I myself was"--he held the palm of his hand quite low down
+towards the floor.
+
+"The youngest?"
+
+"Yes, the youngest."
+
+"My father gave me"--here followed a very suggestive gesture.
+
+"Yes, a _very rigorous_ education."
+
+"But it was all"--he lightly tapped the hollow of his hand, as much as
+to say "No good!"
+
+"He wanted me to be"--he laid the palms of his hands together as if in
+prayer.
+
+"A priest?"
+
+"Quite right! I wouldn't"--a snap of the fingers, and then a lizard-like
+dart into the palm of the hand.
+
+"You mean to say you took French leave of the Seminary?"
+
+At this we both laughed. The gesture next following--a smack on the palm
+of the hand illustrated by a little equitation on the back of a
+chair--gave me to understand that my visitor had then become a soldier.
+
+"At four-and-twenty I was a lieutenant. I lay at Cracow for two years. I
+served in the Hungarian war from beginning to end. I am now thirty-four
+years old. And still I am only a lieutenant. Curious, isn't it?"
+
+I agreed with him that it was certainly most surprising.
+
+"My other comrades--no, not _comrades_, that's a French word."
+
+"_Bajtarsai?_"[94] I suggested.
+
+[Footnote 94: "Your comrades"--the Hungarian equivalent.]
+
+"Yes, of course! my other _bajtarsai_ all became captains and majors,
+and have got decorations. I've nothing! Nothing, I tell you! And I'm
+pretty plucky too. I'm a good horseman--I've never given offence--I
+understand my duties. What do you think the cause is?"
+
+I really was curious myself to know the cause of this misadventure.
+
+"All through the war I was interned at Temesvar with my squadron. No
+occasion for displaying valour. Cavalry behind trenches. My comrades all
+on the battle-field"--he made a swift motion with his hand.
+
+"And fought bravely?" said I, completing the sentence.
+
+"Yes, they fought bravely, whilst we horsemen besieged in the fortress
+might"--here he put the tips of his thumbs between his teeth and puffed
+out his cheeks.
+
+"Smoke your pipes?" I suggested.
+
+"Yes, we smoked our pipes."
+
+Here we both gave way to merriment once more. Again I urged upon my
+visitor to speak in German, and we could then perhaps get along more
+easily, but he only replied, "_Muszaj!_"[95] Well, if he knows even that
+_Hungarian_ word, I thought, he _must_ have his own way, that's all.
+
+[Footnote 95: A corruption of the German _mussen_, but as used in
+Hungarian it expresses the most emphatic necessity. When all other
+arguments fail, the word _muszaj_ is supposed to carry everything before
+it.--TR.]
+
+"Yes, I _must_ speak Hungarian, by command of the highest authority."
+
+"The highest?"
+
+With that he seized the lappets of my coat with both hands.
+
+"Come, now! Do you know who is the greatest tyrant in the whole world?"
+
+"Dionysius of Syracuse."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Young blood! 'Tis this!"--and with his index finger he
+tapped himself between his fourth and fifth ribs on the left-hand side.
+
+"The heart, eh?"
+
+"You're right. The heart. 'Tis the greatest tyrant. _It_ commands me to
+speak Hungarian."
+
+"Then you are in love, eh?"
+
+A gesture with the palm of his hand right up to the chin was the answer.
+
+"Up to the neck, eh?"
+
+"No, over head and ears."
+
+"With a lovely Hungarian damsel?"
+
+He raised his three fingers closely pressed together to his lips, which
+were pointed as if to receive a kiss, thereby explaining that she was
+_very_ lovely.
+
+Then he passed his extended palms softly over his face, then, joining
+them together beneath his chin, affirmed, so far as I understood him,
+that she was also young and charming.
+
+Then he pressed his waist with both hands, which meant "slim as a lily
+stalk."
+
+After that he cracked his fingers right in front of his eyes, which
+meant "What eyes!"
+
+Finally he crossed his arms, and immediately afterwards disengaged them
+again.
+
+"In a word, a ravishing beauty," said I. "I congratulate you!"
+
+"I think you may."
+
+"Your tender sentiment is naturally reciprocated?"
+
+"Oho!" and he caught hold of the flat of his sword.
+
+"I did not mean to insinuate the contrary," I said.
+
+"Naturally."
+
+Then he was silent, and began to fumble about his stiff cravat. I saw
+that he wanted me to ask him some more questions.
+
+"A maiden lady?"
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"Then a widow lady?"
+
+"Ah, no!"
+
+"Then it can't be a lady at all?"
+
+"No, no! What are you thinking of?"
+
+"Then what is she?"
+
+"A lady who has a husband, but yet is not a married lady."
+
+"Aha! A _divorcee_?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then the relations between you are quite legitimate."
+
+At this, my lieutenant of dragoons rose from his chair and stood before
+me in quite a magisterial position. I also stood up.
+
+"The lady desires you to be her ..."--here the word he wanted would not
+occur to him. He raised the three first fingers of his right hand above
+his head, like one who is taking an oath. I guessed his meaning.
+
+"A witness to her marriage?"
+
+"No, not that. She used another word."
+
+"Oh, she meant I was to give her away?"
+
+"Yes, that is it. How I do forget!"
+
+"Then is the chosen of your heart an acquaintance of mine?"
+
+"Naturally. If I were only to mention her first name you would remember
+at once. Bessy!"
+
+"Ah, Bessy!"
+
+"How red you've got! You were in love with her once yourself. I know!
+She told me. Well, will you give her away?"
+
+"With pleasure."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"With all my heart."
+
+Then he caught hold of my hand with both his hands; squeezed my hand
+violently, and his eyes grew quite tiny with sheer rapture. I believed
+he would have liked to kiss me; but he had a big nose, and I had a big
+nose, too, so we could not very well have managed it.
+
+"Then will you allow me to bring in my bride?"
+
+"Whence?"
+
+"She is waiting outside."
+
+"Not on the staircase?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. On the staircase. She won't come in till she's quite sure
+you'll give her away. She's a bit shy."
+
+I immediately hastened to open the door for my hesitating visitor.
+
+It really was Bessy.
+
+It was winter time just then, and she had all sorts of furry garments
+upon her, and a furred cap on her head; she looked just like a fair
+Muscovite.
+
+There really seemed to be some sort of coquettish bashfulness in her
+face.
+
+I couldn't imagine why. I had seen her face before under many similar
+circumstances, and after Muki Bagotay, Peter Gyuricza, and Tihamer
+Rengetegi, Wenceslaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement.
+
+The bridegroom remained in the room while I admitted the lady. Then he
+first craved permission to kiss her hand, and then begged her pardon for
+kissing it. After that there was absolutely no getting him to take a
+seat, but he persisted in standing on one spot, leaning over the back of
+the arm-chair in which his lady sat.
+
+"Have you grasped what my hero has told you?" inquired Bessy, when she
+had got over her first embarrassment. "Just fancy! he has given me his
+word as a gentleman that henceforth he'll never address a word to any
+Hungarian except in the Hungarian language. And he tortures his
+Hungarian orderly to death with it to begin with."
+
+"A most laudable resolve," I was obliged to answer.
+
+"But now, first of all, let me explain to you why I ask you to put
+yourself to the inconvenience of giving me away."
+
+I assured her that to give her away was not an inconvenience, but a
+pleasure.
+
+"After our last meeting you never anticipated, perhaps, that we should
+meet again in this life?"
+
+I lifted my head and looked at her with amazement.
+
+"Oh! we can say anything before _him_" (here she pointed at her
+bridegroom). "He's as nice and good a boy as ever lived. I could twist
+him round my little finger if I liked. You can say anything before him.
+You know my story, I think, up to the time when I had to go into hiding
+with Balvanyossi after the Revolution. I shouldn't like you to imagine
+that I quitted that man from pure lightness of heart. Just fancy! he had
+the impudence to commit that act of baseness which I mentioned to you:
+he told the Imperial Commissioner the whole story of the conveying of
+those despatches, cleared himself from the accusation of that heroic
+deed, and at the same time denounced me. He justified himself to me on
+the ground that it was necessary to '_purify_ himself,' in order that he
+might obtain a theatrical licence, and that they would not _impute_ this
+little joke to me because I was a woman. But they _did_ impute it! They
+arrested me, they imprisoned me, and they severely cross-examined me.
+And I have to thank this worthy young fellow alone for getting off
+scot-free. He took my part. But for him I should have had to pay most
+dearly for my heroic exploit. Shouldn't I, Wenzy?"
+
+The lieutenant hinted, with a deprecatory wave of his hand, that no more
+need be said about the matter.
+
+"Hence our acquaintance began," continued the lady, "and this, perhaps,
+will justify me in your eyes for selecting a foreigner, a foreign
+officer, as my _fiance_. I had very strong reasons, you must admit, for
+growing cold towards my former hero."
+
+The fair lady did not appear to be satisfied with the impression that
+her eyes had made upon me; at least, I had some reason to believe that
+the following commentary was intended not so much for the delight of her
+bridegroom as for my own edification.
+
+"Believe me (I am perfectly serious about it), I am not merely grateful
+to Kvatopil because he has rescued me from my great difficulties, and,
+what is more, from any further improprieties on the part of that
+Barabbas Balvanyossi;--no, I also esteem him as a noble nature worthy of
+all respect; from the crown of his head to the tip of his toe he is full
+of the love of truth, not even in jest would he tell a lie. He is
+valiant and strong-minded, and at the same time affectionate and
+tender-hearted. A man of his word, in fact, who does not lightly give
+his word either. A really model man."
+
+A pencil was in my hand, and before me was a blank sheet of paper, and I
+involuntarily scribbled on this piece of paper "Number 4."
+
+The lady grasped the import of my hieroglyphic and shook her head, but
+she smiled a little too.
+
+"But he is not like the others," she insisted; "he is the direct
+opposite of what _ladies' men_ think a man should be. It will sound
+incredible, I know, but it is the simple fact that he has been my
+visitor these three years. He has come to see me nearly every day during
+that period, and never has he permitted himself a single bold advance or
+a single unbecoming expression. Every day I have to tell him, just as if
+it were the first time, to take a seat, put down his helmet, and place
+his sword in the corner, and our conversation has never gone beyond the
+criticism of Schiller's verses."
+
+I was bound to admit that this was really an extraordinary case.
+
+"I couldn't help rallying him about it," continued the lady; "you know
+that I am not accustomed to a wooer who imitates the statue of Memnon;
+and then Kvatopil confessed, with perfect simplicity, that he was
+_afraid_ of me. 'If I were as timid on the battle-field,' said he, 'as I
+am in your presence, His Majesty would only give me my deserts by
+dismissing me from his service.'"
+
+The lieutenant signified by a nod of his head that his words had been
+correctly reported.
+
+"Finally," continued Bessy, "I had to ask for his hand--hadn't I, my
+friend?"
+
+The bridegroom replied that such had indeed been the case.
+
+"Even then he was quite coy. He pleaded his humble rank. He begged time
+for consideration. Now, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, I did."
+
+"I had to remove his scruples one by one, till at last I brought him to
+a definite declaration, and he said he would take me to wife. Never have
+I met with such an officer before."
+
+Bessy read from my face the expression, "Why bother me with all this?" I
+never asked about it, and I didn't care a fig about her affairs.
+
+"Look now," continued she, in an almost supplicating voice, "I don't
+tell you all these things to amuse you, but because I have an earnest
+request to make of you."
+
+"So the lieutenant informed me."
+
+"I don't mean about giving me away--that is _not_ a serious request. You
+would do that to oblige any servant of yours. I have a much greater
+request than that to make. I wish to ask you to be my guardian, my
+foster-father."
+
+"I? Your _foster-father_?"
+
+"Don't put so much emphasis on the word _father_. You are four years
+older than I am, remember."
+
+"What does a married woman want with a guardian?"
+
+"I assume the case of a married woman who mismanages her property."
+
+"And do you believe, then, that _I_ am such a great financier?"
+
+"I believe that you are my sincere friend, anyhow. You are my only real
+friend in the round world who neither asks nor expects anything for his
+kindness to me. I know it from experience. You have heard, no doubt (and
+if you haven't heard, you might easily have guessed it), that my
+relations have shaken me off. They deny that they ever knew me. My
+mother has married again and removed to Prague. Every one in whom I
+would confide tries to get something out of me--either money, or what is
+more precious than money. Whosoever would attach himself to me is either
+a swindler, or a seducer, or a parasite. As for myself, I am a stupid,
+credulous creature, who will never have any brains to bless herself
+with. I need a strong hand over me, some one to look after my material
+interests and save me from bankruptcy, some one in whose good-will I may
+confide. I know very well I might find a more _experienced_ guardian
+than you, even if I went no further than the civic magistrates; but I
+could endure dictation from nobody--but you. Your dictation I could put
+up with. For Heaven's sake do not let me perish!"
+
+I could not help being sorry for her. I perceived also that she forbore
+to take my hand. Still, it is a rather ticklish position to become the
+guardian of a pretty woman, especially a pretty woman of this kind.
+
+"Very well, I don't mind. But let us consider the whole business
+seriously. I suppose the lieutenant agrees to it?"
+
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil assured me that he had no will of his own in the
+matter.
+
+"Well, now, let us consider the merits of the case. Have you still got
+the money which you deposited in the Vienna savings bank?"
+
+"Yes, and as soon as you are my guardian, I mean to draw it out and
+deposit it in the bank at Pest."
+
+"So much the better, it will be more convenient for the quarterly
+payments of interest. And then, too, you will have to pay out of this
+amount the usual caution-money required of every officer about to
+marry."
+
+"Yes, I know. Six thousand florins."
+
+"Of course, you might also mortgage your father's house to this
+amount."
+
+"Whichever you think best."
+
+"I think the latter way will be best, for I foresee that you will get
+very little profit from your houses, and I want to save as much of your
+ready money as possible."
+
+"_Save_, do you say?" cried Bessy, opening her eyes very wide at this
+word.
+
+I scratched my head all over (I had lots of hair to scratch in those
+days). It was my duty as guardian to express my views with perfect
+candour. At last I found the requisite formula.
+
+"Look now, my sweet ward Bessy, and you also, respected lieutenant, I
+have seen all sorts of wonders in my lifetime. I have seen a one-legged
+ballet-dancer who could turn the most difficult pirouettes; I have seen
+a painter without hands who painted masterly pictures with his feet; I
+have seen a blind actor who played Hamlet right to the very end. But
+what I never have seen yet is a cavalry officer without debts."
+
+At this, the pair of them burst into a loud ha! ha! ha!
+
+"No, no!" cried the bridegroom, "I am not such a wonder as that!"
+
+I now begged him, since we had become so confidential, to be so good as
+to draw his chair close to the table and put down his beautiful helmet
+with the black and yellow plumes and go into figures.
+
+"How much do your debts amount to?"
+
+And a very pretty little amount he made of it.
+
+The bridegroom could read from my face that I thought the amount a
+trifle extravagant for a lieutenant; for that amount Bessy could have
+got a major at least. He hastened to explain matters.
+
+"I did not incur this large debt myself, the culprit was another
+lieutenant, a friend of mine, a rich and distinguished young fellow. He
+got me to write my name to a bill as guarantor of the amount. He was
+still a minor. I wrote my name, of course--what did I know about it?
+Suddenly, when my young friend got over head and ears in difficulties,
+he blew his brains out. His father refused to pay the bill, and so I
+inherited it from his creditors. Since then I have been paying and
+paying, but the debt, instead of diminishing, increases, and the
+terrible _boa conscriptor_ winds itself tighter and tighter round my
+body."
+
+A boa conscriptor indeed, was this gigantic conscriptor[96] serpent!
+
+[Footnote 96: A translation of the Hungarian word _Osszeiro_, which
+means a conscript or schedule of anything, _here_ a schedule of debts.]
+
+At this we all three laughed again, which was rather odd, for there was
+nothing at all to laugh at.
+
+The long and the short of it all was that after discharging her lover's
+debts, and depositing the caution-money, my ward Bessy still had
+twenty-five thousand florins left.
+
+"All right," said she, "that's just why I asked you to be my guardian,
+for if the money remains in my hands, every bit of it will vanish by
+the end of the year."
+
+"I wonder you've kept it so long."
+
+"The wonder is owing to the fact that my mother inhibited the payment of
+the amount to me, and this embargo can only be removed when I am married
+to a man of rank and honour."
+
+"You'll have to be very economical in your housekeeping," I said, "not
+to exceed your income."
+
+"There's Kvatopil's pay, too, and as a cavalry officer he is entitled to
+free unfurnished quarters."
+
+"And you'll be able to put up with an officer's free quarters?" I said.
+
+"You know very well that to such things" ... (I saw that she meant to
+say, "I am used to such things," and I pulled a wry face. She rightly
+understood from my pantomime that it would be scarcely _proper_ to
+mention the events of "Anno Rengetegi" in the presence of her Royal and
+Imperial[97] bridegroom, so, with theatrical _savoir-faire_, she passed
+in an instant from the impudent nonchalance of a _vivandiere_ to the
+tender cooing of a turtle-dove) ... "true love is always ready to
+sacrifice itself." And with an enchanting smile she extended her hand to
+her bridegroom, who raised it with tender enthusiasm to his lips. They
+were just like turtle-doves.
+
+[Footnote 97: Royal as belonging to the service of the King of Hungary,
+Imperial as serving the Emperor of Austria.]
+
+"Eh, Wenzy?"
+
+"Yes, Eliza!"
+
+I felt no particular pleasure in this version of Romeo and Juliet,
+indeed I was half-inclined to hiss the performers.
+
+"Before giving you my paternal blessing, my dear children," said I, "I
+have one question to ask you. Most honoured Mr. Lieutenant, as I
+understand that you were originally intended for a priest, I presume
+that you are a Catholic?"
+
+"A Roman Catholic, yes."
+
+"During the time you spent in the Seminary, then, have you not so much
+as learnt that a Catholic is not free to marry a Calvinist woman whom
+the civil tribunals have divorced from her husband; for, according to
+Catholic dogma, marriage is a sacrament which the secular power cannot
+dissolve?"
+
+At this the bridegroom looked very much amazed.
+
+"Neither of us thought of this certainly."
+
+Bessy suddenly cast a basilisk look at me. Huh! what lightnings flashed
+in those sea-like eyes!
+
+"Then how are we to get over that?" inquired the bridegroom of me, with
+childlike helplessness.
+
+"Why, by your becoming a Calvinist, I suppose."
+
+"A _Calvi_ ..." he was already outside the door when he said the ...
+"_nist_!" He caught up his helmet and bolted without saying good-bye to
+any one. Clerk Coloman told me afterwards he had never seen a dragoon in
+such a hurry.
+
+Bessy he left behind on my hands.
+
+The young lady was in a terrible rage.
+
+"It was pure malice on your part," cried she, "to do me out of my
+bridegroom like that! What do you mean by it? To serve me such a nasty
+trick as that!"
+
+I justified myself as best I could.
+
+"He would have had to know it sooner or later. The priest would have
+refused to unite you."
+
+"You should have left that to me. If once I had paid his debts, his
+honour as a gentleman would have bound him to make this sacrifice for
+me; he could not have got out of it then."
+
+I was forced to admit that I had acted very clumsily. I humbly begged
+her pardon. I would never do it again. Her next bridegroom might be a
+Mohammedan, for all that I cared.
+
+"You never could speak sensibly to me. No matter! I'll bring Wenceslaus
+Kvatopil back here one of these days."
+
+And off she went in a huff.
+
+This interruption had annoyed me. I had lots to do. I had to write the
+addresses of our subscribers on the covers of the neatly folded
+newspapers. This was not an ideal occupation, especially when one had to
+paste on the wrappers as well, which it was also _my_ business to do.
+Some proof-sheets were also awaiting me with a lot of printers' errors.
+It was a realization of the proverb, "When the church is poor, the
+parson tolls the bell himself." In my leisure hours, however--my time of
+repose--I went on with my romance, "A Hungarian Nabob"; the idea of the
+principal character I had borrowed from a story of my wife's.
+
+A couple of weeks elapsed. One evening, when I was hesitating whether I
+should go and see about my oil-lamp myself, or wait till clerk Coloman
+returned home from the post, or the chamber-maid from the theatre,
+whither she had gone to carry my consort her costume in a basket, a
+violent ringing began outside. I had to go and open the door myself.
+
+To my great surprise, I saw Bessy before me with her lieutenant on her
+arm.
+
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil was bubbling over with affability.
+
+"Here I am again, sir. They have arrested me, and put me in chains. I
+must surrender."
+
+Yes, I thought, when the starving garrison is reduced to horse-flesh.
+
+"The siege was vigorous. Such batteries. Look! Those eyes! Congreve
+rockets are nothing in comparison. The star battery is already taken."
+
+"The firing must have been terrible indeed."
+
+"And now I must ask you once more to be my witness."
+
+"You mean your bride's witness?"
+
+"No, mine. First you must come with me to the priest to inform him that
+I have renounced the Catholic faith."
+
+"What, already?"
+
+"Yes, and from conviction."
+
+"Would you take a chair, please?"
+
+"From absolute conviction."
+
+"Bessy is a more clever arguer than any missionary; an energetic
+propagandist."
+
+"And if I were to be damned on the spot, if I were to lose my hope of
+eternal salvation, I should be ready to sacrifice that also for those
+dear, lovely eyes."
+
+"Come, come, Mr. Lieutenant," I said, "pray don't talk so wildly."
+
+"But I mean what I say--I am ready to become a Mohammedan for her sake."
+
+"I can quite believe it."
+
+"Then you will be my witness at the priest's?"
+
+"Pardon me. 'Tis a serious matter. I honour my own religion as much as
+other sects honour theirs, yet I am no proselytizer. Do you wish to
+become a Calvinist from sincere conviction?"
+
+At this word he leaped furiously from his seat.
+
+"A Calvinist? Certainly not! Heaven forbid!"
+
+"Then what do you want to be?"
+
+"I want to be a Lutheran."
+
+"'Tis all one."
+
+"The devil it is! We at Leutomischl hold the Calvinists to be infidels."
+
+"Your bride might have told you, I think, that this is not true."
+
+At this, Bessy again intervened. She implored me prettily not to deny
+her this little kindness. Kvatopil had only consented to be converted
+because they have crosses in the Lutheran churches and believe in the
+sacraments, so that by joining them a man does not risk losing his
+heavenly hopes so much, and the Commander-in-chief would not be down
+upon him so fiercely as if he were to go over to the Calvinist
+Kuruczes.[98] The end of it all was that I, a Calvinist presbyter, had
+to introduce a newly-converted soul into the Lutheran Church.
+
+[Footnote 98: _Kurucz_, a name originally given to the Transylvanian
+insurgents under Francis Rakoczy; they were mostly Protestants.--TR.]
+
+I really must have been a very good sort of fellow formerly, that is to
+say, before my heart was hardened.
+
+At last every obstacle was overcome. I consented to give away my ward,
+Wenceslaus Kvatopil's bride. Bessy received from her excellent mother
+(who was now a general's wife) intimation that she had withdrawn her
+sequestration from the money in the Vienna bank; the caution-money was
+deposited, the boa conscriptors were satisfied, and nothing hindered us
+from going to church.
+
+The marriage party, besides the bride and bridegroom, consisted of two
+witnesses; the bridegroom's witness was a battalion commander, a major
+who brought his wife with him.
+
+And here, perhaps, every one will ask me why the wife of the _other_
+witness was not there also?
+
+It is an awkward question.
+
+I might, I know, summarily dispose of the whole matter by saying that my
+wife had just gone, by special invitation, to act at Szabadka; she had
+been invited, but could not come. But this answer, I know, is
+unsatisfactory.
+
+I would, however, first of all, lay down this axiom: "An honourable
+husband should give his wife _no occasion_ for jealousy; but neither
+ought he to make her jealous _without occasion_."
+
+The sacred truth is that I had never mentioned Bessy's name in my wife's
+hearing. ("Slipper-hero!") Did she know of her? I don't know. She was
+much too proud to have ever shown it if she did.
+
+I had Bessy's portrait, and it was in the drawer of my writing-table. It
+was there even when I got married. And if it had found its way into any
+one's hands, I could not have said that it was the portrait of my
+grandmother. But this is what did happen. When the Russian armies broke
+into the kingdom, I, foreseeing the end of the unequal struggle,
+shouldered my musket, tied on my sword, fastened my knapsack round my
+neck, took leave of my wife, and went forth to seek the camp of
+Gorgey--on foot. On my way I met Paul Nyary. "Whither away so armed to
+the teeth, brother Maurice?" said he. "I am going to die for my
+country," I replied, with tragic pathos. "And what have you got in your
+knapsack?" "A ham." "Well, before dying for your country, let us have a
+bit of that ham of yours together." With that he helped me up into his
+car, and in the car beside him was already sitting Joseph Patay--two
+members of the Hungary Government at Debreczin, in fact. I was curious
+enough to inquire whither we were going, whereupon Nyary replied:
+
+    "The dog that bolts to Szeged town
+    T'wards Buda lets his tail hang down."[99]
+
+    [Footnote 99: Buda and Szeged being in diametrically
+    opposite directions.]
+
+Even with the danger of instant death hanging over his head, his bitter
+irony never forsook him. So I went on with Nyary to Szeged. A week
+afterwards my wife followed me. Our house she had entrusted to poor old
+Dame Kovacs. The clever comic actress had no need to fear the Cossacks.
+When, however, the Russians occupied Buda-Pest, and the rigorous order
+was issued that all arms, uniforms, and Hungarian bank-notes were to be
+given up, whilst every one in possession of a prohibited object or a
+revolutionary proclamation was to be tried by court-martial and shot,
+then indeed the good old dame ransacked all the drawers of my
+writing-table, and crumpling up into a heap all she found there,
+including Petofi's correspondence, a letter of Klapka's, the whole of my
+diary which I had written during the Revolution, with innumerable and
+invaluable data, pitched the whole behind the fire, and so they
+disappeared. In this great _auto-da-fe_ Bessy's portrait was also
+reduced to ashes. I therefore have my suspicions that something was
+known about it, but nothing was ever said to me on the subject.
+
+So that, you see, was why _only I_ was present at Bessy's wedding.
+
+The rendezvous took place in her apartments. Here I had the opportunity
+of making the acquaintance of my fellow-witness, the major of dragoons,
+and a very genial man he was. He was a good copy of a genuine Hungarian
+lord-lieutenant of a county. Nothing but cordial hilarity and jovial
+merriment, you would never have taken him for a soldier, least of all
+for an Austrian soldier. He blackguarded the "Bach[100]-hussars," but
+had nothing but praise for the Hungarians. He had not been shut up in
+Temesvar like the lieutenant, but had been fighting in Italy, and had
+only just come hither. He had the habit of seasoning his discourse with
+Hungarian proverbs and pithy aphorisms. He introduced his wife to me
+also. "My domestic dragon," he said; he could not dispense with his
+jesting even then. The lady, however, clearly did not belong to the
+dragon species. On the contrary, she was a remarkably pleasant woman, in
+the prime of life, with really handsome features. One thing I will say
+of her: when once she began to talk she never knew when to leave off.
+Her conversation knew neither rest nor pause. In my eyes, however, this
+is an advantage, for it is my invariable practice to entertain my lady
+friends by letting them talk to their hearts' content, while I listen.
+
+[Footnote 100: The reactionary Austrian Minister who was mainly
+responsible for the attempted denationalization of Hungary.--TR.]
+
+When the bride was still in her boudoir, the major's lady made me
+thoroughly acquainted with the family affairs of all the officers' wives
+in the regiment. When the bride appeared in all her bridal glory,
+accompanied by the bridegroom, who held his helmet in one hand and a
+gigantic bouquet of camellias in the other, the exchange of notes
+between the witness of the bridegroom and the witness of the bride took
+place with all the usual formalities.
+
+Towards me the major acted with the studied courtesy of a high
+Government official, but towards the lieutenant he acted the part of a
+senior officer from beginning to end. He ordered him about as if he were
+sitting on horseback and on the point of setting out for scout duty. And
+the lieutenant obeyed him like a machine. In fact, the bridegroom quite
+gave me the impression of a man sitting in his saddle at the head of his
+squadron. The small arms were beginning to fire, the musket balls were
+piping about his ears, the hissing grenades strike the ground in front
+of him, and he cannot so much as move his head aside till the liberating
+command sounds: "Forward! March! Draw your swords! On 'em! Cut, slash!"
+Stop! What am I saying? Here was no question of cutting and slashing!
+No; press her to your breast, rather! Is she not your bride?
+
+Finally, at the word of command, we reached the altar.
+
+It was all over. I had given Bessy away. She was married.
+
+She bore up very gallantly; but then, of course, she had had a deal of
+practice.
+
+But as for the bridegroom, every one of his movements had to be by
+order; he was accustomed to have it so. He was so moved indeed that he
+could scarcely draw off his glove, and would have forced the bride to
+stand on the right hand, whereas the priest wished her to pass to the
+left; and when the ceremony was over, he turned towards his own witness
+with the expression of a delinquent condemned to death who has now no
+hope left save in the mercy of the Court of Appeal.
+
+"We have been married with our left hands," he stammered.
+
+His best man reassured him: "Have no fear of that, my son. 'Tis the
+usual thing. The bride always stands on the left, but your right hands
+were duly placed within each other."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+Worthy Kvatopil did not seem to know which was his right hand and which
+was his left.
+
+On the way home the happy bride and bridegroom sat together in a little
+coach.
+
+A splendid banquet awaited the guests in Bessy's lodgings. The table was
+already spread.
+
+When the happy husband had conducted his darling yoke-fellow into the
+midst of us, he, without more ado, flung himself on the sofa, and,
+hiding his face in the palms of both hands, began to weep bitterly.
+Such a wonder as that is surely not to be seen for either love or money!
+That a bridegroom should weep fit to break his heart immediately after
+the marriage ceremony, and bewail the loss of his bachelordom in floods
+of bitter tears!
+
+The two ladies, however, took him in hand between them, and began to
+entreat and console him, but he could not stifle this outburst of
+feeling. The major also reassured him very prettily: "Come, come, my
+dear friend, you need not take it so tragically. Look at me now! I've
+been through it all! Look how well I get on with my domestic dragon!"
+This, however, was poor balm to him in his great affliction. At last the
+major fairly lost his temper. "A thousand Turkish skulls! What's this,
+lieutenant? Do you wish to regale us with a specimen of the higher
+morality? Bombs and grenades! Embrace your wife, sir, immediately!"
+
+Bessy looked at me as if she were on the point of weeping. I pitied her
+from the bottom of my heart.
+
+"Mr. Lieutenant," I said, "have you ever learnt English?"
+
+The newly-married husband was amazed.
+
+"Yes," said he.
+
+"From Ollendorf's grammar?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you recollect exercise No. 2: '_Why does the Captain weep?--Because
+the Englishman has no bread._'--Well, then, let us _give_ the Englishman
+some bread."
+
+At this every one burst out laughing. The lieutenant also laughed.
+
+And so this scene came to an end. We sat down to table, and amidst the
+merry ring of glasses we made a good deal of fun out of the odd and
+mystical question of Ollendorf's, "Why does the Captain weep?" and the
+still more curious answer, "Because the Englishman has no bread."
+
+The lieutenant's frame of mind remained an inexplicable enigma to me. In
+after years I discovered its true solution.
+
+The cause of his weeping was altogether different from what Ollendorf
+had supposed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SOLDIERING
+
+
+The idyll did not last very long, and was quickly followed by the epic.
+
+War broke out, not among the young married folks, but among the European
+Powers. This only so far concerned my ward as Kvatopil was also
+mobilized; with his dragoon regiment he went towards the eastern
+frontier. Bessy, naturally, went with him.
+
+We parted abruptly. They both came to me to say good-bye. Kvatopil's
+face was radiant with joy, and the reflection of it was visible in the
+smiling face of the lady. There will be war. The soldier's harvest will
+now ripen.
+
+For the purpose of sending her her quarterly allowance it was absolutely
+indispensable that I should know their place of sojourning.
+
+"Our title for the present will be--'An Ihre hochwohlgeboren Frau
+Oberlieutenantin Elisabeth von Kvatopil!' For the present, I say. Later
+on we shall no doubt advance _farther_ and _higher_."
+
+"_Farther_ towards the frontier, and _higher_ in the scale of rank, I
+suppose?" said I, by way of solving the rebus.
+
+My ward (she was four years younger than I) was very pleased with my
+polite elucidation, and the pair of them parted from me in the best
+humour in the world.
+
+After that I received a letter from my ward every week. There is
+absolutely nothing in the most intricately combined knights' moves of
+the severest chess problems which can be compared with their peripatetic
+zigzagings. Now towards the south, a week afterwards towards the west,
+then up again towards the north, retreating, advancing, then back again;
+knocking about in such utterly unknown hamlets, that one could only
+discover them on the best charts by means of microscopes. Finally, the
+war took a flying leap into Wallachia and Moldavia, skipped about Jassy
+and Bucharest, and then leaped across and all along the Pruth, and at
+last settled down in Czernovicz, till it had to move on farther to
+Przemysl, whence again it happily doubled back by way of Stry, Munkacs,
+Tokaj, Miskolcz, Kecskemet, and through Kalocsa again to Buda-Pest.
+
+Bessy accompanied her husband everywhere. All the vicissitudes of the
+seasons which naturally abounded in such a martial pleasure trip she
+patiently endured with him. The letters which she sent to me during this
+period would make a very interesting chapter in a history of camp life.
+_Opportunist_ reasons restrain me from making them public--they might
+deter our young persons (I allude, of course, to the female sex) from
+following Bessy's example.
+
+Often and often I thought how accurately this young woman had foretold
+all these things of herself when we sat beside each other in my little
+wooden hut on the Comorn islet. In a straw-hut, in a cow-stall, in a
+besieged fortress, in a bare barrack, in the tent of an itinerant
+player, at the bivouac of an out-camping soldier--anywhere and
+everywhere, it is Love that makes us happy, and its sweet illusion can
+conjure up fairy palaces out of these wretched surroundings. And
+remember, too, that an officer in the field is by no means an amiable
+husband. Plagued, worried, chicaned by his official superiors; flouted
+by the weather; looking at the enemy with wolf's eyes, and kept back
+from falling upon him; eternally bickering with an unfriendly
+population; a guest beheld with evil eyes; and his wife (if he have one)
+like an iron chain hanging to his neck--it requires no small amount of
+love on the lady's part for her to follow him everywhere, and put up
+with his ill-humour.
+
+And she had prophesied all this beforehand. What was to be the end of it
+all?
+
+But there had been no advance whatever up the ladder of rank. My last
+letter was still addressed to a lieutenant's lady.
+
+When the great universal war was over, which left behind it so much
+bitter disillusion, Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil again came tapping at
+my door.
+
+Clerk Coloman was no longer with me. The _Delibab_ had come to grief. I
+now edited the _Vasarnapi Ujsag_, in the place of the publicly
+advertised and responsible editor Albert Pakh, who was lying ill at
+Graefenberg. My new name was "Kakas Martin."[101] Eh, what a popular man
+I was then! There were Kakas Martin meerschaum pipes and Kakas Martin
+clays, with bowls in the shape of cock-headed men. I really was in the
+mouth of the nation in those days. _O tempi passati!_
+
+[Footnote 101: Martin Cock.]
+
+"Ah! 'tis you, brother, eh?" said I.
+
+"So you still recognise me, then?"
+
+I must admit that his physiognomy had considerably changed. During the
+campaign the officers were permitted to grow absolutely
+counter-regulationary beard-pieces. Wenceslaus was now bearded _a la
+Haynau_, that is to say, the beard was shaved so as to run into the
+moustache, till the two seemed one, which contributed not a little to
+the formidability of the whole face. But a still more notable correction
+of the features was due to his nose, which had grown quite red,--a piece
+of ruby.
+
+He began by laying his index finger on the bridge of his nose.
+
+"Do you see that? My sole booty from the Russo-Turkish war is this red
+nose. Last winter, while we were encamping on the Galician frontier, I
+happened to be out in the open field the whole of one night, and got in
+the way of a villainous Russian blast. The wind drove the powdered snow
+into my face, and each flake stung me like a red-hot needle-point. I
+was not even able to turn my back upon it. In the morning my nose was
+just as you see it now. That same week twenty of my men were frozen to
+death in their saddles, half of my regiment was down in the hospital
+with inflammation of the lungs, scurvy, and hunger-typhus. Of my whole
+squadron I only brought forty men home--and this blood-red nose as a
+trophy."
+
+At this I did not know whether to condole with or congratulate him.
+
+"I shouldn't have minded so much if only we had been able to fight with
+some one; but to go through a six-months' campaign without having
+anything else to do with one's sword than lay the flat of the blade
+about the shoulders of stubborn peasants during our requisitions for
+hay, that I _do_ call hard. Sometimes our foreposts were so close to the
+enemy that we could _see_ each other's breath, and yet we were not
+allowed to attack. At one time we were face to face with the Turks, at
+another time with the Muscovites. It would have been all one to me whom
+I pitched into, so long as I could pitch into some one. No such luck!
+Just when I was fancying that now we really were going to begin the
+battle, the order came again, 'Sheathe your swords!' and we marched
+somewhere else. I would have preferred storming trenches with cavalry to
+this sort of thing. And then that cursed maize-bread! Nothing but
+maize-bread, and not always enough of that. Half-roasted horse-flesh,
+too! Thank you for nothing!"
+
+"But, thank Heaven, it is all over now!" said I encouragingly.
+
+"It is over, certainly. But what have I gained by it?"
+
+He pointed to his collar. There certainly were only two stars there
+still.
+
+"No promotion. I am just where I was before. And yet our major has
+retired. He was obliged to go, poor fellow; every limb was full of
+rheumatism. Our senior captain was promoted to his place, our second
+captain into the first captain's place. His place is now empty. I am the
+senior lieutenant, but there's not a word said about me. It is enough to
+make a fellow blow his brains out!"
+
+I earnestly begged him not to think of such a thing. He had other
+duties. With such an amiable consort too!
+
+"True, brother! She really is an angel. I dare not think what that woman
+has gone through during these bitter times. She was with me everywhere;
+but for her, perhaps, I should have gone to the bad. Ah, my friend, you
+don't know what bliss it is when, after going one's rounds through a
+biting snowstorm, one returns to one's quarters to find there an angel
+awaiting you with a bowl of steaming-hot punch."
+
+"I do know, for I've tried it."
+
+"The punch never failed. If rum was to be had for money, she got it from
+somewhere. I have known her, sir, get into her sledge and drive a day's
+journey into town to get rum for me. A diamond-hearted woman, I say! And
+then her love, too! Despite this ruby nose of mine, she loves me. She
+says it suits me very well. Nay, she is not even hurt at remaining
+simply the wife of a senior lieutenant. But for her I should have sent a
+bullet through my head long ago."
+
+I tried to comfort him with the assurance that a senior lieutenant in
+active service was worth ever so much more in the world's estimation
+than a general on the retired list.
+
+He wound up by inviting me to have a glass of punch with him in the
+evening as soon as his lodgings were ready to receive me.
+
+I didn't go.
+
+Frequently did he invite me, by letter in his wife's name even, and yet
+I never went to drink punch with them. When we met together afterwards,
+I always invented some excuse. On the first occasion I said my head
+ached; on the second occasion I said I was too busy; on the third
+occasion unexpected country cousins had looked in upon me, and so on.
+
+Every time I met him, however, friend Wenceslaus always wound up with
+the bitter exclamation: "I shall have to blow my brains out. Still no
+promotion!"
+
+At last I was tired of telling so many lies, so I told my friend the
+truth.
+
+Now, there are three sorts of truths in the world.
+
+The first sort of truth is that which pleases my friend, but doesn't
+please me.
+
+The second sort of truth is that which pleases me, but doesn't please my
+friend.
+
+The third sort of truth is that which pleases neither my friend nor
+myself, and which brings us to loggerheads at once. Let me illustrate
+what I mean.
+
+To take number one first, I might have said to friend Kvatopil: "My dear
+comrade, a constitutional regime prevails in my house: my wife reigns,
+but I am _responsible_, and I could never obtain her majesty's consent
+to a bill authorizing me to go and have tea once a week with your pretty
+wife."
+
+But this truth I did _not_ tell him.
+
+But supposing I had said to him: "My dear lieutenant, I move in a
+completely different sphere to you. I should be infinitely honoured by
+your society, but I should not know what to talk to your colleagues
+about," that would have been the second sort of truth.
+
+But I did not tell him that.
+
+I told him the third sort of truth. I said: "My dear Kvatopil, if you
+want to know the reason why you don't get promotion, I'll tell you. It
+is because you are so friendly with me. I am a _persona ingrata_ in the
+eyes of the authorities. Only yesterday the police paid me a visit,
+packed up every scrap of paper they could lay their hands on, and
+carried it off; they even took my pictures out of the frames. Then
+Police-inspector Prottman came and worried me for half a day by asking
+me what I knew about Kossuth's proclamation and the dollar notes. If you
+keep on visiting me and writing to me, and if I were to go and amuse
+myself among your brother officers, they would think it gospel truth
+that you were also concerned in the conspiracy. Fortunately, I always
+burn your letters of invitation, or Prottman would now be engaged in
+docketting them."
+
+My friend was startled.
+
+"I only invited you to a glass of punch!" he cried.
+
+"Punch here and punch there! The police would be sure to read it
+'_putsch_.'[102] And look ye, comrade, to be perfectly candid with you,
+I think it would be better for you if you left off all this
+punch-drinking, for 'tis that which makes your nose so red."
+
+[Footnote 102: A riot or sedition.]
+
+Now _that_ was the truth which pleased neither of us.
+
+"You think so, eh? By Jove, you're right! It has often seemed to me when
+I swallow down a glass of punch as if my nose were assuming enormous
+dimensions and diffusing a radiance all about me. From this day forth
+I'll drink no more punch. My word upon it! What's to-day? January 23rd?
+Note it in your diary: 'On January 23rd, Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil
+gave me his word of honour as a gentleman that he would never drink
+punch again.'"--And he left me no peace till I had entered it in my
+diary.
+
+"Nay, more than that, no kind of brandy, or schnaps, or wine, or beer;
+in a word, no sort of spirituous liquor whatever."
+
+All this I had to make a note of.
+
+"And now for a whole year and a day we'll watch the result. Nothing else
+now but pure water."
+
+For a whole year after that I saw nothing of Kvatopil, nor did I hear
+anything of Bessy.
+
+One day, however, my lieutenant suddenly invaded me again; he was still
+the wearer of two stars only.
+
+"Now, if it isn't really enough to make a fellow blow his brains out!
+Again they have passed me over. I went straight to the Colonel. 'Your
+Excellency,' I said, 'here have I been in the service for the last
+twelve years. I have faithfully performed my duties. I have never used
+bad language. I know the regulations. I am at the head of the riding
+school--and still I am set aside. I want to know what objection they
+have against me.'"
+
+"Manly conduct on your part, comrade," I cried.
+
+"And do you know what answer I got? You were quite right, after all."
+
+"Your suspicious intimacy with me, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh dear, no! Who the devil cares for your chatter about the police? Not
+you it is, but this red nose! Here it is still, and it stands in my
+way." And he viciously tugged at the object that stood in his way as if
+it were some stubborn remount.
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"Then I'll make you. The Colonel replied to my interpellation with
+perfect candour. 'My dear Kvatopil,' said he, 'you have indeed the very
+best good-conduct report. There's but one fault which weighs heavily in
+the scale against you: you are too much devoted to drink.' 'What? I?
+Given to drink? Why, for more than a year I have been drinking nothing
+but water.' 'Impossible!' cried the Colonel--'just look at your red
+nose!' 'I acquired that while campaigning out.' The Colonel shook his
+head incredulously. 'But I assure your Excellency that I am speaking the
+truth, I have written testimony to the fact.' 'Then I should very much
+like to see it.' So that is why I have come straight to you. My dear
+friend, I adjure you by your hope of heavenly bliss, if you love me, if
+you ever loved Bessy, if you would save the life of a human creature, to
+give me that note-book in which, a year ago, you entered the vow that I
+made on my honour as a gentleman, that I may show it to the Colonel."
+
+I energetically resisted this proposal.
+
+"My dear friend, all sorts of ticklish items have been entered in this
+note-book of mine which absolutely cannot be read by anybody but
+myself."
+
+But he solemnly assured me that he would never while he was alive suffer
+the little book to leave his hands, and would only show to his superior
+that one page relating to his solemn engagement, so that at last I was
+obliged to submit to his discretion. He promised to return in an hour's
+time.
+
+And he kept his word. In an hour he returned, gave me back my little
+book, embraced me and pressed me to his breast.
+
+"My friend, you have made me a happy man. I have obtained my object. His
+Excellency, on reading the oath recorded in your note-book, laughed to
+such an extent that I could count at least four of his teeth that were
+stopped with gold. Great Heaven! he eats gold with gold, while I have to
+gnaw bones with bone! When he had somewhat recovered from his outburst
+of hilarity, he smacked me on the shoulder, and said: 'Mr. Lieutenant, a
+great injustice has been done you. You are not a drunkard. There has
+been a mistake. This must be seen to. And I promise you that at the very
+first vacancy you shall obtain your third star.'"
+
+This promise raised my friend into the seventh heaven of delight. Hope
+gave him back the desire of life.
+
+This now is the speciality of a soldier's life. We poor civilians can
+have no idea of the joy he felt, especially if we be nothing but
+simple-minded authors. For an author has only one star, and that is high
+above his head. If he can get it, he may keep it, 'tis his. If he cannot
+get it himself, nobody in the world can get it for him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+
+The most beautiful comet I ever saw was the comet of 1858. It was
+visible in the sky for a whole fortnight, from October 1st to 15th, and
+all the time the weather was as fine as could be, not a cloud in the
+sky. And meanwhile the comet drew steadily nearer to the earth, growing
+bigger and bigger, and in shape it exactly resembled a Turkish scimitar;
+at last it was quite visible in broad daylight.
+
+I had very good cause for remembering this comet so well. In September
+of the same year I was seized with haemorrhage of the lungs, an alarming
+symptom in a young man. Our doctor, Sebastian Andrew Kovacs of blessed
+memory, said that it was not medicine that I wanted, but change of air.
+
+I submitted to his directions, and at the beginning of the autumn I
+undertook an audacious expedition--to visit the Western Carpathian Alps
+on horseback. Our good old friend Gabriel Torok (he had been a
+Government Commissioner during the Revolution) and his two sons were my
+guides, for they had been all through those beautiful regions[103]
+before. Five to six hours in the saddle every day for a fortnight,
+through pathless forests, up and down steep rocky precipices, wading
+through streams and mountain torrents, dancing of an evening at the
+balls frequently given in our honour, in the big-heeled boots that we
+had worn on horseback during the day, gobbling bacon as we stopped to
+rest on the fresh grass, and washing it down with a gurgling drink out
+of our brandy-flasks--that is what I call a radical cure for
+inflammation of the lungs.
+
+[Footnote 103: Jokai has immortalized these wonderful landscapes in _Az
+Erdelyi arany Kora_, perhaps his best descriptive romance.]
+
+It cured me, anyhow.
+
+With my suite, which gradually swelled into ten strong, I visited Bihar,
+and found out the rocky grave beneath which reposes my good friend Paul
+Vasvary, who died such a heroic death.[104] I also saw the Hungarian
+California, the gold-diggings of Abrudbanya and Verespatak. I painted
+that marvellous basalt hill Detonata, than which it is impossible to
+imagine a more interesting formation. I was in _Csetatye Mare_, that
+overwhelming relic of the Roman power, a gigantic gold-producing hill
+entirely hollowed out by the slavish hands of a subjugated race. When
+they would have dug still deeper, the top of the scooped-out mountain
+fell in and buried beneath it both slaves and slave-holders. And there
+it stands now, a gaping chasm, like one of the circular Mountains of the
+Moon.
+
+[Footnote 104: One of the victims of the Revolution.]
+
+I love to look back on this delightful tour; and the lovely comet
+accompanied me in the sky all the time.
+
+The result of my journey was that I returned home with perfectly healthy
+lungs. From the comet, moreover, I borrowed the idea of starting a
+weekly comic paper under the title of _Ustokos_.[105] And this paper
+gave me something to do for the next fifteen years. During all that time
+it had great influence. With a preliminary and a supplementary
+censureship to deal with, it was only possible to say a word of truth or
+a word of encouragement in verse or by way of anecdote. Sometimes a
+printer's error served our turn instead. For instance, to the question,
+"What shall a Hungarian man do now?" the answer was, "_Varjon es
+turjon_" ("Wait and suffer"); but by a printer's error the "_turjon_"
+became "_turr jon_," which the reader, in his own mind, would read as
+"_Turr jon_" ("Let Turr come"), and associate it at once with the
+popular ballad sung from one end of the kingdom to the other, and which
+begins, "_Hoz Turr Pizta puskat!_" ("Pizta Turr he brings his musket!")
+
+[Footnote 105: This comic paper still exists, but M. Jokai is no longer
+its editor.]
+
+But the comet had another signification also.
+
+In those days war was our universal prayer. And the following year
+actually brought it.
+
+Napoleon III.'s historical new year's greeting settled the dread destiny
+of the year.
+
+One day my lieutenant again came to see me; I was still his guardian.
+His face beamed with joy.
+
+"God be with you, my friend!"
+
+It was a strange beginning.
+
+"I suppose you've got your promotion in your pocket?"
+
+"Not that, but an order to march. Our whole regiment goes to Lombardy,
+and perhaps even farther. There will be war with Italy, but pray don't
+say anything about it. 'Tis a State secret."
+
+"I knew it long ago."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+"From the Chief of the Police himself. One day he summoned before him
+all the newspaper editors in Buda-Pest and sternly commanded them not to
+write a single letter as _to the preparations_ for the impending war.
+And thus we heard all about the coming campaign from the very best
+authority."
+
+"Well, they certainly might have acted more discreetly than that."
+
+"Where, then, shall I send you your remittances in the immediate
+future?"
+
+"Nowhere at all, dear friend. Bessy will remain here. Nobody is allowed
+to take his wife with him, not even the Colonel; whilst from the very
+day on which the war begins I shall receive double pay. So give the
+money to Bessy."
+
+"I'll _send_ it to her."
+
+"I say _give_ it to her. Take it yourself personally."
+
+"I am much obliged for your confidence."
+
+"It is more than confidence. I wish you, while I am away, to go and see
+her: be her guest every day, and make yourself quite at home."
+
+"The deuce! Do you consider me, then, one of those ninnies to whom one
+can confide a pretty woman _a l'outrance_?"
+
+"_Au contraire!_ I am convinced of the contrary. I know that in such
+matters no reliance can be placed upon mere honour. The only thing a man
+expects from his worthy comrades is discretion. I am well informed of
+everything. My wife has confessed everything to me: the little wooden
+hut on the Comorn island, and then the visit in your private room, the
+meeting at the Pagan Altar.... He, he, he! we know all the circumstances
+quite well!"
+
+(It was an unheard of case. To think that a pretty woman should become
+the trumpet of her own notoriety!)
+
+"But, my dear comrade, on my word of honour ..."
+
+"Here we have nothing to do with words of honour. You were in love with
+her once, and I need have no further fear of any one who _used_ to love
+Bessy. Jupiter was the chief of the gods, and had the loveliest of women
+for his wife, yet _he_ didn't keep the ten commandments. 'Twill be
+better to pour pure wine into our glasses, I think."
+
+"But, I repeat, I don't want to pour any wine at all into my glass."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense! We know all about that. Bessy makes a fool of every
+man, and showers contempt on her worshippers. Of you alone does she
+always speak with rapture. Whenever your name is mentioned she sighs
+deeply, and says, 'Ah, and I might have been his, too!'"
+
+"That proves all the more that our relations have been purely Platonic."
+
+"Very good indeed! What I like about you best of all is the serious face
+with which you are always able to defend your point of view. Another man
+in your place would rejoice at his good fortune; you nobly deny
+yourself. You will compromise nobody. You have that advantage over all
+my other good friends. I would rather entrust her to you than to
+anybody."
+
+"But why not rather trust her to herself? Foster within her the
+sentiment of fidelity. Write to her every day from the camp."
+
+"Nay, my friend, a letter won't do. I can't be always scribbling and
+raving to her. Bessy is not one of the romantic sort. You know all her
+various temperaments."
+
+"Indeed, I know nothing of the sort."
+
+"Well, I do then. I know that the moment I've cast my right foot over my
+horse's back she will be unfaithful to me. It is as much her nature to
+be so as it is my nature to fight and yours to write. When I can't sit
+on horseback I'm ill, when you can't write a romance you're ill, and
+when a pretty woman is not flirting she gets the _migraine_. Your hand
+upon it that you will visit my Bessy while I am far away and comfort
+her!" And the tears really started to his eyes.
+
+Now, here was a situation which is not to be found in any romance, and
+which the reader will, I know, only accept as true under protest. A
+soldier departing for the wars forcibly compels his good friend to try
+and comfort the pretty wife he leaves behind him. But that that friend
+should kick and struggle with all his might against such a marvellous
+piece of good fortune is a fact which I am sure I shall never get the
+enlightened public to believe anyhow.
+
+"My friend," said Kvatopil finally, drying the tears from his eyes and
+violently pressing one of my hands in one of his, "you know that we
+valiant horsemen, dragoons and uhlans, are going down to Italy; the
+hussars have gone already. The volunteers will take our place here in
+garrison-duty. During our absence down there they will be raging
+furiously here. If I thought that mine would be the shame to see my
+place here taken by one of those red-braided, chicory hussars, I should
+be capable of blowing out first my wife's brains and then my own. Don't
+allow such a thing to happen. If one of those cockatoos were to see your
+astrachan pelisse with the large chalcedon buttons of yours hanging up
+in my ante-chamber, he would be scared into flight at once."
+
+At this we both laughed heartily.
+
+We took leave of each other very prettily. Kvatopil with the fairest
+hopes followed the glorious career which promised him fame and
+promotion.
+
+The whole kingdom waited for news from the seat of war with rapt
+attention.
+
+Our parting had taken place at the end of April. In May, the official
+newspapers gave us a brief account of the battle of Montebello. It was
+not a regular pitched battle, but a forced reconnaissance by the
+Austrian general with a jumble of some 12,000 men of all arms. Both the
+Austrians and the French fought bravely. The official _communique_ did
+not give further details.
+
+I, however, through the kind offices of a courier sent from the seat of
+war to the Commandant of Buda, also received a private letter from the
+field of battle. Kvatopil wrote thus:--
+
+     "MY DEAR FRIEND,--
+
+     "I hasten to write to you after the battle. The whole
+     of our regiment was under fire, repulsed the French
+     chasseurs and pursued them into Montebello. _I received
+     a slight wound in the forehead, which did not, however,
+     prevent my further fighting. The Commander-in-chief
+     immediately promoted me to the rank of captain, and
+     praised my valour in front of the regiment. Make known
+     the joyous news to my dear wife. I am not able to write
+     to her. A thousand kisses to the pair of you._
+
+     "WENCESLAUS KVATOPIL, Captain."
+
+But there was a postscript also.
+
+     "P.S.--Show this letter to nobody, and don't let it out
+     of your hand. Destroy it when you have read it through,
+     for, if it were discovered, it would bring me into the
+     greatest trouble, as it is absolutely forbidden to
+     write letters from the camp. That is why I have
+     addressed it to you instead of to my wife, for I can
+     count upon your discretion. In her triumph she would
+     show the letter everywhere. But you burn it.--W. K."
+
+Now, this letter made it my positive duty to visit Bessy, for I could
+only tell her about it by word of mouth. I might indeed have destroyed
+Kvatopil's letter, then written its entire purport to his wife in a
+letter of my own, but in that case she would certainly have carried my
+letter from pillar to post, and the mischief would have been the same.
+
+If I went to her in broad daylight, every one would see me. I could not
+go _incognito_, for I was as well known as a bit of bad money. Besides
+that, the Hungarian national costume was in fashion just then. Every one
+who wore it might expect to have his name bawled after him in the street
+for a week afterwards at the very least. If, on the other hand, I were
+to go to Bessy when it was dark, and they were lighting the gas-lamps,
+that would only make matters worse.
+
+And again, it would be an inconceivable absurdity not to suppose that
+one or other of Bessy's fair neighbours would not be looking out of the
+windows of the house opposite, with the most persistent curiosity, to
+see who was going in at the gate. And if but one of them saw me, the
+whole theatre would know all about it on the morrow.
+
+A husband with a conscience (and there _are_ such husbands) ought in
+such cases to stand before his wife with a demure countenance, and say
+to her honestly and openly: "My dear angel, I am obliged to pay a
+disagreeable visit to this or that lady, and I don't half like it; I
+wish you would come too." Whereupon the wife will naturally be quite
+magnanimous and say: "Go along by yourself, my dear; you know that I am
+not a bit jealous."
+
+But my wife happened, just then, to be away acting at Szeged, and would
+not be back for a week. That would be an aggravating circumstance in the
+case of a visit.
+
+While I was thus debating with myself, a smart little maid-servant came
+to my door. She had a covered market-basket on her arm, and she drew out
+of it a neatly-folded little _billet-doux_, which she placed in my hand.
+The note smelt of celery, under which it had been put. I recognised the
+handwriting of the address, it was Bessy's. I opened and read it. The
+maid stood there and waited. At last she grew impatient of the long
+delay, and said: "I am waiting for an answer."
+
+"Oh, so you're still there? Stop a bit!"
+
+I read the letter once more.
+
+     "MY DEAR GUARDIAN,
+
+     "Very serious business makes me send to you. Come and
+     see me. As your honoured wife is now engaged on a
+     provincial tour, can't you come and dine with me
+     to-day? We shall be all by ourselves.
+
+     "BESSY."
+
+Was there ever an odder reason?--"_As your honoured wife is now engaged
+on a provincial tour_"! No doubt she found that out in the _Fovarosi
+Lapok_.[106] But the conclusion: "_therefore_ you can come and dine with
+me to-day"! And finally: "We shall be all by ourselves"! If that wasn't
+a temptation, I don't know what is.
+
+[Footnote 106: _News of the Capital_, a popular newspaper of the
+period.]
+
+I began to walk up and down.
+
+The maid waited to see if I was going to count how many paces it was
+from the window to the door. At last she grew importunate.
+
+"Is there any answer, please? I have to go home and cook the dinner."
+
+"Ah, yes, of course! Greet your mistress from me, and tell her that I'll
+come and see her in the forenoon to-morrow."
+
+"But I want to know whether you are coming to dinner, that I may arrange
+my cooking accordingly."
+
+"True! Then say I'll come to dinner."
+
+In Bessy's house the custom seemed to prevail for the mistress to dine
+six days of the week with Duke Humphrey, and then on the seventh, her
+at-home day, to make a great parade before her guests.
+
+I was now running into the very centre of danger.
+
+I could not possibly back out of this engagement.
+
+"A serious business, eh?" I know it was serious enough to me.
+
+An ideal of my youth, and lovelier now than ever, with a husband of her
+own too, and that husband a fine manly fellow. So far from being
+jealous, he had openly entrusted me with the consolation of his
+sorrowing spouse. And I am the last person in the world to be enrolled
+in the Order of Anchorites.
+
+I candidly admit that I am not a bit better than my neighbours.
+
+So I tricked myself out finely. I put on my new coffee-coloured clothes
+with the antique buttons; I neatly tied my embroidered cravat; I drew on
+my Kordofan-leather boots with the silver spurs; I fastened a crane's
+plume in my new spiral hat.
+
+This was the audacious fashion of the year, and within a twelvemonth
+this costume was worn in the whole kingdom. And after that, I went to
+the barber's and he twisted my thick blonde hair into masterly ringlets.
+Aggravating circumstances, the whole lot of them!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A COLD DOUCHE
+
+
+How my heart beat when I set forth on my expedition!
+
+On the way from my dwelling to Bessy's lodgings my ill fate brought me
+face to face with all the veteran actresses of the National Theatre, and
+they all stopped me and asked where I was going. They all remarked that
+I was very stylishly got up, and they all shook their fingers at me, and
+said: "Fie, fie! you straw-widower!"
+
+The devil must really have been in me to make me take the trouble to
+have my hair so prettily frizzled.
+
+I was just about to dash hastily up the staircase of Bessy's dwelling,
+when whom should I run into but Toni Sagi. It only needed that. He came
+from the same town as I did, was a common friend of all my friends, and
+was about as reticent of news as a town-crier.
+
+"Your servant, friend! Why, you're quite a stranger. I've just come from
+Bessy. The young lady is in a very bad humour. She as good as pitched me
+out of doors. She must be expecting some one. Perhaps you are the very
+man, eh?"
+
+It was all up with me now! To-morrow every newspaper in the town will
+report my visit here. For "quod licet _bovi_, non licet _Jovi_."
+
+If I were to turn back now, it would only make matters worse.
+
+I hastened up the steps. Bessy lived on the third floor.... To get to
+her rooms I had to follow the open corridor which led down to the
+courtyard. I passed on my way the lodgings of a milliner, a female
+pawnbroker, and a lady who supplied families with servant-maids, and all
+three poked their heads out of their windows and watched me disappear.
+
+On reaching Bessy's number, I found, tugging at the bell-rope, a
+red-peluched young coxcomb. The door was about a fourth part open, and
+the face of the vicious looking cook was protruding out of it. She
+dismissed the visitor with curt ceremony.
+
+"My mistress is not at home!"
+
+We nearly trod each other's spurs off as we cannoned against each other
+in the narrow corridor.
+
+A minute afterwards the countenance of the self-same cook, rounded into
+complete amiability, again appeared, and she said to me:
+
+"Would you do us the honour to walk in?"
+
+And she held the door wide open for me.
+
+You should have seen the face which my red furbelowed gentleman made at
+this. It was not enough for him to open his eyes and mouth at me; he
+stuck his _pince-nez_ on the bridge of his nose as well.
+
+That will mean a duel for me to-morrow.
+
+Meantime, however, I was master of the situation.
+
+I had to go through the kitchen to get to Bessy's room. The kitchen was
+also the ante-chamber; you hung up your overcoat there. Her cook was her
+only servant, parlour-maid, chamber-maid, everything.
+
+"Would you kindly walk into the saloon?" urged the servant.
+
+"But announce me beforehand. Here's my card."
+
+"Beg pardon, but I can't take it; both my hands are doughy." (She was in
+the middle of kneading some dough cake or other with butter.) "Would you
+kindly put your card between my teeth?"
+
+Thus, like a retriever, she carried in my card between her teeth. A
+moment afterwards she cried:
+
+"Come in now, please!"
+
+I entered the room which the servant had called a saloon.
+
+Nobody was there. I looked around me. I found nothing there of the
+luxurious splendour which had surrounded the young lady formerly in her
+mother's house; but for all that everything was neat and pretty.
+Embroideries, a music-stand with songs upon it, and a fiddle,
+flower-pots, a cage with exotic birds, Wallachian _Katrinczas_,[107]
+Szekler pottery, a few handsomely bound books--all these were so
+disposed as to fill the mind with a sense of refined elegance combined
+with the utmost simplicity.
+
+[Footnote 107: Aprons.]
+
+A curtained door led from the saloon into another room--possibly a
+bed-chamber.
+
+In a few minutes this door opened and the fair lady fluttered in.
+
+It did not escape my attention that the moment she entered she turned
+her head on one side, and contracted her eyebrows as if to bid some one
+else remaining behind there to keep quiet. The momentary opening of the
+door also permitted me to see that in the direction in which she had
+looked was a tall tester bed with the curtains drawn close.
+
+The moment, however, that she had shut the door behind her and turned
+towards me, the face of the lovely lady became all amiability. She
+hastened up to me and pressed my hand.
+
+"It was very nice of you to come and see me. Don't be angry with me for
+giving you the trouble."
+
+The lady was now more amiable than ever.
+
+She was in the simplest stay-at-home toilet. The only ornament on her
+head was her own bright silky hair, twisted up into a knot and tied at
+the top with a ribbon.
+
+She looked just as she was ten years before, a little girl of sixteen.
+
+Her whole being recalled to me her childish days. There was the same
+candid, guileless look; those open eyes through which you could read
+into her very soul; the same artless mouth.
+
+She invited me to sit down. She took my hat and laid it on the table.
+
+"I suppose you'll remain to dinner? I have told the cook to prepare your
+favourite dish."
+
+"Then you know what it is?"
+
+"Why, of course! _Beans with pig's ear._ Why, all your admirers
+throughout the kingdom know that."
+
+I had now good reason to be proud! My nation, then, has some regard for
+me, after all. To others it presents _bays_, to me--_beans_.[108]
+
+[Footnote 108: In Hungarian the resemblance is closer still, _babo_
+meaning bean, and _baber_, laurel.]
+
+"In that case I'll remain," I said.
+
+"In Kvatopil's time I was never permitted to cook beans, for he
+maintained that they make a man stupid."
+
+"On the contrary. Pythagoras assures us that the bean contains the same
+component parts as the human brain."
+
+Having thus rehabilitated the bean, I reverted to the real motive of my
+visit there.
+
+"I should have come to visit you to-day even without a special
+invitation."
+
+"Was there any special reason, then, why I should occupy a place in your
+thoughts?"
+
+"I have received a letter from Italy, the contents of which will greatly
+interest you."
+
+At these words she looked at me as coldly as if she had become an
+alabaster statue.
+
+"Interest _me_?"
+
+"So I believe. On the 20th instant there was a battle on the Mincio, at
+which your husband distinguished himself."
+
+"Really?" said the lady mechanically.
+
+("Really?"--In that tone? It was rather odd. However, I went on.)
+
+"Nay, in the heat of the combat he was even wounded."
+
+(I calculated surely on the dramatic effect of these words. I fancied
+that the tender spouse would leap to her feet, pale, ready to faint,
+wringing her hands, till at last, amidst sobs, the name of the adored
+husband would burst forth from her lips: "Oh! my Wenceslaus! Oh! my
+Kvatopil!" But she did not so much as turn her head round.)
+
+"Indeed?" she said, with complete _sangfroid_.
+
+Just as if it were an every-day occurrence for a beloved husband to be
+wounded in battle.
+
+I was offended. Such ungrateful indifference I had never met with
+before. How was I to go on? I had calculated that when the despairing
+consort had wept and sobbed her fill, I should hasten to console her.
+
+"It is true," said I, "that his wound is not sufficiently dangerous to
+prevent him from continuing in the field."
+
+"I can easily believe it," replied the lady, with a shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+Now this was a want of feeling worthy of an alligator! Surely she had
+the nerves of a rhinoceros! I was not prepared for this reception. "I
+can easily believe it!" Was that all?
+
+Well, then, if our tender feelings are so hermetically sealed, we must
+try what more drastic means will do. We must appeal to other sentiments.
+Vanity, for instance, is a sentiment which never can be blunted.
+
+So I moved forward my heavy artillery.
+
+"Lieutenant Kvatopil," I said, "was called to the front and made a
+captain straight off for heroic valour in the field."
+
+But even at this the lovely lady did not fling herself on my neck. She
+did not even utter a sound, but contracted the corners of her mouth.
+What did that mean? When you tell a lieutenant's wife that from to-day
+she has a right to the title Mrs. Captain; that every one who meets her
+in the street and congratulates her will address her as, "Frau
+Rittmeisterin," while the other lieutenants' wives naturally burn with
+secret envy; that she may now print her corresponding rank on her
+visiting cards--when you tell her all this, and even then no impression
+is produced, and the cherry lips do _not_ expand with joy, revealing the
+sparkling, pearly teeth and the dimples on the sunbright face; when,
+instead of that, she purses up her mouth so nastily and gives herself a
+double chin--what _are_ you to think? There is nothing so hideous as a
+pretty woman with a double chin. A double chin makes a woman look
+absolutely old.
+
+I was quite confused. What am I to do to amuse her now? Should I talk
+about the weather?
+
+"May I congratulate you?" I said, seizing her hand.
+
+But not only did she _not_ press my hand in return, as she ought to have
+done; on the contrary, she irritably drew it back and turned aside her
+head.
+
+Suddenly a light flashed through my brain, a light kindled by my
+immeasurable self-conceit. "Why go on praising the distant husband,"
+said I to myself, "when you yourself are present? Do you think she
+invited you to dinner to sing the praises of Wenceslaus Kvatopil?"
+
+I drew my chair nearer to the sofa on which Bessy was sitting, and
+airily passed my hand through my frizzled locks.
+
+Bessy observed the movement, and quickly turned her face towards me. A
+mocking smile suddenly lighted up her face, a smile from which a man can
+read a whole chapter in a moment. That is something like stenography.
+
+"Ha, ha, sir! then we have come thither with that thought, have we? We
+have had our hair frizzled, eh? We have decked ourselves out to be
+irresistible, I know?"
+
+A thousand mocking fish-tailed nixies were wriggling about in those
+sea-like eyes.
+
+It was a murderous sort of smile.
+
+I was conscious of having been taken down pretty considerably. Here was
+I (quite contrary to my usual custom) tricked and furbished up like a
+"_petit maitre_," while she, the lady, received me in her simplest
+barracan house-dress, without any finery, and with a smile she
+discharged at me the saying of the great poet:
+
+    "O Vanity! thy name is woman!"
+
+But why, then, had she sent for me?
+
+Why had she driven away one visitor and denied herself to another if not
+for my sake?
+
+Perhaps for the sake of a third party who had already arrived? When she
+came out of her boudoir she seemed to me to be signalling with her
+eyebrows at some one.
+
+I quickly pulled myself together. I fancy I must have been very red in
+the face, and I certainly had good reason to be ashamed of myself.
+
+I saw that I had not been able to reap laurels in the _role_ of Don
+Juan, so I began to take up the part of Tartuffe. Let us play the
+righteous judge!
+
+"Perhaps I have not come at a very convenient time?"
+
+"On the contrary, I _asked_ you to come at this time."
+
+"On a serious business, eh?"
+
+"A serious business for me."
+
+"But isn't what I've just been saying to you serious?"
+
+"Apparently."
+
+"Yet you received it with a very queer face."
+
+"I listened seriously enough."
+
+"But the affair had its cheerful aspect also, surely?"
+
+The fair dame made a contemptuous clicking with her tongue.
+
+"Don't you feel any interest, then, in Kvatopil's heroism, wounds,
+distinction, and promotion?"
+
+"No!" she replied resolutely, almost snapping my sentence in two. Her
+eyes sparkled like burning naphtha lakes.
+
+"No?" I repeated, in my amazement. "You take no interest in your
+husband's fate whether it be bad or good? You feel neither hot nor cold
+on the subject?"
+
+"No!"
+
+("No!" again).
+
+"But you parted in the greatest affection when he went to the wars?"
+
+"True."
+
+"And it is scarcely a month since then."
+
+"Only twenty-nine days, I've counted them."
+
+"And meanwhile winter has come?"
+
+"It has."
+
+After that she began to laugh maliciously. She leaped to her feet and
+rumpled my frizzly hair with her fingers.
+
+"Let's leave the matter till after dinner; then I'll tell you
+everything. But don't let us spoil a good dinner in the meantime. You
+are quite horrified at me now, and fancy that I've laid a trap for you.
+You will see later on that this serious business of mine is not a joke.
+Let us leave it till after the black coffee."
+
+I revived again. The lady was capricious, and it suited her.
+
+"I was determined to give you a good dinner. I owe you your revenge. It
+is a long time since we dined together. Last time I was your guest.
+Don't you remember? At the Pagan Altar. I never ate so heartily. What
+splendid toast you had! And the bacon, too, broiled on a stick! Why,
+I've got the taste of that good red pepper of yours in my mouth to this
+day! And now I mean to give you hospitality that you will remember for a
+long time!"
+
+This again was delightfully reassuring! She was of the true cat
+species--she purrs and fondles, but one must be continually on one's
+guard against her claws.
+
+"Come now, help me to lay the table! My cook has enough to do without
+that."
+
+So I had to help her lay the table, for the saloon was the dining-room
+also. One had only to remove the books, porcelain vases, and china
+knick-knacks from the table in front of the sofa, and then cover it with
+the table-cloth.
+
+I was curious to see how many she would lay for. Only for two. Two
+plates, two knives, forks and spoons, and two glasses.
+
+But how about that third person, that person in the bedroom yonder? Or
+had I rightly interpreted that peculiar expression of hers? I was
+beginning to think the whole thing was pure hallucination on my part.
+
+Suddenly the scraping of a cautiously-moved chair sounded from the
+boudoir.
+
+I saw that the lady was considerably put out, and felt decidedly
+uncomfortable. She wrathfully pressed her lips together.
+
+"Have you any one in the next room?" I inquired, in a stern, judicial
+voice.
+
+"I have!" she replied defiantly.
+
+"Madame!" I exclaimed, in virtuous high dudgeon.
+
+"Would you like to know who _is_ inside?" she cried, in an offended
+tone.
+
+"Oh, dear, no! I'm not a bit curious," said I, and began looking about
+for my hat and stick.
+
+"But I _wish_ you to know," she cried indignantly, barring my way, and,
+seizing my hand, she led me to the door of the bedroom, and hastily
+flung it open. In the room a blonde young lady stood before me gazing at
+me with wondering large blue eyes.
+
+Bessy introduced this lady to me.
+
+"Madame Wenceslaus Kvatopil, from Cracow."
+
+Then she pulled aside the bed-curtains, and on the bed was lying a
+little girl about eleven years of age.
+
+"This is Wenceslaus Kvatopil's daughter. Poor things! let us leave them
+alone!"
+
+For at least a minute I felt as if some magic power were whirling me
+round and round the globe with it from the North Pole to the Equator,
+and back again.
+
+How I got out of that room into the other I really cannot say. Before
+me continually were the faces of that large-eyed, timid-looking woman
+and the little girl.
+
+I heard the sound of weeping behind me.
+
+It was Bessy. She had hidden her face in her hands, and was sobbing.
+
+"Oh, how I loved that man! How good, how perfect I thought him! I
+fancied him a model man! Even now I cannot accuse him. It was not his
+fault, but mine alone. His sin is my crime. Oh, what folly! Let us speak
+of the situation seriously. You know now, I suppose, why I wanted to see
+you. I wished to ask your advice."
+
+I sat down beside her.
+
+Bessy dried her eyes, and then began to speak quite soberly.
+
+"The whole world judges me wrongly. They fancy I am full of levity. But
+if anything pains me, the pain lasts a long, long time. Since _he_ went
+away I have been nowhere, and seen nobody. If any of my old
+acquaintances came to see me, I told them that the whole place was
+topsy-turvy, and there was not even a chair to sit down upon. My servant
+had orders to say to every one who called--_with one exception_--that I
+was not visible. Who was this exception? Yourself! She could easily
+guess whom I meant, and if she didn't guess it, it didn't much matter.
+When _he_ had to go away so suddenly, he was in a very tender mood. He
+wanted to make me swear that I would not be faithless while he was
+away. He even brought me a crucifix for the purpose, and when he saw
+that I laughed at him, he besought me, if I really must deceive him, at
+least not to bestow my favours upon the first ragamuffin that turned up;
+nay, he even took the trouble to indicate a worthy man to me, of whom he
+could not be jealous; whereupon I told him, very seriously, that the man
+he meant was capable of _killing_ anybody who stood in the way of _his_
+love, but was altogether incapable of _filching_ love from anybody
+else!"
+
+(At this my face grew very red indeed.)
+
+"Then he suddenly assumed a mystic mood, he knew my weak side. He said:
+'If you deceive me for the sake of any other man, at that same moment I
+shall die. Day and night I stand where death is meted out every instant,
+and the moment a kiss from your lips touches the lips of another man, at
+that self-same moment, I say, the bullet which is lying in wait for me
+will fly straight to my heart!' A horrible saying! It would not let me
+sleep, and rose up before me in my dreams. When one or other of my lady
+friends came to visit me and we fell a-chatting and began to laugh and
+joke, a sort of cold shiver would suddenly run all down my body. While I
+am smiling, I thought, perhaps he is dying a death of torments beneath
+the horses' hoofs. Every savoury morsel sticks in my throat when I
+think--perhaps he is now suffering hunger and thirst; and when the blast
+shakes my windows, I think--now he is standing defenceless amidst the
+tempest and freezing. And I unable to protect him!
+
+"In short, this threat of his made me quite a somnambulist. At last I
+denied myself even to my lady friends. I became quite morbid. I fancied
+I had no right to be gay. Ten times a day I went to the crucifix by
+which he had wished me to swear and knelt down before it to pray. I made
+all sorts of vows provided he were preserved and brought back safely to
+me. And yet I am a Calvinist! But that crucifix was _his_. He remained
+faithful to it through all his change of faith. In fact, I was in a fair
+way of becoming a Pietist. I began to think a life of virtue very
+beautiful. I should very much have liked to see you now and again, if
+only to show you that I could be just as moral as you. I would have
+praised your wife to you, and you would have returned the compliment by
+praising my husband. This would have been my ambition."
+
+It was the cook who interrupted this burst of feeling.
+
+"Shall I bring in the stew, madame?"
+
+"Yes, bring it in, if it is ready."
+
+Then she turned to me to explain the circumstances of the case.
+
+"I have to let these ladies have their food cooked separately, for
+Magyar dishes would make them mortally ill. That is why I don't lay the
+table for three. _Your_ favourite dishes would be death to these
+Germans."
+
+The cook now brought in the stewed chicken.
+
+Bessy tasted it first with a little spoon to see if it were salted
+enough, and also to see whether the cook had put parsley in it by
+mistake, for the doctor who was attending the little girl had forbidden
+every sort of seasoning ingredients in her food. Then she herself sliced
+up a roll of the best white bread for the little girl, poured some water
+for her into a glass, and warmed it a little by holding it tightly for a
+while between the palms of her hands instead of popping a live coal into
+it, as thoughtful mothers often do for their sick children. For the
+mother of the child, however, she had a bottle of Pilsener beer
+uncorked, and sent to her.
+
+Only when they had dined was our dinner served.
+
+Meanwhile, we did not resume our interrupted conversation; the servant
+was constantly passing in and out, and we could not speak before her.
+Then, after that, when we sat down to dinner (and a bitter meal it was
+to me) the thread of our conversation was broken as often as the cook
+came in with a new dish or to change a plate, and all that time she
+played the part of the amiable hostess, inviting me to fall to in good
+old Hungarian style.
+
+"One morning," she said, "while I was doing my hair, my servant came and
+told me that a shabby-looking woman was outside, with a biggish girl,
+making inquiries about the lieutenant. I went out to them into the
+kitchen. I saw before me a blonde, blue-eyed woman, of about the same
+age as myself, and clinging to her arm was a lanky slip of a growing
+girl about ten or eleven years of age. In the woman's hand was a
+travelling-bag and an umbrella. She was in bourgeois costume, without
+the fashionable crinoline, and on her head was a simple felt cap; her
+girl was dressed in just the same way. They both wore their hair quite
+smooth and combed back from the forehead.
+
+"The woman wished me good-day in German.
+
+"I asked her what she wanted.
+
+"The woman replied that she wanted her husband, Mr. Wenceslaus Kvatopil.
+
+"'The lieutenant?'
+
+"'When he left me he was only a lieutenant.'
+
+"I quickly caught her by the hand and led her out of the kitchen into
+the saloon. My servant, fortunately, did not understand German.
+
+"I led them right into my bedroom. I invited them both to be seated.
+
+"'Ah, that will do us good,' said the woman, 'for we have come a long
+way. We have come here from Cracow.'
+
+"'Surely not on foot?'
+
+"'On foot all the way. We couldn't afford to come by rail.'
+
+"Just fancy! The very thought is terrible! To come on foot all those
+hundred miles hither from Cracow with a growing girl! Can one's
+imagination realize such a thing?
+
+"'Are you the wife of Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil?' I inquired of the
+woman.
+
+"'I am, and this is his daughter, Marianna.'
+
+"And by way of proving her assertion she drew from her travelling-bag
+her marriage lines, extracted from the registers of the cathedral of
+Cracow, to wit:--'Bridegroom: Wenceslaus Kvatopil, Sub-Lieutenant in the
+*** Dragoons. Bride: Anna Dunkircher. Witnesses: Babolescky, Colonel,
+and Kolmarscky, shopkeeper. Officiating clergyman: Stanislaus Lubousky.
+Dated, Feb. 16th, 1846.'
+
+"Then she showed me the baptismal certificate of the daughter.
+'Marianna, born in lawful wedlock, June 19th, 1846. Father:
+Sub-Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil. Mother: Anna Dunkircher. Officiating
+clergyman: Stanislaus Lubousky. Godparents: the above-mentioned
+marriage-witnesses.'
+
+"A marriage contract, duly attested, was also among the documents."
+
+All at once Bessy burst out laughing.
+
+The cook came in and brought the soup.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! Do you know why, according to Ollendorf, the Captain
+weeps?"
+
+"Because the Englishman has no bread."
+
+"Look, Susy, you've forgotten to give my guardian some bread! Give him a
+crusty bit, he likes that!"
+
+The servant apologised, but said that she didn't think the soup required
+bread.
+
+It was excellent soup, made of cream and eggs and rice and
+finely-chopped chicken. Bessy filled my plate with it.
+
+"Thank you, that will be enough."
+
+When the servant went out we resumed our conversation. And here, I may
+remark, by the way, that there is no more pleasant _tete-a-tete_ in the
+world than that which is interrupted every ten minutes or so by the
+incursions of the servants.
+
+"Now we know," said I, "what was the cause of the extraordinary
+phenomenon of a happy bridegroom beginning to sob bitterly immediately
+after his marriage. It was his deserted wife and child that the poor
+fellow was thinking about."
+
+"True, but don't let your soup cool on that account. Would you like a
+little Parmesan with it?"
+
+"Thank you, but I like it much better without."
+
+"Wenceslaus Kvatopil liked his _with_ Parmesan."
+
+Then we settled down to our soup.
+
+"Wenceslaus Kvatopil always had a second serving of rice soup."
+
+"Thank you, but I never take a second serving of any dish."
+
+"I know that, and I also know that it is your habit to leave the best
+bit at the side of your plate."
+
+"How did you come to know that?"
+
+"I first observed it when I was a little girl and you sometimes came to
+dine with us. They say that it is a species of superstition; the tit-bit
+placed at the side of the plate signifies that our distant true love is
+suffering from hunger."
+
+"It is no superstition, but a simple rule of health to leave off eating
+and drinking while your appetite is still at its best."
+
+Thus we continued our dietetic discussions as if we had no other desire
+in the world than to live a ripe old age and be free from gout.
+
+I have already mentioned that there was chopped-up chicken in the soup,
+and that portion of the chicken fell to Bessy's lot which is known as
+the spur-bone.
+
+Now, it is a well-known custom among young unmarried ladies in
+confidential conclave, when one of them gets such a spur-bone, for her
+to invite her fair colleague to crack the bone with her. One of them
+then takes one end of the spur-bone and the other takes the other end,
+and they pull away in different directions till the bone comes in two.
+Whichever of them gets the spur portion will be married soonest. That is
+a fantastic sort of superstition, if you like.
+
+Bessy laughed and said:
+
+"When we ate our first dinner together, a spur-bone of this sort fell
+into my hands. I stretched it out towards Anna. 'Pull,' I said, 'and see
+which of us is to have Kvatopil.'"
+
+"Then you got to be good friends pretty quickly?"
+
+"Why shouldn't we? Hadn't we both the same husband? I naturally kept
+them here with me. I don't know what would have become of them if I
+hadn't taken them in. At this moment they haven't got a farthing. They
+travelled the whole distance on coffee only. They had no other upper
+garments but what they were actually wearing on their bodies.... My
+first duty was to get them properly dressed. My clothes fitted the woman
+very well, and I bought some for the child in Kerepesi Street. But the
+little one had to take to her bed immediately, for she had a bad
+headache and was very feverish. I sent for a doctor, and he gave her
+some medicine which sent her to sleep. She and her mother have slept in
+my bed ever since, and I sleep on the sofa.--Won't you have a little
+liver?"
+
+"No, thank you. Pray, go on!"
+
+"When the poor lady saw that I received her kindly, her heart melted;
+she fell upon my neck, and our tears flowed like spring showers. We knew
+that one of us would be the death of the other, but which was to be the
+victim? Then we quickly told each other our experiences of our common
+husband, and how we first met him. I could make a strange dramatic scene
+out of it.
+
+"I inquired: 'Come now, Anna, tell me, how did you first meet with
+Kvatopil, and how could you remain absent from him for thirteen years?'
+Anna replied: 'It is a strange story. Do you happen to know, Bessy, the
+history of the Cracow Republic?'
+
+"I: 'No, dear, I never heard of the poor thing.'
+
+"Anna: 'Then you must know that it is a large Polish town where the
+Polish kings were formerly crowned and buried when they died. I am a
+native of that city. My father was a famous glove-maker in Cracow, whose
+goods were sold far and wide. Our town was the last free Polish Republic
+when Poland was finally partitioned. Its territory consisted of
+twenty-two square miles.'"
+
+("Less than Debreczin," I interrupted.)
+
+Bessy went on with Anna's narrative:--
+
+"'When I was a little girl ten years of age a fresh Polish insurrection
+broke out. The united forces of the Austrians, Russians, and Prussians
+again put it down, and the care of the Cracow Republic was entrusted to
+Austria. The old Polish customs and assemblies remained in force, but
+Austrian soldiers garrisoned the citadel continually. When I was sixteen
+years old my mother died, and I had to take her place behind the
+counter. Here I made the acquaintance of Kvatopil. He was a young
+sub-lieutenant, and he generally came to our shop to buy his gloves.
+Would that he had stopped short at gloves! Can any one justly give a bad
+name to a young girl because she is confiding? I believed in him! And he
+really had such a good heart. When he saw that I had only to choose
+between shame and death, he went to my father and begged for my hand.
+Naturally they gave us to each other. It was never the custom among the
+Poles when a girl married a soldier for her to go and ask permission
+first of all from the military authorities, and deposit a terribly big
+sum by way of caution-money; the priest simply united us without any
+questionings. We had not been man and wife a week when the Revolution
+again broke out. Cracow was the centre of the Polish rising. At first
+the Polish rebels fought with great success. I saw the Polish scythemen
+drive my husband's cavalry regiment from one end of the street to the
+other. My husband had not even time to say good-bye to me.'
+
+"'Then you are a Pole?' said I.
+
+"'Why shouldn't I be?' replied Anna. 'Surely I may be a Pole though I
+have a German name? Dark days followed. My little girl was born. Twice a
+day I felt bound to go to church--the first time to pray that my country
+might triumph, and the second time to pray that my husband might return
+to me. A mad idea, wasn't it? Surely it is impossible for Deity even to
+grant two diametrically opposite prayers at the same time? My husband
+returned indeed to Cracow, but the Polish cause was crushed. The
+champions of freedom fled in all directions, and the garrison troops
+returned. It was a sad meeting. After that catastrophe Cracow ceased to
+be a republic, and was incorporated with the Austrian hereditary
+possessions as a simple city. My father wept, but I rejoiced because I
+had got my husband back. But very soon I was punished for my criminal
+joy. My husband informed me that things were going badly with us.
+Hitherto the Austrian officers in Cracow had not been wont to ask the
+permission of their general to marry. Now, however, when Cracow had been
+joined to Austria, the military regulations of the rest of the empire
+had been extended to us, and a lieutenant's wife had to pay down
+caution-money to the amount of 7,000 florins. My father was incapable of
+raising such a sum. He had another daughter besides me, and could not
+withdraw so large a sum from his business. Danger threatened us if my
+husband's superiors discovered his marriage, for in such a case Kvatopil
+would have been degraded to the ranks. My father suggested that Kvatopil
+should quit the profession of arms and settle down to some sort of
+profession. But it was an impossible idea. Who would give employment in
+Cracow to an Austrian officer who had taken up arms against the Poles?
+
+"'Just about this time, too, Kvatopil was promoted to the rank of senior
+lieutenant. This at once inflamed our hearts with the joyous hope that
+he would rapidly scale the ladder of promotion, and we knew that if once
+he became a major he would not have to deposit his matrimonial
+caution-money, and we might then fearlessly publish the fact that we
+were man and wife. Nobody knew of it hitherto except our friends and
+relations.
+
+"'So we agreed to keep it quiet, and immediately afterwards Kvatopil and
+his regiment were transferred to Hungary.
+
+"'Since the revolution broke out in Hungary I have heard nothing more
+of Kvatopil. I know not where he is, or what has become of him, or
+whether he is alive or dead: no tidings of him whatever. In times of war
+they make a mystery of the whereabouts of this or that regiment.
+
+"'Once we read from a bulletin that my husband's regiment had taken part
+in a battle in the Banat. My poor father then resolved to go personally
+to the Banat and inquire of the colonel whether my husband was still
+alive. Just as he got there, they were burying the colonel with great
+pomp. He had died of typhus fever. He had been the witness of our
+marriage, and was the only one of the officers who knew anything about
+it. He had kept his secret well, for his officiating as a witness at an
+irregular ceremony might have cost him his place also. All that the
+lieutenant-colonel could tell us of Kvatopil was, that his company had
+been detached on some expedition, and had not come back. Possibly the
+Hungarian insurgents had eaten them all up.
+
+"'I could thus very well put on and wear mourning, and till the end of
+the war I heard not a word about my husband.'
+
+"So far spoke Anna; but now I began to speak.
+
+"'You didn't hear of him, because all through the campaign he was
+closely invested in the besieged Temesvar with his company, and no news
+could come out of that place till the end of the year.'
+
+"'But why couldn't he let me hear from him when Temesvar was free again?
+He could at least have written that he was still alive?'
+
+"'The cause of that is easy to find. So far as he was concerned, the
+whole campaign was sterile of glory. As a cavalry officer he was unable
+to be of any service to the besieged city. At the end of the campaign he
+still remained a senior lieutenant, whilst all the others had reached
+the rank of captain. Bitter disappointment was all that remained to him.
+An officer who is passed over is worse off than if he were dead. He
+cannot even say, "Thank God, I am still alive!"'
+
+"'But subsequently? In all these latter years? Why didn't he write to me
+all these three or four years, if but a line to say that he was still
+alive and thinking of me, and of the child whom he loved so much?'
+
+"'I can tell you the reason of that also,' I said. 'To save a frivolous
+comrade, he got into debt, and fell into the hands of unmerciful
+usurers, who immediately dragged him deeper into the mire. An officer in
+such a vexatious position is certainly not very much inclined to fetter
+himself with a wife and child as well. It is now not only the want of
+the caution-money which separates him from you, but also that nasty bog
+called Debt. This bog he cannot wade through. If under such
+circumstances he thinks of his wife and child, that only increases his
+despair. If he wrote you a letter at all, it would only contain these
+lines: "By the time you read these lines I shall have ceased to exist."'
+
+"Anna was curious to know how far into debt Kvatopil had actually got. I
+immediately mentioned the neat little sum it amounted to.
+
+"You should have seen what a long face my friend pulled.
+
+"She asked me in consternation whether this immense load of debt still
+remained upon him.
+
+"The situation was so droll that, despite all its bitterness, I couldn't
+help laughing. I could read from the poor simple creature's face that if
+I were to say to her, 'My dear, sweet friend, debt is the one thing in
+this earth which the tooth of time never nibbles, Kvatopil's bills still
+live' (this was quite true, but they were living in my strong box), she
+would have been capable, poor, unhappy lady! of taking her little girl
+by the hand and walking all the way back to Cracow. But I was sorry for
+the poor thing. I told her the pure naked truth. Four years long her
+husband had told her nothing of his goings on because of his creditors,
+but after that time because of me. I made his acquaintance; I did not
+know that he was married; I fell in love with him, and--offered him my
+hand. I was bound to acknowledge that he had hesitated to accept it. He
+made all sorts of excuses except the unexceptionable one that he had a
+wife already. But as he was already up to his eyes in hot water he had
+had no choice but to blow his brains out or commit bigamy. Apparently
+he had regarded the latter alternative as the less unpleasant one.
+
+"Anna herself admitted that it was very much wiser of Kvatopil to have
+chosen the latter course. What a good, affectionate creature the woman
+was!
+
+"I then satisfied her that I had paid off all worthy Kvatopil's debts
+before his marriage. I even showed her the bills preserved in my strong
+box, explaining to her besides that they had now expired, but that I did
+not mean to proceed against Kvatopil for the amount in spite of our
+altered relations. At this the good soul fell down at my feet, shedding
+tears of gratitude. She even kissed my knees, and assured me that she
+would bless my memory to the very day of her death. Ever since this
+comforting reassurance on my part, her tender inclination for the
+beloved Kvatopil was perfectly re-established.
+
+"I put the finishing touch to my kind-heartedness by describing to her
+the scene when Kvatopil, as bridegroom, fell to weeping bitterly after
+the wedding; there could be no doubt that those bitter tears were shed
+on account of his forsaken wife and daughter.
+
+"This quite overcame poor Anna. 'Look now, what a good heart poor
+Kvatopil has!' said she.
+
+"Then we began quoting to each other the various noble traits that we
+had mutually discovered in Kvatopil's character...."
+
+--"Well, did you find the pig's ears with beans to your liking, sir?"
+inquired the cook of me at that moment, as she came in to change the
+dishes.
+
+"On my word of honour as a poet, I have never tasted such pig's ears and
+beans," I replied.
+
+An apricot pasty followed, of which--I confess it freely--I am also
+fond.
+
+Bessy then continued her story:--
+
+"I went to my lawyer, put my case before him, and asked him what he
+advised me to do in my situation. I applied to him first (a dry, prosaic
+man, with his mental vision bounded by the law); after that, I wanted to
+lay the matter before you, that you might judge between us."
+
+"Between whom?"
+
+"Between me and my lawyer, for we are of diametrically opposite views as
+to what I ought to do next."
+
+"Then you have a view on the subject, too?"
+
+"Of course I have; but listen first to the view of the man learned in
+the law, and before you do that, let us drink to the health of those we
+love, and those who love us."
+
+We drank the toast accordingly, but we mentioned no names.
+
+"And now listen to the opinion of the lawyer:--
+
+"'It is a great misfortune, certainly,' he said, 'but the only person to
+suffer will be Anna Dunkircher. If we lived in ordinary peaceful times,
+the business might be settled by the military authorities compelling
+Lieutenant Wenceslaus Kvatopil to renounce his rank by marrying contrary
+to the regulations. In that case the marriage contracted with Anna
+Dunkircher would remain valid. On the other hand, according to the tenor
+of the Austrian criminal law, Mr. Kvatopil would then have the pleasant
+prospect of two years' imprisonment for the subsequently committed crime
+of bigamy. Nevertheless, under our present circumstances, when the army
+of Lombardy has great need of every valiant and experienced officer, the
+Cracow wife would, undoubtedly, get this answer for her trouble: "Your
+marriage has been contracted illegally, and is consequently null and
+void." The parson who joined them would be sent for a twelvemonth to a
+monastery, by way of penitential discipline; but Wenceslaus Kvatopil
+would remain a lieutenant, or even, if he distinguished himself, become
+a captain. You, consequently, will be Mrs. Lieutenant, and perhaps Mrs.
+Captain, for the annulling of the former marriage will restore to you
+all your rights.'
+
+"Those were the lawyer's words. I laid them to heart. Now, do you know
+anything of martial law?"
+
+"I frankly confess that martial law occupies a most prominent place
+among those sciences which I do _not_ know."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what I replied to him. 'Good!' I said, 'the laws,
+the circumstances, the position of things, everything, in fact, proves
+and proves to demonstration that Anna Dunkircher has forfeited all her
+marital rights; but has not the law of the human heart also its
+validity? Do I express myself in proper legal phraseology?'"
+
+At this I couldn't help laughing, but she proceeded with her story.
+
+"My lawyer was very far indeed from laughing. 'What!' said he, 'do you
+imagine that Wenceslaus Kvatopil's heart still beats for his first wife
+whom he deserted--to whom he did not write of set purpose, not even when
+he could, lest he might thus have supplied some written testimony to the
+fact of her really having been Wenceslaus Kvatopil's lawful spouse, and
+not merely some betrayed girl with whom he had, at some time or other,
+unlawfully cohabited? Do you fancy that Wenceslaus Kvatopil, thirteen
+years after the event, is still so romantic as to ask for his dismissal
+from the service in the middle of a campaign, on the very field of
+battle, and desert the standard of his Sovereign, whom he has sworn to
+obey, simply to enable Anna Dunkircher to save her matronly dignity? Do
+you fancy that Wenceslaus Kvatopil will throw up his career at the very
+moment when it is full of the most brilliant hopes for him, and allow
+himself to be shut up as a felon for a couple of years, at the end of
+which time he will be discharged a branded beggar, simply to live for
+the rest of his life as the lawful husband of a beggar woman even more
+beggarly than himself? And finally, do you imagine that Wenceslaus
+Kvatopil has so completely lost the use of his five senses as to be
+capable of spurning away from him, and exposing to the contempt of the
+whole world, a young and lovely consort like yourself, a rich and noble
+lady who can keep him in comfort for the rest of his days--and all for
+what? for the sake of taking back a faded, withered woman, whose face is
+wrinkled with care, who is the daughter of an honest glover, to whom it
+would be no advantage to stick the name of Kvatopil on his sign-board
+instead of the time-honoured firm of Dunkircher? No, madam. That he is
+such a good-hearted man as all that I do not for one moment believe. I
+would as soon believe in sea-maidens with finny tails--upon my word I
+would.'
+
+"I did not interrupt my lawyer. I allowed him to have his say out. But
+when he made a brief pause, I said to him: 'I am not speaking of
+Kvatopil's heart, but of my own.'
+
+"'Your own?' cried he, in amazement. 'What has _your_ heart got to do
+with it?'
+
+"'I have my own notion of settling this painful business,' I said. 'I
+propose to transfer to Anna Dunkircher the surety-money which I
+deposited on the occasion of our marriage, and then she will have
+satisfied the conditions imposed on officers who marry--and may she and
+her husband be happy. I can easily disappear somewhere in the crowd. The
+world is large.'
+
+"At this the lawyer flew into a passion. 'If you do that,' he cried,
+'you are only fit to be locked up in a lunatic asylum at Dobling.'
+
+"Nevertheless," concluded Bessy, "it is my serious and fixed resolve to
+do so."
+
+I could not help laying my hand on hers. What true, what noble
+sentiments were slumbering in that heart! If only she had had some one
+to awaken them! What an excellent lady might have been made out of this
+woman, if she had only met with a husband who, in the most ordinary
+acceptance of the word, had been a good fellow, as is really the case
+with about _nine_ men out of every ten. Why should she have always
+managed to draw the unlucky _tenth_ out of the urn of destiny?
+
+She guessed my thoughts during that moment of silence. Those large, deep
+fiery eyes slowly filled with tears. The fire of a diamond is nothing to
+be compared with the fiery sparkle of those tears. How lovely she was at
+that moment!
+
+Her lips began to quiver, and she could scarcely pronounce the words:
+
+"_That other woman had a child._"
+
+And at this she began to sob convulsively, covering her face with one
+hand, and squeezing my hand violently with the other.
+
+My heart was so touched that, a very little more, and I should have
+mingled my tears with hers.
+
+When she had wept out her bitter mood, she sighed deeply, and dried her
+tears.
+
+"Now you know why I asked you to come here," said she. "Be you the
+judge in this matter. Which is right, the reason or the heart? Am I to
+do what my lawyer advises, or what my own feelings suggest?"
+
+It was a difficult matter.
+
+"Let us see," I said, "can't we hit upon some middle course? I advise
+you neither to do what your lawyer advises nor what you yourself
+propose. Wait a bit. The great war is still going on, more than a
+million of warriors are standing face to face. Not a fifth part of that
+number will return to their homes when the war is over. In this war your
+Kvatopil will either fall or remain alive. If he falls, you can both go
+into mourning. You need not quarrel about the widow's veil. If, however,
+Kvatopil survives the end of the war, a brave and ambitious officer like
+him will undoubtedly have mounted higher on the ladder of promotion--the
+battle-field is the forcing house of advancement! He will have become a
+major, and as major he will not be required to deposit[109] any
+matrimonial caution-money. He can then take his Anna Dunkircher, and you
+will have no need to surrender your guarantee money, which you want very
+much yourself."
+
+[Footnote 109: I say this of past times.--M. J.]
+
+"I thank you," said the lady. "'Tis every bit as simple as the egg of
+Columbus. Then we'll wait, Anna and I, till the war is over, and till
+then we'll make one family."
+
+"Let me call your attention to one thing, however. For the present it
+would be well if you were to hide yourself somewhere, in some little
+town, for instance, where nobody knows you. Here, in this capital, you
+will quickly find yourself in an awkward and untenable position. The
+story of the first wife will very quickly be known by all the world. The
+title of _straw-widow_ would do pretty well perhaps, but the title of
+_straw-wife_ won't do at all. Pack up your traps, I say, go straight off
+to the country to-morrow, and take your guests along with you."
+
+"I'll do so."
+
+We had scarcely finished speaking when the doctor knocked at the door.
+When there's sickness in the house one cannot deny oneself to the
+doctor. The doctor, too, was an old acquaintance of mine. He had a very
+extensive practice, and he was a homoeopathist. I could take it as
+absolutely certain that when he went his rounds among his patients on
+the morrow, he would let them have, in addition to their _nux vomica_,
+or whatever else it might be, the very latest bit of scandal--to wit,
+that he had found me closeted with the pretty lady, and both of us in
+our cups--tea-cups of course.
+
+I waited till he came back from his little patient. He satisfied us that
+there was now no danger, and she might leave her bed.
+
+Bessy asked whether the girl might be taken into the country.
+
+"Yes, it will do her good."
+
+The doctor and I left at the same time.
+
+I had no sooner got out of the door than I again stumbled upon Toni
+Sagi.
+
+"_Corpo di Bacco!_ And you have been sitting all this time with that
+pretty young lady?"
+
+"And you have been walking all the time in front of the door, eh?"
+
+The window of the house opposite was full of inquisitive female faces. I
+rushed into a coach and had myself driven to the railway station. The
+same evening I was at Szeged. There I remained for three days, and
+stayed with my wife till her provincial engagement was over. On every
+one of these three days one or two anonymous letters reached my wife
+from Buda-Pest of the following import: "My poor dear friend,--Your
+husband passes whole nights and days with his former lady-love, the
+lieutenant's wife. Our hearts bleed for you. The whole town knows all
+about it."
+
+How we did laugh at these letters! But what if I had _not_ traversed the
+intentions of our _dear friends_?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ESAIAS MEDVESI[110]
+
+
+[Footnote 110: Bearish.]
+
+It fared with Wenceslaus Kvatopil as I had predicted.
+
+I am very sorry, but I really can't help it. Willingly would I bring him
+back a full major if it depended on me; but it was written in the book
+of fate that the worthy officer was to end his heroic career on the
+battle-field. He had at least the consolation of falling in a famous
+battle. While MacMahon at Solferino broke through the mass of Schlick's
+forces, Benedek on the right wing pressed victoriously forwards and
+drove the Piedmontese army under Victor Emmanuel as far back as San
+Martino, and there it was that a mortal bullet struck Captain Kvatopil
+through the heart. Yet I am able to say that at that moment the kisses
+of his lovely wife pressed the lips of nobody but his own deserted
+daughter.
+
+The two widows could now share the widow's veil between them in peace.
+
+The bigamy became known, but of course they could not bring an action
+for it against a dead man. The events of those great days quickly
+obliterated all recollection of the petty scandal. Both Anna and Bessy
+could now assume the title of Widow Kvatopil, and nobody could have a
+word to say against it. There was this little difference, however, that
+while the one might style herself Mrs. Captain Kvatopil, the other had
+only the right to Mrs. Lieutenant.
+
+By the intervention of her lawyer, and with my consent as her guardian,
+Bessy recovered her deposited caution-money. One thousand florins of it
+she gave as a gift to Anna, who returned with it to Cracow to her
+father's. The rest of the money Bessy invested in a pretty little house,
+in the village where she was stopping, surrounded by a pleasant garden.
+I was now quite easy in my mind as to her subsequent fate. She had now
+her own house, an honourable title--"_Ozvegy Kapitanyne_,"[111] and a
+certain regular income. In the little village where she was she could
+play a leading part. In her present situation, moreover, she was
+completely protected against all the snares of the evil world, for in
+this particular village every man was virtuous, and the women ruled them
+with a rod of iron. To stumble, make a _faux pas_, and fall into sin was
+not possible, because it was not allowed.
+
+[Footnote 111: Lit., The widowed Captain's lady.]
+
+I could now be quite easy as to Bessy's prospects. A woman who had
+learnt such bitter experience at her own cost could not help drawing
+conclusions from the past; and if ever she were to make her choice
+again she certainly would not allow herself to be led astray by
+superficial graces, but would judge him whom she might definitely and
+finally select as the partner of her destiny by his inner worth alone. I
+even took the trouble, with the true solicitude of a guardian, to write
+this beautiful and sensible phrase to her in a letter. I also impressed
+upon her not to give herself away to any official "for the time being,"
+or any other kind of dog-headed Tartar, for such a husband could only be
+provisional.[112] She gave me her word that she would not do so.
+
+[Footnote 112: Towards this period it was plain that the Austrian
+domination of Hungary could not last much longer, and that the foreign
+officials who had been appointed by the Vienna Court must speedily
+go.--TR.]
+
+For nearly four years I heard nothing more of Bessy. She had fallen into
+the ranks of those women who do nothing to make people talk about them,
+and this category is the best of all. Every year I sent her the interest
+on her money; she acknowledged the receipt of it with thanks, and--that
+was all.
+
+But I, too, had cause enough not to think of those lovely but dangerous
+Eyes like the Sea.
+
+My evil stars were in the ascendant.
+
+Not a year passed without a heavy blow descending on my head. At one
+time it was a dear dead friend whom I had to bury; at another time I had
+to go through a severe illness which brought me to the very brink of
+death; I had scarcely recovered when my wife also fell dangerously ill.
+Through the conduct of persons whom I had regarded as my friends I very
+nearly became bankrupt; I had to work day and night at my writing-table
+to draw myself out of the mire. Then my publisher bolted to America;
+then came a year of calamity, when nobody cared a fig for either books
+or newspapers; then I had to fight a duel through no fault of my own;
+and all along there was the wretched fate of my country, which demanded
+my help. The whole plan of winning back our confiscated liberties was
+_my_ secret; I was the organ of the Committee, the organ that was
+tormented, persecuted, insulted by a derisive tyranny. Life under such
+conditions was like a dreadful dream--an incoherent, continually
+shifting vision of hope, an eternal nightmare; and when I awoke from
+this nightmare I found I was quite bald.
+
+One fine spring the Fairy Queen of my fantastic dreams locked me up in
+prison by way of variation. Nobody can escape his fate. I had founded a
+political journal. I was its responsible editor and publisher. My
+assistants were the votadores of the Liberal party. We soon had a large
+public. I had quite enough to do. It was my business to write romances
+for this paper, and leading articles too. Once an admirably elaborated
+article was sent to me, signed by one of the most illustrious names
+among the Hungarian magnate families. Without more ado I published it.
+It was a loyal, patriotic article on purely constitutional lines,
+showing in the most matter of fact way in the world the justice and the
+necessity of a constitutional government for Hungary. On account of this
+article, the Governor brought both the Count who wrote it and the editor
+who inserted it before a court-martial. He signified to the pair of us
+beforehand that he meant to lock us up for three months for it.
+
+The court-martial consisted of a colonel, a major, a captain, a senior
+and a junior lieutenant, a sergeant, a corporal, and a private; the last
+four were Bohemians. Before this Areopagus I delivered a powerful
+defence in German, to which they naturally replied "March!" The tribunal
+condemned me and my comrade the Count to twelve months hard labour in
+irons, on bread and water, with enforced fasting, loss of nobility, and
+a fine of a thousand florins.
+
+When the sentence was read out, I said to the President:
+
+"This is very strange. The Governor promised us only three months."
+
+To this the President replied with a smile:
+
+"Yes, three months for the incriminated article, but nine more for your
+high-flying defence."
+
+Our sentence was for no offence against the press-laws. Oh dear, no! We
+were condemned for inciting to a breach of the peace. The Count and I
+had been throwing stones at the windows, and breaking the gas-lamps in
+Kerepesi Street! It was as public brawlers that we were sent to cool our
+heels in jail!
+
+The reader must not expect me, however, to weave a martyr's crown for
+myself, or describe the tortures of the Venetian dungeons.... The whole
+of my life in prison was a pure joke and diversion. The Commandant of
+the place, with whom I lived, used to come every day to tell and be told
+anecdotes, and then took me out for country walks. He had my
+writing-table, my books, and my carpentering tools brought into my
+dungeon, and it was there that I turned out a bust of my wife. The
+Commandant also was passionately fond of carpenter's work, so we worked
+away together at our lathes as if for a wager. There was no talk
+whatever of chains or fetters, and I was allowed to have with my bread
+and water the best that money could purchase from the inn. In the
+afternoons my friends from the Pest Club came to play cards with me, so
+that when, on one occasion, one of my most radical acquaintances,
+Beniczky, entered my apartment and looked around, he exclaimed with
+contemptuous indignation: "Call this a dungeon! Why, there's no romance
+at all about this sort of thing!"
+
+Once I took my fellow-prisoner and my jailer to my villa at Svabhegy,
+where my wife had made ready for us a splendid supper. I tapped my new
+wine, and we amused ourselves to such a very late hour that when we
+returned they would hardly let us into prison again. Fortunately we had
+the Provost with us, and with our assistance he managed to force his way
+in.
+
+And then my visitors!
+
+In the whole course of my life I never received so many visitors as
+during the _month_ that my _year's_ captivity lasted. In the following
+month, by the way, I had to make room for the editor of the _officious_
+government, who was also condemned by the court-martial for disturbing
+the public peace.
+
+I was sought out in my dungeon by all sorts of good friends, who came
+from far--lords and ladies, countesses and actresses. It happened once
+that a magnate's wife, who was a great invalid, and therefore could not
+ascend to the second flight where our prison was, begged us to come down
+to her carriage, and there we received our visitor in the street--poor
+slaves that we were!
+
+In fact, I had too much of a good thing.
+
+How could I work when my admirers were crowding at my latch all day
+long? At last I had to beg my jailer, with tears in my eyes, to sentence
+me to _solitary_ confinement for a couple of hours every day, and write
+on my door the hours when I was free to receive company. "Wasn't I in
+prison?" I said.
+
+I had an honest Bohemian lad as my servant. His name was Wenceslaus. We
+soon got to understand each other very well.
+
+I explained to him that at certain hours when I was sitting down to
+work nobody was to be admitted--except when a pretty woman came to see
+me.
+
+_Honi soit qui mal y pense!_
+
+And singularly enough, one cannot imagine a more convenient place for an
+assignation than such a dungeon as mine. I only wonder that our
+_bon-viveurs_ have not grasped the fact. And what a capital place for an
+afternoon nap such a locality really is! The best advice I can give to
+any one who suffers from sleeplessness is--get yourself locked up! Is it
+not a special mercy of Providence that slaves can sleep so soundly?
+
+One afternoon Wenceslaus aroused me from my sweet afternoon nap with the
+intimation that a pretty woman wanted to speak to me.
+
+"Really pretty?"
+
+"Oh yes!"
+
+"Oh yes?"
+
+"Oh yes, yes!"
+
+It was indeed "oh yes!" for it was Bessy.
+
+She was dressed in complete mourning, with a black silk veil over her
+head. I saw from her eyes that she was in mourning for my fate.
+
+I anticipated her by making her a compliment.
+
+"Why, how nice you look, my dear ward! The country air seems to agree
+with you."
+
+With this I put a stop to her tearful anxiety on my account.
+
+"I see that the air of a dungeon has not done you much harm, either."
+
+"And how did you get in here?"
+
+"Not very easily, I can tell you. They would hardly let me in. They said
+that the prisoner was confined to his room. I thought of giving the
+warder a box on the ears, and then perhaps they would have shut me up
+along with you by way of punishment."
+
+"That would have, indeed, been a _heavy_ chain to bear."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I understand the allusion. My figure _has_ become a little sturdy, I
+know. What else has a person to do in a little country town but grow
+fat?"
+
+"It is a sign of peace of mind," I said.
+
+I offered her my arm-chair, and in this act of politeness she read
+another allusion.
+
+"It has good strong legs, I hope?" said she, as she sat down in it.
+
+I must candidly admit that her figure had grown pronouncedly rotund, but
+this by no means injured her beauty. She really looked quite appetizing!
+I was very glad, too, to see her again.
+
+"Don't take my remarks amiss," I said; "it is so good for the poor slave
+when a smiling lady's face lights up the gloom of his dungeon. A sweet,
+melodious woman's voice sounds so consolingly amidst the clanking of his
+fetters."
+
+"I am glad to see that you preserve your good humour, for I have come to
+you on a very serious business."
+
+"What! Then it was _not_ tender sympathy for the poor captive that
+brought you hither?"
+
+"That also--I may even say principally. Every day I read in the
+_Fovarosi Lapok_ how many and what sort of visitors you receive--noble
+ladies, pretty actresses, and what not. Well, thought I, if they may go
+and see him, it is only my duty to go too. At the same time there are
+other circumstances which have brought me here."
+
+At this she furtively looked around her.
+
+"Won't they hear what we are talking about through that door?"
+
+"Have no fear. That room is empty. My fellow-prisoner is provided with a
+separate apartment."
+
+"I have come to inform you of something. I have petitioned the office of
+wards to relieve you from your guardianship."
+
+"And you've very good cause, too, I think, seeing that I myself have
+been under guardianship for some time."
+
+"That's not my reason, however. But my position has now become such as
+to make it indispensable for me to have the free disposal of my money."
+
+"May I guess the cause? Another misfortune has happened. We have lost
+our heart again, eh?"
+
+Bessy covered her blushing face with her silk veil.
+
+"Eh, but how you do always detect a thing at once! You would have made a
+capital magistrate."
+
+"But it is such a natural thing to suppose. You are so young, you know."
+
+"I am well advanced in the thirties."
+
+"You are only four years over thirty. I ought to know, for I was at your
+christening. Then you have once more discovered your ideal?"
+
+"This time I most solemnly believe that I really have found him."
+
+"But no provisional person, I hope?"
+
+"Don't insult me, please."
+
+"I'm above such a thing. But, as your guardian, I would not have given
+my consent to it; so I was bound to suppose that that was why you wanted
+to be freed from my guardianship."
+
+"Not at all! In future also I mean to take your advice as though it came
+from my own father. Scold me as much as you like when you catch me
+tripping. I will continue to be your obedient ward if only you don't
+shut the door in my face. All I want is my money. Believe me when I say
+I will do nothing frivolous with it. The sum will remain to my credit,
+but I wish to be free to use it as I like in the future."
+
+"I presume your bridegroom is some squire to whom the amount will be of
+service?"
+
+"He is _not_ a squire."
+
+"Then perhaps he is a merchant? That also is an honourable walk in life.
+In good commercial hands the amount will yield a nice income."
+
+"He is not a merchant."
+
+"Then perhaps he is a manufacturer, the proprietor of a saw-mill or a
+steam-mill?"
+
+"Neither the one nor the other."
+
+"Then what on earth is he?"
+
+"My bridegroom is a worthy and eminent schoolmaster, whose name is
+Esaias Medvesi."
+
+"Esaias Medvesi! But what the deuce does a village schoolmaster want
+with twenty-five thousand florins?"
+
+"I'll tell you presently. But I must go a little farther back first.
+Have you the time to listen to my story?"
+
+"Of course I have: I remain at home all day."
+
+"Will nobody interrupt us?"
+
+"My servant is a very sensible fellow, he knows the rules of the place."
+
+"But won't they lock the door of the prison behind me?"
+
+An ordinary person would have replied to this question that it would
+have been no great harm if they did; but I pulled out the drawer of my
+writing-table and showed the fair lady that I had _my own key_ for
+opening my prison door. At this she laughed and seemed quite satisfied.
+
+"Well, I'll begin by telling you how I made his acquaintance."
+
+"What, your Ezzy?"
+
+"I beg your pardon, but you must always pronounce the name in full, or
+you will aggravate its owner. He is very particular about giving to
+every one his full name and corresponding titles; never breaks that
+rule himself, and constantly addresses me as 'Worthy dame Captain!' It
+is in vain to call me 'Madame' in his presence, for he roundly maintains
+that such a title belongs to the consort of the Prince of Transylvania
+only. His motto is '_suum cuique_.' Oh, I've learnt such a lot of Latin
+since I made his acquaintance?"
+
+"Oh, then you have been taking Latin lessons from him, and so the
+acquaintance began?"
+
+"No irony, please! It didn't begin that way at all. I suppose you know
+that in our little town there is a very well attended Calvinist church?"
+
+"I know it pretty well."
+
+"And I am a very zealous church goer?"
+
+"That I did _not_ know."
+
+"With us the laudable custom prevails of going to church every Sunday
+for the purpose of devotion."
+
+"And to show off your new bonnets."
+
+"Don't make fun of me, please. Esaias is not only the schoolmaster, but
+the cantor and the organist as well. He has a splendid bass voice. When
+he intones the verse--
+
+    'How blest the man whose walk in life ...'
+
+the whole podium trembles. It was that wondrously beautiful voice which
+first enthralled me."
+
+"But I should have thought that the organ would have drowned the sound
+of the hymn?"
+
+"But not only in church have I had the opportunity of hearing him, but
+at funerals also."
+
+"Then you condescend to go to funerals too?"
+
+"Not as a habit. But you must know that most of the people there beg me
+to act as sponsor to their new-born children. Now, two-thirds of our
+children seem only born to die, and I am obliged to always go to the
+funerals of my little _proteges_."
+
+"Then Esaias is in the habit of speaking and singing over them?"
+
+"Yes, and what beautiful speeches they are too, all in verse."
+
+"So Esaias is a poet into the bargain?"
+
+"Yes, he really makes most beautiful verses."
+
+"And I've no doubt he wrote a nice onomasticon on St. Elizabeth's Day?"
+
+"He did nothing of the kind. He's not that sort of man. It is not his
+habit to flatter anybody; on the contrary, he always tells them the
+truth to their faces."
+
+"That is generally the distinguishing characteristic of all Calvinist
+schoolmasters."
+
+"Well, but let us keep to the point. I left off at the funerals, I
+think. I was struck by the frequent mortality among our little ones, and
+set in movement a project among the ladies of the town for starting a
+_creche_. The idea found zealous partisans. We soon found a large
+meeting-room; the ladies supplied linen in large quantities; milk and
+other necessary aliments were provided by public subscription; money we
+resolved to collect in the usual way."
+
+"By a charitable concert?"
+
+"I see that you are a practical man. A charitable concert was indeed
+arranged, and a committee of seven appointed to manage it. The sessions
+of this committee were held in my house; mine was the most convenient
+locality, and I had a piano besides. Each member of the committee had
+her part assigned to her: one was to recite, another to sing a solo, a
+third to give a comic reading, a fourth to play a piece on the piano, a
+fifth to dance a Hungarian dance; I was to fiddle, Esaias was to sing
+the high priest's aria from the opera of _Nabucco_: 'He who trusts in
+the Lord!'--You know the rest."
+
+"Of course I do. At the first meeting of the committee one of the
+members had a slight misunderstanding with another member, at the second
+meeting a second member had a second misunderstanding, and by the time
+the fifth meeting was held Esaias and yourself were left to practise
+alone."
+
+"That is, word for word, what did happen, with this little difference,
+that we never had any practice at all. On the fifth occasion, four of
+the six members of the committee sent letters of excuse. Every one of
+them was ill. It was a veritable epidemic. Only the dancing master found
+no excuse for himself. As he was the only dancing-master in the town he
+could not go and lie that he had sprained his foot.
+
+"Esaias walked three times up and down in front of my house, puffing
+away at his big pipe. Every time he passed he looked up at the window,
+and, seeing nobody there, went on farther.
+
+"At last the dancing-master came _chasse_-ing up; I could see from his
+grinning face that he had some ill-tidings to tell me. Only people who
+have found some excuse for covering their retreat come smiling like
+that.
+
+"'My lady! I am inconsolable'--('I know all about _that_!' thought
+I)--'but I can't come to the concert. Our gipsy musicians have gone to
+Pest.' ('What do they want there?' I asked.) 'All the gipsy bands in the
+kingdom have assembled together for a grand competition.... Now, without
+gipsy music I can't dance. Who can play me the "_Bihari Kesergo_," I
+should like to know?' ('I will!' I said.) 'Ha! ha! ha! that wouldn't do
+at all! What? _one_ dancer and _one_ violin-player!--it would be a mere
+farce.'
+
+"Hereupon Esaias popped in. Seeing through the window that I was no
+longer alone, he took heart and came in. He had not dared to do so
+before."
+
+Here I intervened: "If I am not very much mistaken, I know this dear
+Esaias of yours. It once happened to him, while still a student, that he
+sat beside the priest's daughter at supper. He did not dare to say a
+word to her; but in the afternoon he went up the church tower and
+courted the young lady from one of the windows."
+
+"It is possible that it was he. I, however, made both the gentlemen
+stay, that at least the coffee and 'cowl-skippers'[113] might not be
+wasted. They did not wait to be asked twice, but ate with right good
+will. During the meal we fully discussed the best means of helping
+forward the stranded concert. Suddenly the dancing-master looked at his
+watch: 'Gracious me, if it isn't six o'clock! I must be off to give the
+children of the chief magistrate a dancing-lesson'--and with that he
+jumped up, kissed my hand, and pirouetted off.
+
+[Footnote 113: A sort of dumpling.]
+
+"Then Esaias also rose from the table, brushed the crumbs of the
+cowl-skippers from his coat, and said: 'Blessing and peace be with
+you!'--This was always his parting formula. Such a salutation as 'Your
+humble servant!' or 'I commend myself to your protection!' nobody has
+ever heard from his lips--no, not even his superintendent; for Esaias is
+not _humble_ and not _your servant_, and does not commend himself to
+anybody, nor will he tell a lie even as a matter of form.
+
+"'What! must you go too?' I replied to his 'blessing and peace.' 'You
+have no six-o'clock school this evening.'
+
+"'No; but why should I stay here if there's to be no practice?'
+
+"'Must I, then, begin singing in my own house before a man?'
+
+"'It depends upon the man,' replied Esaias.
+
+"'What am I to understand by that?' I inquired, much astonished.
+
+"'What are you to understand by that?' said he, striking the leg of his
+boot repeatedly with his pipe stem--'what are you to understand by that?
+It is not very hard to understand, I should think. If a lawyer, a
+doctor, or a squire were to come to see you and amuse himself here with
+or without music, not a dog in the village would have anything to bark
+at; but if they saw the schoolmaster come here at six o'clock in the
+afternoon--if they saw him, I say, remain here last of all when the
+other guests were gone, then there would be such a stir in Israel that
+men would be ready to stone me.'
+
+"'Do I stand, then, in such evil odour as all that?'
+
+"'I did not say that you were in any evil odour at all.'
+
+"'It is true,' he continued, 'that there are as many names written in
+your album as in Charles Trattner's almanack. That, however, does a
+pretty woman no harm. But me the Church would not forgive. If I get into
+evil odour, if I overstep the line, I shall be sent packing.'
+
+"'Then celibacy obtains among the Calvinists also?'
+
+"'Not celibacy, but we have the canonical prescriptions. A canonical
+offence is a very serious business for a Calvinist priest or
+schoolmaster. Let a man be a veritable John Chrysostom, and it will
+avail him nothing if he commit a canonical offence.'
+
+"'And _you_ have _never_ committed a canonical offence?' I said to him.
+
+"'Never!' he replied resolutely. And he grew quite red in the face. He
+was so proud of his virtue."
+
+"Why surely this is quite a new thing?" I interrupted--"a thing never
+known in the world before: a man who is virtuous, and not ashamed to
+confess it?"
+
+"Quite unique, isn't it? When I heard this I seized his hand and would
+not let him leave me. I could read from his eyes that it was the first
+time he had ever felt the pressure of a lady's hand. 'You have been
+candid,' I said to him, 'I will be candid also. You would never approach
+a woman whom you had not led to the altar. I know it. Then you shall
+lead _me_ to the altar!'
+
+"Even this did not seem to surprise him. His face remained as motionless
+as a statue.
+
+"'That is soon done,' said he; 'but _respice finem_! Man proposes, but
+'tis an old dog that holds on. I am not like other men. I am a very
+difficult man to get on with. You can't deal with me as with those who
+look through their fingers at the goings-on of their spouses. If I take
+you to wife, there must be an end to all this dancing and prancing and
+gadding about, and flirting and ogling. My wife will not have to go
+fasting, but she won't be allowed any junketing. I don't understand a
+joke. Do you see this cherry-wood pipe-stem? If I catch my wife at any
+piece of trickery, I'll break this cherry-stem across her back--take my
+word for it.'"
+
+I couldn't help smiling at this. "And you, my dear, pretty ward, have
+actually taken the schoolmaster to husband, cherry-stem and all?"
+
+"I should like to have taken him, but he didn't surrender himself so
+easily. I assured him that I would submit myself to the most stringent
+discipline of virtue, and if I transgressed against him, I should not
+mind his beating me. But even that did not vanquish him. By no means
+whatever could he be brought to sit down beside me on the sofa. He even
+pushed back the chair on which he was sitting, when he saw that I was
+besieging him. At last he brought his big guns to bear upon me.
+
+"'Look now, my dear dame, I know very well that humorous habit of yours
+of never remaining long in one nest. You deal with your sweethearts on a
+sort of give-and-take system. You are here to-day and off to-morrow.
+Supposing now, that in the exercise of my marital authority, I were to
+inflict an edifying chastisement upon you for your flightiness, you
+might easily take it into your head to bolt, and there should I be left
+in the lurch for the finger of scorn to point at. A Calvinist
+schoolmaster cannot submit to the fate of an ordinary man. If my wife
+were to leave me, I should be expelled from the Church with contumely.
+Then I should have to flee. I should be as good as excluded from human
+society. Now, I am very well satisfied with my present condition. I have
+a fixed salary of six hundred florins in good hard cash, and my
+perquisites amount to about as much again. I live honourably, you see,
+and I cannot afford to stake everything on a throw of the dice.'
+
+"Then I talked big also.
+
+"'Listen to me!' I said. 'I have capital sufficient to bring me in as
+much as your yearly income--that is to say, twenty-five thousand
+florins. I will make over the whole amount to you by way of a dower, and
+I am ready to forfeit it all in case I am unfaithful to you.'"
+
+"And didn't your Esaias capitulate even then?" I inquired of Bessy.
+
+"He asked for three days to think about it. I immediately hastened to
+you to signify my desire that your guardianship might cease."
+
+"Then Esaias has still two days' grace," I said. "I hope and trust he
+may be inwardly illuminated to say no!"
+
+"Then you do not approve of my determination?"
+
+"I am a friend of truth, and I understand a little about prophecy too.
+It doesn't matter to me if you surrender all your capital as a sort of
+shrift-money, and your house as well."
+
+"Such a man as he is worthy of it."
+
+"I'll take your word for it. You are something of an expert in such
+matters! But one thing I strongly advise you to do: keep the garden
+attached to the house at your own disposition."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"That you may have it planted full of cherry-trees. I know the natural
+history of the Calvinist-schoolmaster species. I know that what once he
+has promised he always performs. I also know the natural history of the
+lady with the eyes like the sea, and it is my belief that you will
+frequently give occasion for the employment of cherry-tree stems."
+
+At this the fair lady sprang from her chair, boiling over with rage.
+
+"What a gross monster it is! Poet indeed! A pedantic lout is what I call
+you! They've done very well to lock you up. This is the last time that
+we shall ever talk to each other."
+
+And with that she went, or rather flounced, away.
+
+But I gave a great sigh of relief.
+
+"May she keep her word, and never, never come back again!" I said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the first things I saw, on my release from prison, was the
+announcement in the newspapers of the solemnization of the marriage. The
+bank also informed me by letter that the amount there standing to the
+credit of my ward had been transferred to her husband's name.
+
+Well, at last Bessy had got the _ne plus ultra_ of husbands. For,
+really, the man who has reached his two-and-thirtieth year without
+sinning against the canonical prescriptions must indeed be a superlative
+treasure in the eyes of a lady who knows how to appreciate the value of
+such renunciation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+CONFESSION
+
+
+Well, the long and short of it is, confess I must, that I have a
+sweetheart for whose sake I have been unfaithful, not only to my wife,
+but to my muse also--a sweetheart who has immeshed me in her spider's
+web, and sucked my heart's blood dry, who has appropriated my best
+ideas, made me scamper after her from one end of the kingdom to the
+other, and whose slave I was and still am. Often have I wasted half my
+fortune upon her, and rushed blindly into misfortune to please her. For
+her have I patiently endured insult, ridicule, and reprobation. For her
+sake I have staked life and liberty.
+
+Sometimes, when I have felt the pinch of her tyranny, I have tried to
+escape from her; but she has enticed me back again and would not let me
+go.
+
+Now, if she had been some pretty young damsel, there might have been
+some excuse for me. But she was a nasty, old, painted figure-head of a
+beldame; a flirting, faithless, fickle, foul-mouthed, scandal-mongering
+old liar, whom the whole world courts, who makes fools of all her
+wooers, and changes her lover as often as she changes her dress.
+
+Her name is _Politica_,[114] and may the plague take her.
+
+[Footnote 114: Politics.]
+
+There was one particular year in which I was over head and ears in love
+with her, and did absolutely everything she wanted. On her account I
+fell out with a good friend of mine who was the very right hand of my
+newspaper. I fought (also on her account) a duel with pistols with
+another good friend of mine, who had no more offended me than I had ever
+offended him, in fact, we had always respected each other most highly.
+But Politica insisted upon it, and so we banged away at each other. Then
+she hounded me on against a third good friend of mine, who was an
+excellent fellow, and a Hungarian Minister of State to boot, and induced
+me to endeavour to thwart his election. And I actually _did_ make this
+excellent fellow's election fall through, this good friend whom I
+respected, loved and honoured. Politica demanded it. What a parade she
+made when she dragged me along after her triumphal car! She actually
+made me believe that I was now the most famous man in the whole kingdom!
+And she made me _pay_ for her precious favours, too! What _petits
+soupers_ for five hundred men at a time! What hundreds of carriages!
+What toilets!... But in those days I was quite wrapped up in her.
+
+After my great triumph a torrent of congratulatory letters and telegrams
+showered down upon me. I had actually upset a Cabinet Minister! That
+_was_ a triumph! Every one who, at any time, or under any
+circumstances, had been acquainted with me, called upon me after my
+brilliant success. Old school-fellows with whom I had formerly fought in
+the playground now recollected me. There was a brisk demand for my
+autograph. I was proud of it all. I was not even surprised, therefore,
+when one afternoon they brought into me a visiting card with the name
+"Mrs. Esaias Medvesi" upon it.
+
+It was very natural that she also should visit me. The sunbeams of my
+glory had melted the ice of her displeasure. Six years had now passed
+since I had seen her. I could imagine how she had filled out in the
+meantime. Well taken care of, with no vexations to worry her, harassed
+by no passions, what other fate could possibly await my fair ideal
+than--to grow fat?
+
+All the more startled was I, therefore, when I _did_ see her.
+
+She had grown quite gaunt. Her old-fashioned dress, which had been made
+to fit fuller forms, hung loosely about her. Her face, once so rosy and
+gay, was now lean and haggard; sombre wrinkles, which met together
+beneath her chin, had taken the place of her roguish dimples. Only by
+her eyes could I recognise her: they were still the eyes of yore.
+
+When she saw me she forced a smile, but I could see how much it cost
+her.
+
+I have never thought it a proper question to ask any one whose face has
+altered a good deal, "Are you ill?" but she herself led up to it.
+
+"I have greatly changed, haven't I? 'Tis a wonder that you recognise me.
+I have been very ill. I have just come from the doctor. I have been
+suffering from a quartan ague, which our country doctors could not drive
+away."
+
+"But otherwise you are all right, I trust?"
+
+"No, I am not. I fancy that my physical ailment is only as stubborn as
+it is, because my mind also is not as it should be."
+
+I asked her what was the matter.
+
+"I have come on purpose to tell you. You always gave me good advice, and
+I never took it. It may be that I wouldn't take it even now; but at
+least it would relieve my mind to tell you all about it. I have a secret
+desire which is destroying my whole soul: I go to sleep with it, and I
+wake up with it."
+
+"What desire can it be?"
+
+"If you but look at my face, you can easily see that it is no sinful
+affection."
+
+"And yet it must be kept secret?"
+
+"Yes, for I go about day and night with the thought of becoming a
+Catholic."
+
+I was so startled by this, that in my amazement I knew not what to say
+to her.
+
+"It is my fixed resolution. The only thing that can give to my soul
+peace on earth and salvation in heaven is conversion to the Roman
+Catholic Church."
+
+"How did you come by this resolution? There is no Catholic church in the
+town where you reside."
+
+"But there is a monastery quite close to it, a sweet, quiet, pleasant
+place. I am wont to go there when they are not watching me. A mere
+accident moved me at first. Curiosity led me into the church when I
+heard the holy chants through the door; but now it is devotion which
+leads me there. Ah! how much more sublime a place it is than our bald,
+bare place of worship. Wherever I look I see groups of holy figures who
+bless and beckon me. And those sublime chants, which seem to come from
+the angelic chorus of heaven, and ravish my soul away to a world
+unknown--but oh, how ardently desired! And then the deep silence, which
+is scarcely broken by the solemn sanctus-bell; and then the form of the
+priest himself, who, like a supernatural being, speaks before the altar
+in a language which men may not, but God does, understand. When I come
+out of such a church it seems to me as if I have been speaking to God."
+
+I began thinking what would be the end of it all. The lady became
+insistent.
+
+"What do you advise? What shall I do? My soul compels me to it."
+
+"My dear friend," I replied, "you know that I am a Protestant--and as a
+Protestant I am liberally and indulgently inclined towards every other
+creed. I _advise_ nobody to change his religion, neither do I dissuade
+him from so doing. I have a real veneration for the Catholic faith. I
+consider its ritual majestic and sublime, and its ceremonies are
+undoubtedly imposing and touching. Had I been born a Catholic, I should
+have been an ardent champion of my Church. But how can I approve of the
+conversion of a person in your position? Do you not reflect that your
+husband is an officer of the Calvinist communion?"
+
+"But it is the very prosaic nature of this communion which offends me.
+For in what a dull manner do our elders and deacons perform their sacred
+functions! Prayer, sermon, hymns--everything is with them a mere matter
+of enforced routine. How can they inspire others who have not themselves
+the gift of grace? Such people can only mock at and speak scornfully of
+their neighbours' faith because they have no real faith of their own."
+
+"But pray recollect that a Protestant schoolmaster loses his post if his
+wife changes her religion."
+
+"He may lose his material comforts, but I lose the repose of my soul."
+
+"My dear Bessy, I can imagine that a woman with extraordinarily
+sensitive nerves may find no consolation in Puritan simplicity. If you
+would seek refuge in true devotion, procure Allach's prayer-book--the
+manual of Catholic prayers, you know. In that book you'll find
+everything that is sublime, majestic, and heavenly in Catholic theology.
+Pray out of that book when you are alone and nobody sees you."
+
+"That is not enough for me. Religion does not consist in prayers and
+singing alone."
+
+"Then perhaps it is the pomp of the external ceremonies which has such
+an effect on your mind?"
+
+"That affects me least of all. But there is in the Catholic Church an
+institution as sublime as it is comforting, an institution sufficient of
+itself to spread the Catholic religion all over the round world wherever
+there are hearts that bleed, wherever there are those who suffer from
+other than merely material aches and pains. That institution is
+_confession_. It was a gross blunder of John Calvin not to have retained
+that institution for the faithful. He did not know the heart, especially
+the female heart. There is no greater torture in this world than to
+carry about in one's soul night and day an evil thought which harasses
+and pursues, and be unable to tell it to anybody. A Catholic woman can
+always find a word of consolation for her despair, a hand stretched out
+to raise her when she falls; _she_ has a refuge against the accusations
+of her own conscience; if she has sinned, she can beg for absolution,
+and her soul is lightened of its load. But who can absolve me? To whom
+can I tell that which tortures me within?"
+
+Her eyes were fixed and staring like the eyes of a somnambulist who sees
+nothing before her but a visionary world which others do not see, and at
+the same time she raised her index finger and laid it on her parched and
+cracking lips, as if to keep back the moanings of her dumb distress.
+
+I was deeply grieved for her. She had no need to tell me what she felt;
+her features spoke for themselves, and said how much she must have
+suffered since the last change in her life.
+
+"My dear friend," I said at last, "you have now known me for a long
+time, and you know that I have always been your well-wisher. If you have
+any bitter thought which oppresses you, confess it to me. _Amongst
+Protestants every man is a priest._ That is our fundamental dogma.
+Confess to me!"
+
+She smiled strangely; just as a sick man smiles when the doctor tries to
+persuade him that he really is well, while he himself is thinking all
+the time: "Just you wait a bit, and I'll turn the joke against you
+and--die!"
+
+"You will receive my confession, then?"
+
+"Yes; and rest assured that I'll keep the solemn secret as sacred as a
+consecrated priest."
+
+"As long as I am alive, at any rate. After I am dead, I don't care what
+you do. You may then proclaim it to the world if you like. When I am
+dead, I authorize you to write a romance about me, a romance like mine
+you have never written yet. But _till_ then, not a word to any one of
+what you will now hear from me. To nobody, not even to your wife!
+Promise me that! Your word of honour on it!"
+
+"My friend, there is a crypt within my breast for buried secrets. Your
+secret shall repose among the rest."
+
+She bent down to my ear, her burning breath scorched my face, and she
+whispered: "I confess to you that I wish _to kill my husband_."
+
+Horrified, I looked into her eyes, they flashed up at me like the eyes
+of devils. That wish of hers was a real living wish.
+
+"And what I've said, I'll do"--and she pressed her lips together till
+they were quite thin, and her eyes distended into orbs filled with
+threatening fire.
+
+"Good Heavens! what thought is this?"
+
+She looked at me with a malicious smile.
+
+"There, you see you are no priest, and can give no absolution."
+
+"Nor would a priest give you absolution either. A priest can impose
+penance for sin repented of, but he cannot give indulgence beforehand
+for a meditated crime. A priest could only say to you what I say now:
+'Fly to God and cleanse your soul from this dark thought!' How could you
+ever have suffered it to enter your soul, that good and gentle soul of
+yours that used always to love and never to hate?"
+
+"Yes, such I ever was, was I not? I was indeed a loving fool. You once
+wrote a tale which I remember reading when a child. In this tale a
+distracted heart relates how many ways there are of extinguishing life.
+Amongst other things written there is this: that if honey is allowed to
+stand till it rots, it turns into the deadliest venom. This is quite
+true as to the honey with which the heart of a poor credulous woman is
+full, but it is _not_ true with regard to the honey of the field. I have
+tried and found that it is not true."
+
+"Believe me, neither case is true. In married life there is no such sea
+of bitterness as cannot be made sweet again by a single drop of love."
+
+"Alas! what I suffer exceeds even the power of your imagination.
+Contempt, degradation, is my daily bread. Insult follows upon every step
+I take. When I speak, my words are misinterpreted; when I am silent, I
+am chided; when I weep, I am bullied and brow-beaten."
+
+"Do you think that perhaps your husband suspects your intention of
+changing your faith?"
+
+"So much he knows, that I frequently visit the monastery, and often have
+talks with one of the monks. I solemnly swear that I've talked to him
+about nothing but religion and holy things. He, however, accuses me of
+the nastiest things. Then when we sit together at table, he poisons
+every dish I eat by singing the most derisive songs he can think of
+about those women who rave about cowls and cassocks; in fact, he is
+_always_ singing such songs in my presence."
+
+"But, my dear friend, you take these things too tragically. These
+derisive songs have been sung time out of mind. Your husband has not
+invented them for your special aggravation. Laugh at him to his face,
+and he'll hold his tongue."
+
+"Very well, then. Let what he does to ridicule _me_ be forgiven. But
+ever since he has begun to suspect my spiritual condition, he leaves no
+stone unturned to disturb my devotions. If in the afternoon or evening,
+when the chiming of the cloister bell is wafted over to us, I
+involuntarily join my hands together, he laughs at me: 'Ha! ha! ha! they
+are ringing the bells to call you to prayer, are they?' Now, the
+Calvinists do not ring for evening prayers, neither do they sound the
+Angelus, and this is a great grief to me. It is like rolling my bread in
+the mud and then making me eat it. This continual ridiculing clings to
+me like tar; it chokes, it nauseates. I feel just as if I were swimming
+in a sea of glue. He relates to me the most villainous anecdotes about
+the holy images. Last Saturday it rained the whole morning, and I could
+not go to town. He saw my impatience, and said to me derisively, 'Never
+mind, _thou female_, it will clear up this afternoon, for the Virgin
+Mary wants to dry her son's little shirt for Sunday!' It was well for
+him that he left the room that instant, for I was very near driving my
+knife into his heart!"
+
+I tried to quiet the excited creature by saying that though this was no
+very reverent jest, yet it was not an invention of Esaias's. This jest
+about the breaking out of the sunshine on Saturday afternoon was a
+common saying among the Hungarian country folk, and, taken seriously,
+had really nothing impious about it, representing, indeed, that sacred
+figure, whom all of us are bound to reverence, as a provident mother
+from the homely, rustic point of view.
+
+"I don't like to hear _that_ name on _his_ lips. Why, I sent away an old
+servant of mine called Marcsa for no other reason than because her
+master was always calling her Maria, and every such time it was as if a
+dagger were piercing my heart."
+
+I saw that the woman was really suffering. It was a case where a heroic
+remedy was required.
+
+"My dear friend," I said, "I cannot blame your husband. Your religious
+extravagance, which has been not a little stimulated by the irritability
+of your nerves and the nostrums which the provincial doctors have made
+you drink, is a question of 'to be or not to be' for your husband. If
+you cling to the saints, poor Esaias will feel the earth giving way
+beneath him. You are bound to one another, remember. If you go and seek
+heaven in another church, you will only install hell in your own house.
+Believe me, if your husband discovers your design, he will fly into a
+fury and tear you to pieces. If I were you I should go to some medicinal
+watering place and get your nerves braced up a bit."
+
+"I see--I see. You do not understand what is the matter with me. You
+think it is a mere feminine ailment, which is, generally, half
+affectation. Look at that recipe. The most famous doctor in the capital
+prescribed it for me. I went to him, he diagnosed me. He said that the
+country doctors had not treated my case properly. They had stuffed me
+full of quinine, he said, and it was not the medicament that I wanted.
+So he prescribed me another. Read it!"
+
+I looked at the prescription and saw it was arsenic.
+
+"The doctor prescribed six drops for the first day, and a drop more
+every other day up to twenty drops, and then back by single drops to six
+again. Then my fever will return no more. But he cautioned me to keep
+most strictly to his prescription, as the remedy was a very dangerous
+one. Is that so?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"I have had it made up in the Jozsefvaros dispensary." And with that she
+drew out the flask from her pocket and showed it me.
+
+"That will do for me. I will now go with this prescription to all the
+ten apothecaries in the town and have it made up by every one of them.
+_Ten times the strength will certainly do for him._"
+
+Horrified, I seized her hand.
+
+"Miserable woman, what wouldst thou do? Surely not commit murder?
+Wouldst thou poison thy husband's body and my soul? Every time I have
+thought of thee I have seen thee before me in the idealized form of my
+pure love of early days, and wilt thou now put horror and aversion in
+the place of it? Give me that prescription!"
+
+With terrified, staring eyes, and trembling in every nerve, the woman
+fell down on her knees before me, and when I said to her: "Hitherto thou
+hast always had a place in my prayers, dost thou wish me to cast thee
+forth from my remembrance with curses?" she began to smile.
+
+"_'Tis the first time in your life that you have 'thou'd' me._ Let me
+then return the compliment. But no, I cannot _thou_ thee. The word
+_thou_ cannot come out of my mouth. Don't lift me up. Let me kneel
+before you. I fain would only weep, but no tears will flow. Here is the
+prescription. Destroy it if you like. I was mad. I knew not what I said.
+'Tis true. If life be grievous to me, 'tis I who ought to die."
+
+"What you now say is also a sin. Heaven does not give us that divine
+spark, the spirit, only that we may fling it back again. Learn to bear
+your sorrows in silence. Every one of us has his cross which God has
+laid upon him that he may carry it ... If you would believe in the
+saints, follow their example. _Be_ a martyr, if God so wills it--that is
+the _real_ Catholic faith...."
+
+She began to sob, but after some little difficulty I contrived to pacify
+her. I also provided her with all sorts of good homely counsels. "A good
+wife," I said, "ought to humour her husband, and not sit in judgment on
+his faults." I told her to bring him to me and introduce me to him.
+Perhaps I might make some impression on him, and prevail upon him not to
+press his crotchets too far. It was even possible that I might find him
+some work to do, something relating to spiritual subjects which might
+occupy his mind, kindle his ambition, and make him peel off his cynical
+husk. No doubt he was a good and worthy man, who only needed to be
+properly taken in hand to get on very well.
+
+The lady with the eyes like the sea listened with many shakes of the
+head, but she had gradually grown much more quiet. Those eyes of hers,
+how they could express gratitude! It really seemed as if, beneath the
+influence of my words, her face was recovering the rosy hue that it had
+lost.
+
+Alas, no! Vain thought! 'Twas not my words, but something else.
+
+She arose and rallied her spirits.
+
+"Very well! I'll take your advice. I will endure. I will be patient. I
+will down with every evil thought. I will show that I can be a good
+wife. You shall be satisfied with me. But one thing I'll tell you. My
+husband has threatened to strike me. If ever he does that, then God be
+merciful both to him and me."
+
+Now I knew why her face had turned so red--"If my husband dishonours me
+by a single blow, I swear that I'll seize a gun and shoot him dead!" And
+with that she rushed out of the room. I felt as if I ought to call after
+her: "Don't go home, wretched woman!"
+
+It was too late. She was already outside the door. She had vanished like
+a vision of the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+MARIA NOSTRA.
+
+
+Ah! what an ocean of time has passed since this happened. It must be
+twenty years, at least. It makes me giddy when I look back upon it. But
+how many evil years there were, how many days that I do not love to
+think about! How many have been torn from my side to whom life was a joy
+and on whom the future smiled! And I still remain! Only here and there,
+now and again, perhaps, do I encounter a grey-headed shape like myself,
+a relic from that brilliant time, and what a joy it then is to look back
+upon those old days and say: "It is not so good now as it was then!"
+
+Some years ago I was on a visit of inspection among our large national
+State prisons. I happened to be at Szamosujvar and Illava, where the
+aristocracy of crime is collected together, persons condemned to a term
+of imprisonment exceeding ten years, all of them criminals once under
+sentence of death, but reprieved by an act of grace. Here were
+interesting studies of the night side of human nature.
+
+I also visited the Maria Nostra. Here the female criminals resided, and
+nuns were the warders.
+
+This house of correction can only be visited by special permission of
+the Ministry.
+
+There the discipline is strict, but the prisoners are very well treated.
+
+Last of all we visited the day-room, where the prisoners were at work.
+
+They all sat in a long room, and were sewing. Those who could do the
+finer sort of work were at little tables of their own. I stopped before
+one of such tables; a woman was sewing some sort of child's garment. It
+is the rule that when a visitor stops before the table of one of the
+felons, she shall immediately rise from her seat and, whether asked or
+unasked, say what her crime is and how long her term of imprisonment.
+
+She arose when I stood before her table.
+
+Her hair was as white as autumn gossamers, but her eyes still flashed
+with their old varying fires--they were still, as of old, the flaming
+eyes like the sea! In a dull monotone she told me her crime and her
+sentence: "I killed my husband. I am condemned to imprisonment for
+life."
+
+For life!--and life so long!
+
+"Can I not use my interest in your favour?"
+
+"I thank you, but it is well with me here. I wish for nothing more in
+this world."
+
+And with that she returned to her place and went on with her work.
+
+Poor little Bessy!
+
+Last year I received a letter announcing her death. It was her last wish
+that I, but nobody else, should be informed of it.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+EYES LIKE THE SEA.
+
+BY MAURUS JOKAI
+
+12MO, CLOTH
+
+A FEW COMMENTS OF THE
+ENGLISH PRESS
+
+Half autobiographical, dramatic, and at the same time
+humorous, Jokai's novel, crowned by the Hungarian
+Academy in 1860, is a delightful exception to the
+tendency which is fast making fiction a branch of
+science instead of art.--_Morning Post._
+
+It is a strikingly original and powerful story ... The
+great charm of the book is the manner in which Jokai
+analyses Bessie's character. All through the story
+indeed we feel ourselves in the presence of a master of
+the human heart, and again and again we come upon
+sentences pregnant with that wisdom which it is the lot
+of but few to acquire.--_Speaker._
+
+From beginning to end "Eyes like the Sea" teems with
+entertaining matter and the English version is highly
+creditable to Mr. Nisbet Bain the translator of this
+sprightly autobiographical novel.--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+"Eyes Like the Sea" is an alluring book into which to
+dip at random ...--_Academy._
+
+"Eyes like the Sea" is one of those rare books that
+break all rules and defy criticism by justifying their
+irregularities.--_Guardian._
+
+It is good to know too that fiction in Hungary has a
+master so hearty, so human, and so free at once from
+priggishness and _naturalism_.--_Saturday Review._
+
+In some respects the heroine reminds us of Becky Sharp
+and in others of Manon Lescaut, and in feminine
+dexterity and sexual eccentricities is no unworthy mate
+for either.--_Athenaeum._
+
+It is truly, as Mr. Bain remarks in his preface, a
+brilliant example of the now rare novel of incident and
+adventure ... The vigor of the book is
+astonishing.--_World._
+
+The charm of the original as a work of art loses a good
+deal in the translation ... none the less the book is
+extremely interesting. It is a sketchy and vivacious
+summary of the more salient incidents in the political
+and literary career of the eminent Hungarian poet and
+romancist, its author.--_Literary World._
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the
+original edition have been corrected.
+
+In the Preface, "pronouned preference" was changed to "pronounced
+preference".
+
+In Chapter I, a missing period was added after "Valsez la".
+
+In Chapter II, "would have withrawn" was changed to "would have
+withdrawn", and a missing quotation mark was added before "you ought
+really to be a tamer of animals!".
+
+In Chapter III, a missing period was added after "after her wedding".
+
+In Chapter IV, a quotation mark was added before "They are all in a very
+good humour to-day".
+
+In Chapter VI, "amongst us at the, Table of Public Opinion" was changed
+to "amongst us at the Table of Public Opinion".
+
+In Chapter VIII a missing quotation mark was added after "skiz and
+pagat...."
+
+In Chapter X a missing period was added after "Newspapers he never
+reads".
+
+In Chapter XIII, "beleagured fortress" was changed to "beleaguered
+fortress", "hide yourself in the village of Isza" was changed to "hide
+yourself in the village of Izsa", a missing period was added after
+"glass full of szilvorium", and an extraneous quotation mark was deleted
+after "the hovel at Heteny".
+
+In Chapter XIV, a quotation mark was added before "Forget what we have
+been speaking about!"
+
+In Chapter XV, "Wencesclaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement" was
+changed to "Wenceslaus Kvatopil was decidedly an improvement".
+
+In Chapter XVI, "Kakas Martin," was changed to "Kakas Martin."
+
+The ellipses in Chapter XVII both contained an extra dot (a period plus
+four dots at the end of a sentence, and four dots following an
+incomplete sentence). The extra dots have been removed. Also, a missing
+period has been added after "her various temperaments".
+
+In Chapter XVIII, a missing quotation mark was added after "mutually
+discovered in Kvatopil's character....". In Chapter XIX, "Ozvegy
+Kapitauyne" was changed to "Ozvegy Kapitanyne", a period was changed to
+a colon after "said to the President", a missing quotation mark was
+added after "left to practise alone", and "piroutted off" was changed to
+"pirouetted off".
+
+In Chapter XX, "turn the jok against you" was changed to "turn the joke
+against you", "the Jozsefvarose dispensary" was changed to "the
+Jozsefvaros dispensary", "the real Ca holic faith" was changed to "the
+real Catholic faith", and a misplaced quotation mark was move from after
+"taken in hand to get on very well" to after "sit in judgment on his
+faults".
+
+Also, the section titled "A Few Comments of the English Press" has been
+moved from the front of the book to the back.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eyes Like the Sea, by M�r J�kai
+
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